Kevin Jack - Lay You Down

Check out this song produced by yours truly!

Happy 2009

Here's to a happy new year!

Ronal Jenkees

http://uk.youtube.com/user/ronaldjenkees

pre-increment or post-increment?

Which is faster? Here it is quick and dirty - post-increment can never be faster than pre-increment, but can sometimes be slower. Why? There's an extra copy happening in the post-increment due to saving the value THEN incrementing. So, what would you prefer? C++ or ++C?

QueryPerformanceFrequency Accuracy

In doing recent high accuracy timings, I've found that the Windows API call, QueryPerformanceFrequency, returns a constant nominal processor frequency. Under ideal conditions, this would be great. Unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world, let alone ideal conditions, given most circumstances. I guess the clocks that feed the processors are notorious for having skewed frequencies, depending on the heat generated from the varying load on the processor. Due to this, QueryPerformanceFrequency returns a constant locked in frequency that should be the most accurate frequency under nominal conditions, and is the best approximation of the clock frequency over a long duration. When performing any sort of high accuracy timing within short time periods, this can be quite a factor!

The Problem With Music

Steve Albini lays it out. He explains the general life cycle of a band being signed to a major label. We've all known that major labels screw over the artist, and have done so for a long time. The article gives a very quick and dirty outline into how badly screwed the artists are when signing to a major label.

http://www.petdance.com/actionpark/albini/the-problem-with-music.html

Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?

This paper argues that at least one of the following propositions is true: (1) the human species is very likely to go extinct before reaching a “posthuman” stage; (2) any posthuman civilization is extremely unlikely to run a significant number of simulations of their evolutionary history (or variations thereof); (3) we are almost certainly living in a computer simulation. It follows that the belief that there is a significant chance that we will one day become posthumans who run ancestor-simulations is false, unless we are currently living in a simulation. A number of other consequences of this result are also discussed.

I absolutely love the thought that we could be living in a computer simulation. It kind of boggles the mind to think that there could be posthuman civilizations that have created simulations of their evolutionary history, only to find the simulation creating its own simulation. How many simulations could exist? Do we somehow see this in certain parallel universe theories? I wish we could answer these questions in this lifetime.

http://www.simulation-argument.com/simulation.html

How Large Corporations Handle Business

This picture explains it all:

A Woman Inside Out

Now this is pretty cool... It may be NSFW at certain parts as this shows a timelapse of somebody drawing a woman literally from bones to fully clothed... Check it out!

A Woman Inside Out

CookingByNumbers

I found this site appealing. It could benefit from a redesign and user added submissions (perhaps I might make my own version...), but I feel the site is quite helpful for the beginner cook (like me!).

Cooking By Numbers

To go along with the cooking idea, here is a site that has surprising expiration dates for common consumables that we may use.

Surprising Expiration Dates

Building a .com in 24 Hours

Interesting journal of someone who decided to create a Web 2.0 site over the span of 24 working hours - NOT one day. The article contains a good outline as to what goes into a functioning website, as well as some estimates on how long a project of that size takes. It seems the developers tools of choice are RubyOnRails 2.0 and Textmate for his editor. I personally have not tried Ruby, but have read nothing but praises for it. This guide may motivate me to try Ruby out... On second thought, I might need more motivation that that.

Building a .com in 24 Hours

The Five Most Horrifying Bugs in the World!

These bugs would literally make me crap my pants if I saw one. I'm not trying to say I'm a complete baby, but after reading through what these bugs can do... Well, let's just say I never want to come across them in my lifetime. Also, I really love the descriptive writing in the article...

The Five Most Horrifying Bugs in the World!

LatencyTOP

This tool will tell you what's really making your computer slow. It'll tell you whether its the software, OS, HDs, memory utilization, PCI interface, CPU, etc. You can make an intelligent upgrade to your computer based on the output of this app! This also helps developers see where their applications are slow and allow them to make appropriate changes.

LatencyTOP

Evangelical In One Sentence

I practice with an open mind and I will not impose my religion on others even though they're wrong.