Friday, July 24, 2009

Firefox 3.5 consume a lot of memory and CPU usage!

Firefox 3.5 consume a lot of memory and CPU usage!:
I tried the following on one of my personal laptops and it worked. I got this solution in one of the FF blogs.....

Please do it at your own risk

1. Type in about:config in the FF browser
2. You will get a warning! Click on 'I will be carefrul'
3. textIn the filter copy and paste browser.cache.memory.enable;true
4. textChange it to browser.cache.memory.enable;false by double clicking that entry.

I saw a significant change after doing it...try it yourself and let me know.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Sunday, January 11, 2009

An Early Judge Rienhold Role

Look for the guy in the red hat in this Pat Benatar video from 1982:

Friday, December 19, 2008

'Understand' Etymology

Online Etymology Dictionary:
understand
O.E. understandan "comprehend grasp the idea of," probably lit. "stand in the midst of," from under + standan "to stand" (see stand). If this is the meaning, the under is not the usual word meaning "beneath," but from O.E. under, from PIE *nter- "between, among" (cf. Skt. antar "among, between," L. inter "between, among," Gk. entera "intestines;" see inter-). But the exact notion is unclear. Perhaps the ult. sense is "be close to," cf. Gk. epistamai "I know how, I know," lit. "I stand upon." Similar formations are found in O.Fris. (understonda), M.Dan. (understande), while other Gmc. languages use compounds meaning "stand before" (cf. Ger. verstehen, represented in O.E. by forstanden). For this concept most I.E. languages use fig. extensions of compounds that lit. mean "put together," or "separate," or "take, grasp."

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Finds that made Basques proud are fake, say experts | Science | The Guardian

Finds that made Basques proud are fake, say experts | Science | The Guardian

It was hailed as an archeological discovery of global importance showing, among other things, the oldest representation of Christ on the cross and proof that ancient Egyptian influences had survived deep in Roman Spain.

* * *

Now a committee of experts has revealed those jewels to be fakes. "They are either a joke or a fraud," said Martín Almagro, a professor in prehistory from Madrid. "How has something like this been taken seriously for so long?" The hunt is on for an archeological fraudster who defaced fragments of third century pottery with fake graffiti.

* * *


Where there's a will to believe, there's a way to deceive.

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Faking Languages


The accent sounds decent, but the words are completely bogus.

UPDATE: Here's Catherine Tate doing it:

What English Sounds Like?


I beg to differ. (I hope.)

Saturday, July 26, 2008

A Rhyme Gained

I once knew a man from Blorenge,
Whose surname he said was Gorringe.
I couldn't believe
that I could finally retrieve
two words that do rhyme with "orange."

Help from Language Log.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Overcoming Bias: Against Disclaimers

Overcoming Bias: Against Disclaimers:
Blog posts are short and have a broad audience. One of the worst things about writing them is having to make disclaimers. Not just legal disclaimers mind you - those are only the tip of an iceberg.

Writing is hard in part because words have many associations that vary among readers. Even when we use carefully choose our words to signal certain associations, we know some readers will instead hear other associations. So in addition to saying what we do mean, we sometimes have to say explicitly what we do not mean.

Note that one of the associations that people should not presume is:
If you quote someone you agree with everything they've said.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Abba, Dancing Queen

I've been told my knowledge of this supergroup is woefully deficient. I atone with this video of Dancing Queen: