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"