December 2007
86 posts
Pilot to TSA: Let my people go! →
Patrick Smith, the airline pilot who co-writes the NY Times’s Jetlagged Blog has written a corker of an editorial railing against the bullshit “security” procedures that the TSA has put into place. Smith is hopping mad and stops just short of calling for a revolution. Man, I’d be with him at the barricades.
No matter that a deadly sharp can be fashioned from virtually...
Dept. of Labor: Strike Beards: The Talk of the... →
Top Linux Headlines of 2007 - A Year In Review →
Looking back at 2007 and seeing this website as a fruit of the cesspool that we affectionately call Vista really warms my heart.
I started using Linux as a full-time operating system in September, because I was really fed up with Microsoft. As an experiment, this website was launched simultaneously to document my adventures in Linux.
If you told me that when I started this blog that this site...
December 29, 2007 →
RIP: Netscape Navigator (1994-2008) →
Netscape Navigator, once the de rigeur browser for more than 90% of web users, will no longer be supported by current owner AOL after February 2008. Link. Post your ode to this code in the comments. Extra points if you can manage to refer to yourself as a “netizen” with a straight face. (thanks Bill)
Shotgun Blasted Cell Phone Sells On eBay →
Take a Nokia E90 cell phone, add one 12 gauge shotgun blast, throw that bitch up on eBay and what do you get? Apparently $20.50. The description of the “for parts ONLY” phone follows.
The unfortunate victim of a negligent discharge from a 12 Gauge Shotgun loaded with 00 Buckshot. Fortunately no one was hurt. My Loss and Stupidity is Your Gain! Half of the phone is still intact....
Optimus Tactus keyboard concept →
This is the keyboard we want to produce in 2008. Actual width will depend on the TFT display we’ll use.
OLED "Star" Watch, Looks Good, I Want One →
The OLED TIWE (like TIME, but with the M upside down!) watch by industrial designer Lv Zhogfang is a neat concept. It normally displays a bunch of little white balls (“stars”) randomly floating around the face. But when you give it a shake or tap on the glass, PRESTO! — the balls come together to show the time! While still in the early stages of development, it doesn’t...
Weave: Synchronize Firefox 3 Bookmarks →
Mozilla has been investigating ways to make it easy for users to carry information (bookmarks, history, etc…) from one browser to another. What they came up with is an extension called Weave, and it can be used across several computers to synchronize data.
After signing up you will receive a confirmation email (I got mine in a matter of seconds). The link provided will give you the information to...
Six Megapixels →
Good explanation of why increasing the megapixel count of compact digital cameras actually makes image quality worse, because it increases the noise. (Via Tim Bray.)
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Make Your XP Computer Look Like OS X →
For whatever reason, many Windows XP users are obsessed with making their desktop look like a Mac. It’s not a new phenomenon, but the enterprising people over at FlyakiteOSX created a really easy way to transform your desktop into an OS X look & feel without a lot of trouble.
Note: This installation will change a lot of files and install a whole bunch of utilities, so proceed with...
IT security-themed series debuts on Court TV →
Between residual eggnog rounds and gift-gloat with family this evening, I plan to tune in to the debut of “Tiger Team,” a new series on Court TV which is, more or less, about hacking:
This vérité action series follows Tiger Team – a group of elite professionals hired to infiltrate major business and corporate interests with the objective of exposing weaknesses in the world’s most...
ZOMG! The Queens speech leaked online early by... →
She didn’t have any trouble getting a Wii then, typical! YouTube-tastic version with sound
350,000 ASUS Eee PC’s Shipped Already →
According to DigiTimes, ASUS beat their initial expectations of shipping 300,000 Eee PC’s this quarter by 50,000. That means that there are already 350,000 Eee PC’s out there!
Blogging from the Ballpit →
It is surprisingly hard to type when nestled in a pool of balls. You type, you sink, you get attacked from the east by an enterprising young programmer. Settled now at the bottom of the pit you clear a small gap and realise, actually, you can touch type. You haven’t just been claiming you can for the last five years. It’s really true. Our excuse that this is a relaxing harbour for meetings may...
Top 50 Instructables of 2007 Ranked by Pageviews →
This is the first in a series of data-analysis posts I’m going to make over the next few days (or hours if I can’t stop myself). I love statistics, analysis, and raw data and so thought I’d share some of the really cool stuff with you. Thanks to trebuchet03 for helping with this and actually crafting the queries.
Here are the top Instructables published in 2007 ranked by...
Top 50 Instructables of 2007 Ranked by Number of... →
This is the second in a series of data-analysis posts. Check out the first here. I love statistics, analysis, and raw data and so thought I’d share some of the really cool stuff with you. Thanks to trebuchet03 for helping with this and actually crafting the queries.
Here are the Instructables published in 2007 with the greatest number of comments (I know the year isn’t over yet, but...
Oh Hell Yes: The Rinspeed sQuba Car →
Well I was about to go apeshit on the Rinspeed sQuba car until I read they admitted to it being inspired by James Bond’s Lotus in The Spy Who Loved Me. So after I calmed down a bit and drank my weight in cough syrup I passed out in the driveway on the way to the mailbox. When a passing street-sweeper finally woke me I pissed myself and fell back asleep. Anyways, the sQuba car can drive on...
Queen Reaches Oldest Monarch Mark →
The Queen has become the oldest British monarch after she overtook Queen Victoria, her great-great grandmother, at 1700 GMT. Queen Victoria, who was born on 24 May 1819, lived for 81 years, seven months and 29 days. The Queen still has a way to go before becoming the longest reigning British monarch. She will claim that record on 9 September 2015, when she would have been on the throne for almost...
IE 8 Passes Acid 2 Test →
Microsoft has been receiving a heap of criticism lately for their Internet Explorer web browser, and the Opera antitrust suit just added more fuel to the flames. People want to see Internet Explorer follow the standards that other web browsers have already complied with, and that will hopefully increase the number of sites that are compatible outside of the IE realm.
Despite being overly “hush...
Hot Porridge Smoothies (AKA the Porrocino) →
Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels: this man in the stalls market opposite the Camden Town tube in London sells “Hot Porridge Smoothies, AKA The Porrocino” — I didn’t try one that day, but I’m definitely going back for one. Link
Some advice from Michael J. Fox. No matter how... →
Some advice from Michael J. Fox. No matter how much fame you have, it’s not something that belongs to you. If I’m famous, that doesn’t belong to me — that belongs to you. If you can’t remember who I am, I’m no longer famous. And a bunch of other stuff that’s surprisingly candid and good. (link)
Chocolate Hard Drive Is Questionable →
The Chocolate Portable Hard Drive was designed by Sang-Hoon Lee and was created to resemble a chocolate bar. This one just happens to be a white-chocolate bar that looks more like a keyboard-bar, but who cares, it doesn’t even exist in the real world. Each piece of the unit is a modular flash drive and there’s a touchscreen to organize your files onto the different drives. Why...
People Will Spend 25 Years Sat In Front Of A... →
A poll by security humyo.com has estimated that people will spend 8,984 days sitting in front of a computer in their lifetime. That works out as 24 years and 8 months. I think I’m well on my way to beating that. Link
Beard Cap →
How cool is this beard cap? [via]
Telecom Immunity bill dying, thanks to you -- KEEP... →
Hurrah! The Telecom Immunity Bill — which will let the phone companies off the hook for helping the NSA to illegally spy on Americans — is dying in Congress, thanks to your calls and letters.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Danny O’Brien sez, “Harry Reid just announced that given the complexity and contentiousness of immunity (which he says he backs Dodd in...
Eyes →
bookmark this on del.icio.us - posted by marqueA2 - more about this bookmark…
Video: The Dark Knight Trailer →
A full-length trailer for the next Batman movie, The Dark Knight, and it looks good. head on over to First Showing to view it.
whysoserious →
“Trying stuff is cheaper than deciding whether to try it. (Compare the cost of...”
– A fundamental rule of the internet: Trying stuff is cheaper… (kottke.org)
Clips: Watch 3000 Barrels Fall Down In Crysis →
Asian Countries Eyeing Seabeds for Energy →
In a bit of oddball Energy news, a slew of Asian countries are looking at mining the seabeds to harvest methane that has been locked away in frozen water. Unlike atmospheric methane that resides in a gaseous state in the upper reaches of our atmosphere, methane hydrate is a methane laden form of solid water. This methane hydrate once was thought to litter the seafloors but modern estimates place...
Reader and Talk are Friends! →
There once was a Reader named Chrix, Who found himself in quite a fix: He’d fun stuff to share But no one was there, Now Reader shows friends when Chrix clicks!
One of my favorite uses for Reader is to share interesting stuff with my friends. I click “Share” whenever I find an interesting item, be it hilarious or serious. This way, all my friends can subscribe to my shared items...
Linux Success Story: New York Stock Exchange Moves... →
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is the largest stock exchange in the world. NYSE wants to move away from proprietary platforms, so they selected HP hardware with Linux.
NYSE is investing heavily in x86-based Linux systems and blade servers as it builds out the NYSE Hybrid Market trading system that it launched last year. Flexibility and lower cost are among the goals. But one of the things...
December 15, 2007 →
HTV-3X Scramjet →
If it works, the HTV-3X will be the first reusable scramjet-powered plane. It will be able to take off from a runway, fly at speeds of up to Mach 6, land safely, and then do it again.
Scramjets, and even the HTV-3X, are not new news — but this rendering featured recently in Popular Science is straight creamy delicious.
ARTICLE [”The Hypersonic Age is Near”] (Popular Science)
Bike Has Infinite Number Of Gears, Cool! →
‘The Ride’ is no ordinary bicycle. Nope, it’s got a ‘NuVinci’ transmission that uses ball bearings and metal disks to create an infinite number of gears.
Twist a dial on the handlebar, and ball bearings in the bike’s NuVinci transmission tilt between two rotating metal discs. (Your pedaling turns one disc; the other transfers power to the rear wheel.) As the balls...
Flies →
xhtml-css: check markup and style with one click →
XHTML-CSS Validator is a new tool, just released in beta, that allows you to enter an url once and validate both your xhtml and css at the same time. Features a handy, dandy Firefox extension, as well. A handy tool!
Some Firefox 3 Cross-Platform Icons Revealed →
Back in October we knew that Mozilla was going to spend a lot of work making Firefox 3 fit into the different platforms available. Alex Faaborg, a User Experience Specialist over at Mozilla, just wrote about some early renditions of what the cross-platform icons will look like. He said that on “OS X I want you to feel like you’ve upgraded to latest large predatory cat, on Ubuntu the latest...
Flickr Stats →
Referrer-tracking shows where people come from when they look at your photos.
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Office for Mac 2008 released to manufacturing →
Filed under: Software, Productivity
The official word from Microsoft is that Office for Mac 2008 has been released to manufacturing. This means that the code is final and has been sent out to the factories for duplication and packaging ahead of its formal release at Macworld San Francisco on January 15, 2008. If you want a full preview, the Mac Office 2008 website is fully up and running. After so...
eeeXubuntu: Ubuntu for the Asus EeePC
Finally! In what seems like an eternity an enterprising soul has taken on the task of customizing Ubuntu (or more specifically Xubuntu) for use on the EeePC. While Ubuntu worked reasonably well on the EeePC before, there were plenty of additional steps necessary to get WiFi working as well as reducing the number of writes to the slightly fragile Solid State Drive. Along with these fixes...
Terry Pratchett has rare, early-onset Alzheimer's →
Terry Pratchett has addressed an open letter to his fans (on Paul Kidby’s Discworld News) with some genuinely awful news — he has a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s. His note is incredibly brave and chipper. The man’s a real inspiration — incredibly prolific, brilliant and talented, friendly and clearly as happy as anything with where he’s found himself....
UPS Trying to Eliminate Left Turns →
In an order to save fuel UPS is using software to dramatically reduce the number of left turns their drivers take.
It seems that sitting in the left lane, engine idling, waiting for oncoming traffic to clear so you can make a left-hand turn, is minutely wasteful — of time and peace of mind, for sure, but also of gas and therefore money. Not a ton of gas and money if we’re talking about just you...
CyberNotes: Remove Broken and Duplicate Bookmarks →
Web Browser Wednesday
I’m not sure about you, but I have a collection of bookmarks that is almost unmanageable. Some of the bookmarks I probably haven’t touched for years, and I thought it was time for a little spring winter cleaning!
So I started browsing around looking for a utility that would assist me in the daunting chore. Sure there are Firefox extensions out there that can check for...
