Daily Archives: May 15, 2009

You Just Made the List, Buddy

Posted on by

Adobe Updater popped up on my computer this morning, telling me to update Acrobat, and for once this didn’t happen while I was actually using the program or my browser — it seems to usually check only when the program is in active use for maximum inconvenience. So I installed the patch, and descended into hell. Once the updater was done, it re-launched the program, which was suddenly possessed. Besides the head spinning, pea soup spewing and saying, “your mother sews socks that smell,” it proceeded to open every goddamn pdf file on my computer. OK, not strictly true — it stopped when it reached 50, because that’s the limit on open files. But when I clicked on the error message, it just came up with another one, because it was continuing to try and open more files. Killing and relaunching the program just repeated the experience.

After Googling and being unable to uncover any instance of this happening (so there’s no posted solution), I tried to contact Adobe through their website. They want you to register for online help, and this requires that you opt-in to their spam.

optin

There’s no way to say “don’t contact me.” Screw you, Adobe. I’ll reinstall.

aka The Big Captain Crunch

Posted on by

But Rich Hall snigletified this first: The Cheerio Effect

In fluid mechanics, the cheerio effect is the tendency for small wettable floating objects to attract one another.

[…]

The phenomenon of molecules clumping applies to any (macroscopic) object that floats or clings to the surface of a liquid. This can include a multitude of things, including hair particles in shaving cream and fizzy beer bubbles. The effect is not noticeable in boats and other large floating objects since the force of surface tension is relatively small.

All is not well in Cheerio-land, however. Cheerios might be considered a drug, in a daft legalistic way similar to how tomatoes are a vegetable.

Throwing You a Curve

Posted on by

The break of the curveball illusion.

In baseball, a curveball creates a physical effect and a perceptual puzzle. The physical effect (the curve) arises because the ball’s rotation leads to a deflection in the ball’s path. The perceptual puzzle arises because the deflection is actually gradual but is often perceived as an abrupt change in direction (the break). Our illusions suggest that the perceived “break” may be caused by the transition from the central visual system to the peripheral visual system. Like a curveball, the spinning disks in the illusions appear to abruptly change direction when an observer switches from foveal to peripheral viewing.

Time Sink

Posted on by

I’ve long since passed the point when celebrating a birthday is a big deal — the last party I had was for #30, where we all dressed in black to mourn the passing of my youth. Fortunately the rumors of its death were greatly exaggerated (at least the behavioral part). But I used this year’s birthday as an excuse to buy a high-speed video camera (Exilim EX-FH20). It arrived a few days ago and I’ve been playing with it a lot. Soon, perhaps, I’ll actually install the user’s manual from the CD and read it.

So expect some postings of things gratuitously shot in slow-motion, with no real point to them (in stark contrast to so many of my posts) other than some thing shot in slo-mo look pretty cool. I suspect that many of my belongings will end up broken, but that that the destruction of my property will be exceeding well-documented.

Here is an early attempt, lighting a match in a candle flame, at 1000 fps.

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video