Dizzy Dee

Whenever I can’t find something worthwhile to read on one of our local news websites, I go to the science section, and usually find something interesting there.

Here’s what I found in today’s science section on IOL…

• Global warming puts king penguins in danger - King penguins that feed on fish and squid at the northern edges of Antarctica are threatened by global warming, which is cutting down on their food supply.
• Bones of flying reptile found in China - Paleontologists have discovered the fossil of a new species of tiny prehistoric flying reptile in north-eastern China, a study released on Monday said. The miniature reptile lived about 120-million years ago and was about the size of a sparrow, with a wingspan less than a foot across.
• ‘Giant baby’ planet discovered - German astronomers have discovered a “giant baby” planet in deep space which they say has a mass 10 times as dense as Jupiter but is a scant 10 million years old - a newborn by cosmic standards.
• Ancient Indian city uncovered - Archaeologists have dug out the remains of a 2 500-year old city - believed to be bigger than classical Athens - from under the ruins of an ancient fort in India’s eastern state of Orissa, a newspaper reported on Monday. The findings of the team of archaeologists from India and the United States include the debris of household pottery and terracotta ornaments showing that the city’s inhabitants led an advanced lifestyle.

The ancient Indian city which was discovered particularly interests me. If I could’ve chosen another job, I would’ve loved to be an archaeologist. I guess its the adventurous side of the job that appeals to me so much. Just imagine finding a building which is centuries old, buried by sand, and completely forgotten. Yet still there were people who walked in those building, who LIVED there, and to whom it was as normal as our shopping malls are now. I find it intriguing, and would LOVE to discover something like that. One day.

The reason why I shared this today is because I sometimes forget what amazing people are out there, and the awesome things they’re doing. I forget that there are people out there STILL making discoveries, and that its not something that only happened in my history classes. Its just a reminder that we don’t know half the secrets that our Earth holds, and that there are still so many unknown things. Even though we live life “normally” each day, there’s a whole new ‘world’ out there. Somewhere.

If you’re bored. Try this:

76% Geek

Yeah, I know, dumb title, but who cares?
Its time for bed, and I’m fussing with all kinds of things. First I got an app on my phone to do VOIP. I then got Twitter to work from my phone, just had to figure it out though. And now I’m posting to Wordpress from my phone! Cool hey? I’m now fully mobile!!

I really need to go to bed now. Can’t stop yawning. Night for now

Hey you all… Just popped in to say hi, and that I’m on BloggersChoiceAwards - So please vote for me!

As you will see, the button is already there on your top left hand side (had to think for a moment which side <- that is…)
I’ve been trying hard to get back to everyone who has ever commented on my site, and was surprised to see how many of those blogs don’t exist any more.

You might have noticed that I’ cleared my blogroll too - removed some of the old and dead links. If you’d like to be on my blogroll however, please contact me by leaving a comment or e-mailing me.

Please note however that I do reserve the right to deny adding your blog due to lack of updates, obscene material, abusive advertisements, or any other offensive material which I do not wish to promote.

Here’s what I did today…

Name Surname
Company Name
+ 00 00 000 0000
+ 00 00 000 0000
person@company.com
skypename

Well, its not ALL I’ve done, but its all I can show you.  Do you like it?  I thought it good to use icons instead of the usual “Office”, “Mobile”, etc. 

You’re welcome to use it if you like

I was listening to the radio this morning when they mentioned the mummification process. I’ve always been intrigued by mummies - the eeriness of it all. Whilst being in London I visited the British Museum’s “Ancient Egypt” section which was absolutely amazing. Mummified humans, cats, and even alligators. And though I knew bits about mummification (from the History Geographic channel - lol), I never knew (and still don’t know) the full extent of it all.
I heard the steps on the radio, and looked it up on Wikipedia again tonight, here’s how Egyptian mummies were made - is gross, but very interesting.

Embalming
The body is washed with palm wine.
The body is rinsed with water from the Nile River.
A small cut is made in the left side of the body.
The internal organs which are the liver, lungs, small intestines, and large intestines, are removed.
The brains are removed. A long hook inserted through the nose will pull the brains out. (The Egyptians did not know what the brain was for, so they removed it.)
The body is covered and stuffed with natron. This is known as the drying stage.
Wait forty days for the body to dry.
The body will be washed with water from the Nile River.
The body is covered with sweet smelling oils.
The body is stuffed with dry things, such as sawdust, leaves, and linen.
The body is covered with more oils.
The internal organs are put into the canopic jars.

Wrapping
The head and neck are wrapped. The fingers and toes are wrapped.
The arms and legs are wrapped.
The sacred amulets are placed. The Isis knot, and the Plummet.
The spells from the book of the dead are read.
The arms and legs are tied together.
A scroll is placed between the hands of the deceased.
The full body is wrapped.
The body is painted with liquid resin as glue.
A cloth with Osiris painted on it is wrapped around the body.
A large cloth is wrapped around the body.
Linen stripes are wrapped around the body to hold the cloth in place.
The mummy is put in the first coffin.
The mummy is put in the second coffin.
The funeral is held.
The opening of the mouth ceremony is performed.
The mummy is put in the sarcophagus.
The mummy is put in its final resting place, the tomb.

Images from Travel Channel & Wikipedia

Chat slang can be such a nuisance, but at the same time so convenient. I know in school there were cliques, but while type-chatting with someone on Skype (or whatever other IM program you use), one can easily tell if a person is part of the internet junky club, or someone who still refers to java when they talk about their favourite coffee, or mention the word blog with a weird expression on their face (like its some sort of conspiracy?)

Most people I know still think that there has to be something wrong with “bloggers“. They tend to steer clear of me if they hear that “blog“…. Note, each time they pronounce the word “blog” their eyes go a bit bigger, and they stretch out the “o” sound just a bit longer than necessary… If you’re one of THOSE people and you’re reading this, you might just as well join in and blog. If you’re here, reading this, and you know me, then you probably like the idea of someone spilling all their guts online, or maybe you’re just curious to find out more about my thoughts. Either way, you’ll feel much better if you start “sharing” - like an AA meeting, you know?

So here’s for starters some chat abbreviations or acronyms…by googling you will find loads more… (If you don’t know what the term ‘googling’ means, refer to this post)

IM - Instant message
IMing - Chatting with someone online (verb form of im)
PM - Private message (as opposed to public message in chat rooms)
404 - I haven’t a clue
<3 - Heart
AFAIK - As far as I know
AFK - Away from keyboard
ASL? - Age - sex - location?
B4N - Bye for now
BAK - Back at the keyboard
BBIAB - Be back in a bit
BBL - Be back later
BEG - Big evil grin
BF - Boyfriend
GF - Girlfriend
BRB - Be right back (people confuse this for “burping”)
BTW - By the way
CU - See you
CUL8ER - See you later
DOM - Dream of me
F2F - Face to face
LOL - Laughing out loud
ROFL - Rolling on the floor laughing
LMAO - Laughing my ass off
ROFLMAO - Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off
FOMCL - Falling off my chair laughing
G2GP - Gotta go pee
GMTA - Great minds think alike
H&K - Hug and kiss
LUL - Love you lots
LTNS - Long time no see
MorF - Male or female
NI - No Idea
NP - No problem
OIC - Oh, i see
PEBCAK - Problem exists between chair and keyboard
PITA - Pain in the ass
::POOF:: - Goodbye (leaving the room)
Sup - What’s up
SU - Shut up
TA - Thank you
TMI - Too much information
TLK2UL8R - Talk to you later
TTFN - Ta-ta for now
TTYL - Talk to you later
WTF - What the ****
WTG - Way to go
WTH - What the hell
YW - You’re welcome

TLK2UL8R….

I’ve always been a loyal Google fan. No other search engine has thus far impressed me more. Shockingly enough I realized that not all people even know what is? I suppose I cannot blame them, but as for us bloggers, I assume we all know what Google is, and what it does. Well, maybe not all of it… I was surprised to find a few more items to add to the Google functionality list… If you have a gmail account you get access to a lot of really cool services - all for free! Have a look at the list below, because you may not not about them all. I still have some Gmail invites left, so if you’re interested in getting a Gmail account, you can e-mail me and request an account, or you can leave a comment. I only have a certain amount left, so first come first serve!

…Google AdSense is adverts which you include on your website or blog, and when someone clicks on an advert, you get paid! Easy as that!

…Google Analytics offers very detailed information on who visits your website or blog, where they’re from, what links were clicked etc. Once again you have to add a small bit of script to your page(s).

…Google Calendar allows you to add calender notes, appointments, and birthday, and also comes with an option to set an alarm for each even you add, for which you will get an e-mail reminder!

…Docs and Spreadsheet allows you to either create or upload word documents and spreadsheets. These are not limited to Microsoft word documents, or excel spreadsheets, but you can also upload OpenOffice documents and spreadsheets, as well as RTF and HTML documents. This includes a spell checker, and most of the formatting found in Microsoft Word. You can also download these documents again, as word documents and even pdf’s! You can also share your documents, choose between making your documents public, or only inviting certain people [by e-mail address] to view your documents. You can even publish your documents to your blog!

…Gmail is Google’s web based e-mail service. This is by far the best free web based e-mail account I have EVER had! You can set it up to download as POP3 [Meaning you can receive your mail into Outlook, Outlook Express and Thunder Bird].

…Google Talk is part of Gmail, and you don’t need to download anything to use it!! If you have your Gmail e-mail account open in a browser, you can chat with your friends in the same browser! You can however download the Google Talk application which is relatively small [1.5MB], and enables you to make a phone call to someone else who has Google Talk, send files, and type chat.

…Google Groups allows to join a group of people in a discussions, or create your own group. Groups are divided in categories, such as science, technology etc. When creating your own group you can set it to be public, or private. When set to private, only people you invite will be able to join your group. This is especially useful if you want other people’s opinions on a specific subject, or if you want to create a place of discussion, instead of sending out loads of e-mails to a group of people.

… A personal favorite of mine is the Notebook, here you can keep all your notes. Shopping lists, ideas for birthday gifts, and even notes about your next blog entry.

…Reader is a built in RSS Reader. If you’re wondering what an RSS reader is, its the abbreviation for “Rich Site Summary”. This basically mean that you can subscribe to a blog with the RSS Reader, and whenever there is a new post you will be able to see it in your RSS Reader, without having to go to the blog to check manually.

…Google Video allows you to upload video’s and share them with your friends, or to watch already uploaded video’s. These are again categorized, just like the Google groups, to allow you to find what you’re looking for fairly easily.

… Google Photos is something which I’ve only noticed recently, and haven’t tried out myself. Apparently you can download Picasa for free, or use the Google web interface to upload your photo’s to an online album. Again you can choose to keep your photo’s private, or make them public. There’s 250MB of space to use, which is not too much, but should allow for about 65 fairly large photo’s. They do however have an option to increase your storage space for an annual fee. Here are the different upgrade options: 6.25GB [$25 per year], 25GB [$100 per year], 100GB [$300 per year], 250GB [$500 per year].

…There’s also a pretty neat extention for Firefox called Gmail Space. This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space [2.5 GB and growing] for file storage.

Apart from the features listed above, there are a whole long list more, see below if you’re interested!

Note: The features below don’t require a Google account, and is accessed from the normal Google search page. The applicable keyword must just be entered in the search box along with the commands listen below.

Glossary & Dictionary

…For the glossary of any English word, type define:word for which Google will return definitions. This page includes all the definitions for the word that Google found on the web.

…You can also try adding “What is” in front of the word you want to know the definition for. Like what is sleep, for which Google returns a natural and periodic state of rest during which consciousness of the world is suspended.

Calculation & Mathematical Constants

…Google calculater handles basic addition, multiplication, subtraction & division. But also helps you with more advanced calculations such as, trigonometric functions, inverse trigonometric functions, hyperbolic functions, and logarithmic functions. Just enter the proper formula into the search box, and wait for Google to display the answer. By entering 4 + ((16 x 66) / 2) Google will give you the answer, 542 - easy as that!

…In addition to performing calculations, Google also knows a variety of mathematical and scientific constants, such as pi, Avogadro’s Number, and Planck’s Constant. It also knows the radius of the Earth, the mass of the sun, the speed of light, the gravitational constant, and a lot more. For example, if you’re not sure what the value of pi is, just enter pi into the Search box and press Enter; Google returns 3.14159265, as it should. How about the speed of light? Enter speed of light, and Google returns 299,792,458 m/s.

Converter

…If you want to convert any unit of measure into another, for example 5 minutes in seconds, you type just that, and voila, you get 300 seconds. You can do the exact same with mass, temperature, and probably every other unit of measure you can think of.

…Google lists facts, so if you type in the key words of what you’re looking for, Google will give you the facts. For instance, if you type in William Shakespeare birthday, Google returns Date of Birth: 23 April 1564. Google will also be able to return the population of a certain country, birthplace of a well known person, currency of any country, and even the current president of a country.

As you know there is also Google Earth, which is a application you can download showing satellite images of nearly the whole Earth! Froogle is Google shopping, but I haven’t spent much time researching that, as it really doesn’t interest me. If you know anything else interesting about Google, make sure to leave your comment!

Sources: Google, and Informit

So I tried everything to remove this obscure folder from my desktop. I don’t know how it got there in the first place, or who put it there, I just knew I had to get rid of it. I managed to delete all of the files in the folder except for two of them. With the help of someone I tried to delete it through the Cmd Prompt, and then just got an error that the files don’t exist. Finally I googled and found this cute app ( http://www.d-a-l.com/help/showthread.php?t=18815 ) Its can delete virtually anything!! Sounds a bit stupid now I know, but it was really handy at the time. If you ever have the same trouble, I really recommend it