Naim Falandino » asides

I’ve been Tumbling…

Naim — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:01:05 +0000

"The machine doesn’t care about style or patterns or hundreds of years of established theory."

Uninstall inactive MacPorts (old versions)

Naim — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:55:51 +0000

sudo port -f uninstall inactive

The OCD in me will thank me later for putting this somewhere I’ll remember it.

Happy belated fourth birthday, blog

Naim — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:34:25 +0000

Last month was this blog’s fourth birthday. I have of course been doing this business longer than that. Still, the evolution of my online presence I feel reflects the evolution of my personality over the years. I guess you could say I’ve sort of “stabilized” into my “adult personality” over these last four years, whatever that means.

My annual mistake: White Castle

Naim — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 13:04:34 +0000

Every twelve months or so I decide that I haven’t had White Castle in a while and the need for it hits me. And every time afterward I decide not to have it again any time soon. The pain is forgotten in time though, perhaps similar to the forgetting process a woman goes through after giving birth.

Maybe this time I’ll remember.

A lunch-time Wikipedia chain

Naim — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:45:40 +0000

Naked singularity > Loop quantum gravity > Doubly-special relativity > Oh-My-God particles > Dugway Proving Grounds > Dugway sheep incident

We live in interesting times.

Scrap Paper

Naim — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:10:42 +0000

As I’m going through all of my “grownup” paperwork and organizing it by type and tax year I came across a single, blank piece of yellowing loose leaf paper that had somehow made it into my mess, possibly years ago. I thought back to an incident last Winter when I was at work and a coworker was organizing his desk and a blank piece of paper laying there was about to make its way into the garbage.

“You’re going to throw out that blank piece of paper?” I asked, probably sounding a bit more intense than I meant to.

“Oh, I guess I was. Why?”

“It hasn’t had a chance yet, I’ll take it.”

I always seem to write some of my best ideas on scraps of paper. Just like with that piece of paper at work I think I’ll take this one, fold it up and put it in my notebook and give it another chance.

A list of ideal jobs

Naim — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:53:15 +0000

Feel free to add your own in the comments.

Tenured professor with a big research grant
Best-selling author
Superstar DJ and/or music producer

There are plenty of others I’m sure but those are at the top of my list right now.

My mystery

Naim — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:11:18 +0000

Every person has his or her own personal mystery. Something that follows them through life that they try to continually figure out, but somehow is just out of reach.

My mystery is why the hems of many of my t-shirts curl up after I dry them. No matter what I do it seems to constantly happen. Ironing seems to be the only cure. Nothing seems to be able to prevent it. I’ve tried different drying temps, drying times, fabric softener in the wash, no fabric softener in the wash, etc. Some t-shirts do seem immune however, given that you fold them soon enough.

One day I hope to solve my mystery, but I don’t count on it.

Team building done right

Naim — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:18:59 +0000

I’ve joined a dodgeball team at work. There’s no question in my mind that this is the best way possible to build additional team skills. My plan is to take this super seriously, and help take our team to the top and win the championship.

The science of cubicle life

Naim — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:53:25 +0000

Last night I found this thing I wrote a few years back. Please note that it’s not intended to be taken seriously, just something goofy I came up with for my own amusement.

Zero-point energy is the lowest possible energy level of a quantum mechanical system like a particle in a box. The kinetic energy of the system may be zero if the velocity of the particle is zero. However the uncertainty principle implies that if the velocity of the particle is measured with certainty to be exactly zero, then the position of the particle is infinite. This either means that the particle isn’t necessarily in the box (which violates the rules of the experiment) or that there is a new type of potential energy in the box. Since science doesn’t want to get into anything like that it is simply said that the velocity of the particle can never be exactly zero.

My office here at work could easily be considered a box and yet I have a zero energy level most of the time. Since my velocity is exactly zero then I must infer that either I am hallucinating and am not actually in my office at all, or that I am a perpetual motion machine, tapping the infinite energy of sitting absolutely still.