Monday Links (Now Correctly Numbered) Vol. XLIV

[NickFitz]

I've just realised that I've been getting my Roman numerals wrong since hitting the forties Oh well, nobody seems to have noticed, presumably because they're too busy reading stuff like this:

• Internet Pinball Database - "...is an ad free, popup free, registration free resource. The database is constantly expanding, but currently includes 44,806 images of 5,287 games and 3,524 other game related files, as well as links to other pinball websites, all arranged by machine." That just about sums it up
  
  
• Clientcopia: Stupid Client Quotes - "There's no getting around it. At some point in your career, your patience will be tested with a stupid client who is so clueless that you'll question your sanity, career choice, and the future of mankind... Some clients have no concept of reality. They make up their mind, just to change it again to an even more hideous decision. And will end up blaming you for the mess. Can we honestly blame the client? Sure we can...". Fine collection of real-life idiocy: "Can you make the logo larger, without increasing the amount of space it takes up on the screen?"
  
  
• 7 things you really don't need to take a photo of - Another great comic from The Oatmeal.
  
  
• Transcript of Microsoft Research DRM talk by Cory Doctorow - Doctorow addressed MS Research in 2004, but much of what he says is still relevant today. "DRM systems are broken in minutes, sometimes days. Rarely, months. It's not because the people who think them up are stupid. It's not because the people who break them are smart. It's not because there's a flaw in the algorithms. At the end of the day, all DRM systems share a common vulnerability: they provide their attackers with ciphertext, the cipher and the key. At this point, the secret isn't a secret anymore."
  
  
• HOWTO: Drink like an Englishman, in an English pub - "Remember, gentlemen drink pints. On the rare occasion you are ordering a half (for example, you are driving a car later, are on your way to a court appearance or the like), it is important to pour it into your pint glass so as not to be seen drinking a half in public. It is acceptable for the odd G&T, Redbull and vodka towards the tail end of the night. About an hour from closing time is usually acceptable. Ordering anything other than a pint as your first few drinks will have you labelled as a big girly poof with limp wrists."
  
  
• The True Size of Africa - "This image tries to embody the massive scale [of Africa], which is larger than the USA, China, India, Japan and all of Europe... combined!"
  
  
• The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page - "The most comprehensive collection of Samuel Johnson quotations on the web. Over 1,800 quotes from Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), one of the most quoted men of the 18th century."
  
  
• When The BBS Broke Free - "Like many refrains from 20 years ago, it is either a tired (but true) phrase or a new concept to those who haven’t heard it before, so it’s worth singing: the Internet was not always the Web. The idea of a client sitting with an all-you-can-eat connection and a all-we-can-suck-down approach to data was a early 1990s concept, and took years to truly ramp up into absorbing the vast majority of what people would consider the online experience. Communication and mores had existed for a decade beforehand among the relative hoi polloi of college students, and of course lurked in years previous to that in a miasma of scientists and engineers, cloaked in seriousness but prone to the occasional extensive play and entertainment as needed. The meat had a light coating of sauce, instead of the cooked sugar covered with gravy we now consider the status quo." Jason Scott looks back at the early days of online interaction.
  
  
• Driving Blind: How this VI girl got behind the wheel for real! - "I didn't start losing my sight until I was in my 20's, so as a standard rite of passage for a Torontonian teenager, when I was 16, I got my driver's license. But unlike a lot of females who see driving as a mechanism to get from A to B and not something that involves pleasure, I was the quintessential boy racer. I loved driving and I loved driving fast. But once the RP kicked in, and I knocked the wing mirror off of a parked car whilst trying to park mine, I stopped driving; this was my first big sight loss milestone in the erosion of my physical independence." Sandi Wassmer, registered blind, gets behind the wheel of a car for the first time in 25 years.
  
  
• Talking Pictures: Hide This Please - "I started collecting found snapshots a few years ago — at swap meets, antique shops and the like — but the thing that got me started wasn’t the photos themselves so much as the writing I’d sometimes find on the backs... I want to share some of these with you, not so much to laugh at (although they are funny) but to demonstrate how little our attitudes about ourselves have changed over the years." Entertaining collection of old photographs from Ransom Riggs.

Happy invoicing!

[RichardCranium]

I've just realised that I've been getting my Roman numerals wrong since hitting the forties

I was taught both IX and VIIII are valid, and I'm reasonably confident I remember being told IV and XL are more unconventional (but still valid) than IIII and XXXX. That is, it was common to use the shorthand before a multiple of ten, but less so before a multiple of 5. Also, IIX is as valid as VIII. The shorthand form was used on standard carved works (where you pay for the carving by the letter so want it as short as possible), the long form in counting (e.g. paragraph or unit numbers), written arithmetic and formal uses and big poncey statues where you want to show you can afford for a plinth big enough for MDCCCCLXXXXVIIII. Either way, I think only the BBC ever would have used MCMXCIX.

Don't ask me to quote my source as I cannot remember my junior school headmaster's name.

[TimberWolf]

I was taught both IX and VIIII are valid, and I'm reasonably confident I remember being told IV and XL are more unconventional (but still valid) than IIII and XXXX. That is, it was common to use the shorthand before a multiple of ten, but less so before a multiple of 5. Also, IIX is as valid as VIII. The shorthand form was used on standard carved works (where you pay for the carving by the letter so want it as short as possible), the long form in counting (e.g. paragraph or unit numbers), written arithmetic and formal uses and big poncey statues where you want to show you can afford for a plinth big enough for MDCCCCLXXXXVIIII. Either way, I think only the BBC ever would have used MCMXCIX.

Don't ask me to quote my source as I cannot remember my junior school headmaster's name.

It was a bit of barsteward to do arithmetic in IIRC, although there were people with special arithmetical skills that could do it.

[TimberWolf]

Roman puzzle: What's the value of this in our number system? : SIX

[RichardCranium]

The True Size of Africa - "This image tries to embody the massive scale [of Africa], which is larger than the USA, China, India, Japan and all of Europe... combined!"

[TimberWolf]

What's that suspiciously Britain-like shape labelled as Belgium in the picture (from memory)?

p.s. that's also about the surface area of the moon

p.p.s China won't be fitting inside so easily soon, as they are taking large tracks of Africa.

[OwlHoot]

"Can you make the logo larger, without increasing the amount of space it takes up on the screen?"

Well that one's easy - Convert the logo to a fractal.

That way you could make it the size of the whole screen and take up hardly any space.

[RichardCranium]

Driving Blind: How this VI girl got behind the wheel for real! - "I didn't start losing my sight until I was in my 20's, so as a standard rite of passage for a Torontonian teenager, when I was 16, I got my driver's license. But unlike a lot of females who see driving as a mechanism to get from A to B and not something that involves pleasure, I was the quintessential boy racer. I loved driving and I loved driving fast. But once the RP kicked in, and I knocked the wing mirror off of a parked car whilst trying to park mine, I stopped driving; this was my first big sight loss milestone in the erosion of my physical independence." Sandi Wassmer, registered blind, gets behind the wheel of a car for the first time in 25 years.

Wasn't there a blind bloke on Top Gear in the "Race Round a Track in a Reasonably Priced Car" (or whatever it is called) who got a better time than Terry Wogan?

[d000hg]

Clientcopia : Coping with stupid clients : Quotes, Comments & Remarks
"our web site doesn't load if I turn javascript off... please fix this"

*sigh*

Sounds like the developer is the idiot in this case.

I prefer http://clientsfromhell.net/ anyway:

Client: ”This brochure you’ve designed for me.”

Me: ”Yes, did you like it?”

Client: ”Oh, it’s fine. Just one thing though. That photo on page 3…”

Me: “Yes?”

Client: ”The one with the black man in it. Please take it out. We don’t have any of those around here.”

[thunderlizard]

This is my favourite

Clientcopia : Coping with stupid clients : Quotes, Comments & Remarks