This is my frigging blog!

What's the first picture on their new camera? (NSFW)

2007-08-16T12:21:00.000-07:00

Apparently a lot of people had definite plans in mind when making their digital camera purchase...and I'm not talking about a picture of Niagara Falls, here, folks.

Home | Galaxy Zoo

2007-07-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

Home | Galaxy ZooYep, humans are better than computers...at least at saying what's in a picture. Come help identify and classify never-before-seen galaxies!

BBC NEWS | Technology | Robot unravels mystery of walking

2007-07-12T14:45:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Technology | Robot unravels mystery of walkingRobosapien is going to be a lot cooler by Christmas of 2008, I think...imagine if the dinosaur version could outrun you...probably not long before it can.

Study finds smoking wards off Parkinson's disease - Yahoo! News

2007-07-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Study finds smoking wards off Parkinson's disease - Yahoo! NewsThis just makes me think of Flip Wilson saying (during a stand-up routine..."Live - At the Village Gate"):"...Imagine if someone made the wonderful discovery that reefer was the cure for cancer..."Close, but no...ahem...cigar.

Paint.NET :: View topic - How to Write an Effect Plugin (Part 2 of 3 - Intermediate)

2007-07-02T19:23:00.000-07:00

Paint.NET :: View topic - How to Write an Effect Plugin (Part 2 of 3 - Intermediate)

BBC NEWS | Health | Autism symptoms reversed in lab

2007-06-28T07:40:00.000-07:00

BBC NEWS | Health | Autism symptoms reversed in labWow! I have a friend who will be very interested in this news.

Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil - earth - 26 June 2007 - New Scientist Environment

2007-06-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

Giant microwave turns plastic back to oil - earth - 26 June 2007 - New Scientist EnvironmentBest invention I've seen in my lifetime. If we can turn tires and plastic *back* into oil and gas for less energy than is provided by the oil and gas they produce, we're talking about landfills as energy sources. Recycling just became a profit center...

mmmmm....woofers

2007-06-19T09:15:00.000-07:00

Ahh, car audio. It's been a long time (probably 7 years or so), and with my wife's purchase of a new head unit (and my discovering an MP3 CD my buddy Keith made for me a while ago), I'm remembering what it was to be a basshead.Just got done perusing the JL Audio website (no other subs will do, really), and figured it would nice to be able to predict the frequency response for some 6W0 drivers in

2006-11-28T06:38:00.000-08:00

Linux.com | openSUSE holds public IRC Q&A on Microsoft/Novell deal"Nat Friedman: That's a good point. Also one thing to consider is indemnification being offered by other companies. So for example, Red Hat and Oracle both claim to offer patent indemnification to their customers. If you are customer A, and you buy Linux from one of those companies, they promise to step in and protect you from any

2006-11-20T17:36:00.000-08:00

MacOS X 10.8 - "Liger"qwertmonkey, you owe me a new keyboard...

2006-11-20T14:53:00.000-08:00

Salt Lake Tribune - IBM's Sutor: 'open source' is not at riskI hope you brought your salt-shaker...you might need a grain or two to make it through this article. Bob Mims begins with a comment or two by IBM's Bob Sutor:"In the mythical land of "Open Source," an egalitarian, global network of software developers sacrificially contribute programming code to the greater good. But in today's real

2006-11-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

A simple oil change......turns into a really bad dayEDIT: Sadly, "linky no worky" anymore :(

2006-11-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

Did an Asteroid Impact Cause an Ancient Tsunami? - New York TimesInteresting article...asteroids (big ones) may strike the earth more often than we think...

2006-11-17T08:07:00.000-08:00

Ballmer on Novell, Linux and patentsI'm far from the first to write on this, but I'm once again in the need of duct tape to keep my head from exploding (as Glen Beck puts it).There are some insightful comments at the end of that page:"because only a customer who has Suse Linux actually has paid properly for the use of intellectual property from Microsoft."I thought suse users had only paid

2006-11-16T15:47:00.000-08:00

PJ, I should've known you were rightSo. I am unfortunately no longer in disagreement with you as to the necessity of GPLv3 vs. v2. I was being to optimistic.I finally and definitively changed my mind today after reading this (which PJ wrote about today. I was hoping for a more intellectual "what-if" situation, in which PJ laid out exactly how a wily corp could take advantage of GPL-licensed

2006-11-07T18:38:00.000-08:00

We can live without fear of Microsoft lawsuitsSo, after I wrote that last post, I learned of a FAQ that Novell has posted. There are a number of relatively unsatisfying answers to those frequently asked questions, and a suprisingly good message buried beneath all of the angst. Let's roll through the first few of them, shall we?Q1. How is this agreement compatible with Novell's obligations under

2006-11-07T14:06:00.000-08:00

CBR speaks of doom and gloom for Linux...The headline sounded fair enough:"Microsoft-Novell peace deal could create two-tier Linux market"That's true, of course, it *could* do that. I was hoping for a reasoned explanation of how it might, as well, but that seemed to be missing from the article. If you aren't someone who follows the news about Linux and "intellectual property" issues (copyright,

2006-11-03T18:52:00.000-08:00

I have been having a small back-and forth with PJ (Groklaw's supreme goddess, long may she reign) over just how bad the Microsoft-Novell deal is.In case you hadn't heard, Microsoft and Novell entered into a patent covenant agreement in which each vows not to sue the other over the use of certain patents that either party might have rights to.One interesting thing to note is that the technology

2006-10-03T17:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, PJ, our first disagreementPJ said (in part):"...I thought I'd point that out, in case any of you think the future for Linux would be so great if we could just have the "freedom" to allow proprietary codecs and drivers or let vendors close rights off with hardware. Please remember that the Unix folks tried that semi-proprietary route already, thinking it would increase profits and market

2006-09-19T20:58:00.000-07:00

White and NerdyGotta love Weird Al...

2006-09-13T18:21:00.000-07:00

:: system76 :: Linux Laptops, Linux Desktops, Linux Servers ::Cool...preconfigured Linux (Ubuntu) laptops!

2006-09-13T18:09:00.000-07:00

Splice - Front PageOnline music studio? Yep.

2006-08-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

Launchy: The Open Source Keystroke Launcher for WindowsI am going to install this on every Windows machine I have access to. Hit [ALT]+[SPACE] and start typing the first few letters of a filename, program, shortcut, web favorite, etc, and see it magically appear in a list and hit enter.I'm about to delete all of my quick launch icons and desktop shortcuts because I don't need them anymore.

2006-08-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

Telecom tax imposed in 1898 finally ends | CNET News.com...speaking of the Federal Excise Tax (read my last entry for reference), it looks like action is finally being taken to end the tax that's been supporting the Spanish-American war for 100 years ;)Evidently, there's still part of it in place (leaves you wondering why they didn't decide to repeal all of it together, eh?), but it looks like

2006-08-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

Why Net Neutrality matters...The issue that the article above discusses is not often cited in discussions on net neutrality...it's kind of a huge secret of sorts.Look at your phone bill (cell, land, whatever), and find the line that says "FUSF Fee" or "Federal Service Cost Recovery Fee" or some other trivial deviation from those two, and you will see exactly where the money you are (still) paying

2006-07-31T11:17:00.000-07:00

StarLogo TNGTwo of the things I'm interested in rolled together in one: free stuff, and 3d modeling

2006-07-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

13 Great Firefox Extensions for Web ProfessionalsI plan on checking out IE Tab and HTML Validator very soon...that would cut dev time on my pages a lot.

2006-07-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

QDB: Quote #4753The most simple solution to the problem of rampant stupidity I've heard yet...

2006-07-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

Extreme Sand StormWow...

2006-07-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

Multi-Touch Interaction ResearchSeveral of these ideas remind me of the big touchscreen that Tom Cruise's character used in Minority Report:Check it out...I think there's something for almost everyone to find interesting.

Net Neutrality Brain Freze....

2006-07-03T09:51:00.000-07:00

Senator Ted Stephens (R-Alaska) explains why it took so long for his internet to get sent the other day (courtesy of 27B Stroke 6 on wired.com)...This is certainly an enlightening article. I understand a great deal about the level of knowledge that this particular senator has about how the internet works (and how internet e-mail works. and the fact that internet e-mail is not the internet...).

2006-06-27T09:08:00.000-07:00

Inside Nathan Myhrvold's Mysterious New Idea MachineThe uber-patent-troll? This is a very important article for anyone who invents things...especially so, if those inventions are a source of income. There is so much that is disturbing in this article, including the attitude of Mr. Myhrvold regarding ensuring fairness in the patenting process, that it deserves additional comment.As soon as I get

2006-06-23T07:45:00.000-07:00

Top 100 Network Security ToolsI've probably used about a third of these, and I can see quite a few more that I will definitely use to ensure the integrity of a network or two. Have to make sure they're as buttoned-up as possible.

2006-06-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

Polymathematics: No, I'm Sorry, It Does.This is an interesting item, if only because it has drug a very large number of self-professed (and denial-laden) non-math geeks out of the woodwork to complain about a simple concept. That concept is that .9 (nine repeating to infinity) = 1The author starts out with a very elegant proof using algebra, which a lot of people will understand, and then

2006-06-18T22:46:00.000-07:00

Fire Ball - Photoshop Tutorials - thedesignworld.comGotta find out how to do this in the gimp...

2006-06-18T22:13:00.000-07:00

Consortiuminfo.org - ODF, MS and MASS: Now you see the dots (and now you don't)Some interesting insights into Mass. state politics and the old ODF issue...

2006-06-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

15 Seconds : Creating a Web Custom ControlFor my own edification...

2006-06-09T06:04:00.000-07:00

Get ready for a newer, slower internet...Well, there you have it. Apparently, the enemy has congress firml in its pocket. It becomes obvious that those representatives who were quoted on the "No" side of the equation misunderstand things as they apply to the consumers of internet access.Rep. Lamar Smith said:They say let the government dictate [a vibrant internet]...I urge my colleagues to

2006-06-06T10:16:00.000-07:00

Bye-bye Fair-use? It's not just section 115 you have to worry about...Ahh, lobbyists. One individual commented that the proposed bill in the article above is coming from Howard Berman. There is nothing to indicate that he is about to propose such a bill on his official house.gov web page, but he does make some comments on a similar subject (Section 114, as a matter of fact) on May 11th in the

2006-06-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

United States Patent: 5860074 - Is this what Adobe's mad at Microsoft About?So I mentioned in my last post that The XPS documents were mostly 2-dimensional, but included layers. Adobe mentions a number of patents that are licensed royalty-free and non-exclusive for use in PDF viewers and publishing software, and one that *can't* be used in software that "consumes and/or interprets PDF files".I

2006-06-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

...a bit more on Microsoft file formats:So, inquisitive guy that I am, I decided to do a little bit of digging around to see how exactly OpenXML relates to the Windows operating system. I initially looked for stuff about OpenXML and Windows Vista, but came up a bit short.Searching about for OpenXML and Longhorn, however, bore some fruit. Apparently, there's a less-talked-about, but similar

2006-06-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

See Windows Vista...all your base are belong to us...I was reading Digg, and noticed an article about a showcase of 3rd-party apps for Windows Vista. I was curious, so I took a peek...lots of clips of programs with Tom Skerrit narrating.Anyway, if you visit the link above (http://www.seewindowsvista.com/ skip the intro, not much point in it), click on "Turning Information into Action", and then

2006-05-31T07:37:00.000-07:00

Download details: Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar BetaI always wondered what the Javascript Console/DOM inspector cousin of Firefox was for IE...now I know. Handy tool

2006-05-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

GovTrackKeep track of your senators, etc...

2006-05-30T07:51:00.000-07:00

YouTube - Aids HIV BayerBayer pulls AIDS-infected blood products in the US and sells them overseas??? This video is from early April, has anyone heard anything about this since then? I know this is the first I had heard of it.I'll take it with a grain of salt, *but* Bayer executives overseas have already been in legal trouble over it, so I'd imagine there is truth to this story...

2006-05-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

WSJ.com - Should the Net Be Neutral?This is going to be more than a one-sentence entry, just because I actually have a strong (and informed) opinion on the issue.Mike McCurry is the spokesperson for the group I will hereafter (in this entry) call "the enemy". He has some ideas about net neutrality, and possibly some knowledge about it's opposite...hard to tell from the article.Craig Newmark,

2006-05-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Telegraph | News | The truth about global warming - it's the Sun that's to blameThe good news is: Global warming is probably not all our fault. The bad news is: Nobody thought to install a dimmer switch on the sun.

2006-05-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

Repairing Windows XP in Eight Commands - Guide - Short-MediaGeek knowledge...learn you some.

2006-05-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

Remote control alarm clock project.Yeah, maybe it's pointless, but it looks like fun :)

2006-05-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

Backdoor flaws found in Diebold e-voting machinesUmm...can you say "not good"? Not one, not two, but *three* security backdoors were found in two of Diebold's voting-machine models' software."What they're proposing as a vulnerability is actually a functionality of the system. Instead of recognizing the advantages of the technology, we keep ringing up 'what if' scenarios that serve no purpose

2006-05-16T07:48:00.000-07:00

Lactic Acid Is Not Muscles' Foe, It's Fuel - New York TimesWell, who knew...I like it when someone starts with a fresh view and helps us all gain new insight.My biggest problem with this is that it's going to make one of my favorite movies hard to watch...if you've seen "A few Good Men" a few times, you know that the marine who dies dies of acute lactic acidosis...not sure if that pans out

2006-05-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

YouTube - Some girl playing Super Mario GalaxyYeah, I'm a Nintendo fanboy...so what? Between this game and the Avatar, I'll be having fun with the kids playing on a Nintendo Wii next year...

2006-05-11T08:45:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily: How Drug Binds To Neurons To Stop Drunken Symptoms Of AlcoholFuture advertisement: "Coffee is SOOOOO old-school. Just take a drunk-no-more pill and you can safely drive home..."

2006-05-10T10:48:00.000-07:00

Dynamic Drive CSS Library- CF Navigation MenuVery neat CSS work for a stylish menu

2006-05-08T10:27:00.000-07:00

Web Developer's Handbook: developing web-sites, exploring imagination | CSS, Color Tools, SEO, Usability etc.Need to know something web-related? Look here...

2006-05-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

Kid's Programming Language : Learning is best when learning is fun!"Math is Boring"...well, maybe, if you're trying to figure out how far apart mary and steve are after 30 minutes of travelling at some certain speed. Then again, if you're trying to figure out if your star destroyer's lazer is going to hit its target, maybe it's not too bad.Programming can be fun. Video games are quite often fun

2006-04-14T14:18:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Enterprise Data Center: Data Services

2006-04-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

This guy thinks pro-global-warming scientists are bullying him.I don't know enough about the science to say whether his argument is valid, but it makes sense at face value. Grain of salt, and all that...

2006-04-07T13:50:00.000-07:00

Cool Stuff - Google Video

2006-03-15T10:56:00.000-08:00

Pepper component hot enough to trigger suicide in prostate cancer cellsSo, the cure for cancer is (in part) tabasco sauce...

2006-03-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

Chizumatic - Too many words about The MatrixInteresting ideas...I'd like to hear the directors' commentary about this guy's take on things...

2006-02-10T18:48:00.000-08:00

15 Seconds : ASP.NET Mixed Mode AuthenticationA bit more on the same subject I just mentioned...

2006-02-10T18:44:00.000-08:00

Mixing Forms and Windows Security in ASP.NETTook me a while to find even this...it's not exactly a walkthrough, but good info, just the same.

2006-02-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

quiet americanField recordings of many things in vietnam...life on audio tape.

2006-02-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

Telecom company troubles...I don't often editorialize, but I'm going to do so today.A few months back, I read all about a certain disagreement between a couple of ISP's (Level 3 and Cogent) over internet traffic going from one network to another.A few weeks ago, we started hearing noises about ISP's charging "content providers" (that's potentially anbody on the internet, by the way, not just

2006-01-31T13:37:00.000-08:00

Spell with flickrI'm so cool...

2006-01-30T11:31:00.000-08:00

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Study Strengthens Link between Virus and Weight GainWow. So, apparently, there's a "fat" virus (or maybe more than one)...Obesity might be contagious, then? Truly a change from typical science on the subject of obesity.

2006-01-20T08:24:00.000-08:00

MENSA INTELLIGENCE TESTI managed 24 (out of 33) so far...I guess I'm a genius +5.Numbers: 6,12,14,15,17,24,28,29, and 31 are eluding me so far. Actually, I'm almost positive I know what #28 is, but it's not accepting my answer...how could a genius such as myself be mistaken?Oh, for those of you who plan on looking at the source code for the javascript to get the answers, don't bother. It takes

2006-01-19T07:38:00.000-08:00

Windows XP Graphical passwordsInteresting concept...not entirely sure it's worth the effort, but it's definitely interesting.

2006-01-13T07:40:00.001-08:00

New Scientist The lungs of the planet are belching methane - NewsNormal plants and pectin are apparently responsible for 10-30 percent of world methane emissions...

2006-01-13T07:40:00.000-08:00

New Scientist The lungs of the planet are belching methane - NewsNormal plants and pectin are apparently responsible for 10-30 percent of world methane emissions...

2006-01-10T07:55:00.000-08:00

New Scientist SPACE - Features - Take a leap into hyperspaceVery interesting article...some comments made me think about the "Manhattan Project" movie...what happens when you use *really* powerful magnetic fields, exactly? Were we close to hyperspace in the 20th century?

2006-01-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

My Settop BoxA Myth LiveCD? The easiest MythTV install evah!

2006-01-03T08:09:00.000-08:00

Recharge alkaline batteriesThe guy who runs this site has just officially become my hero. There's a lot of cool stuff in there.

2006-01-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Jacob's Ladder on the cheapRemember the old Frankenstein Movies? Remember those two wires with the big arc of electricity that moved from bottom to top and then started over again? Want one of your own?***NOTE*** Don't even bother with this if you don't understand how dangerous electricity is. You can kill yourself fairly easily by opening up a monitor and not knowing what you're doing.

2005-12-30T13:58:00.000-08:00

The Ethical Hacker Network - Anatomy Of A HackGood insight on how your network gets pwn3d

2005-12-29T13:51:00.000-08:00

Pranks: a competition | From Hermes to bonsai kittens | Economist.com

2005-12-28T08:35:00.000-08:00

StaxRip - Introduction Maybe a good way to finally get my DVD-RW content into an editable format (easily)?

2005-12-26T12:41:00.000-08:00

C Sharp tutorialI'll have to see if there's anything in here worth mentioning...

2005-12-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Freevo | Freevo Download and Installation Not Tivo, Freevo...

2005-12-21T13:16:00.000-08:00

Linux screensaver for Windows I'm going to do this someday...just because.

2005-12-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

Black Box Voting Forums: 12-13-05: Devastating hack proven - Leon County dumps Diebold Sure...diebold voting machines are secure.

2005-12-16T12:15:00.000-08:00

MythTV w/PVR-150 Setup on Ubuntu Linux Breezy Badger (5.10) Cool. Now all I need is an $80.00 Best Buy capture card...

2005-12-13T09:20:00.000-08:00

This is not a photograph. True, there's no shadow on the forehead from the hairs at the front of his scalp, but if I just glanced at this, I'd have thought it was a photograph. Amazing stuff.

2005-12-12T13:48:00.000-08:00

Fedora Myth(TV)ology :: HOWTO (printer-friendly) C'mon...build a MythTV video recorder...how hard could it be?

2005-12-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia Class Action :: Lawsuit [www.wikipediaclassaction.org] Nothing like pointless litigation to get your blood going. For those of you unfamiliar with wiki's, Wikipedia is a wiki (a rapid collaborative documentation website) that is geared towards providing encyclopedia-type information. Anyone can contribute, edit, or create articles about any subject...including those people or

2005-12-09T12:54:00.000-08:00

Damn Interesting - Color Photos From the World War I Era Title says it all...(note that theree was no color film when these were taken)...intrigued yet?

2005-12-09T11:57:00.000-08:00

Are Black Holes And Dark Matter The Same? Interesting stuff...

2005-12-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

Rory Blyth - Neopoleon.com This guy owes me a new keyboard for his explanation of the debate over 720p vs. 1080i HD images. (Oh, and the "i" in 1080i stands for "interlaced", not "interpolatedishness").

2005-12-07T07:33:00.000-08:00

ASP.NET file upload exampleJust something for me to peruse

2005-11-29T13:01:00.000-08:00

Scaryideas Pretty much everybody who reads this blog is one of my friends and/or previous coworkers...I doubt I'll need to explain what's so hilarious about it...

2005-11-22T16:37:00.000-08:00

NumberSpiral.com -- Home Page Okay...this is just cool. Maybe it's easy to predict where to find prime numbers after all?

2005-11-17T11:43:00.000-08:00

The 11-Year Quest to Create Disappearing Colored Bubbles - Popular Science This guy is going to be rich.

2005-11-17T06:03:00.000-08:00

Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes | Linux Journal Hands down, the most important article I've seen on the net this year. Do you ever use the internet? Read this, or else (yes, all of it)!

2005-11-16T07:58:00.000-08:00

Type Manager Interesting general concept...I wonder if it will gain any momentum.

2005-11-09T14:10:00.000-08:00

MORFIK - WEB APPLICATIONS UNPLUGGED Note to self: see if this is cool or just over-hyped...

2005-11-03T09:40:00.000-08:00

Ever dreamed of a subwoofer with flat frequency response down to 1 Hz? I want one of these. A lot.

2005-10-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

MUTE: Simple, Anonymous File Sharing Title says quite a bit. This is what happens when you think about how ants find food and how the RIAA is a pain in the ass at the same time. Much like a peanut butter cup, they go great together...

2005-10-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

Konspire Sounds interesting...it's the "syndication meets distributed download" idea that I heard about before, except it actually exists. I'm gonna have to check this one out.

2005-10-11T07:06:00.000-07:00

Stop the MPAA from breaking your TV Well, they're at it again. Last time around, people got wind of what was going on and the courts smacked it down. Do your part...write a letter (all you have to do is fill in your name and use the form letter, if you're lazy) and beat 'em down again.