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. "

Redrawing the College Map - New York Times

Redrawing the College Map - New York Times: "The swelling population of 18-year-olds — members of the demographic behemoth known as the echo boom, offspring of the baby boomers — is expected to peak in 2009, when the largest group of high school seniors in the nation’s history, 3.2 million, are to graduate. While a slow descent is projected to follow, the growing value of a college degree means record high enrollments every year until 2015, according to a June report from the United States Department of Education."

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Lessons from the Navy

: "Part 4: Lessons Learned from the Whole Sorry Affair

* Don't ever write anything you would be ashamed to sign. I learned this lesson before I left the hallowed halls of OCS, and have followed it religiously ever since.
* Keep your word. 'Nuff said there.
* Don't be content with the path of least resistance -- have the courage to stand up for your convictions. I'd like to say I mastered this particular concept early on, but I can't. It is a lesson you have to keep teaching yourself over and over for your entire life.
* If the system's broke, the way to get somebody to fix it is not to find the easiest work-around, but to insist on using the system the way it was intended to be used and letting the results speak for themselves.
* Work through the chain of command. If you don't, your voice will never have credibility with those who can make changes, and your point, however well- taken, will be justifiably ignored."

The Navy and Starfleet

: "Toto, I Don't Think We're in the Alpha Quadrant Anymore:
Nine Reasons Why a Starfleet Education Won't Prepare You for the Real Navy"

Pete Finnigan's Oracle security weblog

Pete Finnigan's Oracle security weblog: "07/27/2006: 'SQL Injection video'

I saw a link the other week on Eddie's blog in a post about links titled ' 0-Day - Simple SQL Injection ' which points to a video of someone doing a SQL Injection attack. This is quite an interesting....[Read More]

I saw a link the other week on Eddie's blog in a post about links titled '0-Day - Simple SQL Injection' which points to a video of someone doing a SQL Injection attack. This is quite an interesting video and worth watching to see how a SQL injection attack against a web site can occur. This is a good post but note that the guy never makes a keystroke error!

There was also another more visual video posted by Marcel-Jan on my Oracle security forum is a post titled 'Example of SQL Injection'. This video is more gui based than the first."

FeedBurner - Feed 101

FeedBurner - Feed 101: "What Does This Mean?

You may recognize the universal feed icon or these “chicklets” from your favorite Web sites, blogs and podcasts. These icons represent content in any format — text, audio or video — to which you can subscribe and read/watch/listen using a feed reader."

Thursday, July 27, 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."

Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years Of American Independence | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "It also features detailed maps of the original colonies—including Narnia, the central ice deserts, and Westeros—as well as profiles of famous American historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Special Agent Jack Bauer, and Samuel Adams who is also a defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals."

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

russos: Подземная база подводных лодок, часть I

russos: Подземная база подводных лодок, часть I: "abandoned soviet sub base photos"

COMET CARTOONS

COMET CARTOONS: "Smiley Feelings Page

A friend sent me a xerox copy of this image long ago and I cleaned it up here in Photoshop, adjusting some of the images to read a little better. It's not neccesarily perfect, but it's still funny to look at."

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Bob Sutton: Strong Opinions, Weakly Held

Bob Sutton: Strong Opinions, Weakly Held: "A couple years ago, I was talking the Institute’s Bob Johansen about wisdom, and he explained that – to deal with an uncertain future and still move forward – they advise people to have “strong opinions, which are weakly held.” They've been giving this advice for years, and I understand that it was first developed by Instituite Director Paul Saffo. Bob explained that weak opinions are problematic because people aren’t inspired to develop the best arguments possible for them, or to put forth the energy required to test them. Bob explained that it was just as important, however, to not be too attached to what you believe because, otherwise, it undermines your ability to “see” and “hear” evidence that clashes with your opinions. This is what psychologists sometimes call the problem of “confirmation bias.”"

Virtual China: a world of Chinese photoblogs

Virtual China: a world of Chinese photoblogs: "Today I came across Photoblog China, an aggregator site with links to over 800 photoblogs. They are all searchable (in Chinese) by popularity, city, province, and keyword. Fantastic stuff if you have some time to poke around."

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

: "Make 2.4GHz parabolic mesh dishes from cheap but sturdy Chinese cookware scoops & a USB WiFi adaptor !
The largest (300mm diam)shows 15-18dB gain (enough for a LOS range extension to 3-5km), costs ~US$5 &
comes with a user friendly bamboo handle that suits WLAN fieldwork- if you can handle the curious stares!"

Uni-Directional WIFI Range Extender

Uni-Directional WIFI Range Extender: "Easily receive WIFI signals from far away using a standard USB WIFI adaptor and a bit of ingenuity. This Simple idea requires no modifications to a USB WIFI adaptor or your computer. A simple way to increase the signal strength and range of your WIFI."

Friday, July 21, 2006

Life and Society on Watership Down by Rich Policz

Life and Society on Watership Down by Rich Policz: "It is likely that John Locke did not have rabbits in mind when writing his great political works. However, a closer examination of Richard Adams’ great literary work, Watership Down, shows that perhaps Adams was discussing more than a rabbit tale."

DevilDucky - Star Trek Sings Knights of the Round Table

DevilDucky - Star Trek Sings Knights of the Round Table: "Fan made movie mashup of the Monty Python song, 'Knights of the Round Table', performed by the cast of Star Trek."

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Secret Fun Blog

Secret Fun Blog: "This blog is an extension of the Secret Fun Spot, my 'Retro Culture' web site."

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

THE NEDDIAD

THE NEDDIAD: "A word from the author

I am very happy that, with the cooperation of Houghton Mifflin Company, and the good offices of Ed Weiss, webmaster of pinkwater.com, I am able to offer web-readers an advance look at my new book, The Neddiad. The actual publication date of the book is in April, 2007--it will be serialized here, an additional chapter per week, starting in August, 2006. The complete book will be shown on the web."

Friday, July 07, 2006

Electronics: An Online Guide for Beginners - Introduction

Electronics: An Online Guide for Beginners - Introduction: "Are you a beginner in electronics? Have you been interested in electronics but never really taken the time to start learning? Are you just starting out but was unable to find any resources on the net that teaches the basics? Are you just curious about what electronics is?
If so, this is the site for you! "

stock photo - Washburn Water Tower

stock photo - Washburn Water Tower: "This watertower is south of 50th Street, on Prospect Avenue in Minneapolis."

Thursday, July 06, 2006

The Making of TheBroth - Developer Blog @ TheBroth.com

The Making of TheBroth - Developer Blog @ TheBroth.com: "Welcome to TheBroth, The Global Mosaic(TM)!

In this series of articles, we’ll discuss the inner workings of TheBroth.

Yes, we’ll reveal all! Php, Mysql, Javascript, Ajax, the lot!"

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Stealth Hunter

Stealth Hunter: "OBJECTIVES
Sneak around, snap some necks, plant some C4, do whatever it takes to survive and complete an assigned mission. 22 missions in total. If you have trouble with a level, go into the menu and look at hints."

The Colossus: Lileksia Archives

The Colossus: Lileksia Archives: "Some people get Lileks. Some don't. To me, there is a profound wisdom in his writing, which is that the things that matter most are your family, your home, and your own little universe. "

Monday, July 03, 2006

A Search Engine That's Becoming an Inventor - New York Times

A Search Engine That's Becoming an Inventor - New York Times: "When Google was a graduate-school project being run from a Silicon Valley garage, its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, built their own computers out of cheap parts meant for personal computers. They wanted to save money, and they felt that they could design a network of computers that would search the Web more efficiently than those available from traditional manufacturers.

Google no longer needs to pinch pennies. It is a solid member of the Fortune 500 with $9 billion in cash. Still, it is stubbornly sticking to its do-it-yourself approach to technology. Even as it spends more than $1.5 billion this year on operations centers and technology, most of the hundreds of thousands of servers it will deploy are being custom-made based on Google's own eccentric designs."

"Introduction to Probability"

Introduction to Probability: "This introductory probability book, published by the American Mathematical Society, is available from AMS bookshop. It has, since publication, also been freely available here in pdf format. We are pleased that this has made our book more widely available."

foldedspace.org: Twenty mp3s of Great Songs from 1901-1920

foldedspace.org: Twenty mp3s of Great Songs from 1901-1920: "It's a shame most people are unfamiliar with American Popular Music. It's great fun. It occurred to me today that a lot of this music is in the Public Domain — I could rip mp3s from my collection and post them. So I have. All mp3s in this entry are in the Public Domain — download and share!"

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Display Oracle locks - locked rows - user

Display Oracle locks - locked rows - user: "
Display Oracle locks - locked rows for a user
Question: Is there a way to identify the specific rows being locked in a particular table and the user who is holding the lock?"

Night Popper Robot Kit-The Electronic Goldmine

Night Popper Robot Kit-The Electronic Goldmine: "The Night Popper waits until it gets dark and then it starts its random exploring. While it explores it sets off a brilliant almost firework looking display from it's 3 white lamps and emits a crackling popping sound from its on board piezo speaker. Features 2 small DC motors, 2 photodarlington transistors, a relay/CDS cell circuit and 4 drive transistors. The special bonus with this robot is that you get 2 snap off PC boards with 21 components that you solder in before building the robot."