Monday, April 30, 2012

Accidental "Genius" Gains Mathematical Powers of 60's Toy


I've been seeing this article making the social media rounds, about Jason Padgett, who, after being mugged and kicked repeatedly in the head, gained "savant"-level mathematical powers and now allegedly sees the world in numbers geometric formula.

And what is he doing with this power? Cracking codes for the NSA? Pursuing the Higgs-Boson particle? No... he's making "fractal art."

In other words, he's a human Spirograph, the Kenner toy from 1965.

Must be a slow news cycle...

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

An Open Letter to "Windows Live" Hotmail

Dear Microsoft Windows Live,

I haven't used my Shyaporn@hotmail.com account for some time, but recently decided to make use of it for various reasons. When I went to sign in, there was no trace of the account. When I went to re-register the email address through your new Windows live system, I was told that "Shyaporn" contained "a word that isn't allowed."

Amusingly enough, I encountered this same problem over 10 years ago when I first started my Hotmail account and it had to be cleared up back then as well.

Nevermind that such a policy is indicative of a prudish puritanism that has no place in a service-based technology company. My NAME is Shyaporn Theerakulstit. It's Thai. There are lots of Thai names that contain the suffice -porn or -pon in their English transliteration. The fact that you have banned the ability to use my actual, Thai name is offensively xenophobic, to say the least.

Please restore my Shyaporn@hotmail.com account, and maybe take into consideration that all your customers names and languages aren't Anglo-Saxon in their origin.

Sincerely,

ShyaPORN Theerakulstit