Rubenerd

StateStats is a web site service that allows you to analyze the number Google search queries made in different states in the United States, relative to the state with the most searches. You can also correlate the results to a series of metrics such as latitude, life expectancy, age and income. While my Orwellian warning senses are tingling a bit, it is fun to mess around with, even if the correlations really don't mean much.

For example, if you searched for Singapore you were more likely to live in California (the relative index) followed by New York, Hawaii, New Jersey, the District of Columbia and Massachusetts:

Singapore Google search query results

If you did a search for Australia, you were more likely to live in Hawaii (the relative index) followed by California, Washington, Colorado, New York and Alaska:

Australia Google search query results

And if you did a search for Angelique Kidjo, you were more likely to live in Massachusetts (relative index) followed by New York, the District of Columbia, Maryland and Washington:

Angelique Kidjo Google search query results

In an interesting twist, if you searched for any three of these terms you were more likely to have a higher than average income, have voted for Obama and be in a same sex relationship. Again I suspect these correlations are next to meaningless (how do they know this stuff?), but interesting to observe.

But of course what we all wanted to know is which states you were more likely to be living in if you did a search for grilled cheese sandwich. I'll let the map speak for itself!

Garfield has the right idea…

I hate to write a post that merely references the comments submitted on an earlier post, but in this case I really think I need to, if only because detailed comments just don't get as much exposure on a blog, and that people who read my blog through an RSS aggregator such as Google Reader or NetNewsWire wouldn't have seen it.

Randy Fullerton (aka Atuuschaaw on Whole Wheat Radio) from Mitakuye Oyasin has posted an incredibly salient comment on my latest post where I discussed my sleeping troubles (Google Reader at 3am: sleep related stories).

I’ve heard some people speak of pharmaceuticals as nothing more than controls of conformity. For jet-lagged business people whose biological clocks never have time to self-adjust due to the hours spent in flight…give ‘em some drugs to reset the clock. For those shift workers, those who work swing shifts, or at least a graveyard shift…give them some drugs as well. We must produce! When we alter our natural clock and turn off or confuse our more primal self…what else do we alter? I’m thinking loading the iPhone with some good music, mixed with a walk would be much more beneficial. ;-)

Going with the flow of the natural clock can be very rewarding…but only if one finds this option available to them. I know about conforming and making concessions to survive…now I find myself with the opportunity to tear down some of those fences built from a lifetime of social models of conformity. It feels really good to follow the natural patterns…it’s just these patterns are not always easy to recognize or understand! I think that is because our hard drive has been formatted for a particular OS, and once we go open source we are bewildered at first, and there is a learning curve. But the good part is, it gets easier as time goes on!

Movie quote: (”When I got tired, I slept. When I got hungry, I ate. When I had to go, you know, I went.”) ;-)

It's always slightly intimidating to reply to Randy because you know you just can't beat his literary flair or style, but I tried my best :). If you have something to add, feel free to join the conversation!

ANA Lockheed L-1011 TriStar alongside a Boeing 747 (a -200 series I think) for size comparison. Taken by hyougushi in Osaka, 1992

I'll preface this post by saying that while I am aware this is supposed to be a blog discussing software and the intertubes, I have long since given up attempting to stay on topic here the whole time because it's just not in my nature. It's not that I'm scatterbrained or anything, more that I just have far too many unrelated interests for my own good. One of these disparate interests is commercial aviation, you can check out my Transport category to read more if that's your cup of tea.

I narrowly missed post 1011 by one entry; 1011 isn't only an important number because it could be interpreted as binary (it's 11 in decimal by the way), but also because it was the service number of the commercially unsuccessful Lockheed L-1011 TriStar developed in the 1970s.

For those not versed in the history of the jetliner, the L-1011 TriStar was a widebody commercial airliner developed shortly after the Boeing 747 for customers who wanted the 747's range but didn't need as much passenger capacity. While the temptation was there to place deck chairs on the nose to resemble a 747, the high cruising speeds of the jetliner would have made safety hard to guarantee, ant it would have been horribly noisy for the passengers sitting in such chairs. And a bit chilly. I'm such a dolt.

As with the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 with which it competed in the same market segment, the L-1011 TriStar was a trijet with the second engine mounted in and under the vertical stabiliser. Unlike the DC-10 which placed the second engine above the fuselage, the L-1011 used an S duct similar to the Boeing 727 which was far more complicated to design and maintain, but was much quieter and more stable. Indeed the L-1011 was one of the quietest commercial jetliners of the period which I'm sure people who had houses in the flight paths of jetliners would have appreciated.

Another L-1011 photo by Hyougushi in Osaka, 1992

One of the interesting aspect of the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar's development was it's turbofans. Unlike McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed opted to partner with Rolls Royce exclusively for the engines for the new jetliner. In a cruel twist, given the complexity and size of the project Rolls Royce went bankrupt and had to be purchased by the British government, an eerie thing to read about given all the bailouts governments around the world now are undertaking. Ultimately because of Rolls Royce's financial difficulties Lockheed were unable to complete any of their airframes until over a year after Douglas had entered the market with the DC-10.

Despite the bad initial reputation the DC-10 had with reliability and noise, the quieter L-1011 was never able to recover from this year long lag in development time, and Lockheed abandoned all commercial airline manufacturing after delivering 250 aircraft, only half of what they would have needed to break even.

Another interesting aspect of the development of the L-1011 which I didn't even know about until reading it's article on Wikipedia (and if it's on Wikipedia it has to be true!) was that Lockheed officials and senior members of the Japanese Diet were even involved in a bribery scandal!

Lockheed bribed the members of the Japanese government to subsidize ANA’s purchase of L-1011s. The resulting political scandal led to the arrest of Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. Within Lockheed, board chairman Daniel Haughton and vice chairman and president Carl Kotchian resigned from their posts on 13 February 1976. Tanaka was eventually tried and found guilty of violating foreign exchange control laws, but was not charged with bribery, a more serious criminal offense.

Definitely a very troubled airliner, but the L-1011 still to this day is one of my favourite designs just because it was so unconventional, and because of Lockheed's decision to proactively tackle the problem of sound pollution.

Now if only the eejit who has the cheap 4 cylinder 1990s Honda Accord across the street from us removed the silly, 1 metre wide muffler so we wouldn't have to put up with his noise pollution every evening and early morning we'd be home free. "Muffler" in this case is really stretching the term. Then again, who am I to judge, perhaps he's desperately attempting to compensate for something he lacks, or can't do very well. I take public transport and ride motor scooters for this reason.

Garfield has the right idea…

After several weeks of blissfully normal sleep patterns, I've fallen back into a serious rut when it comes to being able to sleep properly, if at all. It seems that for at least one week every month I have to have sleep troubles, as if it's part of some devious lunar plot. During this designated week, even though I get up at roughly the regular time, I lie in bed wide awake as I watch the clock tick past 01:00, then 02:00, then 03:00, then 04:00…

Both my parents and my grandmother on my mum's side have admitted to having serious sleeping problems, but as convenient an excuse it would be for me, I just can't see genetics as playing a part in this. I definitely need to start doing some inward focused analysis… if that makes any sense.

It's hard to make sense at 3am when you can't sleep so instead of talking myself, I thought I'd use the power of Google Reader to look into the subject of sleep. Isn't science wonderful?

The first article is from Reuters (Insomnia drug helps jet-lag, shift-work troubles) which coincidently Jerry Novak on Twitter forwarded to me after seeing my early morning tweets yesterday. It discusses a new treatment possibly being developed for people suffering from sleep trouble. I resolved never to take any sleeping pills simply because I don't want to develop a nasty dependence, but I might be keeping an eye on this:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An insomnia drug that helps the body produce more of the sleep hormone melatonin may improve sleep for jet-lagged travelers and shift workers, researchers reported on Monday.

Maryland-based Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. reported on two studies of its drug tasimelteon, also known as VEC-162, that showed it helped patients sleep longer and more deeply than a placebo.

They said that people with so-called circadian rhythm disorders could be helped. These disorders are common causes of insomnia that affect millions of people […]

Another recently published article about an unrelated study from the Australian ABC (New sleep drug brings hope for shift workers) also shows some promising new developments happening here in Australia:

A study into sleep disorders shows a new drug can help people affected by jet lag or shift work.

The Monash University research says the drug tasimelteon can shift the rhythm of melatonin levels in the body.

Melatonin is a marker of the internal biological clock and helps regulate circadian rhythms.

Sleep disorder expert Dr Shantha Rajaratnam says the drug could help patients fall asleep even when they are out of their normal time zone.

And finally we fly to Britain for this unconventional BBC Health report (Pop tunes used to calm babies) on how toddlers are being helped to sleep not with lullabies, but with pop songs!

Rocking a baby to sleep has been given a whole new meaning as some mothers ditch traditional lullabies for popular pop and rock tunes.

Songs such as Robbie Williams’ Angels and Oasis anthem Wonderwall proved popular in the poll of 2,000 mothers.

The survey found nearly two-thirds thought pop ballads could be better for getting babies to sleep than lullabies like Rock-a-Bye Baby.

According to the BBC, the top five most commonly sung songs for kids are Patience by Take That; Angels by Robbie Williams; I Kissed a Girl by Kate Perry; You're Beautiful by James Blunt and Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley. I can definitely see exactly how all these songs would be calming.

And funnily enough, Angels is one of my favourite Robbie Williams songs; it's got some gorgeous lyrics. Perhaps I need to load up the old iPhone, park it next to the bed and do some musical loops. After I regulate my melatonin and shell out a fortune for some experimental American sleeping drugs of course. Then again, perhaps a glass of cold water and a pleasant stroll around the block and back will suffice.

Do you reckon I'll ever find an angel? Oh dear, perhaps it's time I tried sleeping again. G'night everyone.

This evening I was clued into a post submitted earlier this week on Flickr by exxtrooper which lists 101 valuable things we've learned from video games! You really should read all of them yourself if you have the time, but these are my personal favourites :).

• Medicine became obsolete in the year 2004, when doctors noticed that hiding behind a wall caused human health to regenerate to 100%.
• Eating stuff found on the floor is good for you – your parents were wrong.
• Enemies, rather than approach you directly, behave like Michael Flatley (of Riverdance fame) on a conveyor belt.
• It’s surprising just how useful martial arts are on the modern battlefield.
• When you get shot, you don’t feel any pain, nor does it affect your aim. However, it does cause your vision to turn red for a couple of seconds.
• If you’re stuck in life and don’t know what to do, simply attempt to use every single item in your possession on your obstacle. If none of them work, go back the way you came. You’ve clearly missed something.
• You can jump twice your own height, but water will kill you instantly.
• In medieval times, women regularly fought in wars, wearing armor that afforded them equal protection to suits of plate mail worn by men, despite only covering about 3 inches of skin.
• Many, if not all, problems can be solved with a Holy Hand Grenade.
• Music spontaneously plays whenever you do anything exciting.
• You can travel anywhere instantly, as long as you’ve been there before.
• Women who are experienced mercenaries and can carry multiple heavy weapons do not look like Bulgarian discus throwers, but are lithe, slim, and have very large breasts.
• Being shot in the face is only a minor inconvenience, but going into an area you are not supposed to will result in instant death.
• Frogs die in water.

Screenshot from Commander Keen One

For what it's worth, my favourite games after all these years are still Lemmings (the version for DOS), SimCity (before version 4), Worms 2 (hence the Holy Hand Grenade reference!) and of course Commander Keen episodes one, two and three. Commander Keen is without a doubt the greatest game of all time. And don't you ever let anyone ever tell you otherwise!

The Processor menu and palette on Mac OS X Leopard

This tip is probably old news for most seasoned Mac users, but passing it on for people who may not know, and so I can link to it with other posts at some point.

Ever since the first PowerPC based Mac desktops with more than 1 CPU existed, there has been a small preference pane included in Apple's Developer Tools for Mac OS X you can install that allows you to disable multiple CPUs or CPU cores on the fly from your Apple menu bar, or from System Preferences. For desktops this is useful for cooling purposes when you don't intend to do much processing, for notebooks you can save battery power (most of the time) by only running one CPU core.

If you already have the Developer Tools installed from your Mac OS X installation DVD, navigate to /Developer/Extras/PreferencePanes/, double-click on Processor.prefPane then choose whether you want every account on the machine to be able to use it, or just yourself. For the former you'll need to provide an administrator's credentials.

Once it's installed, you'll have a processor icon on your menu bar which you can use to turn off some of your CPUs or CPU cores. You can also toggle a fancy "Processor Pallete" which shows a histogram of CPU usage.

It's been just over a week since we've had another Rubenerd Fun Facts post… so here are another ten fresh Rubenerd Fun Facts! As I've mentioned previously, all these facts are irrefutable and 110% true.

If you missed them, feel free to refer to the previous Rubenerd Fun Facts posts (part one, part two) and my post where I ecstatically reported my purchase of David Letterman's Late Show Fun Facts book. And as usual, feel free to take notes.

1. The first Model T Ford to roll off the assembly line was fluorescent pink.
2. It is illegal in Western Australia to walk in the outback if you wear a hat with corks.
3. No two eco laundry balls are the same.

   

4. The felony charge were named after Sergeant Albert Witherbottom Felony after he admitted in 1889 to taking photos of a woman’s ankles.
5. Carets are not edible.
6. Frank Nora is paid $1 million by the Illuminati each quarter to advance the Old World Order agenda.

   

7. For a brief period of time in October 1672, nothing interesting happened.
8. Atheists automatically get into heaven because God loathes suck ups!
9. Exhaustive testing by the American Environmental Protection Agency has conclusively proven that the bird is indeed the word.

   

10. The name Henry is short for Henrietta.
11. Due to a "programming error", Microsoft Money siphons small change from millions of bank accounts it is set up to monitor by customers.
12. Every time you use the acronym LOL, a brain cell somewhere in your head dies.

    

Another great photo from Airliners.net, one of the first websites I discovered when we got internet in the 90s. It does look as though it's wearing mascara, or some very swish shades! I will let you draw your own conclusions.

Aircraft

Dassault Falcon 900DX, OE-IDX (cn 604)

Taken at

Innsbruck – Kranebitten (INN / LOWI), Austria, October 31, 2008

Photographer

Florian Larcher

For a period of time in 2004 to 2006 I was the proud owner of a (then new) Power Mac G5 desktop that could effortlessly breeze through any task I gave it, and a cute little old 12" iBook G3 that was hopelessly underpowered but was perfect for taking to school for note taking, web browsing and for importing photos from cameras and the like. When I ran into money troubles I had to give up the G5 tower, opting instead to buy an original generation Core Duo MacBook Pro as it's replacement a few months later. I figured I could replace both the portable iBook and the muscular G5 with one machine. Pure, unfiltered genius!

While we've both had some issues with each other over the years as many couples do, this MacBook Pro has performed amazingly well in this dual role. We've had a productive and fruitful partnership :-).

Since 2006 though I feel as if I've made significant changes to how I work, and I'm staring to long for the days when I had a killer machine and a lightweight one.

Even just a few months ago I would lug my MacBook Pro around everywhere without thinking twice; now I've relegated my email, Twitter and light note taking duties entirely to my iPhone. My tiny magnesium Armada M300 or my iBook G3 (both from 2002) could also fill this role really nicely, no worries.

As for my current Core Duo MacBook Pro, being 32 bit I've been hitting the RAM ceiling more and more these days and for some major video editing and project compiling it's really showing its age: the current crop of Core 2 Duo machines can run laps around it. If I had the money (and that is a VERY BIG IF!), I'd love to grab a new 17 inch MacBook Pro. It would be my primary machine but would serve much less than a laptop and more as a portable desktop replacement that would sit on the table here most of the time but that I could easily pack up and take with me as I switch from Singapore to Adelaide and back again, and again and again.

I'd better start saving. Does the Red Cross buy blood now?

On so called "Black Friday" I finally took the opportunity to buy myself a Kensington backup battery for my iPhone and my 5G iPod. They're both fantastic devices, but playing video on them on long haul flights or using WiFi for several hours when I don't have my laptop is a problem because they burn up so much power so quickly. I'll be talking about it in a later post.

What's worrying me is that I was supposed to have had it delivered today, but according to the TNT Express tracking number page, the parcel is "Late Linehaul Frt Delayed". I assume this means it's late (no, really?) but I haven't the foggiest idea what Linehaul Freight means. Any shipping folks out there know? Does it mean the train carrying the container blew up or something?

At least I know it's in the right city now.

Status	Date	Time	Depot
Electronically Lodged	01/12/2008	08:22:37	Sydney Mas. PRI
Collected-Cust Premises (CIT)	01/12/2008	14:21:14	Sydney Mas. PRI
Received in Depot	01/12/2008	19:35:16	Sydney Mas. PRI
Paperwork Printed at Depot	02/12/2008	03:04:19	Adelaide PRI
Late Linehaul Frt Delayed	02/12/2008	11:14:14	Adelaide PRI