nondeterministic . net

The Swiss Air safety video is computer generated animation. The female character in the movie is wearing high heels. In the section on using the emergency exit slides, however, an icon at the bottom of the screen indicates that heels are not to be worn (presumably they would puncture the slide). Sure enough, the CG animators have removed the woman’s shoes. But her 3D model they left unchanged, so at the bottom of the slide she stands on her toes, heels in the air. [continue reading “BOS ZHR TLV”]

The cat is out of the bag, so to speak, that I arrived in town this past Tuesday for a two-week visit before my classes begin. I’ve had great fun surprising altogether too many of you. Send me an email (I am cellphoneless) if I haven’t seen you yet. And shanah tovah.

I’m studying away for tomorrow’s early-morning Hebrew test, but since I haven’t posted in a while, I thought I’d share with you a sentence from the exercise I’m currently reviewing: הוא מצליח מאוד עבודה אבל אין לו ___ עם בחורות The answers are -ב and הצלחה, but that’s not so much the point as is the translation: “He’s very successful in work, but he doesn’t have success with women.” Seems applicable enough; let’s hope it holds at least through tomorrow morning. Or doesn’t. Or something. PS: old: JTA News PPS: new: VersionTracker

After a few hours of hacking I bring you fiwt version 0.3, my latest Safari find-as-you-type attempt. Little fiwt is now a SIMBL plugin, which improves its behind-the-scenes behavior and makes upgrading (or uninstalling) a much easier process. The included Readme file has further details.