The Old New Thing

Non-Computer - The Old New Thing

Cooking for engineers

October 8, 2004 Oct 8, 2004 10/8/04
Raymond Chen
All geeks who enjoy cooking (and who have cable television) worship Alton Brown's program Good Eats. It's the cooking show for engineers. And recently I discovered a cooking blog that is designed for engineers, named, not surprisingly, Cooking for Engineers. Marvel at the elegance and beauty of the recipe diagrams. I have no idea whether ...

Those partisan non-partisan groups

October 4, 2004 Oct 4, 2004 10/4/04
Raymond Chen
Just because they say they're non-partisan doesn't mean that they're non-partisan. Friday night, I got a phone call from "Victor" at "Washington Counts" who came right out and asked me whom I was going to vote for. I asked him to repeat the name of the organization he represents, and he said, "Washington Counts, a non-partisan ...

The unrecognized assistants on those do-it-yourself shows

September 24, 2004 Sep 24, 2004 09/24/04
Raymond Chen
Some people from my knitting group have been among those assisting in the preparation of today's episode of the knitting show Knitty Gritty on The Do It Yourself Network. Stop reading if you don't want the television illusion shattered, or at least cracked a bit. Each volunteer was assigned a section of a sweater to knit. The show's host...

Penguins do not fall over!

September 23, 2004 Sep 23, 2004 09/23/04
Raymond Chen
Everyone has read the story about penguins falling over backwards while observing low-flying aircraft. The Annals of Improbable Research reports that Dr. Richard Stone has been researching the ecological effects of helicopter overflights on King penguins and his preliminary results show that King penguins do not, in fact, fall over ...

Swedes struggle with the meaning of sick leave

September 21, 2004 Sep 21, 2004 09/21/04
Raymond Chen
As part of the continuing campaign to shed their hard-working stereotype, perhaps taking a cue from their more well-adjusted Norwegian neighbors, Swedes have been taking dubious sick leave in record numbers. [A] study showed 40 percent believe it is enough to feel tired to stay home and draw benefits. A survey of 1,002 Swedes by the ...

Storsjöodjur hunting season will opening soon

September 10, 2004 Sep 10, 2004 09/10/04
Raymond Chen
Scotland doesn't have the corner on monsters in lakes. You'll also find them in Norway, in Sweden (read about a recent expedition), and in Canada, among many, many others. Anywhere there are lakes, there's bound to be a legend about a monster in one of them. It appears, however that Sweden's Storsjöodjur is about to lose its ...

What about Steve?

September 7, 2004 Sep 7, 2004 09/7/04
Raymond Chen
The Annals of Improbable Research highlighted a few days ago the pioneering work of researcher Eugenie C. Scott on The Morphology of Steve. The value of these results to the growing field of Steve Theory cannot be understated...

More dictionaries you didn’t realize you needed

September 6, 2004 Sep 6, 2004 09/6/04
Raymond Chen
Apparently there are a lot of strange dictionaries out there. Otherwise-well-respected German dictionary publisher Langenscheidt announced that it is producing a German-Woman/Woman-German dictionary. (Psst, Toronto Star, it's "Also sprachen die Fräulein"... Third person plural, past tense of strong verb, ending is "en". You're welcome...

The sociology of the mobile phone

August 30, 2004 Aug 30, 2004 08/30/04
Raymond Chen
It has become obvious by now that the mobile phone has changed the way people interact. These two papers were forwaded to me by a colleague, whose summary I am shamelessly lifting from heavily. First is a short paper titled Exploring the implications for social identity of the new sociology of the mobile phone. The much more fascinating...