If Google Was a Guy (Part 3)
The Google guy has to take on another batch of strange, deviant and downright idiotic requests from his users in the latest edition of CollegeHumor’s amusing technology as reality sketch. This time, he’s “assisted” by Siri.
via The Awesomer
If Google Was a Guy (Part 3)
Matt’s Girl Voice
Ryan Clark made his friend Matt Bittner Internet famous when he shared this video of Matt doing an impression of a woman. Matt’s not as good at it as these two dudes, but he’ll still surprise and confuse you. Of course, he could be faking.
via The Awesomer
Matt’s Girl Voice
Cut a Watermelon into Sticks (Perfect for Kids and Parties)
Summer’s beloved fruit, the watermelon, can get pretty messy to eat. Instead of serving the melon in traditional wedges, cut it into sticks—easy finger foods.
This is great for little kids or for serving a crowd and you need smaller portions. I did this the other day and found another benefit: The sticks stack up much better in a container, so you don’t have to do that Tetris-like watermelon wedges cramming to save space.
A Thrifty Mom has a tutorial for cutting the watermelon. Basically you’ll first cut it into three pieces, then the intersecting 1-2" slices. If you have an apple corer, you can make watermelon cylinders, but with this method you only need a sharp knife.
Watermelon Slices – Perfect for Little Hands | A Thrify Mom
via Lifehacker
Cut a Watermelon into Sticks (Perfect for Kids and Parties)
Insurance Claims Reveal Hidden Electronic Damage From Geomagnetic Storms
KentuckyFC writes: On 13 March 1989, a powerful geomagnetic storm severely disrupted the Hydro-Québec high-voltage grid triggering numerous circuit breakers and blacking out much of eastern Canada and the northeastern U.S. Since then, Earth has been hit by numerous solar maelstroms without such large-scale disruption. But the smaller-scale effect of these storms on low voltage transmissions lines, and the equipment connected to them, has been unknown. Until now. Researchers from the Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory have analyzed insurance claims for damage to industrial electrical equipment between 2000 and 2010 and found a clear correlation with geomagnetic activity. They say that the number of claims increases by up to 20 per cent on the days of highest geomagnetic activity. On this basis, they calculate that the economic impact of geomagnetic damage must amount to several billion dollars per year. That raises the question of the impact these storms have on household electronic equipment, such as computers, smartphones and tablets, and whether domestic insurance claims might throw some light on the issue.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
via Slashdot
Insurance Claims Reveal Hidden Electronic Damage From Geomagnetic Storms
Guy turns jar of warm liquid into ice just by putting his hand inside
This is like a scene from X-Men: A man puts his hand into a jar seemingly full of water. Instantly, ice starts growing around it despite the fact that the liquid is warm, expanding until all the content is solid, with the texture of ice cream. What is this sorcery? It’s something called hot ice.
via Gizmodo
Guy turns jar of warm liquid into ice just by putting his hand inside
Fine-Tuning MySQL Full-Text Search with InnoDB
If you are using FULLTEXT indexes in MySQL and plan to switch from MyISAM to InnoDB then you should review the reference manual section on Fine-Tuning MySQL Full-Text Search to see what configuration changes may be required. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post when comparing query results on my database with FULLTEXT indexes in MyISAM versus InnoDB I got different results. Specifically, the InnoDB tables were returning fewer results for certain queries with short FULLTEXT search terms. Here’s an example of a query that returned fewer results on InnoDB:
select id
from flite.ad_index
where match(name,description,keywords) against(‘+v1*’ IN BOOLEAN MODE);
The issue was that all of the fine tuning I had done before was limited to MyISAM, so it didn’t affect InnoDB. In the past I configured MySQL FULLTEXT search to index words as short as 1 character (the default is 3), and to index common words (not to use any stopword list). These are the relevant variables I set in in my.cnf:
ft_min_word_len = 1
ft_stopword_file = ”
InnoDB has its own variables to control stopwords and minimum word length, so I needed to set these variables when I changed the tables from MyISAM to InnoDB:
innodb_ft_min_token_size = 1
innodb_ft_enable_stopword = OFF
Since those variables are not dynamic, I had to restart MySQL for them to take effect. Furthermore, I needed to rebuild the FULLTEXT indexes on the relevant tables. This is how the manual instructs you to rebuld the indexes:
To rebuild the FULLTEXT indexes for an InnoDB table, use ALTER TABLE with the DROP INDEX and ADD INDEX options to drop and re-create each index.
Rather than drop and recreate the indexes, I just used ALTER TABLE … FORCE to rebuild the table (and indexes), like this:
alter table flite.ad_index force;
After making those changes I re-ran pt-upgrade, and now I am getting the same set of rows back from MyISAM and InnoDB. The order of the rows is slightly different in some cases, but as I mentioned yesterday that is expected behavior.
via Planet MySQL
Fine-Tuning MySQL Full-Text Search with InnoDB
Robots Gone Wild
Buzz Aldrin’s Reddit AMA
Thousands of Leaked KGB Files Are Now Open To the Public
schwit1 (797399) writes "Over 20 years after being smuggled out of Russia, a trove of KGB documents are being opened up to the public for the first time. The leaked documents include thousands of files and represent what the FBI is said to view as "the most complete and extensive intelligence ever received from any source." The documents include KGB information on secret Russian weapons caches, Russian spies, and KGB information on the activities of Pope John Paul II. Known as the Mitrokhin Archive, the files are all available as of today at Churchill College’s Archives Centre."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
via Slashdot
Thousands of Leaked KGB Files Are Now Open To the Public