Author: Nathan Campbell

Nathan runs St Eutychus. He loves Jesus. His wife. His daughter. His son. His other daughter. His dog. Coffee. And the Internet. He is the pastor of City South Presbyterian Church, a church in Brisbane, a graduate of Queensland Theological College (M. Div) and the Queensland University of Technology (B. Journ). He spent a significant portion of his pre-ministry-as-a-full-time-job life working in Public Relations, and now loves promoting Jesus in Brisbane and online. He can't believe how great it is that people pay him to talk and think about Jesus. If you'd like to support his writing financially you can do that by giving to his church.

3 counterintuitive tips

I love Lifehacker’s tips. Especially the odd ones that make you wonder how people came up with them.

There are a plethora of odd tips and tricks out there on the Interwebs. Here are three of my favourites.

1. Put your breaking harddrive in the freezer.

“Many hard drive failures are caused by worn parts that no longer align properly, making it impossible to read data from the drive. Lowering the drive’s temperature causes its metal and plastic internals to contract ever so slightly. Taking the drive out of the freezer, and returning it to room temperature can cause those parts to expand again.”

2. Put your broken video card in the oven.

“Solder joints sometimes crack over time, cutting the connections between electronic components and causing hardware failure. Expose those joints to constant heat, in an oven set to 200 to 275 degrees centigrade, and the lead will melt, clearing out any cracks and reconnecting the joints. After the card has seen enough baking, leave it to cool for a few hours, and it should be working once back in a computer.”

3. Put your drenched mobile phone in rice.

“Use a desiccant to wick away any leftover moisture. The most convenient choice is uncooked rice. Just leave the phone (and its disconnected battery) submerged in a bowl of grains overnight. If you’re worried about rice dust getting inside your phone, you can instead use the packets of silica gel that often come stuffed in the pockets of new clothes. But acting fast is far more important than avoiding a little dust, so don’t waste time shopping if you don’t already have a drawer full of silica gel.”

November 10, 2009

Statistically kissing dating goodbye

Here’s an interesting statistical breakdown of “match percentages” through OKCupid, an online dating service, based on indicated religious affiliation and level of seriousness.

It’s worth a read for no reason other than that it’s kind of interesting. There are a few other factors considered throughout the piece too.

“All OkCupid users create their own matching algorithms, so when we determine who matches who, we’re just crunching the numbers people give us. A match percentage between two people is a condensed, yet statistically valid, expression of how well they might get along.”

“In short, our method is this: we host an ever-changing database of user-submitted questions, covering every imaginable topic, from spirituality to dental hygiene. To build their own match algorithms, our users answer as many questions as they please (the average is about 230). When answering a question, a user also picks her how her ideal match would answer and how important the question is to her. It’s very simple, and it removes all subjectivity on our part. We simply crunch the numbers.”

Here’s a table. The average “match percentage” is 60.2%.

November 10, 2009

Want a job at Google?

Here’s a list of 140 questions you might face in a job interview at Google.

  1. “Every man in a village of 100 married couples has cheated on his wife. Every wife in the village instantly knows when a man other than her husband has cheated, but does not know when her own husband has. The village has a law that does not allow for adultery. Any wife who can prove that her husband is unfaithful must kill him that very day. The women of the village would never disobey this law. One day, the queen of the village visits and announces that at least one husband has been unfaithful. What happens?”
  2. Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew.
  3. “How many piano tuners are there in the entire world?”
  4. “You are given 2 eggs. You have access to a 100-story building. Eggs can be very hard or very fragile means it may break if dropped from the first floor or may not even break if dropped from 100th floor. Both eggs are identical. You need to figure out the highest floor of a 100-story building an egg can be dropped without breaking. The question is how many drops you need to make. You are allowed to break 2 eggs in the process.”

    5. My answer to all of these questions would be “let me google that for you”…

    Via CafeDave.

November 10, 2009

100 Rules for Service

CafeDave posted a link to the first half of this series the other day.

The next half is up.

Here are my favourites.

  1. Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting.
  2. Do not lead the witness with, “Bottled water or just tap?” Both are fine. Remain neutral.
  3. Do not hustle the lobsters. That is, do not say, “We only have two lobsters left.” Even if there are only two lobsters left.
  4. Never say “I don’t know” to any question without following with, “I’ll find out.”
  5. Do not touch the rim of a water glass. Or any other glass.
  6. Never serve anything that looks creepy or runny or wrong.
  7. If someone likes a wine, steam the label off the bottle and give it to the guest with the bill. It has the year, the vintner, the importer, etc.
  8. Never touch a customer. No excuses. Do not do it. Do not brush them, move them, wipe them or dust them.
  9. Never remove a plate full of food without asking what went wrong. Obviously, something went wrong.
  10. Never mention the tip, unless asked.
  11. Never say, “Good choice,” implying that other choices are bad.
  12. Never reek from perfume or cigarettes. People want to smell the food and beverage.
  13. Never patronize a guest who has a complaint or suggestion; listen, take it seriously, address it.
  14. Never play a radio station with commercials or news or talking of any kind.
  15. Do not play an entire CD of any artist. If someone doesn’t like Frightened Rabbit or Michael Bublé, you have just ruined a meal.
  16. If a guest goes gaga over a particular dish, get the recipe for him or her.
  17. Do not wear too much makeup or jewelry. You know you have too much jewelry when it jingles and/or draws comments.
  18. Do not race around the dining room as if there is a fire in the kitchen or a medical emergency. (Unless there is a fire in the kitchen or a medical emergency.)
  19. Do not ignore a table because it is not your table. Stop, look, listen, lend a hand. (Whether tips are pooled or not.)
  20. Do not show frustration. Your only mission is to serve. Be patient. It is not easy.

Most of the principles underlying these 20 tips (and many of the others) are easily transferable to any career or service – and can be applied to the way we treat guests at home, or at church.

Mikey has a good post about good dining manners that’s a useful addition to this one.

November 10, 2009

Jobs for the boys

The New York Times has an infographic today exploring the impact of the GFC on different age groups and demographics in America. It’s pretty fascinating. But it probably doesn’t directly translate to employment in Australia.

Men in America are sitting at an unemployment rate of 9.0% across all demographics, while women are at 7.3%.

College graduates fair remarkably better than non-college graduates, and people over 45 report much better employment rates than younger workers.

I assume this looks at people who want to be in work and aren’t though. Which is the traditional measure of unemployment – despite what some stupid government departments might suggest. Yeah, I’m looking straight at the ones who take the total workforce and subtract it from the total population…

If it did I’d be fairing well – as would people like me – with only 3.9% of white, 25 year old (and over) males with university degrees looking for work.

Find out how you score here.

November 10, 2009

Shirt of the Day: Anatomy of a space invader

We saw yesterday what space invader’s space ships actually look like – it seems they model the ships on the actual aliens. Here’s another shirt.

November 10, 2009

Qualified advice

I had an idea in the car yesterday. And I’ve started another Tumblr. I’ve called it Qualified Advice.

It’s probably not what you think…

Check it out.

And while you’re at it – check out my Just Google It Tumblr too – here’s a link to a random post.

November 10, 2009

Joining the blogroll

Convicted as I am by the reminder that links are part of the rules for blogging I thought I should draw your attention to the fact that I have reinstated the blog roll to my front page.

I’d like to update it.

If you comment or read here, and have a blog, let me know. Chances are I already read it. But it’s buried in myriad other blogs in Google Reader. If you let me know, I’ll add you.

I’ve just added Izaac’s wife Sarah – who has started her own blog.

If you have a blogroll, and you’re reading this, and I’m not on it… add me. It’ll make me feel special. And if I get lots of traffic from you I might even mail you a Freddo.

November 10, 2009

Top Five Rules for blogging: #1 Keep it regular

Yesterday I posted a list of my top five rules for blogging.

Mikey posted a response on Christian Reflections – and a comment – reminding me of the cardinal rule of blogging (that I missed). Link to other people. Regularly.  I like that rule. There will now be six posts in this series. Starting with this one…

Rule One – Blog Regularly

If you want your blog to last past the first week you need to have a plan to go past the first week.

Figure out a scope of topics you want to talk about. Come up with a regular feature. Do whatever it takes to have a steady stream of content – but in my experience most would be bloggers start up with big dreams and fall over after the second post.

The best way not to do this is to just post for the sake of posting until you develop a rhythm. Blogging is all about momentum. Momentum doesn’t build itself. The physical definition of the concept is that momentum is mass multiplied by velocity. You can’t generate blogging momentum without content posted regularly.

Readers won’t stick around if you don’t post often. Your friends might. But unless they subscribe straight away they’ll probably forget about you.

You need to be prepared to publish half polished thoughts and let your commenters do some work – if you can get commenters (but that’s rule two). That’s the beauty of the medium. Don’t see blogging as a place to share essays. It can be. But the pressure will kill you and keep you from posting.

November 10, 2009

Shirt of the Day: New contender for worst hobby ever

Have you heard of geocaching – or perhaps even dabbled in the hobby?

It’s probably slightly lower on the hobby scale than metal detecting… there’s no promise of riches. Just the promise of other people’s trash.

Here’s a shirt that pretty much sums up the issue.

November 10, 2009

Tetris cake has a piece for everybody

Continuing in the string of geeky wedding stuff… here’s a Tetris wedding cake. Which clearly is a great way of letting your guests choose their portion sizes.

From Flickr.

November 10, 2009

LHC time travel sabotage theory gains creedence

This really is just an excuse for me to repost my photoshopped Terminator picture… but the time travel theory that was put forward a couple of weeks ago continues to seem slightly more credible with the collider’s latest piece of drama.

But the Large Hadron Collider is experiencing further technical difficulties courtesy of a bird strike – either these are remote controlled robot birds or some sort of time traveling, super evolved, intelligent birdlike creature.

This birdinator took down the LHC with a piece of bread. Cop that technology.

November 10, 2009

Going to the arcade, and they’re going to get married

This is a pretty nice wedding invitation rendered in 8-bit glory. I like the “insert coin” bit. And the binary bit.

Via here.

Sadly the binary is incorrect. If they’d wanted to say “Will you marry me?” with the answer “yes.” they should have had:

“010101110110100101101100011011000010
000001111001011011110111010100100000
0110110101100001011100100111001001111
001001000000110110101100101001111110
000110100001010”

“01011001011001010111001100001101000
01010”

You can make your own binary using this binary to text converter.

November 10, 2009

Shirt of the day: Mathematically correct

One of my favourite geeky shirts is this one from snorgtees…

I wear it with the sense of pride that comes from understanding slightly less than rudimentary mathematical concepts…

I don’t understand any of these ones – but they’re funny nonetheless…

Transform

Get it here.
Smarter than the average bear

Get it here.
Money is the root of all evil

Get it here.

November 10, 2009

The problem with PETA

The problem with PETA – from a PR standpoint – is that they have no sense of scale. How can you sound credible when calling for the end of the fur trade or whale hunting – while on the other protesting about people throwing dead fish at a conference, or the shooting of dogs in computer games – or trying to rebrand fish as sea kittens…

This graph sums it up nicely.

November 10, 2009