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."

Liam’s Pictures from Old Books

Liam’s Pictures from Old Books: "Remains of Ruined Castles, Deserted Abbeys, Old Manor Houses, mansions and stately homes; also engravings, woodcuts and pictures of Old England and Wales; also other subjects mentioned below, including Pictures of old books, scanned, prepared and published by Liam Quin.

Over 1500 images scanned from more than 100 different old books, most with multiple high-resolution versions and many with text excerpts! They are mostly public domain (copyright-free, out of copyright) here in Canada, and often in other countries too, unless otherwise noted, and can be used as historical reference in teaching, royalty-free stock images, scrapbook clip art, or even on your own Web site (learn how). You can also get them on CD-ROM, or can donate money to encourage Liam to scan more images, or to help pay for the books."

Oracle Background processes

Oracle Background processes: "Oracle Background processes
Don Burleson
You can see the Oracle background processes with this query:
select * from v$session where type ='BACKGROUND';

Here are some of the most important Oracle background processes:"

Oracle10g Grid Book - 10g RAC Clusters

Oracle10g Grid Book - 10g RAC Clusters: "Oracle 10g Grid & Real Application Clusters
Oracle10g Grid Computing with RAC"

YouTube - Rolly Brown teaches 240 chords in 6 minutes

YouTube - Rolly Brown teaches 240 chords in 6 minutes: "Nat'l Fingerpicking Champ Rolly Brown of rollybrown.com teaches a simple exercise to increase your vocabulary of jazz chords. "

Boing Boing: Good documentaries on Google video

Boing Boing: Good documentaries on Google video: "You may be interested to know that google video also hosts a whole bunch of good BBC documentaries, including all three parts of 'The Power of Nightmares'; 'Tetris - From Russia With Love'; ' Louis and the Nazis' and 'A War On Science (Intelligent Design and Dover)'."

Quick Overview of Vampire

Quick Overview of Vampire: "Implementing Web Services

The XML-RPC service wrapper makes use of the 'xmlrpclib' module. As such, any types supported by the 'xmlrpclib' module can be used. Faults can also be raised using the 'xmlrpclib.Fault' class. Where the first parameter of a function is the 'req' parameter, it will be passed the mod_python request object."

Dr. Dobb's | Python 2.4 Decorators | April 1, 2005

Dr. Dobb's | Python 2.4 Decorators | April 1, 2005: "Decorators are a powerful Python 2.4 feature that helps you reduce code duplication and consolidate knowledge."

Dig Deep into Python Internals, Part 2

Dig Deep into Python Internals, Part 2: "In this article I will contrast meta-classes with decorators, explore the Python execution model and explain how to examine stack frames at runtime. Finally, I will demonstrate how to augment the Python language itself using these techniques. To do this I introduce a private access-checking feature that can be enforced at runtime."

Dig Deep into Python Internals

Dig Deep into Python Internals: "This article is the first in a two-part series that will dig deep to explore the fascinating new-style Python object model, which was introduced in Python 2.2 and improved in 2.3 and 2.4. The object model and type system are very dynamic and allow quite a few interesting tricks. In this article I will describe the object, model, and type system; explore various entities; explain the life cycle of an object; and introduce some of the countless ways to modify and customize almost everything you thought immutable at runtime."

Giant Panda in China rips off man's jacket - Google Video

Giant Panda in China rips off man's jacket - Google Video: "China: Tourist has jacket ripped off his back by Giant Panda in open cage at Nature Reserve dedicated to survival of the endangered species"

Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Finds: A Low-Cost Laser Level

Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Finds: A Low-Cost Laser Level: "This little device attaches to vertical and horizontal surfaces, adjusts via three screw-type feet, and then projects a beam to simplify the installation of items along the level line. Sure, there are zillion-dollar units designed for professional cabinet installers, but at just $30, this one looks like it’d be great for hanging pictures and such."

The New Yorker : fact : content

The New Yorker : fact : content: "
THE GOOD BOOK BUSINESS
Why publishers love the Bible.
by DANIEL RADOSH
Issue of 2006-12-18
Posted 2006-12-11"

Dr. Sanity: DR. SANITY'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO VICTIMHOOD

Dr. Sanity: DR. SANITY'S PRACTICAL GUIDE TO VICTIMHOOD: "Becoming a victim --as we all have learned from famous TV stars, prominent politicians; religions, races, and even nations--is an advantageous state of being in many ways, several of which are:
"

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."

Reporter Grabs a 6000 Volt Fence - Google Video

Reporter Grabs a 6000 Volt Fence - Google Video: "Funny video of a dumb reporter grabing an electric fence."

33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names - Words - Book of Lists - Canongate Home

33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names - Words - Book of Lists - Canongate Home: "33 Names of Things You Never Knew had Names"

Chris's Invincible Super-Blog

Chris's Invincible Super-Blog: "The Hypothetical Adventures of Conan, Part One

Because the answer to pretty much any question that starts with 'What if Conan...' is always the same: somebody would get their ass kicked."

United States Patent: 6243451

United States Patent: 6243451:

"United States Patent 6,243,451
Shah , et al. June 5, 2001
Service management access point

Abstract

A flexible service management system creates, provisions, customizes, and restricts service offerings available on an intelligent network. A service creation environment has a schema query, service screen builder, and logic analyzer that cooperate to create a service screen definition. The service screen definition supports graphical user interfaces that interface with a telephony database. The service screen definition is deployed to a service management system within a service definition package, the service management system interfacing with a telephony database storing telephony data for supporting a service. The service screen definition enables a screen interpreter that can reside on a service management access point to communicate and transact data with the telephony database. The screen interpreter interprets the service screen definition to allow and control access to telephony data and to direct provisioning of services to network elements, such as a service control point, that perform service functions according to customized subscription data in the telephony database. The graphical user interface can communicate through the world wide web to allow customer or other data entry operator access to data on a filtered or restricted basis.
Inventors: Shah; Tasvir (Irving, TX), Harrison; Mark A. (Fort Worth, TX), Bilbo; Matthew J. (Bedford, TX)
Assignee: Alcatel USA Sourcing, L.P. (Plano, TX)
Appl. No.: 08/947,693
Filed: October 9, 1997"

United States Patent: 6041325

United States Patent: 6041325:

"United States Patent 6,041,325
Shah , et al. March 21, 2000

System and method for controlling access to a telephony database

Abstract

A flexible service management system creates, provisions, customizes, and restricts service offerings available on an intelligent network. A service creation environment has a schema query, service screen builder, and logic analyzer that cooperate to create a service screen definition. The service screen definition supports graphical user interfaces that interface with a telephony database. The service screen definition is deployed to a service management system within a service definition package, the service management system interfacing with a telephony database storing telephony data for supporting a service. The service screen definition enables a screen interpreter that can reside on a service management access point to communicate and transact data with the telephony database. The screen interpreter interprets the service screen definition to allow and control access to telephony data and to direct provisioning of services to network elements, such as a service control point, that perform service functions according to customized subscription data in the telephony database. The graphical user interface can communicate through the world wide web to allow customer or other data entry operator access to data on a filtered or restricted basis.

Inventors: Shah; Tasvir (Irving, TX), Harrison; Mark A. (Fort Worth, TX), Bilbo; Matthew (Bedford, TX)
Assignee: Alcatel USA Sourcing, L.P. (Plano, TX)
Appl. No.: 08/948,161
Filed: October 9, 1997"

Reason Magazine - South Park Libertarians

Reason Magazine - South Park Libertarians: "Trey Parker and Matt Stone on liberals, conservatives, censorship, and religion."

Mozart's entire musical score now free on Internet | Entertainment | Entertainment News | Reuters.com

Mozart's entire musical score now free on Internet: "LONDON (Reuters) - Mozart's year-long 250th birthday party is ending on a high note with the musical scores of his complete works available from Monday for the first time free on the Internet.

The International Mozart Foundation in Salzburg, Austria has put a scholarly edition of the bound volumes of Mozart's more than 600 works on a Web site.

The site allows visitors to find specific symphonies, arias or even single lines of text from some 24,000 pages of music."

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

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

myelin: HTTP / XMLRPC debug proxy

myelin: HTTP / XMLRPC debug proxy: "If you're doing XML-RPC in Python, you have little requirement for debugging tools because it handles exceptions and all that very nicely and you can just dump debugging stuff to the console.

However, if you're doing XML-RPC in PHP, you'll get all screwed up if you don't have some way of seeing what's going on. Whenever your script gets a warning or fails to compile, the error goes to the browser rather than the log file, which is guaranteed to kill the XML parser at the calling end of the link.

This little script is one solution to this problem. It's based on the simple proxy in the Medusa tutorial (that's the asynch socket library that Python Community Server uses), and slightly modified to not mangle XML-RPC responses.

Run it on your local machine (or your web server, if you prefer) and point your XMLRPC client at it rather than at the target. It will proxy your requests through and also dump them to the console, so you can see what's going on."

DarwiinRemote is released! (Hirolog)

DarwiinRemote is released! (Hirolog): "# DarwiinRemote is a tiny software which reads data from and sends data to Nintendo Wii Remote

* Inputs
o 3-axis acceleration sensors
o all buttons except power button on/off
* Output
o 4 LEDs
o Force Feedback

# DarwiinRemote allows you to control other applications by using Wii Remote"

Glassy Eyes | Shattering the Eyeglasses Scam

Glassy Eyes | Shattering the Eyeglasses Scam: "It started with a post proclaiming my satisfaction with my new glasses. Eyeglasses I got at an excellent price -- online. It's caused quite a stir, and opened up a whole lot of information that (if the email and comments I've received are true) has saved hundreds of people, thousands of dollars. "

Glassy Eyes | Shattering the Eyeglasses Scam

Glassy Eyes | Shattering the Eyeglasses Scam: "Zenni had a couple of titanium, hingeless frames. I priced them out. I decked them out with AR coating ($4.95 compared to $50+ in the stores), a clip-on sunshade ($3.95 versus $70 in the store) and went to the optional higher-index (thinner) lenses. Total?

$81."

Gift Card Fraud Rumors and Reality

Gift Card Fraud Rumors and Reality: "Opinion: As gift cards soar in popularity—some $25 billion in gift cards are expected to be sold this holiday season alone—the attempts to use them fraudulently have also soared. "

StorefrontBacktalk - Is The Unredeemed Giftcard About To Go Away?

StorefrontBacktalk - Is The Unredeemed Giftcard About To Go Away?: "A new Web giftcard exchange could shake up the giftcard space, with cards selling to consumers for less than face-value and retailers getting the gift that keeps on giving: heretofore unavailable data on who is using these cards.

Trying to address the hundreds of millions of dollars lost each year in giftcards that are never redeemed, a Fresno, California, company has created a Web giftcard exchange with a difference. The difference from consumers selling their unused cards on Ebay? The site is selling valid giftcards for less than the card's face value, which could have a significant impact on retail giftcard sales.

PlasticJungle.com's CEO said the firm plans on partnering with major retailers, to help them reduce accounting losses from unredeemed giftcards."

Welcome to Gorilla Gutters

Welcome to Gorilla Gutters: "GORILLA GUTTERS
PROFESSIONAL GUTTER
CLEANING & REPAIR"

DOFI-BLOG どふぃぶろぐ SAND SAND SAND公開

DOFI-BLOG どふぃぶろぐ SAND SAND SAND公開: "SAND SAND SAND公開"

Geek to Live: Make your own font - Lifehacker

Geek to Live: Make your own font - Lifehacker: "Ever since we posted about Fontifier, a webapp that creates a TrueType font from your handwriting, I thought the nifty idea was almost too good to be true. Turns out that Fontifier delivers exactly what it promises. Knowing absolutely ZERO about fonts and typography, I was able to hand-draw, correct and create my own installable system font for use in digital images and documents in an afternoon with Fontifier."

Christmas Quiz

Christmas Quiz: "CHRISTMAS QUIZ PAGE"

Free Childrens' PowerPoint Lessons

Free Childrens' PowerPoint Lessons: "Welcome to the Lessons of Love children’s series as provided with love by the church of Christ in Carbondale, Illinois. These lessons and illustrations were created using paper flip charts and colored markers. You can print these out and use as regular flip charts. Print the illustrations on one side of the paper and the notes on the other. You can also simply present them from your computer."

LifeWay: Biblical Solutions for Life

LifeWay: Biblical Solutions for Life: "LifeTrak Bible Study Outlines
LifeTrak 4.1 Bible Studies for Younger Youth
LifeTrak 4.1 Bible Studies for Older Youth"

LifeWay: Biblical Solutions for Life

LifeWay: Biblical Solutions for Life: "Student Bible Studies for Life Podcast

Student BSFL PodcastNow you have a new audio companion to help you as you prepare for your Sunday School & small group lessons! Introducing the Student Bible Studies for Life Podcast! This new leader preparation tool will help you as you use the new student Bible Studies for Life Leader Guides - whether you are using Life Focus, Life2, or LifeFX. Each week helpful insights will help you and your teachers be prepared for the week ahead!"

LifeWay: Curriculum Guide

LifeWay: Curriculum Guide: "Student Bible Studies for Life
2006-2007 Study Themes and Bible Areas"

LifeWay: Curriculum Guide

LifeWay: Curriculum Guide: "Children's Bible Teaching for Kids
2006-2007 Study Themes and Bible Areas"

The Japanese Wii Safety Manual is Crazy - Gizmodo

The Japanese Wii Safety Manual is Crazy - Gizmodo: "The Japanese Wii Safety Manual is Crazy"

IdeaChannel.tv

IdeaChannel.tv: "Free To Choose
In honor of Milton Friedman, we are streaming the ground-breaking Free to Choose series as it originally aired in 1980 as well as an updated 1990 version. Also watch for a biography, 'The Power of Choice' which will air Monday, January 29 on PBS. This date has also been declared as Milton Friedman Day."

The Simple Dollar » 30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows

The Simple Dollar » 30 Essential Pieces Of Free (and Open) Software for Windows: "What follows is a list of thirty pieces of software that are the cream of the crop of open source software for Windows. Not only is every piece of it free, almost all of them directly replace expensive software packages."

The Online Photographer: $10 Digital Camera—How Do They Do It?!

The Online Photographer: $10 Digital Camera—How Do They Do It?!: "So Walgreens is selling a digital camera for $10—I kid you not. It's not a recyclable camera you have to turn in to get the photos out. Just plug it into the USB port in your computer, download the photos, and go out and make more. It's barely the size of the box of pocket matches. Irresistible! I bought four of them."

Monks and Choirs of Kiev Pechersk Lavra: Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church

Monks and Choirs of Kiev Pechersk Lavra: Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church: "
Monks and Choirs of Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Chants of the Russian Orthodox Church

Total time: 73:45
Release date: 10/20/03

Part of these collections: Choral, Eastern Voices, Ukraine.

Location of artist: Kiev, Ukraine.

Play entire album: hifi lofi"

Musopen.com: About

Musopen.com: About: "Musopen is a community driven, online music repository started by a music and economics college student named Aaron Dunn.

This site takes music that is in the public domain, meaning a work that belongs to the community, and has it recorded by individuals and college/community orchestras throughout the United States and stored online so it can be accessed for free through this website."

panopticist: A Screaming Comes Across the Screen

panopticist: A Screaming Comes Across the Screen: "The video below is a compilation of dozens of Wilhelms from the last half-century."

The Wilhelm Scream

The Wilhelm Scream: "One sound effect that has found a following with many sound editors and observant movie fans is a distinctive scream named Wilhelm."

LiveScience.com - Study Reveals How Magic Works

LiveScience.com - Study Reveals How Magic Works: "Scientists are figuring out how magicians fool our brains in research that also helps uncover how our mind actually works.

A great deal of what scientists now understand about how the human visual system works stems from research into our susceptibility to optical illusions.

'It made sense to look at magicians to advance knowledge of human cognition, since magicians have been working on figuring out how certain principles of psychology work for hundreds of years,' said researcher Gustav Kuhn at the University of Durham in England, a cognitive psychologist who has also performed magic the past couple decades.

'Magicians really have this ability to distort your perceptions, to get people to perceive things that never happened, just like a visual illusion,' he added."

Women talk three times as much as men, says study | the Daily Mail

Women talk three times as much as men, says study | the Daily Mail: "It is something one half of the population has long suspected - and the other half always vocally denied."

Under The Sun: Top 20 replies by Programmers to Testers when their programs don't work

Under The Sun: Top 20 replies by Programmers to Testers when their programs don't work:

"20. 'That's weird...'
19. 'It's never done that before.'
18. 'It worked yesterday.'
17. 'How is that possible?'
16. 'It must be a hardware problem.'
15. 'What did you type in wrong to get it to crash?'
14. 'There is something funky in your data.'
13. 'I haven't touched that module in weeks!'
12. 'You must have the wrong version.'
11. 'It's just some unlucky coincidence.'
10. 'I can't test everything!'
9. 'THIS can't be the source of THAT.'
8. 'It works, but it hasn't been tested.'
7. 'Somebody must have changed my code.'
6. 'Did you check for a virus on your system?'
5. 'Even though it doesn't work, how does it feel?
4. 'You can't use that version on your system.'
3. 'Why do you want to do it that way?'
2. 'Where were you when the program blew up?'
1. 'It works on my machine'"

Instapundit.com -

Instapundit.com -: "WHY DOES FLU SPREAD IN THE WINTER?

In a paper scheduled for publication next month in the journal Epidemiology and Infection, a Harvard University-led team proposes that a vitamin D deficiency caused by inadequate winter sun exposure may predispose people to infection.

If this theory proves correct, it would not only solve a long-standing mystery, but could also have major public health consequences.

Influenza kills an average 36,000 people in the U.S. each winter, mostly the very old and very young. If scientists could pinpoint the secret behind its seasonal recurrence and somehow alter it, 'the potential impact would be far greater than the current influenza vaccine,' says Dowell. . . . In their new paper, which draws together strands from more than seven decades of vitamin and flu research, Cannell and his colleagues argue that vitamin D stimulates production of a natural infection-fighting substance in the body called cathelicidin.

Although cathelicidin has yet to be studied directly on influenza, recent research has shown that it attacks a variety of fungi, viruses, and bacteria - including the bug that causes tuberculosis, researchers reported last March in Science."

Science & Religion Series TTBOOK

Science & Religion Series TTBOOK:
"Electrons to Enlightenment:

The Big Questions:
1 Science or religion?
2 Are We Alone in the Universe?
3 What Does God Look Like?
4 Do You Believe in Evolution?
5 What's Your First Memory of God?

EXCERPTS:
from interviews with TTBOOK Executive Producer Steve Paulson (Templeton/Cambridge Journalism Fellow in Science & Religion)

E.O. Wilson
Francis Collins
Richard Dawkins
Karen Armstrong
Michael Ruse
Ursula Goodenough
Sam Harris"

Oracle SQL

Oracle SQL: "
* Constraints:
o Deferring Constraint Checking
o Constraint Violations

* Triggers:
o Basic Trigger Syntax
o Trigger Example
o Displaying Trigger Definition Errors
o Viewing Defined Triggers
o Dropping Triggers
o Disabling Triggers
o Aborting Triggers with Error
o Mutating Table Errors

This document was written originally by Yu-May Chang and Jeff Ullman for CS145..."

Using Oracle PL/SQL

Using Oracle PL/SQL: "
* Basic Structure of PL/SQL
* Variables and Types
* Simple PL/SQL Programs
* Control Flow in PL/SQL
* Cursors
* Procedures
* Discovering Errors
* Printing Variables

This document was written originally by Yu-May Chang and Jeff Ullman for CS145....
"

Interactivate: Tessellate!

Interactivate: Tessellate!: "Tessellate!
Shodor > Interactivate > Activities > Tessellate!"

Re: database connection pooling from mod_python app

Re: database connection pooling from mod_python app:

"1. Reused Transaction vs Connection Pool Leaks

It is critical that a persistent connection's transaction is *always*
completed - either with commit or rollback. If you forget to do this
then database operations during the next request that the process
handles will use the same transaction ... which could be disasterous.

A connection pool will only give out a connection that is 'closed' and,
typically, rollback() is called by the pool manager as a connection is
returned. This avoids the problem of transactions spanning multiple
requests. A common problem when using connection pools are connection
leaks - a connection is not closed and hence is never returned to the
pool - but IMHO this is less serious. I would rather see an application
hang waiting for a connection to become available than have corrupt data.

The reused transaction and connection leak problems are both programming
errors (use a finally block to avoid the problem) but it is easier to
spot a connection pool leak - set the maximum pool size to a low number
and hammer the application. You'll soon find out if there are any
problems . Add some logging to the pool implementation to record who
opens and closes connection and you can easily find offending code that
forgets to call close().

2. Apache forking

As Ian mentions, Apache creates multiple processes to handle requests. A
default installation of Apache 1.x on Debian has a MaxClients of 150,
i.e. 150 processes. If each one of those processes maintains a
persistent connection you can easily hit your database server's
connection limit. 150 is a *lot* of connections to keep open anyway but
many requests will not even need database access, i.e. images, CSS,
JavaScript etc.

Perhaps you've tuned your Apache config and set MaxClients to something
more approriate, 30 for instance. Even then, it's likely that the number
of simultaneous connections that are required is much lower than 30.

Matt Goodall, Pollenation Internet Ltd
w: http://www.pollenation.net
"

Instapundit.com -

Instapundit.com -: "And here's my recipe for roast Thanksgiving lamb.

1 semi-boneless leg of lamb (about 8 pounds)
2 cups merlot
1 cup each worcestershire and teriyaki
2 cloves garlic, crushed (more is better!)
1tbsp sugar
2 oz. olive oil
rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper to taste
Disposable aluminum roasting pan.

Mix merlot, worcestershire, and teriyaki, plus sugar, and marinate, preferably overnight. Heat a covered gas grill to high temperature on one side, low on the other.

Rub the lamb with olive oil, garlic and other spices. Place the roasting pan on the 'low heat' side. Place the lamb on the 'high heat' side of the grill and sear; rotate until all sides are browned. Move to the roasting pan, and turn the 'high' side down to low as well. Close the grill cover and cook. If the lamb seems to be browning too much, cover with aluminum foil.

Cook until a meat thermometer inserted all the way to the center reads 140-145 degrees. (Don't overcook, or the lamb will be dry and tasteless; the outside can be pretty crispy, but the inside should be rare). Remove, let cool for a few minutes, and serve. Juices will make an excellent lamb gravy, especially if you add more merlot."

nemo 33 : LEARN TO DIVE AT NEMO33.

nemo 33 : LEARN TO DIVE AT NEMO33.: "Far from quarries and pools with poor hygiene, NEMO33
offers maximum security and an incomparable learning comfort :

*
a crystal clear, drinkable spring water
*
an exquisitely heated water at 30°C, with almost no chlorine smell
*
a complete visibility down to 33m
*
a pool with different depth levels to learn and progress step by step"

ArtRage 2

ArtRage 2: "This is the homepage for ArtRage, the easy to use, stylish painting package that lets you get painting from the moment you open it up. You can paint with oils, sketch with pencils, sprinkle glitter, and more. You can paint with gold leaf, silver foil, and other metallic colors. You can even load in your photos as Tracing Images to help you recreate them as paintings."

Templar quotes from the Movie Quote Generator

Templar quotes from the Movie Quote Generator: "Templar! Why did it have to be templar?
Which movie was this from?"

Templar quotes from the Movie Quote Generator

Templar quotes from the Movie Quote Generator: "Templar! Why did it have to be templar?
Which movie was this from?"

Seed: Who Wants to Be a Cognitive Neuroscientist Millionaire?

Seed: Who Wants to Be a Cognitive Neuroscientist Millionaire?: "A researcher uses his understanding of the human brain to advance on a popular quiz show."

31 Wheel Roller Suit - BREAK.com

31 Wheel Roller Suit - BREAK.com: "11/9/2006 - A French guy named Jean-Yves Blondeau has created a plastic suit equipped with 31 wheels which allows him to roll down streets at speeds up to 60 miles per hour while switching positions at any time. This is pretty awesome, it's like break dancing, plus roller blading plus street luge."

russell davies: how to be interesting

russell davies: how to be interesting: "The way to be interesting is to be interested. You’ve got to find what’s interesting in everything, you’ve got to be good at noticing things, you’ve got to be good at listening. If you find people (and things) interesting, they’ll find you interesting.

Interesting people are good at sharing. You can’t be interested in someone who won’t tell you anything. Being good at sharing is not the same as talking and talking and talking. It means you share your ideas, you let people play with them and you’re good at talking about them without having to talk about yourself."

Top-Rated Water Heaters

Top-Rated Water Heaters: "Gas Storage Water Heaters

This table summarizes the most efficient available products. For more information on specific models and their features, see the GAMA database (produced by the Gas Appliance Manufacturer's Association)"

ConsumerReports.org - Water-heater tips 2/05: Gas hot water heater, electric hot water heater

ConsumerReports.org - Water-heater tips 2/05: Gas hot water heater, electric hot water heater: "Sawing open 18 gas and electric models confirmed that paying a little more for a longer warranty typically buys you a better water heater. Several smart steps can also help you save money, avoid installation hassles, and get enough hot water, even on busy mornings."

The Truth Laid Bear

The Truth Laid Bear: "On Election Day, the latest news and results will be posted here."

The Dilbert Blog: Affirmations

The Dilbert Blog: Affirmations: "There’s a book called The Luck Factor, in which researcher Richard Wiseman describes studying people who considered themselves lucky, to see if they had any special powers along the lines of ESP. It turns out that they don’t. But he did discover that people who expect luck have a more powerful ability to notice opportunities in their environment. Optimistic people’s field of perception is literally greater. And the best part is he discovered that when you train people to expect luck, their field of perception increases accordingly. I think part of the mystery of affirmations has to do with the fact that it improves your ability to notice an opportunity. And when you do, it seems like a lucky coincidence. In my case, about half of my seemingly miraculous results with affirmations could be traced back to my noticing something important."

Bizarre Boiling

Bizarre Boiling: "Watching liquids boil in low gravity is an out-of-this-world experience. It has plenty of entertainment value, but it's teaching scientists some important physics lessons, too."