Mathew Browne » quirky

Google Calculator Easter Egg: Number of Horns on a Unicorn

admin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:52:29 +0000

My attention was recently drawn to an interesting Easter Egg that Google included with their online calculator. If you input “number of horns on a unicorn” into Google, Google Calculator gives you the answer: 1.

Try some more:

Answer to life the universe and everything

10 feet in smoots

A great scam story. Enjoy

admin — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 11:57:00 +0000

An enterprising gentleman in The Republic of Ireland ran an advert in the classified ads of a magazine, reading “Giant 12″ Dildos – Only £5″ then stating a post box address. The money came flooding in. Having no such devices, and no intention of getting any, he wrote a refund cheque for each customer (and this is the clever bit) with the words “Giant 12″ Dildo Refund” stamped across them in very large letters. None of the refund cheques were ever cashed.

I understand that a variation of this now urban legend appeared in Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, but that doesn’t make it any less genius

Lazy request for lunchbreak reading fodder

admin — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:16:00 +0000

Foreign bloggers: more, please. You know who you are. That is all.

Parcel Force, DHL, Initial Citylink…

admin — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:39:00 +0000

Today Amtrak officially joined the firms above in the “Couriers who Math hates” club. I won’t bore you with the details. Just avoid them.

Fedex and Special Messaging Services are the only firms worth bothering with.

End.

Blame it on the bookie

admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 00:28:00 +0000

My 48-hour foray into the world of gambling is over. I discovered betfair.com, an incredibly addictive (once you grasp the rules) betting site where you can get the latest odds as a game is in progress.

Through a series of well-timed small bets on the darts final and the ongoing Masters snooker tournament I was able to “beat the bookie” on several occasions, meaning I had bet on each competitor with such odds that either way I’d win some money, or not lose anything at least. That isn’t to say I didn’t lose money, but my net profit was about £50 as of this evening.

Being an idiot, I didn’t quit while I was ahead – I then got my fingers burnt betting on the outcome of a frame of the Peter Ebdon V Stuart Bingham match. Ebdon was ruling the match and the current frame, so much so that his (decimal) odds of winning that frame and the match at the time were as low as 1.02, meaning for each £100 you slapped on you stood to win just £2. I, however, had stuck £30 on him when his odds were 1.80. But it was all for nothing as his opponent made a miraculous comeback and cost Ebdon the frame, and cost me £30.

I console myself with the fact that I eventually quit with £20 that I didn’t have before, and the fact that some poor bastard was so sure of Ebdon’s victory that 2 before he was beaten, he slapped down over 2 grand at 1.02 (where he would only have won about £40 had Ebdon won). Silly bastard.

Draw your own conclusions

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 11:20:00 +0000

I’m so going to hell.