Weird Al’s lyrics for “White and Nerdy” touches upon so many geeky characteristics, it’s uncanny. So I’ve created the White and Nerdy quiz so that you can see how you measure up. [ ] Went to MIT [ ] Played Dungeons and Dragons [ ] Likes Escher [ ] Drinks tea [ ] Does not …
Author Archives: Jimmy Lin
Bizarre misuse of languages
You may have heard of Engrish.com, which showcases the bizarre ways English is often used to “look cool” in Japan and China. Well, two can play that game: Tian Tang was inspired by Engrish to set up Hanzi Smatter, which is dedicated to the bizarre ways Chinese characters are used to look cool in Western …
More music fun
When I was in elementary and middle school, I listened to mostly adult contemporary songs (i.e., “soft rock”), mostly because I didn’t know any better. So watching the infomercial for Time-Life’s Classic Soft Rock collection was particularly trippy, because they showed that these songs were sung by real people! With bad hair and funny clothes! …
The (not-so-latest) hits
Every once in a while, I’ll hear a song that catches my attention, and then I can’t resist going online to do some research. Like when I first heard Beyoncé’s “Crazy in Love” and then finding out a few weeks later it was built around a sample of the 1971 hit “Are You My Woman?“ …
Thoughts on Flickr
A few observations about my experience with Flickr: Ever since I’ve been uploading my photos to Flickr in June, I’ve blogged a lot less often. I guess I can only devote so much attention to any online activity. Out of the 21 people who list me as a contact, I don’t know 1/3 of them. …
A relaxing weekend… sort of
This is the first weekend in over a month I’ve stayed at home. Last month, Matt and Laurel visited over two weekends. The week after was Ben and Judy’s wedding over Labor Day. Three days later, I flew to New York for Sebastian and Carine’s wedding. Then a week after that, I flew to Boston …
Walking while working
Soon after I started working, I noticed I was even less physically active than as a computer science grad student (which is saying something), and I’ve dreamt of putting a treadmill in my office and walking while I worked. Not surprisingly, I’m not the only one with this brilliant idea: Dr. James Levine at the …
IBM Software product names getting spiffier
I’ve blogged previously about IBM software getting snappier names (e.g., Sametime->”Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing”->Sametime). Looks like this philosophy is slowly spreading. For example, take a look at this name evolution: Workplace Client Technology Micro Edition, Enterprise Offering Workplace Managed Client for WebSphere WebSphere Everyplace Deployment for Windows and Linux Lotus Expeditor It also shows …
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Limited attention span
I’ve realized that I’ve been blogging a lot less ever since I started posting my photos on Flickr. Seems like I can do only so much “content creation” before maxing out.
A new watch
I’ve decided that at age 30, a Casio Databank calculator watch just doesn’t look very, uh, classy in certain situations. Plus, now that I have a cell phone, one of my original reasons for having a Databank, to store phone numbers, isn’t as useful as it used to be. So I bought an analog watch …