Author Archives: admin

Virgin America

As a frequent reader of BoingBoing I was sold on their glowing recommendation of Virgin America. I later discovered business relations existed, but it did sound pretty cool. So based on said recommendation I purchased tickets to fly to Seattle … Continue reading

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Bay Area Gossip

Valleywag has become one of my new guilty pleasures.  While I can’t but help laugh at the hapless participants, I do feel twinges of sympathy for them as well.  Whether it’s Jimmy Wales meeting and breaking up with his girlfriend … Continue reading

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3D visualisations with Excel

This is not an Easter egg – these are filled in cells being dynamically updated within Excel. [youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vypETZbkU94]

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Beer beer beer beer beer!

Anyone who knows me knows I am a massive beer fan. 2 years ago I organised a trip around Belgium for my friends and myself. We ended up visiting several different monasteries around the country, and sampled some of the … Continue reading

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Fighting for consumer rights

I’m a big fan of The Consumerist (although sometimes the commenters are somewhat rabidly against the consumer – what on Earth are they doing at a site called The Consumerist?), but seeing as they didn’t post my great experience with … Continue reading

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Wikipedia is a productivity killer

Start on a page like the Dunning-Kruger effect, and end up on something fascinating like like fact that 0.9 recurring is equal to 1. The notations “0.999…” and “1” represent the same number. The equality has long been accepted by … Continue reading

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Kicking myself over the new NIN album

The other night I had the opportunity to buy the $300 superdeluxe edition of the new NIN album, Ghosts I-IV. I had my credit card details entered and everything: Deluxe edition plus a four-LP set on 180-gram vinyl, which is … Continue reading

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American Idol auditions

This may be a bit late, but I was sent this explanation of the Dunning-Kruger effect by a work colleague.  It perfectly explains the reason behind the look of incredulousness on the faces of people auditioning. Kruger and Dunning noted … Continue reading

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Awful baby names

One of my pet peeves is the terrible “unique” baby names people give their children, ensuring a lifetime of confusion and taunts. As much as I dislike linking to news.com.au (for reasons I am sure to go into in another … Continue reading

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Bay Area Economics

Since moving to the Bay Area I’ve realised there are a whole different set of different rules for pricing and economics here. Salaries, real estate, and commodities are all distinct from the rest of the US. With that said there … Continue reading

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