Toolmonger � Blog Archive � Finds: Wonderlok Chair Glue

Toolmonger � Blog Archive � Finds: Wonderlok Chair Glue: "Though the Wonderlokking website may be difficult to find, Wonderlok Chair glue (thankfully) isn’t. These little tubes of chair glue are pretty unassuming, but the big fixing power of its formula is a great weapon to have at hand.

Wonderlok is what it is because of how it works. It’s not the strongest glue ever made to fix a piece of wooden furniture, but it’s preferred by craftsman because of its “ooze” factor. Wonderlok’s great because you can apply it from the outside of a joint seam and it will penetrate (”ooze”) into the joint to form a solid bond throughout — which’ll hopefully hold your rickety chair or table firm without disassembly."

The Transom Review: Ira Glass

The Transom Review: Ira Glass: "Ira is a radio hero because of the way he listens, and the way his listening summons stories you remember. He is a champion for the Many Voices that public radio's mission says it values. This American Life is not the voice of record, but a record of the voices around us. The stories are as fully strange and hopeful and funny and harsh and romantic as America itself...and occasionally all at the same time. They sprawl outside the usual standard-issue broadcast confines, telling about the way it actually was, what it felt like, what really happened. Ira is their shepherd, their piper.

But it was not always that way. Ira's Transom Manifesto, which will appear in serialized form over the course of his time with us, begins with his utter lack of talent at this work. We think Ira's failures will give you hope."

LIBERTAS � Blog Archive � The NPR Atheist Said What?

LIBERTAS � Blog Archive � The NPR Atheist Said What?

"Christians are actually, to me, anyway, as a Jew, much more interesting in America. And weirdly, much more misunderstood. Evangelical Christians are the most incompetently portrayed group in America, in TV, in fiction, in the news. When Christians say that the media gets them wrong, Christians are absolutely right. Christian life in this country is really horribly documented, and way more interesting than is done. Generally, in the media, very religious Christians are portrayed as hardheaded doctrinaire knuckleheads. But in fact, from my experience, the most religious Christians I know tend to be incredibly thoughtful, complicated, generous to a fault, very principled and not knuckleheads. Actually, they’re sort of weirdly the opposite of the stereotype, and that includes people from the hardcore fundamentalist faiths.

...That’s a quote from Ira Glass"

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 248-dimension maths puzzle solved

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 248-dimension maths puzzle solved: "An international team of mathematicians has detailed a vast complex numerical 'structure' which was invented more than a century ago.

Mapping the 248-dimensional structure, called E8, took four years of work and produced more data than the Human Genome Project, researchers said.

E8 is a 'Lie group', a means of describing symmetrical objects.

The team said their findings may assist fields of physics which use more than four dimensions, such as string theory.

Lie groups were invented by the 19th Century Norwegian mathematician Sophus Lie (pronounced 'Lee')."

KOHLER: K-1166-C1: sok� overflowing bath for two with effervescence and chromatherapy: Bathroom

KOHLER: K-1166-C1: sok� overflowing bath for two with effervescence and chromatherapy: Bathroom: "The ultra-deep reservoir of the sok effervescent bath allows two bathers to completely immerse themselves in the water as thousands of champagne-like bubbles emerge from thirteen ports, gently caressing for a soothing bathing experience. This model features a continuous flow of water over the sides of the basin for a relaxing visual and aural sensation, and chromatherapy lighting provides a full spectrum of color that washes over you. A 1.5-horsepower pump with a 4-kilowatt, in-line heater powers the whirlpool system. The bath is constructed of acrylic and fiberglass reinforced plastic for exceptional durability and easy cleaning, and the drain outlet on this model is in the center."

Cognitive Daily: Artists look different

Cognitive Daily: Artists look different: "These two pictures represent the eye motions of two viewers as they scan a work of art with the goal of remembering it later. One of them is a trained artist, and the other is a trained psychologist. Can you tell which is which?"

rlwrap, Emacs midi-input and p5httpd

rlwrap, Emacs midi-input and p5httpd: "rlwrap is a 'readline wrapper' that uses the GNU readline library to allow the editing of keyboard input for any other command. Input history is remembered across invocations, separately for each command; history completion and search work as in bash and completion word lists can be specified on the command line."

No more “stupid guys” at Beijing’s Silk Market

No more “stupid guys” at Beijing’s Silk Market: "Realizing that the counterfeit goods orgy might be nearing its end, the Silk Market now tries to boost sales and re-position itself by fostering exceptional customer service among its employees. Late last year, the proprietors have erected various signs around the market, elaborating on proper ways to communicate with patrons."

Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design

Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design: "Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design
OJR's design experts review usability research and offer suggestions on how you can make your online articles better connect with readers."

Calvin and Hobbes

Calvin and Hobbes: "Phrase or keyword to search for:"

RLC: Times Reporter Dares to Buy Sliced Brisket

RLC: Times Reporter Dares to Buy Sliced Brisket: "Times Reporter Dares to Buy Sliced Brisket
I've been thinking about this New York Times article since it came out a few days ago -- an article on the barbecue craze in New York and whether the barbecue there meets Texas standards, or has to.

But that part's not what I'm thinking about.

What I'm thinking about is this line describing Kreuz Market, the legendary barbecue joint thirty miles down the road from here (page 3 of the article, fifth paragraph from the bottom):

A friend related a story of visiting Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Tex., one of the high holy shrines of Texas barbecue. He tried to describe the vibe in the room while he was eating: a low, throbbing, violent, ready-to-rumble hum that he felt and felt part of."

Stackless.com - About Stackless

Stackless.com - About Stackless: "An introduction for newcomers

Stackless Python is an enhanced version of the Python programming language. It allows programmers to reap the benefits of thread-based programming without the performance and complexity problems associated with conventional threads. The microthreads that Stackless adds to Python are a cheap and lightweight convenience which can if used properly, give the following benefits:

* Improved program structure.
* More readable code.
* Increased programmer productivity.

Features

For all the convenience gained through using Stackless, there is really only a minimal amount of functionality exposed through the stackless module. You can get more familiar with these aspects by reading the information provided in the following pages:

* Microthreads. Tasklets wrap functions allowing them to be launched as microthreads.
* Channels. Channels can be used for bidirectional communication between tasklets.
* Scheduling. A round robin scheduler is built in. It can be used to schedule tasklets either cooperatively or preemptively.
* Serialisation. Tasklets can be serialised to disk through pickling for later resumption of execution."

Burrito Blog

Burrito Blog: "The Burrito Blog"

And Rightly So! � Blog Archive � Turning Boiling Water Into Snow

And Rightly So! � Blog Archive � Turning Boiling Water Into Snow: "Way cool. OK…way WaY wAy COLD."

iStumbler 98

iStumbler 98: "iStumbler is the leading wireless discovery tool for Mac OS X, providing plugins for finding AirPort networks, Bluetooth devices and Bonjour services with your Mac.

Release 98 includes a re-written AirPort plugin which now correctly reports signal for all current AirPort chip-sets, and provides more information about all networks. The info window is now resizable and the AirPort Inspector shows dBm values when available."

1980s TV Theme Songs; wav files. Brought to you by Triplets and Us

1980s TV Theme Songs; wav files. Brought to you by Triplets and Us: "Home : 80s : TV & Movies"

Berto: Philosophy Monkey: Principles of Economics, Translated

Berto: Philosophy Monkey: Principles of Economics, Translated: "This is a hilarious presentation by Yoram Bauman, translating Mankiw's Ten Principles of Economics for non-economists"

Your Daily Awesome » Ira Glass on Storytelling

Your Daily Awesome » Ira Glass on Storytelling: "Ira Glass on Storytelling"

Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac and Windows

Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac and Windows

Free video solutions for mac and windows.

MPEG Streamclip is a powerful video converter, player, editor for Mac and Windows. It can play many movie files, not only MPEGs; it can convert MPEG files between muxed/demuxed formats for authoring; it can encode movies to many formats, including iPod; it can cut, trim and join movies.MPEG Streamclip can also download videos from YouTube and Google by entering the page URL.

MacMod.com - Your Mac Modification HQ - Discharge a CRT

MacMod.com - Your Mac Modification HQ - Discharge a CRT: "After grounding the tool, you will want to place the probe under the CRT cap and make contact with the metal clips that hold it into place (see fig. 2 and 3).� This will discharge the CRT and make the display ready to service.�� If you see sparks, then you know the display has been discharge, but also you have not let enough time for it to dischargen naturally.� Next time you discharge this particular display, double the amount of time you waited e.g. instead of 10 minutes wait 20 minutes. �

Pretty much, discharging a CRT is taking a probe from under the CRT cap to a ground on the chassis so you don't get shocked. "

I, Pencil | The Foundation for Economic Education: The Freeman, Ideas on Liberty

I, Pencil | The Foundation for Economic Education: The Freeman, Ideas on Liberty: "“None of the thousands of persons involved in producing the pencil performed his task because he wanted a pencil. Some among them never saw a pencil and would not know what it is for. Each saw his work as a way to get the goods and services he wanted—goods and services we produced in order to get the pencil we wanted. Every time we go to the store and buy a pencil, we are exchanging a little bit of our services for the infinitesimal amount of services that each of the thousands contributed toward producing the pencil. "

Reason Magazine - The Life and Times of Milton Friedman

Reason Magazine - The Life and Times of Milton Friedman: "When Milton Friedman stepped forward on December 10, 1976, to receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences from the King of Sweden, he needed bodyguards. His moment of glory was marred by a mob of protesters outside gathering to condemn Friedman’s alleged complicity in the crimes of the military regime ruling Chile, which allegedly lived and died according to his theories. One heckler even slipped inside, shouting “down with capitalism, freedom for Chile” from the balcony."

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

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

JNC, Barton-Wright, Self Defence with a cane part 1

JNC, Barton-Wright, Self Defence with a cane part 1: "Self-defence with a Walking-stick: The Different Methods of Defending Oneself with a Walking-Stick or Umbrella when Attacked under Unequal Conditions (PartI)
By E.W. Barton-Wright [EN1]
From Pearson’s Magazine, 11 (January 1901), 35-44."

Bill Gates keeps close eye on kids' computer time - Yahoo! News

Bill Gates keeps close eye on kids' computer time - Yahoo! News: "Gates said he and his wife Melinda decided to set a limit of 45 minutes a day of total screen time for games and an hour a day on weekends, plus what time she needs for homework."

Macleans.ca | Bewitched by boarding schools

Macleans.ca | Bewitched by boarding schools: "A friend of mine had a rather unsatisfactory meeting with his publisher the other day, apropos his latest manuscript. 'It's too English,' was the verdict. 'Ah, right,' said my pal and was heading back to the old drawing board when he suddenly remembered: 'Hang on. What about Harry Potter?'"

Super Deluxe Tuckbox Template Maker

Super Deluxe Tuckbox Template Maker: "Custom tuckbox template generation. Based on the custom tuckboxes designed by Elliott C. Evans."

Apple CEO Jobs attacks teacher unions | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Apple CEO Jobs attacks teacher unions | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle
"AUSTIN — Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs lambasted teacher unions today, claiming no amount of technology in the classroom would improve public schools until principals could fire bad teachers."

14 Hewlett-Packard Company Secrets From A Former Employee - Consumerist

14 Hewlett-Packard Company Secrets From A Former Employee - Consumerist: "13. HP's Beta Software website is at: http://www.hp.com/pond/ljbeta/. Only beta because it hasn't been put on the distribution cds yet. A lot of drivers here will do stuff that the installation cds won't. Also has fixes. HP maintains similar unadvertised websites throughout their system...

14. http://www.hp.com/pond/pnp Point and print = a new hp toy."

The Musical Touch of Leonard Nimoy

The Musical Touch of Leonard Nimoy: "Just about everybody who's anybody on the Internet has seen Leonard Nimoy's music video, The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins. However, little has ever been established about when, where, and why it was made. In a Maiden Wine exclusive, we have found answers and more. And the Earth-shattering news is: the video that we all know and love is an edited, abbreviated version of the original video! After decades on the shelf, the world can now enjoy the full version of this legendary production, with an introduction to the song, complete instrumental break, and the ending in its entirety.

As to the origins of this video, we can now say with certainty that it was originally created for the ABC summer replacement series, Malibu-U, hosted by 'Ozzie And Harriet' TV star, Ricky Nelson. The show was a beachy version of American Bandstand, with musical guests who all performed on the sand. In the episode featuring Nimoy (as well as Mrs. Miller and The Buffalo Springfield!), the Bilbo clip was introduced by Ricky as a musical number designed to push your funny button. So for those of you who have seen the video and said, 'Was he serious?!', the answer is, no, he wasn't. It's supposed to make you laugh."

Hack Attack: Burn almost any video file to a playable DVD - Lifehacker

Hack Attack: Burn almost any video file to a playable DVD - Lifehacker: "DVD Flick is a free, open source DVD authoring tool that will take care of pretty much all of the legwork involved in authoring your DVDs. So thank the gods of open source and go download it here.

In order to make a DVD that you can play on your DVD player, your video files need to be encoded in MPEG-2 format. What makes DVD Flick special (aside from the fact that it's free) is that it handles all of the necessary transcoding of your AVI, MPG, MOV, and WMV files (among others) to MPEG-2, and then authors and burns your DVD all in one fell swoop - meaning it's very simple for anyone to use."

TaxProf Blog: 2007 Index of Economic Freedom

TaxProf Blog: 2007 Index of Economic Freedom: "The Heritage Foundation has published the 2007 Index of Economic Freedom, measures and ranks 161 countries across 10 specific freedoms, including tax rates and property rights [a description of the 10 freedoms is below the fold].

The 10 Most Free Countries (and their freedom scores) are:

1. Hong Kong (89.3%)
2. Singapore (85.7%)
3. Australia (82.7%)
4. United States (82.0%)
5. New Zealand (81.6%)
6. United Kingdom (81.6%)
7. Ireland (81.3%)
8. Luxembourg (79.3%)
9. Switzerland (79.1%)
10. Canada (78.7%)"

LED Shoppe - The cheapest online store of LED, LED Product & Computer Accessories.

LED Shoppe - The cheapest online store of LED, LED Product & Computer Accessories.

bunnie’s blog � Blog Archive � Akihabara, Eat Your Heart Out

bunnie’s blog � Blog Archive � Akihabara, Eat Your Heart Out: "Ten years ago, Akihabara was the place to be for the latest electronics and knick knacks and components. I’m convinced the new place to be is the SEG Electronics Market in Shenzhen (although to be fair I heard there is a competing market in Korea that’s supposedly even better–the Japanese test-market their stuff there even before they try it in Akihabara!)."

The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids -- New York Magazine

The Power (and Peril) of Praising Your Kids -- New York Magazine: "But a growing body of research—and a new study from the trenches of the New York public-school system—strongly suggests it might be the other way around. Giving kids the label of “smart” does not prevent them from underperforming. It might actually be causing it."

Imagining the Tenth Dimension - A Book by Rob Bryanton

Imagining the Tenth Dimension - A Book by Rob Bryanton

PodSafe Audio - Podsafe Music under the Creative Commons license for Podcasting

PodSafe Audio - Podsafe Music under the Creative Commons license for Podcasting

"We invite you to browse through the songs and artists on this site and download anything that strikes your fancy. The artists on this site have released their music under the Creative Commons license and agreed to allow their music to be used by you in any way and form for webcasting, as long as you don't take credit for the original work. We hope you will find something that will be useful to you in your Pod Cast!"

Hoover Institution - Hoover Digest - How to Cure Health Care

Hoover Institution - Hoover Digest - How to Cure Health Care

Amazing flame fractals take your breath away | TechRepublic Photo Gallery

Amazing flame fractals take your breath away | TechRepublic Photo Gallery: "Witness the beauty and elegance of mathematics with 50 breathtaking fractals. Webshots member rajah created these Fractal Flames with Apophysis--a freeware Windows application with which you can design and render fractal flames. According to http://apophysis.wikispaces.com/ and http://www.flam3.com/, Fractal Flames were created by Scott Draves in 1992 and are an 'extension of the iterated function system class of fractals'."

Windows expert to Redmond: Buh-bye

Windows expert to Redmond: Buh-bye: "Bye-bye Windows! My three-month Macintosh trial has ended, but my permanent gig with the Mac is just getting started. Apple's MacBook Pro and Mac OS X are now my computer and operating system of choice.

"

protein_synth.mp4 (video/mp4 Object)

protein_synth.mp4 (video/mp4 Object)

Principles of Economics

Mankiw 2e: "

Although the study of economics has many facets, the field is unified by several central ideas. The Ten Principles of Economics offer an overview of what economics is all about."

Reason Magazine - Why Health Care Isn't Fair

Reason Magazine - Why Health Care Isn't Fair: "My family, for example, gets health insurance through my wife's employer, and it costs�...actually, I have no idea what it costs. That's one of the problems Bush wants to address by eliminating the tax code's bias in favor of employer-provided medical coverage, which distorts the insurance market, promotes insecurity, and raises health care costs.

This bias was created more or less by accident. During World War II, businesses competing to attract scarce workers got around wage and price controls by offering health insurance instead of higher pay. In 1943 the Internal Revenue Service decided not to count this increasingly popular fringe benefit as taxable income, a policy codified by Congress in 1954."

Read, I, Pencil: Library of Economics and Liberty

Read, I, Pencil: Library of Economics and Liberty

"None of the thousands of persons involved in producing the pencil performed his task because he wanted a pencil. Some among them never saw a pencil and would not know what it is for. Each saw his work as a way to get the goods and services he wanted—goods and services we produced in order to get the pencil we wanted. Every time we go to the store and buy a pencil, we are exchanging a little bit of our services for the infinitesimal amount of services that each of the thousands contributed toward producing the pencil.

I.3

"It is even more astounding that the pencil was ever produced. No one sitting in a central office gave orders to these thousands of people. No military police enforced the orders that were not given. These people live in many lands, speak different languages, practice different religions, may even hate one another—yet none of these differences prevented them from cooperating to produce a pencil. How did it happen? Adam Smith gave us the answer two hundred years ago."

Riehl World View: The Polar Bear Pic They Won't Show You

Riehl World View: The Polar Bear Pic They Won't Show You: "Mother polar bear and cub on interesting ice sculpture carved by waves. photo � Amanda Byrd."

macfuse - Google Code

macfuse - Google Code: "SpotlightFS is a MacFUSE file system that creates true smart folders, where the folders' contents are dynamically generated by querying Spotlight. This differs from Finder's version of smart folders, which are really plist files with a .savedSearch file extension. Since SpotlightFS smart folders are true folders, they can be used from anywhere--including the command line."

Xiaxue.blogspot.com - Everyone's reading it.

Xiaxue.blogspot.com - Everyone's reading it.: "No pork!"

schopeng.htm: Thirty - Eight Ways to Win an Argument, by Schopenhauer

Thirty - Eight Ways to Win an Argument, by Schopenhauer: "from Schopenhauer's 'The Art of Controversy'"

Family Research Council: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 "WT05C01"

Family Research Council: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 "WT05C01": "The Bohemian Temptation: Francis Schaeffer and the Agenda of Culture Apologists - Nov. 17, 2004"

AN ACADEMY CLASSIC

AN ACADEMY CLASSIC: "On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B
Steven Kerr

Academy of Management Executive, 1995, 9(1): 7-14



This article, updated for AME, needs no introduction.1 Even today, the original article is still widely reprinted. Now part of the lexicon, it truly qualifies as an Academy of Management Classic. For almost twenty years, its title has reminded executives and scholars alike—'it's the reward system, stupid!' We hope you enjoy the update!"

Six steps for learning difficult subjects quickly

Six steps for learning difficult subjects quickly: "Here's a strategy I've found useful for learning dry and difficult material quickly. At various times, I've used it to build up my knowledge of subjects like economics, investing, writing and computer programming languages. Some people have been surprised at how fast I can learn these kinds of skills, but I think anyone can do it with the right plan. Of course, you can use this to teach yourself interesting things as well, but most people don't have any problem learning stuff that's fun."

Online Education

Online Education: "Massive Resource List for All Autodidacts"

instructables : Invisible Book Shelf

instructables : Invisible Book Shelf: "A friend at work gave me a stack of Stephen King books that were collecting dust in his garage. My previous two shelves from the introduction were free books that my public library was trying to get rid of.
Use a book you don't mind never reading again."

instructables : Etched Minty Valentines Candy Box

instructables : Etched Minty Valentines Candy Box: "The idea is to use electricity and salt water to etch an image into the top of an altoids tin. The same process can be used to actually cut the image all the way through if allowed to go long enough. I'll explain the principles behind this as we go along. "

PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about "Design and Making Things" � Archive � Bruce Osborn: Oyako - Portraying Japanese Generations

PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about "Design and Making Things" � Archive � Bruce Osborn: Oyako - Portraying Japanese Generations

In 1982 American photographer Bruce Osborn began what has become his lifelong work: the Oyako series. For the last 25 years he took pictures of one parent with one child in a white studio setting. Bruce even introduced its own version of the Japanese “Oyako No Hi” (parent and child) day: he organizes a huge photo session every year. After some time, Bruce would even repeat the same parent-child shoot to reveal the significant changes in the relationship between mother and daughter for example, the differing characteristics of fashion changing over the years or simply documenting people getting older.

Double Wires

Double Wires

AtomFilms: Me

AtomFilms: Me: "The idea is simple, the result is stunning. On November 1, 2001, artist Ahree Lee began taking daily digital snapshots of her own face; and she has continued this project every day since. In 2004, Lee compiled all of her daily images into a montage with a wistful musical score. In the fast-paced parade of images you're about to see, each second of screen time represents about one week's worth of pictures."

The Cute Side of The Force

Buzz.Pics -- The Cute Side of The Force

ZWOK - playstation.com

ZWOK - playstation.com game

AtomFilms: Hardware Wars Teaser

AtomFilms: Hardware Wars Teaser: "A tribute to 1978, when disco was king, and Star Wars ruled the box office… yet there was something missing. The world was ready for what would become known as the parody that began the fan film craze that made the Star Wars Fan Film Awards possible. Using normal household appliances, Ernie Fosselius created arguably the 12 funniest minutes of film in this or any universe."

Firebug - Web Development Evolved

Firebug - Web Development Evolved: "Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page."

IAQ Source :: Panasonic Bathroom Fan with Heater and Lights FV-11VHL1

IAQ Source :: Panasonic Bathroom Fan with Heater and Lights FV-11VHL1: "This unit not only ventilates the air in your room, but provides overhead lighting as well. Two 13-watt compact fluorescent lamps will provide plenty of overhead lighting while the convenient, 4-watt nightlight will help you find your way through the room in the dark."

1993 Internet Revolution

1993 Internet Revolution: "Have you heard about the new computer network called ``Internet``?"

Ask Tom: On ROWNUM and Limiting Results

Ask Tom: On ROWNUM and Limiting Results: "I use it for two main things:

* To perform top-N processing. This is similar to using the LIMIT clause, available in some other databases.

select *
 from
(select *
  from t
 order by unindexed_column)
where ROWNUM < :N;

* To paginate through a query, typically in a stateless environment such as the Web.

select *
 from ( select /*+ FIRST_ROWS(n) */
 a.*, ROWNUM rnum
     from ( your_query_goes_here,
     with order by ) a
     where ROWNUM <=
     :MAX_ROW_TO_FETCH )
where rnum  >= :MIN_ROW_TO_FETCH;

"

BLACKFIVE

BLACKFIVE: "Japanese Fishing Boat Captain Makoto Nagano, 34 years old, has tried for nine years to win the Ninja Warrior competition in Japan. Only three men have ever received the title. It's about ten minutes long, so, if you enjoy those wacky Japanese game shows and think Jackie Chan is awesome, have a view:"

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

macosxhints.com - 10.3: Switch Terminal window focus with mouse movement

macosxhints.com - 10.3: Switch Terminal window focus with mouse movement: "A feature that I've long waited for -- window focus that follows the mouse between terminal windows -- has finally been added (in a hidden manner) to the 10.3 Terminal application. From the Terminal, type:

defaults write com.apple.Terminal FocusFollowsMouse -string YES"

TheStar.com - sciencetech - When ma�ana is too soon

TheStar.com - sciencetech - When manana is too soon: "A psychologist in Calgary thinks he knows why we procrastinate

No other anguish is quite like that of the procrastinator. He knows that the job has to get done, that putting it off just makes it harder, that the worry is worse than the work. And yet he can't ... quite ... get ... started.

Procrastination seems built into human nature -- the ancient Roman orator Cicero fretted about it, as did the Greek historian Thucydides.

Today, 95 per cent of people say that they sometimes procrastinate.

The real problem, though, is the 20 per cent of us who qualify as chronic procrastinators. These are people who procrastinate so routinely that their work, finances or personal relationships suffer because of it."

The China Blog - TIME

The China Blog - TIME: "One notable invention is chair skating, a seemingly unique arrangement that involves propelling yourself around a frozen pond on a rickety chair that has a couple of metal skids welded to its legs. Equipped with a couple of lethal looking icepicks, my two children managed to spend a gleeful half hour careening around the ice."

putting debug output into cx_Oracle execute

class MyConnection(cx_Oracle.Connection):
def cursor(self):
return MyCursor(self)
class MyCursor(cx_Oracle.Cursor):
def execute(self, *args):
print 'execute:',args
return cx_Oracle.Cursor.execute(self, *args)
cx_Oracle.connect = MyConnection

Courtesy of Lars, how to make a debugging execute.

oracle tracing

oracle tracing
FLOWS schema flows_010309 has been granted "alter session" & "create any trigger"

SQL> connect flows_010309@rcdb
Enter password:
Connected.
SQL> create or replace trigger login_trigger
 2  after logon on database
 3  begin
 4       execute immediate 'alter session set sql_trace=true';
 5  end;
 6  /

GigaVox Media, Inc. » The Levelator™

GigaVox Media, Inc. » The Levelator™: "So what is The Levelator? It's software that runs on Windows or OS X (universal binary) that adjusts the audio levels within your podcast or other audio file for variations from one speaker to the next, for example. It's not a compressor, normalizer or limiter although it contains all three. It's much more than those tools, and it's much simpler to use. The UI is dirt-simple: Drag-and-drop any WAV or AIFF file onto The Leveler's application window, and a few moments later you'll find a new version which just sounds better.

Have you ever recorded an interview in which you and your guest ended up at different volumes? How about a panel discussion where some people were close to microphones and others were not? These are the problems the post-production engineers of Team ITC solve every day, and it used to sometimes take them hours of painstaking work with expensive and complex tools like SoundTrack Pro, Audacity, Sound Forge or Audition to solve them. Now it takes mere seconds. Seriously. The Levelator is unlike any other audio tool you've ever seen, heard or used. It's magic. And it's free."

Akai EWI EWI4000s MIDI Wind Controller at Patchman Music

Akai EWI EWI4000s MIDI Wind Controller at Patchman Music: "Akai EWI. Patchman Music is proud to announce the Akai EWI4000s MIDI Wind Controller. This new wind controller from Akai is one of the most exciting advancements in the area of MIDI wind controllers to come along in years."

Oracle Locks

Oracle Locks: "Oracle Table Locks
Version 10.2"

Oracle Locks

Oracle Locks: "Oracle Table Locks
Version 10.2"

Performance: Diagnosing Performance Problems

Performance: Diagnosing Performance Problems: "Testing Extended SQL Tracing. Try it out. All it takes to see your first trace file is a simple SQL*Plus session like this one:

alter session
set timed_statistics=true;
alter session
set max_dump_file_size=unlimited;
alter session
set tracefile_identifier='Hello';
/* only in Oracle Database 8.1.7
and later */
alter session
set events '10046 trace name context forever, level 12';
select 'Howdy, it is '||sysdate from dual;
exit;

"

macosxhints.com - SleepWatcher - A utility to run tasks on sleep/wake

macosxhints.com - SleepWatcher - A utility to run tasks on sleep/wake: "Automatically establish internetconnections via the Cisco VPNClient on start- and wake-up"

Mac OS X CLI Utility to Capture Stills From iSight Camera

Hacks: "Mac OS X CLI Utility to Capture Stills From iSight Camera


Update: now compiled as an Universal Binary for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

Recently got an iSight camera and could not find a CLI capture utility around. Nobody ever needed or wrote this before ? Most unlikely. Anyway, here is my version, you may wish to download. Here is how it's being used in a shell:


$ ./isightcapture myimage.jpg"

Harry Clark Plumbing and Heating - Plumbing

Harry Clark Plumbing and Heating - Plumbing: "On Demand Water Heater

Takagi has been a manufacturing leader in Japan for over 50 years. Takagi has made on demand water heater for the US market and currently has four models available."

Dragonfly by Wowwee: The World's First Radio-Controlled, Fluttering Insect: VIDEO - Popular Mechanics

Dragonfly by Wowwee: The World's First Radio-Controlled, Fluttering Insect: VIDEO - Popular Mechanics: "This flying insect from WowWee may look like a robot — like the company's huge hits Roboreptile and Robosapien — but it's not. The FlyTech Dragonfly is the world's first commercial, radio-controlled ornithopter; that's kind of a mouthful, but basically it flies by flapping instead of using propellers as a main thrus"

Recycle Design

atelier v.: "Gallery of interesting recyclable projects"

Ironic Sans: Celebrity Patents

Ironic Sans: Celebrity Patents: "So, inspired by Google’s new easy-to-use patent search, I decided to dig up some of the celebrity patents that have been issued over the years. The following 18 20 patents are all by celebrities not usually known for being inventors. You can follow the links to the actual patents to learn more about each one."

Broken Thermometer Causes 100 to Respond to Mercury Spill - NewsChannel 9 WSYR

Broken Thermometer Causes 100 to Respond to Mercury Spill - NewsChannel 9 WSYR: "CARMEL, N.Y. (AP) - It was quite a New Year's Eve at the home of Richard Berger in Carmel - in Putnam County. Someone in the house broke a rectal thermometer and the family called 911 around 10:30 to report the small mercury spill.

Several dozen volunteers from the Carmel Fire Department responded to the house on Brookview Drive.

Fire Chief Darryl Johnson says mercury is a hazardous material that can cause stomach problems if inhaled.

Men wearing protective gear used wet sponges to clean up the puddle.

It was packaged and brought to the Carmel firehouse where the county health department will dispose of it today.

The Berger family was not hurt."

Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t - New York Times

Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t - New York Times: "As a result, physicists, neuroscientists and computer scientists have joined the heirs of Plato and Aristotle in arguing about what free will is, whether we have it, and if not, why we ever thought we did in the first place.

“Is it an illusion? That’s the question,” said Michael Silberstein, a science philosopher at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. Another question, he added, is whether talking about this in public will fan the culture wars.

“If people freak at evolution, etc.,” he wrote in an e-mail message, “how much more will they freak if scientists and philosophers tell them they are nothing more than sophisticated meat machines, and is that conclusion now clearly warranted or is it premature?”"

Street Tech :: hardware beyond the hype

Street Tech :: hardware beyond the hype: "THUMBNAIL GUIDE TO SOLDERING (A Street Tech How-To)

Soldering is not some rarified art. It does take a little bit of patience and some practice, but mainly, it's a question of having the proper tools to do it right, carefully following a few simple steps, and steering clear of a few common pitfalls. Let's take these one at a time:"

Music of the Hemispheres - New York Times

Music of the Hemispheres - New York Times: "Then he played another, even shorter snippet: a single chord struck once on piano. Again I could instantly figure out what it was: the first note in Elton John’s live version of “Benny and the Jets.”

Dr. Levitin beamed. “You hear only one note, and you already know who it is,” he said. “So what I want to know is: How we do this? Why are we so good at recognizing music?”"

Dreams Deferred - New York Times

Dreams Deferred - New York Times: "Remarkably, then, our pattern of consolidated sleep has been a relatively recent development, another product of the industrial age, while segmented sleep was long the natural form of our slumber, having a provenance as old as humankind. (Homer even invoked the term 'first sleep' in 'The Odyssey.') For experts like Dr. Thomas Wehr, who conducted the experiments at the National Institute of Mental Health, some common sleep disorders may be nothing more than sleep's older, primal pattern trying to reassert itself — 'breaking through,' as Dr. Wehr has put it, into today's 'artificial world.'"

Empty-Stomach Intelligence - New York Times

Empty-Stomach Intelligence - New York Times: "Hunger makes the best sauce, goes the maxim. According to researchers at Yale Medical School, it may make quadratic equations and Kant’s categorical imperative go down easier too. The stimulation of hunger, the researchers announced in the March issue of Nature Neuroscience, causes mice to take in information more quickly, and to retain it better — basically, it makes them smarter. And that’s very likely to be true for humans as well."

Are We Lumberjacks?: Relativity

Are We Lumberjacks?: Relativity: "Makes you feel small in comparison."

Queen to release Christmas speech on Podcast

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

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

THE MAGICAL LAND OF SHRINKY DINKS ... Welcome

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

Cookie Madness: Chocolate Chip Cookies With Molasses

Cookie Madness: Chocolate Chip Cookies With Molasses:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Confucians vs. Christmas

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

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

We start from the following principles

We start from the following principles: "Federalist Principles

We start from the following principles:

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

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

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

Minty Boost! - USB charger for your gadgets

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

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

Channel the Spirit - washingtonpost.com

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

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

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

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

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

detroitblog » Blog Archive » Wild Kingdom

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

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

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

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

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

Build Ajax into your Web apps with Rails

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

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