TGIF – ,-}

by Marie-Claire Jenkins 

Welcome to a brand new weekly post for some of you and to another edition of TGIF for the rest of you.  A bit of history behind the TGIF series:

It started when my mum complained that she didn’t understand anything I posted on my blog. She wanted to be able to feel involved I guess, and so I began writing TGIF so that she would have something fun to look forward to. TGIF became really popular and was in fact the most read post I had all week. Soon people who weren’t into SEO or computer science also read it on a regular basis. SEO Scoop wanted to take it on as a regular feature and after some umming and ahring I agreed.

The TGIF post over at “Science for SEO” is no longer and has been replaced by TWIG, which is a far more geekier version. That will also appear weekly, in conjunction with TGIF over here. So…if this isn’t enough for you, head over there.

Without further ado…

Stuff I really liked this week…

The Web Trend Map – It maps the 111 most influential sites on the web onto the Tokyo underground map.

This xkcd comic – How to condescendingly dismiss anything.

The Bodum insulated glassware – keeps coffee warm and is pretty stylish. Oh and keeps things cold too.

The binary clock – ThinkGeek strike again with geek awesomeness.

The Bytelove clothes site - These are really cool, I love the “Owl says W00t!” (Warning: Paypal abuse warning)

Facts…

“Computer” was originally a job title: Women (mostly) carried out repetitive calculations. That’s why we have the “Electronic computer” now.

John Napier invented logarithms, which are a technology that allows multiplication to be performed via addition.

Joseph Marie Jacquard invented a power loom that based its weave upon a pattern automatically read from punched wooden cards (1801).

The patterns on Jacquard’s cards were determined when a tapestry was designed and then were not changed (Read-only today).

The Harvard-IBM Mark I computer was the first programmable digital computer made in the U.S (weighed 5 tons).

Quotes:

Remember that there is no code faster than no code. (Taligent’s Guide to Designing Programs)

The problem with Wikipedia is that it only works in practice. In theory, it’s a total disaster. (G. Owen)

Fools ignore complexity; pragmatists suffer it; experts avoid it; geniuses remove it. (A.Perlis)

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge. (D. Boorstin)

“I don’t download anything or anyone when I don’t know where they’ve been.”  (Catwoman)

Tune of the week…

Mad about you – Hooverphonic

Cool video footage of the week…

Computers in the 1960’s – public perception and how things were. “What do you think of computers? – I think they’re alright”