languor.us

I have, for years now, always pronounced the word cache as kaysh. I have encountered a few people over the years who pronounced it more like cash or even cashay and worse (catch?), and more often than not, I have brought them into the fold—so to speak—by convincing them that kaysh was correct. However, after something close to an argument with a female grammar Nazi (yes, you know it's true!) colleague, we decided to set the matter at rest by doing some research. Desafortunadamente, (and to my keenly felt embarrassment) I lost :/

For those who are already unfamiliar with Ninja words, it's probably best described as a Web Too (sic) on-line dictionary. Fast, no ads, clean interface etc. etc. While the definitions are not the greatest in the world (they are scraped from the Wiktionary project and other free resources), they are good enough for a quick look-up.

Anyone else notice that people are typo-ing lesser and lesser nowadays?

Given the existence of programs such as US-VISIT and large databases containing biometric information of civilians from around the world, I ask you: How can fingerprints and other biometric identifiers continue to be considered unique?

You are no longer the only person in possession of your fingerprints. Copies are littered all over the world and given that they are in the hands of governmental agencies (sic), they are definitely not secure either.

Except for listening to music (for which I still rely on WinAMP), I used to rely wholly on the VLC player for all my media playback needs. I am a big fan of its versatility, cross-platform availability and general ability to play just about anything. However, this is no longer completely true.

I usually have something along the lines of Adobe's PDF Writer or Flash Paper and such, to print stuff directly to a file. However, earlier today, I found myself needing similar functionality, but not having the afore mentioned software. Therefore, I had to resort to using the "print to file" check-box on the Windows print form that allowed me to save a document to a file on the hard disk.

Due to the fact that I am learning Spanish in earnest, I am quite frequently on the look out for Spanish subtitles for the movies I watch. However, finding them has generally been a chore until I came across a great site named open subtitles a while back. Besides having a large database of subtitles (in various languages), its biggest plus point is, as the title suggests, its openness, transparency and its foundation on "community". Other points of note:

• is generally ad-free.
• does not require registration.

I'm sure everybody out there who use Bit Torrent is aware that being connectable is highly recommended for best speeds and the general well being of the "swarm". For the unfortunate few who aren't, connectability is where you open an incoming port on your computer thereby allowing other peers in the Bit Torrent swarm to be able to contact you. It is however only required for one of the parties (connector or connectee) to be connectable for a connection to be made.

I just finished watching the first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Wow! The acting was so bad (and the story line wasn't much better :S) that I'm going to be getting the rest of it :D

All seven seasons of it - about 55GBs worth ;)