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It’s a little late, but here is some of what caught my attention during the week:

#6 Fractals

I made this quick little applet that allows you to explore the Mandelbrot Set, a famous fractal with a simple formula (Z –> Z^2 + C). I could explain how fractals work, but I’m sure you’ve figured out how to use Wikipedia and Google by now. Directions for using this applet are provided below.

Your browser is completely ignoring the tag!

Use your mouse wheel button to zoom in and out wherever your mouse cursor is located. Click and drag the image to pan around. Click the color palettes on the right any time for a different view.

This is not the kind of post where I talk about the cool things I did, learned, saw, or otherwise experienced during the past week. Instead this time I offer something that I’ve been looking forward to for several days:

#5 Cure for the Common Cold

We’ve all heard the saying, “There’s no cure for the common cold.” Well, that’s not true. All you have to do to is cough, sneeze, hack, wheeze, sleep, eat, hydrate, and wait until the cold runs its course. Not the most pleasant solution, but at least it works. Unfortunately for me, that’s the exact remedy I’ve been using this week. In fact, I’m still coughing and blowing my know every 2 minutes, but at least I feel good enough to type today…just not for too much longer.

Before I stop typing all together, I’ll make some sort of grand promise that next week will bring an exciting post. No, really, it will. Fine! You don’t believe me, just wait and see!

Jerk!

I didn’t mean that. It’s the cold talking. Will you still be my friend? OK, good. Time to sign off then. See you next week (maybe sooner).

Multiple posts in the same week, I must be really excited about something!

#4 Qubits

Cubits are an ancient unit of measure equal to the length of an average forearm (an imprecise 20 inch approximation). I am not excited about cubits. I am excited about qubits.

Now, if you are already a quantum mechanic well-versed in Dirac Bra-Ket notation, then everything I’m about to say will bore you. You’d be better served going to read one of my favorite webcomics like xkcd or Something Positive. On the other hand, if you have no idea how computers, math, or the chaotic nature of the universe work, then everything I’m about to say will bore you too. That’s OK. You can go read the webcomics if you like, but I think that you should at least be aware that I’m excited about qubits this week.

I still haven’t told you what a qubit is. Well, a qubit is the smallest unit of information used in quantum computing. So the same way that a computer uses a bit (1 or 0, true or false) to store and process information, a quantum computer uses qubits. However, unlike bits, qubits can store exponentially more information due to a phenomenon called quantum entanglement. I’m not going to try and explain what that is (google it, or something!) or how qubits are used when actually perform calculations. Instead, I’m just going to say that I think there is a lot of promise for quantum computing in the future and I’d like to become more involved in that field.

Last week I promised to post something exciting on a weekly basis.  Well, this week I remembered to actually post something.  Choosing a topic for this installment was easy, but finding good examples can be hard.

#3: Super Bowl Commercials

I just got finished watching the Super Bowl (The Colts beat the Bears 29-17), which I only watch for the commercials.  Here is a quick run-down of what I thought were the best (and by that I mean funniest) commercials this year:

1. Nationwide Insurance - Kevin Federline: You just know it’s going to be good when an ad is built around one of the biggest non-celebrities who has well overplayed his 15 minutes of fame.  This advert begins as an excerpt from a K-Fed music video.  The audience sees that the video is being viewed on a surveilance monitor for a fast food register.  The manager of the restaurant is watching the monitor, turns toward the frialator, and sees Kevin (decked out in paper hat and striped uniform) lip-synching into the security camera.  Nationwide’s slogan, “Life comes at you fast,” appears on the screen, suggesting that Kevin’s career as a rapper was just flash-in-the-pan and that he should have planned better for the future.  I fail to see how Nationwide could have done anything to help the former Mr. Spears, but ut was entertaining nonetheless.
2. Bud Light - Hitchhikers: A couple are driving along a deserted country road and see a hitchiker carrying a case of Bud Light and an axe.  The man sees the Bud an wants to give the guy a lift, but his lady friend sees the axe and protests, “But he’s got an axe!”  The man reassures her that there must be a good reason, so he asks the transient for an explanation.  His response: “It’s a bottle opener.”  After a brief message from the sponsor that Bud Light is “always worth it,” we see another hitchhiker, this one with a case of Bud Light and a chainsaw.  The guy driving the car again wants to offer the stranger a ride, to which the first hitchhiker now protests, “But he’s got a chainsaw!”  An unxpected ending that gave me a good chuckle.  Defintely worthy of this spot in the countdown.
3. Budweiser - Rock, Paper, Scissors: More beer! (which I don’t even drink.) In this ad, two guys reach for the last beer in a cooler at the same time.  Neither wishes to relinquish his hold on the bottle until they agree to Rock, Paper, Scissors to determine rightful ownership.  The guy on the left throws paper while the guy on the right throws a rock, literally.  Left guy falls to the ground and right guy took the beer, despite the semi-conscious protest from left guy that paper should’ve won.
4. Garmin - Maposaurus: Maybe I’m the only person who enjoyed this commercial, but I just thought it was great to see a foldable map transform into a Godzilla-type creature.  Then, seeing the driver whip out his Garmin and transform into a robot (Spoof of what?  Comment, please!) to battle Maposaurus was brilliant.  All the while, a made up theme song which sings the praise of GPS navigation playes in the background.  I loved it!  The only reason this commercial isn’t higher on the countdown is because it was too niche and campy for widespread appeal.

Garnering honorable mentions this year (in my totally non-binding approach to commercial review) was a Taco Bell commercial featuring talking lions and a series of ads by CarrerBuilder.com where working in an office is compared to some sort of tribal wilderness survival exercise.  In all I found that about half of the commercials trying to be funny were moderately successful, but none really made my sides split.  Better luck next year advertisers.

After 4.5 months of operation, my blog has only 8 posts (this is the 9th). Who’s fault is that? Mine! Well, I came up with a plan to get some more activity. Once a week (lets say Sunday, or so) I’m going to post what I’m excited about that week. I came up with this idea earlier, but haven’t motivated myself until now. So, without further ado, here are the first two installments:

#1: Metalocalypse

Metalocalypse is a flash-animated show currently on Cartoon Network as part of their [adult swim] line up. It follows the adventures of the fictional death metal band known as Dethklok, the most successful and brutal musicians ever to exist. I admit that there are a lot of references from the genre that I didn’t get until reading about them online, but even if they go over your head you’ll still find the show brilliant and hilarious (with a properly twisted sense of humor). If you don’t want to stay up until 12:15am, you can watch selected episodes on the fix or wander over to LordSkatan’s YouTube page for all episodes uploaded in 2 parts at a reasonable quality.

#2 elfa

Switching gears from death metal cartoons to closet organization systems may seem a bit unusual to you, but that’s too bad. If I actually remember to keep up this weekly posting scheme (and anyone reads them) they’ll be covering all sorts of random topics. Anyway, the reason I’m excited about elfa is because I’m really trying to make an effort to organize my life and all the material things in it. My basement is already a forest of stacked blue rubbermaid bins storing everything I’ve ever owned. The next step is to use the modular closet system from The Container Store to control all the shirts, shoes, pants, coats, boxes, bags, and general cruft crammed behind the sliding doors in the bedrooms. The feature that I like most about the elfa system is that it is rail-based, meaning that once you attach one piece of C-shaped metal to the top of the wall, the remaining assembly is just sliding and snapping. There are no other screws or supports to adjust. If you decide that you want to change the entire layout of the wall, you can just unhook the modular shelving, slide the vertical supports along the rail, and reconfigure with ease.

OK…that’s enough blogvertising for now. I’ll see if I can’t get excited about something less commercial next week.