Saturday, June 21, 2008
How do I draw an inner tube (or a donut)? - SketchUp Help Center
Martian Skies - The Big Picture - Boston.com
Friday, June 20, 2008
Unit Conversion Online - Use Our Unique Conversion Tools Free
isoc-ny.org - Internet Society - New York chapter
Here is video of Jonathan Zittrain’s talk last Friday:"
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Applied Data Research | Software Memories
"Applied Data Research (ADR).
ADR is often credited as being the first independent software company, having introduced products in the late 1960s and prevailed in antitrust struggles against IBM to allow the business to survive. Basically, it sold programmer productivity tools. This led it to acquire Datacom/DB, an inverted-list DBMS developed in the Dallas area. In the early 1980s, Datacom/DB began to boom, and was on a track to surpass both IDMS and ADABAS in market share until DB2 showed up and blew them all away. ADR was particularly aided by its fourth-generation language (4GL) IDEAL, which was an excellent product notwithstanding the famous State of New Jersey fiasco. (As John Landry said to me about that one, “4GLs are powerful tools. In particular, they allow you to write bad programs really quickly.”)
ADR was an underappreciated powerhouse, boasting all of the Fortune 100 as customers way back in the early 1980s (yes, even archrival IBM). When the DBMS business stalled, however, ADR was quickly sold — first to Ameritech (the Illinois-based Baby Bell company), and soon thereafter to Computer Associates."
Applied Data Research Software Products Division Records
"Historical Note
Applied Data Research (ADR) was founded in 1959 by seven former UNIVAC I programmers: Martin Goetz, Sherman Blumenthal, Ellwood Kauffman, Dave McFadden, Bernard Riskin, Robert Wickenden, and Stephen Wright. Headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, the company provided independent contract programming to companies including RCA, Bendix, and Sperry Rand, as well as to the United States government.
In 1965, ADR established its Proprietary Software Division (renamed the Software Products Division in 1973) and released AUTOFLOW, an automatic computer documentation system which produced flow charts. With the release of AUTOFLOW, ADR became the first company to sell a software product commercially, independent of hardware. Martin A. Goetz headed the Proprietary Software Division from its inception and in 1968 was awarded the first U.S. patent for a software computer program for his “Sorting System.” Although the patent was assigned to ADR, the program was never developed as an ADR product. Goetz received a second patent in 1970 for his “Automatic System for Constructing and Recording Display Charts,” the computer program behind the ADR product AUTOFLOW. Other ADR software products included Vollie (an online programming tool), ROSCOE (Remote OS Conversational Operating Environment, an online programming tool with a timeshare facility), MetaCOBOL (a COBOL programming aid), Librarian (a source program retrieval and maintenance system), and IDEAL (Interactive Development Environment for an Application’s Life-cycle, an application development tool).
ADR filed a civil antitrust suit against International Business Machines (IBM) in April 1969, accusing IBM of limiting competition in the computer industry and specifically noting IBM’s bundling practices. The ADR suit was one of a series of similar suits filed against IBM in 1968 and 1969, including Programmatics, Inc. (a subsidiary of ADR) v. IBM, Control Data Corporation v. IBM, and Data Processing Financial & General Corp. v. IBM. These four cases were consolidated for pre-trial proceedings and discovery in the District of Minnesota in July 1969. One year later, ADR was awarded a temporary restraining order against IBM which prohibited IBM from offering free distribution of CRJE, a bundled IBM software product in direct competition with ADR’s proprietary product ROSCOE. Three of the four consolidated cases were eventually settled and dismissed, including ADR v. IBM, which was settled out-of-court in August 1970 for two million dollars. The U.S. Justice Department also filed suit against IBM for antitrust violations in 1969, starting a case that lasted thirteen years. In June 1969, while involved in these cases, IBM announced that, with the exception of its operating systems, starting in January 1970 it would unbundle its software from its hardware.
Ameritech acquired ADR as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1986. In 1988, Computer Associates purchased ADR and integrated the company into its Systems Products Division and new Information Products Division."
Instant SQL Formatter
Pl/sql tidy - code formatter/beautifier
In other words, it is a command line tool that gives you the freedom to build it in your programming environment. You can use it in your favorite editor easily."
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Al Dente: Tater Tots for Adults
* Adult Tater Tots (pictured) are from-scratch and include Brie, shallots, and bacon
* Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots call for wild boar bacon
* Pork Belly Tater Tots are stuffed with braised pork belly
* Chef Kennedy's Adult Tater Tots apparently go well with wine
* Tater Tot Salad
* Lobster Tater Tots
* Tater Tot 'Gnocchi' Al Pesto, among other recipes from the official home of the Tater Tot"
Thomas Sowell on Tim Russert on National Review Online
How to Build Bookcases - Free Woodworking Plans for Bookshelves - Popular Mechanics
The Mundaneum Museum Honors the First Concept of the World Wide Web - NYTimes.com
Monday, June 16, 2008
Nice Dyson quote
via the IP mailing list:
"In the real world, intelligibility and predictability often outweighs a complete match of cost to price."
Esther Dyson
Saturday, June 14, 2008
sketchyphysics - Google Code
Google SketchUp
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Sketchup for Timber Framers
STL Error Decryptor for C
An STL Error Message Decryptor for C
Open Source Freeware by Leor Zolman"
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Animationish
Saturday, June 07, 2008
SourceForge.net: tapiGen
The habits of highly effective test-takers
In Beijing, where 118,000 students sat for the exam, the essay topic was an old self-help chestnut made popular by motivational author Stephen Covey. Here's the Beijing gaokao version of the 'big rocks first' approach to time management, as reported by the Mirror:"
Friday, June 06, 2008
The Ultimate Guide to Motivation - How to Achieve Any Goal | Zen Habits
I’ve found that it’s important to start out with the right motivation, because a good start can build momentum that you can sustain for a long time. If you start out right, you have a much better chance of succeeding. Here are some tips for starting out:"
Adobe - Flex 3
Top Nine Moments in Jeopardy History
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Hackszine.com: Python pizza status
Hackszine.com: Python pizza status
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
The Art of Assembly Language Programming
"Forward Why Would Anyone Learn This Stuff?
1. What's Wrong With Assembly Language
2. What's Right With Assembly Language?"
The Little Prince - Wikilivres
300 Calorie Food Picture Gallery
But what do I have to eat to get these Calorie? Using another tool, I calculated weights of the food I usually eat so that they equal 300 Calorie. It turned out that 300 Calorie is more than 2 pounds of watermelon or just 2 ounces of milk chocolate. Eventually, I decided to make photographs of what these 300 Calorie look like in different foods."
ScrnShots: Share your inspiration
Viewpath Online Project Management : V2 Beta Signup
"Viewpath’s 2.0 feature-set includes:
* easy-to-use interface with extensive drag/drop functions
* project timelines (a.k.a Gantt Charts) and event calendars
* multiple levels of Member viewing rights (including read only)
* document management with version control
* dashboards with both team and individual member views
* free e-mail support for beta customers"
Free Excel Gantt Chart Templates for Project Management
Monday, June 02, 2008
goosh.org - the unofficial google shell.
"Goosh goosh.org 0.4.3-beta #1 Mon, 02 Jun 08 22:28:01 UTC Google/Ajax
Welcome to goosh.org - the unofficial google shell."
Sunday, June 01, 2008
We're sorry this is late; we really meant to post it sooner
It looks like this and uses the Greek letter a: Utility = E x V/aD"
XBMC For Mac: XBMC Turns Your Mac into the Ultimate Media Center
SEOmoz | The Web Developer's SEO Cheat Sheet
Building Stonehenge - This Man can Move Anything
Wally Wallington has demonstrated that he can lift a Stonehenge-sized pillar weighing 22,000 lbs and moved a barn over 300 ft. What makes this so special is that he does it using only himself, gravity, and his incredible ingenuity.
http://www.theforgottentechnology.com/
Saturday, May 31, 2008
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
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Sveinbjorn Thordarson's Website - Platypus
The npthread library interface
"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
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)"
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
py2app - convert python scripts into standalone Mac OS X applications
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
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."
Toodledo :: A to-do list to organize your tasks
some handy blogspot links
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
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."
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
How-To: Expand your camera with CHDK - Hack a Day
AJAX Libraries API - Google Code
'Diff Doc' - A compare files Tool. Compare document, Compare XLS-Text-RTF-PDF and other file types.
Monday, May 26, 2008
HyperCard: What Could Have Been
RC Airplane Controls.
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
Spektrum RC
YouTube - E-Flite Blade 400 3D
Tri-Turbo R/C Helium Blimp
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Video Games - Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo Expands His Empire - NYTimes.com
Friday, May 23, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The original Indiana Jones: Otto Rahn and the temple of doom - Telegraph
[Re]Encoded dot Com � Blog Archive � 42 Awesome Business Card Designs (With Links to 100s More)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Listing privileges recursively for Oracle users
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
7.7.�Summary
--Jamie Zawinski, in comp.emacs.xemacs"
Monday, May 19, 2008
rst2a - about
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."
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Eye of the Goof: The Psychotronic Guide to Archive.org
Thursday, May 15, 2008
MSR Asirra Project -- Installation
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Stevey's Blog Rants: Dynamic Languages Strike Back
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.'"
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Docutils: Documentation Utilities
Overview — Sphinx v0.3 documentation
Friday, May 09, 2008
AEI - Short Publications - Measles Madness
Our trust in the scientific process seems to be a one-way proposition."
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Firefly-Serenity Chinese Pinyinary
File: GUIDE.txt
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
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."
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Fairness, idealism and other atrocities - Los Angeles Times
Dr. Dobb's | The Tcl/Tk and Python Scripting Environments | October 1, 1998
InformIT: Effective Tcl/Tk Programming: Writing Better Programs with Tcl and Tk - $39.99
# Published Dec 8, 1997 by Addison Wesley Professional. Part of the Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series series."
Slashdot | Effective Tcl/Tk Programming
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Effective Tcl/Tk Programming: Writing Better Programs with Tcl and Tk (Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Concurrency with Python, Twisted, and Flex
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
Monday, May 05, 2008
Pixels Go Mad - The Celebration Of Pixel Art | Monday Inspiration | Smashing Magazine
Are you prepared?
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."
Sunday, May 04, 2008
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:
-
•Deactivate the Screen Saver Password.
-
•Deactivate the Screen Saver.
-
•Reconnect the phone to the OS X Address Book
-
•Sync the phone using iSync
When the Bluetooth Device leaves range:
•Activate the Screen Saver Password.
•Activate the Screen Saver."
Friday, May 02, 2008
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)