Grammar: NEVER end a sentence in a preposition or not

We're told in school to never end a sentence using a preposition.. why? I ran into the answer.

It was John Dryden who first promulgated the doctrine that a preposition may not be used at the end of a sentence, probably on the basis of a specious analogy to Latin. Grammarians in the 18th century refined the doctrine, and the rule has since become one of the most venerated maxims of schoolroom grammar. But sentences ending with prepositions can be found in the works of most of the great writers since the Renaissance. English syntax does allow for final placement of the preposition, as in We have much to be thankful for or I asked her which course she had signed up for. Efforts to rewrite such sentences to place the preposition elsewhere can have stilted and even comical results, as Winston Churchill demonstrated when he objected to the doctrine by saying "This is the sort of English up with which I cannot put."·Sometimes sentences that end with adverbs, such as I don't know where she will end up or It's the most curious book I've ever run across, are mistakenly thought to end in prepositions. One can tell that up and across are adverbs here, not prepositions, by the ungrammaticality of I don't know up where she will end and It's the most curious book across which I have ever run. It has never been suggested that it is incorrect to end a sentence with an adverb.

Source: TheFreeDictionary.com (click title for page)

Firefox Addons: Clipmarks

What can I do with Clipmarks? Save your clips on clipmarks.com. You can save clips publicly for others to see, post them to Facebook, or embed a widget of them on your own site. You can also save clips privately for your own viewing later. Your clip collection is searchable from any computer with an internet connection (including your iPhone, Blackberry, etc). Post anything you clip directly to your blog. It's by far the quickest way to update your blog with compelling things you find on the web. Supports Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad, LiveJournal and more. Email anything from a web page without ever leaving the page. Import your contacts to instantly email friends and family interesting things from the web. The content you clip and a link to the page is automatically included with each email. Print just the parts of the page you really need. Save paper, save money, save trees.

Emails: 2 Tough Questions: Modified

Starting a new section of useful email based info I've received. Useful for any reason, it may be spiritual, inspirational or educational.

It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts.
Here are the facts about the three candidates.. Who would you vote for?


Candidate A
Associates with crooked politicians, and consults
with astrologist
He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and
drinks 8 to 10 martinis a
day.


Candidate B
He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until
noon, used opium in
college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.


Candidate C
He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian,
doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.





Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt
Candidate B is Winston Churchill
Candidate C is Adolph Hitler

Tips: Gas Tips

At the price of gas nowadays we can always use a little info on how to stretch the galon to get more bang for out buck. Below is an email I received from a friend. If anybody can give me verifiable citations I will gladly add it to the article. As it stands these tips really don't hurt to try.

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.


* Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.


* When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.


* One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Un ike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.


* Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up -- most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

News: Content sensitive image resizing

This one's is pretty impressive. A group of scientist came up with an algorithm for resizing an image. The idea is to stretch or shrink the image while maintaining the image's main focus. Unlike standard non-uniform stretching or contracting, which leads to distortion, this method allows the subject to stay uniform while modifying the contents of an image. The image is treated a lot like an MP3. What MP3 does for compression is it removes sounds that people cannot ordinarily hear and thereby makes the file size significantly smaller. Click heading for video. I've also added a link to the internet resources section, on the right, to a web based application based on this algorithm.

News: 10 Times Longer Battery Life

Stanford materials scientist Yi Cui has found a way to create a silicone anode. Scientists knew that this material would create, at least theoretically, an enormous 10 fold increase in charge capacity but they were never able to achieve it. The problem was the silicone anode would crack or degrade due to extreme expansion. That was overcome by creating a an anode out of silicone nanowires. The space between the nanowires would allow for the expansion to take place without the anode cracking. (See picture above) As always, click heading for full article.

News: I can finally eat KFC

For quite some time I've been boycotting KFC because of their inhumane treatment of chickens prior to slaughter. I can happily say that Both KFC, their parent company(Yum!) and Tyson have instituted a policy for humane treatment of their chicken. I'm not too sure about Tyson's policy but you can read about it in this pdf.

Yum! is also the parent company of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's and A&W. Click heading for full story.

News: Running on Water

Here are two stories about two, apparently different, Japanese car manufacturers that claimed to have produced vehicles that run on good ol' H2O... I'm not so sure..

Vehicle 1

The problem with this vehicle is, although it seems great.. where are they getting the hydrogen from? There is no talk about using electricity to extract hydrogen. The paperwork that the company files even claims it runs on compressed hydrogen. How do they generate the Hydrogen and if they generate it in the vehicle is the compression done on the spot? Although it works with hydrogen, based on what I've seen, I would classify this vehicle as a steam vehicle. If they can prove that the hydrogen is derived from the water.. then we're talking.

Vehicle 2

The problem I have with this vehicle is how does it generates electricity from water. How? We all know how to generate electricity from hydrogen, which in and of itself it's hard enough. The second problem is you also need electricity to separate the hydrogen from the water (As far as I know). If you keep using and generating electricity.. what's left to fuel the vehicle? I'm not a physicist and can't do the math.. but I think somethings up here.. If I'm not mistaken, every time you convert energy from one form to another some energy gets expelled... something gets used up. I don't know. Though I would love to know how these two vehicles really work.

Namco Mamebook

This guy made what's known as a cocktail arcade game.. using a mac laptop and a piece of ikea furniture. As always.. click title for more details

Difference Between Who and Whom

The Bottom Line

The difference between who and whom is exactly the same as the difference between I and me, he and him, she and her, etc. Who, like I, he, and she, is a subject - it is the person performing the action of the verb. Whom, like me, him, and her, is an object - it is the person to/about/for whom the action is being done.

Sometimes it helps to rewrite the sentence and/or replace who/whom with another pronoun so that you can see the relationships more clearly.

This is who warned me > He warned me (not "him" warned me)

Jack is the one who wants to go > He wants to go (not "him" wants to go)

This is the man whom I told you about > I told you about him (not about "he")

Lisa is the girl with whom I'm driving to Maine > I'm driving to Maine with her (not with "she")

News: 256 GB on a Sheet of Paper?

In 2006, in Banglore India, a student has discovered a way to store 256GB of information on a single A4 sheet of paper (Roughly the size of a standard sheet of paper). The application paves the way for CD/DVD/Blu-Ray less info. Imagine the cost/benefit relationship. Not to mention the accessibility and storage capacity vs size. Imagine a standard business card housing an artist's portfolio or a film director's card housing movie clips. Click the title for the full story.

Google Labs

If you haven't visited Google Labs it's about time you do. There are several really cool apps that Google offers for free. Take a look.

Here are a few of my favs:
Text Google from your phone
Text from Firefox
Google Suggests(Kind of like autocomplete from google)
Google 411, just call 1-800-466-4411 (1800 Goog 411)

Faster PDF

A long time ago Adobe Created the PDF. There was a time when it was a pretty decent format but as we all know the application has become extremely bloated. It takes time to open and often hangs your browser while u wait. Although I haven't associated it with my browser, yet. I still think this program is an amazing alternative. On my machine opening a PDF is virtually instantaneous.

Download Here

How to Handle an Annoying Seatmate on the Plane (from Ger to Rashid)

If you are sitting next to someone who irritates you, follow these instructions:
1. Quietly and calmly open up your laptop case.
2. Remove your laptop.
3. Start up.
4. Make sure the guy who is annoying you, can see the screen.
5. Close your eyes and tilt your head up to the sky and move your lips like you are praying .
6. Then hit this link.

Tweaks: DIE CTFMON.. DIE!

Okay, that was a little melodramatic, but this thing has been popping up, forever. If you're running a windows machine it's probably running right now (Ctrl + Alt + Delete then look at the Processes tab)

What is it?
Ctfmon is basically "Advance language options" seen mostly by the presence of the language bar. (That little microphone and question mark that show up on the right side of your task bar).

Why do I care?
It's wasted space, it uses my computer for no reason and slows down the time it takes my computer to start up. So far I don't need it and I don't think I'll ever need it but just in case I won't delete it.

How do I stop it?
To simply turn off ctfmon.exe go to
Control Panel>Regional and Language Options>Languages>Details>Advanced,
and check the box that says "Turn off advanced text services."
Done.

Found on a forum reference with this article. (Last post)

Practical: Get Rid of a Hickey

How To Get Rid Of A Hickey

Practical: Truly FREE Credit Reports

Most people aren't aware that, as a consumer, you are allowed to get one free credit report per year. The government has instituted a law that allows you to free access to your credit report. You do not have to be turned down or even apply for anything. You simply go to the site, referenced with this article, and you fill in your information. The report usually stays open for about 30 days though you can keep it open longer if you have anything to correct or dispute.

Alternatively, if you were denied a credit line you may also contact the company that denied you to receive your free credit report but you are still entitled to one free report per year.

News: Laser Light Switch

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 26 - A team of Stanford electrical engineers has discovered how to switch a beam of laser light on and off up to 100 billion times a second with materials that are widely used in the semiconductor industry. (Read More)

This means that there will be a way to make light based computers and networks. The possibility to run multiple computers together at a speed that would seem like it's one machine. There are systems of arrays set up with multiple computers that share processing power. Imagine if the network and communication in the machine were all based on light. This would change the way computers work all together. It reminds me of the nervous system where you have impulses that are electrical until they reach the synapse and are converted to chemical and back again. I wonder how light will be converted into a storage medium. I'm sure they have implemented a procedure but I wonder if there is something more efficient. Right now you can get a network that runs on fiber optics. I think we need to move this inside the machine and this is what this article is all about.

News: Blue Rose

In 2004 an Australian company Florigene and the Japanese company, Suntory, created the first blue rose. I have to say I wouldn't call it a blue rose but if you happen to stumble upon a bluer rose then let me know about it. If I do I'll post it here. Ultimately the idea is to be able to buy one, but first we need to find it. The picture below is from Florigene's news article at the link that is referenced.

Tutorials: Best Photoshop Tut on the Web!

This is a great little tutorial on photoshop using a screen recording app called Camtasia Studio.
Take a look at it and visit Camtasia's website at the link below.


If you need a screen recording software this is a full blown professional version with several cool options like PIP video, voice overs, title tracks, and soundtracks. The interface is simple and the company provides various video tutorials in order to help you get the most out of your experience.

The interface is user friendly and well thought out with the essentials placed in all the right places.


Camtasia Studio