The movies I watched in 2017

These are all the movies I have watched this year, 58 movies. This means that I watch a little more than 1 movie per week. A couple of these movies I have seen already:  2001, A Space Oddysee and Prometheus.


The five most interesting ones from this list are

The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?
I never knew that they were going to have Nicholas Cage be Superman... sorry I just can't see that. Interesting documentary however especially where people claim the never said certain things

Rise and Rise of Bitcoin
The hype started back then and it is still real today, interesting documentary. One of the guys that went to prison got out recently

Neon
Documentary about the Neon industry and the demise after LCDs made neon obsolete

A Cure For Welness
I really liked the cinematography on this one, kind of a creepy film, if you liked Shutter Island, you will like this one as well.


Space Between Us
Interesting story about the first person born on Mars who then travels to earth and has to deal with gravity among other things. I guess in the not so distant future this could become reality


Here is the full list

Title: Blue Velvet
Year: 1986
Minutes: 120
Director(s): David Lynch
IMDB Score: 7.8
Day watched: 1/1/2017



Title: We Love Paleo
Year: 2015
Minutes: 93
Director(s): Caroleen Moise
IMDB Score: 6.6
Day watched: 1/3/2017



Title: Rise and Rise of Bitcoin
Year: 2014
Minutes: 96
Director(s): Nicholas Mross
IMDB Score: 7.3
Day watched: 1/4/2017



Title: Now You see me 2
Year: 2016
Minutes: 129
Director(s): Jon M. Chu
IMDB Score: 6.5
Day watched: 1/15/2017



Title: Neon
Year: 2015
Minutes: 84
Director(s): Lawrence Johnston
IMDB Score: 7.6
Day watched: 1/16/2017



Title: Saw IV
Year: 2007
Minutes: 93
Director(s): Darren Lynn Bousman
IMDB Score: 5.9
Day watched: 1/20/2017



Title: Saw V
Year: 2008
Minutes: 92
Director(s): David Hackl
IMDB Score: 5.8
Day watched: 1/22/2017



Title: Burnt
Year: 2015
Minutes: 101
Director(s): John Wells
IMDB Score: 6.6
Day watched: 1/28/2017



Title: The Death of "Superman Lives": What Happened?
Year: 2015
Minutes: 104
Director(s): Jon Schnepp
IMDB Score: 7.1
Day watched: 2/4/2017



Title: Love The Coopers
Year: 2015
Minutes: 107
Director(s): Jessie Nelson
IMDB Score: 5.7
Day watched: 2/5/2017



Title: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Year: 1968
Minutes: 149
Director(s): Stanley Kubrick
IMDB Score: 8.3
Day watched: 2/9/2017



Title: Central Intelligence
Year: 2016
Minutes: 107
Director(s): Rawson Marshall Thurber
IMDB Score: 6.4
Day watched: 2/15/2017



Title: Prometheus
Year: 2012
Minutes: 124
Director(s): Ridley Scott
IMDB Score: 7.0
Day watched: 2/25/2017



Title: Captain America: Civil War
Year: 2016
Minutes: 147
Director(s): Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
IMDB Score: 7.9
Day watched: 2/26/2017



Title: The Shallows
Year: 2016
Minutes: 86
Director(s): Jaume Collet-Serra
IMDB Score: 6.4
Day watched: 2/27/2017



Title: Suicide Squad
Year: 2016
Minutes: 123
Director(s): David Ayer
IMDB Score: 6.3
Day watched: 3/1/2017



Title: Blood Father
Year: 2016
Minutes: 88
Director(s): Jean-François Richet
IMDB Score: 6.4
Day watched: 3/14/2017



Title: Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
Year: 2008
Minutes: 105
Director(s): Chris Bell
IMDB Score: 7.6
Day watched: 3/15/2017



Title: Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
Year: 2016
Minutes: 98
Director(s): Jake Szymanski
IMDB Score: 6.0
Day watched: 4/1/2017



Title: Doctor Strange
Year: 2016
Minutes: 115
Director(s): Scott Derrickson
IMDB Score: 7.7
Day watched: 4/5/2017



Title: The Purge: Election Year
Year: 2016
Minutes: 109
Director(s): James DeMonaco
IMDB Score: 6.0
Day watched: 4/9/2017



Title: Independence Day: Resurgence
Year: 2016
Minutes: 120
Director(s): Roland Emmerich
IMDB Score: 5.3
Day watched: 4/10/2017



Title: Event Horizon
Year: 1997
Minutes: 96
Director(s): Paul W.S. Anderson
IMDB Score: 6.7
Day watched: 4/12/2017



Title: The Gift
Year: 2015
Minutes: 108
Director(s): Joel Edgerton
IMDB Score: 7.1
Day watched: 4/13/2017



Title: Chef
Year: 2014
Minutes: 114
Director(s): Jon Favreau
IMDB Score: 7.3
Day watched: 4/17/2017



Title: Mechanic Resurrection
Year: 2016
Minutes: 98
Director(s): Denis Gansel
IMDB Score: 5.6
Day watched: 5/6/2017



Title: White House Down
Year: 2013
Minutes: 131
Director(s): Roland Emmerich
IMDB Score: 6.4
Day watched: 5/7/2017



Title: The Wizard Of Lies
Year: 2017
Minutes: 133
Director(s): Barry Levinson
IMDB Score: 7.2
Day watched: 5/23/2017



Title: Alien Covenant
Year: 2017
Minutes: 122
Director(s): Ridley Scott
IMDB Score: 6.9
Day watched: 5/24/2017



Title: Passengers
Year: 2016
Minutes: 116
Director(s): Morten Tyldum
IMDB Score: 7.0
Day watched: 6/2/2017



Title: Jason Bourne
Year: 2016
Minutes: 123
Director(s): Paul Greengrass
IMDB Score: 6.7
Day watched: 6/10/2017



Title: The Accountant
Year: 2016
Minutes: 128
Director(s): Gavin O'Connor
IMDB Score: 7.4
Day watched: 6/15/2017



Title: Inferno
Year: 2016
Minutes: 121
Director(s): Ron Howard
IMDB Score: 6.2
Day watched: 6/20/2017



Title: Space Between Us
Year: 2017
Minutes: 120
Director(s): Peter Chelsom
IMDB Score: 6.4
Day watched: 7/4/2017



Title: Army Of Darkness
Year: 1992
Minutes: 81
Director(s): Sam Raimi
IMDB Score: 7.6
Day watched: 7/8/2017



Title: Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs
Year: 2015
Minutes: 120
Director(s): Gedeon Naudet
IMDB Score: 7.5
Day watched: 7/15/2017



Title: Dunkirk
Year: 2017
Minutes: 105
Director(s): Christopher Nolan
IMDB Score: 9.0
Day watched: 7/21/2017



Title: Batman Begins
Year: 2005
Minutes: 140
Director(s): Christopher Nolan
IMDB Score: 8.3
Day watched: 7/23/2017



Title: Logan
Year: 2017
Minutes: 137
Director(s): James Mangold
IMDB Score: 8.2
Day watched: 8/16/2017



Title: Underworld: Blood Wars
Year: 2016
Minutes: 91
Director(s): Anna Foerster
IMDB Score: 5.8
Day watched: 9/15/2017



Title: The Age of Consequences
Year: 2016
Minutes: 80
Director(s): Jared P. Scott
IMDB Score: 7.6
Day watched: 9/22/2017



Title: Whitney: Can I Be Me
Year: 2017
Minutes: 105
Director(s): Nick Broomfield, Rudi Dolezal
IMDB Score: 6.6
Day watched: 9/30/2017



Title: Resident Evil: The Final Chapter
Year: 2016
Minutes: 107
Director(s): Paul W.S. Anderson
IMDB Score: 5.6
Day watched: 10/16/2017



Title: Spielberg
Year: 2017
Minutes: 147
Director(s): Susan Lacy
IMDB Score: 7.7
Day watched: 10/20/2017



Title: George Michael: Freedom
Year: 2017
Minutes: 95
Director(s): David Austin, George Michael
IMDB Score: 8.5
Day watched: 10/22/2017



Title: Life
Year: 2017
Minutes: 104
Director(s): Daniel Espinosa
IMDB Score: 6.6
Day watched: 10/23/2017



Title: John Wick 2
Year: 2017
Minutes: 122
Director(s): Chad Stahelski
IMDB Score: 7.6
Day watched: 10/26/2017



Title: Skyfall
Year: 2012
Minutes: 143
Director(s): Sam Mendes
IMDB Score: 7.8
Day watched: 10/27/2017



Title: Generation Iron 2
Year: 2017
Minutes: 106
Director(s): Vilad Yudin
IMDB Score: 6.1
Day watched: 10/30/2017



Title: A Cure For Welness
Year: 2016
Minutes: 146
Director(s): Gore Verbinski
IMDB Score: 6.4
Day watched: 11/5/2017



Title: Icarus
Year: 2017
Minutes: 121
Director(s): Bryan Fogel
IMDB Score: 8.0
Day watched: 11/19/2017



Title: Kong: Skull Island
Year: 2017
Minutes: 118
Director(s): Jordan Vogt-Roberts
IMDB Score: 6.7
Day watched: 11/26/2017



Title: Meth Storm
Year: 2017
Minutes: 96
Director(s): Brent Renaud, Craig Renaud
IMDB Score: 7.3
Day watched: 11/30/2017



Title: The Big Lebowski
Year: 1998
Minutes: 117
Director(s): Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
IMDB Score: 8.2
Day watched: 12/6/2017



Title: The Belko Experiment
Year: 2016
Minutes: 89
Director(s): Greg McLean
IMDB Score: 6.1
Day watched: 12/8/2017



Title: Office Christmas Party
Year: 2016
Minutes: 105
Director(s): Josh Gordon, Will Speck
IMDB Score: 5.8
Day watched: 12/10/2017



Title: The Great Wall
Year: 2016
Minutes: 103
Director(s): Yimou Zhang
IMDB Score: 6.0
Day watched: 12/16/2017



Title: Deepwater Horizon
Year: 2016
Minutes: 107
Director(s): Peter Berg
IMDB Score: 7.2
Day watched: 12/17/2017



And yes, I used SQL to generate this after I pasted the data from Excel in SSMS

select 'Title: '">'+ t +'

' + char(13) + char(10) + 'Year: ' + convert(varchar(20),y) + '
' + char(13) + char(10) + 'Minutes: ' + convert(varchar(20),m) + '
' + char(13) + char(10) + 'Director(s): ' + convert(varchar(200),dir) + '
' + char(13) + char(10) + 'IMDB Score: ' + convert(varchar(200),score) + '
' + char(13) + char(10)+ 'Day watched: ' + convert(varchar(200),d) + '



' + char(13) + char(10), * from cte

Through the eye of a needle... advanced to the next round of the Fantasy Premier League Cup

This week in the  Fantasy Premier League I encountered an interesting situation. Here is what the points for my team looked like after all the games were played and the points had been rewarded

I ended up with 82 points.

And here is how many points my cup opponent had.

As you can see we both had 82 points. I then started to wonder who would advance?

I looked up the rules

How the cup works Each qualifying team will be randomly drawn against another in the first round. The winner (the team with the highest Gameweek score minus any transfer points), will progress to the second round and another random draw, the losers are out! This process continues until the final round when the two remaining teams contest the cup final. If a cup match is drawn, then the following tie-breaks will be applied until a winner is found: 

Most goals scored in the Gameweek 
Fewest goals conceded in the Gameweek 
Virtual coin toss

So then I checked the goals scored. We both had 5 goals scored. I then checked how many goals we conceded. I conceded 3, while my opponent conceded 5.  I also was very lucky that his bench looked like this, there was nobody to replace his defender  :-)

The end result was this.




If this was reversed, I would have been really pissed

I am sure that I will be eliminated from the cup next week now that I made this post....  :-(

TWID Dec 24, 2017

This is a post detailing some stuff I did, learned, posted and tweeted this week, I call this TWID (This week in Denis). I am doing this mostly for myself... a kind of an online journal so that I can look back on this later on. Will use the label TWID for these


Finished Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World 
It's on okay book and I said this before, it's not technical. Sometime I think the authors live in some utopia thinking the blockchain will solve everything. The issues they list are either already solved or have no need for blockchain per se

See also this part from a review here: Only good for the kool-aid

The thing is, many of the things Tapscott claims CAN be fixed by blockchain could ALSO be fixed with a decent website. May of the problems he highlights are social, human problems that remain unsolved because they are hard and no one has rallied the will to tackle them. For example, the problem with governance isn't that there isn't a way to expose all the corrupt interactions to trace who paid for what and which parts of which bills were advocated by which legislator. It's that those in power don't have the will to build a system to expose all of that. Blockchain isn't going to magically convince governments to change how they do business any more than the ability to post their correspondence, schedules, donations, and votes on the web did.

 I had a hard time finishing the book. The *one* thing it is good for is giving the reader a sense of the insane hyperbole that many blockchain advocates spew. Tapscott drank the kool-aid, and it is useful to understand how many miracles people say this stuff will create. Not because the miracles are likely, but because making a coherent case for the actual changes that blockchain will catalyze requires understanding the entire context of the conversation that has gone before

I completely agree with that what's written in the review

Worked from home two days in a row and had a huge podcast backlog, this is just part of it

This is supposed to be a quiet period at work however one co-worker is on vacation, the other had a kidney transplant so I am responsible for their stuff while they are out till January 12th or so. So far I have been bombarded with requests by business folks.

This Week I Learned

This week I learned that the chocolate puzzle I have is really hard to finish  :-(

This Week I tweeted

Bitcoin Takes Bigger Wall Street Stage With Smooth CME Debut

Bitcoin futures started trading Sunday night at CME Group Inc.’s venue, a week after Chicago rival Cboe Global Markets Inc. introduced similar derivatives on the volatile cryptocurrency. CME is a much bigger player in futures, so many traders expected it to make a bigger splash in the nascent space.

CME got off to a faster start with more efficient pricing. Its most-active contract changed hands 221 times in the first hour versus 570 during Cboe’s debut. But that’s a win because CME’s contracts are five times more valuable -- they’re tied to five bitcoins compared with only one with Cboe’s futures.

Smooth sailing....


European Ruling Buries Uber’s Platform Myth
The European Court of Justice has ruled, without the possibility of appeal, that Uber is a taxi company, not a software one. This is the official beginning of the end of the tech industry's deceitful attempt to present its innovation as something outside previous human experience and therefore outside the scope of previous regulation.

The ruling ends a legal battle started in 2014 by a taxi drivers' association in Barcelona, called Associacion Profesional Elite Taxi. It accused Uber of unfair competition: The Uber Pop service used unlicensed drivers and wasn't authorized to carry passengers. Uber, as it always does, claimed it was just an intermediary connecting drivers with passengers

Of course it's a cab, instead of using your hand or a phone, you use an app to hail it.


Like Black Monday....

Bitcoin crashed hard on December 22nd. I decided to create a poll and ask if people thought that this was a crash or a correction., You can see the results below

A correction that was due or the start of a crash... what is your opinion https://t.co/aOGB0cFJZT #BTC #Bitcoin #CryptoCurrencies #link

— Denis Gobo (@DenisGobo) December 22, 2017

Netflix Now Supports HDR on Windows 10

We are thrilled to announce the addition of High Dynamic Range (HDR) support on Windows 10 for both the Edge browser and the Netflix app. With this update, Netflix members who have a supported device and a premium plan can enjoy amazing Netflix movies and shows in HDR. 
With HDR enabled, fans can immerse themselves in the delicious colors of Chef’s Table, the terrifying depths of the Upside Down in Stranger Things 2, and enjoy the upcoming Netflix film Bright starring Will Smith. And this is just the beginning! Today, we have over 200 hours of HDR entertainment, and in 2018 even more HDR PCs will enter the market and support the growing number of Netflix originals.

I am still waiting on 4D TV.....


Why hasn’t The Year of the Linux Desktop happened yet?

Having spent 20 years of my life on Desktop Linux I thought I should write up my thinking about why we so far hasn’t had the Linux on the Desktop breakthrough and maybe more importantly talk about the avenues I see for that breakthrough still happening. There has been a lot written of this over the years, with different people coming up with their explanations. My thesis is that there really isn’t one reason, but rather a range of issues that all have contributed to holding the Linux Desktop back from reaching a bigger market. Also to put this into context, success here in my mind would be having something like 10% market share of desktop systems, that to me means we reached critical mass. So let me start by listing some of the main reasons I see for why we are not at that 10% mark today before going onto talking about how I think that goal might possible to reach going forward.

I think Apple is the biggest reason here, all those people who might have switched to Linux, they switched to MacOS instead.  Will 2018 be the year of the Linux desktop.... answer is NO!!

Some cool stuff you might enjoy

United States of Greater Austria

The United States of Greater Austria (German: Vereinigte Staaten von Groß-Österreich) was a proposal, conceived by a group of scholars surrounding Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, that never came to pass. This specific proposal was conceived by the lawyer and politician Aurel Popovici in 1906 and aimed at federalizing Austria-Hungary to help resolve widespread ethnic and nationalist tensions.

Who knows what Europe would look like today if Gavrilo Princip didn't fire those shots that  killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_Greater_Austria

Some pics I took

Power Breakfast.... Eggs, sweet potatoes, peperoncini, arugola and spicy tomato sauce

TWID Dec 17, 2017

TWID Dec 17, 2017 This is a post detailing some stuff I did, learned, posted and tweeted this week, I call this TWID (This week in Denis). I am doing this mostly for myself... a kind of an online journal so that I can look back on this later on. Will use the label TWID for these

Married 20 years this week, amazing how time flies, I can still remember like it was yesterday.

Started to read: Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World ..
Read about 30% or so until now. This book is OK, nothing special. This is not a technical book, it is a chronology and prediction of blockchain itself. If you want a technical book, take a look at Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain by Andreas M. Antonopoulos

Went to the gym, had to bike 5 miles in 15 degree weather without a hat. Man it was brutal when you go downhill, my feet were still frozen 45 minutes after I arrived at the gym, don't even ask about my ears, they were red like Rudolph's nose

Transferred some bitcoin to my blockchain wallet from bitminter, I mined these 3 years ago, not sure what to do next with it. Should I leave it or convert it into cash? When I say bitcoin I mean a fraction of a bitcoin not a whole bitcoin.

This Week I Learned

Alphabet City.. what the cops say those letters stand for
Listened to the latest London Real podcast episode with John Joseph from the Cro-Mags some crazy stuff that this guy went through. At one point he discusses Alphabet City, this is a part of Manhattan that used to be really bad. Here is what the cops said about it

Avenue A: Adventure
Avenue B: Bold
Avenue C: Crazy
Avenue D: Dead

I have only been up till Avenue B when I left in the city. On Avenue B there was an after hour bar I used to go to, I believe it was called La Barca, and the only reason I ended up there is because Save The Robots was closed one night and these dudes were handing out business  card for this joint. I have been to Avenue A many times, a buddy of mine had a bar on 10st and A, this was near the Russian bath house. Not far from Alphabet City was St. Mark's Place and Webster Hall, I spent many evenings there between 1993 and 1996.

This Week I tweeted

Hundreds of Tesla Model 3 vehicles spotted at delivery centers as regular customer deliveries start

Hundreds of Tesla Model 3 vehicles were spotted at delivery centers in California this weekend as regular customer deliveries are reportedly starting.
As expected last week, the early Tesla Model 3 reservation holders that were in the first batch to be invited to configure their car without the Tesla employee priority delivery are starting to take delivery this week.

It looks like this is finally getting some traction. Have not seen as model 3 in the wild yet. At the Princeton Junction train station there are about 5 Tesla model S cars, I also see a model X regularly


Yahoo Finance has added over 100 cryptocurrency quote pages

Here is what the heatmap page looks like

I like they way this looks, I actually haven't visited Yahoo finance in a very long time, I was using Google finance for the last 10 years or so. The latest redesign made Google finance unusable for me, maybe I will use Yahoo finance instead, I do still use Google sheets with their finance formulas.

SpaceX uses SQL Server

Yes, it's true, the position is still open, Elon Musk knows when he sees a good thing  :-)

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop code for automation of tasks in T-SQL, PowerShell, and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)

• Set up database monitoring

• Develop stored procedures and optimize queries via T-SQL

• Develop detailed test conditions and test cases to ensure quality of queries and reports

• Research and troubleshoot data questions

• Collaborate on problem resolution, team decisions and project planning

Check it out here: http://www.spacex.com/careers/position/209011

Twenty companies including Unilever and the Virgin Group announced on Tuesday that they will phase out usage of coal in order to combat climate change

Twenty companies including Unilever and the Virgin Group announced on Tuesday that they will phase out usage of coal in order to combat climate change.

The companies announced their decision at the One Planet Summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. Coming a month after the COP23 in Bonn, Germany, the announcement puts the companies in a position similar to the "Powering Past Coal Alliance," a partnership of 26 nations founded in Bonn by Britain, France, Mexico, New Zealand, Costa Rica and the Marshall Islands.

Among the list of companies committing to the coal phase out are BT, Engie, Kering, Diageo, Marks & Spencer, Orsted and Storebrand.

That's a good thing

The Trump administration banned CDC officials from using certain words

In a 90-minute briefing on Thursday, policy analysts at the nation's leading public health institute were presented with the menu of seven banned words, an analyst told the paper. On the list: "diversity," "fetus," "transgender," "vulnerable," "entitlement," "science-based" and "evidence-based."

Alternative word choices reportedly were presented in some cases. For instance, in lieu of "evidence-based" or "science-based," an analyst might say, "CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes," the source said. But those working on the Zika virus's effect on developing fetuses may be at a loss for appropriate -- or acceptable -- words.

It's not April 1st, fake news or the year 1500, this is just incredible.

Some cool stuff you might enjoy

I discovered OneTab this week. The OneTab browser extension collapses a messy browser full of tabs into one tab with a bulleted list of your previous tabs! This helps conserve computer memory, it also declutters your browser. You can also share all your collapsed URLs with someone if you wish to do so

Here is what it looks like

To restore a tab, all you have to do is click on the link. Get it here https://www.one-tab.com/

Some pics I took

Took this pic after it snowed a little, pretty don't you think?

TWID Dec 10, 2017

This is a post detailing some stuff I did, learned, posted and tweeted this week, I call this TWID (This week in Denis). I am doing this mostly for myself... a kind of an online journal so that I can look back on this later on. Will use the label TWID for these


Big Lebowski
I finally watched this movie, it was OK, I don't think it was as good as everyone claims it is. Maybe it was a little over hyped it and then I was a little disappointed.

Bitcoin crossed 17K this week

Incredible lol... how is this even possible?

This Week I Learned

Emetophobia 
Learned about emetophobia on the How Vomit Phobia Works podcast episode.

Emetophobia is a fear of vomit, including a fear of vomiting in public, a fear of seeing vomit, a fear of watching the action of vomiting or fear of being nauseated.

There is also a Rate My Vomit site, this site is actually used by people to get rid of their vomit phobia.


Caveman internet...
In 1910... here is what the internet looked like...  During the "Fight of the Century" boxing match between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries in Reno Nevada. people would pay money to be in a room in New York, Chicago and other cities. A blow by blow account of the match was delivered via telegraph. A person with a megaphone would then read out the match progress .  There was also a room where paid actors reenacted the fight blow by blow. Can you imagine how far we have come?

This Week I tweeted

CBOE Will Start Bitcoin Futures Trading on December 10  

Cboe Global Markets Inc. said Monday it will start trading bitcoin futures on Dec. 10, after getting the green light last week from regulators.

That gives Cboe a week of exclusivity. The exchange operator’s larger Chicago rival CME Group Inc. has said its contracts will begin trading Dec. 18.

Now it's legitimate and real  :-)


The Icelandic Translation of ‘Dracula’ Is Actually a Different Book

The Icelandic version of Dracula is called Powers of Darkness, and it’s actually a different—some say better—version of the classic Bram Stoker tale.

Makt Myrkranna (the book’s name in Icelandic) was “translated” from the English only a few years after Dracula was published on May 26, 1897, skyrocketing to almost-instant fame. Next Friday is still celebrated as World Dracula Day by fans of the book, which has been continuously in print since its first publication, according to Dutch author and historian Hans Corneel de Roos for Lithub. But the Icelandic text became, in the hands of translator Valdimar Ásmundsson, a different version of the story.

Interesting.. of course back then you would ship a manuscript to be translated and probably would not hear anything back for a year. How many people speak Icelandic anyway? Believe it or not, I read Dracula for the first time last year. After I finished the book, I then watched the movie from the 1930s with Bela Lugosi. I was really disappointed in the movie, the book is so much better.


Reading Information Aloud to Yourself Improves Memory

A recent Waterloo study found that speaking text aloud helps to get words into long-term memory. Dubbed the “production effect,” the study determined that it is the dual action of speaking and hearing oneself that has the most beneficial impact on memory.

“This study confirms that learning and memory benefit from active involvement,” said Colin M. MacLeod, a professor and chair of the Department of Psychology at Waterloo, who co-authored the study with the lead author, post-doctoral fellow Noah Forrin. “When we add an active measure or a production element to a word, that word becomes more distinct in long-term memory, and hence more memorable.”

I wonder if you read along while listening to an audio book counts  :-)

Some people are not very smart, take a look at this

Haha really, people fall for this?

China Green Licence Plate Scheme Going National


The green licence plates are split into two categories, small electric vehicles and large electric vehicles. The small electric vehicle plate is gradated green, while the large electric vehicle plate combines both yellow and green. Additionally, the green plates increase the numbers available from 5 to 6 and the Ministry of Public Security has implemented anti-counterfeiting technology.

Because new energy vehicles include non-electric vehicles, the new plates have to use letters to distinguish between them. D for electric and F for non-electric new energy vehicle. The small vehicle plates put the letter at the start of the number but after the region identifier, whereas the large vehicle plates put the identifier at the end of the number.

You must admit, these look pretty cool

Some cool stuff you might enjoy

Lectures from Princeton on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies 

Intro to Crypto and Cryptocurrencies

1.0 Welcome - 2 mins
1.1 Cryptographic Hash Functions - 18 mins
1.2 Hash Pointers and Data Structures - 8 mins
1.3 Digital Signatures - 9 mins
1.4 Public Keys as Identities - 5 mins
1.5 A Simple Cryptocurrency - 14 mins

How Bitcoin Achieves Decentralization

2.1 Centralization vs. Decentralization - 4 mins
2.2 Distributed Conesensus - 13 mins
2.3 Consensus Without Identity: the Blockchain - 17 mins
2.4 Incentives and Proof of Work - 19 mins
2.5 Putting It All Together - 18 mins

There are 60 lectures in total, find the full list here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7il1sx/sixty_free_lectures_from_princeton_on_bitcoin_and/


Free eBook – The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Azure now available

This eBook was written by developers for developers. It is specifically meant to give you the fundamental knowledge of what Azure is all about, what it offers you and your organization, and how to take advantage of it all.

The eBook covers the following topics:

• Chapter 1: The Developer’s Guide to Microsoft
• Chapter 2: Getting started with Microsoft Azure
• Chapter 3: Adding intelligence to your application
• Chapter 4: Securing your application
• Chapter 5: Where and how to deploy your Microsoft Azure services
• Chapter 6: A walk-through of Microsoft Azure
• Chapter 7: Using the Microsoft Azure Marketplace

Get it here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/free-ebook-the-developer-s-guide-to-microsoft-azure-now-available/

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Python!


This opinionated guide exists to provide both novice and expert Python developers a best practice handbook to the installation, configuration, and usage of Python on a daily basis.

Get all the good stuff here: http://docs.python-guide.org/en/latest/

Some pics I took

First snow of the season

TWID Dec 03, 2017

This is a post detailing some stuff I did, learned, posted and tweeted this week, I call this TWID (This week in Denis). I am doing this mostly for myself... a kind of an online journal so that I can look back on this later on. Will use the label TWID for these


I finished the book  Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly. I liked the book a lot. The most interesting part for me was that he was up in space for a whole year while his twin brother stayed on earth. A lot of research was done and will be done because of that. It was also interesting that both twins developed prostate cancer. I also liked how the Russian space agency does things differently than NASA. Reading this book has made me more interested in space. I will have to read up on more topics, also next time I am in Washington DC, I have to go back to the National Air and Space Museum.




What you see here is the price of bitcoin, it crossed the 10,000 mark on November 28th 2017. Insane..
On January 1st 2017, bitcoin was 963, it's up over 1000% year to date



Bitcoin hit the 11K mark this week, almost at 12K today

What will happen first, will bitcoin hit 20,000 or will it go down to below 5,000?

Charts here: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/#charts

Who buys bitcoins at 10K anyway? Maybe if you live in Zimbabwe or Venezuela where inflation is 50% or higher it makes sense, otherwise it's way to volatile IMHO


Watched Meth Storm on HBO. This documentary looks at meth addiction in rural America from the perspective of dealers, users and law enforcement. I guess there is no way for me to understand how people act and live like this so I won't judge. It is however sad, very sad what these people go through and put other people through.

This Week I Learned

Tarantella
Saw this on the Anthony Bourdain's Southern Italy episode which was shot in Puglia. It looks like
 the tarantella is a solo dance performed supposedly to cure through perspiration the delirium and contortions attributed to the bite of a spider at harvest (summer) time

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantella

Humans Are the Sex Organs of machines
Interesting quote from Marshall McLuhan, I heard this while listening to the Joe Rogan experience podcast with guest Brian Redban. This quote is from 1964, Marshall McLuhan was way ahead

Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian professor, philosopher, and public intellectual. His work is one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory, as well as having practical applications in the advertising and television industries. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge; he began his teaching career as a Professor of English at several universities in the U.S. and Canada before moving to the University of Toronto, where he remained for the rest of his life.
McLuhan is known for coining the expression "the medium is the message" and the term global village, and for predicting the World Wide Web almost 30 years before it was invented

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan

How Lumière created the movie camera
Heard this on the Missed in history podcast. Lumière  was struggling to create a movie camera, when he looked at a sawing machine, he noticed he could do something similar with his movie camera. Once he perforated the film and added clips to the camera it worked. The Lumière brothers were not interested in selling their cameras but more interested in showing films. Also interesting that the earliest movies included a lot of spanking and animal cruelty.

Thermometer scale
Heard this one in the How it began: A history of the modern world podcast
Anders Celsius (1701–1744) proposed a scale with zero at the boiling point and 100 degrees at the freezing point of water though the scale which now bears his name has them the other way around

Wow how interesting would it be to convert Celcius to Fahrenheit and vice versa if the original scale was still in use

This Week I tweeted

Stanford University 2017-18: CS007: Personal Finance For Engineers

“Personal Finance for Engineers“.  The course is offered through the Computer Science department (CS 007), but is open to undergraduate & graduate students of any major.


Shell and carmakers aim to go the distance with highway charging

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) has partnered with top carmakers to deploy ultra-fast chargers on Europe’s highways, stealing a march on rivals in the race to remove one of the biggest obstacles facing the electric car sector.

Looks like Shell is already starting to diversify away from oil.


The electricity used to mine bitcoin this year is bigger than the annual usage of 159 countries

The amount of energy used by computers "mining" bitcoin so far this year is greater than the annual usage of almost 160 countries, according to new research.
Research by energy tariff comparison service PowerCompare.co.uk shows that the amount of energy expended mining bitcoin globally has already exceeded the amount used on average by Ireland and most African nations.
PowerCompare.co.uk used stats from Bitcoin and cryptocurrency data provider Digiconomist, which estimates that 29.05 TWh of electricity was used to mine bitcoin, compared to an estimated 25 TWh of electricity per year used by Ireland.

I guess it is good they use mostly ASIC miners these days instead of graphic cards... You could also in the future use miners as a heat system and generate money while also heating your house  :-)


Coinbase Ordered to Turn Over Identities of 14,355 Crypto Traders to the IRS

On Tuesday, a California federal court ordered the popular cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service Coinbase to turn over records on thousands of customers to the Internal Revenue Service.

The requested records include the name, birthdate, address, and account activity for any user who bought, sold, sent, or received more than $20,000 worth of Bitcoin in their accounts between 2013 and 2015.

Not so anonymous is it?


More than 480 web firms record 'every keystroke'

Hundreds of web firms are tracking every single keystroke made by visitors, a study from Princeton University has suggested.
The technique - known as session replay - is used by companies to gain an understanding of how customers use websites.
More than 480 websites used the technique, according to the study.
Experts questioned the legality of using such software without user consent

That's not cool



Flat Earthers to Elon Musk: Mars is round, silly

Hi Elon, thanks for the question. Unlike the Earth, Mars has been observed to be round.

We hope you have a fantastic day!

— Flat Earth Society (@FlatEarthOrg) November 28, 2017

Haha this is awesome.. they are either the biggest trolls or the dumbest people.

Some cool stuff you might enjoy

Django 2.0 released
Django 2.0 has been released, support for Python 3, Python 2 is not supported. Easier routing, window expression in the over clause just like in SQL Server,  and much more, check it out here: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/2.0/releases/2.0/

World Cup 2018 draw
On December 1st the draw for the World Cup 2018 happened. Below are the 8 groups, I will give you also my predictions of who will advance from each group

Since Russia is playing at home, they will have an advantage over the other teams. This group is also the easiest group that could have been picked for Russia.. it is almost if someone paid FIFA off ;-) Russia and Uruguay to advance

The Iberian derby, Ronaldo vs Ramos, this will be interesting. Portugal and Spain to advance

France to advance, the 2nd place is difficult to predict perhaps Denmark?

Iceland and Croatia meet again, Iceland won the last game, but this is when Croatia had the tv repair man as a couch, it seemed they got their crap together. Don't know much about Nigeria, could be the dark horse in this group. Argentina and Croatia to advance.

Brazil and who else to advance. Serbia will have a tough game against Switzerland since the Swiss team has a bunch of Albanians/Kosovars in their team. But then again Serbia since it is playing on their Russian orthodox brothers turf, it could be said they are playing home. SO the 2nd place will got to Serbia probably

Die deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft (die Mannshaft) to advance in first place, 2nd place is a toss up between Mexico and Sweden, 51% for Mexico

The south Netherlands (aka Belgium) to advance with the English team

Colombia to advance with Japan is my guess here. But then again Lewandowski could score a good number of goals and have Poland advance

Some pics I took

Took this while walking to work... I like how the light hits the fog and dust particles





Broadway near Fulton Street looks spooky with all the steam blowing all over the place

TWID Nov 26, 2017

This is a post detailing some stuff I did, learned, posted and tweeted this week, I call this TWID (This week in Denis). I am doing this mostly for myself... a kind of an online journal so that I can look back on this later on. Will use the label TWID for these


Went for a run in 20 degree weather this week and my phone shut off half way in. I thought the battery was empty. But later when I was back home the phone turned on and there was still 37% of charge left. I guess it was too cold for the precious phone and it decided to shut itself off. Very annoying when you use the phone to track you steps as well as listen to podcast while running. From now on, I will put it in my fleece not in the outside pocket of the jacket. I am still not sure what I hate most,  running when it's really cold or running when it's really warm.

I am still reading Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson, this will take me another week or two to finish

I am also reading Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly, this one I should finish in a couple of days


I noticed that Duolingo added Chinese to their app this week. I will have to give that a shot to see how it compares to a book and CDs

Went to my sister in law for Thanksgiving, hardly any talk about politics this year. What was discussed however was bitcoin... interesting..I guess bitcoin has hit mainstream now.

Worked only 2.5 days this week.. have a bunch of tasks waiting for me to do next week, this is also the last week of the current sprint

Took the kids to the mall on black Friday.. wasn't as busy as I expected.

Read the following: People Who Speed-Listen to Podcasts
For myself, it depends on the podcast.. something like twit, Joe Rogan, motley fool, stuff you should know, Jocko podcast I listen to at 2x speed and I don't lose anything at that speed(at least I believe I don't). Hardcore history I listen to at 1.5x speed , I listened at 1.0x before but I noticed that 1.5 is fine... everything else is at 1.5 as well. It is interesting to hear Joe Rogan sometimes at 1.0 speed...I then check if something is wrong because Joe sounds so weird and slow :-)

See also the comments on Hackernews: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15741428

This Week I Learned

Medicane
Heard this one on CNBC, decided to look it up because I thought it was some made up stuff or someone misspelled medicare.

Mediterranean tropical-like cyclones, sometimes referred to as Mediterranean hurricanes or Medicanes, are rare meteorological phenomena observed in the Mediterranean Sea. Due to the dry nature of the Mediterranean region, formation of tropical cyclones is infrequent, with only 100 recorded tropical-like storms between 1947 and 2011
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_tropical-like_cyclone

Sfumato
The technique is a fine shading meant to produce a soft transition between colours and tones, in order to achieve a more believable image. It is most often used by making subtle gradations that do not include lines or borders, from areas of light to areas of dark. The technique was used not only to give an elusive and illusionistic rendering of the human face but also to create rich atmospheric effects. Leonardo da Vinci described the technique as blending colours, without the use of lines or borders "in the manner of smoke".
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sfumato


Chiaroscuro
Chiaroscuro originated during the Renaissance as drawing on colored paper, where the artist worked from the paper's base tone toward light using white gouache, and toward dark using ink, bodycolor or watercolor. These in turn drew on traditions in illuminated manuscripts going back to late Roman Imperial manuscripts on purple-dyed vellum. Such works used to be called "chiaroscuro drawings", but are more often described in modern museum terminology by such formulae as "pen on prepared paper, heightened with white bodycolor". Chiaroscuro woodcuts began as imitations of this technique. When discussing Italian art, the term sometimes is used to mean painted images in monochrome or two colors, more generally known in English by the French equivalent, grisaille. The term broadened in meaning early on to cover all strong contrasts in illumination between light and dark areas in art, which is now the primary meaning.

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro


Rhombicuboctahedron
In geometry, the rhombicuboctahedron, or small rhombicuboctahedron, is an Archimedean solid with eight triangular and eighteen square faces. There are 24 identical vertices, with one triangle and three squares meeting at each. (Note that six of the squares only share vertices with the triangles while the other twelve share an edge.) The polyhedron has octahedral symmetry, like the cube and octahedron. Its dual is called the deltoidal icositetrahedron or trapezoidal icositetrahedron, although its faces are not really true trapezoids.

I am not sure if I forgot what a Rhombicuboctahedron is or if I never knew.
Here is a Rhombicuboctahedron as drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, this is the one that made me look this up


Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=355440

Below is also a rotating model of a Rhombicuboctahedron

Source wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rhombicuboctahedron.gif

More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhombicuboctahedron and here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhedron



Squaring the circle
One of the tasks Leonardo da Vinci had set for himself was to learn how to square a circle

Squaring the circle is a problem proposed by ancient geometers. It is the challenge of constructing a square with the same area as a given circle by using only a finite number of steps with compass and straightedge. It may be taken to ask whether specified axioms of Euclidean geometry concerning the existence of lines and circles entail the existence of such a square
More here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squaring_the_circle

This Week I tweeted

This man is about to launch himself in his homemade rocket to prove the Earth is flat

Hahaha, I can't believe that this is happening in the year 2017. One of my buddies left me a good comment

the ironic thing is that, if it fails to launch: conspiracy. if it launches and he dies on impact: conspiracy. if it launches and works and he claims the earth IS round: conspiracy

Why You Should Be Photographing Your City At Blue Hour
Like the golden hour, blue hour occurs twice a day. In the early morning as the sun casts light on the atmosphere, but has not come over the horizon. In the evening it is the short period of time after the sun has set and before pure night sets in. Both have a very distinct and different feel to them. The morning blue hour is a time of calm and quiet. There are very few people and cars around, buildings are often unlit, leaving only the street lights illuminating the city. It is a wonderful time to be a photographer and a wonderful time to shoot the normally bustling streets of a city.


Amazon’s Seattle campus is using a data center next door as a furnace. It’s pretty neat.
This makes sense, why not use all that heat to do something useful with it


Tesla to be its own first electric semi truck customer with cargo route between Fremont and Gigafactory 1
While orders for the Tesla Semi electric truck are piling up, Tesla’s VP of Truck programs, Jerome Guillen, confirmed that Tesla will be its own first customer and that it will use the trucks to carry cargo between its factory in Fremont, California and its battery factory in Nevada.

Eating your own dogfood  :-)

Some cool stuff you might enjoy

Legofy
To make a design from a picture so that you can build it in Lego. The code is on Github: https://github.com/lucaswo/legofy

Here is an example

Top left is the Vermeer painting, top right is the output from the code, the bottom one is the lego built based upon the top right output

You can also read the blog post for this here: http://lucaswoltmann.de/art%27n%27images/2017/04/08/the-girl-with-the-brick-earring.html

Some pics I took

Took this after I finished my run this morning
What you see is the Raritan Delaware Canal, this canal runs behind my home and there is a trail that runs alongside the canal.





This was a picture I took in Manhattan, you can clearly see the bokeh in this pic





This is the PATH station around 6:20 AM, this reminds me of a the station in West World





The elves are back, they are watching to make sure that my kids are behaving. I hid the elves this morning and it took the kids 30 minutes to find them. They got all worried... especially after I told them that since they were behaving badly, there was no need for the elves to stick around any longer  :-()