Flanneltron is currently certified at Journeyer level.

Name: Sam Kenyon
Member since: 2004-04-06 05:13:31
Last Login: 2010-01-11 08:20:47

Homepage: http://synapticnulship.com/blog

Notes: I am a lead software engineer at iRobot Corp. I have also worked on several competition robots and personal robot programming projects. I'm interested in AI, cogsci, HRI, interfaces, interaction design, user experience design, and robotics education efforts.

Recent blog entries by Flanneltron

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31 Aug 2010 »

Good Riddance to Human Drivers?

The Sept. 2010 issue of Scientific American is all about The End (at first I thought it meant SciAm’s end). In a provocative article “Good Riddance: Human Creations the World Would Be Better Off Without,” SciAm writers roast some technologies they don’t like. The comments for that article express some displeasure, e.g. (Telrunya at 04:36 PM [...]

Syndicated 2010-08-31 04:49:46 from SynapticNulship

30 Aug 2010 »

The Great Drama of Interfaces

The great drama of the next few decades will unfold under the crossed stars of the analog and the digital. —Steven Johnson, Interface Culture Tweet This! Share this on Facebook Stumble upon something good? Share it on StumbleUpon Share this on Reddit Share this on del.icio.us Digg this! Share this on Technorati Post this to MySpace Subscribe to the comments for this post? Share this on [...]

Syndicated 2010-08-30 08:36:04 from SynapticNulship

28 Aug 2010 »

Triangle Mesh Dreams

I took a nap yesterday after being desperately overtired. I immediately started dreaming of some landscapes and/or objects which appeared in polygon format, like triangle meshes on a computer. At the time I thought how odd that was but that’s all I can remember. This experience is the opposite of my normal [...]

Syndicated 2010-08-28 02:25:36 from SynapticNulship

21 Aug 2010 »

Atheism and Tango

Although atheism is not the main theme of this blog, I figured other atheists might enjoy it. So I joined the Atheist Blogroll (quote from Mojoey): The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey [...]

Syndicated 2010-08-21 05:49:27 from SynapticNulship

17 Aug 2010 »

A Dreadful Fine Title Page: Or, A Vast Amount of Absolutely Necessary Information

This is the title page of an 1879 dictionary I have:

THE AMERICAN POPULAR DICTIONARY: CONTAINING EVERY USEFUL WORD TO BE FOUND IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WITH ITS TRUE MEANING, DERIVATION, SPELLING, AND PRONUNCIATION. ALSO, A VAST AMOUNT OF ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY INFORMATION UPON SCIENCE, MYTHOLOGY, BIOGRAPHY, AMERICAN HISTORY, INDIANS, LAND TITLES, CONSTITUTIONS, LAWS, CITIES, COLLEGES, ARMY AND NAVY, DEBTS, RATE OF MORTALITY, GROWTH OF CITIES, RATES OF INTEREST, INSOLVENT AND ASSIGNMENT LAWS, ETC. BEING A PERFECT LIBRARY OF REFERENCE, IN ONE HANDY VOLUME.

The full title is 506 characters. That’s 3.61 tweets!

And it’s quite the self-marketing title–in a single 512-page book they have amassed every useful word and a vast amount of absolutely necessary information. It reminds me of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a bit.

SLANG AND VULGAR PHRASES

The title of this post is taken from the absolutely necessary section of the book called “SLANG AND VULGAR PHRASES” which informs us that “dreadful fine” is a contradiction. Here are few interesting quotes from that section:

At loggerheads is uncouth.
Bad box.—”He is in a bad box” has a vulgar air. Say bad predicament, or unpleasant situation.
Comeatable, for approachable; as, “European monarchs are not easily comeatable.”
Fizzle should be applied only to inglorious failures.
Full chisel.—”He went full chisel” is an absurd expression. Say “as fast as he could,” or “he ran his best.”
“How’s yourself, this morning,” savors of the familiarity that breeds contempt.
Otherguess, for otherguise, very different from, or superior to…
A precious mess, a pretty kettle of fish, mean nothing.
Crank, for pert, saucy; as, “He was so crank that he was little respected.” New England.