my unicorn links

http://unicorn.ü-wie-geek.de/0.2/128/f79b395a801bf291b74e8bccea8e03f8.png
http://unicorn.ü-wie-geek.de/0.2/32/f79b395a801bf291b74e8bccea8e03f8.png
http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/37328/my-godits-full-of-unicorns

Obama is a sociopath — Cynthia Yockey, A Conservative Lesbian

Obama is a sociopath — Cynthia Yockey, A Conservative Lesbian: "I remember when I was in high school (1967 to 1971) my father’s great enthusiasm for the books of Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman philosopher and author of The True Believer."

How to catch an iPhone thief

How to catch an iPhone thief: "My tools are, Google, AT&T, MobileMe, White Pages and ussearch.com."

Oracle PHP Cookbook: Working with Dates and Times in Oracle and PHP

Oracle PHP Cookbook: Working with Dates and Times in Oracle and PHP:

To convert a UNIX timestamp into an Oracle DATE type:

CREATE OR REPLACE
   FUNCTION unixts_to_date(unixts IN PLS_INTEGER) RETURN DATE IS
       /**
        * Converts a UNIX timestamp into an Oracle DATE
        */
       unix_epoch DATE := TO_DATE('19700101000000','YYYYMMDDHH24MISS');
       max_ts PLS_INTEGER := 2145916799; -- 2938-12-31 23:59:59
       min_ts PLS_INTEGER := -2114380800; -- 1903-01-01 00:00:00
       oracle_date DATE;
      
       BEGIN
          
           IF unixts > max_ts THEN
               RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(
                   -20901,
                   'UNIX timestamp too large for 32 bit limit'
               );
           ELSIF unixts < min_ts THEN
               RAISE_APPLICATION_ERROR(
                   -20901,
                   'UNIX timestamp too small for 32 bit limit' );
           ELSE
               oracle_date := unix_epoch + NUMTODSINTERVAL(unixts, 'SECOND');
           END IF;
          
           RETURN (oracle_date);
      
   END;

In the Pipeline:

In the Pipeline:: "It has also been established that tight or loose packing of books; the amount of alkaline reserve; reactions of DEZ with degradation products, unknown paper chemicals and adhesives; phases of the moon and the positions of various planets and constellations do not have any influence on the observed adverse effects of DEZ treatment."

JSUR | Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results

JSUR | Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results: "The Journal of Serendipitous and Unexpected Results (JSUR) is an open-access forum for researchers seeking to further scientific discovery by sharing surprising or unexpected results. These results should provide guidance toward the verification (or negation) of extant hypotheses. JSUR has two branches, one focusing on computational sciences and the other on the life sciences. JSUR submissions include, but are not limited to, short communications of recent research results, full-length papers, review articles or opinion pieces. Submit your work!"

The Chess Master and the Computer - The New York Review of Books

The Chess Master and the Computer - The New York Review of Books: "Having a computer partner also meant never having to worry about making a tactical blunder. The computer could project the consequences of each move we considered, pointing out possible outcomes and countermoves we might otherwise have missed. With that taken care of for us, we could concentrate on strategic planning instead of spending so much time on calculations. Human creativity was even more paramount under these conditions. Despite access to the 'best of both worlds,' my games with Topalov were far from perfect. We were playing on the clock and had little time to consult with our silicon assistants. Still, the results were notable. A month earlier I had defeated the Bulgarian in a match of 'regular' rapid chess 4–0. Our advanced chess match ended in a 3–3 draw. My advantage in calculating tactics had been nullified by the machine."

Dynamic Dummy Image Generator - DummyImage.com

Dynamic Dummy Image Generator - DummyImage.com: "What is this?
This is a simple tool for generating dummy/filler images on the fly at whatever size you want.
How do I use it?
Simply add the width, an 'x', and the height (example) of the image you want and my script will spit out a gray box to the size you want with the image dimensions in black Arial text centered in the middle of the box."

Google Blogger - Print Your Blog, Sell Your Blog Book!

Google Blogger - Print Your Blog, Sell Your Blog Book!: "Next time someone asks 'How can I print my blog?' send them to Blog2Print. With a couple of clicks, you choose a cover, the posts you'd like to include, and you're on your way to creating your own Blog Book!"

United States Patent Application: 0050256881

United States Patent Application: 0050256881:

Harrison, Mark ; et al. November 17, 2005
Method and system for distributed serverless file management

Abstract

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.

United States Patent Application: 0090144402

United States Patent Application: 0090144402:
"Harrison; Mark June 4, 2009
Storage Management for Renderfarm

Abstract

Systems and methods for storing assets in storage systems external to asset management systems while still allowing the asset management systems to track the stored assets are disclosed. One method begins by first receiving an asset to be stored in an asset management system. Next, a first location on a storage managed by the asset management system is determined. A second location on a storage system external to the asset management system is then determined. The external storage system has been configured to store the asset. The asset is then stored at the second location. A logical link is then determined to the second location. Finally, the logical link is stored at the first location. The disclosed systems and methods allow for an administrator to separate the storage methods used by asset management systems from the asset tracking and logging capabilities of asset management systems."

Why I Believe Printers Were Sent From Hell To Make Us Miserable - The Oatmeal

Why I Believe Printers Were Sent From Hell To Make Us Miserable - The Oatmeal

Movie Masher: Free Open Source Online Video Editor

Movie Masher: Free Open Source Online Video Editor:

"What is Movie Masher?

A set of Adobe Flash™ applets that provide front-end tools for common video editing tasks:

* Trim, composite and timeshift video
* Mix and fade multiple audio tracks
* Add effects, transitions and titling

An XML API is used to customize both the appearance and behavior of the tools:

* Colorize and reposition panels
* Reskin and bind interface controls
* Build preconfigured effects
* Integrate with CGI scripts"

WebShell

WebShell: "WebShell is a web-based ssh shell.

It runs on any browser capable of JavaScript and AJAX. You can use it from any computer or iPhone/smartphone.

The server is written in Python and is very easy to set up on Linux, Mac OS X, *BSD, Solaris, and any Unix that runs python 2.3."

timeline.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

timeline.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object)

Interesting clock

Debunking the Erlang and Haskell hype for servers – Codexon

Debunking the Erlang and Haskell hype for servers – Codexon: "Using a single process/thread epoll sustained the most connections per second before hitting a cpu bottleneck."

TrustLeap G-WAN Apache Rock IIS Web server software Linux and Windows benchmarks

TrustLeap G-WAN Apache Rock IIS Web server software Linux and Windows benchmarks: "G-WAN is a FREE Web (application) server with ANSI C scripts."

Carbon cap: Be careful what you wish for | Stand-Up Economist

Carbon cap: Be careful what you wish for | Stand-Up Economist: "One hundred years ago G.K. Chesterton warned against “the persistent and insane attempt to obtain pleasure without paying for it,” so it is worth stating the obvious: We cannot have price signals without raising the price of fossil fuels. Claims to accomplish one without the other bring to mind Chesterton’s mocking words: “Let us have the pleasure of conquerors without the pains of soldiers: let us sit on sofas and be a hardy race.”"

README.rst at master from coordt's ADCtheme - GitHub

README.rst at master from coordt's ADCtheme - GitHub:

"Install Directly in Your Documentation

If you want to include the files directly in the documentation, so another person can build your documentation, it is easy.

1. Copy over everything in the static directory into the _static directory of your documentation's source folder.
2. Copy the layout.html file into the _templates directory of your documentation's source folder.
3. Alter your conf.py html_theme = 'basic' instead of 'ADCtheme'.

Making Sphinx Use the Theme

If you aren't installing the files directly into your documentation, edit the conf.py file and make the following setting:

html_theme = 'ADCtheme'"

How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't - Irwin Schiff

How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't - Irwin Schiff:

"Tags: Business, economics austrian schiff comic inflation deflation intervention, Business-Economics"

rst2a - reStructuredText to Anything

rst2a - reStructuredText to Anything: "Style your work in a way that flows naturally from the organization of your ideas. You've composed naturally without the distraction of styling, now let the styling follow naturally from your composition."

Stanford on iTunes U

Stanford on iTunes U:
"Download courses, faculty lectures, interviews, music and sports. Play on your iPod, Mac or PC, or burn a CD. Stay Connected anytime anywhere. Experience a wealth of learning from Stanford."

Casual Encounters--22 Flash Games Worth Getting Addicted To | Maximum PC

Casual Encounters--22 Flash Games Worth Getting Addicted To | Maximum PC: "When you don't have the time or resources to commit to a full-fledged FPS, strategy game, or RPG adventure, a fun, fast, browser-based game is sure to satisfy. We reveal our favorites—both current and classic"

ScanCafe - Photo Restoration, Photo Scanning, Negative Scanning, Slide Scanning

ScanCafe - Photo Restoration, Photo Scanning, Negative Scanning, Slide Scanning: "The Leader in negative scanning, slide scanning, and photo scanning. We scan by hand."

quietube | Video without the distractions | Youtube, iPlayer, Viddler, Vimeo and more

quietube | Video without the distractions | Youtube, iPlayer, Viddler, Vimeo and more: "To watch web videos without the comments and crap, just drag the button below to your browser's bookmarks bar. On any of the supported video pages, click the bookmark button to watch in peace."

Ghost Towns | michael john grist

Ghost Towns | michael john grist: "Ghost Towns are the ultimate haikyo experience. If you long to be Indiana Jones, this is where you need to go. This is where the mystery is, whole towns that died. In the doctor’s office the scalpels are laid out for surgery. Battered wooden apartments are still filled with the weathered remnants of their old occupants. Doors hang open, plates sit with rotten food, left as they were."

HINT.FM: Web Seer

HINT.FM: Web Seer:

"Web Seer
Compare Google Suggest results."

Laurent Schneider � How to tune WHERE NAME LIKE ‘%ABC%’

Laurent Schneider � How to tune WHERE NAME LIKE ‘%ABC%’:

CREATE INDEX lsc_i ON lsc_t(NAME);
SELECT /*+INDEX(LSC_T,LSC_I)*/  ID, NAME, birthdate
  FROM lsc_t WHERE NAME LIKE '%ABC%';

A Peek Into Netflix Queues - NYTimes.com

A Peek Into Netflix Queues - NYTimes.com: "Examine Netflix rental patterns, neighborhood by neighborhood, in a dozen cities."

Eventlet Networking Library

Eventlet Networking Library: "Eventlet is a networking library written in Python. It achieves high scalability by using non-blocking io while at the same time retaining high programmer usability by using coroutines to make the non-blocking io operations appear blocking at the source code level."

About BULBEZ

About BULBEZ: "BULB EZ is a lightweight, non-toxic lubricant that helps prevent light bulbs and lamps from freezing, sticking or breaking in their sockets."

The Second Act: Boost your productivity with Hemingway’s hack

The Second Act: Boost your productivity with Hemingway’s hack: "The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start."

Images from the History of Medicine (NLM)

Images from the History of Medicine (NLM)

Lots o' pics!

Sleep Cycle alarm clock

Sleep Cycle alarm clock: "The Sleep Cycle alarm clock, developed by Swedish developer LexWare Labs AB, is a bio-alarm clock that analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in the lightest sleep phase.

Waking up in the lightest sleep phase feels like waking without an alarm clock - it is a natural way to wake up where you feel rested and relaxed.

Sleep Cycle has become a huge success with a #1 paid app position in many countries, including Germany, Japan and Russia."

Newgeography.com | Economic, demographic, and political commentary about places

Newgeography.com | Economic, demographic, and political commentary about places:
"# Economics
# Politics
# Urban Issues
# Small Cities
# Demographics
# Suburbs
# Housing"

Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow!

Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow!: "Back in the mid-1940s, Seagram’s advertised its VO Canadian whiskey with a series of extremely manly magazine ads about “Men Who Plan Beyond Tomorrow”–unspecified futuristic thinkers who liked the fact that Seagram’s was patient enough to age VO for six years."

The greatest program ever written || kuro5hin.org

The greatest program ever written || kuro5hin.org: "I'm a programmer. I write games. Games programmers get a lot of respect, but none of them, not me, not Carmak, and not Abrash. None of them deserve the honour which I want to bestow on David Horne. This is because David Horne wrote the greatest program ever written: 1k chess on the ZX81."

Full ZX-81 Chess in 1K

Full ZX-81 Chess in 1K: "One further point should be explained. It is
not possible to give a good opening or finish to
the game because that would require slightly
more code than we have available in the 1K
game. We actually have only 672 bytes.
The game, therefore, starts off with the
computer playing white and either the King's
pawn or the Queen's pawn moved forward one
position. The following describes the machine

[illustration]
code and techniques used in the creation of my
1K ZX-81 chess program."

Recipes | Ciao Italia, Italian Cooking on PBS

Recipes | Ciao Italia, Italian Cooking on PBS:

mixer version

1 package active dry yeast (0.25 ounces)
1 3/4 cups warm (110-115 degrees F) water
1 tablespoon Olive Oil
4 to 4 1/2 cups Unbleached, All-Purpose Flour
2 teaspoons salt

mix yeast and 1/2 cup water in mixer bowl; proof 5 min till bubbles form.
add remaining water and oil.
add flour 1 cup at a time at low speed.
add salt on third cup of flour.
blend on medium high till dough clings to dough hook.

knead 5 minutes.
put in oiled bowl, cover, let rise 1 hour till doubled.
makes 1 lb, 14 oz dough.

Recipes | Ciao Italia, Italian Cooking on PBS

Recipes | Ciao Italia, Italian Cooking on PBS:

"Fried Stuffed Calzone

INGREDIENTS FOR DOUGH
1 lb.1 oz. Caputo Flour
10 oz Water
10 gr Yeast
20 gr Salt
INGREDIENTS FOR STUFFING
8 oz. Sheep Ricotta
8 oz Buffalo Mozzarella, cut in small cubes
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil for frying"

Burt Rutan on Climate Change

Burt Rutan on Climate Change: "Climate Change Presentations. Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW). Study the data and reach your own conclusions!"

How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic: Responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming | A Grist Special Series | Grist

How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic: Responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming | A Grist Special Series | Grist: "Below is a complete listing of the articles in 'How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic,' a series by Coby Beck containing responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming. There are four separate taxonomies; arguments are divided by:

* Stages of Denial,
* Scientific Topics,
* Types of Argument, and
* Levels of Sophistication."

Aviation pioneer and master engineer Burt Rutan on Global Warming � Watts Up With That?

Aviation pioneer and master engineer Burt Rutan on Global Warming � Watts Up With That?: "Jeff Id of the Air Vent reminds me with a video recently made available that that Burt Rutan has been giving active lectures on his view of global warming. WUWT covered Rutan’s Oshkosh EAA presentation last summer, but we didn’t have video then, only his powerpoint presentation."

10 things you need to stop tweeting about - The Oatmeal

10 things you need to stop tweeting about - The Oatmeal

In Which We Teach James Cameron A Thing Or�Two - Home - This Recording

In Which We Teach James Cameron A Thing Or�Two - Home - This Recording:

"But the more blatant lesson of Avatar is not that American imperialism is bad, but that in fact it’s necessary. Sure there are some bad Americans—the ones with tanks ready to mercilessly kill the Na’vi population, but Jake is set up as the real embodiment of the American spirit. He learns Na’vi fighting tactics better than the Na’vi themselves, he takes the King’s daughter for his own, he becomes the only Na’vi warrior in centuries to tame this wild dragon bird thing. Even in someone else’s society the American is the chosen one. He’s going to come in, lead your army, fuck your princesses, and just generally save the day for you. Got it? This is how we do it."

Readability - An Arc90 Lab Experiment

Readability - An Arc90 Lab Experiment: "Clean up text."

Charity: Who Cares? | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice

Charity: Who Cares? | MintLife Blog | Personal Finance News & Advice: "Americans lead the world in charitable contributions, giving $300 billion a year to charities. Sounds like a lot right? But this is just a drop in the bucket compared to the over One Trillion Dollars needed to keep US charities in operation, more than the US government collects in taxes. The rest comes from their own assets, government support, and foreign investment. Our visual guide to giving shows who’s paying and offers some tips on how to pick a charity of your own."

FretCalc

FretCalc: "FretCalc is used to find fret placement for fretted stringed instruments. Any combination of scale length and number for frets can be chosen. The fret placement from the nut to each fret and the distance between adjacent frets is shown in a chart that can be printed out."

Concurring Opinions � A Guide to Grading Exams

Concurring Opinions � A Guide to Grading Exams: "It’s that time of year again. Students have taken their finals, and now it is time to grade them. It is something professors have been looking forward to all semester. Exactness in grading is a well-honed skill, taking considerable expertise and years of practice to master. The purpose of this post is to serve as a guide to young professors about how to perfect their grading skills and as a way for students to learn the mysterious science of how their grades are determined.

Grading begins with the stack of exams, shown in Figure 1 below."