Monday, October 31, 2005
Not New
This is not new. But this is good. And cheap.
http://www.gumstix.com/spexwaysmalls.html
Actually featured in the high altitude balloon described here:
http://www.srcf.ucam.org/%7Ejac208/pegasus/pegasus1.html
Version 1.0 did not use gumstix: http://vpizza.org/%7Ejmeehan/balloon/
From the friendly people at HackADay ¶ 8:29 PM 0 comments
This is not new. But this is good. And cheap.
http://www.gumstix.com/spexwaysmalls.html
Actually featured in the high altitude balloon described here:
http://www.srcf.ucam.org/%7Ejac208/pegasus/pegasus1.html
Version 1.0 did not use gumstix: http://vpizza.org/%7Ejmeehan/balloon/
From the friendly people at HackADay ¶ 8:29 PM 0 comments
Sunday, October 23, 2005
Counterproductive Crosspromotion
Let's face it, we're just dumb consumers. We'll jump on any good deals like flies on a turd. This is why you get things like free cell phone when you sign up for 2 years or rebates on things you buy. Why not discount the price directly? Cuz you're a dumb consumer that's why.
However, I just saw a good one. If you have Directv, sign up for Starz (and the shitload of channels it comes with) and get, yes, a $20 gift car from Barns & Nobles. Get more TV, so you can ge more books. Then not watch TV? Mmm... ¶ 12:19 PM 0 comments
Let's face it, we're just dumb consumers. We'll jump on any good deals like flies on a turd. This is why you get things like free cell phone when you sign up for 2 years or rebates on things you buy. Why not discount the price directly? Cuz you're a dumb consumer that's why.
However, I just saw a good one. If you have Directv, sign up for Starz (and the shitload of channels it comes with) and get, yes, a $20 gift car from Barns & Nobles. Get more TV, so you can ge more books. Then not watch TV? Mmm... ¶ 12:19 PM 0 comments
Saturday, October 22, 2005
Make is my friend
From the make people.
Good led and transistors 101. I glanced at it and thought it's clear and simple enough for me to understand.
http://www.iguanalabs.com/1stled.htm
Paper cars. Cool. There's a Ford GT40 and a DeLorean. Wow.
http://grumlt.citrina.lt/CitroPasakos/CitroZaislai.html
Good collection of satyrical content. Or is it just cynical?
http://www.blacktable.com/archive/idioticthings.htm ¶ 9:31 PM 0 comments
From the make people.
Good led and transistors 101. I glanced at it and thought it's clear and simple enough for me to understand.
http://www.iguanalabs.com/1stled.htm
Paper cars. Cool. There's a Ford GT40 and a DeLorean. Wow.
http://grumlt.citrina.lt/CitroPasakos/CitroZaislai.html
Good collection of satyrical content. Or is it just cynical?
http://www.blacktable.com/archive/idioticthings.htm ¶ 9:31 PM 0 comments
Friday, October 21, 2005
Awesome!
Sometimes, as a programmer, I get my head under a rock for a long long time regarding certain subjects. My favorite: XML. After several years of buzz, well, it looks like they are on to something (j/k). So there I am trying to figure out some XML-RPC API in general (and Blogger specifically) and there is surprisingly very little context infor that makes sense to me. All I can find are good old dump of what is actually transmitted over the wire with xml and all. But really, I don't care about that. I don't want to generate xml. I just want to call a method and stick a few params in it. This is what the XmlRpc lib is supposed to do. But no. Can't find simple code examples. But great detail about the plumbing, I find:
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/10/15/dive.html ¶ 11:45 PM 0 comments
Sometimes, as a programmer, I get my head under a rock for a long long time regarding certain subjects. My favorite: XML. After several years of buzz, well, it looks like they are on to something (j/k). So there I am trying to figure out some XML-RPC API in general (and Blogger specifically) and there is surprisingly very little context infor that makes sense to me. All I can find are good old dump of what is actually transmitted over the wire with xml and all. But really, I don't care about that. I don't want to generate xml. I just want to call a method and stick a few params in it. This is what the XmlRpc lib is supposed to do. But no. Can't find simple code examples. But great detail about the plumbing, I find:
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/10/15/dive.html ¶ 11:45 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
I got flash!
Apparently I'm addicted to flash games. This one is not really a game, it's more a rendom hypnotic animation. But that's the point of getting addicted: it's hypnotic.
http://files.deviantart.com/f/2004/188/8/7/gridgame.swf
And this one is a really intense click and jump. But lots of clicking. Gotta bother coworkers.
http://www.we-are-freex.com/projects/GunRun/GunRun.htm ¶ 8:51 PM 0 comments
Apparently I'm addicted to flash games. This one is not really a game, it's more a rendom hypnotic animation. But that's the point of getting addicted: it's hypnotic.
http://files.deviantart.com/f/2004/188/8/7/gridgame.swf
And this one is a really intense click and jump. But lots of clicking. Gotta bother coworkers.
http://www.we-are-freex.com/projects/GunRun/GunRun.htm ¶ 8:51 PM 0 comments
Finally!
This has been one of my pet peeves for a long time. Long after everyone switched to Hotmail and Yahoo, and then to Gmail, you still had to cope with the default mailto: links. That is, whatever is configured in your OS is launched (and on this laptop, it is Lonus Notes, AAAAAAAARGH) So this is the solution:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2005/10/18/... ¶ 3:05 PM 0 comments
This has been one of my pet peeves for a long time. Long after everyone switched to Hotmail and Yahoo, and then to Gmail, you still had to cope with the default mailto: links. That is, whatever is configured in your OS is launched (and on this laptop, it is Lonus Notes, AAAAAAAARGH) So this is the solution:
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2005/10/18/... ¶ 3:05 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Monday, October 17, 2005
Too bad you don't know french
Cuz you could read and understand this...
http://www.levif.be/Weekend/CMArticles/ShowArticle.asp?articleID=641§ionID=4
¶ 1:14 AM 0 comments
Cuz you could read and understand this...
http://www.levif.be/Weekend/CMArticles/ShowArticle.asp?articleID=641§ionID=4
¶ 1:14 AM 0 comments
A little hard
This was not easy to figure out at first (I mean, in the first 3 minutes) but it's actually pretty funny. If you're into that kind of humour that is.
http://longorshort.blogspot.com/
¶ 12:58 AM 0 comments
This was not easy to figure out at first (I mean, in the first 3 minutes) but it's actually pretty funny. If you're into that kind of humour that is.
http://longorshort.blogspot.com/
¶ 12:58 AM 0 comments
Random good find
About once in a million years, I find a good blog by hitting the next blog button in blogger. I only do that when I'm really bored, because I know I'll find 45% spam blogs, 22% drunken sports fan and the rest college/highschool students bitching about their life and minute annoyances. So here it is. Very well worded. Open and not rabid for a change.
http://benjaminhartman.blogspot.com/
¶ 12:17 AM 0 comments
About once in a million years, I find a good blog by hitting the next blog button in blogger. I only do that when I'm really bored, because I know I'll find 45% spam blogs, 22% drunken sports fan and the rest college/highschool students bitching about their life and minute annoyances. So here it is. Very well worded. Open and not rabid for a change.
http://benjaminhartman.blogspot.com/
¶ 12:17 AM 0 comments
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Yeah... I'm gonna need all your cash...
Hi, my name is John Johnston, it is not my real name for I work for the secret services. I'm gonna need all your available cash so I can mark it with a microship. Please leave it under a table there. Do not talk to anyone about this. Thank you for your cooperation.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1814531,00.html
It's daring, but the scammed people are particularely stupid. You're supposed to use that little thing in your head called your brain. ¶ 11:12 AM 0 comments
Hi, my name is John Johnston, it is not my real name for I work for the secret services. I'm gonna need all your available cash so I can mark it with a microship. Please leave it under a table there. Do not talk to anyone about this. Thank you for your cooperation.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-1814531,00.html
It's daring, but the scammed people are particularely stupid. You're supposed to use that little thing in your head called your brain. ¶ 11:12 AM 0 comments
Just don't look suspicious.
You just can't help it. When you know you're being observed you become slightly self conscious. Even if you don't care. It's there, in your brain. And even if you're not aware of any observation, you may be having the wrong attitude or posture or behavior or trigerring other's alarm of suspiciousness.
That's especially bad when you're french, living in London and carrying a backpack in the subway. This dude had an Orwellian experience.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1575532,00.html
To the police defense I should say that it must be really hard to deal with the unrealistic expectation that they will prevent any terrorist attack in the subway forever. However, my experience with European police (not british though) is that every policeman I met were just about as smart as a bacterium or maybe a kitchen knife.
Even then, it's a scary thought. The crime of looking suspicious should not be enough to be the subject of those terribly invasive searches, loss of privacy and being filed in some police file forever (do you really think they will get rid of his fingerprint and DNA records? I did not think so)
In conclusion, don't go to London. London sucks. But if you do, don't take the subway. But if you have to, don't look suspicious. But if you do, well, don't run, cuz they'll shoot you.
¶ 11:07 AM 0 comments
You just can't help it. When you know you're being observed you become slightly self conscious. Even if you don't care. It's there, in your brain. And even if you're not aware of any observation, you may be having the wrong attitude or posture or behavior or trigerring other's alarm of suspiciousness.
That's especially bad when you're french, living in London and carrying a backpack in the subway. This dude had an Orwellian experience.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1575532,00.html
To the police defense I should say that it must be really hard to deal with the unrealistic expectation that they will prevent any terrorist attack in the subway forever. However, my experience with European police (not british though) is that every policeman I met were just about as smart as a bacterium or maybe a kitchen knife.
Even then, it's a scary thought. The crime of looking suspicious should not be enough to be the subject of those terribly invasive searches, loss of privacy and being filed in some police file forever (do you really think they will get rid of his fingerprint and DNA records? I did not think so)
In conclusion, don't go to London. London sucks. But if you do, don't take the subway. But if you have to, don't look suspicious. But if you do, well, don't run, cuz they'll shoot you.
¶ 11:07 AM 0 comments
Less work!
I just realized I did not post anything in the last 4 days. What's up with that? Grrr... I'm more busy at work. Let me use this entry to state officially that it sucks. Drats.
On an unrelated note, I remember reading some bloger's advice to newbies at blogging, one of those was proofreading. What a bunch of hoey.
My advice is not to proofread anything. It's a blog, it's not a novel or a new country's constitution. It's supposed to be natural writing. Just spit out thought in a semi-organized fashion and you're good. If your readers wanted some nicely polished words and dumb content, they would be reading their local news paper.
Yet another post without a link though.
¶ 12:47 AM 0 comments
I just realized I did not post anything in the last 4 days. What's up with that? Grrr... I'm more busy at work. Let me use this entry to state officially that it sucks. Drats.
On an unrelated note, I remember reading some bloger's advice to newbies at blogging, one of those was proofreading. What a bunch of hoey.
My advice is not to proofread anything. It's a blog, it's not a novel or a new country's constitution. It's supposed to be natural writing. Just spit out thought in a semi-organized fashion and you're good. If your readers wanted some nicely polished words and dumb content, they would be reading their local news paper.
Yet another post without a link though.
¶ 12:47 AM 0 comments
Linux is better than fiction
Usability is in my opinion the biggest issue with everyday use of Linux. Linux on a user desktop, that is. Windows is easier to install/maintain. Just try to install wireless networking hardware in Linux and you'll see. I know it's getting better every day. But still, it's far from perfect.
I'm using Linux as much as I can during my daily routine (at home that is). It's my web browsing machine, it rips CDs, makes iso images, it's my DAR (digital audio recorder. A fancy name for the tool that record the radio from the sound card line in) So in a typical user fashion, I just want things to work. And I don't want to fight for it.
So yesterday night, I tackled 3 of my pet peeves. Even though my linux box sits next to my windows box in my office, the linux box is headless. I use the desktop through Xvnc server and client. My Fedora distribution came with VNC 4.0 so I just had to do some config here and there to get it working. Comes my pet peeve #1: can't copy/paste between Window and remote session. After a long time of figuring out, it turns out you must run the vncconfig applet on the X desktop, and leave it running for the clipboard thing to run! That's really stupid, but now I'm able to copy URL in firefox running in X and paste them in my mighty home made little posting tool. I know, that tool should be run under Linux, but you see, it's written in C#, and it happens that it does not run well at all under mono because it uses a rich edit control. maybe in 2013 mono will catch up with all the Windows widgets. I could also have written this tool in Java, but C# and Visual Studio are sooooo nice. (and I suck at Java gui programming too)
#2 pet peeve: no web site looks right because they all use those god damned Microsoft fonts like verdana, tahoma, and georgia. This blog included. So I found those explanations there:
http://www.kegel.com/linux/tt.html
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/x/xfree86-setup.html
Not sure if the cache rebuild and the likes are necessary but it took several attempts before it actually worked, so I'm not sure any more. I also rebooted. Probably not necessary. My uptime before reboot was 47 days. My record uptime was 235 days on the same computer, but I must admit I did not use it as much as I do now.
And finally, for last is something I did not quite solve. Just improved a bit. The only feature that would sell me Windows XP over Win2k (because really, Win2k was the best MS operating system ever) is the cleartype font smoothing. The one that works especially best with a LCD. It also works great on a CRT, tons better than standard antialias. Sadly, Linux's version is nowhere as good as MS. But I still could tweak it by finding some applet in the Control Center thingy.
Well, it turns out, when I use my posting tool to write entries (and not the butt ugly Blogger interface) I can rant for quite a few sentences. If you read this far, I probably killes half of your good braincells left. Sorry. Go watch Broadcast TV now. ¶ 12:41 AM 0 comments
Usability is in my opinion the biggest issue with everyday use of Linux. Linux on a user desktop, that is. Windows is easier to install/maintain. Just try to install wireless networking hardware in Linux and you'll see. I know it's getting better every day. But still, it's far from perfect.
I'm using Linux as much as I can during my daily routine (at home that is). It's my web browsing machine, it rips CDs, makes iso images, it's my DAR (digital audio recorder. A fancy name for the tool that record the radio from the sound card line in) So in a typical user fashion, I just want things to work. And I don't want to fight for it.
So yesterday night, I tackled 3 of my pet peeves. Even though my linux box sits next to my windows box in my office, the linux box is headless. I use the desktop through Xvnc server and client. My Fedora distribution came with VNC 4.0 so I just had to do some config here and there to get it working. Comes my pet peeve #1: can't copy/paste between Window and remote session. After a long time of figuring out, it turns out you must run the vncconfig applet on the X desktop, and leave it running for the clipboard thing to run! That's really stupid, but now I'm able to copy URL in firefox running in X and paste them in my mighty home made little posting tool. I know, that tool should be run under Linux, but you see, it's written in C#, and it happens that it does not run well at all under mono because it uses a rich edit control. maybe in 2013 mono will catch up with all the Windows widgets. I could also have written this tool in Java, but C# and Visual Studio are sooooo nice. (and I suck at Java gui programming too)
#2 pet peeve: no web site looks right because they all use those god damned Microsoft fonts like verdana, tahoma, and georgia. This blog included. So I found those explanations there:
http://www.kegel.com/linux/tt.html
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/view/stable/x/xfree86-setup.html
Not sure if the cache rebuild and the likes are necessary but it took several attempts before it actually worked, so I'm not sure any more. I also rebooted. Probably not necessary. My uptime before reboot was 47 days. My record uptime was 235 days on the same computer, but I must admit I did not use it as much as I do now.
And finally, for last is something I did not quite solve. Just improved a bit. The only feature that would sell me Windows XP over Win2k (because really, Win2k was the best MS operating system ever) is the cleartype font smoothing. The one that works especially best with a LCD. It also works great on a CRT, tons better than standard antialias. Sadly, Linux's version is nowhere as good as MS. But I still could tweak it by finding some applet in the Control Center thingy.
Well, it turns out, when I use my posting tool to write entries (and not the butt ugly Blogger interface) I can rant for quite a few sentences. If you read this far, I probably killes half of your good braincells left. Sorry. Go watch Broadcast TV now. ¶ 12:41 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Funniest anim
This is the kind of flash movie I like. They got the most important part: content. Then voice. Then anim. It looks mighty crappy but it is super offensive. Awesome!
http://www.thefrown.com/player.php?/thebadlife ¶ 10:54 PM 0 comments
This is the kind of flash movie I like. They got the most important part: content. Then voice. Then anim. It looks mighty crappy but it is super offensive. Awesome!
http://www.thefrown.com/player.php?/thebadlife ¶ 10:54 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
...
http://www.lifehack.org/
This is where I found this: 10 foods you should never eat. ¶ 9:54 PM 0 comments
http://www.lifehack.org/
This is where I found this: 10 foods you should never eat. ¶ 9:54 PM 0 comments
Marketing 101
We're surrounded by ads and commercials. It's easy to tune them out, but if you're like me, you can take pleasure at dissecting them and analyze them.
That makes it even more fun when you spot a really bad one.
Broadly, there are two general genres: the ones that make you indentify with the product user and the ones that make you laugh.
The idea is to make you remember the product (and not the commercial itself). That's fairly simple to follow. Show a mother using cleaning product when you target women who typically clean their home. See the flurry of Johnson and Johnson products commercials.
Makes you laugh too works. Geico. Capital one. Works.
Now for the really bad one. VW Passat. Take a look at it here. Checkpoint. It's the one called "Checkpoint". Basically it pictures a lone guy stuck at a checkpoint in an unnamed country that looks South American. The current militia inspecting the car get so intrigued by the not so common 120 features of the car that they tear it apart. And yes, the guy is white and the policieros are latin. They speak spanish. All those good stereotypes are in.
Bottom line: you could have bought a GM Grand Crapolo but no, you had to be a smart ass and get you this car for those people will just rip it apart and abandon you carless in the middle of nowhere. Buy a VW Passat = you're an idiot.
¶ 9:17 PM 0 comments
We're surrounded by ads and commercials. It's easy to tune them out, but if you're like me, you can take pleasure at dissecting them and analyze them.
That makes it even more fun when you spot a really bad one.
Broadly, there are two general genres: the ones that make you indentify with the product user and the ones that make you laugh.
The idea is to make you remember the product (and not the commercial itself). That's fairly simple to follow. Show a mother using cleaning product when you target women who typically clean their home. See the flurry of Johnson and Johnson products commercials.
Makes you laugh too works. Geico. Capital one. Works.
Now for the really bad one. VW Passat. Take a look at it here. Checkpoint. It's the one called "Checkpoint". Basically it pictures a lone guy stuck at a checkpoint in an unnamed country that looks South American. The current militia inspecting the car get so intrigued by the not so common 120 features of the car that they tear it apart. And yes, the guy is white and the policieros are latin. They speak spanish. All those good stereotypes are in.
Bottom line: you could have bought a GM Grand Crapolo but no, you had to be a smart ass and get you this car for those people will just rip it apart and abandon you carless in the middle of nowhere. Buy a VW Passat = you're an idiot.
¶ 9:17 PM 0 comments
Useless facts of the day
Salmonella does not come from salmon. Nope. Daniel Elmer Salmon discovered the salmonella bacteria and they named it after him. Now that's a cool thing to be remember for.
Starbucks (the coffee company) was named after first mate Starbuck (first mate is the rank, not the affiliation) on the Pequod (name of the ship) in the novel Moby Dick.
{More on this} ¶ 1:58 PM 0 comments
Salmonella does not come from salmon. Nope. Daniel Elmer Salmon discovered the salmonella bacteria and they named it after him. Now that's a cool thing to be remember for.
Starbucks (the coffee company) was named after first mate Starbuck (first mate is the rank, not the affiliation) on the Pequod (name of the ship) in the novel Moby Dick.
{More on this} ¶ 1:58 PM 0 comments
Carrying things around
I'm used to carry tons of junk around. Mostly electronic devices. It probably feeds from personal insecurities. How mankind could survive so long without cellphones is beyond me. Anyway, I usually carry a cell phone, pda, thumb drive, mp3 player, keys, wallet, watch and probably more crap. The DIYer in me is impressed with the minimalistic approach of this toolkit. Fits in an altoids can. Maybe I'll start carrying one around too. I need a backpack though :)
http://www.escapemyhead.com/2005/10/tttk-travel-tinker-trouble-kit.html
From {Make} ¶ 11:02 AM 0 comments
I'm used to carry tons of junk around. Mostly electronic devices. It probably feeds from personal insecurities. How mankind could survive so long without cellphones is beyond me. Anyway, I usually carry a cell phone, pda, thumb drive, mp3 player, keys, wallet, watch and probably more crap. The DIYer in me is impressed with the minimalistic approach of this toolkit. Fits in an altoids can. Maybe I'll start carrying one around too. I need a backpack though :)
http://www.escapemyhead.com/2005/10/tttk-travel-tinker-trouble-kit.html
From {Make} ¶ 11:02 AM 0 comments
Sunday, October 09, 2005
One Liners
Engadget fighter? Nah. Just funny though.
http://www.ohgizmo.com/
Greenspun is still talking.
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/
Blogs a mistakes. 7 most often made mistakes in the first 7 days.
http://blog.studentnyc.com/archives/26 ¶ 8:09 PM 0 comments
Engadget fighter? Nah. Just funny though.
http://www.ohgizmo.com/
Greenspun is still talking.
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/
Blogs a mistakes. 7 most often made mistakes in the first 7 days.
http://blog.studentnyc.com/archives/26 ¶ 8:09 PM 0 comments
Reality is better than fiction...
It reads like a spy novel. It really sounds like one, but look closely at the url.
http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/vol47no3/article02.html ¶ 1:55 PM 0 comments
It reads like a spy novel. It really sounds like one, but look closely at the url.
http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/vol47no3/article02.html ¶ 1:55 PM 0 comments
Good Security
This is an amazingly insightful piece on dumb ideas about computer security.
http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/dumb/ ¶ 1:48 PM 2 comments
This is an amazingly insightful piece on dumb ideas about computer security.
http://www.ranum.com/security/computer_security/editorials/dumb/ ¶ 1:48 PM 2 comments
Stuffed
I have so many entries on Ruby and Ajax, I kinda feel I should actually use those. (i.e. move my ass and do instead of talk). I guess I'll start with Ruby, cuz really, I hate Javascript.
http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/ ¶ 12:06 AM 0 comments
I have so many entries on Ruby and Ajax, I kinda feel I should actually use those. (i.e. move my ass and do instead of talk). I guess I'll start with Ruby, cuz really, I hate Javascript.
http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/ ¶ 12:06 AM 0 comments
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Ajax and Ruby
Ajax here:
http://www.dojotoolkit.org/
Ruby:
http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/distributingrubyapplications/rails.html
¶ 8:27 PM 0 comments
Ajax here:
http://www.dojotoolkit.org/
Ruby:
http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/distributingrubyapplications/rails.html
¶ 8:27 PM 0 comments
Be sure you mean it!
Little advice for you and your resume writing skills.
http://alanso.blogspirit.com/archive/2005/10/04/25-words-that-can-hurt-your-resume.html ¶ 8:17 PM 0 comments
Little advice for you and your resume writing skills.
http://alanso.blogspirit.com/archive/2005/10/04/25-words-that-can-hurt-your-resume.html ¶ 8:17 PM 0 comments
Free everything
Ii just looks like more and more people rebel against the tighter grips of copyright and intellectual property. Let it be free and copiable and distributable without constraint (or just the constraint that it remains free).
Opensource, free software, creative commons, open content. Wikipedia is a good exemple. Another good project is wikibooks at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page and yes, you guessed it, free books that anyone can edit and participate in. ¶ 7:26 PM 0 comments
Ii just looks like more and more people rebel against the tighter grips of copyright and intellectual property. Let it be free and copiable and distributable without constraint (or just the constraint that it remains free).
Opensource, free software, creative commons, open content. Wikipedia is a good exemple. Another good project is wikibooks at http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Main_Page and yes, you guessed it, free books that anyone can edit and participate in. ¶ 7:26 PM 0 comments
Friday, October 07, 2005
Hamster wheel
Now that's a pretty nice color wheel picker thingy.
http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/style/color/wheel.html ¶ 4:39 PM 0 comments
Now that's a pretty nice color wheel picker thingy.
http://www.ficml.org/jemimap/style/color/wheel.html ¶ 4:39 PM 0 comments
Set the fox on Fire(fox)
I use Firefox on about 73 millions different computers (no, just about 4, really) and once in a while I realize I did not tweak such and suchsettings (or more annoyingly, I did not install some much needed extensions) So here are some values worthy of reminding myself for a good about:config tweak:
I use Firefox on about 73 millions different computers (no, just about 4, really) and once in a while I realize I did not tweak such and suchsettings (or more annoyingly, I did not install some much needed extensions) So here are some values worthy of reminding myself for a good about:config tweak:
- network.http.pipelining: true
- network.http.pipelining.maxrequests: some higer number (like 10)
- nglayout.initialpaint.delay: 0 and I'm not quite sure I like this one.
- image.animation_mode: none (does anyone need to see anim gifs anymore ever? No, I did not think so)
Color is Added!
Now it is fair to claim that my little posting tool supports colors in a WYSISWG fashion. Now for wishing I got it right on the HTML side. If I could just add support for Blogger API, I could have a simple but effective blog editor. Cool! ¶ 3:00 PM 0 comments
Now it is fair to claim that my little posting tool supports colors in a WYSISWG fashion. Now for wishing I got it right on the HTML side. If I could just add support for Blogger API, I could have a simple but effective blog editor. Cool! ¶ 3:00 PM 0 comments
More clean web!
http://www.ajaxinfo.com/
And hopefully I will get my ass of the couch and actually do something w/it! (I mean with Ajax, not my ass...) ¶ 2:52 PM 0 comments
http://www.ajaxinfo.com/
And hopefully I will get my ass of the couch and actually do something w/it! (I mean with Ajax, not my ass...) ¶ 2:52 PM 0 comments
Torrents, this way
Maybe I'll finally get to see the pilot of Invasion!
http://isohunt.com/stats.php?mode=btSites
http://www.bitenova.org/ ¶ 2:50 PM 0 comments
Maybe I'll finally get to see the pilot of Invasion!
http://isohunt.com/stats.php?mode=btSites
http://www.bitenova.org/ ¶ 2:50 PM 0 comments
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Cheaper by the pound
There is a whole bunch of random stuff. I may revisit some, but I'm just gonna do one post.
Pretty good photoblog. Nice compositon, sharp focus, good use of black and white. I like it overall pretty good.
http://myernore.blogspot.com/
One day I'll come to my senses and realize javascript is not totally evil. Wait, it is. Except for the once in a while useful Ajax app (really, Ajax is just a buzzword, it's just fancy javascript, just extra fancy) like google maps and the like.
Some article about Ajax: http://particletree.com/features/the-hows-and-whys-of-degradable-ajax/
A really cool javascript color scheme picker. Good for people like me who don't always make the best choices when it comes to pair colors together: http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
A google maps based app that shows the outline of US zip codes. Awesome! http://maps.huge.info/?zip=97113
Ajax library: http://openrico.org/rico/home.page
Particularely good delicious Ajax app: http://sandbox.sourcelabs.com/livemarks/
Ruby sounds like a slightly quirky programming language. I already like it. http://www.rubyist.net/~slagell/ruby/index.html
I'll just rip this whole paragraph from that PC World article.
I'm not sure this intelligent bacon is worth it's share of pork. Too long to read it now, so here is the link. http://intelligentbacon.blogspot.com/2005/10/16-ways-to-drive-traffic-to-your-blog.html ¶ 10:43 PM 0 comments
There is a whole bunch of random stuff. I may revisit some, but I'm just gonna do one post.
Pretty good photoblog. Nice compositon, sharp focus, good use of black and white. I like it overall pretty good.
http://myernore.blogspot.com/
One day I'll come to my senses and realize javascript is not totally evil. Wait, it is. Except for the once in a while useful Ajax app (really, Ajax is just a buzzword, it's just fancy javascript, just extra fancy) like google maps and the like.
Some article about Ajax: http://particletree.com/features/the-hows-and-whys-of-degradable-ajax/
A really cool javascript color scheme picker. Good for people like me who don't always make the best choices when it comes to pair colors together: http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
A google maps based app that shows the outline of US zip codes. Awesome! http://maps.huge.info/?zip=97113
Ajax library: http://openrico.org/rico/home.page
Particularely good delicious Ajax app: http://sandbox.sourcelabs.com/livemarks/
Ruby sounds like a slightly quirky programming language. I already like it. http://www.rubyist.net/~slagell/ruby/index.html
I'll just rip this whole paragraph from that PC World article.
Was looking for something like this. Lets you snoop on those http header. A life saver for debugging web apps, if you know what I mean. http://livehttpheaders.mozdev.org/index.html. Yes, it is for Firefox. If you're using IE, you probably don't know.Sometimes the best e-mail and chat support in the world is no substitute for a conversation with a real person. But that kind of talk isn't cheap, so to cut costs, Net-based companies like Amazon often make their phone numbers hard to find. Not to worry: A site called Cliché Ideas has dug them up:
- Amazon: 800/201-7575
- EBay: 800/322-9266
I'm not sure this intelligent bacon is worth it's share of pork. Too long to read it now, so here is the link. http://intelligentbacon.blogspot.com/2005/10/16-ways-to-drive-traffic-to-your-blog.html ¶ 10:43 PM 0 comments
$100 Laptop!
Obviously this is cheap for a laptop. Unfortunately it is where most people stop when they are told about the project. The aim is to distribute the computer to children in developing countries as an enabler for communication. Children are not expected to shell out $100 per computer, those will be sold in bulk to governments and education branches. $100 is the target price to produce. They obviously like to make it as cheap as it comes. Reading the specs though, it's pretty beefy in features, and some are not found in standard laptop - hand crank power for example. But it also has a screen that can be used in bright sunlight (wow!), wi-fi and cellular support. On the software side, MIT media lab developped support for mesh networking to share internet connections, i.e. no need for extra hardware for a whole bunch of them to share one internet connection.
This is a great example of technology used in a selfless fashion. It is meant for developping countries, it is for children and it is for education.
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=%24100+laptop ¶ 9:13 AM 0 comments
Obviously this is cheap for a laptop. Unfortunately it is where most people stop when they are told about the project. The aim is to distribute the computer to children in developing countries as an enabler for communication. Children are not expected to shell out $100 per computer, those will be sold in bulk to governments and education branches. $100 is the target price to produce. They obviously like to make it as cheap as it comes. Reading the specs though, it's pretty beefy in features, and some are not found in standard laptop - hand crank power for example. But it also has a screen that can be used in bright sunlight (wow!), wi-fi and cellular support. On the software side, MIT media lab developped support for mesh networking to share internet connections, i.e. no need for extra hardware for a whole bunch of them to share one internet connection.
This is a great example of technology used in a selfless fashion. It is meant for developping countries, it is for children and it is for education.
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html
http://www.google.com/search?q=%24100+laptop ¶ 9:13 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Cheap Flying
Those people have cheap flying thing. Like a 50 bucks plane. With radio. Cool. (I know, it's not a real plane. It does not have 8 way controls, it does not have a kerosene turbojet... but it's cheap!)
http://www.horizonhobby.com
¶ 10:16 PM 0 comments
Those people have cheap flying thing. Like a 50 bucks plane. With radio. Cool. (I know, it's not a real plane. It does not have 8 way controls, it does not have a kerosene turbojet... but it's cheap!)
http://www.horizonhobby.com
¶ 10:16 PM 0 comments
Foul smelling copy
It looks like an extremely cheap Nintendo DS lookalike. And appears to be a real piece of shit. Enjoy the video!
(Warning: my firefox did not seem to like the video plugin thingy on the page and unfortunately crashed. I'm sure it's my installation though)
http://media.putfile.com/NeoDouble2 ¶ 3:55 PM 0 comments
It looks like an extremely cheap Nintendo DS lookalike. And appears to be a real piece of shit. Enjoy the video!
(Warning: my firefox did not seem to like the video plugin thingy on the page and unfortunately crashed. I'm sure it's my installation though)
http://media.putfile.com/NeoDouble2 ¶ 3:55 PM 0 comments
iRock
This comment was too funny to pass. This is about the next great thing rumoured to come out of Apple.
The funny comment is in position 15. ¶ 3:31 PM 0 comments
This comment was too funny to pass. This is about the next great thing rumoured to come out of Apple.
Posted Oct 4, 2005, 4:29 PM ET by lupinstelThe whole thread is here: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000707061794/
I heard that they are going to bring back the pet rock. Expect instead of some regular piece of basalt they are going to use rose quartz and turquoise, then they will put the letter "i" in front of the word rock, and everyone will buy them to be cool even though it is inferior and more expensive than other rocks. Thats just what I heard though. The information is possibly wrong.
The funny comment is in position 15. ¶ 3:31 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Monday, October 03, 2005
The random list
As we finally approach the end of the year (sure the last three month don't count) we once again have to cope with an usual paper wasting slew of best of whatever in 2005. PCWorld is ahead of the game: 3 days in September and they publish something from the July 2005 print named The 100 Best Products of 2005.
Wait.
July print? So it means this has actually been written in May. Now that's a hell of ahead of the game!
Hurray for PCWorld!
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120763,pg,12,00.asp ¶ 4:07 PM 0 comments
As we finally approach the end of the year (sure the last three month don't count) we once again have to cope with an usual paper wasting slew of best of whatever in 2005. PCWorld is ahead of the game: 3 days in September and they publish something from the July 2005 print named The 100 Best Products of 2005.
Wait.
July print? So it means this has actually been written in May. Now that's a hell of ahead of the game!
Hurray for PCWorld!
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,120763,pg,12,00.asp ¶ 4:07 PM 0 comments
Speeling is easier than you think
Especially when someone else has already written the code for you. The spell checking code of course. This will go right in the blogger editor I'm writing. Awesome!
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/NetSpell.asp ¶ 3:04 PM 0 comments
Especially when someone else has already written the code for you. The spell checking code of course. This will go right in the blogger editor I'm writing. Awesome!
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/NetSpell.asp ¶ 3:04 PM 0 comments
Remote Dvorak
Hurray for Dvorak when he promotes work from home scheme! I like it! I would like it much better than my currentoffice environment (and I do not even have to work in a cubicle-hutch). His article is an eye opener for D.C.. Government should send Congress home to work from there. Lots of compelling arguments.
¶ 9:30 AM 0 comments
Hurray for Dvorak when he promotes work from home scheme! I like it! I would like it much better than my currentoffice environment (and I do not even have to work in a cubicle-hutch). His article is an eye opener for D.C.. Government should send Congress home to work from there. Lots of compelling arguments.
With the growth of networks and computer technology that has occurred over the past 25 years, I honestly don't even see much of a reason for centralized offices of any sort. I've worked from home/hotel/beach since 1981 without an interruption. It's quite doable, and you get more accomplished. And, yes, you can still have meetings and go to confabs where you can socialize if you have to. Most of the time spent in an office is wasted time, and people who promote it as "team building" and all the rest are nuts. Office work over time does not become team building; it becomes empire building and counterproductive. Government work is the same way.The only issue would be keeping tabs on employees. Maybe they should wear ankle bracelets and have their homes stuffed with Internet enable security cams. Now what was my point again?
¶ 9:30 AM 0 comments
Pseudescopolicious
Those used to be 60's era novelty. And I always wanted one. So one day I'll get off my ass and actually purchase those $10 worth of crafting parts and see for myself (and certainly give myself some nausea and a strong headache)
From here: http://pseudoscope.blogspot.com/
Of course I had to read it from Make: http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/10/how_to_make_a_pseudoscope.html
¶ 8:55 AM 0 comments
Those used to be 60's era novelty. And I always wanted one. So one day I'll get off my ass and actually purchase those $10 worth of crafting parts and see for myself (and certainly give myself some nausea and a strong headache)
From here: http://pseudoscope.blogspot.com/
Of course I had to read it from Make: http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2005/10/how_to_make_a_pseudoscope.html
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Scumbag galore
This blog probably has an average of 0.4 reader per day, but I still get comment spam. They come in waves, there were 7 last night. Most don't even bother try be half smart. Still it's pretty painful. The most terrible one was this one:
This blog probably has an average of 0.4 reader per day, but I still get comment spam. They come in waves, there were 7 last night. Most don't even bother try be half smart. Still it's pretty painful. The most terrible one was this one:
I really love your blog!Brush my ego, guilt the reader then send them to the Red Cross. Well, the link was not to the red cross at all. Was to some refinance-now-mortgage-at-the-lowest-rate-shit.com scumbag site. The dumbest thing is that I'm pretty sure I'm the only one to read those comments, and yeah, this won't help your google rank one bit (see point #2 here) Now I'm tired of deleting 94% of all comments here, so I unfortunately had to turn on the type in the wavy words from this image here comment verification. The kind of things I hate to do myself, but hey, it'll make my life easier. ¶ 1:24 PM 0 comments
I've bookmarked it and told my blogger freak friends about it. It's intelligent, sometimes funny and always refreshingly honest. Keep Up The Good Work!
For any of your readers who want to contribute to the Red Cross to aid the many families who have been devastated by Katrina, there is a link to the Red Cross here (link removed).
Ray
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Ionic fart
Remember the Ionic Breeze from Sharper Image? The overpriced air purifier, that not only has no moving parts, no fans, and probably does not move the air around, but was the center of a (really small) turmoil about the fact that not only it's not very good at purifying the air, but it also spews out a good amount of ozone in the air. Chemistry 101: ozone in the high athmosphere: good, in your lungs: bad.
Well, they came back. Same crappy product, still no moving part, but now with ozone guard. And it still $450 bucks. Still made from about $35 of parts. And you still have to suffer through their inane commercials.
At least the company can react to criticism and change their product accordingly. Not that I'll buy one now though... ¶ 1:54 PM 0 comments
Remember the Ionic Breeze from Sharper Image? The overpriced air purifier, that not only has no moving parts, no fans, and probably does not move the air around, but was the center of a (really small) turmoil about the fact that not only it's not very good at purifying the air, but it also spews out a good amount of ozone in the air. Chemistry 101: ozone in the high athmosphere: good, in your lungs: bad.
Well, they came back. Same crappy product, still no moving part, but now with ozone guard. And it still $450 bucks. Still made from about $35 of parts. And you still have to suffer through their inane commercials.
At least the company can react to criticism and change their product accordingly. Not that I'll buy one now though... ¶ 1:54 PM 0 comments
