Did You Know How These Names Came About!
Ref: http://www.jaxey.com
Adobe - came from name of the river Adobe Creek that ran behind the house of founder John Warnock.
Apache - It got its name because its founders got started by applying patches to code written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result was 'A PAtCHy' server -- thus, the name Apache
Apple Computers - favourite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 o'clock.
C - Dennis Ritchie improved on the B programming language and called it 'New B'. He later called it C. Earlier B was created by Ken Thompson as a revision of the Bon programming language (named after his wife Bonnie)
CISCO - its not an acronymn but the short for San Francisco.
Compaq - using COMp, for computer, and PAQ to denote a small integral object.
GNU - a species of African antelope. Founder of the GNU project Richard Stallman liked the name because of the humour associated with its pronuniciation and was also influenced by the children's song 'The Gnu Song' which is a song sung by a gnu. Also it fitted into the recursive acronym culture with 'GNU's Not Unix'.
Google - the name started as a jokey boast about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford grad students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'!
Hotmail - Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing e-mail via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casing.
HP - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
Intel - Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.
Java - Originally called Oak by creator James Gosling, from the tree that stood outside his window, the programming team had to look for a substitute as there was another language with the same name. Java was selected from a list of suggestions. It came from the name of the coffee that the programmers drank.
Murphy's technology laws
Ref: http://www.murphys-laws.com
* Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
* Whenever a system becomes completely defined, some damn fool discovers something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition.
* Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not understand.
* If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
* The opulence of the front office decor varies inversely with the fundamental solvency of the firm.
* The attention span of a computer is only as long as it electrical cord.
* An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
* Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure. great discoveries are made by mistake.
* Always draw your curves, then plot your reading.
* Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
* All's well that ends.
* A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost.
* The first myth of management is that it exists.
* A failure will not appear till a unit has passed final inspection.
* New systems generate new problems.
* To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.
* We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything.
* Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clark
* A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make.
* Nothing motivates a man more than to see his boss putting in an honest day's work.
* Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book.
* The primary function of the design engineer is to make things difficult for the fabricator and impossible for the serviceman.
* To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.
* After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.
* Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which are still under development.
* A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.
* If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number.
* Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.
* .Give all orders verbally. Never write anything down that might go into a "Pearl Harbor File."
* Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
* If you can't understand it, it is intuitively obvious.
* The more cordial the buyer's secretary, the greater the odds that the competition already has the order.
* In designing any type of construction, no overall dimension can be totaled correctly after 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The correct total will become self-evident at 8:15 a.m. on Monday.
* Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.
* All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door.
* The only perfect science is hind-sight.
* Work smarder and not harder and be careful of yor speling.
* If it's not in the computer, it doesn't exist.
* If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
* When all else fails, read the instructions.
* If there is a possibility of several things going wrong the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
* Everything that goes up must come down.
Corollary: Not always
The corollary was sent by the Dark Templar
* Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least accessible corner.
* Any simple theory will be worded in the most complicated way.
* Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to use it.
* The degree of technical competence is inversely proportional to the level of management.
* A difficult task will be halted near completion by one tiny, previously insignificant detail.
* There is never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.
* The remaining work to finish in order to reach your goal increases as the deadline approaches.
* If there is ever the possibility of several things to go wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
Sent by - Anthony Johnson
* If something breaks, and it stops you from doing something, it will be fixed when you:
1. no longer need it
2. are in the middle of something else
3. don't want it to be fixed, because you really don't want to do what you were supposed to do
* Each profession talks to itself in it's own language, apparently there is no Rosetta Stone
* The more urgent the need for a decision to be made, less apparent become the identity of the decision maker
The last two laws were sent by - Foes Arvin
* It is never wise to let a piece of electronic equipment know that you are in a hurry.
Sent by - Charles L. Mays
* Don't fix something that ain't broke, 'cause you'll break it and you still can't fix it
* You can never tell which way the train went by looking at the track.
Chong Kwong Sheng addition:
Only by the splatter of the blood stains
The last two laws were sent by Chong Kwong Sheng
* Dobie's Dogma:
If you are not thoroughly confused, you have not been thoroughly informed.
Sent by Richard Bobbitt
* A screw will never fit a nut.
* Standard parts are not.
The last two laws were sent by Kent Berg
* When working on a motor vehicle engine, any tool dropped will land directly under the center of the engine.
Sent by king Ed
* Interchangeable tapes won't.
Sent by Jeff Webb
* Never trust modern technology. Trust it only when it is old technology.
Sent by The High Rabbit
* The bolt that is in the most awkward place will always be the one with the tightest thread.
Sent by Stan Gajda
* The most ominous phrase in science: "_Uh_-oh . . ."
Sent by Yael Dragwyla
* The 2nd worst thing you can hear the tech say is "Oops!" The worst thing you can hear the tech say is "oh s**t!"
* Any example of hardware/software can be made fool-proof. It cannot, however, be made damn-fool-proof.
The last two laws were sent by Guy Dunn
* The Rossemblat Graphic Insult Theory:
When any technological change is made, we have a graphic insult curve. No mater how high the insult curve climb, the important thing is how long it goes.
Sent by Leon Rossemblat
* Bahaman's Law:
for any given software, the moment you manage to master it, a new version of that software appears.
Sent by Bahaman.
Yakko's addition:
The new version always manages to change the one feature you need most.
Sent by Yakko
* In today's fast-moving tech environment, it is a requirement that we forget more than we learn.
Sent by Beverly Harris
* It is simple to make something complex, and complex to make it simple.
Sent by Fred Buterbaugh
* Measurements will be quoted in the least practical unit; velocity, for example, will be measured in 'furlongs-per-fortnight'.
Sent by Keith Hipkins
* In electronics repair the part with the highest failure rate will always be located in the least accessible area of the equipment.
Sent by Richard
* Multi-million pound technology is worthless in the hands of morons.
Sent by Danny
* The rule of Protection:
If you install a 50¢ fuse to protect a 100$ component, the 100$ component will blow to protect the 50¢ fuse.
Sent by Bob Holdener
* Karl Imhoff was a German engineer who developed sewage treatment systems in the early 1900's. His biggest contribution was the Imhoff Tank, which allows sewage to settle. The Imhoff Law relates to bosses everywhere. The law goes as follows:
The largest chunks always rise to the top.
Sent by P R Suhr
* High tech man-year = 730 people trying to finish a project before lunch.
Sent by Eric
* An expert will always state the obvious.
Sent by Lawman
* The boss is always right.
Corollary: If the boss is wrong, refer back to the rule.
Sent by RC
* On a cruise ship, the one, most important part you don't have in stock always breaks on a Friday evening, just when you left harbor and the next time you will be in harbor is a Sunday or Christmas eve.
Sent by Jouni Sironen - a long time sound & light technician on cruise ships.
* The chance a copy machine will brake down is proportional to the importance of the material that needs to be copied and inversely proportional to the amount of time till the material will be needed.
Sent by Timothy Boilard
* Maintenance department neglect customer's complains till it starts installations in customer's new projects.
Sent by Khaled
* Murphy's Law on HVAC systems:
An HVAC (Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning) engineering firm, will invariably lease office space in a building with a lousy HVAC system.
Sent by Michael W. Murphy who has worked in 6 HVAC firm offices and can back this law up.
All the engineers can do is shiver or sweat and moan about it, and say how they would fix it if the building owner actually gave a damn.
* The probability any machine breaks down increases with the importance of expected visit.
Sent by Asier Zabarte
* if it works in theory, it won't work in practice.
if it works in practice it won't work in theory.
Sent by Kevin
* Research Law:
No matter how clever and complete your research is, there is always someone who knows more.
Sent by J. Lawrence Katz
* Somers' Law of Repair:
No part ever fails where you can reach it, or where there is enough light to see how to replace it.
Sent by John Somers
* Any tool dropped will fall where it can cause the most damage.
* Any wire cut to length will be too short.
* Equivalent replacement parts aren't.
The last three laws were sent by Bill Selover
* When you finally update to a new technology, is when everyone stop supporting it.
* Interchangeable parts aren't
Sent by trekker508
* The proposed size of any project is inversely proportional to the size the project will eventually become.
Corollary: Any project that can consume more resources before reaching it's final state will do so.
This will happen faster than you think.
Also, the investors will not be happy.
Sent by Jon Proesel
* The less intelligent the idea, and the person stating it, the more likely it will be funded.
Sent by Brad Gochnauer
* A man with one watch is certain about time. A man with two watches isn't.
* The more knowledge you gained, the less certain you are of it.
* If you think you understand science (or computers or women), you're clearly not an expert
* Technicians are the only ones that don't trust technology
The last four laws were sent by Jan Wenall
* All impossible failures, will happen at the test site.
Corollary: All impossible failures will happen on the clients desktop
Corollary sent by Dino Price
* The more you want to contact someone over an instant messenger is inversely proportional to the chances that they will be online.
* The more important your email is, the worse your email client will screw it up.
The last two laws were sent by Padme
* The degree to which a device will function is directly proportional to the number of times it has been bashed and inversely to its cost.
* A device having an indestructible component or is user serviceable is deemed unsafe until it's replaced by an expensive, unobtainable, inefficient component which needs constant servicing.
The last two laws were sent by Takura Razemba
* Assaf's Laws of Replacement Parts
o A failed 25¢ part cannot be replaced by a new 25¢ part, but by a sub-assembly whose cost is equal to or greater than that of the device in need of the part
o The cost and availability of a replacement part are in inverse proportion to the cost of the whole system: a $1500 device will fail because of the burnout of a 25¢ capacitor. But the 25¢ capacitor is either
+ no longer manufactured
+ manufactured only by a company in Outer Mongolia with an 18-month backlog
+ available only as part of a $1450 sub-assembly
Sent by Francis Assaf
* All things mechanical/electrical will catastrophically fail after the guarantee has expired, unless an extended guarantee has been purchased.
Sent by Blair Murray
* The Harvard Principle:
Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of temperature, humidity, pressure, etc., the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
* First Law of Linear Equations:
Given any system n linear equations, there will be n+1 unknowns
The last two laws were sent by Bill Pramik
* The disappearance of a nagging error in a system is explicable only in terms of insignificant contribution of the source to that system
Sent by Manjunatha M, an application engineer
* The repairman will have never seen a model quite like yours before
Sent by Christa
* Law of Repairmen:
The repairman fixes your machine to break down the next day and charges for a new machine.
Sent by Eddy Cosma
* Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
* Whenever a system becomes completely defined, some damn fool discovers something which either abolishes the system or expands it beyond recognition.
* Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not understand.
* If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
* The opulence of the front office decor varies inversely with the fundamental solvency of the firm.
* The attention span of a computer is only as long as it electrical cord.
* An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
* Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure. great discoveries are made by mistake.
* Always draw your curves, then plot your reading.
* Nothing ever gets built on schedule or within budget.
* All's well that ends.
* A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost.
* The first myth of management is that it exists.
* A failure will not appear till a unit has passed final inspection.
* New systems generate new problems.
* To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer.
* We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything.
* Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clark
* A computer makes as many mistakes in two seconds as 20 men working 20 years make.
* Nothing motivates a man more than to see his boss putting in an honest day's work.
* Some people manage by the book, even though they don't know who wrote the book or even what book.
* The primary function of the design engineer is to make things difficult for the fabricator and impossible for the serviceman.
* To spot the expert, pick the one who predicts the job will take the longest and cost the most.
* After all is said and done, a hell of a lot more is said than done.
* Any circuit design must contain at least one part which is obsolete, two parts which are unobtainable and three parts which are still under development.
* A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.
* If mathematically you end up with the incorrect answer, try multiplying by the page number.
* Computers are unreliable, but humans are even more unreliable. Any system which depends on human reliability is unreliable.
* .Give all orders verbally. Never write anything down that might go into a "Pearl Harbor File."
* Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
* If you can't understand it, it is intuitively obvious.
* The more cordial the buyer's secretary, the greater the odds that the competition already has the order.
* In designing any type of construction, no overall dimension can be totaled correctly after 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The correct total will become self-evident at 8:15 a.m. on Monday.
* Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. And scratch where it itches.
* All things are possible except skiing through a revolving door.
* The only perfect science is hind-sight.
* Work smarder and not harder and be careful of yor speling.
* If it's not in the computer, it doesn't exist.
* If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
* When all else fails, read the instructions.
* If there is a possibility of several things going wrong the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
* Everything that goes up must come down.
Corollary: Not always
The corollary was sent by the Dark Templar
* Any instrument when dropped will roll into the least accessible corner.
* Any simple theory will be worded in the most complicated way.
* Build a system that even a fool can use and only a fool will want to use it.
* The degree of technical competence is inversely proportional to the level of management.
* A difficult task will be halted near completion by one tiny, previously insignificant detail.
* There is never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.
* The remaining work to finish in order to reach your goal increases as the deadline approaches.
* If there is ever the possibility of several things to go wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
Sent by - Anthony Johnson
* If something breaks, and it stops you from doing something, it will be fixed when you:
1. no longer need it
2. are in the middle of something else
3. don't want it to be fixed, because you really don't want to do what you were supposed to do
* Each profession talks to itself in it's own language, apparently there is no Rosetta Stone
* The more urgent the need for a decision to be made, less apparent become the identity of the decision maker
The last two laws were sent by - Foes Arvin
* It is never wise to let a piece of electronic equipment know that you are in a hurry.
Sent by - Charles L. Mays
* Don't fix something that ain't broke, 'cause you'll break it and you still can't fix it
* You can never tell which way the train went by looking at the track.
Chong Kwong Sheng addition:
Only by the splatter of the blood stains
The last two laws were sent by Chong Kwong Sheng
* Dobie's Dogma:
If you are not thoroughly confused, you have not been thoroughly informed.
Sent by Richard Bobbitt
* A screw will never fit a nut.
* Standard parts are not.
The last two laws were sent by Kent Berg
* When working on a motor vehicle engine, any tool dropped will land directly under the center of the engine.
Sent by king Ed
* Interchangeable tapes won't.
Sent by Jeff Webb
* Never trust modern technology. Trust it only when it is old technology.
Sent by The High Rabbit
* The bolt that is in the most awkward place will always be the one with the tightest thread.
Sent by Stan Gajda
* The most ominous phrase in science: "_Uh_-oh . . ."
Sent by Yael Dragwyla
* The 2nd worst thing you can hear the tech say is "Oops!" The worst thing you can hear the tech say is "oh s**t!"
* Any example of hardware/software can be made fool-proof. It cannot, however, be made damn-fool-proof.
The last two laws were sent by Guy Dunn
* The Rossemblat Graphic Insult Theory:
When any technological change is made, we have a graphic insult curve. No mater how high the insult curve climb, the important thing is how long it goes.
Sent by Leon Rossemblat
* Bahaman's Law:
for any given software, the moment you manage to master it, a new version of that software appears.
Sent by Bahaman.
Yakko's addition:
The new version always manages to change the one feature you need most.
Sent by Yakko
* In today's fast-moving tech environment, it is a requirement that we forget more than we learn.
Sent by Beverly Harris
* It is simple to make something complex, and complex to make it simple.
Sent by Fred Buterbaugh
* Measurements will be quoted in the least practical unit; velocity, for example, will be measured in 'furlongs-per-fortnight'.
Sent by Keith Hipkins
* In electronics repair the part with the highest failure rate will always be located in the least accessible area of the equipment.
Sent by Richard
* Multi-million pound technology is worthless in the hands of morons.
Sent by Danny
* The rule of Protection:
If you install a 50¢ fuse to protect a 100$ component, the 100$ component will blow to protect the 50¢ fuse.
Sent by Bob Holdener
* Karl Imhoff was a German engineer who developed sewage treatment systems in the early 1900's. His biggest contribution was the Imhoff Tank, which allows sewage to settle. The Imhoff Law relates to bosses everywhere. The law goes as follows:
The largest chunks always rise to the top.
Sent by P R Suhr
* High tech man-year = 730 people trying to finish a project before lunch.
Sent by Eric
* An expert will always state the obvious.
Sent by Lawman
* The boss is always right.
Corollary: If the boss is wrong, refer back to the rule.
Sent by RC
* On a cruise ship, the one, most important part you don't have in stock always breaks on a Friday evening, just when you left harbor and the next time you will be in harbor is a Sunday or Christmas eve.
Sent by Jouni Sironen - a long time sound & light technician on cruise ships.
* The chance a copy machine will brake down is proportional to the importance of the material that needs to be copied and inversely proportional to the amount of time till the material will be needed.
Sent by Timothy Boilard
* Maintenance department neglect customer's complains till it starts installations in customer's new projects.
Sent by Khaled
* Murphy's Law on HVAC systems:
An HVAC (Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning) engineering firm, will invariably lease office space in a building with a lousy HVAC system.
Sent by Michael W. Murphy who has worked in 6 HVAC firm offices and can back this law up.
All the engineers can do is shiver or sweat and moan about it, and say how they would fix it if the building owner actually gave a damn.
* The probability any machine breaks down increases with the importance of expected visit.
Sent by Asier Zabarte
* if it works in theory, it won't work in practice.
if it works in practice it won't work in theory.
Sent by Kevin
* Research Law:
No matter how clever and complete your research is, there is always someone who knows more.
Sent by J. Lawrence Katz
* Somers' Law of Repair:
No part ever fails where you can reach it, or where there is enough light to see how to replace it.
Sent by John Somers
* Any tool dropped will fall where it can cause the most damage.
* Any wire cut to length will be too short.
* Equivalent replacement parts aren't.
The last three laws were sent by Bill Selover
* When you finally update to a new technology, is when everyone stop supporting it.
* Interchangeable parts aren't
Sent by trekker508
* The proposed size of any project is inversely proportional to the size the project will eventually become.
Corollary: Any project that can consume more resources before reaching it's final state will do so.
This will happen faster than you think.
Also, the investors will not be happy.
Sent by Jon Proesel
* The less intelligent the idea, and the person stating it, the more likely it will be funded.
Sent by Brad Gochnauer
* A man with one watch is certain about time. A man with two watches isn't.
* The more knowledge you gained, the less certain you are of it.
* If you think you understand science (or computers or women), you're clearly not an expert
* Technicians are the only ones that don't trust technology
The last four laws were sent by Jan Wenall
* All impossible failures, will happen at the test site.
Corollary: All impossible failures will happen on the clients desktop
Corollary sent by Dino Price
* The more you want to contact someone over an instant messenger is inversely proportional to the chances that they will be online.
* The more important your email is, the worse your email client will screw it up.
The last two laws were sent by Padme
* The degree to which a device will function is directly proportional to the number of times it has been bashed and inversely to its cost.
* A device having an indestructible component or is user serviceable is deemed unsafe until it's replaced by an expensive, unobtainable, inefficient component which needs constant servicing.
The last two laws were sent by Takura Razemba
* Assaf's Laws of Replacement Parts
o A failed 25¢ part cannot be replaced by a new 25¢ part, but by a sub-assembly whose cost is equal to or greater than that of the device in need of the part
o The cost and availability of a replacement part are in inverse proportion to the cost of the whole system: a $1500 device will fail because of the burnout of a 25¢ capacitor. But the 25¢ capacitor is either
+ no longer manufactured
+ manufactured only by a company in Outer Mongolia with an 18-month backlog
+ available only as part of a $1450 sub-assembly
Sent by Francis Assaf
* All things mechanical/electrical will catastrophically fail after the guarantee has expired, unless an extended guarantee has been purchased.
Sent by Blair Murray
* The Harvard Principle:
Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of temperature, humidity, pressure, etc., the organism will do as it damn well pleases.
* First Law of Linear Equations:
Given any system n linear equations, there will be n+1 unknowns
The last two laws were sent by Bill Pramik
* The disappearance of a nagging error in a system is explicable only in terms of insignificant contribution of the source to that system
Sent by Manjunatha M, an application engineer
* The repairman will have never seen a model quite like yours before
Sent by Christa
* Law of Repairmen:
The repairman fixes your machine to break down the next day and charges for a new machine.
Sent by Eddy Cosma
Blind Programmer
ref: http://compsci.ca
Peter Lundblad, by all conventional definitions, would be considered a programming guru. He is a leading contributor to Subversion, an open sourced code management project - a widely used system. For his talents, Peter is also employed by Google (Google Code implements Subversion to host open source projects). Though what makes his story inspirational, is the fact that Peter is blind.
Information Week has published a short interview with Peter Lundblad. The interesting bit was an explanation of how he does it.
“I was trained as a finger typist. I know from the feel of the keys if I’ve made a mistake typing. When looking at code, I prefer Braille.” Lundblad uses a device that presents each line of code on the screen in Braille for him to read by touch.
While skimming through code is severely slowed down, as the field of vision is narrowed to a single line, it is still clear that with enough practise even visually challenged persons can master the art of computer programming. At first this all seems a little bit mind boggling, though then the blindfold chess would make an excellent analogy, and the latter has been around for a long time.
Sometimes computer science students would just stare at their code, wondering as to why something doesn’t work. This story brings up the point that one should think, I mean close your eyes and really think as to what’s going on. Programming is about logic - start running that logic through your head.
Of course the other inspirational bit is that even physical limitations don’t have to hinder your pursuit for something you really enjoy doing.
Peter Lundblad, by all conventional definitions, would be considered a programming guru. He is a leading contributor to Subversion, an open sourced code management project - a widely used system. For his talents, Peter is also employed by Google (Google Code implements Subversion to host open source projects). Though what makes his story inspirational, is the fact that Peter is blind.
Information Week has published a short interview with Peter Lundblad. The interesting bit was an explanation of how he does it.
“I was trained as a finger typist. I know from the feel of the keys if I’ve made a mistake typing. When looking at code, I prefer Braille.” Lundblad uses a device that presents each line of code on the screen in Braille for him to read by touch.
While skimming through code is severely slowed down, as the field of vision is narrowed to a single line, it is still clear that with enough practise even visually challenged persons can master the art of computer programming. At first this all seems a little bit mind boggling, though then the blindfold chess would make an excellent analogy, and the latter has been around for a long time.
Sometimes computer science students would just stare at their code, wondering as to why something doesn’t work. This story brings up the point that one should think, I mean close your eyes and really think as to what’s going on. Programming is about logic - start running that logic through your head.
Of course the other inspirational bit is that even physical limitations don’t have to hinder your pursuit for something you really enjoy doing.
Tips for improving your handwriting
By Dyas A. Lawson
Ref: http://paperpenalia.com
You’ve decided you want to improve your handwriting and you’re probably hoping a fountain pen will do the trick -- maybe a friend told you it would. Maybe you’re just adventurous and you want to try your hand at calligraphy (or you might, once your handwriting improves). Good for you!
A fountain pen may make your writing look a bit better, but if your writing looks as if frenzied chickens got loose on the page, chances are this won’t be enough. Most likely, you’ll need to retrain your arm and hand.
After coaching handwriting and teaching calligraphy over the years, I’ve learned to see the characteristics of those who’ll be able to pick up the necessary motions quickly from those who’ll have to work a bit harder.
Crampy, uneven letters are often the result of drawing the letters with the fingers rather than using the whole arm to write.
People who inevitably have trouble with handwriting and calligraphy write with their fingers. They "draw" the letters. A finger-writer puts the full weight of his/her hand on the paper, his fingers form the letters, and he picks his hand up repeatedly to move it across the paper as he writes.
If you use the right muscle groups, your writing will have a smooth, easy flow and not look tortured.
People for whom writing comes more easily may rest their hands fairly heavily on the paper, but their forearms and shoulders move as they write. Their writing has a cadence that shows they’re using at least some of the right muscle groups. They don’t draw the letters with their fingers; the fingers serve more as guides.
This exercise may help you determine which category is yours: Sit down and write a paragraph. Doesn’t matter what. Pay attention to the muscles you use to form your letters. Do you draw each letter with your fingers? Pick your hand up repeatedly to move it? Have an unrecognizable scrawl? Does your forearm move? Chances are, if you learned to write after 1955-60 (depending on where you went to grade school), you write with your fingers.
My goal isn’t to make you into a model Palmer-method writer or a 14th Century scribe. If you can compromise between the "right" methods and the way you write now and improve your handwriting so you’re happier with it, then I’m happy, too.
A few people hold the pen between first and middle fingers, which feels really awkward to me, but I’ve seen it work.
It will take time to re-train muscles and learn new habits. Finger-writing isn’t fatal, but it is slow and often painful (if you have to write much). The first thing you must have (beg, buy, borrow or steal it) is patience and gentleness with yourself. The second requirement is determination.
If you finger-write, that is the first, most important thing you must un-learn: Do not draw your letters! Do not write with your fingers! Put up signs everywhere to remind you. Write it in the butter, on the shaving mirror, stick notes in the cereal boxes. But learn it!
I hesitate to include this, because it sounds much more difficult than it is . . . but . . . let’s look at the most basic things: holding the pen and positioning the hand.
Fig. 1. This is the most common pen-holding position, with pen between first and middle fingers, held in place by the thumb.
Most of us hold the pen between the thumb and index finger, resting the barrel on the middle finger (fig. 1). This works better than holding it between the thumb and the index and middle fingers, with the whole assembly resting on the ring finger (fig. 2). If you do it the first way, you’re off to a good start. If the second, you’ll be okay. In both, the remaining fingers are curled under the hand.
Fig. 2. The two-fingers-on-top method for holding the pen while writing.
Pick up your pen and look at your hand. You’ll have better control and a better writing angle if your pen rests over or just forward of the bottom knuckle on your index finger, not between thumb and index finger (see fig. 3). (I hold my fountain pens in the latter position, but when I pick up a calligraphy pen, it drops obediently right over that big knuckle--go figure!)
Fig. 3. Note that with this position, usually used for calligraphy (or among really disciplined writers), causes the pen to rest atop the knuckle of the forefinger.
For handwriting, the pen position is less important than for calligraphy. I recommend working in your familiar position unless it’s really bad. What’s essential is that you be comfortable, the pen feel balanced and you have no tension in your hand. Rest the heel of your hand and the angle of your curled-up little finger on the paper.
Hold the pen lightly; don’t squeeze it. Pretend the barrel is soft rubber and squeezing will get you a big, fat blot. (If you were using a quill, you’d hold it so lightly that the actual act of drawing the quill along the paper would create the proper contact.)
Many books recommend you write with your table at a 45-degree angle, but that’s impractical for most of us. If you can prop up a board or write with one on your lap, that’s a good place to start, but a flat surface is fine. Once you try an angled surface, you’re likely not to want to quit, so be careful-- here goes a whole new budget’s worth of art supplies!
Sit up straight, but not stiffly; don’t sit hunched over or slumped. Don’t worry too much about this position stuff; the important thing is what makes you feel relaxed and comfortable. Your writing arm needs to be free to move, so squished into the La-Z-Boy probably won’t be productive.
Hold your fingers fairly straight and write slightly above and just between your thumb and index finger, right where you’re holding the pen. Don’t curl your hand over and write to the left of your palm; that’s a crampy, miserable position. More lefties do this than righties.
Commonly called the "hook" position, this is often seen in left-handers. It makes it harder, but not impossible, for them to use a fountain pen, because their hands tend to drag over the wet ink.
When you’re practicing and you reach the level on the paper at which it becomes uncomfortable to continue to move your hand down the paper to write, move the paper up. Once you recognize your "writing level," the paper should move up at that spot rather than your hand moving down the paper. (This isn’t critical. If you notice it and it bothers you, that’s what you do about it. If it doesn’t bother you, skip it.)
I’ve found only one reference to using the right muscle groups to write, and this is critical. I can’t be the only person who knows this; I’m neither that smart nor that good. Calligraphy instruction books address hand position, desk position, lighting, paper, you name it--but for some reason, not using the right muscles.
As you’ve probably surmised, the "right muscles" are not those in the fingers. You must use the shoulder-girdle and forearm muscles. This muscle group is capable of much more intricate action than you think and tires much less easily than fingers, besides giving a smooth, clean, sweeping look to the finished writing. Though it seems paradoxical, since we’re accustomed to thinking of small muscles having better control, the shoulder-girdle group, once trained, does the job better.
To get a feel for the proper muscles (and start training them correctly), hold your arm out in front of you, elbow bent, and write in the air. Write big. Use your arm and shoulder to shape letters; hold your forearm, wrist and fingers stationary and in writing position. You’ll feel your shoulder, arm, chest and some back muscles doing most of the work. That’s good. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Try to duplicate it each time you practice.
People always look puzzled when I mention the shoulder girdle. If you raise your hand in the air and make large circles, note the muscles you use in doing so (here, shown in darker pink). That’s the shoulder girdle.
Write in the air until it becomes as natural as breathing. It’ll be awkward and feel silly at first. If you have a little kid around, get him/her to do it with you. You’ll both have fun, you won’t feel so alone, and it’ll be good for the child’s handwriting, too. If you don’t have a kid, tell your co-workers you’re improving your financial karma or hexing your boss.
As you become comfortable, reduce the size of the air-letters you make. If you have access to a chalkboard or a stick and a fence (or even a finger and a wall), write on them. They’ll give you a feel for the muscles you need to use and writing on a vertical surface makes it virtually impossible to finger-write. (If you’re one of the people who can’t write on a blackboard because you keep wanting to shrink the writing down so your fingers can do it, this is really important for you.) If you keep wanting to hunch up close and put your hand on the chalkboard or wall to write, resist the urge! You’ll be indulging those dratted fingers.
Remember: Your fingers should move very little and your wrist even less. Your forearm does most of the guiding, while your shoulder provides the power.
At some point, you’ll want to try this with a pen. Hold it gently. Place it on the paper in an ordinary lined spiral notebook (the lines act as ready-made guidelines for size and spacing). If you can get hold of a first-grader’s Big Chief tablet, which offers big lines with a dotted line between two bold lines, use it. There’s a reason children start out writing big and the letters get smaller as they get older and more skilled—-that’s the easiest way to learn.
Start making Xs and ///s and \\\s and OOOOs and overlapped OOOs and spirals and |||||s. Do not draw these strokes and figures! Use the same shoulder-forearm muscles you’ve been practicing with. Make your lines, loops, circles and spirals freely. Work into a rhythm and make it a habit.
When you start making slashes and circles, they’ll be uneven. With practice, they’ll become more uniform, and uniformity is your objective.
Your goal is smooth, uniform, evenly spaced lines, loops, circles and spirals, without drawing them.
This is where you’re most likely to get discouraged. If you use a spiral notebook for practice, you can leaf back and see your progress. At first, your strokes and lines will be bad—over-running and under-running the lines, too small, too big, crooked, uneven, just ugly. Check your position; check your muscle groups; and try again. And again.
Concentrate on keeping wrist-hand-fingers largely stationary and in proper alignment. Let the big muscles do the work. It will be more tiring at first, because you’re using muscles that aren’t accustomed to that kind of work. It’ll be hard and frustrating, ’cause your body will want to do it the way it’s done it since first grade… even though that way is wrong. It may help to concentrate less on the accuracy of the shapes you’re making than on the muscles making them. Retraining your arm is the goal, not making pretty little circles and lines first time out.
Uniformity and consistency are your aim in all the exercises, whether loopy or slashy. Though it seems uncomfortable, these exercises will make a huge difference in your control and smoothness.
When you start putting the strokes and lines on paper, start out big. Three, four, even more lines in your notebook. (Big Chiefs are handy for this.) This helps ensure that you continue to use the shoulder girdle. Don’t try to make pretty letters at this stage. Do the exercises as much as you can—-shoot for every day. Ten or fifteen minutes a day should show results in a few weeks for most people. And note that both air-writing and paper exercises can be doodledduring meetings and while on holdwaiting for somebody!
Concentrate on that shoulder girdle. Let it do the work. Write big. Write words and sentences at the same time you’re doing strokes and exercises. You need both working together to succeed.
Gradually, as your control increases, make your strokes and letters smaller until they’re the size you normally write. You’ll know when you get there. By this time, you probably won’t have to make extra effort to incorporate this stuff into your writing; it’ll be automatic. And your writing should look much better (and be easier and feel better, to boot).
Please click here for more details.
Ref: http://paperpenalia.com
You’ve decided you want to improve your handwriting and you’re probably hoping a fountain pen will do the trick -- maybe a friend told you it would. Maybe you’re just adventurous and you want to try your hand at calligraphy (or you might, once your handwriting improves). Good for you!
A fountain pen may make your writing look a bit better, but if your writing looks as if frenzied chickens got loose on the page, chances are this won’t be enough. Most likely, you’ll need to retrain your arm and hand.
After coaching handwriting and teaching calligraphy over the years, I’ve learned to see the characteristics of those who’ll be able to pick up the necessary motions quickly from those who’ll have to work a bit harder.
Crampy, uneven letters are often the result of drawing the letters with the fingers rather than using the whole arm to write.
People who inevitably have trouble with handwriting and calligraphy write with their fingers. They "draw" the letters. A finger-writer puts the full weight of his/her hand on the paper, his fingers form the letters, and he picks his hand up repeatedly to move it across the paper as he writes.
If you use the right muscle groups, your writing will have a smooth, easy flow and not look tortured.
People for whom writing comes more easily may rest their hands fairly heavily on the paper, but their forearms and shoulders move as they write. Their writing has a cadence that shows they’re using at least some of the right muscle groups. They don’t draw the letters with their fingers; the fingers serve more as guides.
This exercise may help you determine which category is yours: Sit down and write a paragraph. Doesn’t matter what. Pay attention to the muscles you use to form your letters. Do you draw each letter with your fingers? Pick your hand up repeatedly to move it? Have an unrecognizable scrawl? Does your forearm move? Chances are, if you learned to write after 1955-60 (depending on where you went to grade school), you write with your fingers.
My goal isn’t to make you into a model Palmer-method writer or a 14th Century scribe. If you can compromise between the "right" methods and the way you write now and improve your handwriting so you’re happier with it, then I’m happy, too.
A few people hold the pen between first and middle fingers, which feels really awkward to me, but I’ve seen it work.
It will take time to re-train muscles and learn new habits. Finger-writing isn’t fatal, but it is slow and often painful (if you have to write much). The first thing you must have (beg, buy, borrow or steal it) is patience and gentleness with yourself. The second requirement is determination.
If you finger-write, that is the first, most important thing you must un-learn: Do not draw your letters! Do not write with your fingers! Put up signs everywhere to remind you. Write it in the butter, on the shaving mirror, stick notes in the cereal boxes. But learn it!
I hesitate to include this, because it sounds much more difficult than it is . . . but . . . let’s look at the most basic things: holding the pen and positioning the hand.
Fig. 1. This is the most common pen-holding position, with pen between first and middle fingers, held in place by the thumb.
Most of us hold the pen between the thumb and index finger, resting the barrel on the middle finger (fig. 1). This works better than holding it between the thumb and the index and middle fingers, with the whole assembly resting on the ring finger (fig. 2). If you do it the first way, you’re off to a good start. If the second, you’ll be okay. In both, the remaining fingers are curled under the hand.
Fig. 2. The two-fingers-on-top method for holding the pen while writing.
Pick up your pen and look at your hand. You’ll have better control and a better writing angle if your pen rests over or just forward of the bottom knuckle on your index finger, not between thumb and index finger (see fig. 3). (I hold my fountain pens in the latter position, but when I pick up a calligraphy pen, it drops obediently right over that big knuckle--go figure!)
Fig. 3. Note that with this position, usually used for calligraphy (or among really disciplined writers), causes the pen to rest atop the knuckle of the forefinger.
For handwriting, the pen position is less important than for calligraphy. I recommend working in your familiar position unless it’s really bad. What’s essential is that you be comfortable, the pen feel balanced and you have no tension in your hand. Rest the heel of your hand and the angle of your curled-up little finger on the paper.
Hold the pen lightly; don’t squeeze it. Pretend the barrel is soft rubber and squeezing will get you a big, fat blot. (If you were using a quill, you’d hold it so lightly that the actual act of drawing the quill along the paper would create the proper contact.)
Many books recommend you write with your table at a 45-degree angle, but that’s impractical for most of us. If you can prop up a board or write with one on your lap, that’s a good place to start, but a flat surface is fine. Once you try an angled surface, you’re likely not to want to quit, so be careful-- here goes a whole new budget’s worth of art supplies!
Sit up straight, but not stiffly; don’t sit hunched over or slumped. Don’t worry too much about this position stuff; the important thing is what makes you feel relaxed and comfortable. Your writing arm needs to be free to move, so squished into the La-Z-Boy probably won’t be productive.
Hold your fingers fairly straight and write slightly above and just between your thumb and index finger, right where you’re holding the pen. Don’t curl your hand over and write to the left of your palm; that’s a crampy, miserable position. More lefties do this than righties.
Commonly called the "hook" position, this is often seen in left-handers. It makes it harder, but not impossible, for them to use a fountain pen, because their hands tend to drag over the wet ink.
When you’re practicing and you reach the level on the paper at which it becomes uncomfortable to continue to move your hand down the paper to write, move the paper up. Once you recognize your "writing level," the paper should move up at that spot rather than your hand moving down the paper. (This isn’t critical. If you notice it and it bothers you, that’s what you do about it. If it doesn’t bother you, skip it.)
I’ve found only one reference to using the right muscle groups to write, and this is critical. I can’t be the only person who knows this; I’m neither that smart nor that good. Calligraphy instruction books address hand position, desk position, lighting, paper, you name it--but for some reason, not using the right muscles.
As you’ve probably surmised, the "right muscles" are not those in the fingers. You must use the shoulder-girdle and forearm muscles. This muscle group is capable of much more intricate action than you think and tires much less easily than fingers, besides giving a smooth, clean, sweeping look to the finished writing. Though it seems paradoxical, since we’re accustomed to thinking of small muscles having better control, the shoulder-girdle group, once trained, does the job better.
To get a feel for the proper muscles (and start training them correctly), hold your arm out in front of you, elbow bent, and write in the air. Write big. Use your arm and shoulder to shape letters; hold your forearm, wrist and fingers stationary and in writing position. You’ll feel your shoulder, arm, chest and some back muscles doing most of the work. That’s good. That’s what they’re supposed to do. Try to duplicate it each time you practice.
People always look puzzled when I mention the shoulder girdle. If you raise your hand in the air and make large circles, note the muscles you use in doing so (here, shown in darker pink). That’s the shoulder girdle.
Write in the air until it becomes as natural as breathing. It’ll be awkward and feel silly at first. If you have a little kid around, get him/her to do it with you. You’ll both have fun, you won’t feel so alone, and it’ll be good for the child’s handwriting, too. If you don’t have a kid, tell your co-workers you’re improving your financial karma or hexing your boss.
As you become comfortable, reduce the size of the air-letters you make. If you have access to a chalkboard or a stick and a fence (or even a finger and a wall), write on them. They’ll give you a feel for the muscles you need to use and writing on a vertical surface makes it virtually impossible to finger-write. (If you’re one of the people who can’t write on a blackboard because you keep wanting to shrink the writing down so your fingers can do it, this is really important for you.) If you keep wanting to hunch up close and put your hand on the chalkboard or wall to write, resist the urge! You’ll be indulging those dratted fingers.
Remember: Your fingers should move very little and your wrist even less. Your forearm does most of the guiding, while your shoulder provides the power.
At some point, you’ll want to try this with a pen. Hold it gently. Place it on the paper in an ordinary lined spiral notebook (the lines act as ready-made guidelines for size and spacing). If you can get hold of a first-grader’s Big Chief tablet, which offers big lines with a dotted line between two bold lines, use it. There’s a reason children start out writing big and the letters get smaller as they get older and more skilled—-that’s the easiest way to learn.
Start making Xs and ///s and \\\s and OOOOs and overlapped OOOs and spirals and |||||s. Do not draw these strokes and figures! Use the same shoulder-forearm muscles you’ve been practicing with. Make your lines, loops, circles and spirals freely. Work into a rhythm and make it a habit.
When you start making slashes and circles, they’ll be uneven. With practice, they’ll become more uniform, and uniformity is your objective.
Your goal is smooth, uniform, evenly spaced lines, loops, circles and spirals, without drawing them.
This is where you’re most likely to get discouraged. If you use a spiral notebook for practice, you can leaf back and see your progress. At first, your strokes and lines will be bad—over-running and under-running the lines, too small, too big, crooked, uneven, just ugly. Check your position; check your muscle groups; and try again. And again.
Concentrate on keeping wrist-hand-fingers largely stationary and in proper alignment. Let the big muscles do the work. It will be more tiring at first, because you’re using muscles that aren’t accustomed to that kind of work. It’ll be hard and frustrating, ’cause your body will want to do it the way it’s done it since first grade… even though that way is wrong. It may help to concentrate less on the accuracy of the shapes you’re making than on the muscles making them. Retraining your arm is the goal, not making pretty little circles and lines first time out.
Uniformity and consistency are your aim in all the exercises, whether loopy or slashy. Though it seems uncomfortable, these exercises will make a huge difference in your control and smoothness.
When you start putting the strokes and lines on paper, start out big. Three, four, even more lines in your notebook. (Big Chiefs are handy for this.) This helps ensure that you continue to use the shoulder girdle. Don’t try to make pretty letters at this stage. Do the exercises as much as you can—-shoot for every day. Ten or fifteen minutes a day should show results in a few weeks for most people. And note that both air-writing and paper exercises can be doodledduring meetings and while on holdwaiting for somebody!
Concentrate on that shoulder girdle. Let it do the work. Write big. Write words and sentences at the same time you’re doing strokes and exercises. You need both working together to succeed.
Gradually, as your control increases, make your strokes and letters smaller until they’re the size you normally write. You’ll know when you get there. By this time, you probably won’t have to make extra effort to incorporate this stuff into your writing; it’ll be automatic. And your writing should look much better (and be easier and feel better, to boot).
Please click here for more details.
Healthy Juices
Juice Recipes
Ref: http://www.justcleansing.com
Juice fasting is a great way to restore your system to health and to lose weight at the same time.
Often your body tells you it is hungry when you really just need to drink some water, so drink one of these juices every time you feel hungry. This way you're staying healthy and not engaging in unnecessary binge eating.
I just list the ingredients below - all you need to do is throw them in the blender and add some water! Feel free to change the ingredients, the most important thing is to find recipes that suit you and that you are comfortable drinking.
Vegetable Super Juice
Ingredients:
1 whole cucumber
4 sticks of celery
2-4 handfuls of spinach
8 lettuce leaves
Optional boosters: parsley and fresh alfalfa sprouts
Water
Healing Juice
Ingredients:
3-4 Carrots
125g Fresh Spinach
Handful of Flat Leaf Parsley
2-3 Sticks of Celery
Water
Blood Builder (Iron-enriched)
Ingredients:
2 bunches Grapes
6 Oranges
8 Lemons peeled
1/4 cup Honey
Water
Ginger/Lemon Cleanse
Ingredients:
1-inch slice Fresh Ginger Root
1 Fresh Lemon
6 Carrots with tops
Apple
Water
Stomach Cleanser
Ingredients:
1 bunch Grapes
1 basket Strawberries
3 Apples
4 sprigs Fresh Mint
Water
Constipation Cure
Ingredients:
1 firm Papaya
1/4-inch slice Ginger Root
1 Pear
Water
Skin Cleanse
Ingredients:
1 Cucumber with skin
1/2 bunch Fresh Parsley
1 4-oz. tub Alfalfa Sprouts
4 Sprigs Fresh Mint
Water
Please visit http://www.justcleansing.com for more details.
Ref: http://www.justcleansing.com
Juice fasting is a great way to restore your system to health and to lose weight at the same time.
Often your body tells you it is hungry when you really just need to drink some water, so drink one of these juices every time you feel hungry. This way you're staying healthy and not engaging in unnecessary binge eating.
I just list the ingredients below - all you need to do is throw them in the blender and add some water! Feel free to change the ingredients, the most important thing is to find recipes that suit you and that you are comfortable drinking.
Vegetable Super Juice
Ingredients:
1 whole cucumber
4 sticks of celery
2-4 handfuls of spinach
8 lettuce leaves
Optional boosters: parsley and fresh alfalfa sprouts
Water
Healing Juice
Ingredients:
3-4 Carrots
125g Fresh Spinach
Handful of Flat Leaf Parsley
2-3 Sticks of Celery
Water
Blood Builder (Iron-enriched)
Ingredients:
2 bunches Grapes
6 Oranges
8 Lemons peeled
1/4 cup Honey
Water
Ginger/Lemon Cleanse
Ingredients:
1-inch slice Fresh Ginger Root
1 Fresh Lemon
6 Carrots with tops
Apple
Water
Stomach Cleanser
Ingredients:
1 bunch Grapes
1 basket Strawberries
3 Apples
4 sprigs Fresh Mint
Water
Constipation Cure
Ingredients:
1 firm Papaya
1/4-inch slice Ginger Root
1 Pear
Water
Skin Cleanse
Ingredients:
1 Cucumber with skin
1/2 bunch Fresh Parsley
1 4-oz. tub Alfalfa Sprouts
4 Sprigs Fresh Mint
Water
Please visit http://www.justcleansing.com for more details.
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