Friday, February 27, 2009

Gamasutra - Building Quake Live: Carmack Speaks

Gamasutra - Building Quake Live: Carmack Speaks: "What really hurt us was the initial thought of putting a web interface on it. Some things surrounding the game were certainly overly trivialized by us. That's easy to do when you say, 'Oh, we're hotshot game developers. This web stuff can't be too hard because so many people do it.'

There's a little bit of a humbling lesson there in how much work we did have to do with all the things on browser compatibility and backend database integration and optimization."

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Academic Earth - Video lectures from the world's top scholars

Academic Earth - Video lectures from the world's top scholars: "Thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars."

Six Ways to Boost Brainpower: Scientific American

Six Ways to Boost Brainpower: Scientific American: "Three quarters of the caffeine we ingest comes from coffee. Try to limit yourself to fewer than 100 cups a day. That much coffee contains about 10 grams of caffeine, enough to cause fatal complications."

Applied Data Research | Software Memories

Applied Data Research | Software Memories: "ADR was an underappreciated powerhouse, boasting all of the Fortune 100 as customers way back in the early 1980s (yes, even archrival IBM)."

Monday, February 23, 2009

End User: The $400 Apple Netbook: How to Install OS X on a Dell Mini 9

End User: The $400 Apple Netbook: How to Install OS X on a Dell Mini 9: "The lads over at Gizmodo have a great hack for those looking for an OS X-powered netbook that isn't a pocketbook-piercing Macbook Air. It turns out that with a minimal bit of fiddling, you can take a Dell Mini 9 and install a perfectly working copy of Apple's OS X on it. (According to BoingBoing, several netbooks can support OS X to varying degrees, but the Dell Mini 9 has the best all-around support for an out-of-the-box install.)"

Head First SQL: Hands On

Head First SQL: Hands On: "Practice Your SQL Queries

Welcome to Hands-On SQL, where you can play around with the tables in Head First SQL."

Download details: XML Notepad 2007

Download details: XML Notepad 2007: "XML Notepad 2007 provides a simple intuitive user interface for browsing and editing XML documents."

SourceGear : DiffMerge

SourceGear : DiffMerge: "DiffMerge is an application to visually compare and merge files for Windows, Mac OS X and Unix."

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Instapundit � Blog Archive � SOME ADVICE ON FUTURE “TEA PARTY” PROTESTS, from a media producer who attended the Overland Park aff…

Instapundit � Blog Archive � SOME ADVICE ON FUTURE “TEA PARTY” PROTESTS, from a media producer who attended the Overland Park aff…: "As a professional media producer, here are my concerns:"

Instapundit

Instapundit: "SOME ADVICE ON FUTURE “TEA PARTY” PROTESTS, from a media producer who attended the Overland Park affair:"

Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU)

Resetting PowerBook and iBook Power Management Unit (PMU): "The Power Manager is an integrated circuit (computer chip) that is usually on the logic board of the PowerBook and iBook. As the name implies, it is responsible for power management of the computer. It controls backlighting, hard disk spin down, sleep and wake, some charging aspects, trackpad control, and some input/output as it relates to the computer sleeping.

Over time, the settings in the Power Manager may become unusable, which can result in operational anomalies with the computer. Examples include not turning on, not waking from sleep, not charging the battery, or not seeing the AC Adapter, among others."

Saturday, February 21, 2009

How to Build a Water Rocket | Step-by-Step | Family Projects | This Old House - Introduction

How to Build a Water Rocket | Step-by-Step | Family Projects | This Old House - Introduction: "If you’ve ever dreamed about sending a rocket sky-high, you might be relieved to learn you don’t have to mess with explosives to make one fly. If you put air under pressure, like in a tire, you can use it to propel an object upwards. Add water to the mix, and your rocket will go far above the trees. This rocket is made from simple PVC plumbing pipe and some plastic soda bottles. It's easy to put together in an afternoon. As long as you always have an adult around, launching your rocket is safe and fun."

Study Shows Right Turn on Red Crashes are Rare

Study Shows Right Turn on Red Crashes are Rare: "Red light camera supporters insist that the devices are needed to prevent the common and deadly T-bone style of accident at intersections. In practice, however, automated ticketing lenses are more often positioned to photograph a different type of violation, one that rarely causes accidents. A review of US Department of Transportation statistics shows that an average motorist could drive a billion miles -- the distance from Earth to Jupiter and back -- before being involved in an accident that resulted from a motorist making a rolling stop on a right-hand turn."

Google

Google

Friday, February 20, 2009

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Re: Availability of Junket Rennet Tablets

"Probably the best advise for most people would be to order it direct from us by calling 1-800-556-6674, Redco Direct Market. Regrettably at this time there is no web site for Junket."

philipkdickfans.com - "The Most Brilliant Sci-Fi Mind on Any Planet: Philip K. Dick" Rolling Stone Article by Paul Williams (November 6, 1975)

philipkdickfans.com - "The Most Brilliant Sci-Fi Mind on Any Planet: Philip K. Dick" Rolling Stone Article by Paul Williams (November 6, 1975): "A pivotal point in Phil Dick's career and his first taste of national publicity, this 6-page article speculates on the 1971 break-in of Philip K. Dick's apartment, among other things.

Written by his friend Paul Williams, this story is a snapshot of the period's cultural landscape as well as an in-depth investigation into Phil Dick's personal and professional life."

Hit & Run > "Milton Friedman Proud Father of Global Misery" - Reason Magazine

Hit & Run > "Milton Friedman Proud Father of Global Misery" - Reason Magazine: "For a definitive explanation of why Friedman deserves none of the hate or blame heaped on him by the likes of Sanders, Naomi Klein, and other leftists, see Johan Norberg's classic Reason feature 'Defaming Milton Friedman.' For a detailed account of Friedman's many accomplishments, see Brian Doherty's 'The Life and Times of Milton Friedman.' And for the last word, here's the man himself:"

Monday, February 16, 2009

Friday, February 13, 2009

Man decorates basement with $10 worth of Sharpie - Health & Family - Kentucky.com

Man decorates basement with $10 worth of Sharpie - Health & Family - Kentucky.com: "Kratzer's basement suggests that the great cultural influences wandered out of college humanities class — here a Churchill for eloquence during harsh times, a Joan Crawford for cinematic vampiness, Holmes and Poirot for great literary characterization — and set up shop together in the carefully hand-drawn markings of an educated imagination come to life."

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Pixar's Approach to HR | Design & Innovation | Fast Company

Pixar's Approach to HR | Design & Innovation | Fast Company: "Mostly, it's about hiring ultra-nerds with good communication skills. To wit: You want people who have become exceptional at a tiny discipline, no matter how obscure or dorky, since it's that compulsion to truly master something that predicts how they'll handle a new task. (Wannabe Pixar employees: Don't bury your unicycle or juggling skills on your resume.) Another idea is looking for people who have failed and overcome—as Nelson puts it, 'The core skill of innovators is error recovery not failure avoidance,' which is key if you're asking someone to solve a never-before-solved problem. But perhaps the squishiest trait is the ability to make others around you better, through communication and camaraderie."

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Presentation Zen: The "Lessig Method" of presentation

Presentation Zen: The "Lessig Method" of presentation: "The 'Lessig Method' of presentation is not an official method per se, but many people who know about the work of Stanford law professor, Lawrence Lessig, have been inspired by his presentation style and informally refer to his approach as something unique indeed."

Monday, February 09, 2009

CHARLES PLATT GOES UNDERCOVER AT WAL-MART - New York Post

CHARLES PLATT GOES UNDERCOVER AT WAL-MART - New York Post: "To my mind, the real scandal is not that a large corporation doesn't pay people more. The scandal is that so many people have so little economic value. Despite (or because of) a free public school system, millions of teenagers enter the work force without marketable skills. So why would anyone expect them to be well paid?"

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Digital Urban: Tutorial: Torch Webcam = HD Timelapse System

Digital Urban: Tutorial: Torch Webcam = HD Timelapse System: "Over the past few months we have been running views of the city created from a webcam mounted on our roof looking over the London skyline from Camden Town. The setup, although remarkably simple, is capable of capturing high definition timelapse movies at a fraction of the cost of off the shelf hardware.

Here at digital urban over the years we have got used to setting up capture systems that are low cost yet get the job done, and our timelapse system is hopefully no exception."

Friday, February 06, 2009

Blogs - Creating a minimalist Oracle 11g database

Blogs - Creating a minimalist Oracle 11g database: "Following my recommendations, you’ll end up with a 1GB database that requires just 600 MB of SGA memory – and that on my modest IBM X61 ultra-portable notebook created in just under 10 minutes. That’s far less resources than the defaults would create."

Monday, February 02, 2009

ammo: Arm Against the Keynesian Counter-Revolution

ammo: Arm Against the Keynesian Counter-Revolution: "A generation ago Keynesian economics was dead and buried, abandoned even by the most influential Keynesian economist of them all, John Hicks. It had been killed by the re-discovery of Hayek (by Robert Lucas , Alex Leijonhufvud, and John Hicks, among others), by Milton Friedman — and by stagflation. Keynesian economics was rejected by the great political figures of the time. By Thatcher and Reagan who looked to Hayek, not Keynes. And by the leaders of the states of the former Russian Empire, by the Chinese, and across the European continent, who again looked to Hayek (and Friedman), and not Keynes.

But today the free market and the ideas of Friedrich Hayek are under massive assault. The Keynesian are again in the saddle, riding the whipping horses of “crisis”, “deflation” and “stimulus” to the largest takeover of the free economy in the nation’s history."

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: the prophet of boom and doom - Times Online

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: the prophet of boom and doom - Times Online:

"Stuff happens. The world is random, intrinsically unknowable. “You will never,” he says, “be able to control randomness.”

To explain: black swans were discovered in Australia. Before that, any reasonable person could assume the all-swans-are-white theory was unassailable. But the sight of just one black swan detonated that theory. Every theory we have about the human world and about the future is vulnerable to the black swan, the unexpected event. We sail in fragile vessels across a raging sea of uncertainty. “The world we live in is vastly different from the world we think we live in.”"