Gourmet Graffiti

I had thought about this at one point in time at least. Do I really want to use Skype just because its cheap? Well although the answer seems to be yes. Who really wants to turn the computer on each time they want to make a call, or just leave it on the entire day wasting precious electricity. Well, I surely don’t.

The biggest question is whether I made the mistake of buying such a phone, if it can be called a phone. I remember insisting my parents to buy a phone which does not require the computer and can just plug up to my router, but what do they know about such a difference, they just know that its a phone and it is compatible with Skype. So, there goes 200-300 bucks down the drain for a particularly useless device. Oh, how the world is so cruel.

The Spray Can

The Spray Can

Came across a nice little trick I thought I should pass on. Very neat little trick.

You get the participant to choose a random 5 digit number, multiply by 10, subtract the original number and add 234. They will get a 6 digit number. Ask them to hide one digit and tell you the rest of the five digits. I suppose the digits given can be in any order.

If the six digits of the answer are added together, they will give a multiple of nine, so adding the rest of the five and subtracted from the next multiple of nine will give you the digit that they are hiding.

There is just one flaw, if the addition of the five digits given come to a multiple of nine then the answer can be either 0 or 9 as both added to the total of the five digits will give a multiple of nine.

eg.

52378

52378*10= 523780

523780-52378=471402

471402+234= 471636

If say 6 is hidden so add 4+7+1+3+6=21, next multiple up of nine is 27, so 27-21=6, the number hidden is thus six

Hope you like it, have fun!

The Spray Can

You know something. When a person tries to show off too much, things do get ugly. No, no, I am telling the truth, I’ve seen it happen.

When it rains, things get wet, when things get wet, they get slippery, when stuff gets slippery, unimaginable stuff happens. No kidding.

I was sitting down in the bus, thinking to myself, what I’d do when I get to school. The bus stops to pick up passengers, on comes a lovely young chap. He pays his fare (he’s the good part), he tries to walk down the passage in an extremely cool way, slips (whoa) and nearly whacks his nuts on a support bar along the passage.

He clambers to his seat while I try to hold my laughter. If only I had a camera on me, you could see exactly what I mean. Could have won some prize or something I reckon.

The Spray Can

If you walk past web cafes in most third world and developing countries it is hard to miss the fact that they would usually lack management software. They would normally manage the time manually, filtering sites is a long way away and their would be no VIP treatment for anyone let alone blocking access to other programs and services on the PCs themselves. To most, a few computers hooked up to a basic router is the equivalent of a good cafe.

Most of them can’t stop users from accessing unwanted material or manage their security in terms of virus infections an hacking. Sometimes users are getting more than what they paid for or just not the real deal at all. Many leave the PC in an extremely dilapidated state, riddled with adult content and viruses galore.

It would be nice to go into a cafe that is well managed. Using some management software I suppose you can really improve profits as well, less wastage, better customer experience, easy maintenance and less headaches.

It so hard to find good net cafes these days, people opt to use wifi hotspots a lot more. I suppose that is a lot better in all respects. Maybe the humble net cafe will slowly phase out as more and more people attain notebooks and mobile devices.

hmmm. Difficult question it is really. what really is broadband, an always on unlimited type connection. Maybe its anything 256k and above and up to 56k is narrowband. So where does that leave 128k, 144k etc. Is it mid-band?

If we take the first definition, always on, does that mean 128k Adsl or wireless is broadband and dual ISDN is not because you need to dial.FCC states somewhere that a connection over 1Mbps is broadband, less than that and above 56k is midband.

OK, another situation, we mostly consider downstream speeds, what about upstream speeds, is say 256/256 broadband or is 1024/128 broadband. Most Adsl providers give less than 256 upload speed so does that count as broadband?

My situation, 128/128k always on Wimax connection with unlimited downloads and no shaping or throttling. Is that broadband or mid-band? Although download limits don’t count but what about symmetrical speeds?

Wikepedia talks about multiple streams or pieces of info travelling at the same time. Ok, say the line is full duplex (Adsl) but say 64k or 32k speeds is that broadband?

Conclusion: I think some people need to get together and sought out this definition dilemma. So many things specify a need for broadband connections to the internet but they fail to standardise the meaning of the word, in essence people are twisting it to suit themselves which is not right. ISP might say that it is broadband but you can’t play a game on it which requires broadband: disappointed non-geeks are not a good sign of progress.

The Spray Can

It was an ordinary shopping night one would think. Except for when we checked out that is. A very fishy amount of over $300 said so. We were not as shocked since we had not done the shopping the prior weak and were down in supplies but this was exceptional still. We had never in our lives had had a bill of over $300.

Coming home and having had put the groceries in the kitchen I examined the receipt carefully; scanning the amount column carefully. I came to realize that the bill included over 3 kilos of parsley that we certainly had not bought. I made my parents aware of the situation immediately. After having spent a few moments to think, the thought of either potatoes or onions being incorrectly classified came to mind. I quickly got my brother to check the onion and potato bag for their weight. Guess what. The potato had been entered as parley@ $30 a kilo vs potato at dollar thirty, I think.

Well I hope that doesn’t happen again. We were refunded the $90 or so that was overpaid. We now check our bills thoroughly for correctness. I guess no one is perfect

The Spray Can

It has been nearly four years since I came back to Fiji. Although it is a great place, some things simply are not good here. I have not been to a commercial cinema since I have come here. Not that I remember anyway. I have not eaten at McDonalds or KFC a lot either after having seen “Super Size Me”. At most once over the last 3 years. The documentary is worth a watch. I reckon if everyone saw it, McDonalds might run out of business. The meals at any one of these places are would be utterly disgusting an unhygienic, not to mention unhealthy. It is needless to say that these places are among the most visited restuarants in Fiji especially since the local universities are located near by.

We are also now beginning to see more and more “slow food” restuarants emerging in the capital and around tourist spots. I suppose this is a good thing. They will be a worthwhile checkout.

So can anyone beat my record? (vegetarians not included)

The Spray Can