Ubuntu

We installed Ubuntu on our home computer yesterday. The one we're using is Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04), which we got for free.
I've installed older versions of Ubuntu before, on other machines, but this experience was very different. Everything was just so smooth. Also, this time i didn't really have to configure Ubuntu to connect to the net, since we've set up a router at home.
So once you've booted from the CD, its like fifteen minutes to having Ubuntu on your computer. And then things get better. Firefox 3 is preloaded, so i just connect the LAN cable and the i'm on the interweb.
But the best thing about the whole experience was with the Synaptic Package Manager, which is a util for managing all the apps you have installed on the machine. It has this huge list of applications/drivers/addons you would want. you just select all the one's you want to install and say apply. For example, i selected emacs, vlc and Gnome Do and said apply. It automatically selected other things from the list which i would need to run these apps. Then i say apply and whoa, 10 minutes later, these components are donloaded and installed on my machine. Not a SINGLE dialog box after saying apply.
Everyone chould try Ubuntu out once. I'm hooked.

Sounds Like a Plan

Ed Boyden writes about how to think.
In fact, i'd read this a few months back. But since i didn't synthesize the idea actively, i didn't recall it immediately. And so i read over the article again and it sounds like a plan to me :).

I had a very interesting idea today. One of these days, i wanna sort out whatever is to be sorted and go on a long journey, alone, for a month or more. I want to photograph, i want to write and i want to experience. I was thinking Tawang would be a great place to go. Or maybe Leh.

Lets see what happens.

On Memory

I've read a coupla' books about memory techniques and such. One of them, by Tony Buzan talks about how to retain things for longer by revisiting them after certain intervals of time. Say after the first time you read something, you get back to it after a gap of 24 hours. Then after a week, a month and so on, with progressively larger gaps between visits. He claims that doing so will ensure that the material will enter our long term memory.

Today I came across someone who has made it his life's work to implementing this system. Piotr Wozniak, this guy from Poland, centers his being around maximizing his memory/retention.

Here is an article about him from Wired Magazine.

Here is a webapp called Spicy Elephant which uses the technique to help you learn stuff.

Stuff....

So i read a lot of stuff everyday. Mostly things i get from reddit/digg/gizmodo/lifehacker/whatever else. I don't really want to lose many of the things i read, and so im going to post the links right here. Preserve them for posterity as it were.

So these are the things i found interesting today.
How to hire an idiot from Building a Software Company.
This image posted to reddit with the title "Just another beautiful Sunday for church....oh wait"
An interesting article about How the rich think and the Top Ten Magazine Covers of 2007.

I've also been reading about Richard Stallman and the FSF over the last few days and it is really amazing to read about someone who has actually dedicated his life to something he considers a higher ideal. Self Actualized, i think they call such people.

I also saw this on Youtube. Richard Stallman!! is the one in the red tee. The song is soulja boy.