Memes

Wordle

Submitted by gwolf on Fri, 07/04/2008 - 21:56.

Via Planetalinux.mx, I read this post by César Espino refering to Wordle.
Quoting from Wordle's main page:

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

I could not resist it. I even went to a computer with a Java runtime installed.

The application is very nice and usable, although its startup time is frankly irritating (specially as there is no feedback on why it's not loading). Anyway, the results are quite beautiful!

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Silent soundtracks

Submitted by gwolf on Mon, 04/14/2008 - 02:35.

Vicm3, you know I'd probably ignore this, as following internet memes goes against my principles. But what are the principles there, if not to break them?
Ok, so what you request is, basically, to get a list of sounds to build my life's soundtrack. Following the list you mentioned, it is quite exhaustive, creative and long.
In my case, some other time, I'd probably jump over some über-sarcastic Leo Masliah and the like. Particularly, I would not ever talk about my life without his Todo así.
But not today.
Today, I'd love my life's movie to be an old-fashioned, mute movie. Yes, quite in line with the nice grey life theme I've had on my blog for several months... I'd love having a nice, quiet, mute movie, just letting me live along, think a bit, work a bit... Settle down on too many things, lead to some peace.
No, this message bears no dedication to any character or person I have or will meet. Just inner my mood and needs.

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Happy meme, happy meme

Submitted by gwolf on Fri, 03/28/2008 - 22:49.

Can I do anything but to smile while posting?


I'm going to DebConf8, edition 2008 of the annual Debian<br />
     developers meeting

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On social networks

Submitted by gwolf on Wed, 07/25/2007 - 03:50.
There have been many (too many) social networks coming and going out of fashion in the last years. I got quite excited when I first learnt about them. Advogato was as cool as it could be, and having somebody label me master (even though most had me as a journeyer, IIRC, and that was my level as far as I tracked it) was really inspiring.
Then came friendster, and then orkut. I spent far too many hours in them, and was really happy (and surprised!) to find the many ways to my friends, some of them have been out of my radar for too long.
And then, everybody started creating their social networks for remembering birthday dates, and for finding who likes the same music (and books and whatnot) as you do. And this silly thing called Twitter.
I'm sorry. I don't play anymore. I'm fed up with it.
Maybe it's that I've grown old and cranky, but I don't even answer to invitations to social networks nowadays. And I'm sorry - It's not that I don't care about you, it's not that I don't like you - I don't like losing my time creating yet-another-mapping of still-the-same group of friends.
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Etch is done! Sarge is done once again! Sam rules! Yay for the weekend!

Submitted by gwolf on Mon, 04/09/2007 - 15:31.
Wow, what a wonderful weekend was this for Debian. And, yet again, I managed to miss the live announcement and party on IRC.
So... We got a shiny, new, French DPL. Just after that, we got one last release for Sarge, and right away we got a stable Etch - Who says having a new DPL cannot speed up things? ;-) Anyway... I don't remember where I started the meme when Sarge was released (it was not on my blog, it seems)... But here it goes again:
What were you doing at...
Etch release? Having a nice time with Nadezhda, walking around this broken and dear city in my last day of vacations.
Sarge release? At my psychologist. Yes, Sarge drove us all nuts.
Woody release? Sitting at a lent workstation at Departamento de Seguridad en Cómputo in my University. Of course, the announcement was broadcasted right away to everybody around me ;-) I was in NM by then, and was a bit disappointed because my work didn't appear in the release.
Potato release? Don't know... I was not yet involved with Debian by then.
[Update]: Thanks to Wouter, my old meme-starting message appeared - is he more patient than I am, or just more organized? :-) Anyway, boo for Jaws breaking old URLs (I upgraded 0.4->0.5->0.6->0.7 since then)
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The environment and us

Submitted by gwolf on Thu, 03/15/2007 - 22:04.
Ben, Erich and Russell bit - Why shouldn't I?
A. Copy the list below to your own journal and Bold the actions you are already taking Underline the actions you plan to start taking Italicize the actions that don't apply to you B. Add one (or more) suggested action(s) of your own C. Leave a comment here, so that she can track the meme to your journal, and copy your suggested action(s) back to my master list. Shame - I cannot comment on this, as I'm no a LiveJournal registered user. And I don't intend to be either.
  1. Replace standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs
  2. Choose energy efficient appliances - always a criteria when I have a choice. Not always the dominant criteria, though
  3. Wash clothes in cold(er) water
  4. Turn the thermostat of your hot water tank down to 50°C (125°F) We have a on-route boiler (calentador de paso - any translators? :) ), it only heats when the hot water pipe is active. Of course, it burns much more intensely than a tank, but still, I feel it's an overall saving
  5. Install a programmable thermostat (or turn the heat down over night and when you're out of the house) - Pfff... Artificial weather in Mexico City? Don't be silly! ;-)
  6. Register with the Canadian Marketing Association's Do Not Contact Service to reduce the amount of junk mail delivered to your house. - Would love to.
  7. Eat less meat (particularly feedlot beef) - Nadezhda is a vegetarian, I seldom eat meat
  8. Walk, bike, carpool or take public transit as often as possible
  9. Make sure you know what can be recycled in your area, and try to recycle as much household waste as possible - In this country, recycling is a lot. We hand-recycle some things, but of course, at a very artesanal level
  10. Compost using an outdoor compost bin or an indoor vermicomposter
  11. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner
  12. Buy local, organic or fair trade food where possible
  13. Reduce air travel
  14. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket
  15. Use a clothesline instead of a dryer whenever possible
  16. Plant a tree
  17. Buy fresh foods instead of frozen (Frozen food uses 10 times more energy to produce)
  18. Keep your car tuned up and your tires inflated to their optimal pressure
  19. Use biodegradable dishwashing liquid, laundry soap powder, etc.
  20. Drink tap water (filtered if necessary) rather than buying bottled water - And not only because of the environment - huge price difference!
  21. Turn the tap off while brushing your teeth
  22. Unplug seldom-used appliances and chargers for phones, cameras, etc., when you're not using them
  23. Plug air leeks and drafts around doors and windows with weatherstripping - I guess this applies to places with heating/AC
  24. Switch from disposable to reusable products: food and beverage containers, cups, plates, writing pens, razors, diapers, towels, shopping bags, etc. - As much as possible, of course. Or try to reuse those meant to be disposed.
  25. Consider garage sales, Freecycle, eBay, or borrowing from friends/family before buying a new tool or appliance
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What kind of programmer are you?

Submitted by gwolf on Wed, 03/07/2007 - 14:38.
Ok, Vicm3, I'll bite. Looks we can continue working together... Umm... Or should I say, paralelly and close to each other, since we are both better as independent rather than team workers?
Your programmer personality type is: DHSB You're a Doer. You are very quick at getting tasks done. You believe the outcome is the most important part of a task and the faster you can reach that outcome the better. After all, time is money. You like coding at a High level. The world is made up of objects and components, you should create your programs in the same way. You work best in a Solo situation. The best way to program is by yourself. There's no communication problems, you know every part of the code allowing you to write the best programs possible. You are a liBeral programmer. Programming is a complex task and you should use white space and comments as freely as possible to help simplify the task. We're not writing on paper anymore so we can take up as much room as we need.
And you? Programmer personality test I mostly (but of course, not completely) agree. Specially, I know I'm not at all quick getting tasks done :)
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Five rarely known things about me

Submitted by gwolf on Fri, 01/05/2007 - 20:05.
Hah! Targetted memes have hit again - Arareko decided I should talk about myself. I will do this, but I won't point the finger at five others - Lets see just who bites ;-) Besides, having left this post rot as a draft for over a week already, it got a bit more interesting: The meme bit from two sides. Arareko (as well as Ion) was bitten by Cicloid, from the mx.planetalinux.org-derived side of reality, and then Hanna bit Wouter on Planet Debian. Ok, time to get this message out from the freezer... So... Five not very well known things about me? Ok, here I go.
  1. Many people inquire me routinely about my name, specially when reading it off an official document where it appears with both names and both family names (Gunnar Eyal Wolf Iszaevich). As many Jewish families, mine comes from all over Europe: My mother-side grandparents were both born in Poland (hence the Iszajewicz, morphed into the slightly more writable Iszaevich). My father-side grandmother was born in Vienna, Austria (I still have some family in Graz), and my father-side grandfather was a proud child of the Austro-Hungarian empire - His family probably was originally Austriac (Wolf is a German name), but became Hungarian and Hungarian was their home language. He was born in Felszoviso, Transilvania (the part of Hungary that later became Northern Romania). And, yes, I mentioned my family is Jewish, so having the Hebrew name Eyal (my second given name) is no surprise. Now, about Gunnar? Well, I still don't know :) It's a Scandinavian name. My family has no (upwards) relation to Scandinavia, but both of my parents (although merely by coincidence, and with over 30 years between periods) lived in Western Sweden - My father, 1970-1972, and my mother, 2003-2006. Oh, and people usually expect them to carry strange foreign names as well - No, they are Bernardo and Ofelia.
  2. I like to think started my journey into Free Software very early in my life. No, I didn't use Linux until 1994 (and only installed it in 1996), I'm not talking about such a modern piece of free software. I first touched computers around 1983-1984, when my father used to take me on Friday nights to his institute, to play with the computer. This computer was a Foonly F2, administered by La Mancha. What did I use to play on such a beast? Why, of course, I used Emacs to write TeX! Rumors say that this Foonly had the first TeX installation outside of Stanford (I guess this fact derives from Donald Knuth's visit to UNAM in 1977 - But of course I don't remember that!)
  3. My family is bitterly split in two camps: Those who love eggplant and those who hate it. At least my parents, my aunt and I are known to love it. At least my wife (Nadezhda), my brother and two of my cousins are known to hate it. The feelings towards this noble plant are really strong, but out of respect for the other party of the family, we practically never cook with it.
  4. Now that we mention food-related strangeness, I was a vegetarian for almost my first 20 years of life. My father is still a vegetarian (for over 35 years already). Nadezhda became a vegetarian almost a year ago. I still think I have saved enough karma during those 20 years to endure some more meat eating, but who knows... I might switch back just to be on the safe side ;-)
  5. Often, memes can absorb too much energy from me. Even having left this entry not responded for over a week, I've been thinking (and forgetting) on and off what to write in it. So, Mauricio, thanks for making me waste my time this way! ;-) I hope this fact counts as a legal fifth thing.
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Yet again, bitten by a meme

Submitted by gwolf on Wed, 11/29/2006 - 16:33.
I came across Adam's post inviting everybody to participate in a simple meme propagation speed and path tracking experiment. Well, I bite. Here I am. Some points to consider (for Acephalous, who started and tracks this meme): If people like me read Adam's blog via an aggregator (Planet Debian), and when I post I I get syndicated at the same aggregator, won't this disturb your metrics/readings? Or if I know I'm syndicated at least in two aggregators (Planet Debian and Planeta Linux México - If there is another one, please tell me :) ), won't that also influence somehow?
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Fell pray to the meme...

Submitted by gwolf on Wed, 09/27/2006 - 15:13.
Sigh... Here I go again :) [code='Bash'] gwolf@mosca:~$ history|awk '{print $2}'|awk 'BEGIN {FS="|"} {print $1}'|sort|uniq -c|sort -rn|head -10 81 svn 33 cd 29 find 28 perl 28 ls 27 grep 26 for 21 man 17 export 14 cat [/code] At least, it clearly shows that I've been teaching my workmates on the benefits of Subversion. Anyway, with only 500 lines of Bash history I'm keeping, it's hard to make this into a trend. I doubt this would coincide with the pkg-perl sprint a bit over a week ago. Still, I call perl interactively (well, if that's what "interactive" means) a little bit too much :)
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Metros of the world

Submitted by gwolf on Wed, 08/30/2006 - 23:01.
Thanks, Damog, for starting yet another pissing contest^W^Wnice and informative meme. And thanks, B3co, for writing yet another tool to waste my oh-so-scarce time. Which needs some CSS work if people like me keep showing up just to say "I'm also a frequent flier". Anyway, here I go.

Got at b3co.com!
I found at least one Metro I've been to missing - But hey, maybe the people at München U-Bahn could not be bothered to come up with a logo? Update Well, B3co updated the site and included München - What can I do if not update my listing? ;-)
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Yet Another Meme

Submitted by gwolf on Fri, 10/28/2005 - 19:21.
Nice one, Mike! I would have liked to end up being more humane, though ;-)
Much More Scientific


You have:
77% SCIENTIFIC INTUITION and
47% EMOTIONAL INTUITION
The graph on the right represents your place in Intuition 2-Space. As you can see, you scored about average on emotional intuition and well above average on scientific intuition.Keep in mind that very few people score high on both! In effect, you can compare your two intuition scores with each other to learn what kind of intuition you're best at. Your scientific intuition is stronger than your emotional intuition.

Your Emotional Intuition score is a measure of how well you understand people, especially their unspoken needs and sympathies. A high score score usually indicates social grace and persuasiveness. A low score usually means you're good at Quake.

Your Scientific Intuition score tells you how in tune you are with the world around you; how well you understand your physical and intellectual environment. People with high scores here are apt to succeed in business and, of course, the sciences.

Try my other test!
The 3 Variable Funny Test
It rules.





My test tracked 2 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 80% on Scientific
free online datingfree online dating
You scored higher than 7% on Interpersonal
Link: The 2-Variable Intuition Test written by jason_bateman on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test
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Meme time!

Submitted by gwolf on Wed, 10/12/2005 - 17:01.
Following Tolimar, Kov, Noodles, Amaya, and the people who have fallen off the edge of the Planet:
  • Gunnar needs to stamp images with time when captured
  • Obviously gunnar needs a world map store and use the information he has gathered
  • Gunnar needs a box for his blocks
  • Gunnar needs to finish his clean-ups he planned or I guess already started.
  • Gunnar needs to develop more body rhythm to advance in this style.
  • Go rent "Scars Don't Sweat' because Gunnar needs the .003 cents he earns from each rental
  • Asther and Gunnar need a miracle! Asther needs her healing and Gunnar needs an additional measure of God’s strength and grace as he cares for Asther
  • Gunnar needs your help with Dwellingup data
Scary... Some of them even make sense!
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Meme time, once again

Submitted by gwolf on Sat, 08/13/2005 - 00:26.
Well, what can a honest geek do when he is challenged? My computer geek score is greater than 98% of all people in the world! How do you compare? Click here to find out! And you? (now, go back to work before anybody notices)
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Fr0zen! / Where were you by Woody time?

Submitted by gwolf on Wed, 05/04/2005 - 01:16.
Wow... Like most people, upon reading the last Andi's announcement last week, I decided to go get my bugs - And, yes, I did nice progress... So it was a bit frustrating on one hand to find out today that Sarge is finally frozen. Yes, I know we are not supposed to wait until the last minute - But hey, face it, it is a great motivation! ;-) (and, yes, I will contact debian-release regarding a set of changes I did today that closed five bugs, even though non-critical). Now, this blog is syndicated at my local community as well - For you guys, what does this freeze mean? No, we have not released Sarge yet. However, we are in a very special period, where the final bugs are squished, aiming to release Sarge in a month. Yes, we are notorious for skipping deadlines, but this time it does look like it. And, believe it or not, we are really into finding a way to get Etch out in less time. Anyway... The freeze by itself deserves a celebration. And very, very soon (by the Debian time standards) we will have a major celebration coming up. I just got an inspiration - I will try to start a... New meme - New meme - New meme Where were you when Woody was released? I remember reading the announcement at a lent terminal, at UNAM's Computer Security Department. We still had the (now defunct) Free Software Area next door, and I was a common fixture over there, even if I worked at the Iztacala campus, over 1hr away. Funny, today I was there again, after not visiting for many months, presenting an idea for an Admin-UNAM meeting.
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