A Search Engine Better Than Google? Maybe. WolframAlpha

So My MacBook Pro recently failed to wake up from sleep. I held the power on button for about 15 seconds, then let go. Nothing happened. I pressed the on button again and it booted right up again.

Next I see this:

Interested, I click Report to see what anonymous statistics it collected.

In addition to a ton of other stuff, it says:

System Uptime: 53599109180380 nanoseconds

Hmmm, I wonder… How long is that?

This is a perfect example of what Wolfram Alpha is perfect for.

Sure, you enter the search term like…

53599109180380 nanoseconds in hours

…into Google, to take advantage of a hidden feature called Google Calculator.

As exciting as it may seem to use Google for a calculator, wait until you check out Wolfram Alpha, a knowledge engine that uses natural language search to give you a wealth of information about your search term.

Here’s what you get when you search for 53599109180380 nanoseconds on WolframAlpha.com.

…plus a whole lot more interesting things, too, like the distance light can travel during that time.

If that doesn’t get you going, check out this Wolfram Alpha overview screencast.

Thanks to Alan for sharing this great link!

Funny T-Shirt of the Day - American Infidel

Just like an American Idol T-Shirt, only much, much, better.

New Funny T-Shirt of the Day - The Censored Swearword Tee

Get your Censored Swearword T-Shirt Here
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The Official Emoticon Database T-Shirt

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funny tee shirt of the day - No Bull****

Warning… this zone is 100% guaranteed
Bovine Excrement Free.

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How to Avoid Identity Theft and Protect Your Credit Free

ATTORNEY’S ADVICE - NO CHARGE

Not A Joke!!   Even If you dislike attorneys… You will love them for these tips.

Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company:

1. Do not sign  the back of your credit cards. Instead, put ‘PHOTO ID REQUIRED.’

2. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts,  DO  NOT put the complete  account number on the ‘For’ line. Instead, just put the  last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won’t have access to it.

3. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a PO Box use that instead of your home address. If you do no t have a PO Box, use your work address.Never  have your  SS# printed on your checks. (DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have It printed, anyone can get it.

4. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc.. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel.. Keep the photocopy in a safe place.

I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We’ve all heard horror stories about fraud that’s committed on us in stealing a Name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.

Unfortunately, I, an attorney, have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen last month. Within a week, the thieves ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.

But here’s some critical information to limit the damage  in case this happens to you or someone you know:

5. We have been told we should  cancel our  credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. Keep those where you can find them.

6.  File a  police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

But here’s what is perhaps  most important of all: (I never even thought to do this.)

7. Call  the  3 national credit reporting organizations  immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and also call the Social Security fraud line number.. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name.

The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit..

By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves’ purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has be en done, and the thieves threw my wallet away this weekend (someone turned it in).. It seems to have stopped them dead in their tracks..

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, if it has been stolen:

1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285

2.) Experian (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742

3.) Trans Union : 1-800-680 7289

4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line):  1-800-269-0271

We pass along jokes on the Internet; we pass along just about everything.

If you are willing to pass this information along, it could really help someone that you care about.

Famous Pairs (how to name two dogs)

With a little help from Factacular, We compiled this list of famous pairs, in preparation of the potential arrival of two pugs we might be getting tomorrow.

Abbott and Costello
Ben and Jerry
Cheech and Chong
Bill and Ted
Black and Decker
Ernie and Bert
Gilbert and Sullivan
Hall and Oates
Lenny and Squiggy
Lewis and Clark
Mario and Luigi
Ren and Stimpy
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Romulus and Remus
Siegfried and Roy
Siskel and Ebert
Starsky and Hutch
Tom and Jerry
Simon and Garfunkel
Wallace and Gromit
__________________________
Edit December 29, 2009
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, we ended up with a boy and girl, brother sister from the same litter of 8 pups. We decided to name them Daisy and Duke.

Boundaries for Open Source Software

This is the best and most succinct guideline for participating in open-source software I’ve ever read.

http://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/IsIsnt

How to convert fonts from .pfb to .ttf on Mac OSX

http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.html

PHP from the command line

I was just reading about how to write PHP scripts specifically for the command line.

points of interest:

• php -r ‘print_r(get_defined_constants());’
• #!/usr/bin/php
  <?php
  var_dump($argv);
  ?>
• http://php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.php