Tag Archive for 'Random'

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Python is awesome

I’ve programmed in a couple languages, but I’ve never gotten the hang of any of them. I’ve experimented with PHP, Java, a little bit of C+…they’re all so damn confusing. Sure, I learned how to use Java some (I took an actual class on it), but the syntax was just weird. I’m sure it made sense to someone at Sun Microsystems, but to the rest of us, it’s just messed up.

I came across an xkcd comic involving Python, so I decided to take a look. I’ve only done a couple of tutorials, but from what I’ve seen, Python is insanely simple. Yes, it has its own syntax, but it’s not nearly confusing as Java. For instance, take a look at the ways you print “Hello world” in both languages:

Java:

System.out.println('Hello world');

Python:

print 'Hello world'

What’s even more, that Java snippet is useless without a class surrounding it. The Python code can run just like that (assuming you have a Python interpreter and have made the file executable). No curly brackets, no semicolons, no compiling. I’m definitely going to look more into this programming language. At least until I finally find the drawback. There has to be a drawback to a language this simple. I shall find it and then make witty comments about it to embarrass Python programmers! Excellent.

Tree Man

Well, this is about the strangest medical condition I’ve ever seen. Full story here, video to follow:

YouTube Preview Image

Firefox is a memory hog

The Firefox web browser is well-known for its memory leak problems. If you leave it open for a long enough time, it can take up as much as 200 MB of memory, even if you’re not actively using it. As an experiment, I opened up both Firefox and Internet Explorer and looked at the memory consumption of both when they had been open for a very short amount of time. The results are fairly interesting. Firefox was taking up almost five times as much RAM as Internet Explorer. And considering that Firefox was taking up more than 100 MB during my browsing session a short while earlier, it’s not inconceivable that the ratio would have gone up over time. Here’s the screenshot:

Firefox vs. IE

Granted, I may have a few extensions enabled on Firefox that IE doesn’t have, but that doesn’t help the memory leak problem. Or the incredibly slow startup time. Get working on this, Mozilla! Or I may be forced to switch to Opera.

50 years of Lego

Today, January 28, is the 50th anniversary of the modern Lego brick. I’ve played with Legos since I was, oh, quite small. It’s probably safe to say that I’ve owned Lego products for around 15 years. It all started with Duplos, which were quickly abandoned for a blue bucket of random Lego pieces. So started a life-long love affair with the brick, resulting in a few stop-motion videos and, at one point, an entire room full of creations. While I’ve since packed away my Legos, I still remember fondly the days that I wasted away giving my mini-figures funny voices and having them battle each other in long, drawn-out wars involving space ships and car chases. Yes, I actually did this. I was 13, give me a break.

I just thought I’d share that little bit of nostalgia. I wouldn’t have even known it was the 50th anniversary if it wasn’t for Google.

DISCLAIMER: There’s no such thing as a Lego. It’s a LEGO Brick. Copyright dilution and all that. Whatever.

The helicopter of the ancients

While watching a History channel special, I saw a glimpse of an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph that looked very much like a modern helicopter. A quick search for “ancient egyptian helicopter” (what else?) brought up this page explaining the phenomenon. Apparently, while there is an image that looks surprisingly like a helicopter (alongside one that looks like a tank and another that looks like a UFO, submarine, or really fat jet plane), it’s really just a coincidental overly of hieroglyphs from different eras. In other words, the stone in question has been engraved and re-engraved at least a couple times over the centuries. Pretty strange coincidence, though.

 

May 2012
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