Yes, kittens on the Internet do exist and are useful!

Today was COLD... I was really unused to it after the warmth we've had the past few days. Then again, it was raining too, so maybe that might've contributed. My fingers were frozen when cycling and I could barely warm them up enough to chain my bike properly. ^^;;; Going to Safeway to buy frozen dinners probably helped, though.

No trip stats today, because I don't feel like it. Also because I don't want to go out in the rain and cold again and become a frozen basket have numb hands again. ^^;;;;

I got added to the Korean class mailing list, so hopefully that means that I managed to get in. We'll see, though. Work was pretty fun (I got to listen in on a pretty high-level meeting) but also somewhat embarrassing (I was put on the spot, and it turns out what I said might be wrong....) ^^;;;;

And I visited MSR's TechFest, an annual exhibition of some of the cool things that are coming out of Microsoft Research. One of the things that really got me was Asirra (from here):

Asirra: Securing Web Services with Cute Kittens

Can you tell a dog from a cat? Perhaps you’ve seen Web services that require you to solve a small challenge to prove you are not an automated script. This is known as a CAPTCHA, and it commonly involves looking at distorted text and typing it into a box. Since OCR software can identify distorted characters quite well, CAPTCHAs add visual clutter to their images, but this also makes the challenges harder and more annoying for humans. We are developing a system, called Asirra, that challenges users to classify images of dogs and cats, a task difficult for software but easy and even fun for humans. Because software is of little help to us, Asirra needs a large source of classified pet images. We obtain them through an alliance with Petfinder.com, a nationwide pet-adoption site, which benefits because every challenge implicitly advertises adoptable pets.

The organizers even went to the extent of putting up a sign at the entrance warning people who were allergic to cat dander not to come in. ^^;;;; And the demo booth had two bored-looking cats in a cage, and one of the people there said that a cat had already been adopted yesterday XD

I probably might die tomorrow, because my initial (free) consultation with my personal trainer at the PRO Club is at 7:30 am. I hope I'm ready... but at least it lasts for one hour. I think. :P