Journal Entries
Reading 'Recently Updated Convs'
Posted Mar 9, 2012
Whenever I dip into the 'Twenty Most Recently Updated Conversations' on the <./>info</.> page, which I do when I bored, I'm amazed at how big this site is. When you see the usual suspects in <./>askh2g2</.> all the time, you start to think that there's no one else onsite. In truth, there's load of folks onsite who seem content to just write their own journals, and rarely step outside it to other parts of the site. Half the time these journals exist on their own, with no replies, no comments for other researchers, and just folks keep on writing.
This is the record of their lives. And, in some cases, their impending deaths. I've just discovered Tibley Bobley (U170471), for example. Go read her latest journal now. If you do nothing else onsite today, read her journal.
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Latest reply: Mar 9, 2012
37 birthdays
Posted Feb 28, 2012
...and counting.
Reasonably enjoyable day so far, though I am in work.
Little man has come down with chicken pox now (his big brother had it last week), so I'm not quite sure what celebrations are in store for this evening. Hannah assures me that there will be something though.
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Latest reply: Feb 28, 2012
QoTD Archive
Posted Feb 25, 2012
Right, that's the Archive (A87720564) and the leaderboards (A87732822) up to date.
It looks like Mu Beta is establishing a bit of a lead, breaking away with 5 Quotes, ahead of a chasing pack of Ed, Gnomon, Hoo and Icy on 3 apiece.
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Latest reply: Feb 25, 2012
Finally an answer!
Posted Jan 14, 2012
This week I got an Android phone, and have been merrily playing with it for a few days. This morning I was searching through the Android market for a QR barcode reader, when I stumbled upon Google Goggles, I remembered why I originally wanted an Android.
Google Goggles is a program that allows you to search using a picture that you have taken with your phone, which when I first heard of it did strike me as the great missing piece of internet search, and it has enabled me to finally answer a question that has been following me around for most of my adult life.
I was given this poster 15 years ago, because someone I knew at Uni thought I looked like the person in the in the picture, but for all this time I haven't known who the artist is, or the subject. The person that gave it to me could never remember, and the poster contains no name.
So, this afternoon, after a brief search for it in the loft, I took a picture of the poster with my phone and googled it.
I now have my answer. It's a self portrait by Egon Schiele, who was a protégé of Klimt. He was born in 1890 and died in 1918 of Spanish flu.
The portrait from the poster is top right on the wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Schiele
I must say, that finally having an answer to this is a great relief. Technology has provided a solution that I wouldn't been able to find out on my own.
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Latest reply: Jan 14, 2012
The most Quoted researcher of 2011
Posted Dec 31, 2011
It's been an interesting year for the Quote of the Day. It exists, for one thing, and isn't just a slow moving Quote of the Week anymore. Actually, it seemed to be Quote of the Quarter at the start of the week, but we've speeded up a lot since.
Since QotD re-started I've been keeping an archive (A87720564) and a leaderboard (A87723723), and have backdated both to the start of the year.
The first Quote of the year was "You have to make things happen yourself, really." from Trillian's Child. A quote which does rather epitomise the events of the year, which has seen us pass from the BBC into the ownership of Not Panicking Ltd - and the site is now run by the community. We really are making things happen ourselves.
The last Quote of the year, from Bluebottle, more displays the sense of humour on our beloved site, "I think that a smiley should have a rail replacement bus service every Sunday instead." It also reminds us of the many new smileys that have been added since the changeover, and that the community's thirst for more will probably never be satiated.
But the real question: that of the most Quoted researcher of the year, does not have a clear answer. If you were looking at the most time spent on the <./>FrontPage</.> than it would be Trillian's Child, with that first Quote of the year, which remained on the FP for about 4 and half months. But if, on the other hand, you were looking at the most number of distinct Quotes, then it's a three-way tie between Baron Grim (formally known as Count Zero), Malabarista and Mr603.
So there you have it. Next year should be a more interesting contest, as we will have 366 days' worth of Quotes to consider. So, be interesting, be funny, and be Quoted. I'll be watching.
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Latest reply: Dec 31, 2011
Geggs
Researcher U201647
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