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Lunch With George!
November 8, 2001 - Fazoli's
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Agenda
- What's Shakin'?
- Da Vinci Bridge
- JavaScript
- CastAway
- Magnus Opus
- SPAMCOP.NET
- Wayback Machine
- RPS
- Fazoli's takes American Express
- Dollar
- Lottery
- Berger Cookies
- Dreamcast
- More Gravity: field propagation and moving masses
What's Shakin'?
George was lamenting the problem of people greeting you with phrases to which it is difficult to respond. Phrases like "What's shakin'?" or "How's it hangin'?" What about "Whaddya say?" or "What it is." I suggested "I'm fine, how are you?" It is indeed a problem.As an experiment, George tried the "What's shakin'" greeting on a friend of his, who replied "Nothin', man." It works, and is consistent with the tone of the original banter! Clearly, if you omitted the "man", it would not be nearly as effective.
See the whole story with photographs of the new bridge at Leonardo Bridge.
To do this, you just add a new parameter called "onLoad" to the <BODY> directive in your HTML. Here's a working example:
Leonardo Bridge
I heard a story on NPR about an effort in Norway to build a bridge using a design created by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1502. His original plans specified a span of over 240 meters (how many rugby fields is that???), which would have been the largest bridge in the world at the time. It was commissioned by Sultan Bajazet II to span the Golden Horn, an inlet at the mouth of the Bosporus Riverin what is now the modern nation of Turkey, but was never built. A Norwegian artist, Vejbørn Sand, saw the plans at an exhibit, and managed to convince the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to build it as a pedestrian bridge over a freeway.
Java Script
I was telling George that I bought a great book on JavaScript, Javascript for the World Wide Web. My only problem is that JavaScript is for me a solution still looking for a problem. It seems that Javascript is primarily intended to make web pages "cool." George did point out that it's a dandy way to get the cursor focus to appear automatically in the first text entry field of a form (just like the login page at the AmericanExpress.com site!
<BODY onLoad="document.Login.UserName.focus()">
Where "Login" is the name of your form, and "UserName" is the name of the text entry field in the form. I'm gonna try it on the Lunch With George Search page! [It works!]
Anyway, I read through the entire book, and while I found out how to do a lot of neat things, none of them could be used to enhance the functionality of my web site in any meaningful way. I guess I'm gonna have to start hosting the web site on my own server so I can take advantage of server-side Java!
Castaway
George was telling me that he finally saw Castaway with Tom Hanks. George was curious about the importance of the package he finally delivered to the lady at the ranch. Teri and I had noticed when we saw the movie that the "wing" artwork on the package was the same as that found on the package delivered in the beginning of the movie (the sculptor on that ranch was sending a package to her man in Russia). Teri noticed that when Tom Hank's character arrived at the ranch to finally deliver the package he had kept with him for years, one of two names which had been a part of the iron gate to the ranch was now missing (you may remember that when the package was delvered in Russia, the recipient was obviously fooling around with another woman... evidently she had found out while Tom was on that island and eradicated all evidence!).
As for why the package saved his life... I think he kept that one package sealed and always had every intention of delivering it to its owner. He worked for FedEx, after all, and it was his job! The package, along with the memory of his true love, kept him going.
Boy, and all that other stuff he found in the other packages that washed ashore! George was impressed that so many aparently useless items (e.g., ice skates, a frilly dress) turned out to be critical to his long-term survival on the island.
By the way, the sculptor at the ranch was played by country singer Lari White. I thought I recognized her, and then it was confirmed when she clearly was missing the little finger on one hand. This seems appropriate, since her character created art out of steel, and was probably exposed to some physical risk! I doubt that played into her casting, however.
But wait-- there's more! They have copyrighted all of these songs, and have engaged attorneys to assist them in the collection of royalties from anyone who plays their music (i.e., dials a telephone).
You can check out their website (www.magnus-opus.com), where their FAQ page describes methods for avoiding copyright violation: Using a rotary phone, a CB radio, or smoke signals.
I had an interesting experience while listening to this story in my car. Once they gave the web address, I decided to call my voicemail at work and leave myself a message so I wouldn't forget. While the phone was ringing, the reporter was dialing the number of NPR's Washington bureau to demonstrate the "song." When voicemail picked up, the computer lady said "Thank you, just a moment" instead of "Paul Wren is not available, please leave a message at the tone." I suddenly realized that the telephone tones coming out of the radio were heard by the voicemail system and interpreted as though I had entered someone's extension!
Even though the complaint is sent from a standard SPAMCOP e-mail address, any responses to your complaint are forwarded to you so you can see what the sys admins have to say.
George points out that SPAMCOP is so effective, spammers have been sending out spam which appears to be from SPAMCOP in an attempt to discredit them!
If you are tired of your inbox filling up with unwanted, unsolicited e-mails, consider looking into SPAMCOP.NET. The SPAM reporting is free, and getting your own filtered mailbox costs 50 cents per Megabyte of mail processed by SPAMCOP. Annual usage averages around $12. SPAMCOP offers some good examples of how their filtering/reporting works at this page.
I found this ot be succh a cool site! I immediately tried to remember sites which had gone away, and tried to find them. It's a lot of fun.
Playing with the Wayback Machine reminded me of the next topic...
I remembered this site had moved, and my link was dead. So I tried the Wayback Machine, and found it! Have you ever played the game Rock, Paper, Scissors? Then you are in for a treat when you visit the World RPS Society's Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide! Here you can find game basics, advanced techniques, gambits, and great opening moves. Many articles can be found, as well as the history of the game. Don't miss it!
"Hey! I'm gonna turn you in! You're not supposed to be using a Visa, you work for American Express!"
To which I replied, "I'm gonna turn YOU in... you're the one who doesn't accept the card!"
At the end of the meal, I went back to the counter to place a "to go" order for my wife. Naturally, I tried to hand her the Amex card again!
So what's the point? Well, when George and I approached the counter during this lunch, the woman at the register pointed at me and exclaimed, "Hey! It's you! We take the American Express card now! I thought I recognized you!"
I had originally planned to pay in cash (using the new golden dollar coins), but how could I resist using my Amex card?
They are difficult to come by, but they can be found! If your bank does not have them, just buy a single .34 stamp from a USPS vending machine using a twenty dollar bill, and you get 19 of the golden dollars as change!
For more infomation about this wonderful coin, visit the U.S. Mint website.
Jim wrote a small program that would detect any keystroke on his computer. When any key was pressed, it would randomly generate six numbers in the lottery ball range, and compare them against the numbers they had been "trapped" into using each week. Every time there was a match, a dialog box would pop up on his computer screen and announce "You're a Winner!" The dialog box has never appeared.
The best part is that this great 128-bit game console is selling new for just $79.99! And the extra controllers ar $14.99. Games have dropped in price, plus they're always available used at ebay or Amazon. I've got to have one! Now I just have to convince Teri that I need one... :-)
George says they're more like a big piece of fudge with a cookie stuck on the bottom. And George should know-- Berger Cookies were invented by his father's great-uncle, George Berger! They've been a tradition in George's family for generations. A story is told in his family about George's mom when whe was just a little girl. Her parents knew how much she liked the cookies, so they just left a box on the kitchen table. Everyone was in the living room, but Georges' mom kept going to the kitchen for a glass of water... and a cookie! I've yet to try one, but they must be pretty good. You can order them now for delivery to your own home!
Magnus Opus
I was telling George about another story I heard on NPR. There are two musicians in Australia who have composed a set of 7-note melodies with matching harmony lines. They are the same notes produced by a touch-tone phone. The set of songs is comprehensive-- they have used a computer to generate all possible permutations of tone pairs represented by the digit keys on a touchtone phone. Interesting, yes?
SPAMCOP.NET
George was telling me about his new e-mail address at SpamCop.net. SpamCop not only filters SPAM, only forwarding to you messages which do not fit the
customizable spam profile, but also encourages people to report Spammers!
SPAMCOP parses the mail headers of spam you receive and determine the originator. It then sends a complaint to the system administrator responsible for the spammer's internet access, requesting discipline for the abuser.
Wayback Machine
George was telling me this week about the Wayback Machine, a part of the Internet Archive which allows you to "Surf the Web as it was." George managed to find and display the original incarnation of the American Express home page as it first appeared in 1996! Sometimes not all of the graphics load properly.
RPS
Fazoli's
When I visited the Fazoli's on Thunderbird for the first time (back in April 2001), I tried to pay for my meal using my American Express card. The manager (who was operating the register) replied that she was sorry, but they only accept Mastercard and Visa. I was disappointed, but fished out my Visa card. While she was swiping my card, she noticed the Amex logo on my shirt and jumped all over me!
Golden Dollar Coin
Since I mentioned the golden dollar coin, I'm going to tell you more about it. I like the new dollar coin. In fact, I love it! Here's why:
I am spear-heading my own effort to popularize this coin. I make it a point to always have a ready supply in my pocket, and I spend them every day. I want people to stop hoarding these coins and start using them. I'm tired of dollar bills in my wallet!
Long Odds, Indeed!
Speaking of dollars, George was telling me that he and his friends bought lottery tickets every week, and got trapped using the same numbers whenever they played ("If we ever changed to other numbers and our original ones won, we'd have to shoot ourselves!"). George's friend Jim (as seen elsewhere on this site-- try the Search page!) did a (typically) geeky thing to get a feel for the actual odds of winning using their numbers.
Sega Dreamcast
I was telling George that Sega is halting production of the Dreamcast game console (they've decided to make games for the IBM-PC market). Even so, there are a lot of games out there, and even Sega has committed to continuing to release as many as 20 new games a year for the platform.
I've been interested in the Dreamcast ever since I played Crazy Taxi, a really fun game where you are a taxi driver in San Francisco. I also was very impressed with the graphics and animation on the World Series 2K1 game (but I've read a review saying the gameplay leaves much room for improvement), and World Series 2K2 was just released.
Berger Cookies
George was telling me that he just ordered some more Berger Cookies. He says they are yummy. According to their web page, they are "a rich, thick layer of chocolate piled high on top of a tasty cake-like cookie."
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| Figure 1. A rubber sheet with a ball on it |
So, to us the bowling ball appears to be acting on the marble at a distance, but instead the marble is being acted upon by the "field" created by the bowling ball when it curved the rubber sheet.
In my kindergarten understanding of general relativity, it seems that a large mass (say... a star) curves space in three dimensions much as the bowling ball curves the rubber sheet. If this is so, then an object which is within that curved part of space (the gravitational field of the star) will fall toward the star because it is interacting with the curved space at its own position.
OK... this keeps us from transferring information (gravity) faster than light. But how does the gravitational field, or curvature in space get there? Surely the field itself could not propagate from the mass itself out to great distances instantaneously-- that's what we've just been working to avoid! So the field itself must propagate at the speed of light.
Does the gravitational field propagate ath the speed of light? If so, George sees another problem. Here's my version of his idea:
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| Figure 2. Rogue Planet passes Earth |
If at time t0 the Rogue Planet is at point A, Earth will not receive the light reflected off of the Rogue Planet (that is, "see it" at point A) until 4 minutes later (let's call that time t1). But by time t1, the Rogue Planet will have traveled 240,000 miles (coincidentally, almost exactly the mean distance between the Earth and Moon) to point B.
So... at time t1, the Rogue Planet is at point B, Earth sees it at point A, and toward which point does the Earth feel drawn by the Rogue Planet's gravitation field?
If gravity acts instantaneously at a distance (observations say it does), then the Earth should feel pulled directly toward point B. But if that is so, how did Rogue Planet's gravitational field propagate to be centered around point B at time t1, apparently instantaneously??? If this is true, then the gravitational force of the Rogue Planet can be felt somewhere before light could reach it. That's bad.
If the gravitational field of the Rogue Planet propagates at the speed of light, then the Earth would not feel pulled from point A until time t1, when the Rogue Planet was already at Point B, 240,000 miles away. This does not agree with observations. Hmm. Clearly, I do not know enough about this stuff!
ANY HELP IS APPRECIATED!!!
Copyright © 2001, Paul Wren. All rights reserved.