lizardb0y's blog

Final, defining proof that Holden drivers can't park, not even the ones in classic Holden utes. If any Holden can be considered classic, that is.
 
 
 
 
 
 

These days we're all familiar with the concept of an Internet meme, whether it has amusing felines, revives hits of the 80s, or has stolen all our bases. One of the older Internet memes, having its origins from the mid 1990s, is the l33t term w00t!, which once graced the screens of many FPS Deathmatch players and IRC weenies with alarming regularity.
In “W00T” Population Statistics and Empirical Fit Ryan Hamerly performs an analysis of the distribution of the number of zeros in incidents of the word w00t as found through exhaustive Google search. He concludes the zero usage fits "a power law with an exponential cutoff", and furthermore debunks the widely debated "w00t paradox":

The so-called “w00t paradox” is the fact that there appear to be a finite, but nonzero, number of pages with w00t analogues for arbitrarily large Z.6 There are two reasons this does not qualify as a paradox: First, it is clear that there must exist some cutoff beyond the Google-imposed limit of Z = 126. Second, even if the distribution extended to infinity as the authors of the paradox suggest, its density is exponentially attenuated beyond Z = 30, and thus the distribution itself, along with all of its moments, is finite and well-behaved.

Thanks Ryan, you've really settled this one for me!

Build your own at http://www.stclaire.com/safety_sign_builder/

According at an article on Stuff, Canterbury health workers have described the health system as "sexist", saying that despite men sufferring poorer helth and having a higher mortality rate, "...there appears to be significantly more health promotion targeted at women."

Report co-author and Sport Canterbury events and marketing manager Jonny Kirkpatrick said it was difficult to attract funding for male-focused health projects.

"Men are partly to blame themselves because of the `she'll be right attitude', but it starts at the top," he said.

"The awareness around women's health is fantastic, but men get breast cancer too and as many men die from prostate cancer as women of breast cancer."

The report's main recommendations were raising awareness around men's health and making services gender appropriate.

I remember discussing this issue with friends over 20 years ago, when I was told that a group doing a prostate cancer awareness leaflet drop had been warned by Police to stop for "indecency" or somesuch thing. This isn't a new problem, but it is a largely ignored one. The Movember team deserves huge recognition for the efforts they've made raising both awareness and funding for men's health issues. Cheers guys!

From: Defective by Design
Date: Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 1:17 PM
Subject: iPad DRM is a dangerous step backward. Sign the petition!

Dear supporter,

Today, Apple launched a computer that will never belong to its owner. Apple will use Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) to gain total veto power over the applications you use and the media you can view.

We've launched a petition calling out Apple's new product for what it is: a frightening step backward for computing and for media distribution. Can you read it, sign it, and share with friends?