나는 한국어를 말하지 않는다

Meaning, of course, “I don’t speak Korean.” How could you not know that? Because you don’t have Babelizer!

The reasons for this post:

1. Arthus has recently gone through a phase of “Mind Map Madness” in which he tested some mind-mapping programs (think Inspiration).
2. I have been learning (at HCS, wow!) Spanish for at least 3 years now, and have become very interested in other languages. Of course before you learn any language you want to know how to say one thing: “I do not speak [insert language]” in that language. Recently, I have been trying to learn it in french, and not succeeding.

Thus, I have also narrowed my search down to two candidates, iParrot, and Babelizer. First, some background info.

Babelizer is a small (944 KB), neat (less than 400×900 pixels), and smart (translation in under 2 seconds) application. The simplicity of the program itself is the key, there are only two menu items and only two drop-down menus in the actual application. You choose to and from languages from the menus, type your text in the top field, and watch it come out below. Simple, fast, and efficient. What more could the nerd want?

iParrot, however, is unfortunately, one, not free, not accessible. Even the demo version required the very latest version of iTunes, 8 GB of space on your hard drive, and while this may not be so bad for just an installer, it also requires 60 GB of space on your iPod, and, of course, an iPod.

There are always web apps to do this, but which one has features like Babelizer? Needless to say, especially since I only have about one GB on my iPod at the moment, and tops 4 GB, I chose Babelizer.

Tan si usted desea entender esto, obtiene Babelizer.

8 Random Facts

Thanks for tagging me with a new meme, Arthus! I’ll gladly respond. Firstly, the rules, which will explain to you why I’m even listing them.

• Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
• Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
• Players should tag eight other people and notify them that they have been tagged.

Now for the actual facts:

1. I have four iPods. Technically, one of them belongs to my mother and isn’t really an iPod, and one belongs to my dad’s company and it’s really old, but I myself own a blue 4G mini and a silver 2G nano. In other words, I don’t really have a useful iPod.
2. I like being sick. This is, some would say, an unusual trait, but not so if you look at it. Going to school and learning while almost falling asleep because you are so bored versus staying home, eating popsicles and other sweet, aqueous solutions, watching many hours of TV and countless movies, and almost falling asleep because you are so tired. Which one do you think wins? This comes with a long list of unusual physical traits, one other related one being that I love being tired. You know how you read in fiction many times that a character is too tired to go on? I have never experienced this until I was sick recently, and tried to get off the couch and go upstairs. I couldn’t do it because I was so tired, my muscles were literally not in my control. It was pretty cool to me (and you thought you were weird).
3. I have never read the LOTR series (thought I’ve seen the movies), 1984, Big Wide World (or whatever you said it was, Arthus), Fahrenheit 451, and many other books that Arthus considers good literature, and I consider crap, mainly because he says they’re classics. Correct me if I’m wrong, but books that are supposedly oldies-but-goodies and are a staple of high school education are pretty boring, especially to people at my age. I’ll try them anyway, though.
4. Just like Arthus, “I live in a small, rural town nestled in the foothills of the Green Mountains. My previous school has about 400 students and the one I will be attending has about 1,400 students.” Sorry, had to include that.
5. My computer usage is timed; I’m not even supposed to be writing this. Though I suppose writing is a bit different than gaming, I only get and hour and a half a day. However, as we all know the practice of parental figures limiting something only succeeds in raising an addict, therefor I savor all the time I can get and some that I can’t (or at least am not supposed to). I have gotten in trouble at school many a time for gaming and will many a time in the future, and am proud of it.
6. I am currently running a mass produced eMac with a (*pauses to click “About This Mac”*) 800 MHz PPC processor and 1 GB of ram. Yes, yes, pity me. Do it now! However, I’m not as rich as Arthus, so I plan to get a nice new Macbook at the end of high school.
7. I carry an ongoing belief that one IS prime. I will not believe otherwise (my math grades in certain units are very fine examples of this) until someone gives me one good reason why. If you want to try your hand keyboard at it, go ahead.
8. I am stubborn to a fault. I nearly killed myself one fine summer morning in preschool when I insisted on eating a berry (which was conveniently placed in the playground of a preschool… someone is pretty smart over there) which I thought was a blueberry and my mother later found out was poisonous. I got a good reprimanding and a bad stomachache, even after she made me spit it out.

I don’t know any bloggers, so I’ll have to talk to Arthus about reading some good blogs and getting acquainted. Instead, why don’t you comment if you read this? Then I’ll know who you are, and will gladly tag you.

Summertime has come!

This will only be a short post because I am doing many things in the summer, including being bored, reading, being bored, biking, swimming, being bored, reading some more, using the computer, being lazy, being bored, and sleeping. With the occasional burst of eating every now and then.

Other than that, well, it’s pretty much obvious that school is now out, therefor summer has started in the minds of most non-insane people, however, the calendar says that summer starts June 21st, or something like that… So, even with legal technicalities, summer has started.

Have a good one!

Mac Ad Spoofs

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Thus…

Three political ones which aren’t so good:

And one okay one. The sound is pretty crappy but whatever… Note: most information provided by this guy is COMPLETELY false. In fact, I’m wondering if anything he says is true (besides the all-mighty task bar up top).

And many more.

Any harm caused by laughter from the showing of these spoofs is totally justified.

Quizlet

What do you do when it’s 1:37 A.M. the morning of that big Spanish test and you don’t know any of the vocabulary?

You go to Quizlet of course!

Quizlet is the online version of flash cards created by Andrew Sutherland who…

started Quizlet in October 2005. I had just received a list of 111 French Animals to memorize from my magnanimous French teacher. I was puttering along with my dad with some call-and-response type quizzing. “Man, I love doing this” was NOT what I was thinking. So I put my thinking cap on, and the first line of code for Quizlet was written that night.

There you have it. I’ve tried it; it’s pretty fun for a homework help site.

From past experiences, I know that I shouldn’t try to go too in-depth on any subject; it hurts my brain and bores the hell out of most people. But try it for yourself and you’ll see what I mean when I say that Quizlet is the future in vocab memorization.

Some links:

• Brainflare, the company Andrew started to support Quizlet.
• A press release for Quizlet/Brainflare.
• Quizlet (…)

Joost

I have several unfinished posts just waiting for me to polish them up for the public, but for now…

(slightly dampened by the fact that IT DOESN’T WORK FOR DREKKING PPCS)

I’m not going to say a word more…

This American Life

As I don’t want to stray into the vast realms that are possible when becoming a subject blogger, I don’t want to continue blogging about math. Although I might have only once. I don’t know, humor me. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you, if you don’t already know, about a little CPR program (no, not that, Chicago Public Radio) called “This American Life”.

When I was around 12, I was listening to the radio, a thing I rarely did those days. It was a Sunday night, you know those ones where all your homework is finished (adults, keep quiet) and you have nothing to do but relax and remember that school is tomorrow. Grr. So anyway, I was listening to VPR, 107.9 if you’re in the area, and happened to hear the opening lines of a show that was just coming on. I don’t even remember what the show was about, it doesn’t even really matter, but immediately I was entranced by the voice of Ira Glass, the show’s host. I happen to remember that the subject he was talking about was funny; maybe this was what drew my attention, but most likely it was his personal view on the subject. The way he talks about all the things that he does on the show and off is very compelling; it makes you want to listen, and listen I did.

For the next hour (the show goes on from 8-9 on Sundays, as I mentioned) I listened, and was amazed. Ira’s unique worldview interested me, so I listened again next Sunday. Now, I am a faithful listener, tuning in whenever I can, and subscribing to the podcast when I can’t.

I will warn you, the shows are not always funny, but usually are interesting. There are a couple which I thought were rather boring, but most of the time when you tune in next week the show will be more interesting. There are also a couple of special events every year, such as this year’s Christmas Spectacular, and they have a website from which you can download the podcast, although I highly recommend iTunes for the job.

So the next time you see a radio (at 8 o’clock on a Sunday…), switch it on. Even if it isn’t 8 o’clock on a Sunday, there should be something interesting on your public radio service.

iPhone

Let me start this post with one major statement:

I love Apple.

This is a very broad statement, but it is at least more focussed then this:

I hate Microsoft (which, by the way, is true).

These statements are tied in to the new release of the “Zune,” Microsoft’s pitiful attempt to copy Apple in making a music player, and the expected release of the iPhone, the newest product from Apple. The “Zune” is a slipshod, badly made, turd colored marketing nightmare by Microsoft. They advertise many new features, such as WiFi song sharing, but these features are only the cover for another money-making ploy. For example, song sharing is a very good thing, I was actually remotely pleased when I heard of it, but the apple has a worm in it, pun not intended. The songs you share are only listenable for up to three times, in a period of up to three days. Then they are erased and may never be listened to again, unless you buy them, which brings me to the downloading service.

The downloading service costs 15 dollars a month for unlimited downloads, and this might not be bad enough, but once you unsubscribe to the service, the songs disappear as with the song sharing. For me, this is unacceptable. I much prefer iTunes, even if I were not using an iPod. The only feature that actually works as one would expect it to is the radio, and nowadays, radio is everywhere, so this feature is nearly obsolete. I will give them credit for that, though only because they need it.

The iPhone, on the other hand, has a touch-sensitive widescreen display, can, of course, make phone calls and play music, and can also browse the web. This wide array of features is very impressive for a company still only starting in the mobile world, however, some people think that this product will be the iPod killer. Usual clients and Apple fans alike will have two choices: either buy a cheaper classical iPod that mainly plays music and on top of that displays some photos and short videos, or buy the newest and more expensive Apple gadget. What’s your choice?