Riba Rambles:
Musings of a Mental Magpie

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:30 PM

After nearly a decade learning about information retrieval and studying search engines, I must say I'm impressed by Pupna which "retrieves exactly what you are searching for (and absolutely nothing else!)" I discovered it today at work, and it's really something. It's rare to find a site that so actually lives up to its hype.

In other news, I just finished reading Will by Tiffany Grace, a (YA) fictional biography of Shakespeare which features Marlowe for a quarter- to a third of the book. Eh. Most of the fictionalized portrayals of Shakespeare that I've read have focused on a particular slice in life. Simon Hawke's (excellent) Shakespeare & Smythe mysteries set during his early lost years, or YA books focused on the boy actors which only cover the time of a play or two.

This book dragged, though I forced my way through it. It felt like the author was working through a checklist. Every scene, I could tell, had some event to illustrate. Even when I wasn't familiar with the historical events, it just felt obvious, like she was working her way through the canon.

This kind of thing happens to me more and more with Marlowe fiction -- at this point, I probably know his history as well as the authors and better than the intended audience. [One of the reasons I liked Tamburlaine must die, which I still intend to write up, is that it avoided the usual litany.] But I hadn't expected it here, since I'm so much less familiar with Shakespeare's biography. I wonder whether it was just the fault of the author or if I'll have a similar problem with other Shakespeare biofics.

So, I wasted several hours on this book that I could've been blogging. On the positive, however, this puts me to 53% of the modern Marlowe fiction (25 out of 47).

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:54 AM

I just saw the press release:

P2P Revolution: Opera Announces Platform-Independent Real-Time Speech Technology

Opera Software's R&D department today announced the discovery of a new technology dubbed 'Opera SoundWave' - a platform-independent speech solution for short- and medium-range interpersonal communication. Based on open standards, Opera's patent-pending P2P speech technology uses analogue signals carried through open air, enabling users to communicate in real- time without the use of computers or mobile phones.

Opera is spearheading the development to let people communicate without using a keyboard, and the new SoundWave technology was accidently discovered during an R&D study to speech-enable Opera's e-mail client. One of Opera's desktop developers needed to find an alternative way to relay a message to his colleague at a time when the e-mail server was down, and was startled to notice that his verbal outcry was intercepted and understood immediately.

"As most people, I have used e-mail as my primary means of communication for many years and accepted that it is not always 100 percent effective," says Trond Werner Hansen, Opera desktop developer and inventor of SoundWave, via a Technical Preview of the new technology. "Opera SoundWave has opened up a whole new world for me, enabling me to get things done faster and more efficiently than before - and it is remarkably easy to use."

More than an efficient way to communicate without keyboard input, Opera's new P2P speech technology solves the problem of frequent misunderstandings in non-contextual communication. Opera researchers realized this technology can incorporate dynamic emoticons far more advanced than those typically used in e-mails and instant messaging. Platform-independent, the P2P real-time speech technology from Opera seamlessly integrates with mass-market services like dating and shopping.

Opera Software admits the speech technology is at an early stage and that there are still problems that need to be solved. There may still be some compatibility issues, especially when roaming in foreign countries. Furthermore, the technology does not seem to work well over distances of more than 100 feet, and several issues related to security and privacy remain to be fixed. [cont'd]

Isn't that cool!?

If you don't get it, try the Technical Preview of Opera SoundWave.

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:15 AM

I stayed up waaaaaay too late reading last night.

But beyond that, should I be worried by this and this that I read last night?

Posted by Lis Riba at 12:15 AM

Folks (who are reading my weblog on my site, rather than thru an aggregator) may notice that my sidebar's gotten a wee bit shorter recently.

I've just given my blogroll a long overdue pruning.

Posted by Lis Riba at 11:01 PM

It's the juxtaposition, stupid:

• When polls shows 82% percent of Americans are on one side, don't say the nation is divided.
• When the president's approval rating is hovering in the 40s, don't say he "remains popular"

Posted by Lis Riba at 10:04 PM

Just ran across this amusing 4-Variable IQ Test:

Your brain: 10% interpersonal, 25% visual, 20% verbal, and 45% mathematical!

Congratulations on being 100% smart! The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are different kinds of thinkers. Matching Summary: Each of us has different tastes. Still, I offer the following advice, which I think is obvious: Don't date someone if your interpersonal percentages differ by more than 50%. Don't be friends with someone if your verbal percentages differ by more than 60%. Don't have sex with someone if their math percentage is over 50%.

Link: The 4-Variable IQ Test written by chriscoyne on Ok Cupid

I don't quite agree with their matchmaking advice. I'll wait to see Ian's results (should he decide to take the quiz), but I suspect his interpersonal will be a great deal higher than mine. But that's why we're so good for each other -- generally speaking, we complement one another.

Speaking of memes, I rather liked this fandom meme I found on my friendslist. It's rather LJ-specific (in terms of references to the friends list) but I think I can adapt it to the general blogosphere if anybody'd care to participate:

If my blogroll^* were a fandom...

1. Who would the 'shippers pair me with?
2. Who would the slashers pair me with?
3. What would a Mary Sue in my fandom be like OR who is mostly likely to be turned into canon!Sue?
4. When did I/when will I jump the shark? (Which is to ask, "When did I/will I become crap and cease to be interesting?")
5. Write a summary of the story that would win the Best Fanfic Award in my fandom.

^* If you're not comfortable with the blogroll idea (whether it's unfamiliarity with the other blogs or you just find it less fun), you have my permission to expand "my fandom" to the whole-wide world -- though I may request some explanations if your het OTP pairs me with anyone other than Ian...

Any takers?

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:00 PM

I know. I intended to stay out of these debates. I keep forgetting that my predictions about what I'm going to blog are invariably wrong.

Once again, Amy Sullivan is blogging about gender differences. But one of the lines in her article struck a nerve.

So I'm reposting the comment I left in Political Animal both for your benefit and so I don't lose track of these thoughts:

I'll start with a larger excerpt of the article to provide more context (emphasis mine):

Although boys and girls are equally verbal when they enter elementary school, by the time they graduate 13 years later, boys will have spoken far more often in class than girls; the ratio, the Sadkers determined, was an astounding 8-to-1. Conventional wisdom assumes that girls are just naturally more hesitant to answer questions and volunteer ideas. But reams of social science research?including a report by the American Association of University Women that examined more than 1,300 studies on girls and education?show that the difference is due instead to subtle, but firm, lessons about who gets to offer opinions and how.
What researchers found should track closely with memories of your second-grade self. Those are the years in which children learn how to participate in group discussions.

And here's what I wrote in response:

What do you think?

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:18 PM

So after all that talk of Doctor Who, I decided I really wanted to watch "Curse of the Fatal Death" (the Comic Relief special). And I can't find our copy of the video tape. I'm upset. :(

If you're reading this, I didn't happen to lend our copy to you, did I?

Posted by Lis Riba at 7:00 PM

The next time I'm at a library, check out Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America by Laura Shapiro

I saw this on the Bookslut blog and it sounds like an interesting read.

For that matter, so does the author's previous book: Perfection salad: women and cooking at the turn of the century.

Also seen today, a rec for Type: the secret history of letters by Simon Loxley.

So many books, so little time...
[I've still got some vague half-finished reviews to blog of books I returned weeks ago...]

Posted by Lis Riba at 6:45 PM

So, after filming barely one season (and before us in the States have even gotten a legal look at the show), Christopher Eccleston is quitting as Doctor Who because he fears being typecast.

Oh, come on!

Back in the Eighties, Peter Davison kept his tenure as the Doctor brief for similar reasons. But for him, that was still a more reasonable three years!!!

Why does Eccleston sound like he was taken by surprise? At this point, why would any actor take a lead role in an SF series without taking a look at media fandom to see what s/he's getting into?

As Ian put it, if he were going in for a new unknown show, it might be more understandable. But this is Doctor Who and he's British! How on earth could he not know what he was in for before taking the role!? He's only got over forty freakin' years of history and seven other actors (excluding the movies) to look at. If this was his attitude, he shouldn't've taken the part in the first place.

Over lunch, I was talking about Blackadder and Rowan Atkinson, and I mentioned Curse of the Fatal Death. I remember the interviews with Atkinson and Hugh Grant and Jim Broadbent, where all these great British actors were talking about how they always wanted to play Doctor Who... So how did the BBC manage to find the one actor that didn't?

Sigh...

The Beeb says they're currently looking at actor David Tennant for Doctor #10 (I wonder if they've got any writers working on how to get past that twelve regeneration limit...) They seem so focused on that one actor that I suspect he might've been the runner-up in the last round of casting.

On the slim chance that any BBC casting directors glance at this blog, I agree with a friend's comment (the post in question is locked). Although he's still a bit young yet, Rupert Grint has the right look for a Doctor. He's also got experience acting with special effects and is already used to the cult celebrity status.

Aside: Just checking the Google News coverage of the matter (primarily the British press) and came across this juicy tidbit from The Telegraph's A-Z of Doctor Who:

Q Quillam

Character from the Colin Baker story "Vengeance on Varos" (1985), awarded Doctor Who's campest line - "I want to hear you scream until I'm deaf with pleasure!" Hurrah!

Heh. I must've missed that one...

Posted by Lis Riba at 8:59 AM

I've seen this site for ages, but finally found something about it worth blogging.

Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing is primarily "a catalog of naming questions and suggestions posted on several different baby naming bulletin boards" enhanced with snarky comments. For example:

We aren't having kids for another year or two, but we like Kellyna Nychole, Taryn Mykah and Mykenzie Kathryn for girls.

This woman was indicted under the Flagrant Over-Use of the Letters K and Y Act of 1983.

---

Lucida Grande Zenobia for a girl (plus you can use Zoe, Bea or Zen as nn) & Japheth for a boy (jay fit).

The Mocha Lucida Grande Zenobia - now available at Starbucks.

Helpful reader codeman38 points out little Lucy - oh, I'm sorry, is the most obvious nickname too common? - OK, little Rande is also the default font for Mac OSX. You can download her, as perverted as that sounds, here.

---

Vienna - Does anyone like it? I thought it was kinda pretty. The little girl is 4 who has this name. It's an Italian name....and I thought it was pretty. What do you guys think?

Among the responses:

• " It's a pretty name. I thought of Italy right when I saw it."
• " its pretty...I think of Vienna Italy - the place - right away"
• "It's kinda pretty, but nms. It is very Italian sounding, though."
• "Pretty name, thought of Switzerland instantly!!"
• "Not bad, but I do automatically think ... of vienna sausages. Vienna is also a city in Austria, but I kind of like "place" names, so that works for me, I just can't get past the sausage reference."

Finally! A winner! (In a way.)

---

Poll: Boys name - Lex or Ace?

Arch villain or pet detective....hmm....

Looking through the list, I see so many people ruining perfectly good names with K's and Y's (Krystyn and Mikayla) that I'm waiting to hear about the kid named Kyrgyzstan.

Frankly, I find the letter column, where people submit their own experiences with bad names, much funnier than the mockery of parents-to-be:

The following are all names of real people who are currently in my high school's marching band: [...] Stanford (talk about pressure!)

---

I went to high school in the late 80s with a kid named Delando Cotton. I have always wondered just what would possess African-American parents to name their son Delando Cotton. So I came up with a couple of theories: (cont'd)

While all of these are being held up for ridicule, I see a huge difference between unusual spellings and bad jokes (like the last one above). I don't think parents should use their children's names as an outlet for their sense of humor. Childhood is tough enough, it seems cruel to set kids up for such easy ridicule in this manner.

Everybody is familiar with the ubiquitous and apocryphal bad names, real and fictitious. I remember three particularly egregious names in my high school:

• Electra Coles
• Shanda Lear
• Tom Otto (one of the teachers, actually)

Finally, I had a college friend whose surname was Gross, with the middle initial B. [Put it together, if you don't get it.] But he was a good sport and took it in stride. According to him, everyone in his family had a middle initial that could be read in that manner: <Somebody> S. Gross, <So-and-so> R. Gross, <Someone Else> M. Gross... You get the idea. Then again, I see he now has two sons, neither of which have the funny middle initial, so either he or his wife have thought better of the practice.

Anyway, it's a cute site, though not as tears-down-the-face funny as the Bad Kitty List.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:35 PM

Two of my favorite bloggers (See the forest and Suburban Guerrilla) have announced plans to move away from Blogger. Since they're both on blogspot, that means new URLs, transferring archives, and a whole host of technical hassles that will keep them from writing new material. [And inconveniences to me, the reader.]

The reason I'm writing about this (besides the plug that these are blogs worth reading, and notes to update your bookmarks) is that neither of them are taking these steps because they've found a better provider. They're doing this because they're so dissatisfied with Blogger that they don't want to put up with it any more. Since I wrote this two weeks ago, I have seen some improvements, including more frequent (and detailed) updates on status.blogger.com, but clearly that hasn't been enough.

I'm sure the folks at Blogger are working their asses off on the technical problems, but maybe they need to get out and do some PR and contact some of these dissatisfied bloggers to mend some fences. Maybe dedicate some faster servers to the higher-profile bloggers out there? I don't know. On LiveJournal, server outages are announced by server name, and users can see which server they're on. I wouldn't begrudge someone as prolific and well-read as Atrios having a higher priority than a lowly rodent such as myself...

Anyway, I'm just rambling here (as usual). Any techies or marketing types out there care to brainstorm further ideas for getting past these problems?

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:15 AM

This morning on rec.humor.funny, I found this strange but true story:

Tax defaulters in southern India are being forced to face the music after city authorities hired drummers to play non-stop outside their homes until they pay up.

The (Melbourne) Age 'Odd Spot', 12 March 2005

My gut reaction?

It might've worked if the bass players in the house didn't take it as an invite and start to jam...

I don't think I blogged it, but last week Suburban Guerrilla linked to the world's largest collection of musician jokes. It has a lot of repetition (probably so the lead singer gets them) but there are enough laughs to be worth it.

Posted by Lis Riba at 9:01 PM

Earlier tonight, this image suddenly popped into my head:

A blue police box materializing against the wall of a small church in an ethnic neighborhood of London, early May, 1593.

Somebody emerging from the TARDIS, and while trying to find their bearings, innocently discovering a lengthy anti-immigrant screed tacked onto the door of the building.

Law enforcement arriving at the scene and arresting said individual for possession of such incriminating evidence.

Leaving it up to the Time Lord known as the Doctor to rescue his companion and set matters right.

Only problem I'm having with this scenario is that I can't figure out which Doctor and which companion should stumble into this mess...

Any suggestions?

[My gut reaction is Patrick Troughton and Jamie -- who would naturally be under suspicion just for his ethnic origin -- but then, I'm not certain Jamie was literate, which could be problematic. Hartnell might be cold-blooded enough to sentence somebody else to death to preserve the timeline, and I wouldn't mind seeing Colin Baker's companions suffer...]

Any other suggestions, either for whom should star in this little vignette or how the story should (or shouldn't) proceed?

PS: The notion that Marlowe didn't die in Deptford, but was instead rescued by time-travellers, has already been written. So we shan't be seeing Companion Kit.

Posted by Lis Riba at 3:25 PM

I come up with the strangest ideas. Maybe once in a while I can profit from them...

The next holiday on the Jewish calendar is Passover (Pesach). For you nonJews reading it, Passover starts with a highly ritualized meal (the seder), one part of which involves the youngest person at the seder reciting Four Questions, which then instigates a retelling of the Passover story. [For more information on this, see JewFaq.]

My nephew/godson just had his first birthday (which I hope to get around to blogging about sometime before his second). I have no doubt that he'll be the youngest at any seder, but he's too young to actually handle the Hebrew.

Which is when I had a little brainstorm!

How about making him a bib with the words written on it. When his turn comes up, somebody can just hold him up for everybody to read!

Click to enlarge

Problem solved!

Then, as I tried to figure out how to make such a product, I realized I might not be the only one in this situation.

Voila! A CafePress shop!!!

Baby bibs for everyone!

And, since it's no more trouble for me, I've included infant/toddler t-shirts and one-pieces, although given it's really only for two days of the year and kids grow so fast, the bib is probably the most practical.

Anyways, if you know anybody expecting a small child at the seder, send 'em my way.

[Also, if you happen to notice any typos on the Hebrew, please let me know, so I can correct them as soon as possible! Thanks!]