Saturday, December 30, 2006

Monday, December 25, 2006

Queen to release Christmas speech on Podcast

Queen to release Christmas speech on Podcast: "HER MADGE, Queen Elizabeth II has decided to release her Christmas speech as a podcast this year.

Her most Royal Majesty will send you a copy of the speech for free if you order in advance from http://www.royal.gov.uk."

Saturday, December 23, 2006

THE MAGICAL LAND OF SHRINKY DINKS ... Welcome

THE MAGICAL LAND OF SHRINKY DINKS ... Welcome: "By far, our MOST POPULAR Shrinky Dinks Shrinkable Plastic. This pack contains 10 - 8 x 10 inch sheets of our Exclusive Frosted Ruff N' Ready Shrinkable Plastic. It's the plastic found in kits and books produced by Spin Master, Curiosity Kits, and Klutz. This plastic is actually clear plastic that has been machine roughened on one side. We recommend this plastic for use with children because colored pencils can be used to trace and color your selected image. (One low cost colored pencil we recommend is Crayola.) These sheets are unprinted, so let your imagination go."

Cookie Madness: Chocolate Chip Cookies With Molasses

Cookie Madness: Chocolate Chip Cookies With Molasses:

"3 cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter -- (2 sticks) softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 c molasses
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups chocolate chips -- (one 12-ounce bag)
1 cup chopped walnuts

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until thoroughly combined. Beat in the eggs, molasses and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Then stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and allow the dough to chill for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat pads.

Drop heaping tablespoons or No. 40 ice-cream scoops of the dough 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets, flattening them slightly by hand. (Balls of dough may be placed next to each other on parchment-lined baking sheet, frozen, transferred to zipper-lock plastic bags, and stored in the freezer for up to 1 month. Place frozen cookies on prepared sheets as above, and defrost on the counter for 30 minutes before baking.)

Bake until just light golden, 8 to 10 minutes. Cool the cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheets before using a metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. Chocolate Chip Cookies will keep in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days."

Confucians vs. Christmas

Confucians vs. Christmas: "Ten PhD students from some of China's top universities issued a letter this week in which they called for a rejection of Christmas and an increased awareness of traditional Chinese culture. China Daily offers a brief summary of the document here, and there's a nice discussion going on at Granite Studio.

The letter offers a long list of complaints about the holiday: people don't really know what it means, it's an encroachment on traditional Chinese holidays by western 'soft-power,' why should China roll over when even Europe is resisting 'American-style' commercialized Christmas, China is gradually becoming a Christian nation, and so forth. It's not all complaints, however - the scholars put forth some suggestions, most of which echo recent calls for a revival of Confucianism and traditional learning."

We start from the following principles

We start from the following principles: "Federalist Principles

We start from the following principles:

* That the state exists to preserve individual freedom;
* That economic and political liberties are inextricably intertwined;
* That the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution;
* That it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be;
* That this task of objective interpretation is not so far beyond man's grasp that we should despair, and, in the name of 'realism, 'fall back on prejudice in making judicial determinations;
* That the constitutional scheme did not contemplate the imposition by fiat of the legislative preferences of members of the judiciary, under the banner of 'societal evolution;'
* That this type of judicial legislating, being insulated from the check of popular support, has been a key instrument in the expansion of federal governmental power;
* That this expansion has been at the expense of individuals' abilities to control their own destinies, and of intermediate institutions such as families, churches, personal property, and the states, which helped to shield people from the government's full force;
* And that the true purpose of the legal order is to ensure that the power conferred upon the state is used to secure people's lives and goods, the true purpose of an independent judiciary is to prevent the rigging of the legal order into an extension of the sovereign's will, and that neither the legal order nor the judiciary is presently serving these purposes.

The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities.

Copyright 1994. The Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies, 1015 18th Street, NW, Suite 425, Washington, D.C. 20036"

Minty Boost! - USB charger for your gadgets

Minty Boost! - USB charger for your gadgets: "This project details a small & simple, but very powerful USB charger for your mp3 player, camera, cell phone, and just about any other gadget you can plug into a USB port to charge! (See below for compatibility tests)

The charger circuitry and 2 AA batteries fit into an Altoids gum tin, and will run your iPod for hours! 2.5x more than you'd get from a 9V USB charger! (See Process for math/calculations) You can use rechargable batteries too."

Friday, December 22, 2006

Channel the Spirit - washingtonpost.com

Channel the Spirit - washingtonpost.com: "So little time, so many Christmas-themed made-for-TV movies. Yes, it's that most wonderful time, when the cable and broadcast networks roll out their original Christmastime dramas. Which tend to look a lot like last year's original Christmastime dramas. In fact, they look so much alike that just about anyone can make one. Just choose from among the interchangeable parts on the following menu, mix together and roll tape. Merry TV-movie Christmas!"

TIME.com: Christmas -- Dec. 25, 1939 -- Page 1

TIME.com: Christmas -- Dec. 25, 1939 -- Page 1:
"Posted Monday, Dec. 25, 1939

'The Christmas celebration in Germanic lands is not an invention of the Christian Church but of our forefathers. The day of the Winter Solstice was holy to our ancestors and the period around the Winter Solstice was filled with the fairyland magic of the Nordic soul. In this period gifts were exchanged without an indecent hind-thought of getting a reward from Heaven in return. The Nordic man did not think of a reward for decent deeds. For us therefore, even the Christian Christmas remains a festival of Germanic love, Germanic ways and Germanic benevolence.—Governor Wilhelm Kube of Brandenburg Province.'

Excepting Godless zealots in the Soviet Union, the Nazis were unique in Europe last week in their redoubled efforts to deChristianize Christmas. P'arty organizations announced they would ignore Dec. 25, observe instead the solstice on the 22nd."

detroitblog » Blog Archive » Wild Kingdom

detroitblog » Blog Archive » Wild Kingdom: "The city of Detroit has a very strange, wild appearance, in some parts like a city of ruins many years older than it actually is, where nature reasserts itself in vegetation that spreads over the city’s crumbling structures.

Detroit is far greener than most major cities, as seen in the runaway vines swarming old mansions in Brush Park, trees sprouting from the rooftops of skyscrapers, tallgrass fields encircling the lone house still standing on a residential block, and abandoned homes swallowed by shrubs thriving unchecked.

Whole neighorhood blocks cleared of houses by arson and bulldozers have reverted to urban prairies, visible in satellite photos as unusually large green patches in the middle of the inner city. Sidewalks vanish beneath creeping grasses, while aluminum fences between homes become entwined with the branches of dozens of saplings growing as high as the droopy utility wires. "

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Are You a Human Theme Park?

Ben Casnocha: The Blog: Are You a Human Theme Park?: "When you represent knowledge, opportunity, selflessness, and intimacy, you are not just a service provider or a product. You are fun, you are interesting, you are valuable; you take people to places they have never been before, you show them books they have never heard of, you introduce them to people they never dreamed they would meet -- in short, you are the equivalent of a human theme park."

Build Ajax into your Web apps with Rails

Build Ajax into your Web apps with Rails: "
Practical examples of how to use Ajax with Ruby on Rails

This article takes you through the steps of building a Rails application. It then dives right into using the Ajax features to build the JavaScript code that reads and writes data from the server."

Liam’s Pictures from Old Books

Liam’s Pictures from Old Books: "Remains of Ruined Castles, Deserted Abbeys, Old Manor Houses, mansions and stately homes; also engravings, woodcuts and pictures of Old England and Wales; also other subjects mentioned below, including Pictures of old books, scanned, prepared and published by Liam Quin.

Over 1500 images scanned from more than 100 different old books, most with multiple high-resolution versions and many with text excerpts! They are mostly public domain (copyright-free, out of copyright) here in Canada, and often in other countries too, unless otherwise noted, and can be used as historical reference in teaching, royalty-free stock images, scrapbook clip art, or even on your own Web site (learn how). You can also get them on CD-ROM, or can donate money to encourage Liam to scan more images, or to help pay for the books."

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Oracle Background processes

Oracle Background processes: "Oracle Background processes
Don Burleson
You can see the Oracle background processes with this query:
select * from v$session where type ='BACKGROUND';

Here are some of the most important Oracle background processes:"

Oracle10g Grid Book - 10g RAC Clusters

Oracle10g Grid Book - 10g RAC Clusters: "Oracle 10g Grid & Real Application Clusters
Oracle10g Grid Computing with RAC"

YouTube - Rolly Brown teaches 240 chords in 6 minutes

YouTube - Rolly Brown teaches 240 chords in 6 minutes: "Nat'l Fingerpicking Champ Rolly Brown of rollybrown.com teaches a simple exercise to increase your vocabulary of jazz chords. "

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Boing Boing: Good documentaries on Google video

Boing Boing: Good documentaries on Google video: "You may be interested to know that google video also hosts a whole bunch of good BBC documentaries, including all three parts of 'The Power of Nightmares'; 'Tetris - From Russia With Love'; ' Louis and the Nazis' and 'A War On Science (Intelligent Design and Dover)'."

Monday, December 18, 2006

Quick Overview of Vampire

Quick Overview of Vampire: "Implementing Web Services

The XML-RPC service wrapper makes use of the 'xmlrpclib' module. As such, any types supported by the 'xmlrpclib' module can be used. Faults can also be raised using the 'xmlrpclib.Fault' class. Where the first parameter of a function is the 'req' parameter, it will be passed the mod_python request object."

Dr. Dobb's | Python 2.4 Decorators | April 1, 2005

Dr. Dobb's | Python 2.4 Decorators | April 1, 2005: "Decorators are a powerful Python 2.4 feature that helps you reduce code duplication and consolidate knowledge."

Dig Deep into Python Internals, Part 2

Dig Deep into Python Internals, Part 2: "In this article I will contrast meta-classes with decorators, explore the Python execution model and explain how to examine stack frames at runtime. Finally, I will demonstrate how to augment the Python language itself using these techniques. To do this I introduce a private access-checking feature that can be enforced at runtime."

Dig Deep into Python Internals

Dig Deep into Python Internals: "This article is the first in a two-part series that will dig deep to explore the fascinating new-style Python object model, which was introduced in Python 2.2 and improved in 2.3 and 2.4. The object model and type system are very dynamic and allow quite a few interesting tricks. In this article I will describe the object, model, and type system; explore various entities; explain the life cycle of an object; and introduce some of the countless ways to modify and customize almost everything you thought immutable at runtime."

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Giant Panda in China rips off man's jacket - Google Video

Giant Panda in China rips off man's jacket - Google Video: "China: Tourist has jacket ripped off his back by Giant Panda in open cage at Nature Reserve dedicated to survival of the endangered species"

Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Finds: A Low-Cost Laser Level

Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Finds: A Low-Cost Laser Level: "This little device attaches to vertical and horizontal surfaces, adjusts via three screw-type feet, and then projects a beam to simplify the installation of items along the level line. Sure, there are zillion-dollar units designed for professional cabinet installers, but at just $30, this one looks like it’d be great for hanging pictures and such."

The New Yorker : fact : content

The New Yorker : fact : content: "
THE GOOD BOOK BUSINESS
Why publishers love the Bible.
by DANIEL RADOSH
Issue of 2006-12-18
Posted 2006-12-11"

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Dr. Sanity: DR. SANITY'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO VICTIMHOOD

Dr. Sanity: DR. SANITY'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO VICTIMHOOD: "Becoming a victim --as we all have learned from famous TV stars, prominent politicians; religions, races, and even nations--is an advantageous state of being in many ways, several of which are:
"

Concurring Opinions: A Guide to Grading Exams

Concurring Opinions: A Guide to Grading Exams: "It's that time of year again. Students have taken their finals, and now it is time to grade them. It is something professors have been looking forward to all semester. Exactness in grading is a well-honed skill, taking considerable expertise and years of practice to master. The purpose of this post is to serve as a guide to young professors about how to perfect their grading skills and as a way for students to learn the mysterious science of how their grades are determined.

Grading begins with the stack of exams, shown in Figure 1 below."

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Reporter Grabs a 6000 Volt Fence - Google Video

Reporter Grabs a 6000 Volt Fence - Google Video: "Funny video of a dumb reporter grabing an electric fence."

33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names - Words - Book of Lists - Canongate Home

33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names - Words - Book of Lists - Canongate Home: "33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names"

Chris's Invincible Super-Blog

Chris's Invincible Super-Blog: "The Hypothetical Adventures of Conan, Part One

Because the answer to pretty much any question that starts with 'What if Conan...' is always the same: somebody would get their ass kicked."

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

United States Patent: 6243451

United States Patent: 6243451:

"United States Patent 6,243,451
Shah , et al. June 5, 2001
Service management access point

Abstract

A flexible service management system creates, provisions, customizes, and restricts service offerings available on an intelligent network. A service creation environment has a schema query, service screen builder, and logic analyzer that cooperate to create a service screen definition. The service screen definition supports graphical user interfaces that interface with a telephony database. The service screen definition is deployed to a service management system within a service definition package, the service management system interfacing with a telephony database storing telephony data for supporting a service. The service screen definition enables a screen interpreter that can reside on a service management access point to communicate and transact data with the telephony database. The screen interpreter interprets the service screen definition to allow and control access to telephony data and to direct provisioning of services to network elements, such as a service control point, that perform service functions according to customized subscription data in the telephony database. The graphical user interface can communicate through the world wide web to allow customer or other data entry operator access to data on a filtered or restricted basis.
Inventors: Shah; Tasvir (Irving, TX), Harrison; Mark A. (Fort Worth, TX), Bilbo; Matthew J. (Bedford, TX)
Assignee: Alcatel USA Sourcing, L.P. (Plano, TX)
Appl. No.: 08/947,693
Filed: October 9, 1997"

United States Patent: 6041325

United States Patent: 6041325:

"United States Patent 6,041,325
Shah , et al. March 21, 2000

System and method for controlling access to a telephony database

Abstract

A flexible service management system creates, provisions, customizes, and restricts service offerings available on an intelligent network. A service creation environment has a schema query, service screen builder, and logic analyzer that cooperate to create a service screen definition. The service screen definition supports graphical user interfaces that interface with a telephony database. The service screen definition is deployed to a service management system within a service definition package, the service management system interfacing with a telephony database storing telephony data for supporting a service. The service screen definition enables a screen interpreter that can reside on a service management access point to communicate and transact data with the telephony database. The screen interpreter interprets the service screen definition to allow and control access to telephony data and to direct provisioning of services to network elements, such as a service control point, that perform service functions according to customized subscription data in the telephony database. The graphical user interface can communicate through the world wide web to allow customer or other data entry operator access to data on a filtered or restricted basis.

Inventors: Shah; Tasvir (Irving, TX), Harrison; Mark A. (Fort Worth, TX), Bilbo; Matthew (Bedford, TX)
Assignee: Alcatel USA Sourcing, L.P. (Plano, TX)
Appl. No.: 08/948,161
Filed: October 9, 1997"

Monday, December 11, 2006

Reason Magazine - South Park Libertarians

Reason Magazine - South Park Libertarians: "Trey Parker and Matt Stone on liberals, conservatives, censorship, and religion."

Mozart's entire musical score now free on Internet | Entertainment | Entertainment News | Reuters.com

Mozart's entire musical score now free on Internet: "LONDON (Reuters) - Mozart's year-long 250th birthday party is ending on a high note with the musical scores of his complete works available from Monday for the first time free on the Internet.

The International Mozart Foundation in Salzburg, Austria has put a scholarly edition of the bound volumes of Mozart's more than 600 works on a Web site.

The site allows visitors to find specific symphonies, arias or even single lines of text from some 24,000 pages of music."

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe: "Map of the Internet"

Saturday, December 09, 2006

myelin: HTTP / XMLRPC debug proxy

myelin: HTTP / XMLRPC debug proxy: "If you're doing XML-RPC in Python, you have little requirement for debugging tools because it handles exceptions and all that very nicely and you can just dump debugging stuff to the console.

However, if you're doing XML-RPC in PHP, you'll get all screwed up if you don't have some way of seeing what's going on. Whenever your script gets a warning or fails to compile, the error goes to the browser rather than the log file, which is guaranteed to kill the XML parser at the calling end of the link.

This little script is one solution to this problem. It's based on the simple proxy in the Medusa tutorial (that's the asynch socket library that Python Community Server uses), and slightly modified to not mangle XML-RPC responses.

Run it on your local machine (or your web server, if you prefer) and point your XMLRPC client at it rather than at the target. It will proxy your requests through and also dump them to the console, so you can see what's going on."

DarwiinRemote is released! (Hirolog)

DarwiinRemote is released! (Hirolog): "# DarwiinRemote is a tiny software which reads data from and sends data to Nintendo Wii Remote

* Inputs
o 3-axis acceleration sensors
o all buttons except power button on/off
* Output
o 4 LEDs
o Force Feedback

# DarwiinRemote allows you to control other applications by using Wii Remote"

Friday, December 08, 2006

Glassy Eyes | Shattering the Eyeglasses Scam

Glassy Eyes | Shattering the Eyeglasses Scam: "It started with a post proclaiming my satisfaction with my new glasses. Eyeglasses I got at an excellent price -- online. It's caused quite a stir, and opened up a whole lot of information that (if the email and comments I've received are true) has saved hundreds of people, thousands of dollars. "

Glassy Eyes | Shattering the Eyeglasses Scam

Glassy Eyes | Shattering the Eyeglasses Scam: "Zenni had a couple of titanium, hingeless frames. I priced them out. I decked them out with AR coating ($4.95 compared to $50+ in the stores), a clip-on sunshade ($3.95 versus $70 in the store) and went to the optional higher-index (thinner) lenses. Total?

$81."

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Gift Card Fraud Rumors and Reality

Gift Card Fraud Rumors and Reality: "Opinion: As gift cards soar in popularity—some $25 billion in gift cards are expected to be sold this holiday season alone—the attempts to use them fraudulently have also soared. "

StorefrontBacktalk - Is The Unredeemed Giftcard About To Go Away?

StorefrontBacktalk - Is The Unredeemed Giftcard About To Go Away?: "A new Web giftcard exchange could shake up the giftcard space, with cards selling to consumers for less than face-value and retailers getting the gift that keeps on giving: heretofore unavailable data on who is using these cards.

Trying to address the hundreds of millions of dollars lost each year in giftcards that are never redeemed, a Fresno, California, company has created a Web giftcard exchange with a difference. The difference from consumers selling their unused cards on Ebay? The site is selling valid giftcards for less than the card's face value, which could have a significant impact on retail giftcard sales.

PlasticJungle.com's CEO said the firm plans on partnering with major retailers, to help them reduce accounting losses from unredeemed giftcards."

Welcome to Gorilla Gutters

Welcome to Gorilla Gutters: "GORILLA GUTTERS
PROFESSIONAL GUTTER
CLEANING & REPAIR"

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Geek to Live: Make your own font - Lifehacker

Geek to Live: Make your own font - Lifehacker: "Ever since we posted about Fontifier, a webapp that creates a TrueType font from your handwriting, I thought the nifty idea was almost too good to be true. Turns out that Fontifier delivers exactly what it promises. Knowing absolutely ZERO about fonts and typography, I was able to hand-draw, correct and create my own installable system font for use in digital images and documents in an afternoon with Fontifier."

Christmas Quiz

Christmas Quiz: "CHRISTMAS QUIZ PAGE"

Free Childrens' PowerPoint Lessons

Free Childrens' PowerPoint Lessons: "Welcome to the Lessons of Love children’s series as provided with love by the church of Christ in Carbondale, Illinois. These lessons and illustrations were created using paper flip charts and colored markers. You can print these out and use as regular flip charts. Print the illustrations on one side of the paper and the notes on the other. You can also simply present them from your computer."

LifeWay: Biblical Solutions for Life

LifeWay: Biblical Solutions for Life: "LifeTrak Bible Study Outlines
LifeTrak 4.1 Bible Studies for Younger Youth
LifeTrak 4.1 Bible Studies for Older Youth"

LifeWay: Biblical Solutions for Life

LifeWay: Biblical Solutions for Life: "Student Bible Studies for Life Podcast

Student BSFL PodcastNow you have a new audio companion to help you as you prepare for your Sunday School & small group lessons! Introducing the Student Bible Studies for Life Podcast! This new leader preparation tool will help you as you use the new student Bible Studies for Life Leader Guides - whether you are using Life Focus, Life2, or LifeFX. Each week helpful insights will help you and your teachers be prepared for the week ahead!"

LifeWay: Curriculum Guide

LifeWay: Curriculum Guide: "Student Bible Studies for Life
2006-2007 Study Themes and Bible Areas"

LifeWay: Curriculum Guide

LifeWay: Curriculum Guide: "Children's Bible Teaching for Kids
2006-2007 Study Themes and Bible Areas"

The Japanese Wii Safety Manual is Crazy - Gizmodo

The Japanese Wii Safety Manual is Crazy - Gizmodo: "The Japanese Wii Safety Manual is Crazy"

IdeaChannel.tv

IdeaChannel.tv: "Free To Choose
In honor of Milton Friedman, we are streaming the ground-breaking Free to Choose series as it originally aired in 1980 as well as an updated 1990 version. Also watch for a biography, 'The Power of Choice' which will air Monday, January 29 on PBS. This date has also been declared as Milton Friedman Day."

The Simple Dollar » 30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows

The Simple Dollar » 30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows: "What follows is a list of thirty pieces of software that are the cream of the crop of open source software for Windows. Not only is every piece of it free, almost all of them directly replace expensive software packages."

Monday, December 04, 2006

The Online Photographer: $10 Digital Camera—How Do They Do It?!

The Online Photographer: $10 Digital Camera—How Do They Do It?!: "So Walgreens is selling a digital camera for $10—I kid you not. It's not a recyclable camera you have to turn in to get the photos out. Just plug it into the USB port in your computer, download the photos, and go out and make more. It's barely the size of the box of pocket matches. Irresistible! I bought four of them."

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Monks and Choirs of Kiev Pechersk Lavra: Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church

Monks and Choirs of Kiev Pechersk Lavra: Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church: "
Monks and Choirs of Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church

Total time: 73:45
Release date: 10/20/03

Part of these collections: Choral, Eastern Voices, Ukraine.

Location of artist: Kiev, Ukraine.

Play entire album: hifi lofi"

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Musopen.com: About

Musopen.com: About: "Musopen is a community driven, online music repository started by a music and economics college student named Aaron Dunn.

This site takes music that is in the public domain, meaning a work that belongs to the community, and has it recorded by individuals and college/community orchestras throughout the United States and stored online so it can be accessed for free through this website."

panopticist: A Screaming Comes Across the Screen

panopticist: A Screaming Comes Across the Screen: "The video below is a compilation of dozens of Wilhelms from the last half-century."

The Wilhelm Scream

The Wilhelm Scream: "One sound effect that has found a following with many sound editors and observant movie fans is a distinctive scream named Wilhelm."

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

LiveScience.com - Study Reveals How Magic Works

LiveScience.com - Study Reveals How Magic Works: "Scientists are figuring out how magicians fool our brains in research that also helps uncover how our mind actually works.

A great deal of what scientists now understand about how the human visual system works stems from research into our susceptibility to optical illusions.

'It made sense to look at magicians to advance knowledge of human cognition, since magicians have been working on figuring out how certain principles of psychology work for hundreds of years,' said researcher Gustav Kuhn at the University of Durham in England, a cognitive psychologist who has also performed magic the past couple decades.

'Magicians really have this ability to distort your perceptions, to get people to perceive things that never happened, just like a visual illusion,' he added."

Monday, November 27, 2006

Women talk three times as much as men, says study | the Daily Mail

Women talk three times as much as men, says study | the Daily Mail: "It is something one half of the population has long suspected - and the other half always vocally denied."

Under The Sun: Top 20 replies by Programmers to Testers when their programs don't work

Under The Sun: Top 20 replies by Programmers to Testers when their programs don't work:

"20. 'That's weird...'
19. 'It's never done that before.'
18. 'It worked yesterday.'
17. 'How is that possible?'
16. 'It must be a hardware problem.'
15. 'What did you type in wrong to get it to crash?'
14. 'There is something funky in your data.'
13. 'I haven't touched that module in weeks!'
12. 'You must have the wrong version.'
11. 'It's just some unlucky coincidence.'
10. 'I can't test everything!'
9. 'THIS can't be the source of THAT.'
8. 'It works, but it hasn't been tested.'
7. 'Somebody must have changed my code.'
6. 'Did you check for a virus on your system?'
5. 'Even though it doesn't work, how does it feel?
4. 'You can't use that version on your system.'
3. 'Why do you want to do it that way?'
2. 'Where were you when the program blew up?'
1. 'It works on my machine'"

Instapundit.com -

Instapundit.com -: "WHY DOES FLU SPREAD IN THE WINTER?

In a paper scheduled for publication next month in the journal Epidemiology and Infection, a Harvard University-led team proposes that a vitamin D deficiency caused by inadequate winter sun exposure may predispose people to infection.

If this theory proves correct, it would not only solve a long-standing mystery, but could also have major public health consequences.

Influenza kills an average 36,000 people in the U.S. each winter, mostly the very old and very young. If scientists could pinpoint the secret behind its seasonal recurrence and somehow alter it, 'the potential impact would be far greater than the current influenza vaccine,' says Dowell. . . . In their new paper, which draws together strands from more than seven decades of vitamin and flu research, Cannell and his colleagues argue that vitamin D stimulates production of a natural infection-fighting substance in the body called cathelicidin.

Although cathelicidin has yet to be studied directly on influenza, recent research has shown that it attacks a variety of fungi, viruses, and bacteria - including the bug that causes tuberculosis, researchers reported last March in Science."

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Science & Religion Series TTBOOK

Science & Religion Series TTBOOK:
"Electrons to Enlightenment:

The Big Questions:
1 Science or religion?
2 Are We Alone in the Universe?
3 What Does God Look Like?
4 Do You Believe in Evolution?
5 What's Your First Memory of God?

EXCERPTS:
from interviews with TTBOOK Executive Producer Steve Paulson (Templeton/Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science & Religion)

E.O. Wilson
Francis Collins
Richard Dawkins
Karen Armstrong
Michael Ruse
Ursula Goodenough
Sam Harris"

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Oracle SQL

Oracle SQL: "
* Constraints:
o Deferring Constraint Checking
o Constraint Violations

* Triggers:
o Basic Trigger Syntax
o Trigger Example
o Displaying Trigger Definition Errors
o Viewing Defined Triggers
o Dropping Triggers
o Disabling Triggers
o Aborting Triggers with Error
o Mutating Table Errors

This document was written originally by Yu-May Chang and Jeff Ullman for CS145..."

Using Oracle PL/SQL

Using Oracle PL/SQL: "
* Basic Structure of PL/SQL
* Variables and Types
* Simple PL/SQL Programs
* Control Flow in PL/SQL
* Cursors
* Procedures
* Discovering Errors
* Printing Variables

This document was written originally by Yu-May Chang and Jeff Ullman for CS145....
"

Interactivate: Tessellate!

Interactivate: Tessellate!: "Tessellate!
Shodor > Interactivate > Activities > Tessellate!"

Friday, November 24, 2006

Re: database connection pooling from mod_python app

Re: database connection pooling from mod_python app:

"1. Reused Transaction vs Connection Pool Leaks

It is critical that a persistent connection's transaction is *always*
completed - either with commit or rollback. If you forget to do this
then database operations during the next request that the process
handles will use the same transaction ... which could be disasterous.

A connection pool will only give out a connection that is 'closed' and,
typically, rollback() is called by the pool manager as a connection is
returned. This avoids the problem of transactions spanning multiple
requests. A common problem when using connection pools are connection
leaks - a connection is not closed and hence is never returned to the
pool - but IMHO this is less serious. I would rather see an application
hang waiting for a connection to become available than have corrupt data.

The reused transaction and connection leak problems are both programming
errors (use a finally block to avoid the problem) but it is easier to
spot a connection pool leak - set the maximum pool size to a low number
and hammer the application. You'll soon find out if there are any
problems . Add some logging to the pool implementation to record who
opens and closes connection and you can easily find offending code that
forgets to call close().

2. Apache forking

As Ian mentions, Apache creates multiple processes to handle requests. A
default installation of Apache 1.x on Debian has a MaxClients of 150,
i.e. 150 processes. If each one of those processes maintains a
persistent connection you can easily hit your database server's
connection limit. 150 is a *lot* of connections to keep open anyway but
many requests will not even need database access, i.e. images, CSS,
JavaScript etc.

Perhaps you've tuned your Apache config and set MaxClients to something
more approriate, 30 for instance. Even then, it's likely that the number
of simultaneous connections that are required is much lower than 30.

Matt Goodall, Pollenation Internet Ltd
w: http://www.pollenation.net
"

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Instapundit.com -

Instapundit.com -: "And here's my recipe for roast Thanksgiving lamb.

1 semi-boneless leg of lamb (about 8 pounds)
2 cups merlot
1 cup each worcestershire and teriyaki
2 cloves garlic, crushed (more is better!)
1tbsp sugar
2 oz. olive oil
rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper to taste
Disposable aluminum roasting pan.

Mix merlot, worcestershire, and teriyaki, plus sugar, and marinate, preferably overnight. Heat a covered gas grill to high temperature on one side, low on the other.

Rub the lamb with olive oil, garlic and other spices. Place the roasting pan on the 'low heat' side. Place the lamb on the 'high heat' side of the grill and sear; rotate until all sides are browned. Move to the roasting pan, and turn the 'high' side down to low as well. Close the grill cover and cook. If the lamb seems to be browning too much, cover with aluminum foil.

Cook until a meat thermometer inserted all the way to the center reads 140-145 degrees. (Don't overcook, or the lamb will be dry and tasteless; the outside can be pretty crispy, but the inside should be rare). Remove, let cool for a few minutes, and serve. Juices will make an excellent lamb gravy, especially if you add more merlot."

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

nemo 33 : LEARN TO DIVE AT NEMO33.

nemo 33 : LEARN TO DIVE AT NEMO33.: "Far from quarries and pools with poor hygiene, NEMO33
offers maximum security and an incomparable learning comfort :

*
a crystal clear, drinkable spring water
*
an exquisitely heated water at 30°C, with almost no chlorine smell
*
a complete visibility down to 33m
*
a pool with different depth levels to learn and progress step by step"

Friday, November 17, 2006

ArtRage 2

ArtRage 2: "This is the homepage for ArtRage, the easy to use, stylish painting package that lets you get painting from the moment you open it up. You can paint with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle glitter, and more. You can paint with gold leaf, silver foil, and other metallic colors. You can even load in your photos as Tracing Images to help you recreate them as paintings."

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Sunday, November 12, 2006

31 Wheel Roller Suit - BREAK.com

31 Wheel Roller Suit - BREAK.com: "11/9/2006 - A French guy named Jean-Yves Blondeau has created a plastic suit equipped with 31 wheels which allows him to roll down streets at speeds up to 60 miles per hour while switching positions at any time. This is pretty awesome, it's like break dancing, plus roller blading plus street luge."

russell davies: how to be interesting

russell davies: how to be interesting: "The way to be interesting is to be interested. You’ve got to find what’s interesting in everything, you’ve got to be good at noticing things, you’ve got to be good at listening. If you find people (and things) interesting, they’ll find you interesting.

Interesting people are good at sharing. You can’t be interested in someone who won’t tell you anything. Being good at sharing is not the same as talking and talking and talking. It means you share your ideas, you let people play with them and you’re good at talking about them without having to talk about yourself."

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Top-Rated Water Heaters

Top-Rated Water Heaters: "Gas Storage Water Heaters

This table summarizes the most efficient available products. For more information on specific models and their features, see the GAMA database (produced by the Gas Appliance Manufacturer's Association)"

ConsumerReports.org - Water-heater tips 2/05: Gas hot water heater, electric hot water heater

ConsumerReports.org - Water-heater tips 2/05: Gas hot water heater, electric hot water heater: "Sawing open 18 gas and electric models confirmed that paying a little more for a longer warranty typically buys you a better water heater. Several smart steps can also help you save money, avoid installation hassles, and get enough hot water, even on busy mornings."

Monday, November 06, 2006

The Truth Laid Bear

The Truth Laid Bear: "On Election Day, the latest news and results will be posted here."

Saturday, November 04, 2006

The Dilbert Blog: Affirmations

The Dilbert Blog: Affirmations: "There’s a book called The Luck Factor, in which researcher Richard Wiseman describes studying people who considered themselves lucky, to see if they had any special powers along the lines of ESP. It turns out that they don’t. But he did discover that people who expect luck have a more powerful ability to notice opportunities in their environment. Optimistic people’s field of perception is literally greater. And the best part is he discovered that when you train people to expect luck, their field of perception increases accordingly. I think part of the mystery of affirmations has to do with the fact that it improves your ability to notice an opportunity. And when you do, it seems like a lucky coincidence. In my case, about half of my seemingly miraculous results with affirmations could be traced back to my noticing something important."

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Bizarre Boiling

Bizarre Boiling: "Watching liquids boil in low gravity is an out-of-this-world experience. It has plenty of entertainment value, but it's teaching scientists some important physics lessons, too."

Monday, October 30, 2006

Coke and Mentos Fountain at EepyBird.com

Coke and Mentos Fountain at EepyBird.com: "Thanks to The Coca-Cola Company and Mentos for helping make this video possible. Be sure to visit Coke.com to find out about our Poetry in Motion video challenge!"

The Secret Life Of Machines Home Page

The Secret Life Of Machines Home Page: "Just how does a video recorder work? And how about fax machines, cars, washing machines, electric light, telephones, vacuum cleaners, and refrigerators? You'll find the answers here. This site is designed as a companion to the TV series 'The Secret Life Of Machines' written by Tim Hunkin, and presented by Tim Hunkin and Rex Garrod."

Friday, October 27, 2006

Botnet Command and Control - Raw Executable Code

Botnet Command and Control - Raw Executable Code: "This shows one of the simplest spreading mechanisms bots use: raw executable code included in a simple field (in this case, the topic of a channel). Once connected, the victim's computer would then download this code and run it."

830! How a carpenter got the highest Scrabble score ever. - By Stefan Fatsis - Slate Magazine

830! How a carpenter got the highest Scrabble score ever. - By Stefan Fatsis - Slate Magazine: "On Oct. 12, in the basement of a Unitarian church on the town green in Lexington, Mass., a carpenter named Michael Cresta scored 830 points in a game of Scrabble. His opponent, Wayne Yorra, who works at a supermarket deli counter, totaled 490 points. The two men set three records for sanctioned Scrabble in North America: the most points in a game by one player (830), the most total points in a game (1,320), and the most points on a single turn (365, for Cresta's play of QUIXOTRY)."

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

'I didn't want to run companies' | Technology | Guardian Unlimited Technology

'I didn't want to run companies' | Technology | Guardian Unlimited Technology: "Apple's co-founder came to the company through a series of 'little accidents' and insists that he remains an engineer at heart

Interview by Bobbie Johnson
Thursday October 26, 2006
The Guardian

Technology Guardian: The heart of the new book is Apple and how you started the company.

Steve Wozniak: I think the early history - how the hell did you start this whole, basically, industry, this business, this company with absolutely nothing being so young. Just a bunch of ideas, where did the skills come from - how did it happen is just an amazing story."

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Northwestern Infolab - Projects - News At Seven

Northwestern Infolab - Projects - News At Seven: "News At Seven is a system that automatically generates a virtual news show. Totally autonomous, it collects, parses, edits and organizes news stories and then passes the formatted content to an artificial anchor for presentation. Using the resources present on the web, the system goes beyond the straight text of the news stories to also retrieve relevant images and blogs with commentary on the topics to be presented."

Monday, October 23, 2006

"It's for you"

"It's for you": "This cute Coke ad's been out for almost a month now, but since I still haven't gotten tired of it, I thought I'd share it with the folks out there who aren't blessed with the wonders of Chinese TV. Through the magic of YouTube, then, here is 'Ringtone':

This is another in a series of Coke ads starring Wilbur Pan (潘玮柏) and Angela Chang (张韶涵). Here's an earlier spot, which, much like the S.H.E. World of Warcraft ads (endings 1, 2, 3), features Coke-stealing hijinks in a virtual environment."

Sunday, October 22, 2006

eatingchinese.org :: View topic - Making Jian Bing -- YouTube videos

eatingchinese.org :: View topic - Making Jian Bing -- YouTube videos: "Here's a couple of nice videos of two different styles of jian bing (a.k.a. 'dan bing') beign made by streetside vendors, posted by 'sunnata' on YouTube. The 'Northern Style' jian bing is very similar to those that I enjoyed near Tongji University in Shanghai recently.
"

The Day That Nothing Happened

The Day That Nothing Happened: "The Wal-Mart in the basement of my building sells live frogs in a big aquarium, for eating. I don't know what surprised me more when I moved here - the frogs, or the Wal-Mart. Our favorite intergalactic retailer doesn't mess around when it comes to creating 'capitalism with Chinese characteristics', as a group of Kentucky tourists hunting fruitlessly for American cheese in the dairy aisle found to their chagrin the other day. The company knows its market; in addition to the frogs there are live turtles (plastic bar code tags threaded through little holes in their shells), a special hot Peking duck stand, endless noodles and only a small selection of beer and spirits, though you are welcome to down a big shot of Chivas regal from the sampling booth as you shop. Chinese "

YouTube - Dan Bing - Southern Style

YouTube - Dan Bing - Southern Style: "Slightly different from its Northern cousin. This egg pancake (dan bing) was an important part of my diet while living in Shanghai. "

The Daily WTF - Table Scan Hell

The Daily WTF - Table Scan Hell:


"Re: Table Scan Hell
by nonDev


Fred:

db2:

Nick:
[Obvious joke about mysql not being a real database]
[Lame recommendation to try postgresql, oracle, sqlite, etc]

[obligatory varchar2 dig]

[varchar2 retort]
[general, unrelated stab at the uselessness of VB, in any situation, and how solves all my problems]
"

The Logic of Collective Action

The Logic of Collective Action: "Special Interests and Economic Policy
There are a lot of government policies, like airline bailouts, that from an economic perspective don't make any sense at all. Politicians have an incentive to keep the economy strong as incumbents are reelected at a much higher rate during booms than busts. So why do so many government policies make such little economic sense?

The best answer I've seen to this question comes from a book that is almost 40 years old. The Logic of Collective Action by Mancur Olson explains why some groups are able to have a larger influence on government policy than others. I'll give a brief outline of The Logic of Collective Action and show how we can use the results of the book to explain economic policy decisions."

Boost socket performance on Linux

Boost socket performance on Linux:
"Four ways to speed up your network applications.

The Sockets API lets you develop client and server applications that can communicate across a local network or across the world via the Internet. Like any API, you can use the Sockets API in ways that promote high performance -- or inhibit it. This article explores four ways to use the Sockets API to squeeze the greatest performance out your application and to tune the GNU/Linux® environment to achieve the best results."

Saturday, October 21, 2006

The truth about that one red paper clip

The truth about that one red paper clip: "Kyle traded his way up through a fish pen, a Coleman stove, a generator, a snowmobile, a van, one year's free rent in Phoenix, an afternoon with rock star Alice Cooper, and finally to the house, one year later.

That sounds impressive, but was it worth the time and trouble? The answer is yes, but not for the reasons we might think."

Friday, October 20, 2006

Take My Wallet, Please

Take My Wallet, Please: "What's a classic ploy?
A pickpocket squirts mustard on you unawares. He approaches you, points at the stain and starts to clean it. While he distracts you with one hand, he robs you with his free hand."

$.05 Toy Hovercraft / Helicopter

$.05 Toy Hovercraft / Helicopter: "This instructable will show you how to make a simple toy hovercraft for small children. It is suitable for daycare projects, science projects (aerodynamics and gyroscopes) as well as general fun. This is a project can be built by small children since it requires no cutting."

Fifteen Minute, Self-propelled hovercraft

Fifteen Minute, Self-propelled hovercraft: "This instructable coves how to build a hovercraft out of a foam tray, cardboard, and some other household items."

Thursday, October 19, 2006

fish oil

Clayton Cramer's BLOG: "We are suffering, he believes, from widespread diseases of deficiency. Just as vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy, deficiency in the essential fats the brain needs and the nutrients needed to metabolise those fats is causing of a host of mental problems from depression to aggression. Not all experts agree, but if he is right, the consequences are as serious as they could be. The pandemic of violence in western societies may be related to what we eat or fail to eat. Junk food may not only be making us sick, but mad and bad too."

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

The Corner on National Review Online

The Corner on National Review Online: "U.S. Math Scores [John Derbyshire]
Math-teaching anecdote from chez Derb. Nellie is doing factorization of quadratic forms—factorizing, for example, 2x^2+5x-3 into (2x-1)(x+3). She had done all the homework exercises, but had a test next day, so came up to my study to beg me to write out some more exercises she might try. "

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Information

Information: "Gawker is an application for Mac OS X that creates time-lapse movies using a webcam. Images from your camera can be shared, allowing other users to record your image stream. Streams can also be combined to create a time-lapse movie with up to four locations side-by-side."

Hot Library Smut

Hot Library Smut: "Yesterday I came across a truly gorgeous book of photographs by Candida Höfer titled, Libraries, a title which pretty much says it all, because that is just exactly what it is, one rich, sumptuous, photo of a library interior after another. It’s like porn for book nerds. Seriously. They are gorgeous photos, nearly all without visitors and just begging to be entered. (ha. sorry.)

See below for 14 examples which I particularly liked, but keep in mind these 500px wide version can’t really compete with the big, glossy, real thing."

Forbidden Crypts Of Haunted Music!

Forbidden Crypts Of Haunted Music!: "Welcome to the Forbidden Crypts Of Haunted Music! I Am Making Each
Album Into A Listening Sound Page! I Hope You Enjoy Listening To Them As Much As I Did Recording Them! For Those Of You Who Think The Sound Files Have Too Many
Pops And Clicks, GOOD - That's The Way I Meant Them To Sound. Just Like You Are Listening To The Albums Yourself!"

Sunday, October 15, 2006

RAND | Monograph/Reports | A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates

RAND | Monograph/Reports | A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates: "Not long after research began at RAND in 1946, the need arose for random numbers that could be used to solve problems of various kinds of experimental probability procedures. These applications, called Monte Carlo methods, required a large supply of random digits and normal deviates of high quality, and the tables presented here were produced to meet those requirements.This book was a product of RAND's pioneering work in computing, as well a testament to the patience and persistence of researchers in the early days of RAND. The tables of random numbers in this book have become a standard reference in engineering and econometrics textbooks and have been widely used in gaming and simulations that employ Monte Carlo trials. Still the largest published source of random digits and normal deviates, the work is routinely used by statisticians, physicists, polltakers, market analysts, lottery administrators, and quality control engineers."

Friday, October 13, 2006

The Nietzsche Family Circus

The Nietzsche Family Circus: "The Nietzsche Family Circus pairs a randomized Family Circus cartoon with a randomized Friedrich Nietzsche quote. "

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Gnese - Comic Book DS

Gnese - Comic Book DS: "Comic Book DS is a program making it possible to read your Comic Books on your Nintendo DS."

vNES - Virtual Nintendo Entertainment System with 395 Games

vNES
Here, you can play NES Games in your browser, using Java Applet Technology. All you need is Java 1.5.0 or higher. If you need to upgrade, click here. Before you begin, please make sure you understand the controls. The controller at top will always remain there, for reference. We are not affiliated with Nintendo in any way. This is an emulator. It was built so we would have something to do.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Online Pirate Translator - Pirate Monkeyness

Online Pirate Translator - Pirate Monkeyness: "This here be an English t' Pirate translator. Jus' enter some English in the top, then skewer the 'Translate' button tah get the Pirate version. If ye're wantin' to know what's behind it, 'tis usin' some Javascript to hit a Perl script that does the translatin'. In other words, it's usin' some of that shiney, new AJAX stuff to get this done."

Saturday, October 07, 2006

Ig Nobel prizes hail 'digital rectal massage' - opinion - 06 October 2006 - New Scientist

Ig Nobel prizes hail 'digital rectal massage' - opinion - 06 October 2006 - New Scientist: "Runaway electrical impulses in the vagus nerve cause intractable hiccups, so Fesmire attempted to block them by stimulating the nerve. Gagging, tongue pulling, sinus massage and pressing the eyeball to stimulate the vagus all failed to stop the hiccups. Then he remembered reading about a case in which digital rectal massage – inserting a finger into a patient’s anus – had slowed a racing heartbeat, an effect similar to runaway hiccups."

The Best Time to Buy Everything (Deal of the Day: Personal Finance) | SmartMoney.com

The Best Time to Buy Everything (Deal of the Day: Personal Finance) | SmartMoney.com: "We talked to the experts, and found the best time to buy everything from wine to wedding dresses."

Dead Bachelors in Remote China Still Find Wives - New York Times

Dead Bachelors in Remote China Still Find Wives - New York Times: "The rural folk custom, startling to Western sensibilities, is known as minghun, or afterlife marriage. Scholars who have studied it say it is rooted in the Chinese form of ancestor worship, which holds that people continue to exist after death and that the living are obligated to tend to their wants — or risk the consequences. Traditional Chinese beliefs also hold that an unmarried life is incomplete, which is why some parents worry that an unmarried dead son may be an unhappy one."

Friday, October 06, 2006

PODZINGER

PODZINGER: "PODZINGER unleashes the content within audio and video.
To find the podcast you want, don't just search for it ... ZING IT!"

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Morse Resource

Morse Resource: "MorseResource - Tools to help learn or improve your Morse code skills.

Welcome Makers! Thanks to the Make blog for the link

Morse code is fun. It's fun to know, fun to use, and has roots in the earliest days of radio. Copying and sending morse code are skills that require practice. There are a lot of books, programs, and tapes that can help you learn Morse Code, but I wanted a way to practice copying code anywhere. I came up with the idea of morse code podcasts, and that was the initial motivation for this web site.

In the process of building this site, I wrote a page that let me test the morse code generation, and that became the Morse Code generator page that's available."

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The Austin Chronicle Screens: 'Lost Ark,' Resurrected: Three kids on a seven-year shoot produce one heck of an homage

The Austin Chronicle Screens: 'Lost Ark,' Resurrected: Three kids on a seven-year shoot produce one heck of an homage:

"Last February, Eric Zala received a signed letter from Steven Spielberg.

'Dear Eric,' it began. 'Wanted to write and let you know how impressed I was with your very loving and detailed tribute to our Raiders of the Lost Ark.'"

The Austin Chronicle Screens: 'Lost Ark,' Resurrected: Three kids on a seven-year shoot produce one heck of an homage

The Austin Chronicle Screens: 'Lost Ark,' Resurrected: Three kids on a seven-year shoot produce one heck of an homage:

"Last February, Eric Zala received a signed letter from Steven Spielberg.

'Dear Eric,' it began. 'Wanted to write and let you know how impressed I was with your very loving and detailed tribute to our Raiders of the Lost Ark.'"

Monday, September 25, 2006

USB webcam driver for Mac OS X

USB webcam driver for Mac OS X

United Nuclear - Neodymium magnets

United Nuclear - Neodymium magnets: "THESE ARE ABSOLUTELY NOT TOYS AND CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS! KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN! - THESE CAN EASILY CRUSH FINGERS! WE CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR INJURY OR DAMAGE CAUSED BY THESE POWERFUL MAGNETS.

If you really need unbelievably powerful magnets, here they are.
Uses include magnetic steering of nuclear particles in accelerators, levitation devices, magnetic beam amplifiers, scrap iron separators, etc.
Beware - you must think ahead when moving these magnets.
If carrying one into another room, carefully plan the route you will be taking. Computers & monitors will be affected in an entire room. Loose metallic objects and other magnets may become airborne and fly considerable distances - and at great speed - to attach themselves to this magnet. If you get caught in between the two, you can get injured.
Two of these magnets close together can create an almost unbelievable magnetic field that can be very dangerous. Of all the unique items we offer for sale, we consider these items the most dangerous of all. Our normal packing & shipping personnel refuse to package these magnets - our engineers have to do it. This is no joke and we cannot stress it strongly enough - that you must be extremely careful - and know what you're doing with these magnets.
Take Note: Two Super magnets can very easily get out of control and break fingers and even your arm if opposing poles fly at each other. If working with multiple Supermagnets, always handle one magnet at a time, secure it, then proceed to the next magnet."

United Nuclear - Scientific Supplies

United Nuclear - Scientific Supplies: "Scientific Equipment & Supplies "

Friday, September 22, 2006

Royal Society Publishing

Royal Society Publishing: "Nearly three and a half centuries of scientific study and achievement is now available online in the Royal Society Journals Digital Archive following its official launch this week. This is the longest-running and arguably most influential journal archive in Science, including all the back articles of both Philosophical Transactions and Proceedings.

For the first time the Archive provides online access to all journal content, from Volume One, Issue One in March 1665 until the latest modern research published today ahead of print. And until December the archive is freely available to anyone on the internet to explore.

Spanning nearly 350 years of continuous publishing, the archive of nearly 60,000 articles includes ground-breaking research and discovery from many renowned scientists including: Bohr, Boyle, Bragg, Cajal, Cavendish, Chandrasekhar, Crick, Dalton, Darwin, Davy, Dirac, Faraday, Fermi, Fleming, Florey, Fox Talbot, Franklin (pictured), Halley, Hawking, Heisenberg, Herschel, Hodgkin, Hooke, Huxley, Joule, Kelvin, Krebs, Liebnitz, Linnaeus, Lister, Mantell, Marconi, Maxwell, Newton, Pauling, Pavlov, Pepys, Priestley, Raman, Rutherford, Schrodinger, Turing, van Leeuwenhoek, Volta, Watt, Wren, and many, many more influential science thinkers up to the present day."

Oracle Admin Scripts

Oracle Admin Scripts: "The following scripts and tools are available for free download."

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Puzzle Pirates - View Thread - Create a Puzzle Pirates Commercial video! Winners announced!

Puzzle Pirates - View Thread - Create a Puzzle Pirates Commercial video! Winners announced!: "An amazing number of entries, and again such skill! We so much enjoyed watching these and judging them - whether it was screenshots or animation or live action or lego, you did brilliantly! This was judged by the OceanMasters, by the Ringers in the office, and by the dashing Captain Cleaver himself. "

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

MOO | Share your contact info and your flickr photos

MOO | Share your contact info and your flickr photos: "# Choose your favourite Flickr pics
# Make 100 different cards for $19.99
# Add your personal details on the back
# Share with friends!"

How to talk like a pirate

How to talk like a pirate

The Master Key - Chapter 1.

The Master Key - Chapter 1.: "'Electricity,' said the old gentleman, sagely, 'is destined to become the motive power of the world. The future advance of civilization will be along electrical lines. Our boy may become a great inventor and astonish the world with his wonderful creations.'

'And in the meantime,' said the mother, despairingly, 'we shall all be electrocuted, or the house burned down by crossed wires, or we shall be blown into eternity by an explosion of chemicals!'"

Saturday, September 16, 2006

DailyLit

DailyLit: "Too busy for books? Read them by e-mail."

List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock"

List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "List of exclamations used by Captain Haddock"

another zit on the arse of the universe from warrenelliscom

warrenelliscom: "Second Life Sketches

Below, a random person I spotted in Transylvania two minutes after the grid went back up earlier today. In her eyes, you can make out part of an error message, denoting that a graphic or script from her customised “avatar” or representative form in Second Life is missing. It means that the system, that’s been crashing and hiccuping constantly since an upgrade on Wednesday, is failing to find and/or process the entirety of her body. Elsewhere, I’ve seen people wearing that message over swathes of their skin, projected there by the system.

The girl with error-message eyes."

Thursday, September 14, 2006

The top 10 classical music downloads on iTunes. By Marc Geelhoed - Slate Magazine

The top 10 classical music downloads on iTunes. By Marc Geelhoed - Slate Magazine: "The top 10 best-selling classical 'songs' on iTunes show exactly this split between calm and stormy. The list also shows an unhealthy obsession with Andrea Bocelli,"

Ryan Tomayko - Top.app

Ryan Tomayko - Top.app: "One thing that's always bothered me about MacOS X's Terminal.app is that you can't really run multiple applications."

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

YouTube - Ellam Inba Mayam - Dance Fever

YouTube - Ellam Inba Mayam - Dance Fever: "'Solla Solla Enna Perumai' - from the 1981 film."

Bitsum Technologies Wiki - WRT54G5 CFE

Bitsum Technologies Wiki - WRT54G5 CFE: "This is a project started by Jeremy Collake (aka db90h) to flash a Vxworks based WRT54G/GS v5-v6 with third party linux firmware without the use of JTAG or serial cables. After considerable research and time, this has been accomplished!"

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The Chronicle: 9/15/2006: A Pop Quiz for Constitution Day

The Chronicle: 9/15/2006: A Pop Quiz for Constitution Day: "In late 2004, Congress passed a law (118 Statute 2809, 334-45 [§ 111]) mandating that 'each educational institution that receives federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program on the United States Constitution on September 17 of such year for the students served by the educational institution.' Sadly hundreds, if not thousands, of American institutions of higher education failed to stage Constitution Day events in 2005, the first year of mandated observance — thereby imperiling their federal subsidies. In an effort to help colleges and universities comply with federal law, we have prepared the following quiz that can be distributed to professors, administrators, and students alike."

Monday, September 11, 2006

WFMU's Beware of the Blog: Japanese Surf Versions of Classical Themes (MP3s)

WFMU's Beware of the Blog: Japanese Surf Versions of Classical Themes (MP3s): "Here's the great Japanese guitarist Takeshi Terauchi with his band The Bunnys adding the fuzz to eleven well known classical themes from his LP, Let's Go Classics."

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Face Recognition Abilities - Self Evaluation

Face Recognition Abilities - Self Evaluation: "How good is my face recognition?

In order to help you assess whether or not you have face recognition problems, we have two tests available."

Urban Legends Reference Pages: The Unsolvable Math Problem

Urban Legends Reference Pages: The Unsolvable Math Problem:

"Claim: Student mistakes examples of unsolvable math problems for homework assignment and solves them.

Status: True. "

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

The Inflation Calculator

The Inflation Calculator: "
The following form adjusts any given amount of money for inflation, according to the Consumer Price Index, from 1800 to 2005. (And don't use any commas in the numbers...) Enjoy!"

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Make a Video Feedback Screen Saver in Quartz Composer

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Make a Video Feedback Screen Saver in Quartz Composer: "Quartz Composer is an easy to use tool that lets you create amazing digital art, even interactive digital art, without writing a single line of code. You might already have it: Quartz Composer is included as part of developer tools package (Xcode) that comes with Mac OS 10.4 Tiger. In this tutorial, I'll show how to get started with Quartz Composer. No prior programming experience is required. As an example, we'll build a video feedback screen saver that can take input from an iSight camera."

Sunday, September 03, 2006

Flash video and no sound on OSX at fredericiana

Flash video and no sound on OSX at fredericiana:
"Every once in a while though, on Mac OS X it can happen that these Flash video players don’t have sound anymore.

1. open /Applications/Utilities/Audio MIDI Setup
2. check the properties for Built In Output.
3. It might be set to 96KHz. Change it to 44KHz and audio in Flash will return immediately."

(The same might apply to audio input)

debbiesidea.com: Welcome to DebbiesIdea.com

debbiesidea.com: Welcome to DebbiesIdea.com: "Debbie's idea was to fill a simple need: to help a reader decide which book to read first of an unfamiliar author."

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Fake model photography

Fake model photography: "With a very little effort, you can take existing photographs of everyday scenes and make it look like they're actually of miniature models.
It doesn't take much to fool the mind of the viewer, but there are a few basic rules you can follow to help convince your audience that they're looking at a railway set rather than the real world; see the section on picking the right photo at the bottom of this page. You'll need a copy of Photoshop CS or later to follow this tutorial. "

BUILD YOUR OWN AIRPLANE!

BUILD YOUR OWN AIRPLANE!: "This is a design for a business card that I use. The first version was done in 1995, but I still carry them around. It usually gets a good response, although most people don't actually get down and use their glue and scissors. Suits!"

Paul Desmond: A Life Told in Pictures, Music and Memories/Jerry Jazz Musician

Paul Desmond: A Life Told in Pictures, Music and Memories/Jerry Jazz Musician:

"from
Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond
by Doug Ramsey

Doug Ramsey's biography of saxophonist Paul Desmond is a lavish, detailed work of art, filled with photographs, letters, and memories of a complex and frequently inspiring life. Paul Desmond: A Life Told in Pictures, Music and Memories, a Jerry Jazz Musician production published in cooperation with Ramsey and Parkside Publications, features photographs and excerpts from the book, as well as sound samples of Desmond's music."

Thursday, August 31, 2006

: "USB adaptors & DIY antenna = 'Poor Man's WiFi' ?"

: "USB adaptors & DIY antenna = 'Poor Man's WiFi' ?"

Spinner - Axeman's Nest

Spinner - Axeman's Nest: "The spinner is completely homemade, using an old mouse. A cleaner solution would be a microcontroller with a custom firmware and a single sensor, but mouse hack is waaay faster! The starting point is this VHS VCR head drum. When You remove the motor, You have a nice flywheel and a 6mm shaft already mounted on two wonderful ball bearings. "

YouTube - PVC Recorder

YouTube - PVC Recorder: "Here's a HowTo on building a pvc recorder out of cheap parts (pvc pipe and dowel rod) and common tools. "

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Back Talk: Americans Hate their Fabulous Economy

Back Talk: Americans Hate their Fabulous Economy: "For the moment, I'll simply note that I have identified what may be a contributing factor to our unwarranted despair: reporters rarely use charts, and that allows them to wax poetic about the 'jobless recovery,' 'worrisome signs of inflation,' 'record setting deficits,' and other such nonsense."

Monday, August 28, 2006

Boing Boing: HOWTO wash dishes when camping

Boing Boing: HOWTO wash dishes when camping:
"To clean eating implements adequately, Hargreaves proposes a rigorous approach to washing in which backpackers would first fill each of three large bowls or buckets with about 5 liters (1 1/3 gallons) of clean water. Next, add 5 milliliters (1 teaspoon) of detergent to the first container and 10 ml (2 tsp) of 4-percent chlorine bleach (a common commercial preparation) to the second. To wash dishes and utensils, remove most food residues in the first bowl and, in the second, scrub the items until they are visibly clean. A quick rinse in the third bowl removes the odor of the cleaning chemicals...

By comparison, the methods that are currently most popular among expedition companies removed more than 99 percent of bacteria during the first step. But the quick rinses after that step failed to consistently remove remaining bacteria.
"

Cover - Nuclear War Survival Skills FREE BOOK (280 pages) On-Line! Also, Potassium Iodide (Iodine) Anti-Radiation Pill FAQ, sources.

Cover - Nuclear War Survival Skills FREE BOOK (280 pages) On-Line! Also, Potassium Iodide (Iodine) Anti-Radiation Pill FAQ, sources.:"Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition - Cresson H. Kearny"

Easy, Cheap, Animated Cartoon in 10 Minutes

Easy, Cheap, Animated Cartoon in 10 Minutes: "Finally I came up with a very easy and fun way to do animations which can be both expressive, do not require redrawing of the whole character each frame, and allow very easy modification: without messy erasing and without having to use a computer mouse or computer drawing tablet. For this method all you need is a 'dry erase' board ('whiteboard'), a usb camera, a computer, and some free software. "

Digital Wire » Fun Google Search Tips

Digital Wire » Fun Google Search Tips: "the ultimate guide to google"

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Saturday, August 26, 2006

The Most Important C++ Non-Book Publications...Ever

The Most Important C++ Non-Book Publications...Ever:
"In this article, Scott Meyers shares his picks for the five most important non-book publications in the history of C++, along with why he chose them."

Signum sine tinnitu--by Guy Kawasaki: Ten Things to Learn This School Year

Signum sine tinnitu--by Guy Kawasaki: Ten Things to Learn This School Year:
"Ten Things to Learn This School Year

I’m on the campus of UCSB this week at family camp, and it's inspired me to blog about what students should learn in order to prepare for the real world after graduation. This is an opportune time to broach this subject because the school year is about to begin, and careers can still be affected."

Thursday, August 24, 2006

HOPE Number Six

HOPE Number Six:
"Audio from the all of the presentations is now available!

HOPE Number Six was this summer's hacker conference sponsored by 2600 Magazine. Presenters and artists from all nationalities and disciplines participated in this forum. HOPE Number Six covered all aspects of hacking, the community surrounding it, and its effects across the world. For three days, The Hotel Pennsylvania was the nexus of discussion, planning, and activity for hacker ideas, opportunities, and understanding."

BBC NEWS | Health | Tea 'healthier' drink than water

BBC NEWS | Health | Tea 'healthier' drink than water:

"The Tea Council provided funding for the work. Dr Ruxton stressed that the work was independent. "

The Volokh Conspiracy - Google as a Source of Writing Advice:

The Volokh Conspiracy - Google as a Source of Writing Advice::

"[...]
Google to the rescue: Google reported for me 400,000 results for 'what matters is the,' 35,000 for 'what matters are the' (which I think is grammatical, but for reasons I don't want to get into here), and fewer than 1000 for 'what matter are the.' Matter settled."

Squashed Philosophers- Condensed

Squashed Philosophers- Condensed:

"Glyn Hughes'
SQUASHED PHILOSOPHERS
THE books which defined the way The West thinks now...
In their own words... but condensed and abridged into something like readable"

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Dr. Carlson's Science Theater - powered by FeedBurner

Dr. Carlson's Science Theater - powered by FeedBurner: "If you're curious, I am a High School Chemistry and Physics teacher in the Lafayette, IN area. The 'Dr' in my title is not a medical doctor, but I did recieve a Ph.D. in Computational Biochemistry at Caltech in Pasadena, California.

I hope you enjoy the videos and maybe even learn something in the process!"

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Botnet Eavesdropping: Inside the Mocbot (MS06-040) Attack

Botnet Eavesdropping: Inside the Mocbot (MS06-040) Attack: "Stewart, a senior security researcher with LURHQ's Threat Intelligence Group, set up a way to silently spy on the botnet's command-and-control infrastructure, and his findings suggest that for-profit spammers are clearly winning the cat-and-mouse game against entrenched anti-virus providers."

Botnet Eavesdropping: Inside the Mocbot (MS06-040) Attack

Botnet Eavesdropping: Inside the Mocbot (MS06-040) Attack: "When Joe Stewart spotted a variant of the Mocbot Trojan hijacking unpatched Windows machines for use in IRC-controlled botnets, he immediately went to work trying to pinpoint the motive for the attacks."

Welcome to Writely!

Welcome to Writely!:
"Your Documents
· Put your words into Writely quickly and easily.
Create new documents from scratch, upload them
from most popular file formats (including Word), or
e-mail them into Writely in batches.
· Keep them online and edit them from anywhere.
Organize your documents by tags, or click to star
the important ones. You can see at a glance who
last edited a document and when.
· Get them back out just as easily.
Download your documents in batches for safe-
keeping (in HTML), or save them individually in PDF, RTF, ODT or Word format."

Sunday, August 20, 2006

Mind is Moving

Mind is Moving:
"What is a Hexayurt?
A hexayurt is a new design for refugee shelters. The 'hexayurt design pattern' simplifies geodesic dome geometry so that it can be built using standard 4' x 8' sheet goods of whatever kind are appropriate to the task at hand: hexacomb cardboard, plywood, foam. The design has been slightly tested in the real world and stands up very well."

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Joel Johnson: Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work: Unlimited Edition

Joel Johnson: Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work: Unlimited Edition: "Here was a working artist distilling his craft into 22 panels that could be used to teleport across the occasional creative wasteland, yet each example was dashed off with effortless skill."

Joel Johnson: Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work: Unlimited Edition

Joel Johnson: Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work: Unlimited Edition: "Here was a working artist distilling his craft into 22 panels that could be used to teleport across the occasional creative wasteland, yet each example was dashed off with effortless skill."

Network Your Backyard - Popular Science

Network Your Backyard - Popular Science: "Surf the Web from the hammock out back (or the park down the block) with this solar-powered Wi-Fi extender"

Race Car Insanity Test - Amish Donkey

Race Car Insanity Test - Amish Donkey:
"[1] Turn on the Speakers and allow the page to load fully
[2] Stare at the Picture without laughing for 60 seconds
[3] If you start laughing consider yourself legally insane"

Woot: The Community: SanDisk 256 MB MP3/WMA Player with FM Tuner and Voice Recorder

Woot: The Community: SanDisk 256 MB MP3/WMA Player with FM Tuner and Voice Recorder:

"I recommend downloading both user guides:
http://www.sandisk.com/Assets/File/tech/docs/dap-user-guide-v2.0.pdf
and, a more graphical
http://tinyurl.com/js3du
The firmware upgrade is at:
http://www.sandisk.com/Retail/Default.aspx?CatID=1239

When installing the upgrade, the root directory is the player itself on your file tree, (e.g., sdmx1).

Just drop your files/folders onto the player itself - SDMX1 - and fuggadebout the subfolders. "

Thursday, August 17, 2006

How does one write an OCI program? | Oracle FAQ

How does one write an OCI program? | Oracle FAQ: "Look at this very basic sample Oracle OCI8 program:"

Welcome

Welcome: "A Design System for Interactive Fiction
Based on Natural Language"

Bill Watterson's RAREST!

Bill Watterson's RAREST!: "Today's topic isn't clippings, though, it's even scarcer material. 'The Complete Calvin and Hobbes' wasn't completely complete. Most of what you're about to see, you've never seen before."

August 2006 Survey: CIOs Put Out Help-Wanted Sign for Business-Savvy IT Professionals

August 2006 Survey: CIOs Put Out Help-Wanted Sign for Business-Savvy IT Professionals: "Hiring will increase for programmers, systems developers, project managers and business analysts who really understand business."

No Invite Needed For Google Analytics - CyberNet News: Hardware, Downloads, Gadgets...Technology Done Right!

No Invite Needed For Google Analytics - CyberNet News: Hardware, Downloads, Gadgets...Technology Done Right!: "The Google Analytics Blog has announced that you no longer need an invitation to receive the Website statistics tracking for free. Just head on over to the Google Analytics site and login with you Google account. "

No Invite Needed For Google Analytics - CyberNet News: Hardware, Downloads, Gadgets...Technology Done Right!

No Invite Needed For Google Analytics - CyberNet News: Hardware, Downloads, Gadgets...Technology Done Right!: "The Google Analytics Blog has announced that you no longer need an invitation to receive the Website statistics tracking for free. Just head on over to the Google Analytics site and login with you Google account. "

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

USATODAY.com - YouTube fixes stuff during outage

USATODAY.com - YouTube fixes stuff during outage: "A database glitch plunged popular video-sharing website YouTube into darkness for at least five hours Tuesday, leaving millions of users without service.

Company officials did not return phone calls, offering only a brief statement.

'We are experiencing a temporary site outage due to a database-related issue,' said Julie Supan, YouTube's senior marketing director, in a statement at noon PT. 'Our engineering team expects the site to be up and running in the next few hours.'

Keynote Systems, which tracks Internet performance, began fielding calls from YouTube users at 8 a.m.. By 1 p.m., the site had been restored."

MySQL Powering Web 2.0

MySQL Powering Web 2.0: "Leading Web 2.0 sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Habbo Hotel, Linden Labs, CyWorld, Technorati, Facebook, FeedBurner, Feedster, Wikipedia, Digg, LiveJournal, Mixi.jp, SimpleStar, PhotoBucket, 37signals, del.icio.us, Trulia, Neopets, and Zimbra have all selected MySQL to power their explosive growth -- due to the database's speed and ability to easily 'scale-out' on low-cost hardware."

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

The Mad Housers - Emergency Heating Stove

The Mad Housers - Emergency Heating Stove: "The Mad Housers stove is simply and cheaply made, yet puts out a surprising amount of heat. Properly used and maintained, a stove can last for a couple of years or more."

Woot : Winners' Gallery: the Best of Contest 85

Woot : Winners' Gallery: the Best of Contest 85: "d00d aDjUsT yr KAMMM!!! "

YouTube - Funny Tetris Video

YouTube - 陣内智則 テトリス: "面白すぎぃぃ"

Neatorama » Blog Archive » The 25 Most Important Questions in the History of the Universe.

Neatorama » Blog Archive » The 25 Most Important Questions in the History of the Universe.: "Hard questions that matter, like 'can a pregnant woman drive in the carpool lane?' or 'how can I win at that ultra-important-corporate-decision-making- process, rock-paper-scissor?' and of course, 'is turkey a country or a bird first?'."

YouTube - Mountain Dew TV Ad "Master" (extended version)

YouTube - Mountain Dew TV Ad "Master" (extended version): "Learn to Master the Dew in this extended version"

Friday, August 11, 2006

Aviation Videos - bandwidth courtesy of the Alexis Park Inn & Suites

Aviation Videos - bandwidth courtesy of the Alexis Park Inn & Suites: "Over the years we have accumulated many fascinating and educational aviation-related videos. Some depict terrible accidents, while others are just plain cool."

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Old Testament Parenting | Catholic-Pages.com

Old Testament Parenting | Catholic-Pages.com: "Laws of Forbidden Places

Of the beasts of the field, and of the fishes of the sea, and of all foods that are acceptable in my sight you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the hoofed animals, broiled or ground into burgers, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cloven-hoofed animal, plain or with cheese, you may eat, but not in the living room. Of the cereal grains, of the corn and of the wheat and of the oats, and of all the cereals that are of bright color and unknown provenance you may eat, but not in the living room. Of quiescently frozen dessert and of all frozen after-meal treats you may eat, but absolutely not in the living room.

"

PSOUG Morgan's Library Morgan Daniel Oracle SQL PL/SQL

PSOUG Morgan's Library Morgan Daniel Oracle SQL PL/SQL: "Examples and Reference Materials for Oracle 10gR2 Database and Related Technologies"

Oracle Sequences

Oracle Sequences: "Version 10.2"

Star Trek Inspirational Posters

Star Trek Inspirational Posters: "EXPENDABILITY
Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ensign Ricky are beaming down to the planet. Guess who's not coming back."

Graffiti Research Lab » LED Throwies

Graffiti Research Lab » LED Throwies: "LED Throwies are an inexpensive way to add color to any ferromagnetic surface in your neighborhood. A Throwie consists of a lithium battery, a 10mm diffused LED and a rare-earth magnet taped together. Throw it up high and in quantity to impress your friends and city officials."

Musicmatch Jukebox - World's best music player

Musicmatch Jukebox - World's best music player: " The Most Powerful Way to Experience Digital Music
• Play and organize your music collection
• Create custom playlists from your music library
• Burn and rip your own music CDs
• Transfer music to your portable MP3 player and listen anywhere"

ReadyMade: MacGyver Challenge - Altoids Tins

ReadyMade: MacGyver Challenge - Altoids Tins: "But Ken Kirkpatrick, creator of the Altoids Mini Speakers, rocks the hardest."

Juice, the cross-platform podcast receiver.

Juice, the cross-platform podcast receiver.: "Want to listen to internet audio programs but can't when they are scheduled? This program lets you create your own custom online audio anytime, anywhere. Really.

Juice Receiver is Free Software licensed under the GPL.

If you want to listen to podcasts, this program is for you. Juice is the premier podcast receiver, allowing users to capture and listen to podcasts anytime, anywhere. "

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Upside-Down-Ternet

Upside-Down-Ternet: "My neighbours are stealing my wireless internet access. I could encrypt it or alternately I could have fun."

Monday, August 07, 2006

The Cute Side of The Force

Buzz.Pics: "Bilden du ser har vi hittat på det världsomspännande datanätet Internet."

Retro Thing: Home Moviemaking Kit - 1930's

Retro Thing: Home Moviemaking Kit - 1930's: "The vast majority of home movies are shots around the house, vacations, holidays, and the like. Every once in a while amateur movie makers get a bit ambitious and take a shot at making a film with a story. Here is a kit from the 1930's to let a filmmaker do just that.

Hm_kit_02

Inside the box are several complete scripts, special props mentioned in the scripts, title cards, even pre-made animated titles to splice in!"

Honda Worldwide | ASIMO

Honda Worldwide | ASIMO: "New ASIMO
The New ASIMO has made great leaps forward from its predecessor. In fact, the New ASIMO can walk along with you (holding your hand if you wish), and features advanced mobility, to the extent that ASIMO can now move carts and other objects around at will. And, with a newly developed total control system that controls all of ASIMO's functions, ASIMO can autonomously act as a receptionist, or even deliver drinks on a tray. The New ASIMO is also more agile than before, being able to run at 6km/h, and even turn whilst running."

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Even More Mario: Orchestra + Singer Recreate Mario Music in Awesome Ways at TV in Japan

Even More Mario: Orchestra + Singer Recreate Mario Music in Awesome Ways at TV in Japan: "Some time it’s as easy as saying ‘You rock, Japan.’ Seriously, they do."

YMCK Official Web Site

YMCK Official Web Site: "Magical 8bit Plug is a plug-in style software-synthesizer for producing primitive electronic sounds like the old 8bit game consoles. In Macintosh environment, it runs with AU (Audio Units)-supporting applications: ex. Logic, Digital Performer, Garageband. In Windows environment it runs with VSTi supporting applications: ex. Cubase. Most of the software/hardware synthesizers include the most primitive waveform: square wave and pulse wave. But almost none of them include the pseudo-triangle or the low-resolution noise that will most characterize the 8bit sound's unique taste. Magical 8bit Plug will help you producing the old 8bit sounds by providing those unique waveforms."

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Stevey's Drunken Blog Rants

Stevey's Drunken Blog Rants: "I started writing an internal blog at Amazon.com in summer 2004. It wasn't (and isn't) endorsed by Amazon; it's just my personal blog, where I wrote whatever was on my mind, usually at home late at night after a few glasses of wine. I did this for about a year, and wound up with about 50 articles, essays, and unstructured tirades. It was fun. People inside the company knew it was all in fun, and none of us took it very seriously."

Friday, August 04, 2006

So how do you code an AJAX Web page?

So how do you code an AJAX Web page?: "August 03, 2006 (Computerworld) -- This article is excerpted from the soon-to-be-published book AJAX: Creating Web Pages with Asynchronous JavaScript and XML by Edmond Woychowsky, copyright Pearson Education Inc. Reprinted with permission from Pearson Education, all rights reserved. The book is part of the Bruce Perens’ Open Source Series."

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: The Expert Mind -- [ PSYCHOLOGY AND BRAIN SCIENCE ] -- Studies of the mental processes of chess grand

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: The Expert Mind -- [ PSYCHOLOGY AND BRAIN SCIENCE ] -- Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well: "This rapid, knowledge-guided perception, sometimes called apperception, can be seen in experts in other fields as well. Just as a master can recall all the moves in a game he has played, so can an accomplished musician often reconstruct the score to a sonata heard just once. And just as the chess master often finds the best move in a flash, an expert physician can sometimes make an accurate diagnosis within moments of laying eyes on a patient."

Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society » Blog Archive » Longest Running Scientific Experiment

Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society » Blog Archive » Longest Running Scientific Experiment: "In 1984, the European Journal of Physics published a report on the three longest-running scientific experiments. The youngest of the three experiments (shown above), begun in 1927, has been measuring the fluidity of high-viscosity pitch by counting the frequency of drops out of a funnel (they fall once every 8 or 9 years–though no one has ever been around to see it happen). "

Image Asset Management

Image Asset Management: "There are currently (December, 2005) two programs which stand out for me, and which have been embraced by professional photographers. These are Photo Mechanic and IView Media Pro. These are by no means the only programs in their fields, and many would argue for other contenders. But, if you sit down with working photographers and glance over their shoulders as they work on location with their laptops, or in their studios, these two programs are more often than not the ones that are in use. They are also the ones that I use."

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

YouTube - Appalachian State University is HOT HOT HOT

YouTube - Appalachian State University is HOT HOT HOT: "Appalachian State University is HOT HOT HOT"

So, how do you boil an egg? | the Daily Mail

So, how do you boil an egg? | the Daily Mail: "The question has vexed cooks for decades. But now experts at the British Egg Information Service say they have devised a foolproof way to tell when an egg is boiled to perfection: a high-tech ink logo stamped onto the shell that indicates when the egg is soft, medium or hard-boiled.

But can a complex culinary art really be reduced to a science? Looking at the advice of leading chefs, it seems the answer is that no two can agree on a single method — and Delia Smith actually offers two . . ."

Monday, July 31, 2006

American Prospect Online - Surviving Sudoku

American Prospect Online - Surviving Sudoku: "Surviving Sudoku
How the Japanese puzzle's invasion has rocked the world of American crossword writers -- and what they’re doing to cope."

Sunday, July 30, 2006

Modern Mechanix » There’s plenty of room at the bottom

Modern Mechanix » There’s plenty of room at the bottom: "This is a condensed version of a talk titled “There’s plenty of room at the bottom” that Richard Feynman gave in 1959. It is generally considered to be the first speech about nanotechnology."

Psychology Today: A Nation of Wimps

Psychology Today: A Nation of Wimps: "Parents are going to ludicrous lengths to take the bumps out of life for their children. However, parental hyperconcern has the net effect of making kids more fragile; that may be why they're breaking down in record numbers. "