Size matters: Yahoo claims 2-petabyte database is world's biggest, busiest

Size matters: Yahoo claims 2-petabyte database is world's biggest, busiest:
"Take Yahoo Inc.'s 2-petabyte, specially built data warehouse, which it uses to analyze the behavior of its half-billion Web visitors per month. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company makes a strong claim that it is not only the world's single-largest database, but also the busiest.

Based on a heavily modified PostgreSQL engine, the year-old database processes 24 billion events a day, according to Waqar Hasan, vice president of engineering in Yahoo's data group.

And the data, all of it constantly accessed and all of it stored in a structured, ready-to-crunch form, is expected to grow into the multiple tens of petabytes by next year."

1 Case/12 Cans of Yoder’s Canned Bacon

1 Case/12 Cans of Yoder’s Canned Bacon: "Fully Cooked, Ready to Eat, 12 Cans per case, 40 to 50 slices per can. For the first time in almost 20 years, canned bacon is back in this Country. Not available in any store!"

Even More Bloons - brought to you by Ninja Kiwi

Even More Bloons - brought to you by Ninja Kiwi

Trulia Snapshot: Images and Maps of the Least Expensive Homes for Sale in Piedmont, CA

Trulia Snapshot: Images and Maps of the Least Expensive Homes for Sale in Piedmont, CA

Sveinbjorn Thordarson's Website - Platypus

Sveinbjorn Thordarson's Website - Platypus: "Platypus is a development tool for the Mac OS X operating system. It can be used to create native, flawlessly integrated Mac OS X applications from interpreted scripts, such as shell scripts or Perl and Python programs. This is done by wrapping the script in an application bundle directory structure along with an executable binary that runs the script. Platypus thus makes it possible for you to share your scripts and programs with those unfamiliar with the command line interface, without any knowledge of the Mac OS X APIs -- a few clicks and you will have your own Mac OS X graphical program. Creating installers, maintenance applications, login items, launchers, automations and droplets is very easy using Platypus."

The npthread library interface

Like select() for threads:

"The npthread library allows the following seven types of threads:

* Call f(n) as soon as possible.
* Call f(n) if the current time is past t.
* Call f(n) if UNIX signal s has just arrived.
* Call f(n) if child process p has just exited.
* Call f(n) if user-defined flag p has just been waved.
* Call f(n) when file descriptor d is readable.
* Call f(n) when file descriptor d is writable."

Oracle DML Error Logging

Oracle DML Error Logging: "To use DML error logging, you add a statement clause that specifies the name of an error logging table into which the database records errors encountered during DML operations. When you add this error logging clause to the INSERT statement, certain types of errors no longer terminate and roll back the statement. Instead, each error is logged and the statement continues. You then take corrective action on the erroneous rows at a later time."

The Fed | 22.0: How to Succeed in Lit Hum Without Really Trying

The Fed | 22.0: How to Succeed in Lit Hum Without Really Trying:
"Instructor: What do you think the author’s meaning was behind this book?
Student: I personally find it similar to the genocide in Darfur.
Instructor: But we’re reading Pride and Prejudice.
Student: Just as the weeping mothers in Darfur find no solace, neither will Lizzy in her search for the true love to complete her being.
Instructor: Lizzy and Darcy just got married.
Student: Are you condoning genocide? The wailing little children will never forget the hypocrisy of America! Diversity! Fair trade! Hurricane Katrina!
Instructor: (silence)"

py2app - convert python scripts into standalone Mac OS X applications

py2app - convert python scripts into standalone Mac OS X applications: "py2app is a Python distutils suite which provides several useful features for distributing Python applications and libraries on the Mac OS X platform."

MiracleFruitMan - Curtis Mozie

MiracleFruitMan - Curtis Mozie
"It's called the 'Miracle Fruit' because it can alter the taste of sour items. Miracle Fruit is also easier to say, and spell, than it's official name - synsepalum dulcificum.

Although the plant produces fruit throughout the year, there are occasions when shipping might take more than a week, so only place an order with the understanding that the Miracle Fruit will be shipped upon availability."

The Miracle Fruit, a Tease for the Taste Buds - NYTimes.com

The Miracle Fruit, a Tease for the Taste Buds - NYTimes.com: "The miracle fruit, Synsepalum dulcificum, is native to West Africa and has been known to Westerners since the 18th century. The cause of the reaction is a protein called miraculin, which binds with the taste buds and acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids, according to a scientist who has studied the fruit, Linda Bartoshuk at the University of Florida’s Center for Smell and Taste. Dr. Bartoshuk said she did not know of any dangers associated with eating miracle fruit.

During the 1970s, a ruling by the Food and Drug Administration dashed hopes that an extract of miraculin could be sold as a sugar substitute. In the absence of any plausible commercial application, the miracle fruit has acquired a bit of a cult following."

:: strix.org.uk :: tools :: ransom note generator ::

:: strix.org.uk :: tools :: ransom note generator ::

Toodledo :: A to-do list to organize your tasks

Toodledo :: A to-do list to organize your tasks: "An easy to use, web-based to-do list. Get organized, stay motivated, and be more productive."

some handy blogspot links

links in xml (doesn't seem to get all):
http://marhar.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=1000

links in html:
http://marhar.blogspot.com/search?max-results=3000

A tribute to an American hero, author, veteran, and newspaperman

A tribute to an American hero, author, veteran, and newspaperman: "In the early 1970's, at the age of about 13, I found an old, beat-up copy of 'C/O Postmaster', published in 1943. I was immediately caught up in the world of Corporal St. George and his adventures as one of the first G.I.'s sent to Australia in 1942.

For most of my life, I looked for Thomas R. St. George, not knowing if he had survived the war, or where he might be if he did. Through the wonders of the Internet, I found him in 2007. To my amazement and delight, I found that he had published several more books, all of which I now own and treasure."

How-To: Expand your camera with CHDK - Hack a Day

How-To: Expand your camera with CHDK - Hack a Day: "As anyone who has lusted over the technical specifications for Canon's new Digital Rebel XSi knows, the capabilities of the average point and shoot camera are severely limited. Using the CHDK firmware hack, the features of Canon point and shoot cameras can be significantly expanded, allowing for ultra-high speed photography, very long exposures, time lapse photography, and RAW capture. This How-To provides a guide to our experiences using the CHDK firmware, and shows just how easy it is to get more out of a point and shoot than ever thought possible."

AJAX Libraries API - Google Code

AJAX Libraries API - Google Code: "The AJAX Libraries API is a content distribution network and loading architecture for the most popular open source JavaScript libraries. By using the Google AJAX API Loader's google.load() method, your application has high speed, globaly available access to a growing list of the most popular JavaScript open source libraries"

'Diff Doc' - A compare files Tool. Compare document, Compare XLS-Text-RTF-PDF and other file types.

'Diff Doc' - A compare files Tool. Compare document, Compare XLS-Text-RTF-PDF and other file types.: "You demand fast and accurate document comparisons, and now you can have it. 'Diff Doc' is a powerful yet easy to use folder/file compare and remediation utility. Use it to compare files of all types including MS Word/Excel/PowerPoint, PDF, RTF, Text, HTML, XML, Wordperfect and more. Our document comparison utility works the way all software should work -- accurately, quickly, simply, and affordably."

HyperCard: What Could Have Been

HyperCard: What Could Have Been: "Atkinson recalled engineers at Apple drawing network schematics in the form of a bunch of boxes linked together. Sun engineers, however, first drew the network's backbone and then hung boxes off of it. It's a critical difference, and he feels it hindered him."

Spektrum DX6i, Rx AR6200

Spektrum DX6i, Rx AR6200: "Spektrum DX6i, Rx AR6200"

RC Airplane Controls.

RC Airplane Controls.: "Transmitters with Four or More Channels

Ailerons really bring an airplane to life because they allow the airplane to roll. Most everyone that is serious about this hobby flies planes with ailerons. For this reason I want to focus our discussion of RC airplane controls on four channel radios.

A radio with four or more channels will have elevator/aileron control on the right stick and throttle/rudder control on the left stick. The ailerons are the primary turning control for an airplane with ailerons."

Learning to Fly RC Airplanes Successfully

Learning to Fly RC Airplanes Successfully: "When learning to fly RC airplanes you need to know how to control your model airplane from the ground. Instead of a cock pit RC pilots have a transmitter. The transmitter controls everything from the engine, control surfaces, retractable landing gear, and what ever else you want to add to your model!"

ParkZone™

ParkZone™: slow model rc radio-controlled plane
"Vapor Bind-N-Fly
Innovation, convenience and ease of flight – an ultra-micro flyer for everyone. Small enough, and slow enough to be flown in a basement, garage, living room, or other indoor spaces."

Spektrum RC

Spektrum RC: "The 6-channel DX6i uses the same full-range DSM2 technology found in the Spektrum DX7 and includes an impressive list of programming features for both airplanes and helicopters that are simple to access and use. It comes with the new AR6200 DSM2 6-channel receiver that is robust enough to use in large models yet compact enough to fit in many parkflyers."

YouTube - E-Flite Blade 400 3D

YouTube - E-Flite Blade 400 3D: "A breakdown and review of the E-Flite Blade 400 3D including key features and selling points."

Tri-Turbo R/C Helium Blimp

Tri-Turbo R/C Helium Blimp: "Home > RC Flying Toys > R/C Blimps > Tri-Turbo R/C Helium Blimp"

Video Games - Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo Expands His Empire - NYTimes.com

Video Games - Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo Expands His Empire - NYTimes.com: "“He probably inspires 99 percent of the developers out there today. You can even say there wouldn’t be video games today if it wasn’t for Miyamoto and Nintendo. He’s the granddad of all game developers, but the funny thing is that for all of his legacy, for all of the mainstay iconic characters he’s designed and created, he is still pushing the limits with things like Wii Fit.”"

Tagline Guru — It’s Your Brand On the Line

Tagline Guru — It’s Your Brand On the Line
All about taglines!

The original Indiana Jones: Otto Rahn and the temple of doom - Telegraph

The original Indiana Jones: Otto Rahn and the temple of doom - Telegraph: "Like Jones, Rahn was an archaeologist, like him he fell foul of the Nazis and like him he was obsessed with finding the Holy Grail - the cup reputedly used to catch Christ's blood when he was crucified. But whereas Jones rode the Grail-train to box-office glory, Rahn's obsession ended up costing him his life."

[Re]Encoded dot Com � Blog Archive � 42 Awesome Business Card Designs (With Links to 100s More)

[Re]Encoded dot Com � Blog Archive � 42 Awesome Business Card Designs (With Links to 100s More): "In today’s tech-oriented world of short attention spans it is more important than ever to make a compelling first impression. A brilliant business card that speaks to your profession, serves some unusual function or that transforms into something else can be a great way to grab attention and inspire those you meet. Organized by category here are 42 extremely creative business card designs. Some of these are old, some new, but all are still amazing examples of out-of-the-box thinking in business card design."

Listing privileges recursively for Oracle users

Listing privileges recursively for Oracle users: "Listing privileges recursively for Oracle users"

7.7.�Summary

7.7.�Summary: "Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I'll use regular expressions.” Now they have two problems.

--Jamie Zawinski, in comp.emacs.xemacs"

Mouth Organ Video - Metacafe

Mouth Organ Video - Metacafe: "how to make mouth organ from markers"

rst2a - about

rst2a - about: "rst2a was conceived by Andy Gayton, David Stokes, and Asi Behar as a solution to a persistent problem that plagued the team during their day jobs at Revver.

Every time a spec was needed, invariably, a debate over the format of the spec would arise - with developers preferring a plain text document on a wiki, and business people preferring traditional tools such as Microsoft Word based on a set template.

Cue reStructuredText - an easy-to-read, plain text document format designed to keep content and the style/formatting of content separate. Author the content once, then present it in a variety of formats - like html and pdf - with infinite possibilities for styles and templates.

After numerous proprietary-format-written specs that he couldn't open, Andy decided to build rst2a as an advocacy site to accomplish a few goals:

* Encourage the creation of additional rst styles.
* Present these styles in a digestable way, for people to download and use.
* Make it easy to convert rst documents to multiple formats, without having to install a heap of software locally.
* Help establish rst as a viable format for non-technical users."

Eye of the Goof: The Psychotronic Guide to Archive.org

Eye of the Goof: The Psychotronic Guide to Archive.org: "I've been spending a lot of time digging around in the Internet Archive. In the course of my excavations, I uncovered a metric buttload of old cult filmage in the public domain, and in a fit of obsessive-compulsive mania, decided to make a list that included every film in the archive that also makes an appearance in Michael Weldon's essential guide to midnight movies, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film."

MSR Asirra Project -- Installation

MSR Asirra Project -- Installation: "Protecting your web site with Asirra is easy. It just takes a few lines of code in whatever language your web service is written in. See these complete working examples:"

a very cute pig lesson

a very cute pig lesson: "how to draw a cute pig"

Stevey's Blog Rants: Dynamic Languages Strike Back

Stevey's Blog Rants: Dynamic Languages Strike Back: "And Stanford has a really interesting one, by and large: that their undergrads and their grad students come out, and they believe that C and C are the fabric with which God wove the Universe. OK? And they truly [think]: what is it with all these other languages?

Whereas like MIT and Berkeley, they come out, and they're like 'languages, languages, languages!' and you're like, uh, dude, you actually have to use C and C , and they're like 'oh.'"

Docutils: Documentation Utilities

Docutils: Documentation Utilities: "Docutils is an open-source text processing system for processing plaintext documentation into useful formats, such as HTML or LaTeX. It includes reStructuredText, the easy to read, easy to use, what-you-see-is-what-you-get plaintext markup language."

Overview — Sphinx v0.3 documentation

Overview — Sphinx v0.3 documentation: "Sphinx is a tool that makes it easy to create intelligent and beautiful documentation for Python projects"

reST renderer

reST renderer: "reST to HTML conversion"

AEI - Short Publications - Measles Madness

AEI - Short Publications - Measles Madness: "As a culture, we have a troubling propensity to allow science to validate populist theories, but not to exclude them.

Our trust in the scientific process seems to be a one-way proposition."

Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary

Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary: "'A helpful translation guide for the Chinese phrases that are spoken in the Serenity 'verse.'"

File: GUIDE.txt

File: GUIDE.txt: "Getting Started With WWW::Mechanize

This guide is meant to get you started using Mechanize. By the end of this guide, you should be able to fetch pages, click links, fill out and submit forms, scrape data, and many other hopefully useful things. This guide really just scratches the surface of what is available, but should be enough information to get you really going!"

Python Package Index : mechanoid 0.6.9

Python Package Index : mechanoid 0.6.9: "Python Programmatic Web Browser

mechanoid is a programmatic browser written in Python. It is intended as an engine which will do things like log in as SourceForge project admin and do a Quick Release or send and receive Yahoo mail. mechanoid is a fork of John J. Lee's mechanize."

mechanize

mechanize: "Stateful programmatic web browsing in Python, after Andy Lester's Perl module WWW::Mechanize ."

Fairness, idealism and other atrocities - Los Angeles Times

Fairness, idealism and other atrocities - Los Angeles Times: "Commencement advice you're unlikely to hear elsewhere."

Dr. Dobb's | The Tcl/Tk and Python Scripting Environments | October 1, 1998

Dr. Dobb's | The Tcl/Tk and Python Scripting Environments | October 1, 1998: "A splash of sunset-colored paint streaking across its cover immediately establishes the lineage of Harrison and McLennan's Effective Tcl/Tk Programming. The same splash is on the cover of the original Tcl/Tk book -- Tcl and the Tk Toolkit by John K. Ousterhout, the father of Tcl/Tk. (Both books are part of the Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series edited by Brian Kernighan, the 'K' in K&R.)"

InformIT: Effective Tcl/Tk Programming: Writing Better Programs with Tcl and Tk - $39.99

InformIT: Effective Tcl/Tk Programming: Writing Better Programs with Tcl and Tk - $39.99: "# By Mark Harrison, Michael McLennan
# Published Dec 8, 1997 by Addison Wesley Professional. Part of the Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series series."

Slashdot | Effective Tcl/Tk Programming

Slashdot | Effective Tcl/Tk Programming: "Whether you're into sockets with Tcl or just want to use that text widget more effectively, you will find this book useful. I'm sure it will be coming off the shelf for reference much in the future."

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Effective Tcl/Tk Programming: Writing Better Programs with Tcl and Tk (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)

Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Effective Tcl/Tk Programming: Writing Better Programs with Tcl and Tk (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series): "I hope that other authors of computer books have a look at this book."

Concurrency with Python, Twisted, and Flex

Concurrency with Python, Twisted, and Flex: "Before wading into the world of Twisted, you should be forewarned. Twisted contains lots of libraries to do all kinds of things, and this abundance can be overwhelming. They use weird naming conventions, often making things up even though there are accepted names for things, so names are often nonsensical. The documentation sucks -- badly. You usually have to thrash around quite a bit to figure out what you need, and even then it requires luck (but the newsgroup tends to be helpful). There is an O'Reilly book on Twisted, but it's not great -- you get it anyway because that's the only book there is.

Normally, caveats like that might send you away from an open-source project. Despite the issues, Twisted is worth it because the code is very good, and it solves your problem. The project is very actively maintained, but it's by people who are good at writing (and testing) code, and not so good at documentation. It's definitely worth using, but you should be ready to roll up your sleeves. However, if you can fit your project within what I'm showing in this article, things should go easily."

Camera Hacks: Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera

Camera Hacks: Turn Your Point-and-Shoot into a Super-Camera: "If you're using a consumer grade point-and-shoot Canon digital camera, you've got hardware in hand that can support advanced features way beyond what shipped in the box. With the help of a free, open source project called CHDK, you can get features like RAW shooting mode, live RGB histograms, motion-detection, time-lapse, and even games on your existing camera. Let's transform your point-and-shoot into a super camera just by adding a little special sauce to its firmware."

Pixels Go Mad - The Celebration Of Pixel Art | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine

Pixels Go Mad - The Celebration Of Pixel Art | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine: "Pixel art lives both in and beyond computer screen. Artists design pixel art posters, magazine covers, album covers, desktop wallpapers, paintings, “pixelish” video ads and even pixelated tattoos. And there is a good reason behind it: in times when popular design solutions strive for real-life-look or perfection pixel art offers a distinctive and creative artistic approach which is extremely expressive. In fact, pixel art can be impressive as well. This post attempts to prove just that."

"We Need Our Moms (A Sock Opera)" ecard at AmericanGreetings.com

"We Need Our Moms (A Sock Opera)" ecard at AmericanGreetings.com

Are you prepared?

Are you prepared?: "Imagine that you have no electricity, no gas, no water and no telephone service. Imagine that all the businesses are closed and you are without any kind of emergency services. What will you do until help arrives?

Click on the buttons to the right to find out how you can prepare yourself and your family for an emergency. You can also learn what to do in response to a specific disaster, like a tsunami, just in case."

Bluetooth Proximity Detection on OS X

Bluetooth Proximity Detection on OS X
"The tool I ultimately chose for the purpose of the detection itself is a little free app appropriately called Proximity. This is a thin little program that does one thing, but does it well -- that is to sit in the background and scan for a given Bluetooth device at regular intervals. When it detects a change in the device’s availability, it simply calls one of two Applescripts: One for the device leaving range, and another for when the device enters range.

So, armed with that I set out to create two Applescripts that would perform the following tasks:

When the Bluetooth Device enters range:

1. •Deactivate the Screen Saver Password.
   

2. •Deactivate the Screen Saver.
   

3. •Reconnect the phone to the OS X Address Book
   

4. •Sync the phone using iSync

When the Bluetooth Device leaves range:

1. •Activate the Screen Saver Password.

2. •Activate the Screen Saver."

saw this somewhere...

on your desk: anything that is not:
supplies
ref
decoration
equipment
represents a commitment


matrix of self-management


crazy master &
^ maker commander
|
perspective
reactor micro
manager

control ---->

YouTube - Pikmin - Ai no Uta (English Lyrics)

YouTube - Pikmin - Ai no Uta (English Lyrics)

"Uprooted, we'll follow you alone.
Today once again we'll carry, fight, multiply and be eaten.
Dug up, we'll meet again and be thrown around.
But we'll follow you forever.

I guess it's time to play.
Maybe we'll go out quietly.
Ah... ah... falling in love...
Under that sky...

On this planet, where so mnay lifeforms live,
Today once again we'll carry, fight, multiply and then be eaten.
Uprooted, we'll gather, and be thrown.
But we won't ask you to love us.

I guess it's time to play.
Maybe we'll try harder.
Ah, ah... falling in love...
Under that sky...

We'll work together, fight, and be eaten,
But we'll follow you forever.
We'll fight, be silent, and follow you,
But we won't ask you to love us."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_no_Uta_(Strawberry_Flower_song)

Dan Lyons aka Fake Steve Jobs (Forbes) at Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008

Dan Lyons aka Fake Steve Jobs (Forbes) at Web 2.0 Expo SF 2008: "Dan Lyons aka Fake Steve Jobs (Forbes) at Web 2.0 Expo SF"