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It Happened to Me Toronto (a.k.a. Accordion City)

Rails Pub Nite Tonight!

Ruby on Rails logo

Tonight marks yet another Ruby on Rails Pub Nite, the monthly gathering when some of Accordion City’s brightest lights in the software development sphere gather together to hang out, enjoy some beers and burgers and chat about Ruby on Rails as well as life in general. It’s falling distance from the office and the Ginger Ninja’s away on a business, so I plan on being there tonight.

The event takes place at The Rhino (1249 Queen Street West, a couple of blocks west of Dufferin) and starts at about 7. Organizer Pete Forde writes:

At this point there is a core group of about twenty folks that come out regularly; we expect about fifteen heads per outing. The Rhino affectionately refers to us as “their nerds”.

We often receive emails from people that wonder if they know enough about Rails to come. The answer is that if you know what Rails is, you should come. At the very least, we can answer your questions and get you even more excited.

If you’ve got the time this evening, come on down!

Categories
Uncategorized

Maury Christmas

I don’t watch The Maury Povich Show, but it seems that every promo ad for the show features a paternity test…

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Uncategorized

Hopefully, Your Turkey Dinner Was Better Than This…

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Uncategorized

Revealing More Than He Wanted To

Some geeks like to post pictures of their computer desktops for others to see. If you do this sort of thing, be careful that you don’t unintentionally give away your proclivities the way the guy who posted the screenshot below did (click the picture below to see the screenshot at full size).


What’s so embarrassing about this screenshot? Click the photo to see it at full size.

Here’s a hint if you can’t see what the guy who posted this screenshot is unintentionally revealing to the world: look at the names of the file folders on the desktop.

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Uncategorized

A Sesame Street Thanksgiving

Categories
It Happened to Me

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Holidays from O.J. Simpson.

One of the niceties of being a half-Canadian, half-American couple: two Thanksgivings!

Earlier this evening, I enjoyed a very lovely dinner, much of which was comprised of food that after all these years, I still find a little bit exotic: turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin bread and stuffing. Of course, what I think of as comfort food — adobo, pancit, lumpia — a lot of people might call exotic.

(My parents didn’t acquire a taste for turkey until recent years, and Mom doesn’t like the texture of mashed potatoes; they remind her too much of baby food. For the longest time, Thanksgiving at our house was rock cornish hens and wild rice, which are nothing to complain about.)

This was a particularly special Thanksgiving, as we were celebrating the Wendy’s brother’s engagement with him and his fiancee. Congrats, guys, and welcome to the family, Sue! (It’s hard to believe that two Thanksgivings ago, we were celebrating my engagement to Wendy. How time flies.)

Also joining us was J, who worked at Harvard with Wendy and whom I met at the Berkman Center’s blog group and over my many visits to Boston. It was good seeing you again, J!

As you might expect, posting’s going to be a little spotty until the end of the week. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with the best Thanksgiving segment on a sitcom ever, the WKRP turkey debacle:

Categories
Geek

The Korean Math Problem, Translated

If you read this blog last week, you might have seen the article titled Why Asian Kids are Good at Math. I put out a call for translations, and someone came forward in the comments! Here’s it is:

The top part:

Let’s assume that from the top part of the skirt to where the thighs meet is vertically 4cm. Also assume that from the end of the skirt to the point we are interested in viewing is horizontally 12cm. Looking from the side, the point of interest and the edge of the skirt form a triangle ABC.

The bottom part:

Extending BC we reach our ideal observation point E where we our point of interest comes into view. blah blah explanation of where ABCDE is we come to the conclusion that DE must be 53.3cm in order to achieve the optimum viewing angle. Assuming an average height of 170cm and seating height of 70cm the observer must bluntly lean over and reduce his viewing height by 17cm to see the inside of her thighs. I don’t think she would mind so much. Go for it.

I think the last two sentences — “I don’t think she would mind so much. Go for it.” — are actually editorial on the commenter’s part, but the rest of the translation seems to be legit.

Can you imagine the furor that would arise if this was presented as a math lesson here? Perhaps it might be good material for a “Borat” skit.