Wednesday, December 31, 2008

RLC: Don’t Use These Expressions In My Vicinity Or I Won’t Be Responsible

RLC: Don’t Use These Expressions In My Vicinity Or I Won’t Be Responsible: "5. Luminous or astonishing as descriptions of same. These two have been hobbyhorses of mine for twenty years -- which shows how lame the critics are who still use them. I was delighted to see Joe Queenan strike them down in the NYT a couple of months ago."

Monday, December 29, 2008

gist: 41337 — GitHub

gist: 41337 — GitHub: "lsv() - a variable listing utility for python"

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Make Your Own Calvin Mask! | The Scriptorium Daily: Middlebrow

Make Your Own Calvin Mask! | The Scriptorium Daily: Middlebrow: "I didn’t realize until today that the Calvin cut-out mask was also available on the web so that everybody can make their own Unintentionally Terrifying Calvin mask to celebrate John Calvin’s upcoming 500th birthday (July 10, 2009)."

Southern Comfort: Why chili con carne is almost a religion in some parts of the world | Mail Online

Southern Comfort: Why chili con carne is almost a religion in some parts of the world | Mail Online: "There are as many theories as to the dish’s origins as there are variations of ingredients. The only certainty is that chilli con carne is not Mexican. Sure, there are lots of similar beef and chilli stews, birria for example – but this is a North American dish."

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Washington Times - STAYING TOGETHER: Resist the urge to trash husbands

Washington Times - STAYING TOGETHER: Resist the urge to trash husbands: "I honestly don't think women spend much time thinking about how they treat their husbands.

Women don't seem to realize that the more you complain about your husband, the more fuel it adds to the fire. In other words, it doesn't make you want to go home and be more loving toward your husband"

Thursday, December 25, 2008

What If New York Goes Bust? - The Daily Beast

What If New York Goes Bust? - The Daily Beast: "The Alice in Wonderland absurdity of the current budget debates was nicely illustrated by the president of the United Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten. She was quoted without irony in The New York Times saying, 'We understand there will be cuts. The real question, will there be cuts, not just cuts against growth, but real cuts that will turn back the clock.'"

A Reporter at Large: Atomic John: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

A Reporter at Large: Atomic John: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker: "In the decades since the Second World War, dozens of historians have attempted to divine the precise mechanics of the Hiroshima bomb, nicknamed Little Boy, and of the bomb that fell three days later on Nagasaki, known as Fat Man. The most prominent is Richard Rhodes, who won a Pulitzer Prize, in 1988, for his dazzling and meticulous book “The Making of the Atomic Bomb.” But the most accurate account of the bomb’s inner workings—an unnervingly detailed reconstruction, based on old photographs and documents—has been written by a sixty-one-year-old truck driver from Waukesha, Wisconsin, named John Coster-Mullen, who was once a commercial photographer, and has never received a college degree."

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

XHeli.com

XHeli.com - #1 Lowest Prices for RC Helicopters: "Welcome to XHeli.com, the internet's #1 online shop specializing in all kinds of radio controlled helicopters for both beginners and experienced hobbyists with the best price and best possible service online. We carry the most plug-n-play ready-to-fly (RTF) radio controlled RC helicopters in the United States."

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The Quivering Upper Lip by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Autumn 2008

The Quivering Upper Lip by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Autumn 2008: "What, exactly, were the qualities that my mother had so admired? Above all, there was the people’s manner. The British seemed to her self-contained, self-controlled, law-abiding yet tolerant of others no matter how eccentric, and with a deeply ironic view of life that encouraged them to laugh at themselves and to appreciate their own unimportance in the scheme of things. If Horace Walpole was right—that the world is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel—the English were the most thoughtful people in the world. They were polite and considerate, not pushy or boastful; the self-confident took care not to humiliate the shy or timid; and even the most accomplished was aware that his achievements were a drop in the ocean of possibility, and might have been much greater if he had tried harder or been more talented."

Monday, December 22, 2008

Recipe - Egg Nog

Recipe - Eggnog
* 4 (6) eggs
* 1/3 cup (1 cup) plus 1 tsp (1 Tbsp) sugar
* 1 tsp vanilla
* 1 tsp ground nutmeg
* 3 oz bourbon or brandy (3/4 cup brandy + 1/3 cup dark rum)
* 1 cup (2 cups) whipping cream
* 2 cups milk

Separate eggs. Beat yolks 2-3 min until light. Add sugar and beat until creamy. Stir in everything but egg whites. Beat egg whites to soft peaks, add sugar, beat to stiff peaks. Stir in egg whites. Bourbon can be reserved. For bodacious rich eggnog, use measures in parentheses.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Literature and Latte - Scrivener

Literature and Latte - Scrivener: "Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It won't try to tell you how to write - it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application."

ENANITOS VERDES - TAN SOLO UN INSTANTE LYRICS on SongLyrics.com

ENANITOS VERDES - TAN SOLO UN INSTANTE LYRICS on SongLyrics.com: "Enanitos Verdes
Miscellaneous
Tan Solo Un Instante
Pensaba en los buenos momentos que tuve junto a ti
y cada ma�ana despierto, pero t�no est�s aqu�.

Quisiera saber si al menos, t�me extra�as as�.
Parece que la nostalgia se ha apoderado de m�.

Me dicen que s�lo de ti yo recuerdo lo bueno, lo bueno.
Pero francamente no creo que haya algo mal en t�.

Por qu�cometemos errores? ser�que nos gusta sufrir?
Ser�que nos gusta arriesgarnos y en el riesgo ser feliz.

[ Enanitos Verdes Lyrics are found on www.songlyrics.com ]
Pudimos hacer tantas cosas... hasta el mundo cambiar
pero no pudimos siquiera cambiar nuestra historia personal.

Me dicen que s�lo de ti yo recuerdo lo bueno, lo bueno.
Pero francamente no creo que haya algo mal en ti.

Quisiera volver en el tiempo tan s�lo un instante y mirarte
Quisiera volver en el tiempo, el tiempo en que fui feliz.

Me dicen que s�lo de ti yo recuerdo lo bueno, lo bueno.
Pero francamente no creo que haya algo mal en ti.

Quisiera volver en el tiempo tan s�lo un instante y mirarte
Quisiera volver en el tiempo, el tiempo en que fui feliz."

Peppino D'Agostino's Minestrone Music Page

Peppino D'Agostino's Minestrone Music Page: "Peppino's guitar techniques cover a variety of styles--contemporary acoustic, classical, open tunings, and percussive techniques. In performance, you are just as likely to see him playing an egg shaker or a maraca with his right hand and getting notes from his guitar with various left handed tricks he's developed over the years. Peppino says, 'With solo guitar, in my opinion, you really can express all that a guitar can express: bass line, midrange--you're a mini orchestra.' When asked to give his music an appropriate label he had this to say: 'Ten years ago, it was called 'New Age'. Ten years from now, who knows? Maybe 'Minestrone Music'.'"

Saturday, December 20, 2008

YouTube - Penn Says: A Gift of a Bible

YouTube - Penn Says: A Gift of a Bible: "A guest to the live Penn & Teller show gives a surprisingly wonderful gift to Penn."

Thursday, December 18, 2008

� Blog Archive � Building a “boon companion.”

� Blog Archive � Building a “boon companion.”: "While I’m fascinated with the idea of having a chair like Gould’s, I’m not an idiot. $1557 is a massive chunk of change for a simple chair."

Woot : Savage Sounds of the Woot Podcast!

Woot : Savage Sounds of the Woot Podcast!: "Super Bowl, schmuper bowl—we spent most of the weekend combing through our archives looking for forgotten treasures. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t rewarding, and it wasn’t even very much fun.

But from literally hundreds of recordings, finally we selected a few that might stand up to a second listen.

So, just as we promised last week, here’s a plumber’s dozen of the least-terrible Woot podcasts for your listening pleasure. We’ve also provided album cover art below, in case your fancy newfangled mp3 player supports it."

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Monday, December 15, 2008

TECH ENTERPRISES INC.: TECH STAIN REMOVER�, FINAL ANSWER� CARPET CLEANER, JEWELER'S SECRET� AND SCOOPICK™

TECH ENTERPRISES INC.: TECH STAIN REMOVER, FINAL ANSWER CARPET CLEANER, JEWELER'S SECRET AND SCOOPICK™: "TECH Enterprises, Inc. has been making the best household cleaners for over 30 years. All TECH products are manufactured to the highest quality standards. Not only do our products do the job but they do the job safely, even around children and pets! Can your stain remover or carpet cleaner do that?

Ask yourself, do I really need to keep all those toxic chemicals around my children and in my house? The answer is NO!! Now - 'IT'S TIME FOR TECH.'"

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Eli Bendersky’s website � Blog Archive � Writing a game in Python with Pygame. Part I

Eli Bendersky’s website � Blog Archive � Writing a game in Python with Pygame. Part I: "There are quite a lot of Pygame tutorials on the web, but most of them are basic. Even the Pygame book stays at an introductory level. In order to proceed to a higher level of mastery, I’ve decided to write a tutorial of my own, hoping that it will provide the next logical step for persons wanting to use Pygame."

Friday, December 12, 2008

Nice Translator - The fast, easy to use online translator

Nice Translator - The fast, easy to use online translator: "NiceTranslator is a fast, easy to use online translator designed with simplicity and functionality in mind."

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Python Master Classes-In Downtown Chicago

Python Master Classes-In Downtown Chicago: "The future is parallel. This one-of-kind workshop, designed for more experienced Python programmers, provides an in-depth examination of concurrent programming idioms and standard library modules. The aim of this workshop is to go far beyond the information found in the manual and to gain a deeper understanding of how different approaches work, their performance characteristics, limitations, and types of real-world problems for which they are suited."

Ian Bicking: a blog :: lxml: an underappreciated web scraping library

Ian Bicking: a blog :: lxml: an underappreciated web scraping library: "One you have lxml installed, you have a great parser (which happens to be super-fast and that is not a tradeoff). You get a fairly familiar API based on ElementTree, which though a little strange feeling at first, offers a compact and canonical representation of a document tree, compared to more traditional representations."

Daily Routines

Daily Routines: "How writers, artists, and other interesting people organize their days."

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

50 Most Beautiful Icon Sets Created in 2008 | Noupe

50 Most Beautiful Icon Sets Created in 2008 | Noupe: "Icons is everywhere on the web. In most modern designs it is used to not only complete our design but also to attract the user’s eye. Designers use Icons to create breath-taking designs and decorate their desktop as well. Today we’re going to take a look at 50 most beautiful icon sets we’ve found over the year 2008."

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

United States Patent: 7463264

United States Patent: 7463264:
"Method and system for distributed serverless file management

A method for serverless data management includes receiving an asset identifier in a first system, receiving data associated with the asset identifier in the first system, determining a resource in a storage network for storage of the asset data, in response to a path algorithm and the asset identifier, wherein the determination is made substantially free of interaction with the storage network, storing the asset data on the resource, creating a link between the asset identifier and the resource in the first system, receiving the asset identifier in a second system, determining the storage resource where the asset data is stored, in response to the path algorithm and the asset identifier, wherein the determination is made substantially free of interaction with the storage network and the first system, and creating a link between the asset identifier and the resource in the second computer system."

Monday, December 08, 2008

ChristmasCarolMusic.org - free Christmas carol sheet music - Coventry Carol

ChristmasCarolMusic.org - free Christmas carol sheet music - Coventry Carol: "SATB voices"

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 New York Times Crossword Puzzle

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 New York Times Crossword Puzzle: "Author: Rob Cook / Will Shortz"

XWord Info — All about the New York Times Crossword Puzzle

XWord Info — All about the New York Times Crossword Puzzle: "XWord Info contains data about NYT puzzles dating back to November, 1993, covering the entire time that Will Shortz has been Puzzle Editor. The links below will be of most interest to constructors and serious solvers but occasional dabblers will be entertained too. Explore around and you'll no doubt see crosswords in a whole new light."

Wal-Mart Way in Disaster Preparedness/Response: Policy Implications

Wal-Mart Way in Disaster Preparedness/Response: Policy Implications: "Is centrally directed emergency response and recovery from a natural disaster the only viable option anymore? This belief “seems to be faulty,” judging from the poor response from the federal government and the comparatively effective response from private retailers after Hurricane Katrina, argues economist Steven Horwitz, Ph.D. “Big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart were extraordinarily successful in providing help to damaged communities in the days, weeks, and months after the storm,” he declared."

r4ph431: Bacon and Cheese Roll

r4ph431: Bacon and Cheese Roll: "Bacon and Cheese Roll"

Sunday, December 07, 2008

In Defense of Teasing - NYTimes.com

In Defense of Teasing - NYTimes.com: "Very often, though, we do not want our words to be taken too literally. When we speak in ways that risk offense, for example when we criticize a friend, we may add intentional vagueness or unnecessary circumlocutions. Say a friend proves to be too confrontational at a dinner party. To encourage greater civility, we might resort to indirect hints (“Say, did you read the latest by the Dalai Lama?”) or metaphor (“I guess sometimes you just need to blow off some steam”). These linguistic acts establish a new channel of communication — off-record communication — signaling that what is being said has an alternate meaning."

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Apple Computer: The (Very) Early Years - Computer Shopper

Apple Computer: The (Very) Early Years - Computer Shopper: "Stan Veit, Editor in Chief Emeritus of Computer Shopper, was the Editor in Chief of Computer Shopper magazine from 1983 to 1988, and Editor in Chief/Publisher from 1988 to 1990. Well before that, he was intimately connected to the personal computer revolution, a pioneer in the computer retail business who dealt with many of the industry's movers and shakers (as well as many now-forgotten luminaries). Here, in the first in a series, he relates his experiences with two Steves, founders of a certain well-known computer behemoth..."

Our Vision for Generation 4 Modular Data Centers - One way of Getting it just right . . . � LooseBolts

Our Vision for Generation 4 Modular Data Centers - One way of Getting it just right . . . - LooseBolts: "Our “Gen 4” modular data centers will take the flexibility of containerized servers—like those in our Chicago data center—and apply it across the entire facility. So what do we mean by modular? Think of it like “building blocks”, where the data center will be composed of modular units of prefabricated mechanical, electrical, security components, etc., in addition to containerized servers."

Friday, December 05, 2008

Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper

Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper: "Philosophical writing is different from the writing you'll be asked to do in other courses. Most of the strategies described below will also serve you well when writing for other courses, but don't automatically assume that they all will. Nor should you assume that every writing guideline you've been given by other teachers is important when you're writing a philosophy paper. Some of those guidelines are routinely violated in good philosophical prose (e.g., see the guidelines on grammar, below)."

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Internet Archive: Details: Hygiene for the worker

Internet Archive: Details: Hygiene for the worker:

"Hygiene for the worker ([c1912])
Author: Tolman, William Howe, 1861-; Guthrie, Adelaide Wood
Subject: Hygiene; Occupations -- Diseases and hygiene
Publisher: New York, American book company"

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Play Auditorium

Play Auditorium: "Auditorium is about the process of discovery and play. There are no right or wrong answers; there are many ways to solve every puzzle. To get started, fill up the first audio level. We hope you enjoy the demo of Auditorium."

Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Stories / The Film-makers of Mars by Geoff Ryman

Tor.com / Science fiction and fantasy / Stories / The Film-makers of Mars by Geoff Ryman: "Eight reels of a film about Santa Claus from 1909. Filmed in Lapland. And forty reels of a film it says was produced by Edgar Rice Burroughs. In 1911?"

Oracle JOB cheatsheet

begin
dbms_scheduler.create_job(
job_name => 'DEMO_JOB_SCHEDULE'
,job_type => 'PLSQL_BLOCK'
,job_action => 'begin insert into jobtest(ztime) values(systimestamp); end; '
,start_date => trunc(sysdate, 'CC')
,repeat_interval => 'FREQ=MINUTELY'
,enabled => TRUE
,comments => 'Demo for job schedule.');
end;

begin
DBMS_SCHEDULER.DROP_JOB('DEMO_JOB_SCHEDULE');
end;

-- show all jobs

select *
from dba_scheduler_jobs
where owner='MHTEST';


-- job history

select log_date
, job_name
, status
from dba_scheduler_job_log
where owner='MHTEST';

-- running jobs

select job_name
, session_id
, running_instance
, elapsed_time
, cpu_used
from dba_scheduler_running_jobs

Monday, December 01, 2008

Skytopia: World's most unanswered music questions

Skytopia: World's most unanswered music questions: "Over time, I have gathered together many questions about the fundamental nature of music, and decided to create and maintain this page to bring light to them. Answers to some of them may already exist in books and papers, although I suspect that most of them have yet to be answered properly. In fact some of the questions may not have been asked at all!"

The Shakespeare Chronicles

The Shakespeare Chronicles: "When spineless literature professor Stanley Quandary starts having peculiar dreams, his life turns in a bold new direction. The dreams harbor an academic discovery that will rock Western civilization: the truth about who wrote Shakespeare. Duke University law professor James Boyle portrays the centuries old Shakespeare authorship debate in all its wacky complexity in his debut work of fiction, The Shakespeare Chronicles"

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Trygve's homepage.

Trygve's homepage.: "This marks the fulfillment of the BabyUML goals and marks the beginning of a new project, BabyIDE. The new project could well be very large and take many years. I am in my 78th year. My great great grandfather planted an apple tree when he was 93. He was very particular about the kind of apples he wanted. His family pointed out that it would be 10 years before this particular kind would give its first fruit. My great great grandfather could not see the relevance of this argument. So I follow a family tradition when I dig into yet another new project. I will post intermediate and incomplete results as they appear. Just in case."

Trygve/MVC

Trygve/MVC: "I made the first implementation and wrote the original MVC note at Xerox PARC in 1978. The note defines four terms; Model, View, Controller and Editor . The Editor is an ephemeral component that the View creates on demand as an interface between the View and the input devices such as mouse and keyboard."

Trygve 1975

Trygve 1975: "MODELS - VIEWS - CONTROLLERS
Xerox PARC technical note December 1979"

E.W.Dijkstra Archive: The strengths of the academic enterprise (EWD 1175)

E.W.Dijkstra Archive: The strengths of the academic enterprise (EWD 1175): "My third remark introduces you to the Buxton Index, so named after its inventor, Professor John Buxton, at the time at Warwick University. The Buxton Index of an entity, i.e. person or organization, is defined as the length of the period, measured in years, over which the entity makes its plans. For the little grocery shop around the corner it is about 1/2,for the true Christian it is infinity, and for most other entities it is in between: about 4 for the average politician who aims at his re-election, slightly more for most industries, but much less for the managers who have to write quarterly reports. The Buxton Index is an important concept because close co-operation between entities with very different Buxton Indices invariably fails and leads to moral complaints about the partner. The party with the smaller Buxton Index is accused of being superficial and short-sighted, while the party with the larger Buxton Index is accused of neglect of duty, of backing out of its responsibility, of freewheeling, etc.. In addition, each party accuses the other one of being stupid. The great advantage of the Buxton Index is that, as a simple numerical notion, it is morally neutral and lifts the difference above the plane of moral concerns. The Buxton Index is important to bear in mind when considering academic/industrial co-operation."

Friday, November 28, 2008

Ranch Bean Dip - Allrecipes

Ranch Bean Dip - Allrecipes: "INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
* 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
* 1 (1 ounce) package ranch dressing mix
* 1 cup sour cream

* add to recipe box Add to Recipe Box
My folders:
* add to shopping list Add to Shopping List
* add a personal note Add a Personal Note

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small saucepan, combine beans, cheese, ranch dressing mix, and sour cream. Heat the mixture over a medium heat, stir until the ingredients are well blended and warm."

Zesty Bean Dip - Allrecipes

Zesty Bean Dip - Allrecipes:
"INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

* 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
* 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
* 1 tomato, chopped
* 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

* add to recipe box Add to Recipe Box
My folders:
* add to shopping list Add to Shopping List
* add a personal note Add a Personal Note

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, mix refried beans, taco seasoning mix and tomato. Allow the mixture to simmer approximately 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Spoon the mixture into a medium serving bowl. Top with Cheddar cheese and serve warm."

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Perspectives - Facebook: Needle in a Haystack: Efficient Storage of Billions of Photos

Perspectives - Facebook: Needle in a Haystack: Efficient Storage of Billions of Photos: "An excellent talk that I really enjoyed. I used to lead a much smaller service that also used a lot of NetApp storage and I recognized many of the problems Jason mentioned. Throughout the introductory part of the talk I found myself thinking they need to move to a cheap, directly attached blob store. And that’s essentially the topic of remainder of the talk. Jason presented Haystack, the Facebook solution to the problem of a filesystem not working terribly well for their high volume blob storage needs."

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Dean Kamen's Water Purifier - Biography of Dean Kamen - Esquire

Dean Kamen's Water Purifier - Biography of Dean Kamen - Esquire: "The inventor of the Segway and more now has an idea worth tens of millions of lives. But no one cares. Tracking Lord Dumpling's genius on his seceded island of geekery."

Sunday, November 23, 2008

UNIVAC MAGNETIC TAPE

UNIVAC MAGNETIC TAPE: "One inch of magnetic tape, the input medium for Remington Rand UNIVAC, holds even more information than a punched card. One reel holds 1,400,000 numbers or letters. Two 4-drawer tabulat-ing-card files, storing more than 20,000 cards, are compressed into a single eight-inch reel."

Texas Embassy cantina - London

Texas Embassy cantina - London: "The building now housing the Texas Embassy is the former home of the famous White Star shipping line, owners of the Titanic. When the Titanic sank it was to this very building friends and relatives came to view the lists of survivors. An actual black and white photo of this time is hanging on the wall to the right of the main exit from the Cantina.
But our story really begins back in the early 1800's, in a vast and lawless wilderness ruled by Mexico. Bold Americans and Europeans settled the land and called their home TEXAS."

Anarchy at Sea - William Langewiesche

Anarchy at Sea - William Langewiesche: "The sea is a domain increasingly beyond government control, vast and wild,
where laws of nations mean little and secretive shipowners do as they please -
and where the resilient pathogens of piracy and terrorism flourish."

Friday, November 21, 2008

iSerenity - Environments

iSerenity - Environments: "iSerenity Environments

Choose a sound and image experience to relax or work by.

Six new environments to enjoy. Some of the old favorites are now down towards the bottom as the newcomers get top billing. We even have included Typewriters the Sequel, (carriage returns included). Feedback is always welcome and don't forget to tell your friends about iserenity."

Thursday, November 20, 2008

pldoc: Utility for generating PL/SQL code documentation

pldoc: Utility for generating PL/SQL code documentation:
"pldoc is an open-source utility for generating HTML documentation of code written in Oracle PL/SQL."

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian

Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian: "The curious thing about Ericsson's study is that he and his colleagues couldn't find any 'naturals' - musicians who could float effortlessly to the top while practising a fraction of the time that their peers did. Nor could they find 'grinds', people who worked harder than everyone else and yet just didn't have what it takes to break into the top ranks. Their research suggested that once you have enough ability to get into a top music school, the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That's it. What's more, the people at the very top don't just work much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder."

Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian

Malcolm Gladwell asks is there such a thing as pure genius? | Books | The Guardian: "'In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals,' writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin, 'this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years... No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.'"

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Timeline twins, music and movies

Timeline twins, music and movies: "Watching Star Wars today is like watching It's a Wonderful Life (1946) in 1977. It's a Wonderful Life was nominated for an Oscar the following year along with Ethel Barrymore (b. 1879) and Lilian Gish (b. 1893)."

Seven Crown Resorts Houseboat Rentals Lake Mead, Lake Shasta, Lake Mohave, California Delta

Seven Crown Resorts Houseboat Rentals Lake Mead, Lake Shasta, Lake Mohave, California Delta: "Available at:
Lake Mead - Echo Bay
Lake Mohave - Lake Mohave Resort
California Delta - Paradise Point"

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Ideas

Ideas:
"There are basically three ways of judging sources of information.
One is internal evidence--does the author sound like a competent, well informed person who takes reasonable care to make sure that what he says is true?
A second is external evidence about the information--does it fit other things I have reason to believe are true?
A third is authority--do I have good reason to believe that the source of the information is reliable?"

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Jac: What are the scariest pieces of classical music?

Jac: What are the scariest pieces of classical music?: "That's the question for today, since this Music Friday happens to fall on Halloween."

Friday, October 31, 2008

download free mp3s of ambient music & new age music soundscapes from the UKs deep sky divers

download free mp3s of ambient music & new age music soundscapes from the UKs deep sky divers: "Here you can purchase digital downloads of deep sky divers CDs and individual tracks. There are also links to some sites where you can download free deep sky divers MP3s.

deep sky divers music is now available from many online sources, either legally or illegally. We are truly independent musicians trying to create unique and worthwhile music without industry support, and we need all the help we can get. By downloading our music from preferred sources (see below), you would be helping and supporting our efforts in the best way possible..."

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Processing 1.0 (BETA)

Processing 1.0 (BETA): "Processing is an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool. Processing is an alternative to proprietary software tools in the same domain.

Processing is an open project initiated by Ben Fry and Casey Reas. It evolved from ideas explored in the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab."

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Never Give In, Never, Never, Never - The Churchill Centre

Never Give In, Never, Never, Never - The Churchill Centre: "this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy"

FWWeekly: Feature: SAXE MANIAC

FWWeekly: Feature: SAXE MANIAC: "He may have given away as much as $6 million, a figure arrived at by adding the amounts of cash, pledges, and the estimated increased value of donated artworks during the last 40 years, but even he’s not sure. “I’ve forgotten some,” he said. “And I haven’t kept the best records,” like the cost of the 1983 Chevrolet pick-up that stayed behind at Happy Hills.

What makes Saxe unique in the annals of philanthropy, said Ruth Brock, a UTA business librarian and his companion of 30 years, is that almost all of the money he’s donated has come from his professor’s salary, boosted one time only by a half-million-dollar inheritance from his frugal, working-class mother. “And he got rid of that as fast as he could,” Brock said."

Game Theory — Open Yale Courses

Game Theory — Open Yale Courses: "This course is an introduction to game theory and strategic thinking. Ideas such as dominance, backward induction, Nash equilibrium, evolutionary stability, commitment, credibility, asymmetric information, adverse selection, and signaling are discussed and applied to games played in class and to examples drawn from economics, politics, the movies, and elsewhere."

Sunday, October 26, 2008

'Round the Chuckbox: Grilled Hot Mexican Beef Sandwich Santa Fe

'Round the Chuckbox: Grilled Hot Mexican Beef Sandwich Santa Fe: "The sandwich was a hit Saturday at the engine house of the El Dorado Western Railway. I served it with old fashion navy bean soup and cole slaw.

GRILLED HOT MEXICAN SANDWICH SANTA FE

This sandwich is a great way to use leftover roast beef. Santa Fe cooks toasted open faced sandwiches under a red-hot broiler. I adapted the sandwich to engine house cooking by toasting it in a cast iron skillet. I added sliced tomatoes and changed the hot chilies to fresh (from fresh, parboiled)."

University of California: StatFinder

University of California: StatFinder: "Table 16-2007. Fall applicants, fall admits, fall enrollees, admit rate and fall applicant yield rate: first-time freshmen, by high school GPA, universitywide and by campus: Fall 2007"

App Engine Recipe - XML RPC server using Google App Engine

App Engine Recipe - XML RPC server using Google App Engine: "XML RPC server is a very popular way of exposing an API to your website. XML RPC server can run standalone. On a past website project I got it running inside Apache so that it could run alongside the main website. (For XMLRPC server in Apache - check my post http://jyro.blogspot.com/2007/11/xml-rpc-server-inside-apache-modpython.html)

Implementing the XML RPC server is very easy.

First download Julien Oster's standalone XML RPC server from http://www.julien-oster.de/projects/xmlrpcserver/

It is a single xmlrpcserver.py file that you will find inside a tar.gz archive. Just copy the file to your Google App engine project."

Saturday, October 25, 2008

SQL University.net : Free Sample Lectures

SQL University.net : Free Sample Lectures: "These are free extracts of SQL University.net courses covering a variety of topics."

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Top 10 Epic FAIL Funny Videos - Starpulse Entertainment News Blog

Top 10 Epic FAIL Funny Videos - Starpulse Entertainment News Blog

Podcasts from the University of Oxford

Podcasts from the University of Oxford:

"Podcasts from the University of Oxford"

Lyra Fidelium | The Scriptorium Daily: Middlebrow

Lyra Fidelium | The Scriptorium Daily: Middlebrow: "Samuel J. Stone (1839-1900) was an Anglican clergyman and poet whose claim to fame is that he wrote the hymn, The Church’s One Foundation. But that’s just the hit single off a great album. That hymn is from an interesting collection that Stone wrote in 1866 entitled Lyra Fidelium: Twelve Hymns on the Twelve Articles of the Apostles Creed. It’s available online here."

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Streaming video: X-rays

Streaming video: X-rays:

amazing video of making xrays with sticky tape!

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Do five simple things a day to stay sane, say scientists - Times Online

Do five simple things a day to stay sane, say scientists:
"Steps to happiness

Connect
Developing relationships with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours will enrich your life and bring you support

Be active
Sports, hobbies such as gardening or dancing, or just a daily stroll will make you feel good and maintain mobility and fitness

Be curious
Noting the beauty of everyday moments as well as the unusual and reflecting on them helps you to appreciate what matters to you

Learn
Fixing a bike, learning an instrument, cooking – the challenge and satisfaction brings fun and confidence

Give
Helping friends and strangers links your happiness to a wider community and is very rewarding"

Monday, October 20, 2008

The psychology of conmen - The Law Report - 30 September 2008

The psychology of conmen - The Law Report - 30 September 2008: "How do conmen convince you to part with your money? Who are they? And how do they choose their victims? Learn their secrets from someone who has studied their dark arts. Magician Nick Johnson has some interesting insights into psychology of scams...and some suggestions on how to stop your money from going up in smoke!"

Loo with a view: The world's toilets with the best vistas | Mail Online

Loo with a view: The world's toilets with the best vistas | Mail Online:

The beautiful places one can go.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Design Classics, The London Underground Map | Smashing Telly - A hand picked TV channel

Design Classics, The London Underground Map | Smashing Telly - A hand picked TV channel: "But the pinnacle of London Transport’s modernist design was the Tube map which rearranged distances to produce a supremely navigable schematic diagram that is little changed today. (I have been looking for this documentary for ages)."

Friday, October 17, 2008

Valued Lessons: How to DTrace Python in OSX

Valued Lessons: How to DTrace Python in OSX:
"So, here's how you use dtrace on your python application in Mac OSX:

1. Get DTraceToolkit.
2. Edit Python/py_cputime.d by replacing 'function-entry' with 'entry' and 'function-return' with 'exit'.
3. Call 'sudo dtrace -s Python/py_cputime.d'
4. Let it sit there a while and hit ctrl-c.
5. Enjoy the results"

NIX v. HEDDEN, 149 U.S. 304 (1893)

FindLaw | Cases and Codes: "The attempt to class tomatoes as fruit is not unlike a recent attempt to class beans as seeds, of which Mr. Justice Bradley, speaking for this court, said: 'We do not see why they should be classified as seeds, any more than walnuts should be so classified. Both are seeds, in the language of botany or natural history, but not in commerce nor in common parlance. On the other hand in speaking generally of provisions, beans may well be included under the term 'vegetables.' As an article of food on our tables, whether baked or boiled, or forming the basis of soup, they are used as a vegetable, as well when ripe as when green. This is the principal use to which they are put. Beyond the common knowledge which we have on this subject, very little evidence is necessary, or can be produced.'"

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Finance - So Simple a Caveman Could Do It

Finance - So Simple a Caveman Could Do It: "Imagine you live in a cave in hunter-gatherer society. Og is going to spend the day hunting. You have previously harvested some berries, lived frugally, and now have an extra handful of berries you can give Og to eat while he hunts all day. You and Og make a deal. When he returns from the hunt, he will give you two handfuls of meat. That’s debt. If instead of promising you a fixed amount of meat, you agreed that he would give you a fixed share — say half — of what he brings back to the cave, that’s equity."

lisp50

lisp50:
"The news feed for the 50th Birthday of Lisp at OOPSLA 2008.
Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Monday, October 20, 2008"

Monday, October 13, 2008

Noteflight - Learn More

Noteflight - Learn More: "Noteflight is a new online service that lets written music take full advantage of the web. The Noteflight Score Editor is a full-featured application that displays, edits, prints and plays back music notation in any standard web browser. You can create your own scores, choose to share them with others, or publish them to Noteflight's browsable, searchable online library of music."

A Backspace Key Can't Fix Everything - New York Times

A Backspace Key Can't Fix Everything - New York Times: "An enduring drawback of correction fluid is the solvent vapor. That could be fixed, but not without damaging the psyche of faithful consumers, said Mr. McCaffrey of Liquid Paper: 'People who have grown up using a product tend to equate its smell with quality, and you don't want to change that - whether it's crayons or correction fluid.'"

Sunday, October 12, 2008

The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time

The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time: "The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time is a partnership between the Palace Museum and IBM. The goal of the project is to provide the means for a world-wide audience to celebrate and explore aspects of Chinese culture and history."

The Internet Treehouse - A Broadcasting Masterclass

The Internet Treehouse - A Broadcasting Masterclass

Saturday, October 11, 2008

home [LiquiBase]

home [LiquiBase]: "LiquiBase is an open source (LGPL), DBMS-independent library for tracking, managing and applying database changes. It is built on a simple premise: All database changes (structure and data) are stored in an XML-based descriptive manner and checked into source control."

solarsystem

solarsystem: "For years I had wanted to go see the Maine Solar System Model.

Built with diligent skill on a tight budget by the Northern Maine Museum of Science, the whole thing runs for 40 miles along US Route 1 between Houlton and the University of Maine at Presque Isle where the Museum is located."

Friday, October 10, 2008

sqlmap: a SQL injection tool

sqlmap: a SQL injection tool: "sqlmap is an automatic SQL injection tool developed in Python. Its goal is to detect and take advantage of SQL injection vulnerabilities on web applications. Once it detects one or more SQL injections on the target host, the user can choose among a variety of options to perform an extensive back-end database management system fingerprint, retrieve DBMS session user and database, enumerate users, password hashes, privileges, databases, dump entire or user's specific DBMS tables/columns, run his own SQL SELECT statement, read specific files on the file system and much more."

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Applied Geometry � American Scientist

Applied Geometry � American Scientist:
"HOW ROUND IS YOUR CIRCLE?: Where Engineering and Mathematics Meet. John Bryant and Chris Sangwin. xxii 306 pp. Princeton University Press, 2008. $29.95.

The great power of computers to model various aspects of geometry and mechanics has made it possible to visualize things quickly and in useful and innovative ways. But nothing beats the construction of a physical model. And when the model conforms exactly to the mathematical prediction, it is very satisfying. How Round Is Your Circle?, by John Bryant and Chris Sangwin, is a guide to making physical models of various phenomena of geometry that are related to serious applications, both historical and contemporary. The mathematics required is elementary: standard geometry and trigonometry, with occasional bits of calculus."

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Consola Fonts

These are the nice looking ones

The Underground Grammarian - Richard Mitchell

The Underground Grammarian - Richard Mitchell

"All of Richard Mitchell's books are now available online for free."

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Liquid Mongoose - Folding Paper into CD and DVD Cases with Album Art and Movie Covers from the Internet

Liquid Mongoose - Folding Paper into CD and DVD Cases with Album Art and Movie Covers from the Internet: "The Paper Case project allows you to print a fold-able piece of paper into a CD or DVD case, using the content of the internet as your album art or movie cover. This solves the issue of your DVD collection taking up 20 times more space than the size of the disc. Or when you buy an album online, and are left on your own to store and label your burned CD. No longer are expensive CDs and DVDs left to chance to get scratched beyond recognition."

Monday, October 06, 2008

Japan: Playing Baseball with Rocket Launchers and Tanks on Japanese TV

Japan: Playing Baseball with Rocket Launchers and Tanks on Japanese TV: "The crew trekked down to Cambodia to use the military's equipment. At first, the Cambodian military didn't want to use a tank, so instead they taped a baseball to a rocket. This, obviously, didn't show how well the baseball would travel at such speeds, as it just blew everything up, as you can see above."

Amazon Web Services Developer Community : Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Express Edition - 32 Bit

Amazon Web Services Developer Community : Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Express Edition - 32 Bit: "This AMI comes with Oracle Enterprise Linux Release 5 Update 1 and Oracle Database 10g Release 2 Express Edition software pre-installed and configured on the 32 Bit platform. In a matter of minutes, you can have a fully configured Oracle Database computing environment running on Amazon EC2 that includes the web based rapid development tool Applications Express (APEX). For further information about Oracle Database in the Cloud or this Amazon Machine Image, please visit http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/cloud/index.html"

Sunday, October 05, 2008

A Beautiful Math: John Nash, Game Theory, and the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature

A Beautiful Math: John Nash, Game Theory, and the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature: "The following HTML text is provided to enhance online readability. Many aspects of typography translate only awkwardly to HTML. Please use the page image as the authoritative form to ensure accuracy."

Saturday, October 04, 2008

simonsound � Sound

simonsound � Sound: "1947-1959

Ken Hollings presents a live twelve-part series of unscripted reflections on the fantasy of science in the early years of the American Century

With electronic sound production by Simon James

Between 1947 and 1959, the future was written about, discussed and analysed with such confidence that it became a tangible presence. This is a story of weird science, strange events and even stranger beliefs, set in an age when the possibilities for human development seemed almost limitless."

Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners

Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners: "To celebrate the publication of Kelly's new collection, Pretty Monsters, most of Kelly's previous collection Magic for Beginners is now available as a free download in various completely open formats"

Friday, October 03, 2008

Secrets of email | www.buzz.mn

Secrets of email | www.buzz.mn:

"At some point, email programs will be so large and complex and feature-rich they will vindicate every argument made by Ted Kozinski."

18.25 SimpleXMLRPCServer -- Basic XML-RPC server

18.25 SimpleXMLRPCServer -- Basic XML-RPC server: "If logRequests is true (the default), requests will be logged; setting this parameter to false will turn off logging."

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

oracle 10g dbms_scheduler explained

oracle 10g dbms_scheduler explained:

begin dbms_scheduler.create_job(
job_name => 'DEMO_JOB_SCHEDULE'
,job_type => 'PLSQL_BLOCK'
,job_action => 'begin package.procedure(''param_value''); end; '
,start_date => '01/01/2006 02:00 AM'
,repeat_interval => 'FREQ=DAILY'
,enabled => TRUE
,comments => 'Demo for job schedule.');
end;

Canvas tutorial - MDC

Canvas tutorial - MDC:

" is a new HTML element which can be used to draw graphics using scripting (usually JavaScript). It can for instance be used to draw graphs, make photo compositions or do simple (and not so simple) animations. The image on the right shows some examples of implementations which we will see later in this tutorial."

Some Schumpeter Links

"Schumpeter advanced the paradox that economic progress destabilizes the world.
Progress and job destruction go hand in hand in a dynamic process he called creative
destruction. Today, as in the 1930s, Schumpeter's insights help explain how jobs
emerge and disappear through the innovation and entrepreneurship of free enterprise."

Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Wired:


Harvard University Press:

'Pan Am, Gimbel's, Pullman, Douglas Aircraft, Digital Equipment Corporation, British Leyland--all once as strong as dinosaurs, all now just as extinct. Destruction of businesses, fortunes, products, and careers is the price of progress toward a better material life. No one understood this bedrock economic principle better than Joseph A. Schumpeter. "Creative destruction," he said, is the driving force of capitalism.

Described by John Kenneth Galbraith as "the most sophisticated conservative" of the twentieth century, Schumpeter made his mark as the prophet of incessant change. His vision was stark: Nearly all businesses fail, victims of innovation by their competitors. Businesspeople ignore this lesson at their peril--to survive, they must be entrepreneurial and think strategically. Yet in Schumpeter's view, the general prosperity produced by the "capitalist engine" far outweighs the wreckage it leaves behind.

During a tumultuous life spanning two world wars, the Great Depression, and the early Cold War, Schumpeter reinvented himself many times. From boy wonder in turn-of-the-century Vienna to captivating Harvard professor, he was stalked by tragedy and haunted by the specter of his rival, John Maynard Keynes. By 1983--the centennial of the birth of both men--Forbes christened Schumpeter, not Keynes, the best navigator through the turbulent seas of globalization. Time has proved that assessment accurate.'






Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Vance Lucas � Building a Better Woot! Checker: Comparison is Key

Vance Lucas � Building a Better Woot! Checker: Comparison is Key: "The goal for a great Woot! checker should be not only to simply regurgitate information directly from the Woot! data feed, but to also provide the information necessary for users to make a purchasing decision quickly. After all, the very reason for the existence of any Woot! checker is so you don’t miss out on a great deal. Why not take that idea to the next level to give your users at least a 15-second advantage by eliminating steps in the research process? That’s where Woot! Compare comes in."

What's New on the Leopard Command Line? | MacResearch

What's New on the Leopard Command Line? | MacResearch: "Here are some of the DTrace scripts you will find that may be of use in profiling your system:

* bitesize.d – Analyse disk I/O size by process.
* creatbyproc.d – File creates by process name.
* httpdstat.d – Realtime httpd statistics.
* hotspot.d – Plot disk event by location, look for hotspots.
* cpuwalk.d – Measure which CPUs a process runs on.
* weblatency.d – Measures web latency."

King Lines Trailer

King Lines Trailer: "Here is the trailer for our new film, King Lines,
which follows Chris Sharma around the world on the ultimate sending quest."

Monday, September 29, 2008

Remove U3 SmartDrive Software

"Removing the U3 Launchpad disables the U3 smart functionality. So think before you click. And make the smart choice."

CodeThinked | The Programmer Dress Code - Part Deux

CodeThinked | The Programmer Dress Code - Part Deux: "In this post I tried to add a huge number of people that were suggested, but remember, they had to have a big beard, long hair, or in some other way look pretty gnarled."

CodeThinked | The Programmer Dress Code

CodeThinked | The Programmer Dress Code: "So there you have it, my totally incomplete list of bearded, long haired, casually dressed visionaries."

Sunday, September 28, 2008

FuturePundit: Only Low Doses Of Chocolate Reduce Inflammation Marker

FuturePundit: Only Low Doses Of Chocolate Reduce Inflammation Marker: "From the paper's abstract: If you ate about 3/4ths of an ounce of dark chocolate every third day you'd get the optimal benefit.

A J-shaped relationship between dark chocolate consumption and serum CRP was observed; consumers of up to 1 serving (20 g) of dark chocolate every 3 d had serum CRP concentrations that were significantly lower than nonconsumers or higher consumers. Our findings suggest that regular consumption of small doses of dark chocolate may reduce inflammation."

Saturday, September 27, 2008

papert: logo in your browser

papert: logo in your browser:
"papert ― logo in your browser
examples: koch snowflake | hilbert curve | spiral"

xVideoServiceThief Official Web site

xVideoServiceThief Official Web site:
"# Download Videos from a lot of important Web Video Services: YouTube, Google Videos, etc...
# Convert the downloaded videos to Mpeg, DivX, etc..."

Friday, September 26, 2008

NerdKits - educational microcontroller kits for the digital generation

NerdKits - educational microcontroller kits for the digital generation:
"A NerdKit is a combination of electronic parts and wisdom, which together will teach you about digital electronics, embedded systems, and how to bridge computers with the 'real world'. The electronics world has changed dramatically in the past few decades. We want to make sure that it's still easy to get involved with modern technology, and to experience a challenging and rewarding hobby!

A NerdKit is appropriate for software hackers looking to branch out into electronics, and has educational material to allow even middle-schoolers and high-schoolers (ages 12 ) looking for a fun challenge to learn by doing, especially with the help of a techie parent! A microcontroller is a small computer on a single chip, including processing, memory, and inputs and outputs -- see the Wikipedia page for more information."

HttpFox :: Firefox Add-ons

HttpFox :: Firefox Add-ons:
"HttpFox monitors and analyzes all incoming and outgoing HTTP traffic between the browser and the web servers.

It aims to bring the functionality known from tools like HttpWatch or IEInspector to the Firefox browser.

Information available per request includes:
- Request and response headers
- Sent and received cookies
- Querystring parameters
- POST parameters
- Response body"

HttpFox :: Firefox Add-ons

HttpFox :: Firefox Add-ons: "An HTTP analyzer addon for Firefox"

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

E.W. Dijkstra Archive: What led to "Notes on Structured Programming" (EWD1308)

E.W. Dijkstra Archive: What led to "Notes on Structured Programming" (EWD1308): "Finally a short story for the record. In 1968, the Communications of the ACM published a text of mine under the title 'The goto statement considered harmful', which in later years would be most frequently referenced, regrettably, however, often by authors who had seen no more of it than its title, which became a cornerstone of my fame by becoming a template: we would see all sorts of articles under the title 'X considered harmful' for almost any X, including one titled 'Dijkstra considered harmful'. But what had happened? I had submitted a paper under the title 'A case against the goto statement', which, in order to speed up its publication, the editor had changed into a 'letter to the Editor', and in the process he had given it a new title of his own invention! The editor was Niklaus Wirth."

Sunday, September 21, 2008

NeHe Productions: OpenGL Article #13

NeHe Productions: OpenGL Article #13: "gluUnProject converts Windows screen coordinates to OpenGL coordinates. This means that you can get the position of your mouse on an OpenGL Window and use this method to find the x, y and z coordinate of where you clicked."

Carrot Caviar

Carrot Caviar:

250 g Carrot Juice
2.0 g Sodium Alginate

500 g Water
2.5 g Calcium Cloride

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Press/Digital & VISystems Partner On CICS/COBOL To UNIX Migration - biz.digital.announce | Google Groups

Press/Digital & VISystems Partner On CICS/COBOL To UNIX Migration - biz.digital.announce | Google Groups: "MAYNARD, Mass. -- April 7, 1994 -- Digital Equipment Corporation
and VISystems Inc. jointly announced today a partnership agreement
that enables Digital to resell VIS/TP, VISystems' transaction
processing system on the UNIX platform. The Digital/VISystems
partnership offers customers the ability to migrate their mainframe
CICS transaction processing to Digital's OSF/1 (UNIX) open systems
environment while realizing cost savings that often range from 50
to 80 percent or more."

"Open CICS" port ... NCR Corp. has inked a porting and certification pact with VISystems Inc. of Dallas, Tex., for VIS/TP, an open systems-based online transaction processing (OLTP) system also known as "Open CICS." (Mergers/Acquisitions/Alliances) | Software Industry Report | Find Articles at BNET

"Open CICS" port ... NCR Corp. has inked a porting and certification pact with VISystems Inc. of Dallas, Tex., for VIS/TP, an open systems-based online transaction processing (OLTP) system also known as "Open CICS." (Mergers/Acquisitions/Alliances) | Software Industry Report | Find Articles at BNET: "'Open CICS' port ... NCR Corp. has inked a porting and certification pact with VISystems Inc. of Dallas, Tex., for VIS/TP, an open systems-based online transaction processing (OLTP) system also known as 'Open CICS.'"

Friday, September 19, 2008

OpenGL Video Tutorial - Home

OpenGL Video Tutorial - Home:
"Know some C ? Want to learn how to program in 3D? You've come to the right place! Designed to be understandable to beginners, but advanced enough for experienced developers, the free video tutorials here will get you started making 3D programs using OpenGL and GLUT in no time. Each lesson has a text version and comes with exercises to help you gain experience programming on your own, rather than just shoving lots of syntax down your throat. So what are you waiting for? Let's learn some OpenGL!"

The freeglut Project :: About

The freeglut Project :: About: "freeglut is a completely OpenSourced alternative to the OpenGL Utility Toolkit (GLUT) library. GLUT was originally written by Mark Kilgard to support the sample programs in the second edition OpenGL 'RedBook'. Since then, GLUT has been used in a wide variety of practical applications because it is simple, widely available and highly portable."

Scott Crossfield Foundation

Scott Crossfield Foundation:
"Always Another Dawn - The Story of a Rocket Test Pilot"

online version -- neat!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Storkyak: Linux equivalent of ifconfig /renew, or, how to reconnect to the internet

Storkyak: Linux equivalent of ifconfig /renew, or, how to reconnect to the internet:

"To get the same effect as ifconfig /release and ifconfig /renew on my SUSE Linux, I use dhcpcd -k, followed by dhcpcd. This shuts down and then restarts the dhcp client daemon."

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Database query tool - Aqua Data Studio is the query analyzer that works with Oracle, DB2, Sybase, MySQL and more.

Database query tool - Aqua Data Studio is the query analyzer that works with Oracle, DB2, Sybase, MySQL and more.: "Aqua Data Studio is a database developer's complete Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The IDE provides three major areas of functionality: A) Database query and administration tool B) Suite of compare tools for databases, source control and filesystems, and C) a complete and integrated source control client for Subversion (SVN) and CVS."

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Tungsten Replicator

Tungsten Replicator:
"The Tungsten Replicator implements open source database-neutral master/slave replication. Master/slave replication is a highly flexible technology that can solve a wide variety of problems including the following:

* Availability - Failing over to a slave database if your master database dies
* Performance Scaling - Spreading reads across many copies of data
* Cross-Site Clustering - Maintaining active database replicas across WANs
* Change Data Capture - Extracting changes to load data warehouses or update other systems
* Zero Downtime Upgrade - Performing upgrades on a slave server which then becomes the master"

The Scale-Out Blog: Bringing Open Source Replication to the Oracle World

The Scale-Out Blog: Bringing Open Source Replication to the Oracle World: "On Tuesday we will be announcing replication support for Oracle. Oracle replication will be based on our open source Tungsten Replicator, which is currently available in an alpha version for MySQL. Our goal is to provide replication that is accessible and usable by a wide range of users, especially those running lower-cost Oracle editions."

Richard McMahan's Mini Museum

Richard McMahan's Mini Museum

Inspiration OTD, miniature edition.

libevent

libevent: "The libevent API provides a mechanism to execute a callback function when a specific event occurs on a file descriptor or after a timeout has been reached. Furthermore, libevent also support callbacks due to signals or regular timeouts.

libevent is meant to replace the event loop found in event driven network servers. An application just needs to call event_dispatch() and then add or remove events dynamically without having to change the event loop."

It's All Text! :: Firefox Add-ons

It's All Text! :: Firefox Add-ons: "Edit textareas using an external editor, because it's all text!

Right click on a textarea, select 'It's All Text!' and edit the text in the editor of your choice.

Alternatively, click on the edit buttons added for your convenience. Right click on the edit buttons for even more options, including preferences."

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Toad World > Community > Blogs - Speed Up Toad - Updated

Toad World > Community > Blogs - Speed Up Toad - Updated: "Below are ten easy ways to make sure you’re getting the best productivity from Toad:"

Friday, September 12, 2008

Townhall.com - tohu vavohu

Townhall.com - tohu vavohu: "Hugh Hewitt listeners - tweet 'em for listener paticipation"

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Best Electronics Kits For Adults

Best Electronics Kits For Adults: "'I'm an adult looking to learn how electronics work and have some fun building projects. But all the kits I've found online are for kids 8-10 years old, and they don't really explain the principles - they just color-code where to place components on boards. Are there any kits aimed at adults? I know if anyone has got the answer, it's this community.'"

Cern builds largest computer grid to study origins of the universe | 8 Feb 2008 | ComputerWeekly.com

Cern builds largest computer grid to study origins of the universe | 8 Feb 2008 | ComputerWeekly.com: "The grid, which will go live in June, will pool the processing power of approximately 100,000 CPUs worldwide. It will process information at a rate of 1gbps, said Francois Grey, head of Cern's IT communications team.

'About 20% [of CPUs] will be here at Cern, another 30% will be in 11 major datacentres, and the rest of the computing power will come from 250 other centres worldwide,' said Grey."

Cern leads the way in database innovation | 26 Feb 2008 | ComputerWeekly.com

Cern leads the way in database innovation | 26 Feb 2008 | ComputerWeekly.com: "Cern has also pushed database-clustering technology further to enable a single database to run across a number of distributed computers. The LCG database deployment project has set up a worldwide distributed database infrastructure for LHC.

It will do this using a program called Oracle Streams to capture, filter and synchronise data stores worldwide.

The software allows users to control what information is put into a stream - the connection between the primary data capture and its end source/sources - and will determine how the stream of data flows is routed to nodes worldwide, and to determine what happens to events in the stream and how the stream terminates. By specifying the configuration of the elements acting on the stream, a user can filter and manage data in a more meaningful way."

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Conceptual Trends and Current Topics

Conceptual Trends and Current Topics: "Heinlein engineered his own nerdy solution to a problem common to famous authors: how to deal with fan mail. In the days before the internet, Heinlein's solution was fabulous. He created a one page FAQ answer sheet -- minus the questions. Then he, or rather his wife Ginny, checked off the appropriate answer and mailed it back."

Friday, September 05, 2008

How-To Guide for Descriptors

How-To Guide for Descriptors: "Defines descriptors, summarizes the protocol, and shows how descriptors are called. Examines a custom descriptor and several built-in python descriptors including functions, properties, static methods, and class methods. Shows how each works by giving a pure Python equivalent and a sample application.

Learning about descriptors not only provides access to a larger toolset, it creates a deeper understanding of how Python works and an appreciation for the elegance of its design."

Table of Contents: The Best of Creative Computing Volume 1

Table of Contents: The Best of Creative Computing Volume 1:
"The Best of Creative Computing Volume 1
Edited by David Ahl, published 1976"

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Think Python: An Introduction to Software Design

Think Python: An Introduction to Software Design: "This book is scheduled to be published by Cambridge University Press in early 2009, using the title 'Python for Software Design'. I will continue to maintain a Free electronic version of the book here, but hard copies will not be available for a few more months."

Learn To Program - Beginner's Guide

Learn To Program - Beginner's Guide:

"The goal of this guide is to be the funnest and easiest way for a beginner to get started programming. To this end, we have made 3 innovations that set this guide apart from all others:

1. Program right now in your browser: You can edit and run any of the examples directly in your browser. No downloads or software installs, ever.
2. Publish your programs on the web: This guide will teach you how to publish web apps at your own domain name so you can share your creations.
3. All JavaScript: JavaScript is the most prevalent programming language in the world, and AppJet lets you write entire web apps using this single programming language for everything."

Monday, September 01, 2008

Proggy Programming Fonts

Proggy Programming Fonts: "Monospaced Bitmap Programming Fonts
Looking for the perfect programming font ?
This site is the home of the Proggy programmer's fonts (Proggy Clean, Proggy Square, Proggy Small, and Proggy Tiny) as well as a number of contributed programming fonts (Crisp, Speedy, CodingFontTobi1, and Opti). It is also the home of two other proportional bitmap fonts for use on web pages (Webby Caps and Webby Small).

Every font you will find here was created by a programmer and is free.

The proggy fonts are a set of fixed-width screen fonts that are designed for code listings."

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Greenplum MapReduce - the Ubiquity of SQL with the Programming Model of MapReduce

Greenplum MapReduce - the Ubiquity of SQL with the Programming Model of MapReduce: "MapReduce has been proven as a technique for high-scale data analysis by Internet leaders such as Google and Yahoo. Greenplum gives enterprises the best of both worlds – MapReduce for programmers and SQL for DBAs – and will execute both MapReduce and SQL directly within Greenplum’s parallel dataflow engine, which is at the heart of the Greenplum Database.

Greenplum MapReduce enables programmers to run analytics against petabyte-scale datasets stored in and outside of the Greenplum Database. Greenplum MapReduce brings the benefits of a growing standard programming model to the reliability and familiarity of the relational database. The new capability expands the Greenplum Database to support MapReduce programs."

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Building home linux render cluster

Building home linux render cluster: "This is the story of Helmer. A linux cluster in a IKEA Helmer cabinet."

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Jlog - Trac

Jlog - Trac: "JLog is short for 'journaled log' and this package is really an API and implementation that is libjlog. What is libjlog? libjlog is a pure C, very simple durable message queue with multiple subscribers and publishers (both thread and multi-process safe). The basic concept is that publishers can open a log and write messages to it while subscribers open the log and consume messages from it. 'That sounds easy.' libjlog abstracts away the need to perform log rotation or maintenance by publishing into fixed size log buffers and eliminating old log buffers when there are no more consumers pending."

100 lines of C that can parse any Protocol Buffer � Josh the Outspoken

100 lines of C that can parse any Protocol Buffer � Josh the Outspoken: "There’s lots of misinformation flying around the blogosphere about Google’s Protocol Buffers. One common claim is that you can’t parse a protobuf without having the .proto file. This is false, as demonstrated by This 100-line C program that does just that. It can parse an arbitrary protobuf into its field numbers and wire types. This is pretty closely equivalent to what you get from a generic XML parser, except that with XML you get names for the keys (elements) instead of numbers and strings instead of the four or so wire types that are defined by protocol buffers."

FrontPage - Hadoop Wiki

FrontPage - Hadoop Wiki: "Hadoop is a framework for running applications on large clusters built of commodity hardware. The Hadoop framework transparently provides applications both reliability and data motion. Hadoop implements a computational paradigm named Map/Reduce, where the application is divided into many small fragments of work, each of which may be executed or reexecuted on any node in the cluster. In addition, it provides a distributed file system (HDFS) that stores data on the compute nodes, providing very high aggregate bandwidth across the cluster. Both Map/Reduce and the distributed file system are designed so that node failures are automatically handled by the framework."

Greenplum MapReduce - the Ubiquity of SQL with the Programming Model of MapReduce

Greenplum MapReduce - the Ubiquity of SQL with the Programming Model of MapReduce: "Greenplum gives enterprises the best of both worlds – MapReduce for programmers and SQL for DBAs – and will execute both MapReduce and SQL directly within Greenplum’s parallel dataflow engine, which is at the heart of the Greenplum Database.

Greenplum MapReduce enables programmers to run analytics against petabyte-scale datasets stored in and outside of the Greenplum Database. Greenplum MapReduce brings the benefits of a growing standard programming model to the reliability and familiarity of the relational database. The new capability expands the Greenplum Database to support MapReduce programs."

Gamasutra - Games Demystified: Portal

Gamasutra - Games Demystified: Portal: "[In the second in this series of articles which deconstructs a particularly fun or interesting mechanic in a recent, relevant game, Jeremy Alessi pulls apart Valve's Portal and puts it back together again -- to give us a clearer understanding of the compellingly-executed teleportation mechanics central to that game's astoundingly entertaining gameplay.]"

Monday, August 25, 2008

Unique Leds High Quality hard to find LED and LED products with fare shipping and everyday low pricing

Unique Leds High Quality hard to find LED and LED products with fare shipping and everyday low pricing: "We are currently uploading lots of new and innovative leds"

New Horizons in Computer Control

Research aims to put tongues in control of devices:

"Georgia Tech researchers believe a magnetic, tongue-powered system could transform a disabled person's mouth into a virtual computer, teeth into a keyboard - and tongue into the key that manipulates it all."


This certainly seems more promising than my idea of tongue-prints as a computer security device. Although once you're logged in, you would be ready to go!

Dimensions Home

Dimensions Home: "A walk through mathematics!

A film for a wide audience!

Nine chapters, two hours of maths, that take you gradually up to the fourth dimension. Mathematical vertigo guaranteed! Background information on every chapter: see 'Details'.

Click on the image on the left to watch the trailer ! (turn your speakers on please).

Free download and you can watch the films online! (new!)

The film can also be ordered as a DVD."

Compendium of Lost Words

Compendium of Lost Words: "Welcome to the Compendium of Lost Words, a component of The Phrontistery. The Compendium lists over 400 of the rarest modern English words - in fact, ones that have been entirely absent from the Internet, including all online dictionaries, until now. By revealing the existence of these words online, I do not necessarily promote their revival, but I do encourage an appreciation of the flexibility of English vocabulary. In theory, the Compendium will be the only web page on which each of these words occurs in its proper English context."

NOOP.NL: Managing Software Development: Top 100 Best Software Engineering Books, Ever

NOOP.NL: Managing Software Development: Top 100 Best Software Engineering Books, Ever: "I have created this list using four different criteria: 1) number of Amazon reviews, 2) average Amazon rating, 3) number of Google hits and 4) Jolt awards."

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Dr. Dobb's Journal Indexes

Dr. Dobb's Journal Indexes:
"Twenty-One Years of Dr. Dobb's Journal Indexed
Dr. Dobb's Journal
Cumulative Subject and Author Indexes
1982 - August 2003"

Mark's Innovations in Quantum Computing

Just wanting to get my precedence in when the Nobel Prize committee goes hunting around:

- Quantum Rendering: All images are rendered simultaneously. Observation collapses the state to the desired image.

- Quantum Sorting: All permutations are generated. Observing the array collapses it to the ordered stated.

SnarkyBytes � Make a Kindle USB Charger

SnarkyBytes � Make a Kindle USB Charger: "To make a USB charger you’ll need an “A” power tip. I got mine at Radio Shack along with a pigtail to connect to the USB cable. I don’t remember the exact price but it wasn’t more than a few dollars."

Marginal Revolution: Walter Benjamin's tips for writing

Marginal Revolution: Walter Benjamin's tips for writing

I. Anyone intending to embark on a major work should be lenient with himself and, having completed a stint, deny himself nothing that will not prejudice the next.

II. Talk about what you have written, by all means, but do not read from it while the work is in progress. Every gratification procured in this way will slacken your tempo. If this regime is followed, the growing desire to communicate will become in the end a motor for completion.

III. In your working conditions avoid everyday mediocrity. Semi-relaxation, to a background of insipid sounds, is degrading. On the other hand, accompaniment by an etude or a cacophony of voices can become as significant for work as the perceptible silence of the night. If the latter sharpens the inner ear, the former acts as a touchstone for a diction ample enough to bury even the most wayward sounds.

IV. Avoid haphazard writing materials. A pedantic adherence to certain papers, pens, inks is beneficial. No luxury, but an abundance of these utensils is indispensable.

V. Let no thought pass incognito, and keep your notebook as strictly as the authorities keep their register of aliens.

VI. Keep your pen aloof from inspiration, which it will then attract with magnetic power. The more circumspectly you delay writing down an idea, the more maturely developed it will be on surrendering itself. Speech conquers thought, but writing commands it.

VII. Never stop writing because you have run out of ideas. Literary honour requires that one break off only at an appointed moment (a mealtime, a meeting) or at the end of the work.

VIII. Fill the lacunae of inspiration by tidily copying out what is already written. Intuition will awaken in the process.

IX. Nulla dies sine linea -- but there may well be weeks.

X. Consider no work perfect over which you have not once sat from evening to broad daylight.

XI. Do not write the conclusion of a work in your familiar study. You would not find the necessary courage there.

XII. Stages of composition: idea -- style -- writing. The value of the fair copy is that in producing it you confine attention to calligraphy. The idea kills inspiration, style fetters the idea, writing pays off style.

XIII. The work is the death mask of its conception.

TCL/TK IN ANSYS - 异次元 - 网易博客

TCL/TK IN ANSYS - 异次元 - 网易博客: "As the engineers at PADT have developed custom applications with the ANSYS software package, they have begun to use the Tcl/Tk command language more and more. In this time, they have learned some important lessons and have gathered some useful resources. This page has been put together for the ANSYS community to help them learn and apply this powerful capability in ANSYS. You can read through the following FAQ or jump right into some tutorials."

Saturday, August 23, 2008

mysqlgame

mysqlgame: "Are you tired of browser-based games that are thinly veiled interfaces for databases? Finally, there's a game that just is a database!

THRILL as you insert your very own row in the 'rows' table!

With careful selection of SQL queries, you will soon have three or even four-digit numbers in some of the fields in your row! Other queries may allow you to use those numbers to subtract numbers from rows entered by other players -- all while pushing the numbers in your own row even higher!

As you master the game, you may find that you have inserted not just one row into the game, but several!"

Game Theory in The Dark Knight: A Critical Review of the Opening Scene (Spoilers) - Mind Your Decisions

Game Theory in The Dark Knight: A Critical Review of the Opening Scene (Spoilers) - Mind Your Decisions: "The newest Batman flick The Dark Knight absolutely stunned me. Not since Dr. Strangelove has a movie contained so much game theory. While many others have noticed the game theory connection, particularly about a scene near the end of the movie, such commentaries miss the big picture: the entire film is a sequence of games and an exploration of strategic thought."

Friday, August 22, 2008

Cities of the world database donated by MaxMind.com | drupal.org

Cities of the world database donated by MaxMind.com | drupal.org: "The company MaxMind.com[1] has agreed to release their cities of the world database under the GPL. The database contains locations by country, city, latitude and longitude. There are over 3,047,000 records in the database."

Yahoo! Maps Web Services - Geocoding API

Yahoo! Maps Web Services - Geocoding API:

"Finding Latitudes and Longitudes

The Geocoding Web Service allows you to find the specific latitude and longitude for an address. You can use this service to geocode your points in advance or forego it altogether with built-in geocoding in our AJAX and Flash APIs."

Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Dapperstache - The Periodic Table of Awesomements

The Dapperstache - The Periodic Table of Awesomements

Dijkstra award 2008 goes to ‘Sparse Partitions’ at Paper Trail

Dijkstra award 2008 goes to ‘Sparse Partitions’ at Paper Trail: "the Djikstra 2008 prize for an outstanding and influential paper in distributed systems has been awarded to David Peleg and Baruch Awerbuch for their 1990 FOCS paper Sparse Partitions (on-line copy available from MIT ad-hoc algorithms course here).

The citation does a much better job than I could of explaining the paper’s relevance. The general idea is that the authors show that there are efficient ways of constructing clustered representations of graphs that remain within a small factor of the original in terms of route lengths. Further, the authors show that this can be done in a distributed manner. This has lots (and lots) of potential applications - the typical example is for a compact routing scheme, where nodes can store smaller routing tables between clusters rather than between nodes."

btail - a bayesian log filter

btail - a bayesian log filter: "Btail monitors a logfile for specific events. To do this it uses a bayesian filter to determine what events are worth passing through and which should be suppressed.
So it filters out all of the routine stuff, but passes through anything important or out of the ordinary."

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Read any Web Document Directly in Google Docs - Similar to Gmail

Read any Web Document Directly in Google Docs - Similar to Gmail: "Gmail has this nice feature where you can open PDF files and Office documents directly in your Google Docs account bypassing the need of any desktop software like Acrobat Reader or Microsoft Office.

If you find this Gmail feature handy, you’ll probably also enjoy using the 'Send to Google Docs' extension for Firefox."

What Makes for a Good Blog? | 43 Folders

What Makes for a Good Blog? | 43 Folders: "As I think about the blogs I’ve returned to over the years — and the increasingly few new ones that really grab my attention — I want to start with, ironically enough, a list. Here’s what I think helps make for a good blog."

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Quick, easy, temporary, and beautiful LED garden lights

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories - Quick, easy, temporary, and beautiful LED garden lights: "For a late night summer party, we wanted to deploy an array of maybe 20 or so little LED garden lights along the periphery of our back yard. And since it was for a one-time event, there wasn't much sense in buying (or building) a set of nice looking permanent solar lights. So here is an alternative: make your own ultra-low cost temporary garden lights using LEDs, lithium coin cells, and mason jars."

10 mm diffused white LED
Panasonic CR 2032

ReSharper:: The Most Intelligent Add-In To Visual Studio 2008 - C# 3.0, LINQ, VB.NET, ASP.NET, XML, XAML, build scripts. Best-of-breed tools for code analysis, code cleanup, code generation, and unit testing, plus multiple refactorings and code templates.

ReSharper:: The Most Intelligent Add-In To Visual Studio 2008 - C# 3.0, LINQ, VB.NET, ASP.NET, XML, XAML, build scripts. Best-of-breed tools for code analysis, code cleanup, code generation, and unit testing, plus multiple refactorings and code templates.: "The must-have productivity tool for Visual Studio, ReSharper 4.0 provides solution-wide error highlighting on the fly, advanced code completion, superior unit testing tools, over 30 advanced code refactorings, multiple handy navigation and search utilities, single-click code formatting and cleanup, automatic code generation and templates, and a lot more productivity features for C#, VB.NET, ASP.NET, XML, and XAML. ReSharper fully integrates with Visual Studio to intelligently and powerfully extend the functionality that is native to Visual Studio."

Amazon Web Services @ Amazon.com

Amazon Web Services @ Amazon.com: "Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) offers a reliable, highly scalable, hosted queue for storing messages as they travel between computers. By using Amazon SQS, developers can simply move data between distributed components of their applications that perform different tasks, without losing messages or requiring each component to be always available. Amazon SQS makes it easy to build an automated workflow, working in close conjunction with the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) and the other AWS infrastructure web services."

Saturday, August 16, 2008

ego technique - How to Work Better by Fischli/Weiss (1991)� ...

ego technique - How to Work Better by Fischli/Weiss (1991): "“Taped to the wall of my studio is an A4 photocopy of a short ten-point manifesto by Fischli/Weiss entitled “How to work better”. I don’t know who put it there, but it has been in place for at least three years."How to Work Better by Fischli/Weiss (1991)  “Taped to the wall of my studio is an A4 photocopy of a short ten-point manifesto by Fischli/Weiss entitled “How to work better”. I don’t know who put it there, but it has been in place for at least three years. It’s a tongue-in-cheek work using a motivational statement, which is a piece of found text they subsequently enlarged and had painted on the exterior of a building as part of a public commission. I sometimes show it to students at the beginning of slide lectures, and always point it out to assistants who come to the studio. I like it quite simply because it acknowledges their awareness of the idea of practice rather than production”.  (Ryan Gander, from Dexter Sinister Library) ________________________________________________________________________________

Devil in the detail for would-be drivers | Autos | Reuters

Devil in the detail for would-be drivers | Autos | Reuters: "To get a license, you must attend 26 lectures lasting 50 minutes each, and have 34 driving lessons before the final test. If you want an automatic transmission-only license, you only have to take 31 lessons behind the wheel."

Thursday, August 14, 2008

..... >> VFXWorld / Feature Articles << .....

VFXWorld / Feature Articles: "A major milestone being marked at SIGGRAPH '08 is the 20th anniversary of Pixar's RenderMan software system, which has been used to render the digital graphics in 44 of the last 47 films nominated for an Academy Award for Visual Effects. This anniversary arrives in a year when Pixar is riding high with its latest hit movie, WALL•E, studio co-founder and President Ed Catmull delivered a candid assessment of Pixar's history to an SRO SIGGRAPH crowd, and the company is unveiling the latest version of its software, RenderMan 14.0."

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Comparison of different SQL implementations

Comparison of different SQL implementations: "The following tables compare how different DBMS products handle various SQL (and related) features. If possible, the tables also state how the implementations should do things, according to the SQL standard."

InvestorMind.gif (GIF Image, 804x531 pixels)

InvestorMind.gif (GIF Image, 804x531 pixels)
The Investor's Mind.

Mutopia: Browse by instrument, composer or style

Mutopia: Browse by instrument, composer or style: "All music in the Mutopia Project is free to download, print out, perform and distribute.
1420 pieces of music are now available."

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

MY COLLECTION OF RECORDED 78 RPM RECORDS - FREE MP3 DOWNLOADS

MY COLLECTION OF RECORDED 78 RPM RECORDS - FREE MP3 DOWNLOADS: "The following is a list titles recorded from my collection of 78 rpm records. All of them are linked to MP3 files and will play what was recorded. No sound enhancement, just what was recorded. Right now, there are 3,739 titles on this page linked to mp3's.

CLICK HERE to see a blog chronicling updates to the web page, starting July 25, 2008.
You can view my 'recording studio' here.

I have about 2500 more records to record, so I'll be adding more titles as time permits over the next hundred years or so."

Sunday, August 10, 2008

How to Win Friends & Influence People - Basic Summary

How to Win Friends & Influence People - Basic Summary: "This summary of the ideas in Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People will help anyone more effectively build relationships and motivate others. The following has been reorganized and edited down to simply establish the book’s core ideas for our modern reader. It should take less than five minutes to read."

Saturday, August 09, 2008

43 Folders - Best of GTD

43 Folders:
"1. Outcome-Based Thinking. Articulating in the most specific terms possible what a successful outcome looks like for any given use of your time. Or as I like to put it, “How will I know when I’m done with this?”
2. The Next Action. Knowing that you don’t need to track everything you could conceivably do about a Project; you just need to know the next physical action that would get you closer to completion.
3. The Review. Accepting that the heart of the Trusted System that lets you move through a day with a high tolerance for ambiguity is the knowledge that eventually everything you’re doing gets looked at once a week without fail."

Friday, August 08, 2008

Famous Programmers' School

Famous Programmers' School:
"(an advertisement that appeared in the April 1982 issue of BYTE magazine, page 383)

Do you have a restless urge to program?

Do you want the instant respect that comes from being able to use technical terms that nobody understands?

Do you want to strike fear and loathing into the hearts of DP managers everywhere?

If so, then let the Famous Programmers' School lead you on . . .
into the world of professional computer programming."

Coding Horror: The Enduring Art of Computer Programming

Coding Horror: The Enduring Art of Computer Programming: "My very favorite thing about Mr. Knuth is that, despite the profound and enduring depth of his contributions to the field of computer science, he has a great sense of humor. For proof, let's go back in time. Way, way back, to Mad Magazine #33, originally published in 1957."

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Pixar director proposes "whimsical" 60-foot artificial tree, three treehouses for Lafayette property - San Jose Mercury News

Pixar director proposes "whimsical" 60-foot artificial tree, three treehouses for Lafayette property - San Jose Mercury News: "A Pixar writer and director dreamed up this idea -- not for his next movie, but for his family's next house.

He and his wife bought 15 acres of secluded, vacant land in Lafayette and proposed a 60-foot-tall artificial oak tree with three treehouses. A suspension bridge would link them to a new house on the adjacent hill. An elevator would connect the house to a garage 25 feet below, burrowed 80 feet into the hillside."

Mike On Ads � Blog Archive � Using your browser URL history to estimate gender

Mike On Ads � Blog Archive � Using your browser URL history to estimate gender: "One of the things that I always wanted to do but never got around to was to analyze a user’s browsing history to estimate age and gender. Of course the idea is definitely not new, in fact Xerox (of all companies??) has a patent on the whole process and I’m certain plenty of networks already do something of the sort… but what the heck, let’s have some fun!"

Napier's Bones: Quickly Multiply, Wooden Style

Napier's Bones: Quickly Multiply, Wooden Style: "Now for the important part: what Napier's Bones are. They are a multiplication tool/math toy that allows you to multiply 0-9 with large numbers extremely quickly with only slabs of wood. As long as you add small numbers and read correctly, you will get the correct solution every time."

Consola Font

Index of /consolas:
Consola Font
"[ ] Consola.ttf 07-Aug-2008 09:20 96K
[ ] Consolab.ttf 07-Aug-2008 09:20 98K
[ ] Consolai.ttf 07-Aug-2008 09:20 102K
[ ] Consolaz.ttf 07-Aug-2008 09:20 108K"

BYTE.com > Graphics Programming Black Book by Michael Abrash

BYTE.com > Graphics Programming Black Book by Michael Abrash: "Michael Abrash's classic Graphics Programming Black Book is a compilation of Michael's writings on assembly language and graphics programming (including from his 'Graphics Programming' column in Dr. Dobb's Journal). Much of the focus of this book is on profiling and code testing, as well as performance optimization. It also explores much of the technology behind the Doom and Quake 3-D games, and 3-D graphics problems such as texture mapping, hidden surface removal, and the like."

DAILY DANNY: New Crayons from Old One

DAILY DANNY: New Crayons from Old One: "Here's the sheet of melted crayons cooled off, but still slightly warm to the touch. I used a sharp cookie cutter to make out shapes in the crayon (best when it's still a little warm). Then I let it cool completely."

How Buildings Learn - Uploaded by Stewart Brand Himself | Smashing Telly - the best full length free tv programs on the web, updated every day

How Buildings Learn - Uploaded by Stewart Brand Himself | Smashing Telly - the best full length free tv programs on the web, updated every day: "Amazingly, this does indeed look like Stewart Brand has uploaded the entire series based on his seminal book ‘How Buildings Learn’. The uploads have the pre-roll countdown screen.

Having been both an Architect of buildings and of software I agree with Brand’s point that “architects are not as alert as computer people” in being interested in his book. However, technology companies are much less alert about design than architecture firms are. Most software is engineered rather than designed, and the term designer often is reserved for people responsible for more superficial (in the literal rather than pejorative sense) UI tasks such as web designers."