Jay McGavren's Journal

You know, if I had never gotten into ROM hacking, I might have made a good genetic researcher…

> MIT World » : DNA Mutation, Repair and the Environment

> Samson wants to figure out how to protect cells against > carcinogenic effects in the environment, and whether a > tumor cell will be susceptible to treatment. She has been > painstakingly studying the Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast > organism, trying to identify all the factors that determine > whether or not DNA damaging agents kill or mutate cells. > She interrogated each of this organism’s 5,800 genes, > “asking one by one, which of you is making a product that’s > important to helping a cell recover from damage.” In what > was a “huge surprise,” Samson learned that there are more > than 2,000 gene products involved in helping a yeast cell > repair itself, “from areas of the cell never suspected > before for being important” in this way.

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/387/

Those of you who like gangster flicks should definitely Netflix yourself a copy of City of God. It’s the next Goodfellas, only in Portugese.

> From: hr_drone@mycompany.com > To: All Mail Users > > Did you know September is National Fruit and Vegetable > Month? To reinforce the importance of these food groups we > encourage you to eat at least five servings of fruits and > vegetables each day throughout September. > > Each Friday, for the rest of the month, we will be > providing plates full of your favorite fruits. Feel free > to enjoy them and pick up a flyer that outlines some of the > many benefits.

Wow… (sniff…) I’ve never worked for a company that actually cared whether I got enough fiber.

Got this message via Flickr today…

> I am writing to let you know that five of your photos with > a creative commons license have been short-listed for > inclusion in the second edition of our Schmap Kauai Guide, > to be published mid-October 2006.

I published my stuff under the Creative Commons license because, while it’s good enough to circulate, it’s not professional enough to charge for.

They look completely legit, partly because the license I agreed to in the final submission has these key terms:

> (c) Schmap shall, to the extent reasonably practicable, > provide Internet link(s) to your Photos. > … > (f) Schmap shall continue to make its destination/local > guides available at no cost to end users.

That’s right; not only do I get credited and linked to, but in the event they start to charge end users for these guides, my license to them to use my photos is automatically revoked. I assume they’ll be making some profit from ad revenues, but doesn’t Flickr as well? I’m just happy to have people looking at the product of my hobby.

I’m also excited from the standpoint that I hope to one day be an entrepeneur like these guys. Using this Creative Commons content means they don’t have to employ an army of photographers, unlike traditional travel guides. Maybe when it’s time for me to start my business, I’ll be able to do it all by myself.

Found a new emulator called pSX last night. It’s the first PlayStation emulator to bring quality and compatibility on par with those available for older systems. Anyway, it inspired me to break out a few old games…

Anyone else remember Battle Area Toshinden? That was actually one of the main reasons I first purchased a Playstation. Well, I went back and played it last night, and it’s a lot worse than I remember. I mean, it’s REALLY bad. And yet great at the same time. I cracked up all over again as Fo Fei fell out of the ring during his win pose.