• People do amazing things in the name of trying to improve things. Case in point: guerrilla signage, gardening..
• Even more about targeted marketing, specifically how proper targeting can improve marketing.. and not just freak you out by sending randomly insightful products to your doorstep.
• Not a very pretty picture of humanity.. taken in the World Press Photo winners until date. On the other hand, the best of LIFE says something a little different, while being the same. If that makes any sense.

Brilliant real-life mod to the classic Goldeneye 64:

And our daily dose of LEGO, with a lot Star Wars thrown in:

Every night this week

• Downton Abbey = X-Files
• More Photoshop Magic. This time I can’t quite tell how they did it though.
• You can’t make this shit up: Government buildings, flyovers, roadside railings, and taxis should be painted a shade of light blue, a minister in the ruling Trinamul Congress government said.. Our leader [chief minister of West Bengal] Mamata Banerjee has decided that the theme colour of the city will be sky blue because the motto of the new government is ‘the sky is the limit’.. ”Blue is a beautiful colour and is also soothing for the eyes,” Calcutta mayor Sobhan Chatterjee said.
  My favorite part is that this has happened before — Aurangabad was painted pink back in 2006 “to uplift the city’s spirits”. Clearly a working example.
• Targeted advertising? You bet.
• Binary tetris. It’s just a tweet.
• Even more “standard” rules for designing movie posters. Oh-so-true (via kottke)
• Whaaaa..? (I know, it’s a pretty insane vid.)
• A relatively well-argued piece on atheism, and the journey to realizing exactly what it means (and how you can reach that mindset) set me thinking. The article itself is based on the author’s Christian roots, though I can see parallels with my outlook. I’ve thought out loud about my journey from agnostic to.. something else, but the thing is that the concepts of Hinduism are not as radical as Christianity in some ways. I need to devote more thought to the subject, it appears.

• The underlying idea behind SonicNotify is really cool. Think an audible NFC style technology that detects a particular sonic frequency and shows you content according. Magical to a user when it happens, and very monetizable (so something that can actually survive!).

• Ah, humanity.. it is awesome when you take satire seriously. Ofc, I would be more sarcastic, but I once took an article from the Huffington Post’s satire column seriously. In my defense, it was a badly named column. In my offense, it just goes to prove I’m only slightly better than the examples of humanity on above link. Hopefully.
• Windows 8 is shaping up to be more and more game-changing for M$. The latest plethora of information about Windows-on-ARM shows that it is essentially the iPad-style Metro-only tablet version of Win8 that some wanted. With Office. Without the Desktop. Single code base across all versions of Windows (PC, ARM, server). Single interface across all M$ products (Phone, XBox, PC, Tablet). This is simply insane, an advancement straight out of left-field that M$ has been working towards for the last 3 years.. oh-so-quietly.
• Book previews are so awesome. Y’know, except when all they are basically the extremely useful title and index pages of a book.. and not much else.
• Thanks to Kottke pointing me to the genius of Sellers riffing the Beatles, I found just how ruddy brilliantly he can do accents at all:

..which let to me remembering Kevin Spacey’s genius for imitation, and the classic 21 accents video.

Oh, and lots and lots of lots of LEGO news!

While we’re talking about LEGO, here’s how you automatically sort the many pieces it has. Yes, the sorter is made with LEGO as well:

And an awesome Dr. Who tribute.. summarizing all 784 episodes in one 10 minute ‘shot’ (via the Verge):

Windows 8 is starting to look really good. M$ has really got their Metro shit together, I hope. Imagine, a touch-friendly Windows tablet, which you might even be able to work on! via Gizmodo| First Touch: This is Windows 8

Look. At. The. Ad.

The only reason for this link is because it uses Bayes/kNN for something so ridiculous. And I know exactly what/how those work! (via kottke.org)

An awesome quote, from a great letter (link):

If it is right, it happens — The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away

And finally, a brilliant visualization to compare movies (compare 2001, Alien, and Solaris):

Last but not least, I nearly took this brilliant BBC sketch seriously. No, really:

..the next 5 years are supposed to run away with themselves, and you’re 30 before you know it.

I said that 4 years ago. I’m not going to say “That feels like yesterday.” Coz it doesn’t. And it wasn’t.

But it doesn’t feel like too long ago..

In the past 4 years, a lot of things have changed: marriage, life, activities, pastimes, what have you. At the same time, some things are somewhat the same: the PhD, research, being a student, etcetera. I can only imagine how many things will change in the next one year. Just how much, even I don’t know yet. As I said at the start of the year, 2012 is a year of great promise.. a year of which only 25 days have passed so far. Even now, I have a sense of my life reaching a winding down stage. At the same time, there is also a sense of anticipation.. of winding up for something bigger. Bipolar? Very likely.

But as of today, I’ve given myself a great birthday present — a significant portion of my PhD dissertation (something I currently call ‘my life’s work’) is going to see publication in a peer-reviewed journal. On one hand, this is just another milestone you reach during your PhD. From my own personal perspective, this particular paper has been in the making for 3-odd years; during most of which it has been under review.. as well as constantly faced rejection. A trial by fire.. with random reviews, reviewers who just didn’t get it, and finally, reviewers who gave the manuscript it’s due.

In the end: it is my paper, a culmination of a LOT of my research, and I’m glad it’s published.

It is also my second journal paper this year. Both within a few days around my birthday (I know, I spoil myself). Hopefully, not the only two for the year.

I had a set of random goals for 25. I actually don’t remember setting any such for 30. I guess I never thought that far out. The closer I’ve gotten to it, the more I have focused on immediate milestones. Today.. By this time next month.. In the next year.. Living in the now, seeing what I have to do today. I guess you realize that beyond a point, life can be considered too dynamic to over-think and over-plan. You put in what you can best do now, and let other things pan out the way they will.

Fatalism? Not really.

More like I’m only a year away from being considered an old, married man. Might as well get into the mindset for it.

Ya damn kids.

• Fairly interesting read on the intricacies of compiling open-source Android from scratch for use on a phone. Major takeaway is that there is no way to make it functional without somehow involving Google. Which sort of goes against what everyone claims via Jethro Carr| The free-ish mobile platform
• The subversion of the open internet by Google/Facebook/closed networks is starting to rear its ugly head. Inevitable I guess via RWW| Google+ Is Going To Mess Up The Internet
• And yes, it makes sense that Sterling Archer is actually Bruce Wayne

Quote of the day by Neil deGrasse Tyson, when answering ‘Why is there something instead of nothing?’:

Words that make questions
may not be questions
at all.