Humor4u

Did you know that "male lions defend the pride's territory while females do most of the hunting"? Did you know that "the name humpback whale describes the motion it makes as it arches its back out of the water in preparation for a dive"? What about this one: "ostriches have the largest eyes of any land living animal and they measure 50 mm (2 inches) in diameter"? Google now shows random facts about animals in the "did you know" section of the Knowledge Graph card. They're extracted from various sites and Google actually links to the source. Some example of queries that return random facts: [cat], [lion], [tiger], [alpaca], [giraffe], [ostrich], [duck], [elk], [raccoon], [shark]. It's worth pointing out that you can get another random fact by reloading the page or searching again for the same animal.

Google Knowledge Graph has more than one billion entities  and more than 70 billion facts  about these entities (people, places, things). It's huge and it brings a different dimension to search: understanding concepts and the relation between them. Mobile Google Search now has a section called "found in related search", which shows a few entities frequently mentioned in other related searches. For example, I searched for [ethanol molar mass] and Google showed 2 lists of organic and inorganic compounds: one of them was found in the related search [properties of alkanes] and the other was for [polar solvents]. Ethanol is a polar solvent which can be obtained from alkenes, while alkenes can be derived from alkanes, so Google's suggestions are somewhat useful. This feature is not limited to chemistry, it also works for other topics. Here's a different query: [tour eiffel design], which shows other "towers of the world" and "tourist attractions in...

I noticed an interesting Google Search experiment in the mobile/tablet interface. When searching for [alcohol with the highest boiling], Google converted my query into a question: "Which alcohol has the highest boiling point?", then it tried to answer the question using a snippet from a web page and then it added a "more results" link. Google's link sent to me to the search results page for the question inferred by Google.

When you search Google for [directions] or [get directions], you get an error message: " No results for that place. Try entering it below to get suggestions. " Google shows a special card for directions with cool features like autocomplete, but the error message is out of place because you haven't typed a location. Suggestions aren't very smart. For example, I typed "Brisbane, Australia" as the starting point and then I started to type "Mel" as the destination. Google suggested 3 places from California, strictly based on my location, while ignoring that Melbourne is a much better suggestion. Google shows directions inside the card and you can pick between driving, walking, cycling or using public transportation. To see the directions, just click the text that describes your favorite route. If there is only one route, pick that one. Another option is to click "directions" and go to the Google Maps site.

I'm not sure if this is a new feature, but it must be pretty recent. Google Maps for Android lets you add home screen shortcuts to directions directly from the app. Just search for directions, tap the menu icon and pick "add route to Home screen". This works best when you select the current location, but it's not a requirement. You may also see this message: "Go here often? Add this route. Tap here to add a Home screen shortcut to this route." Another option is to add the directions widget, which lets you pick the shortcut name, whether to start turn-by-turn navigation and more.

Join me and many other developers at Droidcon London at the end of October. "Why Droidcon London?," you ask? Great question, thanks for asking! The answer is simple. But because I wanted to write more than six sentences to justify taking up your time reading this, I'm going to take longer to explain. For one thing, there will be developers. Everywhere. Hanging from the rooftop, dangling from the balcony, occupying every seat - nothing but developers, developers, developers. None of these business-blogger types, no management consultants (well,  very few anyway ) peddling their wares; just developers. So the people you talk to are exactly the people you want to connect with; other programmers learning the same stuff to solve the same problems that you have. Also, there are always great technical talks. Developers aren't just in the seats and hanging from the fluorescents; they're up on stage talking about the stuff they know. In many conferences, the people on sta...

Based on Adele's song from her third album 25 , this  activity  can be used with Intermediate level and up. The main focus is listening to chunks, followed by discussion of the song and reviewing  the use of like/as. UPDATE (23.7.2019): After consulting Adele's official website  it does seem that the bridge of the song goes It's hard to admit that... and not "It's had to win me back" as previously believed - thank you to my wonderful teacher trainees for pointing it out. The handout and the teacher's notes have been updated accordingly. It's been a while since I posted a song-based activity, so here's one for one of my favourite songs this year. Handout Procedure Activity A (Pre-listening) Play just the second chorus - from 2.58 to 3.51 in the video embedded above. Activity B (Listening) Play the whole song (from 0.42). Students listen and tick the chunks they hear. Allow 1 min to compare the answers in pairs before taking feedback. The answer ke...

Google has a special card that's both a color picker and a color converter. For example, you can search for HEX color codes like  #123456  and Google shows the color and converts it to other formats: RGB, HSV, HSL, CMYK.  Google's card also shows up when you search for RGB values like rgb(255,0,255) . The most interesting feature of the card lets you pick a color interactively. Other queries that trigger Google's card: RGB to HEX , color picker . This is not a new feature, but it's worth pointing out that Chrome has its own color picker and converter in the developer tools. Click a color in the styles tab to open the color picker and shift-click a color to convert it to a different format. { via Android Police }

You have a cross-country trip to take, and it's a must-do trip.  You have to leave immediately and all that are available is a charter plane and your choice of two available pilots.  The first pilot has flown this plane before but has a longstanding negative reputation as being someone who will overcharge you and most likely take you to unannounced stops before (p ossi bly) arriving at your destination.  The second pilot loudly announces how great the ride will be and how dishonest the other pilot is, but has never flown a plane before. Must-do trip. Two pilots. Your choice. Further Reading:  Why Character Matters .

One question active traders too often fail to ask is, "What would I be doing with my life if I weren't trading?" We're familiar with the direct costs of trading, such as the expenses we incur for software, commissions, and the like.  Less clear are the indirect costs--and especially the opportunity costs--associated with trading.  When we're glued to screens, there are many activities we cannot participate in.  Some of those activities may represent areas of strength, ones where we could excel and contribute.   I meet many traders who limp along in their profitability, afraid to ask the big questions, because they not sure what they would do with their lives if they weren't trading.  They justify trading as a "passion", when in fact it's a black hole that has sucked them in so far that they cannot see an alternative future. Is your trading giving you the financial and emotional returns you desire? Are you a better person for your trading, or does...

Google intended to discontinue Panoramio back in 2014, shortly after Google Maps Views was launched , but a lot of users complained and Panoramio continued to exist . Now Google announces that Panoramio will become read-only on November 4th and it'll be shut down one year later, in November 2017. "Today, with photo upload tools in Google Maps and our Local Guides program, we are providing easy ways for you to share your photos with an active and growing community. As such, we've decided to move forward with closing down Panoramio," informs Google. If you've linked your Panoramio account with a Google account, you'll be able to find your photos in Google Album Archive and they'll not use your storage quota. You can also export your photos in Google Takeout . Google encourages Panoramio users to join the Local Guides program for Google Maps and share photos, add reviews and information about places. "It's all about that warm feeling you g...

Traders are often concerned that their ideas might fail simply because they have become "too consensus".  That is, if many other participants are positioned in the same idea, the risk/reward may become negatively skewed.  There aren't many traders left to move the position further in the desired direction and, should prices start to move the other way, there can be a stampede for the exits quickly putting positions under water. Sentiment in the stock market is one way of gauging market psychology and whether there may be a bullish or bearish consensus.  Unfortunately, the standard measure for assessing sentiment, the put/call ratio, has several weaknesses.  First, it often mixes together put and call trading for stock index options and for the options on individual equities.  My work shows those are different distributions, with different impacts on markets.  The equity-only put/call measure, where options across all exchanges and all listed issues are incl...

Google's mobile search interface shows a new box with related searches after clicking a result and going back to the search page. There's a list called "people also search for", which shows queries that are related to both the original search and the search result you've previously visited. Swipe left to see the entire the list. Tap a different search result and you'll get different suggestions: Google tested this feature back in June and now it's no longer an experiment.

Pixel phones will ship with a new Android version: 7.1. It looks like many of the important Nougat features have been left out from the 7.0 release. Android 7.1's unofficial changelog  published by Android Police has many Pixel-specific features, including a new launcher, a new camera app, Google Assistant, a support tab in the settings, solid navbar icons, Smart Storage that removes old backed up photos and videos when storage is full. There are also some features that aren't restricted to Pixel devices: night light (filters blue light), fingerprint swipe down gesture, seamless A/B system updates, Daydream VR mode, support for app shortcuts and circular app icons, keyboard image insertion, manual storage manager and more. Unfortunately, Nexus devices and Pixel C will only get a dev preview by the end of 2016 , so the stable release will be available in 2017. So much for buying Nexus devices to be the first to get the latest Android updates. Google Assistant won't...

Google announced its first phone and many people wondered why it's as expensive as an iPhone. Nexus phones were sometimes inexpensive (Nexus 4: $299, Nexus 5: $349, Nexus 5X: $379) and sometimes more expensive (Nexus One: $530, Nexus 6: $649, Nexus 6P: $599). Now the 5-inch Pixel costs $649 in the US, while the 5.5-inch Pixel XL costs $769, which is more than any other Nexus phone. Obviously, Google's pricing was more aggressive when it wanted to sell more products and less aggressive when sales numbers mattered less. The truth is that Google only managed to sell products in high volumes if the price was low enough to make them good value. Chromecast was successful because it offered a lot of value for the money. Nexus 5 was a flagship phone at half the price, so millions of people bought it. Nexus 7 was good enough for $199, but Google's bigger tablets were more expensive and their flaws were more striking. Google is a "value" brand. Most people associate ...

After the launch of Google's Pixel phones, many people wondered if the Nexus brand will be retired or we'll still see Nexus phones, tablets and other Android devices. It looks like the first answer is accurate. According to The Verge , Google says that there are no plans for future Nexus products. "The idea was to show everyone how it should be done," says Brian Rakowski , VP of product management for Android. "All the partners in the phone manufacturing space took it and built great products on top of it. Meanwhile, Nexus kind of trundled along at the same small scale." Nexus was the reference Android phone and was mostly for developers and early adopters. Google sent mixed messages: some of the phones were heavily subsidized, others were more expensive, design and features were rarely consistent from one generation to another. With Android's beta program and Google's efforts to give manufacturers early access to the Android code, Nexus devic...

Google has a new hardware division and Rick Osterloh, the former Motorola chief, is in charge. This hardware division merges Google's disparate hardware projects to bring more cohesive products that work well together. Google announced a lot of products today and all of them are made by Google . Nexus phones have been replaced by Pixel phones, Daydream View is a comfortable VR headset that works with Pixel phones, Google Home brings Google Assistant to a smart speaker, Google WiFi is a new router that promises better range and Chromecast Ultra supports 4K and has an Ethernet port. That's quite a lot. Pixel phones are actually made by HTC, but there's no HTC branding. Pixel and Pixel XL are designed by Google and HTC is only the OEM. The two phones share the same premium hardware (aluminum/glass unibody, Snapdragon 821, 4GB RAM, 32/128GB of storage, AMOLED screens, 12MP camera with  gyroscope-based electronic image stabilization ), but have different screen sizes (5 in...

I recently posted on the importance of identifying who is in the market as a way of gauging how the market is likely to move, tracking the behavior of large institutional participants.  A different way of assessing market participation is by looking at speculative sentiment in the market.  This can be accomplished by looking at total options volume, not just the ratio of put volume to call volume.   When total equity options volume (volume of options trading for stocks listed across all options exchanges) is in its lowest quartile going back to 2014, the next 10 days in SPY have averaged a loss of -.51%.  When total options volume has been in its highest quartile, the next 10 days have averaged a gain of +.91%.  If we strip out the role of total trading volume from total options volume in a regression model, we find that when pure options volume is in its lowest quartile (as was the case after Monday's close), the next 10 days in SPY have averaged a loss of -.4...

PENANTIAN BERHARGA By : RIZKY FEBIAN Intro : F D7 Gm C 2x F D7 dahulu kita terbiasa Gm C selalu menunggu terus menunggu F D7 berharap datang seseorang Gm C untuk melengkapi kisah hidup ini F D7 terlalu sulit melangkah Gm C tuk temukan yang selalu dinantikan F D7 hingga kita pun berjumpa Gm C tiada lagi alasan untuk menunda Chorus : A# Gm akhirnya kita bersama Am D7 setelah menanti lama A# Gm semoga selalu terjaga Am Dm ahaa wouuu wouuu ..... A# Gm waktu telah berbicara Am D7 menanti tak sia-sia A# Gm karna kau yang kini ada Am Dm ahaa wouuu wouuu..... Gm C sangatlah berharga F D7 bertahan di kesendirian Gm C telah menuntunku menemukanmu F D7 tanpa ragu aku berikan Gm C semua rasa cinta yang tersimpan lama F D7 penantian selama ini...

SAAT HUJAN By : FADE2BLACK feat AUDREY TAPIHERU Intro : F C Dm A# F C ku tumbuh berbunga Dm harum dan berwarna A# karena kau hujaniku F C ku tumbuh dewasa Dm dan tambah percaya A# kau hujaniku F aku merangkai banyak hal dari setetes racun C seperti butiran embun di permukaan daun Dm menceritakan banyak hal dari ratusan pantun A# buang pedoman tuk tentukan mana buru mana santun F meskipun jatuh dari angkasa C partikel hydro meteor sentuh bumi basahi jiwa Dm jadi air ini punya tujuan ketika turun A# memberi harapan di setiap tetes mengalun F ini waktu yang tepat untuk kita bertemu C saat air langit menutup jejak rindu Dm basahmu redakan ragam letpuan emosi yang terjebak A# sejak langit lupa akan bumi Dm saat hujan apa kabarmu A# lesu roman bersinar di lidah yang kaku Dm bahagia mengalir di deras air yang turun A# menyamarkan air mata yang t...

TraderFeed will be taking a sabbatical during the month of October, with occasional postings on the market and on trading psychology.  During the sabbatical, I'll be finishing a co-edited book on brief therapy and completing a personal project.  That personal project will be a major subject during November's posts. Over the October sabbatical, I'll also provide occasional updates of scores from my multivariate model , which I've revised to include a new measure of sentiment.  That new measure views put volume and call volume as independent variables, rather than simply taking the ratio of the two.  So we look for occasions when put volume is unusually high or low and the same for call volume. Model scores range from +6 (very bullish) to zero (neutral) to -6 (very bearish).  The chart above shows average 10-day returns as a function of model score from 2014 to the present.  Hit rates on trades taken mechanically have been as one would expect from the above c...

The latest version of the Google Maps app for Android adds more integration with Google Calendar . There's a new upcoming tab in "Your places", which shows a list of upcoming events, including your bookings and reservations from Gmail. Click an event to quickly see the location on the map. There's also a new "personal content" section in the settings, which lets you disable the integration with Google Contacts, Google Photos, disable location, location history and search history.

Google has a new blog that merges 19 of its most popular blogs, including the Official Google Blog, Gmail's blog, Google Drive blog, Chrome's blog, Android's blog and more. You can find it at blog.google and it's called The Keyword. "We wanted to make it easier for people to find news from Google about what we're up to. With that in mind, today we're launching the Keyword — a new destination for the latest news from inside Google, from Android to Translate. The Keyword is all the stuff we had across 19 blogs, in one place — so you don't have to hop from one blog to another to find the latest update. If you're looking for something from Google from now on, chances are it's here," mentions Emily Wood . The most interesting thing about this change is that Google abandoned Blogger and uses a completely new blogging platform. There's a section that showcases the latest tweets from Google's main Twitter accounts, a list of the lat...

Bing has a cool feature: just click the search box and you get a list of trending searches. Google has been testing a similar feature this year in the mobile search interface. It started as an experiment in the Google Search app for Android back in January and now I noticed the same experiment when visiting Google.com in Chrome. Google shows 5 searches that are currently popular and most of them seem to be related to recent news. Obviously, Google's results include a lot of news articles. "The difference between trending and normal auto-complete is basically the difference of showing search suggestions based on years of query history vs the past 48 hours of search query history (in the most simplistic way)," says Barry Schwartz , who reported about this last month.