Lifehacker’s Jobvertisement

Lifehacker is hiring! Of course they’re looking for a centipede:

Things You Should Be / Have

- Tech-savvy
- Nimbleness with numbers
- Details, details, details
- Expert at calendar keeping
- Brain for logic, puzzle-solving
- Love for the Interwebs
- Fan of Gmail and other Google Apps
- Tendencies toward perfectionism
- Meeter of deadlines
- Ability to explain tech to non-tech types
- Bravery in the face of demons/dragons
- Eye for marketing and presentation

- Web: HTML, web traffic metrics necessary.

- Software: Excel, PowerPoint, Word, PhotoShop (simple image editing only) necessary.

* Extra Credit: JavaScript. Flash. DoubleClick DART, Atlas, PointRoll, EyeBlaster, OpenX, or Google AdSense. Bug tracking, project management apps, 37 Signals apps.

Unfortunately I miss the marketing and presentation eye. And, of course, I don’t live in the NYC area. Most important, (because all these things could be changed), I prefer my current job, low-profile as it may be in someone else’s perception; it leaves me enough time to do the things I want to do with my scarce time.

iPhone App Solves Rubik’s Cube in 20 Moves or Better

This article is for those – like me – who still have difficulties solving Rubic’s Cube.
via Wired:

You take six pictures of your mixed up Rubik’s Cube using the iPhone’s camera — one photo per side. If you have an iPod Touch, you can also tap in the color combos manually. CubeCheater is able to recognize the placement of each colored square and generate a map of your cube. It then figures out the quickest path to solving the puzzle and gives you a set of easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions. The current guru of Rubik’s computer algorithms is Herbet Kociemba, creator of the open source Cube Explorer software program. Kociemba’s solver software is currently used by computer science students at universities to build cube-solving robots, some of which also use a camera and image-recognition tech to figure out the color patterns. Rubik cube solution algorithms and instructions have been around almost as long as the cube. The algorithms have been improved over time. The breakthrough is using image recognition and a device and interfaces to make it far easier for people to use. The “human enhancement” is made more widely available and accessible and easy to implement.

Links:

• Cube Explorer
• Rubik’s Cube Simulator
• QED article on Rubik’s Cube (Dutch)
• Mathematics of the Rubik’s Cube
• How to solve the Rubik’s Cube (wikibooks)

Excellence is an attitude

Creativity is a Choice, not a Gift

Beautiful Boomerang postcard, that I found at a diplay in a cinema. I like to complete it with the quote I found in the Metaversemessenger

Excellence is an Attitude, not a Talent”

Now I found at a Dutch blog about inspiration the 19 E’s of excellence, written by Tom Peters.

• Enthusiasm. (Be an irresistible force of nature!)
• Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!)
• Exuberance. (Vibrate—cause earthquakes!)
• Execution. (Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney! Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel! Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: “Blame nobody! Expect nothing! Do something!”)
• Empowerment. (Respect and appreciation rule! Always ask, “What do you think?” Then listen! Then let go and liberate! Then celebrate!)
• Edginess. (Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.)
• Enraged. (Determined to challenge & change the status quo!)
  
• Engaged. (Addicted to MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.)
  
• Electronic. (Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building and entanglement of every sort. Crowdsourcing rules!)
  
• Encompassing. (Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions—the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se “works”!)
  
• Emotion. (The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales. The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.)
  
• Empathy. (Connect, connect, connect with others’ reality and aspirations! “Walk in the other personâ??s shoes”—until the soles have holes!)
  
• Experience. (Life is theater! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard: “Insanely Great”/Steve Jobs; “Radically Thrilling”/BMW.)
  
• Eliminate. (Keep it simple!)
  
• Errorprone. (Ready! Fire! Aim! Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff and make some more booboos—all of it at the speed of light!)
  
• Evenhanded. (Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!)
  
• Expectations. (Michelangelo: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Amen!)
  
• Eudaimonia. (Pursue the highest of human moral purpose—the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always.)
  
• Excellence. (The only standard! Never an exception! Start now! No excuses! If not Excellence, what? If not Excellence now, when?)

Yashimoto’s Cube

Interesting new toy if you’re done with Rubic’s Cube: the Magical Cube that Naoki Yoshimoto invented in 1971.

Just Piece Of Paper . Crazy Paper Toy. – More bloopers are a click away

Link: Via boing-boing
Here’s another link.

White n’ Nerdy

Okay, not quite new, since the song is from 2006 – where have I been that I missed it? – , but yesterday I saw the video at YouTube and found it suitable for this blog. There is a wikipedia page that explains a lot of the references in the video. Here are the lyrics:

They see me mowin’
My front lawn
I know they’re all thinking
I’m so White N’ nerdy

Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy
Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy(nerday)
Can’t you see I’m white n’ nerdy
Look at me I’m white n’ nerdy!
I wanna roll with-
The gangsters
But so far they all think
I’m too white n’ nerdy
Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy
Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy
I’m just too white n’ nerdy
We really white n’ nerdy

First in my class here at M.I.T.
Got skills I’m a
Champion of D & D
MC Escher that’s
My favorite MC
Keep your 40
I’ll just have an Earl Grey tea
My rims never spin to the contrary
You’ll find they’re quite stationary
All of my action figures are cherry
Stephen Hawking’s in my library
My MySpace page is all totally pimped out
I got people begging for my top 8 spaces
Yo I know Pi out to a thousand places
Ain’t got no grills but I still wear braces
I order all of my sandwiches with mayonnaise
I’m a whiz at minesweeper I can play for days
Once you see my sweet moves you’re gonna stay amazed, my fingers movin’ so fast I’ll set the place ablaze
There’s no killer app I haven’t run
At Pascal well I’m number 1
Do vector calculus just for fun
I ain’t got a gat but I gotta soldering gun
Happy Days is my favorite theme song
I can sure kick your butt in a game of ping pong
I’ll ace any trivia quiz you bring on
I’m fluent in Java Script as well as Klingon
(The part I sing on)

They see me roll on my Segway!
I know in my heart they think I’m
white n’ nerdy!
Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy
Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy
Can’t you see I’m white n’ nerdy
Look at me I’m white n’ nerdy
I’d like to roll with-
The gangsters
Although it’s apparent I’m too
White n’ nerdy
Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy
Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy
I’m just too white n’ nerdy
How’d I get so white n’ nerdy?

I’ve been browsing, inspectin’
X-men comics you know I collect ‘em
The pens in my pocket
I must protect ‘em
My ergonomic keyboard never leaves me bored
Shopping online for deals on some writable media
I edit Wikipedia
I memorized the Holy Grail
Really well
I can recite it right now have you
ROTFLOL
I got a business doing websites
When my friends need some code who do they call?
I do HTML do for them all
Even made a homepage for my dog!
Got myself a fanny pack
they were having a sale down at the GAP
Spend my nights with a roll of bubble wrap
POP POP! Hope no one sees me get freaky!

I’m nerdy in the extreme and whiter than sour cream
I was in AV club and Glee club and even the chess team!
Only question I ever thought was hard
Was do I like Kirk or do I like Piccard?
I spend every weekend
at the Renaissance Faire
I got my name on my underwear!

They see me strollin’
They laughin’
And rollin’ their eyes ’cause
I’m so white n’ nerdy
Just because I’m white n’ nerdy
Just because I’m white n’ nerdy
All because I’m white n’ nerdy
Holy cow I’m white n’ nerdy
I wanna bowl with-
the gangsters
but oh well it’s obvious I’m
white n’ nerdy
Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy
Think I’m just too white n’ nerdy
I’m just too white n’
Look at me I’m white n’ nerdy!

Unfortunately it was not possible to embed the video into this post, but there is also an older version, in fact the very first take of “Weird Al” Yankovic and Donny Osmond performing “White & Nerdy” :

Passwords

Boing-boing had an interesting article on passwords: Top 500 worst passwords
As I recycle it from them, they recycled it from a website that has recycled it again from a book “Perfect Passwords: Selection, Protection, Authentication” by Mark Burnett; I’m sure just to have you clicking the link to Amazon to make money. So there is a lot of pushing second hand information around the internet. The website has been down due to incoming traffic, but this mirror of the site had the original list, which I will publish (in fact: copy & paste) here:

NO	Top 1-100	Top 101–200	Top 201–300	Top 301–400	Top 401–500
1	123456	porsche	firebird	prince	rosebud
2	password	guitar	butter	beach	jaguar
3	12345678	chelsea	united	amateur	great
4	1234	black	turtle	7777777	cool
5	pussy	diamond	steelers	muffin	cooper
6	12345	nascar	tiffany	redsox	1313
7	dragon	jackson	zxcvbn	star	scorpio
8	qwerty	cameron	tomcat	testing	mountain
9	696969	654321	golf	shannon	madison
10	mustang	computer	bond007	murphy	987654
11	letmein	amanda	bear	frank	brazil
12	baseball	wizard	tiger	hannah	lauren
13	master	xxxxxxxx	doctor	dave	japan
14	michael	money	gateway	eagle1	naked
15	football	phoenix	gators	11111	squirt
16	shadow	mickey	angel	mother	stars
17	monkey	bailey	junior	nathan	apple
18	abc123	knight	thx1138	raiders	alexis
19	pass	iceman	porno	steve	aaaa
20	fuckme	tigers	badboy	forever	bonnie
21	6969	purple	debbie	angela	peaches
22	jordan	andrea	spider	viper	jasmine
23	harley	horny	melissa	ou812	kevin
24	ranger	dakota	booger	jake	matt
25	iwantu	aaaaaa	1212	lovers	qwertyui
26	jennifer	player	flyers	suckit	danielle
27	hunter	sunshine	fish	gregory	beaver
28	fuck	morgan	porn	buddy	4321
29	2000	starwars	matrix	whatever	4128
30	test	boomer	teens	young	runner
31	batman	cowboys	scooby	nicholas	swimming
32	trustno1	edward	jason	lucky	dolphin
33	thomas	charles	walter	helpme	gordon
34	tigger	girls	cumshot	jackie	casper
35	robert	booboo	boston	monica	stupid
36	access	coffee	braves	midnight	shit
37	love	xxxxxx	yankee	college	saturn
38	buster	bulldog	lover	baby	gemini
39	1234567	ncc1701	barney	cunt	apples
40	soccer	rabbit	victor	brian	august
41	hockey	peanut	tucker	mark	3333
42	killer	john	princess	startrek	canada
43	george	johnny	mercedes	sierra	blazer
44	sexy	gandalf	5150	leather	cumming
45	andrew	spanky	doggie	232323	hunting
46	charlie	winter	zzzzzz	4444	kitty
47	superman	brandy	gunner	beavis	rainbow
48	asshole	compaq	horney	bigcock	112233
49	fuckyou	carlos	bubba	happy	arthur
50	dallas	tennis	2112	sophie	cream
51	jessica	james	fred	ladies	calvin
52	panties	mike	johnson	naughty	shaved
53	pepper	brandon	xxxxx	giants	surfer
54	1111	fender	tits	booty	samson
55	austin	anthony	member	blonde	kelly
56	william	blowme	boobs	fucked	paul
57	daniel	ferrari	donald	golden	mine
58	golfer	cookie	bigdaddy	0	king
59	summer	chicken	bronco	fire	racing
60	heather	maverick	penis	sandra	5555
61	hammer	chicago	voyager	pookie	eagle
62	yankees	joseph	rangers	packers	hentai
63	joshua	diablo	birdie	einstein	newyork
64	maggie	sexsex	trouble	dolphins	little
65	biteme	hardcore	white	0	redwings
66	enter	666666	topgun	chevy	smith
67	ashley	willie	bigtits	winston	sticky
68	thunder	welcome	bitches	warrior	cocacola
69	cowboy	chris	green	sammy	animal
70	silver	panther	super	slut	broncos
71	richard	yamaha	qazwsx	8675309	private
72	fucker	justin	magic	zxcvbnm	skippy
73	orange	banana	lakers	nipples	marvin
74	merlin	driver	rachel	power	blondes
75	michelle	marine	slayer	victoria	enjoy
76	corvette	angels	scott	asdfgh	girl
77	bigdog	fishing	2222	vagina	apollo
78	cheese	david	asdf	toyota	parker
79	matthew	maddog	video	travis	qwert
80	121212	hooters	london	hotdog	time
81	patrick	wilson	7777	paris	sydney
82	martin	butthead	marlboro	rock	women
83	freedom	dennis	srinivas	xxxx	voodoo
84	ginger	fucking	internet	extreme	magnum
85	blowjob	captain	action	redskins	juice
86	nicole	bigdick	carter	erotic	abgrtyu
87	sparky	chester	jasper	dirty	777777
88	yellow	smokey	monster	ford	dreams
89	camaro	xavier	teresa	freddy	maxwell
90	secret	steven	jeremy	arsenal	music
91	dick	viking	11111111	access14	rush2112
92	falcon	snoopy	bill	wolf	russia
93	taylor	blue	crystal	nipple	scorpion
94	111111	eagles	peter	iloveyou	rebecca
95	131313	winner	pussies	alex	tester
96	123123	samantha	cock	florida	mistress
97	bitch	house	beer	eric	phantom
98	hello	miller	rocket	legend	billy
99	scooter	flower	theman	movie	6666
100	please	jack	oliver	success	albert

Of course, as an internet addict, I have many passwords to handle, and, still being human, my memory is fallible. So I felt the need to develop an algorithm to generate original passwords that I was able to remember very early in the history of the internet. I will not reveal my secret, but there is also another very interesting algorithm, almost similar to mine, that was published at A Clean Design.

Another possibility is to use a password manager, e.g Keepass, that is free and also runs as a portable application. You only need to remember your master password. Or the more web-based PasswordMaker, that generates strong and different passwords for every account, while you need only to remember your master password, the hash system, password length, and list of legal characters.

The bright side of recycling information in the blogosphere is that it generates new comments that are often more useful than the original post; Boing-boing is rather popular, so there are a lot of people who commented on the post.

First of all someone wrote:

This is the third time I’ve seen a link to this list

Yeah, and mine is probably the fourth – and I’m sure not the last.

But Batu B had an advice:

the best password generator I’ve heard of is the acronym for a simple phrase, which generates nonsense, but is easy to remember. such as
“this password is nonsense but is easy to remember”
provides the password
“tpinbietr”

or this anonymous comment:

I always liked passwords that use phrases you know by heart but aren’t obvious. Even if they see you type bbroygbvgw they aren’t going to be able to remember it long enough to write it down unless they are old electricians.

Another way to do it: pick some song lyrics, throw in a symbol and another string and you have an amazingly secure password: aobtd^egbdf (Hint, the first one is popular queen lyrics, the second you should know, and may actually be too common to use)

and, almost the same,

As a Microsoft security expert once suggested. The best passwords (when the field allows it) are made of a simple and long phrase. It is easy to remember and impossible to guess.

by classic01.

So, maybe I should review my own algorithm and change my old “letmein” into something more advanced.