Archive for the 'Lists' category

Linux.com published a good post giving three ideas about how to optimize your GNU/Linux distribution performance.

Rock stars do not have a quiet life. But they often have violent or surprising deaths. When you’re a star, you need to stay one even in the process of dying.

The 50 Most Awesomely Dead Rock Stars.

But as if this was not completely obvious, there is an English scientist (he’s from Liverpool John Moores University) so bored at Science that he decided to study this issue seriously. And what did he find? That those guys are more susceptible to dying early; That they have too much of everything very early; That they overuse all of it (including drugs and alcohol); That this is “excessive behaviour” and not safe.

Pompous understatements…

The page has been digged so much that they had to move to a different server, but it’s still a very nice collection of impressive photographs (think “saturated colours”) from all origins.

I would even suggest that most of them would make great desktop backgrounds for your computer.

Link.

To all the readers that are interested in keeping in touch with us without even the effort to visit us every day, there are two options that you should keep in mind:

1. Using the RSS feed for the web site. You need to have an RSS reader (one is included in recent versions of Safari, FireFox, Opera and Internet Explorer; Several autonomous specialized software programs exist; BlogLines, Google, AOL and others offer such services -See the Add-To category in the let-hand-side column). It has the advantage of using a now-common interface symbolized by the logo: You can keep in touch with several web sites at the same time and you are informed any time something new is published.
2. If you prefer to receive an email each time some new article is posted, you can use the RSSFWD tool. it reads the RSS feed and sends you an email to inform you. Just go to http://www.rssfwd.com/ and give the following feed URL: http://www.roumazeilles.net/news/en/wordpress/feed/, the service will work in a matter of seconds.

While I’m on the subject of RSS feeds, let me offer a link to the RSS toolbox of Mashable. It gives information about 120+ ressources (readers and utilities) useful to RSS lovers.

More and more often, accessing the Internet becomes limited by the presence of censoring tools and methods (and I am not speaking of those countries where this has been institutionalized like China, Iran or Tunisia). It may be to avoid your spending too much time idling instead of working or it may be to ensure that you do not access to “questionable material”. But the Internet is highly flexible in nature and there may be good solutions to avoid this censorship.

10 - Go to the IP addresss

Instead of connecting through the domain name (example.com), you could connect directly to the IP address (192.168.0.15). It the network stops you at the DNS level, this will allow you to reach the site.

9 - Go to the Google cache

As you certainly know, the Google search engine offers “cached” links after most of its results. Since those are copies of the original web site located on Google servers, it is convenient.

8 - Go to Google mobile search

Google mobile search is made for mobile phone users, but it can be used by countless others.

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Ultra-specialized, the web sites below will allow you to build or create easily enormously personnalized images:

• Clapper board: As if you were clapping for your own motion picture
• Cigarette pack
• Warning label 100% tailor-made
• Official-looking seals

This week, I observed a weird tendency (random concentration?) on the information channels I check on the Internet: I saw an increasing number of news about ways to optimize parts of your trips and travels.

• Trippish: Take weather into account to plan your trips.
• Farecast: Choose the best time to buy an airplane ticket in order to get it at the best possible price (using statistical methods, and with a refund-the-difference commitment)
• BizMile: Compute your business miles (for IRS appreciation and with valid IRS report output)

Everybody is moving around more than ever, or is it merely that you are all thinking about your next vacations?

Alan Taylor created a nice representation of the largest bodies of the Solar System (it takes into account the new classification used since last Summer). A really good job of Photoshopping many images together in order to produce what could easily become a landscape poster if somebody decided to print it.

The other day, I was looking at the list of the ten countries most hardly hit by infant mortality (according to the CIA World Fact Book 2005). The top 10 (or should I say Bottom 10) is:

• Angola (197.8 for 100 births) after a civil war between 1975 and 2002
• Afghanistan (163.07 for 100 births) in a more or less continuous war since the entry of soviet tanks end of 1979
• Sierra Leone (162.55 for 100 births) in a civil war since 1991 (The UN forces retired in 2005, without having obtained peace)
• Liberia (161.99 for 100 births) in a nearly permanent civil war since 1989
• Mozambique (130.79 for 100 births) in civil war and in war with its neighbours from 1975-6 to 1992
• Niger (119.69 for 100 births) in a state of political instability since 1974
• Somalia (116.70 for 100 births) in war with Ethiopa or in civil war since 1977
• Tajikistan (110.76 for 100 births) in a civil war from 1992 to 1997, with stationned troups from Russia, US and France since 2001
• Mali (109.47 for 100 births)
• Guinea Bissau (107.15 for 100 births) in a civil war since 1998

Is it me or almost all of them are in war zones? Cause or consequence?

Is there a more explosive combination that a good Science Fiction flick synopsis/scenario and a totally sexy actress? In my opinion, not really. So, it is time to award the Roumazeilles.net top-10 sexiest actresses of the history of Science Fiction (sorted from the less sexy to the most sexy).

10 - Tina Turner (Aunty Entity in Mad Max 3, Beyond Thunderdome)

Is it normal that a mature woman, like Tina Turner, would appear here? Yes, because she’s still full of life and brings an erotic voice to a bad ass character that was central to the movie.

Tina Turner is full of life, a ravenous life, a shrieking life. She’s clothed in metal and leather, and she moves as if there is no other woman in the world (and, in the film, it’s nearly true). After a few years, this movie is still worth watching just because of her presence.

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Google sells advertising. There is some of it on my web site pages. Normally, as a web site owner, I don’t really look at the price ads are sold (I don’t buy ads to publicize and market my web site). But, nonetheless, I was curious about the price ads are sold to Google customers. More precisely, I tried to identify the ads that are sold at the higher price.

To scrutiny those, I used AdWords, Google’s tool for vendors; It allows to evaluate prices. The result is nearly shocking if you look at the highest scores. They are systematically grouped in a few narrow categories:

• Loan financing or refinancing - often to pay college
• Automobile insurance
• Attorneys and personal lawsuits

First, we can notice that this is significantly skewed towards the American way of life. But these are obviously related to commercial topics linked to professions and skills that can earn you A LOT of money if you can sell them right (isn’t it the main purpose of any publicity and advertising?)

I collected a list of the most expensive search words I could find.

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Some time ago, most people would not even think about creating a web site. Today, it became so easy to do (see another post coming soon) that the only question is not how, but why. Consequently, I decided to give you a few of the common ideas that led most web site designers and bloggers (even amateur ones):

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• Initially, because you have something to tell. Of course, you should start only if people usually ask you about something and consider that you have something interesting to say about it. If it is not the case, you may be led by the will to become this kind of expert or reference person on an issue you like.
• Because you can. We do a lot of things just because we can, not for very complex reasons
• Because being recognized expert on a field may attract some interesting job that you could not consider in any other way. I remember that Tom’s Hardware was started by a medical student who had some understanding of technology and hitech gadgets. He moved from Medecine to Technology.
• Because -if you do it well- you may earn a neat income. Most blogs do not bring any money. However, some are quite a neat source of money. A few thousands of visits per day (easily reachable if you are persistent enough to produce at least 100 posts per year) will be easily monetized to a few hundred dollars per year with the help of Google AdSense or other polite/discreet advertising.

Of course, you need to spend some time to it. But, this is not a lot. For many people browsing the Internet is already a daily activity. Spending a few minutes to keep a log of your activities or researches would be easy. Spending a few hours a week to write about your hobby is usually a neat way to ensure that your knowledge is understandable and that you can share it with others. In some cases, you will even notice that some of your friends will go to your web site before asking you for details that will make the matter for further posts (I often re-use some of my emails into posts).

Will 2007 be the year of your web site?