Boot Camp Assistant error

When you get following message in the Boot Camp Assistant:

"The startup disk does not have enough space to be partitioned. You must have at least 10 GB of free space available."

It means that the Boot Camp reserves 20 GB for Windows partition and then it needs additional 10 GB of free space to run Mac Os X. Hence you need 30 GB of free space to install Windows and not 10 GB as the message could mislead you.

And there is one more hiccup. That 20 GB for Windows must be continuous. Hence if you have more than 30 GB of free space and you still get this message:

1. Boot Mac from the install disk (hold the C key as you boot until the language selection screen appears.) 
2. From the Utilities menu on the install screen choose Disk Utility, then Repair Disk. 

Why geometry is taught

The history of Mathematics as we know it started in the 5th century BC in antic Greece, where philosophers examined geometry and postulated things like Pythagorean triangle. And for example architecture benefited from the geometry and it allowed construction of great buildings like Pantheon or Roman Colosseum.
But in the 5th century AD west Roman empire collapsed and western Europe sank in the darkness. This epoch is characterized by Romanesque art, which employs massive walls and small windows because otherwise the building would collapse.
However, in the 11th century Crusaders conquered Jerusalem and they have been amazed by the local architecture and decided to transport local "the true Gods" architecture back to home. Hence they have pillaged libraries and acquired many translations of antique books in Arabian language. The imported architecture is now called Gothics and it was possible build such elegant and high buildings only because the information from ancient Rome and Greece were recovered.
As more and more people obtained access to the ancient books a new epoch called Renaissance emerged. In translation Renaissance means reborn, reborn of antique culture. Since antique mathematics focused mostly on geometry, all new observations were proved using geometry. This promoted progress in astronomy, which studies trajectories of planets, and optics. Hence Kepler postulated hypothesis that planets follows ellipsoid trajectories and Tycho de Brahe designed a new type of telescope.
But then it looked like everything that can be easily proved using geometry was already proved and a new way how to prove things emerged independently from Newton and Leibniz in the 17th century. This new method, integrals, favored advances in mechanics and led to introduction of steam machines, combustion engines and atom energy.
Nowadays no one proves things using geometry because integrals are easier to use. However, no one likes to throw out 23 centuries of research and still geometry is easier to understand than integrals - just recall how integrals were explained - like an are under the curve...         

If I had three days left

If I had three days left I would listen to music, dance, talk with friends and enjoy food as if these things were the most opulent events in my life. These things are intentionally small and common, because they don't require any preparation and still they can produce pleasant feelings.
In the mean time I would reserve 2 hours to fix my life as much as I can - I would apologize to my friends for what I have done to them and I would apologize that it took so long to apologize. This should easy my feelings. And I would write a list of places where did I store/invest my money so my family can easily retrieve them.
In the first evening I would spend a night in a bed with a paid company. It wouldn't be anything fancy since next day I would like to be actually  able to do something, but it should give me a feeling that I am macho.
The second day I would do crazy things like free climbing without any protection or driving the fastest car I could get as fast I could make it. And I would visit the barber ask him/her to shave my head on skin.
The second evening would be reserved for my girlfriend.
The third day I would get a tattoo, a simple black tattoo like a pictogram of a mushroom - it takes just a few seconds to draw it but it would symbolize that I have overcame the fear from needles. And I would get a monstrous genital piercing, simply because I wouldn't have to wait until it heals. And I would abuse the strongest drugs I could find since I wouldn't have to pay the consequences. If I couldn't find anything better, I would drink as much alcohol I could and wouldn't say everyone on sigh "I love you".
When I finally pass away, it should be a few minutes before the end of the 72th hour.








And then nothing.

Why British drink unsweetened tea

British colonized half of the world. But access to clean water was in some parts of the world problematic and if a foreigner unaccustomed to local water wanted to avoid problems with a bowel, the water had to be boiled. However, boiled water can stink incredibly and taste even worse. Hence the water had to be flavored either by tea or coffee. And it happen that British colonized the part of the world which was suitable for growing of tea and not coffee.

But why British drink unsweetened tea? French food is best with wine. German Schweinebrate is best with beer. And incredibly greasy Russia food is best with vodka. Drinks complement food. And unsweetened tea complements British food. Hence I will begin from food. British food is traditionally either salty, acidic or sweet. It is because at the beginning of the medieval time the average temperature decreased by two Centigrade and British islands began to be dependent on imported of food. But what methods could be used to preserve the food during the transport in the medieval times? Basically four methods were possible: put it into salt, put it into honey, put it into vinegar or smoke it.

But British never used smoking very much since smoking is good only for preservation of meat, fish or cheese. But British are on an island and have the finest grass in the world that has been extensively used for breeding of domestic animals. Hence British never really needed to import any meat, fish or cheese and never needed to eat anything smoked. And after almost complete eradication of all British forests during the Victorian epoch for ships they even couldn't enjoy domestic smoked products.

Consequently all imported food must have been salty, acidic or sweet. But try to eat salty or acidic things all the time. I will spare you and your stomach - it is impossible. Eat too much salt and you get into a problem with osmotic pressure. Eat too much acidic food and you run into a problem with pH. Hence most British food was sweet - it was the only way how to preserve the food while preserving its edibility. And traditions are extremely strong in England. Thus British still eat over-sweetened food, they still drink tea and they still don't put any sugar into tea because all the sugar is included in the food. British are so keen to make everything sweet that even meat is caramelized to make it taste sweet. And the only way how to survive the never ending flood of sweet things is to drink bitter tea. And reversely, the only way how to survive bitter tea is to eat sweet food. Hence it is Ouroboros.

Bootstrapping

Bootstrapping is a ridiculously overloaded word. It can have following meanings:
1) In real life: A loop of at the top rear of a boot to help in pulling the boot on.
2) In poesy: Accomplishing something without aid (“pull yourself up by the bootstraps”).
3) In Computer Science: A way how to load an operating system or an application.
4) In Mathematics: A way how to calculate confidence intervals.
5) In Business: How to start up a company.
6) In Finance: How to finance your company.
7) In Behavioural Science: Application of a model of man.

Sometimes it's confusing.

Disadvantage of plastic windows

If I have to compare plastic and wood windows, then the advantage of plastic windows are:

• they don't expand nor shrink, thus they don't need periodical readjustment as wooden frames
• they don't suffer from imperfections typical for natural materials
• it is easy to make holes into the frame for cables

The disadvantages of plastic windows:

• you don't see into the window frame. And sometimes the window is just a plastic frame, which is hold together with the glass. Once I have seen a plastic window which was left open for a week. And next week the glass slid out from the frame because the plastic frame couldn't hold the heavy glass for so long time. In another case the customer asked for a glassed wall and decided to make it from plastic windows. During the normal wind (30 km/h) the middle of the wall moved forward and backward by 8cm because the frame was armored just with a wire. I don't say that plastic frames are less rigid than wooden frames, that's not true. But when you decide to choose plastic frame, look at the armoring of the window - there should be massive pieces of metal, which can withstand a lot of force (nice trick - try to hang yourself on the frame, if the frame survives, you may have found a good frame).
• you don't know how durable is the plastic. The problem is that the manufacturers attempt to save the cost and put a lot of filling material into the plastic because the filling material is much cheaper than plastic. Unfortunately the filling materials often decrease the quality of the compound. The common problem is color instability (white turns into beige or grey - just look at your old PC to get the idea), cold problems (plastic can get fragile or porous in cold) and aging instability (simply some plastic doesn't last long, for example Tesco bags are designed to last just one year and then they turn into ash).
• while it can be good that you can easily make holes into the frame burglars abuse it as well. They make a hole into the frame, find the lever from the handle, pull the lever the right direction and the window is opened. It's easy (you just need an accumulator screwdriver, a headlamp and pliers) and fast (it can take 5 minutes for unskilled labor, 30 seconds for a professional).

Why People Believe in Global Warming

I am not going to discuss whether global warming exists or not but I would rather explain why people like to believe in existence of global warming.

1. People like to be scared. When they are kids they like when people do "baf" on them. When they are 15 years old they like to watch horror movies with people dissected by a chainsaw. And when they are 20 they like stories about communism, terrorism and global warming.
2. People don't like unexplainable. Back in time when there was a storm people used to say "the Gods are angry". When the summer was too dry they used to say "the Gods are angry". When the winter was too long they used to say, ... well, I think you have got it.
   But in these days not everyone is religious and Bible explains only flood. And despite billions dollars spend on science weather forecasts are unreliable. Fortunately, we can explain extreme weather by global warming.
   
3. People don't like when they can't control things. When the winter was too long people used to sacrifice a goat or a virgin to placate the Gods. Communists use to promise that we will rule the wind and rain. But these days it's hard to find a goat and neither science gives as tools to change the weather.
   But wait. If global warming is changing the weather and if global warming is caused by humans than we have finally got control over the weather! All we have to do is lower carbide dioxide emissions and it will lower global warming!

Overall, global warming is a beautifully fabricated story worth of spreading, regardless it's fact or fiction.