Tuesday, December 14, 2004
SVG Weather Center - Tom Groves.net
SVG Weather Center is a place that takes the XML data that is being put out be the weather service and puts it into svg's. It's a neat concept and in the future could let us do things like weather movies from xml data....
Sunday, December 05, 2004
Ruby vs Perl
So this is the current dilemma I am having. There is this great language Perl and this other language Ruby. Some people have said that Ruby is a better Perl than perl. I'm not overly convinced. There are too many times that I'm looking at a project that I'm thinking about and I see that I can do it in Perl with a few modules and a little elbow grease.
Then I look at ruby.
Ruby has elegance. It has style and taste. Just not many modules. So I start to try and decide what to write. The only problem is that I tend to think that less code is better. Maybe it's a learning curve issue. The other conundrum is that I really want to take this app into Rails. It would really handy in terms of creation and shoot, things like BaseCamp were written in ruby. It's responsive and looks just all sorts of fast. Now with that said, maybe I'll just have to clamp down and write some stuff in ruby.
Then I look at ruby.
Ruby has elegance. It has style and taste. Just not many modules. So I start to try and decide what to write. The only problem is that I tend to think that less code is better. Maybe it's a learning curve issue. The other conundrum is that I really want to take this app into Rails. It would really handy in terms of creation and shoot, things like BaseCamp were written in ruby. It's responsive and looks just all sorts of fast. Now with that said, maybe I'll just have to clamp down and write some stuff in ruby.
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Monday, November 22, 2004
Ruby Pipes....
Google Groups: View Thread "Bidirectional named pipes on Linux"
Or more correctly named "how to maybe get a fifo working in ruby without killing your brain"
Or more correctly named "how to maybe get a fifo working in ruby without killing your brain"
Wikipedia:Wiki Game - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wikipedia:Wiki Game - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For you crazy kids out there.....
RubyForge: Project Info- Hobix
RubyForge: Project Info- Hobix
I might have already posted this, but the guy that did the project is just plain wacky. And I like wacky.
I might have already posted this, but the guy that did the project is just plain wacky. And I like wacky.
Friday, November 19, 2004
ConceptNet
ConceptNet is a neat ass idea for AI. Let you infer given a few sets of phrases that they are asking about 'topic'. Now that is intelligent.
I might have to send this to my brother.
I might have to send this to my brother.
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Fonzie
Fonzie was someone I always wanted to be. Now I'm not sure why, other than his method of debugging a jukebox. That would be priceless in my line of work.
Second Life and Peter Pan
New World Notes: AND STRAIGHT ON 'TIL MORNING
No I don't know if this will stay up after next week. Yes it looks like it rocks. I want it mommy. I want it bad. Oh well.
Some things are best left desired, for the mind shall clothe that which reality leaves naked. -Me
No I don't know if this will stay up after next week. Yes it looks like it rocks. I want it mommy. I want it bad. Oh well.
Some things are best left desired, for the mind shall clothe that which reality leaves naked. -Me
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Gaim Filesharing Plugin
These folks are trying to scrape some cash together to get a P2P filesharing plugin for gaim up and running. Which would be awesome if it used some crypto. Then at leastwhen I go to share with my family some picture of my son I can cringe less knowing that the RIAA/MPAA are just champing at the bit to sue the people that support them.
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Wow, this is a real book.
Dungeons & Dragons For Dummies
Yeah it's a real book. No, I have no idea what possessed someone to write it, but maybe it's a good thing that Hasbro bought out D&D. I wouldn't have thought that something this *mainstream* would be published any other way.
Yeah it's a real book. No, I have no idea what possessed someone to write it, but maybe it's a good thing that Hasbro bought out D&D. I wouldn't have thought that something this *mainstream* would be published any other way.
TripleA :: Strategy Engine Framework
TripleA :: Strategy Engine Framework for Axis and Allies. Too neat the idea that you can play this classic game.
read4me
Welcome to read4me project page a program that can read a bunch of RSS feeds for you and then make mathematical guesses as to which ones would be interesting for you. I am so thinking of putting this up somewhere. It's a sweet idea.
Monday, November 15, 2004
Gentoo Linux Documentation - - 2004.3 Release Information
Gentoo Linux Documentation - - 2004.3 Release Information
Not much else to say about this. This is one of the distros that I am thinking of going with for the new cluster here at work. Granted I have never hated a piece of machinery so much in my life, but eh, beggars and choosers.
Not much else to say about this. This is one of the distros that I am thinking of going with for the new cluster here at work. Granted I have never hated a piece of machinery so much in my life, but eh, beggars and choosers.
Gentleman's Emporium :: Products::Civil War Flags
Gentleman's Emporium :: Products It's a site that caters to the old school in all of us. And the interesting thing is that I found this off of del.icio.us a neat social bookmarking site. Yeah you need to go look at this site. It's a cornucopia of interesting things. And my bookmarks are here.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Friday, November 12, 2004
Netcraft What's That Site Running Results
Netcraft What's That Site Running Results
IN case this ever gets erased, Microsoft is trying to launch a search engine that will rival google. With that said a few weeks ago, Balmer sent out this message saying "Linux is spendy, and Windows isn't as spendy." And then the company goes and uses Linux for their server.
IRONY. Kind of like picking a bug for a mascot....
IN case this ever gets erased, Microsoft is trying to launch a search engine that will rival google. With that said a few weeks ago, Balmer sent out this message saying "Linux is spendy, and Windows isn't as spendy." And then the company goes and uses Linux for their server.
IRONY. Kind of like picking a bug for a mascot....
Joe Straitiff: The Man!
joestraitiff: So I'm posting under my real name -- you
Basically EA is the devil. I would never ever work in an environment that showed such blatent disregard for the family [which is why a person works in the first bloddy place]. Anyone that chooses family over work gets an A in my book.
Basically EA is the devil. I would never ever work in an environment that showed such blatent disregard for the family [which is why a person works in the first bloddy place]. Anyone that chooses family over work gets an A in my book.
ea_spouse or "Hell no I'm not working for EA"
ea_spouse Read this persons blog entry here.... 5s overview: EA feels it's appropriate to bill 85 hrs/week to a person, yet none of that time over 40hrs is paid, nor is it available to be banked to take time off after serious projects. Just plain sick.
Tired
Well, I'm heading off to bed. On the bright side, I've been out of town and got some goodies. And some serious brewing equipment, like roasted barley, and mutton's Dark Malt Extract. And a smack pack of wyeast. Oh yeah, thank God for Jimmy Carter.
Yeasts at the Wyeast Labs
The One List
I've got one pack of Thames Yeast for a stout. It's a smack pack, boasting 100 Billion little yeast buggers. This should be most interesting. Granted it's not fruity yeast, but then again, stouts weren't meant to be fruity.
I've got one pack of Thames Yeast for a stout. It's a smack pack, boasting 100 Billion little yeast buggers. This should be most interesting. Granted it's not fruity yeast, but then again, stouts weren't meant to be fruity.
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Home - The home of Spybot-S&D!
Home - The home of Spybot-S&D!
Verbum Sapiente Sat est. I *think* this is the official site. But with 2.1 million links in google, one can't be too sure.
Mental note: get antivirus software pronto.
Verbum Sapiente Sat est. I *think* this is the official site. But with 2.1 million links in google, one can't be too sure.
Mental note: get antivirus software pronto.
Mozilla Firefox - Tabbed Browsing
Mozilla Firefox - Tabbed Browsing described for the ordinary Joe. Now, for those of you still using IE and it not having tabs, this is a *critical* feature. It is what keeps my sanity. Imagine a world where you don't have to keep 10 IE windows open of the various websites that you are looking at. No also imagine that the names on the tabs are informative and you don't have to search for the page you were looking at three pages back. Now that is sweet. Oh and there is (or will be soon) a undo close tab feature. I can't tell you how many times I've cursed the luck that I just closed the one coolest page and in firefox, I can get it back.
For those of you with good taste in Browsers
Mozilla Update :: Extensions - List - All Extensions - Page 1
Yes, Firefox 1.0 is out. While it doesn't have *all* the items that I was looking for [like duplicate tab] I know the code is in there and well, this is going to be *the* browser.
Yes, Firefox 1.0 is out. While it doesn't have *all* the items that I was looking for [like duplicate tab] I know the code is in there and well, this is going to be *the* browser.
Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info: FoxyTunes
Mozilla Update :: Extensions -- More Info: FoxyTunes
Ok, I can now control my iTunes while I'm browsing? Hot damn!
Ok, I can now control my iTunes while I'm browsing? Hot damn!
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
RAA - podcatcher
RAA - podcatcher Podcasts? I'm not sure what they are. but I thought it was related to IPodding. Probably wrong.
Thousand Parsec:News
Thousand Parsec:News Saw this on the Stars newsgroup. Seems it's a open source work-alike. INteresting.
Stars! AutoHost KN-2050 Central Computer
Stars! AutoHost KN-2050 Central Computer
Aside from the demo of Stars, there was apparently a hint that led me to a site I think is selling stars. It's the company Empire Interactive. Granted their buzzline for the game doesn't sound like Stars! but the images look simular, and it's under strategy as well.
Hm. Here is the link to the store.
Aside from the demo of Stars, there was apparently a hint that led me to a site I think is selling stars. It's the company Empire Interactive. Granted their buzzline for the game doesn't sound like Stars! but the images look simular, and it's under strategy as well.
Hm. Here is the link to the store.
Google Search: rec.games.computer.stars
Google Search: rec.games.computer.stars
Hm, yeah, it's spam. But I think I'm interested. Of course I could be a sucker.
Hm, yeah, it's spam. But I think I'm interested. Of course I could be a sucker.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Awesome mini's
Daring Adventurers!
I have to say this is awesome. No where else have I heard being able to buy a mini of Sir Richard Francis Burton. That by itself is the best thing I've ever heard.
And suprise suprise it appears that the wife's 'i' key has died. :(
I have to say this is awesome. No where else have I heard being able to buy a mini of Sir Richard Francis Burton. That by itself is the best thing I've ever heard.
And suprise suprise it appears that the wife's 'i' key has died. :(
Konfabulator - Downloads
Konfabulator - Downloads
Already blogged this once, but now I have a link for the windows and the mac clients. Might have to see if they have a weather widget for home....
Already blogged this once, but now I have a link for the windows and the mac clients. Might have to see if they have a weather widget for home....
Index [Wills' Projects]
Franki/EarlGreyLinux. It's odd and one floppy only, but then again, that's a good thing in a lot of ways. And fwiw, a person, I think, can write a floppy to an iso and have the ElTorito use it as too boot up...
Frozen Tuxy
Software Suspend for Linux will allow me to suspend a session to disk. Which, as I might point out now, is the *only* thing that Windows does better than linux in the long term. I really like being able to stop what I am doing, power down, go home, and power up and see the session as it was. And that just hasn't happened for me yet on linux.
GNOME War Pad Site
GNOME War Pad Site
Ah VGA planets. How I remember ye. I'd on many occasion rig up a set of robot opponents and then proceed to try and conquer the galaxy. 'The Borg'-like group was my favourite, but then again I played with anything and anyone. Turns back then were painful to turn in, requiring someone who had a BBS and the appropriate BBS door. Nowadays I suspect turning turns in is a lot easier. And shoot, with the robot opponents I just played solo. And I registered as well :)
Course I also registered and played Stars! but I don't know if that is still even around.
Ah VGA planets. How I remember ye. I'd on many occasion rig up a set of robot opponents and then proceed to try and conquer the galaxy. 'The Borg'-like group was my favourite, but then again I played with anything and anyone. Turns back then were painful to turn in, requiring someone who had a BBS and the appropriate BBS door. Nowadays I suspect turning turns in is a lot easier. And shoot, with the robot opponents I just played solo. And I registered as well :)
Course I also registered and played Stars! but I don't know if that is still even around.
ONLamp.com: OpenBSD 3.6 Live
ONLamp.com: OpenBSD 3.6 Live
Ok, so the major thing of note is ssh multiplexing sessions. That's sweet as buttermilk.
Ok, so the major thing of note is ssh multiplexing sessions. That's sweet as buttermilk.
Schneier.com
Crypto-gram by Bruce Schneier. I really wish my work could get him to come and talk about something sciency, if nothing else than to thank him for his book, which helped immensely in my graduate studies and kept things in perspective, at least from a theoretical standpoint.
OpenBSD Journal: A resource for the OpenBSD community
OpenBSD Journal: A resource for the OpenBSD community That's all I've got to say about that.
Monday, November 08, 2004
[ale] and today's paranoid Linux hack is....
[ale] and today's paranoid Linux hack is....
Oh yeah. This is the neatest hack ever. An encrypted swap space with a random password. That is serious neatness. It is cheese, but then again, it also means that people aren't going to get your swap info. And trust me, it's scary.
Oh yeah. This is the neatest hack ever. An encrypted swap space with a random password. That is serious neatness. It is cheese, but then again, it also means that people aren't going to get your swap info. And trust me, it's scary.
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Disturbing Discussion on FreeBSD and NetBSD
Here is one disturbing discussion about FreeBSD 5.3 and NetBSD 2.0. From what I'm reading it isn't the case anymore [at least to this one guy] that FreeBSD is faster on x86 than NetBSD. That would really really really suck.
The hope is that this isn't the case. I've seen some interesting ideas come out of the FreeBSD camp and I'd *really* hate to see that they painted themselves into a coner and need a drink of water. I guess the only way to see if it is the case is to run some tests of my own. He did say that it was most noticeable on an older machine [which I have] and doubly so on a Uni-processor machine [also have that]. Times like this it's nice to work in a Unix shop.
Oh why am I concerned over this? I have an old machine at home running redhat 7.3. It's a nice machine, but there are times that I think that it needs a boost in coolness. It runs ok and all, but there are no more patches being released for it really, and some day in the near future I can see people starting to stop putting out rpms for it. WHen that day comes it is going to be a real bitch to install the latest and greatest packages that I tend to really use. Or if the ssh I have is a security threat, I'd really like to just do something like apt-get update or emerge ssh or cd /usr/ports/security/openssh ;cvs update ; make && make install.
The hope is that this isn't the case. I've seen some interesting ideas come out of the FreeBSD camp and I'd *really* hate to see that they painted themselves into a coner and need a drink of water. I guess the only way to see if it is the case is to run some tests of my own. He did say that it was most noticeable on an older machine [which I have] and doubly so on a Uni-processor machine [also have that]. Times like this it's nice to work in a Unix shop.
Oh why am I concerned over this? I have an old machine at home running redhat 7.3. It's a nice machine, but there are times that I think that it needs a boost in coolness. It runs ok and all, but there are no more patches being released for it really, and some day in the near future I can see people starting to stop putting out rpms for it. WHen that day comes it is going to be a real bitch to install the latest and greatest packages that I tend to really use. Or if the ssh I have is a security threat, I'd really like to just do something like apt-get update or emerge ssh or cd /usr/ports/security/openssh ;cvs update ; make && make install.
FreeBSD/i386 5.3-RELEASE Release Notes
Quantian
This has to be the perfect distrobution for one of the guys I work with. He always has this suite of utilities that he wants to install and they always include Scientific Python and Numeric Python. Which, while not hard to install, are always something I forget to install. So I get a user call from him at an odd interval asking for it 'whenever I can'. Now that he has the root password at work though, this is less of a concern, I guess. Still a good scientific distro, especially since it can do mpi to multiple nodes as well as doing mosix clustering. Hm maybe I'll use this as a base to replace my current beowulf "solution".
SQLite home page
SQLite home page Shamelessly blogged so that I can go to work and remember the site. Oh and the neat thing about this app is a) no dependencies required b) small footprint c)fast in it's use d) has a Ruby interface out there. The Ruby interface is reason alone for me to look at it, since I'm trying to use that more than my other languages. Oh and it would be neat to drop this into a home directory and then use it in rhtml webpages with impunity.
Doomsday Algorithm -or "How to know what day Christmas is on"
Doomsday Algorithm was invented by Damian Conway. It's a neat algorithm that allows me to say that the 13th of September was on a Tuesday this year. Or that a) 27th of September is on a Monday and b) Christmas Day is on a Saturday.
The mental math isn't that hard to master, but it's quite rewarding to be able to look at your wife and say "Honey our anniversary is on a Tuesday this year, what would you like to do?" anytime you want without having to memorize the exact day.
The mental math isn't that hard to master, but it's quite rewarding to be able to look at your wife and say "Honey our anniversary is on a Tuesday this year, what would you like to do?" anytime you want without having to memorize the exact day.
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Soft Updates and Snapshots
Soft Updates and Snapshots are cool. And supposedly will be available completely in FreeBSD 5.0. Man that will rock for a server. The only problem now is deciding which BSD to run at home or work. FreeBSD seems to have the best TCP/IP stack and has soft updates/background fsck. But OpenBSD has CARP which allows for server farms and has distributed firewalling. And NetBSD? Well is has a weird logo. Oh and it'll run on anything from a toaster to an O2 SGI machine.
The Official DVD Decrypter Website
No, I'm not saying anyone should go out there and use this for DVD ripping! However is supposedly does have an ability to burn iso's better than nero, which is something that I *do* need.
The Official DVD Decrypter Website
The Official DVD Decrypter Website
Knoppix Linux Documentation - Faq Using
Knoppix Linux Documentation - Faq Using Section on using a memory stick is here. Long and short of it:
Boot with stick inserted
Go to Knoppic Menu->Configuration->Save Configuration (when asked select your usb drive generally /dev/sda1).
Then when booting: knoppix myconf=scan home=scan
Boot with stick inserted
Go to Knoppic Menu->Configuration->Save Configuration (when asked select your usb drive generally /dev/sda1).
Then when booting: knoppix myconf=scan home=scan
The PartImage Handbook: Usage
The PartImage Handbook: Usage Handy in case you don't know how to GHOST something :)
SystemRescueCd homepage
SystemRescueCd homepage Has Partimage a ghosting utility for linux that should allow a person to ghost pretty much any fs system. Esp linux systems, although there is experimental support for NTFS. What does that mean? Well it means that I can back up my windows machines at work in some fashion and then when the machine dies, I can just recall the image. Now I just have to figure out where to store the image at.
FreeSBIE - Free System Burned In Economy
FreeSBIE is a liveCD of freeBSD. Some of the screenshots are quite cool and make it appear as if it is as feature rich as knoppix. I guess we'll just have to check it out and see. It would be nice to have something like this at home just in case the hard drive goes south I can still surf and/or work from home.
Friday, November 05, 2004
dungeonmail_03.jpg (JPEG Image, 350x260 pixels)
Computer Laboratory - Xen virtual machine monitor
Computer Laboratory - Xen virtual machine monitor
Long and short, it needs a hack on the linux kernel and then some other evil. But in the end it can run a couple of OS's in parallel on the same machine. Granted I'm not sure how bad the performance hit is...
Long and short, it needs a hack on the linux kernel and then some other evil. But in the end it can run a couple of OS's in parallel on the same machine. Granted I'm not sure how bad the performance hit is...
BitTorrent Linux Mirror
BitTorrent Linux Mirror
Yay. Slashdot mentioned this, and now I find that there is a real reason to use bittorrent. Aside from downloading Knoppix iso's and gutenberg texts.
Yay. Slashdot mentioned this, and now I find that there is a real reason to use bittorrent. Aside from downloading Knoppix iso's and gutenberg texts.
Google Search: filetype:torrent debian
Google Search: filetype:torrent debian
Wow I can google for torrents?! What is this world coming to?
Wow I can google for torrents?! What is this world coming to?
For the true geek in all of us
www.rpgmp3.com Yes, you too can listen in on a Dungeons and Dragons session. At least that is what they are advertising and they are saying that they are running through the world's largest dungeon. That ought to be interesting.
I told ya, I told ya
World's Largest Dungeon: AEG Shop
Oh and it's an interesting thing that AEG has their own store. Sure this isn't tech. Sue me.
Oh and it's an interesting thing that AEG has their own store. Sure this isn't tech. Sue me.
Alderac Entertainment Group -- World's Largest Dungeon
Alderac Entertainment Group -- World's Largest Dungeon
Yeah it's a brute of a dungeon. 100 maps and it's just big. Sadly, it costs 100$. :(
Yeah it's a brute of a dungeon. 100 maps and it's just big. Sadly, it costs 100$. :(
Thursday, November 04, 2004
DooBar - Disk Usage Browser
It's only for the Mac, but it is still a nice idea in general.DooBar - Disk Usage Browser
Browse directories and find out where exactly the big chunks are. I know this would be handy for me, since I tend to need to find space in a hurry.
Browse directories and find out where exactly the big chunks are. I know this would be handy for me, since I tend to need to find space in a hurry.
Thunderbird : Message Grouping
Thunderbird : FAQs : Message Grouping - MozillaZine Knowledge Base: "Message Grouping (Group by Sort) feature lets you organize messages in the message list into self-contained groups according to attributes such as date, sender or priority. For instance, if you set your Inbox to group messages by date, the messages will be organized into folder-like groups labelled Today, Yesterday, Last Week, and so on. You can expand or collapse each group by clicking on the small /- mark next to the group label"
Thunderbird : Saved Search
Taken from the Thunderbird : FAQs : Saved Search - MozillaZine Knowledge Base. In short, thunderbird allows a person to make a folder that have messages from people or subjects or even dates in 100 different folders. IE I can have a Joe folder, a James folder and a Mom folder, and still have a 'Family Search Folder' that combines all of them. That way I could read just Joe's email or if I wanted to see something the entire family is talking about I could switch to the 'Family Search Folder'. Neat.
Citadel BBS Software
Granted they are not trying to pimp themselves as a groupware solution for the modern era. Which is kind of funny in it's own way .It's an industry buzzword and yet it is completely accurate.
Citadel
Citadel
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
JSF :: JabberStats
JSF :: JabberStats for those of us that use the jabber.org server for our main talking server, this is a handy site to see if the downtime is us or them.
Chatopus - Palm OS Instant Messaging Client For XMPP / Jabber
Keep in mind that even if you don't have a jabber client you can still use the bots to get interesting information.
Chatopus - Palm OS Instant Messaging Client For XMPP / Jabber
Chatopus - Palm OS Instant Messaging Client For XMPP / Jabber
Slashdot | Live CD for PPC?
Interesting discussion. Blogged so I can read it more when I'm not at work.
Slashdot | Live CD for PPC?
Slashdot | Live CD for PPC?
Vendetta Online
Yet another MMORG. This one is more of a run and gun game though. It's for LInux/Mac/Windows and seems to have some really nice graphics. On the other hand, it is a freshman effort by this company so it may not do as well as it could.
Vendetta Online - Vendetta Online
Vendetta Online - Vendetta Online
Voter Turnout
Notice that in the past few years half of all montanan's don't vote. Sure it makes my vote 2x as important, but how can anyone call it a democracy if everyone doesn't take time to say what they want? It's frikkin ridiculous.
Voter Turnout
Voter Turnout
Gallery :: your photos on your website
Gallery :: your photos on your website
Granted it's only in php and requires either mysql or postgresql. And some tricky permissions on occasion.
Granted it's only in php and requires either mysql or postgresql. And some tricky permissions on occasion.
Boing Boing: Apple to iPod owners: ...
Warning: Adult Language ahead
Boing Boing: Apple to iPod owners: ....
Needless to say, I'm starting to agree with this guy. And that bothers me.
Boing Boing: Apple to iPod owners: ....
Needless to say, I'm starting to agree with this guy. And that bothers me.
HOW-TO: Get music OFF your iPod - Engadget - www.engadget.com
HOW-TO: Get music OFF your iPod - Engadget - www.engadget.com
Yay for slashdot. Makes Mac nerds happy.
Yay for slashdot. Makes Mac nerds happy.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Search on Blogger
It seems to be broken. Go ahead search for 'caveat' or 'orison'. Both should turn something up, but both don't seem to quite cut it.
As an aside, you can also post pictures with Flikr And supposedly it's cross platform. I'll have to investigate and get back on this.
As an aside, you can also post pictures with Flikr And supposedly it's cross platform. I'll have to investigate and get back on this.
Definition of Tied to your Job
Tied to your Job(n): See Me.
Yeah it's kind of scary when you are up at 12:29am and checking email at work so that you can keep abreast of the situation and show up to work in the morning smelling like roses.
With all the diaper changes however, I doubt that is what I smell like. Man crying babies are cute. Sort of. Well, when they are yours. Other people's children aren't nearly as adorable as mine when they are wailing like a banshee. Or is that beaun sidhe?
Yeah it's kind of scary when you are up at 12:29am and checking email at work so that you can keep abreast of the situation and show up to work in the morning smelling like roses.
With all the diaper changes however, I doubt that is what I smell like. Man crying babies are cute. Sort of. Well, when they are yours. Other people's children aren't nearly as adorable as mine when they are wailing like a banshee. Or is that beaun sidhe?
Pipe Mud
Sometimes a corn cob pipe or a briar will get a burn out. This is when the fire burns clean through to the outside. Some people then go and throw out the pipe.
Not me.
I take the pipe and fill it with ash and then some water. Make it a slurry and cake the hole up. Suck some flame through it and repeat. It forms a clay plug. Seems to work just fine. Heard of this recipe before in alt.smokers.pipes and it was called pipe mud. Seems appropos. And now my corncob lives to smoke another day.
Not me.
I take the pipe and fill it with ash and then some water. Make it a slurry and cake the hole up. Suck some flame through it and repeat. It forms a clay plug. Seems to work just fine. Heard of this recipe before in alt.smokers.pipes and it was called pipe mud. Seems appropos. And now my corncob lives to smoke another day.
Learning Curves
Learning Curves are the bane of my existence. What is a learning curve you ask? Well it's the time it takes to learn something plotted out on a graph. It's kind of like climbing a mountain. The shallower the slope the easier it is to get up to the summit. Likewise, as time wears on the hill gets steeper and you don't get as far to you goal.
Why do I bring this up? Well applications aim for a shallow learning curve for 90$ of the product. If it takes a long time to anything on the application then there is a good chance that there will be a competitor that makes it simpler or people just won't use the application at all.
My learning curve idiocy today was with Hello. There is a seciont in the preferences as to what size do you want the pictures. I though it meant that it was the size it was going to be on the page itself. Turns out I was wrong (suprise suprise). It is the size that it is stored as on the server proper. While I think that the WebDAV idea is still good, I can now post pictures at a size closer to what I wanted in the first place. And wow, these hotkeys in the editor are nice. Google has got that down I have to give them props for that. Granted saying 'give them props" or "kudos" is sooo 90's.
Why do I bring this up? Well applications aim for a shallow learning curve for 90$ of the product. If it takes a long time to anything on the application then there is a good chance that there will be a competitor that makes it simpler or people just won't use the application at all.
My learning curve idiocy today was with Hello. There is a seciont in the preferences as to what size do you want the pictures. I though it meant that it was the size it was going to be on the page itself. Turns out I was wrong (suprise suprise). It is the size that it is stored as on the server proper. While I think that the WebDAV idea is still good, I can now post pictures at a size closer to what I wanted in the first place. And wow, these hotkeys in the editor are nice. Google has got that down I have to give them props for that. Granted saying 'give them props" or "kudos" is sooo 90's.
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Hello, again or "My Beef with Hello"
So Hello is a neat program. Sure it's a little feature sparse, but that's due to my not having climbed the learning curve. I think. Anyways, my beef with the photoblogging here is a) there is no linux/unix client b) there doesn't seem to be any opensource way to post new pictures.
Now for some folks this isn't that big of a deal. Especially with the massive amount of windows and macintosh users. But for those of us that don't have either or don't want to push closed source or semi closed source products we are in the cold.
I don't like that. Now, my idea to fix this: Make a webdav server. Keep the quotas low and have a bot scan for new files. Pick new files up, mangle and resize them and then post them to the server. Since jpegs are able to have comments in them, make it so that it reads any comments and uses that as a preliminary blog entry, possibly with ImageMagick. Sure it would have be retweaked for some pictures, but at least then it would be open source protocols and more platform free. And since there is still a way to do this via windows and mac's it would be an add-on rather than having to abandon a useful business partnership. In addition, if it were labelled an 'Advanced Feature' there would less of a chance that the tech support would have to scale upwards to deal with user questions. I know my grandparents would choose the windows Hello client rather than try something that they *know* isn't at their level, yet.
Now for some folks this isn't that big of a deal. Especially with the massive amount of windows and macintosh users. But for those of us that don't have either or don't want to push closed source or semi closed source products we are in the cold.
I don't like that. Now, my idea to fix this: Make a webdav server. Keep the quotas low and have a bot scan for new files. Pick new files up, mangle and resize them and then post them to the server. Since jpegs are able to have comments in them, make it so that it reads any comments and uses that as a preliminary blog entry, possibly with ImageMagick. Sure it would have be retweaked for some pictures, but at least then it would be open source protocols and more platform free. And since there is still a way to do this via windows and mac's it would be an add-on rather than having to abandon a useful business partnership. In addition, if it were labelled an 'Advanced Feature' there would less of a chance that the tech support would have to scale upwards to deal with user questions. I know my grandparents would choose the windows Hello client rather than try something that they *know* isn't at their level, yet.
Hello and Blogspot
It's a good idea. On paper. The only problem is that I have some pictures that I *really* want larger than the small size that Hello changes it to before posting it on their server. . . Not sure I really like that.
The Blog that wasn't
You know what is weird. When blogger times out and says that there is a java.io error. I thought this was all written in python. Shows how much I seem to know.
Futurama in a header
For those of you fortunate to have something unix-y:
lynx -dump -head http://slashdot.org | grep "\(X-Fry\|X-Bender\)"
Now *that's* funny.
lynx -dump -head http://slashdot.org | grep "\(X-Fry\|X-Bender\)"
Now *that's* funny.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Formatting and Hello
Zelda the Return
Here are some hard core folks. I mean super hard core. And they are into zelda. Well not so much the original game but taking the concepts of the character and making new legend of zeldas in the old NES sense of the word. It's just too cool. You know, I'm not really sure where I got this link from but it could have been Slashdot. A lot of the neat things I find there tend to make their way to this blog.
Yet another linux
You know, one would think that people would get sick of seeing new linux's all the time. Not me. Ubuntu is just one sort of linux. It's Debian related so it's got that apt-get funkiness. Anything that comes with apt-get or yum by default is a-ok in my opinion. Well, it's not gentoo's portage, but there are so few perfect package managers out there. I *love* portage.
Opera
Normally I pimp Mozilla and FireFox. The thing is that they have stopped being able to be compiled for my machine at work. So I've started using Opera. It's pretty straightforward and much smaller than I would have though given that it does come with an email and irc client as well as a browser. It was under 3.8 MB and that's tiny even when compared to FireFox. Neat neat stuff.
Dice Pouches
This is a kick ass site. They sell custom made dice pouches. And they are not just for dice either. You can get them for cards as well. That was a neat ass idea.
Links that Are Important
Well they are to me at least. WHenever you change your template on Blogger you lose that link section, esp if it doesn't exist in the new section. They just haven't been able to figure out how to parse the important parts out of a tinkered page. Can't say I blame them, esp with html.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Friday, October 01, 2004
Apple Stickers
Apple Stickers! For the geek that wants it all. Now if only someone would get me Thom's kick ass Ganesh sticker.
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
fwknop
This is a neat program that unlike some of the others doesn't require a seperate capture library. Instead it reads iptable log files and then can also do AES encrypted knocks or passive OS fingerprinting to insure that if a windows machine does a knock, it may or may not get in. It can be found here
FreeBSD release schedule
Ok the one that was put on the original FreeBSD release site was wrong. So for those of us that want to know when 5.3 final will be released here is the schedule. Not that it appears that a lot is going to change between now and when it's Finallized. But still.
Ruby on KDE
Farscape Super Airing
Yes, every single episode will be aired on the Sci-Fi channel. Announcement can be found here on a Sci-fi fan site. WHich inicidentally is where I get a lot of my nerd information.
Now *that's* a mushroom
Link Needless to say I wonder how long before someone tries to pollute it or kill it off.
Bitter? Yes. Far off? No.
Bitter? Yes. Far off? No.
Friday, September 24, 2004
Now that's a T-Shirt
Normally I don't do politics. Especially on a tech blog. But you know, civics being what they are these days, it always fun to at least poke fun. Oh and you can Buy it here.
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Pictures
Here are some pictures of Colin, my brothers second baby. Both the touched up and the old blue pictures can be found there. Kind of nice to see that there isn't a new smurf in the family.
Oh and there are some background pictures here. All the abstract ones were made by myself, and are built to be tilleable. GIMP is your friend. Warning: Those pictures can be pretty large.
Oh and there are some background pictures here. All the abstract ones were made by myself, and are built to be tilleable. GIMP is your friend. Warning: Those pictures can be pretty large.
Friday, September 17, 2004
ZFS
Oh please, oh please let this be opensourced. I have asked for a lot in my life, but this is just too damn cool. Link
The nice thing is that an admin can add to the pool hither thither and yon. And not have to change anything for the end users. Also there isn't a /usr partition anymore. It's just another directory on the drive and as such can go "over limit". Man I would love to have this for work, so that when someone fills out the entire disk, we are all universally screwed until I flip on the hard drive adder switch....
The nice thing is that an admin can add to the pool hither thither and yon. And not have to change anything for the end users. Also there isn't a /usr partition anymore. It's just another directory on the drive and as such can go "over limit". Man I would love to have this for work, so that when someone fills out the entire disk, we are all universally screwed until I flip on the hard drive adder switch....
Libre Clipart
"Open Source" Clipart Link
It's a good idea to check on things like freedesktop. This is the site for newer and neater ideas in desktops. Oh and Gnome 2.8 was released yesterdayish. And it looks pretty sweet. It has the Hardware Abstraction Layer integrated into it, so that when you plug in a usb drive or a cdrom it can insert the proper modules, or even start an application. Yeah yeah, Mac's already do this but it's nice to see that there is movement forward on a front that doesn't always require money to get the job done.
It's a good idea to check on things like freedesktop. This is the site for newer and neater ideas in desktops. Oh and Gnome 2.8 was released yesterdayish. And it looks pretty sweet. It has the Hardware Abstraction Layer integrated into it, so that when you plug in a usb drive or a cdrom it can insert the proper modules, or even start an application. Yeah yeah, Mac's already do this but it's nice to see that there is movement forward on a front that doesn't always require money to get the job done.
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
Irish folklore
Oh it's not tech, but it's still cool. All of the tales of the ancestors [well not even close but still a good set of highlight I had never heard of].
Oh and it's neat to hear that the spears were gained by the Druids because they said they would besmirch Cuchulains name, the name of his County and the name of His kin. Just awesome.
Oh and it's neat to hear that the spears were gained by the Druids because they said they would besmirch Cuchulains name, the name of his County and the name of His kin. Just awesome.
Friday, September 03, 2004
Music in Perl
Ok, so this is one programmers way of interfacing perl into another program to make some music. It's a damn shame that the guy didn't post any of his work though. I would have really really liked to have heard what this was able to do. Also set the bar so that i could hit my head on it as I try and jump over it.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
GFS && Coral
Two interesting Ideas: GFS, is a gmailFS which is a neat idea, but still something that I think violates a person's agreement with google [since I don't see any way it couldn't spider]. A link is here.
The other thing, is that there is this new, in beta, P2P network called Coral . The whole idea is to cache various webpages so that a person never has to a) suffer a slashdot effect b)not be able to find a site. As someone pointed out, it doesn't handle dynamic content so well, but as most of the stuff that I read isn't dyn-generated, I don't care.
Oh and be on the lookout for bookmarklets both the ones listed here and in general. I've got a feeling that this could be something that's going to catch fire.
The other thing, is that there is this new, in beta, P2P network called Coral . The whole idea is to cache various webpages so that a person never has to a) suffer a slashdot effect b)not be able to find a site. As someone pointed out, it doesn't handle dynamic content so well, but as most of the stuff that I read isn't dyn-generated, I don't care.
Oh and be on the lookout for bookmarklets both the ones listed here and in general. I've got a feeling that this could be something that's going to catch fire.
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Finally! A system for converting old English money
Here is a listing of the old english currency before they changed to the decimal system in the 70's! Wacky Brits. God Bless em all.
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Ruby Gems Intro
This is important! If you don't read this and then go ahead with trying something like ruby_servlet.rb from RubLog you'll get all sorts of indecipherable errors. [Well actually the -I imperative works as well, but if you wanted to create a new program from the newly acquired gem, you'll be S.O.L]
Rdoc Markup
Ok, this is a link to the RDoc specification . While it isn't all that important to anyone not using the ruby, it's something that I appreciate having. And it's a neat markup language spec in some ways. Neat in that it's simple, easy to mneumonically remember various markup tags, and easy for a human to read. Generally I find that most of the markups tend to only get two of those points right.
The original Starting page
This was the original page that I started looking at yesterday when I was starting to get sort of serious about learning Ruby. Yeah it's neat. And it has tons of jump points for a person to go galavanting off into the ether and learn all sorts of new things about this language.
Jabber and Ruby
Oh it's getting neat in here. This is an interface library that lets a person talk to jabber servers via the Ruby language. While some people might not think that this is all that cool, imagine a world where each of your computers has a little personality sitting in it waiting your commands or telling you when something "odd" has happened. And all you need to do is have another client listening to a jabber server. Oh, and the other neat thing is that jabber allows for a person to have transports. What's a transport? Well it's a way for a message sent to a jabber server to be translated into another Instant messenger protocol. So a person can just sign into their jabber server and then be able to send a message to someone using ICQ or AIM. How neat is that?
Rublog and it's fun
So the drawback. UsingRubLog.rdoc isn't included in the gem. So imagine my suprise when I got the ruby_servlet.rb up and running (using
ruby -I/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rublog-0.8.0 rublog_servlet.rb
) and it wouldn't show a new page. Nothing. Nada. Zip. The Big Nought. Well, it showed the sidebar and a search box. Which was cool. But I had read that the UsingRubLog.rdoc was integral to an understanding of the package [ie it had more to show and talk about, like a man page].
Turns out rublog requires a data directory in whatever you run it as [so I mkdir'ed a dir code/Rublog and in there mkdir'ed data/Rublog/]. From there I went here and downloaded the rdoc. Put it in, started up the webrick server and it just ran. Got a really nice picture and a rendered page. Too cool.
ruby -I/usr/local/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/rublog-0.8.0 rublog_servlet.rb
) and it wouldn't show a new page. Nothing. Nada. Zip. The Big Nought. Well, it showed the sidebar and a search box. Which was cool. But I had read that the UsingRubLog.rdoc was integral to an understanding of the package [ie it had more to show and talk about, like a man page].
Turns out rublog requires a data directory in whatever you run it as [so I mkdir'ed a dir code/Rublog and in there mkdir'ed data/Rublog/]. From there I went here and downloaded the rdoc. Put it in, started up the webrick server and it just ran. Got a really nice picture and a rendered page. Too cool.
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Genius!
So I'm trying to learn Ruby. A neat language in and of itself, and it has a new paradigm, which I'm always in the mood to learn. In fact it has been keeping me up till 1:00am several times this week alone trying to learn the ways of the samurai.
One such tidbit is listed here. It's how to start your own web server in a line of Ruby. I remember Chad Fowler [blog] had this in his talk of rublog. Neat. Now if I can just figure out how he tied webrick and the rublog together and I'll be one step closer to getting one of my projects finished. Oh and it's a personal project, nothing that has to do with sysadmin. Thank God.
Oh one more book to recommend: The Poignant Guide to Ruby It's a intro to programming in general and a lovely description of various things of the ruby language. if they haven't already the Pragmatic guys *really* *really* need to get this author on board. His style is wacky and out there, but I tend to read it and really get what he's trying to tell me. And it's neat when that happens so easily. Oh and Ruby has regular expressions of the form of perl. yay. No re.compile('\s') for me!
One such tidbit is listed here. It's how to start your own web server in a line of Ruby. I remember Chad Fowler [blog] had this in his talk of rublog. Neat. Now if I can just figure out how he tied webrick and the rublog together and I'll be one step closer to getting one of my projects finished. Oh and it's a personal project, nothing that has to do with sysadmin. Thank God.
Oh one more book to recommend: The Poignant Guide to Ruby It's a intro to programming in general and a lovely description of various things of the ruby language. if they haven't already the Pragmatic guys *really* *really* need to get this author on board. His style is wacky and out there, but I tend to read it and really get what he's trying to tell me. And it's neat when that happens so easily. Oh and Ruby has regular expressions of the form of perl. yay. No re.compile('\s') for me!
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
Network Console of Doom
Well not really The idea is so that when your machine dies a horrible deatth you can see/hear it's last gasps for all posterity. Neat idea. Wonder if 2.4 kernels used the same syntax....
Monday, August 09, 2004
Caffeine vs Theobromine
So, someone tell you that caffeine is in chocolate? Well not naturally then. It's called theobromine. And the reason why it's bad for certain animals? They can't metabolize it very quickly, if at all, so it just sits in their system taking up real estate and possibly to toxic levels.
Newton, Newton, Newton!
The project for Newton's work can be found here. It is some page/idea and it's interesting to find out that the great man who brought/refusted to co-claim calculus to the masses also did other things like talk about religion and alchemy. I had always read about this other side of Newton but I had thought that this was something that was rather, ahem, made up. Oh well, at least the fiction of it all is just as real as th reality. Now let's just hope that the "calculus of angels" part isn't actually made into reality.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Firefox Tweaks
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Today's Link RoundUP
Multiple Desktops for Mac
Ktunes, itunes browser for linux!
Pirates Civ-like game for 16th century piracy
Ktunes, itunes browser for linux!
Pirates Civ-like game for 16th century piracy
Firefox/mozilla tips
Outfox Firefox or how to better search by just typing in your address bar your search terms.
Granted it doesn't really matter when you have the google bar, but some folks don't know about the other tip
in this article, that of keywords. Being able to type yahoo blah blah and have it go to yahoo search and search for terms blah blah is really handy.
Granted it doesn't really matter when you have the google bar, but some folks don't know about the other tip
in this article, that of keywords. Being able to type yahoo blah blah and have it go to yahoo search and search for terms blah blah is really handy.
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Procmail tips galore
Monday, June 28, 2004
djbdns
It's a nice caching nameserver. Couple with some decent ideas when it comes to the server side of security.
Oh and I'm calculating how big I need my cache. Kind of odd, one would think that you'd say "24 hours" and the cache would grow or shrink based on 1hour windows.
Cache Size article here
Oh and I'm calculating how big I need my cache. Kind of odd, one would think that you'd say "24 hours" and the cache would grow or shrink based on 1hour windows.
Cache Size article here
Another Filesystem
And this one is cool! The overall idea of gfs is to make something that not only
replaces NFS but is imminently vertically scalabe. And the nice thing is that if your server goes down and it's on a redundant share,
the network can reroute packets to a new machine that will server the *exact* same files. No downtime, no appreciable sync times.
Sweet. Oh and here is their GPL Press Release.
replaces NFS but is imminently vertically scalabe. And the nice thing is that if your server goes down and it's on a redundant share,
the network can reroute packets to a new machine that will server the *exact* same files. No downtime, no appreciable sync times.
Sweet. Oh and here is their GPL Press Release.
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Ok Another Cheesy Personality Test
I just put this here, since well they were kind of an "Engineers for Evil" group.
You are Devastator. You are incredibly big and
incredibly strong because you are actually 6
Decepticons combined. You do as your told and
your main purpose is to build whatever Megatron
commands you to. You are the very first Gestalt
bot.
Quote: Thinking and winning do not
mix.
Which Generation 1 Decepticon Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
You are Devastator. You are incredibly big and
incredibly strong because you are actually 6
Decepticons combined. You do as your told and
your main purpose is to build whatever Megatron
commands you to. You are the very first Gestalt
bot.
Quote: Thinking and winning do not
mix.
Which Generation 1 Decepticon Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
Friday, June 25, 2004
Differences Between 3.0 and 3.5 in D&D
Ok, so it isn't tech but the differences in the change over were important to know.
And this is something that some tech folk are: gamers.
And this is something that some tech folk are: gamers.
Google Beta Groups
Now this is a handy interface to see the newsgroups. I don't know for sure but I think I could make my own newsgroup for things like local hobby clubs. Neat.
Find it here
Find it here
Life Out There
Join the new setiathome. And it's so much cooler in a lot of ways in terms of the underlying structure of the program. And at last, now you too can get the source and compile it to work on your own machine [or have it call multiple processors or some such on a HPC grid].
Fun!
Fun!
RubyX
Rubyx is a linux configuration program and iso roller and a distrobution all in one. It sounds kind of scary at first, esp since they do away with the init.d, which most other distro's use to get the normal programs up and running. But heck, it sounds like it's a really good idea in some ways. I just wonder if they do some form of ruby-sh as the login shell as well.
Encap packages
There are some folks that have made some encap package sites available here.
Neat stuff. What I like about this extra utility is the idea that I don't have worry if I'm using redhat on one box or suse, it's never really effected by what I have in /usr/local/bin/ and that'll be where the new binaries of recent stuff will go.
Neat.
Neat stuff. What I like about this extra utility is the idea that I don't have worry if I'm using redhat on one box or suse, it's never really effected by what I have in /usr/local/bin/ and that'll be where the new binaries of recent stuff will go.
Neat.
Source Management in Linux/Unix-like OS"s
idea for a source package manager.
Granted there is a another package called encap and also another one from the GNU buddies called stow.
For those of you who don't know, this is one of the plagues I suffer from daily. A package is out with a new version that I really need or want to test. However my OS bundle (SuSE) tends towards a wonderful obsoletism that while stable means that I don't get a version within 4 release cycles of a current version.
So I hit the source and compile it. You'd think that this wans't a bad thing, but after a while I have three or four versions of libraries running around in weird spots trying to get it all to work for one install.
Not fun.
These tools would let me sidestep most of this, or I could just convince everyone at work to go to Gentoo.
Granted there is a another package called encap and also another one from the GNU buddies called stow.
For those of you who don't know, this is one of the plagues I suffer from daily. A package is out with a new version that I really need or want to test. However my OS bundle (SuSE) tends towards a wonderful obsoletism that while stable means that I don't get a version within 4 release cycles of a current version.
So I hit the source and compile it. You'd think that this wans't a bad thing, but after a while I have three or four versions of libraries running around in weird spots trying to get it all to work for one install.
Not fun.
These tools would let me sidestep most of this, or I could just convince everyone at work to go to Gentoo.
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
New Interfaces
You know, I'm as supple and moveable as the next guy. But I really hate the 'change your UI' without some form of beta test offer. It's just plain silly.
Case in point. Yahoo when it was going to the new mail interface (2 yrs+ ago) they offered anyone the option to try it out. Then when i changed over, you were more likely to be prepared for it. Generally here I don't get those offers. Although being a poor blogger at times, I can understand why.
Case in point. Yahoo when it was going to the new mail interface (2 yrs+ ago) they offered anyone the option to try it out. Then when i changed over, you were more likely to be prepared for it. Generally here I don't get those offers. Although being a poor blogger at times, I can understand why.
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Mutt Love
Please be aware of SASSER!
Mutt themes can be found here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanb/configs/dot-mutt/themes
Mutt themes can be found here:
http://www.xs4all.nl/~hanb/configs/dot-mutt/themes
Sasser
There is a new worm out there. It doesn't require you to read an email or open a file. Just not patch your machine.
If your machine is window 2000 or windows XP, and you haven't been updating your machine, you
might very well have been compromised by W32.Sasser.
Get the removal utility here.
Also after removal you'll have to enable your Firewall on your machine in order to go online and get the updates. If you don't,
well, you'll be infected probably before you get the change to update.
If your machine is window 2000 or windows XP, and you haven't been updating your machine, you
might very well have been compromised by W32.Sasser.
Get the removal utility here.
Also after removal you'll have to enable your Firewall on your machine in order to go online and get the updates. If you don't,
well, you'll be infected probably before you get the change to update.
Monday, May 03, 2004
For those of use who want to stay on a command line for a while there is catdoc
Just put tthe following in your mailcap after you get it installed
application/msword; catdoc %s; copiousoutput
oh and it comes with an excel to csv file converter xls2csv
Just put tthe following in your mailcap after you get it installed
application/msword; catdoc %s; copiousoutput
oh and it comes with an excel to csv file converter xls2csv
Friday, April 30, 2004
Neat sounding Utility
As per their website:
TWI has lots of wonderful features. With it, you can:
* Assign hotkeys for common tasks such as minimize windows, restart Windows, etc.
* Automatically change your system's sound-effect files every few minutes or every few seconds if you want!
* Minimize programs onto the taskbar tray instead of just onto the taskbar, either by a keystroke or by right-clicking a window's Minimize button with your mouse
* Configure a menu of easily-accessible commands
* Increase or decrease speaker volume with the press of a button
* Automatically run programs at start-up, and hide them, minimize them to the taskbar tray, etc.
* Lots more!
* Oh yeah, and it's free!
As per their website:
TWI has lots of wonderful features. With it, you can:
* Assign hotkeys for common tasks such as minimize windows, restart Windows, etc.
* Automatically change your system's sound-effect files every few minutes or every few seconds if you want!
* Minimize programs onto the taskbar tray instead of just onto the taskbar, either by a keystroke or by right-clicking a window's Minimize button with your mouse
* Configure a menu of easily-accessible commands
* Increase or decrease speaker volume with the press of a button
* Automatically run programs at start-up, and hide them, minimize them to the taskbar tray, etc.
* Lots more!
* Oh yeah, and it's free!
Insouciance
Insouciance
Why do you need this word? Well I did when I went and read a Dawkin essay.
What does it mean? It's that feeling when you go "Eh whatever". But in a happy way.
Why do you need this word? Well I did when I went and read a Dawkin essay.
What does it mean? It's that feeling when you go "Eh whatever". But in a happy way.
DBACL and Email Categorization
DBACL homepage
"dbacl is a digramic Bayesian classifier. It can distill text documents into categories, and then compare other text documents to the learned categories."
IE, plug this into your procmailrc or use it in some classification program and voila, you can seperate out your emails into
their categories without having to sit there and read them. So, all my administrational emails can go to the Admin folder and well
my home emails can get put into the Home_Email folder.
Oh and I can learn it on english and say "Not English, pitch it.". That would be nice. Spam in another language is Still Spam.
"dbacl is a digramic Bayesian classifier. It can distill text documents into categories, and then compare other text documents to the learned categories."
IE, plug this into your procmailrc or use it in some classification program and voila, you can seperate out your emails into
their categories without having to sit there and read them. So, all my administrational emails can go to the Admin folder and well
my home emails can get put into the Home_Email folder.
Oh and I can learn it on english and say "Not English, pitch it.". That would be nice. Spam in another language is Still Spam.
Another muttrc . . .
Can be found here.
Yeah I like mutt. Who else would let you tunnel an smtp connection to a remote server through ssh?
And why is that good?
Well sometimes there are people that don't allow for connections going to the outside on port 25. IE,
you can't send email unless it's through their approved server. But most will allow you to ssh out to another
machine. And then it's the policy of that machine and their email that matters.
Yeah I like mutt. Who else would let you tunnel an smtp connection to a remote server through ssh?
And why is that good?
Well sometimes there are people that don't allow for connections going to the outside on port 25. IE,
you can't send email unless it's through their approved server. But most will allow you to ssh out to another
machine. And then it's the policy of that machine and their email that matters.
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Pet Feeding via HAL
A link here
Well this is the weirdest thing. It throws up a picture on the Internet, which a user can interract with
and then tell the thing remotely to feed the animal. Hm, Whisky and Cheeto would love this.
Well this is the weirdest thing. It throws up a picture on the Internet, which a user can interract with
and then tell the thing remotely to feed the animal. Hm, Whisky and Cheeto would love this.
A better MP3 Player
Toshiba Gigabeat G20
Neat, wireless, and a much larger disk drive than a previous one I mentioned. The other thing that is of
note is that a person can get Japanese hardware sent to our shores early. . . . check the link in that link.
Too Cool. The only thing is that you have to call them and order it. And this is 599$. But still it's kind of cool.
I'll still go with something from iRiver. FM tuners and mp3 capabilities cannot be sneezed at.
Neat, wireless, and a much larger disk drive than a previous one I mentioned. The other thing that is of
note is that a person can get Japanese hardware sent to our shores early. . . . check the link in that link.
Too Cool. The only thing is that you have to call them and order it. And this is 599$. But still it's kind of cool.
I'll still go with something from iRiver. FM tuners and mp3 capabilities cannot be sneezed at.
The Web is a Vast Pit
No I've never heard of these sites, but I have learned more in the past half hour on homunculi, neural anatomy, and well computer stuff. Granted the neural items are due to an external influence. The rest was pure good ol' surfing.
Gizmodo Reviews Aggregator
DesignTechnica Reviews
MIT's Roofnet project
Wireless Community FAQ A Wireless Mesh Project
Gizmodo Reviews Aggregator
DesignTechnica Reviews
MIT's Roofnet project
Wireless Community FAQ A Wireless Mesh Project
Neat MP3 Player
One neat looking MP3 Player
The only problem is that is doesn't have an Open Source Operating System on it. Oh well.
So the big sell point is that it's wireless. So it will take and install mp3's anytime you are near your hub. Which is a neat ass idea. Granted I think the USB 2.0 speed ismuch faster than wireless 802.11B.
Technical Specifications:
Size: 2.8” x 4.5” x 0.9’
Weight: 6.8 oz
LCD Display: 128 x 64 blue LED backlit
Battery Life: 7 hours
Firmware: Upgradeable
Connectivity: USB, Wireless
The only problem is that is doesn't have an Open Source Operating System on it. Oh well.
So the big sell point is that it's wireless. So it will take and install mp3's anytime you are near your hub. Which is a neat ass idea. Granted I think the USB 2.0 speed is
Technical Specifications:
Size: 2.8” x 4.5” x 0.9’
Weight: 6.8 oz
LCD Display: 128 x 64 blue LED backlit
Battery Life: 7 hours
Firmware: Upgradeable
Connectivity: USB, Wireless
Dawkins fan-site
Got Meme?
Yeah it's an unofficial site, but still, if i knew where the real one was,
I'd put it up in a heartbeat.
Yeah it's an unofficial site, but still, if i knew where the real one was,
I'd put it up in a heartbeat.
And this is why people get Mad
So, I'm reading about the people that lobbyed for and think that the DMCA is a good idea.
Well, if you are an engineer and want to make a HDTV after 2005 you can't unless you want to
get the cops on you. Likewise for the design of DVD reading software for alternative Operating Systems.
The Interview
I think it's priceless that in this interview the MPAA people are saying things for normal users like
'perhaps buy a DVD player instead' rather than we want to expand our market any way possible, so let's get Linux on board.
Just classic. Also, the fact the engineer made a dvd-reading script so he could watch the program in 6 lines,
and showed the MPAA guy, just show moxy. The best part is the MPAA's rep's reaction.
Well, if you are an engineer and want to make a HDTV after 2005 you can't unless you want to
get the cops on you. Likewise for the design of DVD reading software for alternative Operating Systems.
The Interview
I think it's priceless that in this interview the MPAA people are saying things for normal users like
'perhaps buy a DVD player instead' rather than we want to expand our market any way possible, so let's get Linux on board.
Just classic. Also, the fact the engineer made a dvd-reading script so he could watch the program in 6 lines,
and showed the MPAA guy, just show moxy. The best part is the MPAA's rep's reaction.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
My Next PhotoAlbum
My Photo Album
Yeah, it's sparse, but you know it was a one click install. And it didn't take that long over
a modem. . . .
Did I mention that I love the mac?
Yeah, it's sparse, but you know it was a one click install. And it didn't take that long over
a modem. . . .
Did I mention that I love the mac?
Five Free Calculus Textbooks
No I haven't reviewed them, but at the same time, it's something that bears mentioning.
See the links here.
See the links here.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Onyx Orison
Here is the definition of orison.
Yeah, a Black Stone Prayer. And here I had thought it was a Black Magic. Oh well, beggars cannot be
choosers.
Yeah, a Black Stone Prayer. And here I had thought it was a Black Magic. Oh well, beggars cannot be
choosers.
Memes
What's a meme?
Ok, basic idea, a cliche is a meme. It's an idea or thought pattern that spreads from
person to person more or less like a virus. It's a neat idea in general, and has been written about in
Snow Crash. Imagine if you could create an idea so simple, so straightforward that it spread amongst everyone and effected a change.
Got it? Cool.
Now here's something that is not a popular thought. Personality tests for blogs are a meme complex. We take them,
and thinking they denote us then put it up. It then catches the eye of the people who are reading the blog and
they take it, spreading the virus. The only reason they don't spread faster is because they are reliant on someone
willingly exposing themselves through reading and having an existing context shared with you.
Granted this isn't a condemnation of these 'What X are you' tests . Being infected by a meme isn't a bad thing. Some of
our best ideas are memes. No one ever accused another person of being weak for learning and propogating E=MC^2.
Apparently some people have posited that any tool using culture has memetic complexes running around in their population.
Another interesting meme is that pipe smokers are "smart". What told us that? And how many pipe smokers have you seen lately
at the latest symposia?
If anything, a personality test, is a community strengthener between people. If you have ever taken a test and then compared
it with your friends, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Oh one other thing. I've taken this tests before and as you will see a few months back, I posted one up.
Ok, basic idea, a cliche is a meme. It's an idea or thought pattern that spreads from
person to person more or less like a virus. It's a neat idea in general, and has been written about in
Snow Crash. Imagine if you could create an idea so simple, so straightforward that it spread amongst everyone and effected a change.
Got it? Cool.
Now here's something that is not a popular thought. Personality tests for blogs are a meme complex. We take them,
and thinking they denote us then put it up. It then catches the eye of the people who are reading the blog and
they take it, spreading the virus. The only reason they don't spread faster is because they are reliant on someone
willingly exposing themselves through reading and having an existing context shared with you.
Granted this isn't a condemnation of these 'What X are you' tests . Being infected by a meme isn't a bad thing. Some of
our best ideas are memes. No one ever accused another person of being weak for learning and propogating E=MC^2.
Apparently some people have posited that any tool using culture has memetic complexes running around in their population.
Another interesting meme is that pipe smokers are "smart". What told us that? And how many pipe smokers have you seen lately
at the latest symposia?
If anything, a personality test, is a community strengthener between people. If you have ever taken a test and then compared
it with your friends, then you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Oh one other thing. I've taken this tests before and as you will see a few months back, I posted one up.
Ah the trap
So, I've been experimenting with the layout. I so know where this is going.
It's like graphics or gimp. Pulls a perfectionist in and makes them want to check
everything to make sure it *flows*. Before they know it, 2 hours are up and
they have a wonderful page, and not a lot of content.
Here is an alternative to slashdot. Granted some of them have an axe to
grind with slashdotters.
Back to the Grind
It's like graphics or gimp. Pulls a perfectionist in and makes them want to check
everything to make sure it *flows*. Before they know it, 2 hours are up and
they have a wonderful page, and not a lot of content.
Here is an alternative to slashdot. Granted some of them have an axe to
grind with slashdotters.
Back to the Grind
Yay Subjects!
Well, so I'm going along and noticed that I was lacking titles. That was sucky. It's hard enough to parse stuff out sometimes, with all the per day traffic I generated today at the least. Fun.
Good news/Bad News
Good news, bad news.
Good news: I've got something that works in Emacs.
Bad News: It's the only game in town. Which I still think is
odd.
Good news: I've got something that works in Emacs.
Bad News: It's the only game in town. Which I still think is
odd.
The search beyond weblogger.el
Moving on.
So, going to check and see if there is some other utility that
interfaces with emacs. weblogger works, but I wonder if there is any
simpler interfaces that a person wouldn't have to code up themselves.
So, going to check and see if there is some other utility that
interfaces with emacs. weblogger works, but I wonder if there is any
simpler interfaces that a person wouldn't have to code up themselves.
Hm, not much else is going on. Did you know that there is a site out
there with some fantastic beats?
there with some fantastic beats?
Ok, so the weblogger.el says to edit
out the pinging section and point the RPC at the correct
directory. Wackier things were never said, and I would have thought
that they would be stated in the main file, but it didn't appear
anywhere in there.
Oh well.
out the pinging section and point the RPC at the correct
directory. Wackier things were never said, and I would have thought
that they would be stated in the main file, but it didn't appear
anywhere in there.
Oh well.
My Workplace
You know, this job isn't all bad. I still don't know
any other place where they would allow you to read
tech journals and boards and let it be called research/professional development.
any other place where they would allow you to read
tech journals and boards and let it be called research/professional development.
Monday, April 26, 2004
Hm, maybe I should start using this blog for tab history....
p2p articles
Now tthat would be a cool. A tie into mozilla that when a new tab is opened and stays open for a period of time > X
it gets listed somewhere on a person's blog. A "what I'm surfing" sort of channel.
Lol.
p2p articles
Now tthat would be a cool. A tie into mozilla that when a new tab is opened and stays open for a period of time > X
it gets listed somewhere on a person's blog. A "what I'm surfing" sort of channel.
Lol.
No wonder there isn't a person around that can get ahead financially....
Financials for Belgrade and the US
Financials for Belgrade and the US
The Eco House.
Will it come to fruition for the rest of humanity? Good question. I sometimes think people are too attached to their
SUV's.
Will it come to fruition for the rest of humanity? Good question. I sometimes think people are too attached to their
SUV's.
FISH, stands for possible files over ssh. Wacky, since anon access is *bad* for most folks, regardless.
But it's great if you don't want someone else to see what you are transferring.
A little ditty on it
But it's great if you don't want someone else to see what you are transferring.
A little ditty on it
Neat. So I have this .mac account, aptly named after me. The only problem is that is costs money.
Not tons, but still, it ain'tt cheap. So, looking on the boards, I found a site that offers strong
.mac integration for a reasonable price here
Not tons, but still, it ain'tt cheap. So, looking on the boards, I found a site that offers strong
.mac integration for a reasonable price here
Doh! Need to be semi-active to get a gmail. What I need to do is get my butt in gear and use
emacs to post or sometthing. That way I don't have to grok the blogger interface.
Links:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105335&threshold=0&commentsort=0&tid=126&tid=95&mode=thread&cid=8965086
At least I'm not this guy.
emacs to post or sometthing. That way I don't have to grok the blogger interface.
Links:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=105335&threshold=0&commentsort=0&tid=126&tid=95&mode=thread&cid=8965086
At least I'm not this guy.
Hm, Well, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
Sometimes I have this go into my sig. Probably not do this at work's sig.
(echo 'See the Card Game @ http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/' ; lynx -dump http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/ | head -4 | perl -ne 's/^\s+//; print $_;') | perl -e 'while(<>){push (@t,$_);}print $t[1],$t[0].$t[2];'
Sometimes I have this go into my sig. Probably not do this at work's sig.
(echo 'See the Card Game @ http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/' ; lynx -dump http://www.sjgames.com/inwo/ | head -4 | perl -ne 's/^\s+//; print $_;') | perl -e 'while(<>){push (@t,$_);}print $t[1],$t[0].$t[2];'
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