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December 31, 2004
The ipod photo....
Posted by at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
Man Angry About Getting No Presents Burns Down Home
FEASTERVILLE, Pa. -- A man angry that he got no presents for Christmas burned down his parents' house early the next morning, police said.
Steven Murray, 21, was charged with arson and risking a catastrophe in the blaze that broke out early Sunday. No one was injured.
Police said Murray had himself committed to a hospital on Christmas Day, but then signed himself out and walked eight miles home. Later he told police he saw the flames in the distance.
But officers said his jacket smelled of smoke and they found a lighter in his pocket and a gas can near the front door.
"He was irritated that his family gave him no presents for Christmas," Lower Southampton police officer Peter Liese said.
Murray was jailed on $1 million bail. It was not immediately known whether he had a lawyer.
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Posted by at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)
Lokitorrent fights the MPAA
LokiTorrent, a Web site that tracks and indexes BitTorrent files, says it's setting up a legal defense fund to fight a lawsuit filed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).
The site's operators have collected $13,955 of the $30,000 needed to start defending themselves from the MPAA's lawsuit, according to a recent posting on the Web site.
The action was filed against LokiTorrent on Dec. 14. That same day, the movie industry association sent site operators a cease-and-desist order to stop them from hosting trackers that match BitTorrent users with copyrighted movies.
Lawsuits were also filed against the operators of BitTorrent trackers Centraltracker.org and Centraldownload.org.
Posted by at 07:34 PM | Comments (0)
Beyond Google
As heretical as this may seem to some PC users, Google doesn't know it all. Sure, the paragon of search engines deftly handles most of our search requests. But just as you wouldn't drive miles past the local grocery store to a cavernous warehouse club to buy a dozen eggs, you don't want to slog through pages of search results from Google or another search engine every time you need a bit of information.
Better to rely on a cadre of specialized sites that will swiftly retrieve the nuggets you're looking for. Here are the best data resources on the Web, from the latest business news sites to the most useful addresses for hearth and home.
Of course, there's still a place for the Googles of the world: The big engines remain the best choice for researching pop culture and similar topics. The chart, "Old Search Engines, New Tricks," lists new features of the major players. But whether you're interested in the usual suspects or little-known gems, I'm here to raise your information IQ.
Posted by at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
PHP predictions for 2005
Well the year's almost done. I was planning a look back over 2004 but... time and motivation have failed to coincide.
2004 in short: probably the two most significant events were the release of PHP5 last July and the arrival of Planet PHP, back in January, more as a symbol of blogging becoming mainstream in the PHP community. Otherwise it just kept on storming up that hill.
- With the release of 5.0.6 in... July 2005, PHP5 will start making its presence really felt, rolling its way out to web hosts while better known PHP applications will start taking advantage of PHP5 specific functionality.
- In January 2005 PHP will win an award as "Programming Language of the Year, 2004"
- PHP will have a small but useful role in building P2P networks.
- Your mother will offer you her opinion on a Firefox extension you hadn't even heard of.
Posted by at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)
More on eXeem
It seems as though, eXeem will be compatible with current torrents, and the ads are not ad-ware but just everyday ads. The reason they say there is no Linux / Mac version is because it is in beta, but there is a good chance that when it has its official release, they will start working on a Linux / Mac version.
Posted by at 07:12 PM | Comments (0)
WaveOfDestruction.org
Photos, videos, relief information and much more about the tsunami.
Posted by Ryan at 07:11 PM | Comments (0)
Tsunami images by satellite
Hi-res images of the tsunami sites
Posted by Ryan at 07:09 PM | Comments (0)
Bomb underground
Some kids in the Netherlands blew up a bomb underneath a freeway overpass and video taped it
Posted by at 07:08 PM | Comments (0)
Theme: History books 3000 years from now
Posted by Ryan at 07:03 PM | Comments (0)
Longhorn Transformation Pack
Longhorm Transformation pack transforms Windows XP to have the look and feel of Windows Longhorn, the upcoming new Windows distro.
Posted by at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)
eXeem beta
eXeem Beta
Posted by at 02:46 PM | Comments (1)
Media Player Classic
For all the Windows users out there, I have an alternative to Windows Media Player. Its actually open source and not a security hazard like Windows Media Player. The best part is that its open source, Media Player Classic. It sounds like it wouldn't be that great, but it plays everything, MP3, OGG, WMA, Quicktime, and more...It also comes with a Real Alternative, which allows you to play Real media files. That is great cause now you don't have to have real player, the worst player out there.
Posted by at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)
More on "speeding up" Firefox
Although there's been lots of recent information on how to speed up this awesome browser, these tweaks aren't enabled by default for a reason...
After seeing at least a couple dozen blog posts all referencing these changes to "speed up Firefox", I thought it would be worth a little explanation.Yes, enabling HTTP pipelining can dramatically improve networking performance. The downside, and the reason it's not enabled by default, is that it can prevent Web pages from displaying correctly. If you've enabled this, and you find pages that aren't displaying correctly, please don't blame Firefox or the Web developer. It's probably the fact that you enabled an "unsupported" feature which is incompatible with some Web servers and proxy servers.
The second change, setting the initial paint delay at zero, may get you some content on the screen faster, but it's worth noting that it will dramatically slow down the time it takes the entire page to display. Here's what's going on. Gecko, Firefox's rendering engine, is trying to optimize between the cost of waiting for a bit more data versus doing more painting and reflows as new data comes in. Waiting a bit longer before it starts painting the page gives Gecko a chance to receive more content before chewing up CPU cycles to render and reflow the document. If you drop this value down to zero or near zero, that means you'll see the page start displaying a bit earlier, but not having received much data in that short interval, you'll have a lot more paint and reflow cycles to complete rendering of the page.
This one probably comes down to a combination of bandwidth, CPU speed, and personal preference. If it works for you, and you don't mind the side-effects, then great. Just note that what works for one person/system, may not work for another.
Yes, there are tuning change you can make (even at compile time, see Moox' optimized builds) that will dramatically alter the performance characteristics of Firefox. Feel free to experiment, but remember that most of the defaults are defaults for a reason. If your browser starts misbehaving or web sites look broken, it might be worth going back to default settings.
Posted by Ryan at 02:19 PM | Comments (0)
Animals had a 6th sense when it came to the tsunami
Even though over 140,000 people have died from the Tsunami so far, officials say they haven't found a single dead animal. Even though the waves swept over the island's largest wildlife reserve, not a single animal drowned.
"Wild animals in particular are extremely sensitive," she said."They've got extremely good hearing and they will probably have heard this flood coming in the distance.
"There would have been vibration and there may also have been changes in the air pressure which will have alerted animals and made them move to wherever they felt safer."
Posted by Ryan at 02:11 PM | Comments (0)
More on Firefox tweaking
This website lists how you should tweak your firefox settings by computer speed and connection speed...
Posted by Ryan at 03:37 AM | Comments (0)
Wallet Essentials
All kinds of cool stuff to put in your wallet. Pictured to the left are wallet toothpicks...
Posted by Ryan at 03:32 AM | Comments (0)
Good sleep, good learning, good life
Everything you ever wanted to know about sleep deprivation
Posted by Ryan at 03:23 AM | Comments (0)
Indeed job search
Database of over 1.7 million jobs in the U.S.
Posted by Ryan at 03:21 AM | Comments (0)
Browser security test
Can someone hack into your computer via your browser? How vulnerable you are?Scanit's Browser Security Test automatically checks your browser for various security problems. When the test is finished you get a complete report explaining the discovered vulnerabilities, their impact and how to eliminate them.
It's fun to run it in Internet Explorer first then in Firefox...
Posted by Ryan at 03:15 AM | Comments (0)
iPod Linux
Unfortunately the iPod is considered a "closed platform" by Apple, and technical info is virtually non-existant. This project has involved a fair amount of guesswork, reverse-engineering and experimentation, resulting in a Linux kernel based on the uClinux (http://www.uclinux.org) port running on the iPod. We hope that this port of Linux to the iPod inspires others to see what their "closed platform" hardware can do!
Posted by Ryan at 03:11 AM | Comments (0)
Cisco has donated 2.5 million dollars to relief efforst in Southeast Asia
Cisco Systems and its employees have donated $2.5 million for humanitarian relief and reconstruction projects for those affected by the earthquakes and the subsequent tsunamis that ravaged coastlines across South Asia, the company said Thursday.
Posted by Ryan at 02:47 AM | Comments (0)
Dreamrender 219
DreamRender replaces your desktop wallpaper and icons with stunning animations. You can choose from 1000's of different effects ranging from slow and peaceful through to manic, most effects can also react to your currently playing music. If you think some effects are missing then easily make up new ones using your own images, videos, and icons. For complete customisation of your system DreamRender can apply textures and colors to your windows, make them transparent, and produce amazing effects every time you move your mouse.
Posted by Ryan at 02:33 AM | Comments (0)
Tsunami Videos
This site has tons of videos of the Tsunami...
Posted by Ryan at 02:25 AM | Comments (0)
What software will Microsoft release in 2005?
Microsoft is planning for a whole bunch of new software releases, including:
- Windows XP 64 bit Biztalk 2004 Longhorn Server Beta and Client Antivirus AntiSpyware Office12 Beta And much much more
Posted by Ryan at 01:57 AM | Comments (0)
How to write Firefox extensions
Everyone has a good idea at one time or another to implement a new feature in a web browser. Well, with the goodness that is Mozilla Firefox, now you can do just that. You need to have a vague understanding of XUL and Javascript, but you certainly don't need to be a master of either. When I started, I knew nothing about either one, really. I had seen some bookmarklets here and there, and tried to figure out just how they worked. Well, that's how I made my first extension, BugMeNot, which was used as a point of reference in my first tutorial that I wrote.
Posted by Ryan at 01:53 AM | Comments (0)
Is the RIAA hiding spyware in windows media files?
Here's a story that raises many more questions than it answers. When the recording industry first tried to get politicians to shut down file sharing networks, they went with the "it's stealing music" line, which generated some interest, but most people didn't seem to pay attention. Then, the industry suddenly became oh-so-concerned about the fact that child porn was on these systems, and tried to convince politicians they needed to stop file sharing for the "sake of the children." Lately, it seems the industry will do whatever it takes to make file sharing systems look bad. With that in mind, it makes you wonder if they'd go so far as to specifically hide spyware on file sharing networks just to upset users. It's not entirely clear if that's what happened, but it seems like the most obvious explanation for the following story, which was found on Broadband Reports. Overpeer, a subsidiary of Loudeye, has been caught hiding adware and spyware within Windows Media files. Overpeer is the same company that the recording industry has hired in the past to dump fake versions of songs on file sharing networks. What the article doesn't answer is whether or not the industry hired Overpeer to dump spyware on the network as well, but it's likely they're pleased either way. Overpeer defends their actions by saying that everyone deserves what they get because, obviously, they were looking for unauthorized files. It's not clear that everyone would agree. Sneaking malicious files onto someone's computer because "they deserved it!" doesn't seem like a very good justification. What may be even more important to this story, however, is the revelation of just how easy it is, thanks to a huge loophole in Microsoft's copy protection technology, to include a malicious file with an audio or video file. Basically, because Windows DRM needs to look for a license, all anyone needs to do is point that license to a website that loads malicious content and off you go. Thank you Microsoft, for creating a huge loophole that will probably make sure millions of new computers are loaded with spamming, DDOSing trojans shortly. Thank goodness for that Microsoft DRM, huh? Not only does it not protect any actual property while making things more expensive, it opens up plenty more people to malicious attacks.
[via techdirt]
Posted by at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)
Flamintiki's First Podcast!
Posted by Ryan at 12:18 AM | Comments (0)
World's tallest building has its own cell network
The world’s tallest building (at least for another year or so we think), the Taipei 101 (at 1666 feet high, and yes, 101 floors) in Taiwan has contracted with Ericsson to provide cellphone service within the building, with support for all the major cellular networks, from GSM 900/1800 to CDMA 800/2000, and WCDMA. The system will also work seamlessly even when patrons travel on the elevators, which travel up to 1000 meters per minute (about 55 feet per second). We’re totally getting Ericsson to do our building, too.
[via engadget]
Posted by at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)
December 30, 2004
Your own SMTP server
Taking charge of SMTP is surprisingly easy, thanks to a wonderful piece of freeware called PostCast Server.
PostCast Server, with remarkably little effort on your part, takes over the role of your ISP’s SMTP server. It turns your PC into an SMTP server which works with any email client and any Internet connection. It runs on all versions of Windows and works on both LANs and on standalone PCs.
To understand what PostCast Server does, consider how sending email usually works:
When you create an email and click the Send button, your email does not go directly from your computer to the recipient’s. Instead, it is first delivered to the outgoing mail server, that is, the SMTP server, of your ISP. That mail server shunts it to the incoming mail server of the recipient’s ISP. It is then routed to the recipient. So the whole process involves four major components:
1. Your email program, known as an email client.
2. Your ISP’s SMTP mail server.
3. The recipient’s POP or IMAP mail server.
4. The recipient’s email client.
With PostCast Server installed, you do away with #2 entirely.
The great thing about PostCast Server is it is so simple to install and set up all that’s required on your part is a knowledge of how to access your email program’s account settings.
more info
Podcast SMTP download
Posted by at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)
Google rankings
Check out your ranking on google. Just enter in a keyword and your website url then this tool will tell you what position you are in on a google search.
Posted by at 11:47 PM | Comments (0)
PS3 Specs
It will run at 4GHz, producing a not inconsiderable 256Gflops, with the cells connected to the central 64MB memory through a switched 1024 bit bus.
Posted by Ryan at 11:47 PM | Comments (12)
How-to record on your ipod (for free)
Apple tries to make it hard to record on an ipod, therefore belkin and griffin have to sell add-ons to us for over $50. These add-ons also only record at 8khz, which isn't good at all. The rumor is that does this so that we don't record things that are not supposed to be recorded, like a concert.
As always, there is a way around the restrictions, that allow you to record high quality audio for free.
1. Install podzilla onto your ipod
2. Once podzilla is installed, boot into linux on your ipod
3. Go to Extras > Recordings, then choose a bitrate (the higher the better quality)
4. Get a microphone and record via Line In
5. Boot back into the apple ipod normal OS, then plug it into the doc
6. In the folder "Recordings" there should be the audio that you had recorded
Knowing apple, and well any company for that sake. There is a good chance that the next generation ipod will not be able to boot into linux, and therefore will not have the capability to record. So take advantage of it while you can.
Posted by at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)
How to fix Mom's computer
This site contains a bunch of useful information for a novice computer user that does not want to have any ad-ware or spyware. It is also a good guide to use when trying to clean another person's comptuer.
Posted by at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
The heart of Google technology
As a Google user, you're familiar with the speed and accuracy of a Google search. How exactly does Google manage to find the right results for every query as quickly as it does? The heart of Google's search technology is PigeonRank™, a system for ranking web pages developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University.
Building upon the breakthrough work of B. F. Skinner, Page and Brin reasoned that low cost pigeon clusters (PCs) could be used to compute the relative value of web pages faster than human editors or machine-based algorithms. And while Google has dozens of engineers working to improve every aspect of our service on a daily basis, PigeonRank continues to provide the basis for all of our web search tools.
Why Google's patented PigeonRank™ works so well
PigeonRank's success relies primarily on the superior trainability of the domestic pigeon (Columba livia) and its unique capacity to recognize objects regardless of spatial orientation. The common gray pigeon can easily distinguish among items displaying only the minutest differences, an ability that enables it to select relevant web sites from among thousands of similar pages.
By collecting flocks of pigeons in dense clusters, Google is able to process search queries at speeds superior to traditional search engines, which typically rely on birds of prey, brooding hens or slow-moving waterfowl to do their relevance rankings.
diagramWhen a search query is submitted to Google, it is routed to a data coop where monitors flash result pages at blazing speeds. When a relevant result is observed by one of the pigeons in the cluster, it strikes a rubber-coated steel bar with its beak, which assigns the page a PigeonRank value of one. For each peck, the PigeonRank increases. Those pages receiving the most pecks, are returned at the top of the user's results page with the other results displayed in pecking order.
Posted by at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
Really cool nature microscopic photography
Posted by Ryan at 10:50 PM | Comments (0)
More on eXeem
Well, Suprnova's big announcement was today and it was about eXeem. Sloncek, the creator of Suprnova is now the representative of an unnamed company that has created eXeem.
After a few days of having a teaser on their site, Suprnova's Sloncek did an interview with NovaStream.org about a new P2P app and network called eXeem that will be released for download in a couple of weeks. It's being developed by a new, unnamed company, which asked Sloncek to be a representative for them.It will be Windows only, with no Mac or Linux versions planned at this time. It will be ad supported, and not just banner ads either. It will be full of adware, most of which you can opt out of, according to Sloncek. Some of the less intrusive ones will be required for the application to function though.
Apparently eXeem is based off of BitTorrent, but is different enough that it can't be called a BitTorrent client, and I assume it won't be compatible with BitTorrents either.
Posted by Ryan at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
Lasers causing problems with airplanes
Recently, a pilot for a major airline claimed that a laser beam entered the cockpit of his plane for several seconds while it was 8,500 feet in the air. There are some new green lasers out that have the power to burn holes through plastic cups.
Posted by Ryan at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
Exeem "Successor" to Suprnova Announced
After the demise of Suprnova, hype has risen over Exeem, the supposed heir apparent to the popular BitTorrent index. Today on Novastream, Sloncek announced it officially, but to me his announcement raised more questions than it did answers. Since the official exeem.com website still isn't up, I've got a few notes below. Thanks to several users on irc.suprnova.org, and Sloncek himself for answering my questions.
[via slashdot]
Posted by Ryan at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)
eXeem Beta 0.16 Download
Haven't found a serial yet, but I'll post it as soon as I can find one...
Posted by Ryan at 01:39 AM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2004
Nada 0.5 finally released
Most products we see on the market want to increase our productivity, organize our screen joyfully or make wonders with our sound card, but NaDa™ does nothing. This is a revolutionary whole new approach, a concept far beyond what you usually expect from the software industry. This powerful new software is now available for free download.
Posted by Ryan at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
Computer Stupidities: Hilarious tech support questions
Student: "Would it be possible to install Arabic language support on those computers?"
Computer Teacher: "In order to use Arabic language in Windows, you must install an Arabic graphic card. So I don't think we could do that."
Once I had a guy bring in two polaroid pictures of screen shots of his computer. He claimed they were "before" and "after" shots and wanted us to diagnose his computer problems by looking at the pictures. They looked the same to us -- but we kept them and posted them in the back area with a $1000 dollar reward to anyone who could diagnose the problem that way.
"I don't need any of that SQL stuff -- I just want a database!"
Posted by Ryan at 05:32 PM | Comments (0)
Scientists now predicting Atlantic "Mega-Tsunami"
Scientists are now saying that one day, whether that may be tomorrow or several years, a volcano in the Canary Islands just off Africa will drop more than a half a trillion tons of rock into the Atlantic Ocean, causing waves of 60 to 150 feet by the time they hit the U.S. Eastern seaboard.
Posted by Ryan at 02:42 PM | Comments (0)
Earthquake changed Earth's rotation and moved islands
The earthquake that happened earlier this week in Asia may have been so powerful that it sped up the speed of Earth's rotation. A NASA geophysicist has said that the Earthquake may have sped up the rotation of Earth by 3 microseconds. Another source says that the quake moved undersea tectonic plates about 98 feet, shifting islands near Sumatra an unknown distance.
Posted by Ryan at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)
Microwave a furby
Posted by Ryan at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)
December 28, 2004
Suprnova preparing for a big announcement on December 30
Posted by Ryan at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)
First hand amateur footage of the tsunami
Here are some videos of the Tsunami as it came in and as it hit land. The video is from amateurs so they can't hold a camera but it still gives a vivid portrayal of what happened just a few days ago in these Asian countries.
Patong Beach [WMV 10.0MB]
Phuket [WMV 11.5MB]
Sri Lanka [WMV 7.6MB]
Posted by Ryan at 03:49 PM | Comments (0)
Pricelessware
This website is a compilation of freeware found in the alt.comp.freeware newsgroup. Also known as "The best of the best in freeware"
Posted by Ryan at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)
The Arch Effect
Forget the lake effect and el nino - now there's the "Arch Effect".
Each leg of the arch is able to push positive and negative ions into the air so as to create a positive or negatively charged field that can ‘push’ storms out of the way. During the day this national monument stands as the gateway to the west, but after hours this man-made marvel turns into one of the most powerful weather controlling devices ever conceived.
Posted by Ryan at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)
Keyboard shortcuts in Windows XP
Some of these are pretty well known such as Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V, etc. but there are so many more that are hiding within Windows. Read more for the full list...
General Keyboard Shortcuts
• CTRL+C (Copy)
• CTRL+X (Cut)
• CTRL+V (Paste)
• CTRL+Z (Undo)
• DELETE (Delete)
• SHIFT+DELETE (Delete the selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin)
• CTRL while dragging an item (Copy the selected item)
• CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item (Create a shortcut to the selected item)
• F2 key (Rename the selected item)
• CTRL+RIGHT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word)
• CTRL+LEFT ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word)
• CTRL+DOWN ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph)
• CTRL+UP ARROW (Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph)
• CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Highlight a block of text)
• SHIFT with any of the arrow keys (Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text in a document)
• CTRL+A (Select all)
• F3 key (Search for a file or a folder)
• ALT+ENTER (View the properties for the selected item)
• ALT+F4 (Close the active item, or quit the active program)
• ALT+ENTER (Display the properties of the selected object)
• ALT+SPACEBAR (Open the shortcut menu for the active window)
• CTRL+F4 (Close the active document in programs that enable you to have multiple documents open simultaneously)
• ALT+TAB (Switch between the open items)
• ALT+ESC (Cycle through items in the order that they had been opened)
• F6 key (Cycle through the screen elements in a window or on the desktop)
• F4 key (Display the Address bar list in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
• SHIFT+F10 (Display the shortcut menu for the selected item)
• ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the System menu for the active window)
• CTRL+ESC (Display the Start menu)
• ALT+Underlined letter in a menu name (Display the corresponding menu)
• Underlined letter in a command name on an open menu (Perform the corresponding command)
• F10 key (Activate the menu bar in the active program)
• RIGHT ARROW (Open the next menu to the right, or open a submenu)
• LEFT ARROW (Open the next menu to the left, or close a submenu)
• F5 key (Update the active window)
• BACKSPACE (View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer)
• ESC (Cancel the current task)
• SHIFT when you insert a CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive (Prevent the CD-ROM from automatically playing)
Dialog Box Keyboard Shortcuts
• CTRL+TAB (Move forward through the tabs)
• CTRL+SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the tabs)
• TAB (Move forward through the options)
• SHIFT+TAB (Move backward through the options)
• ALT+Underlined letter (Perform the corresponding command or select the corresponding option)
• ENTER (Perform the command for the active option or button)
• SPACEBAR (Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box)
• Arrow keys (Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons)
• F1 key (Display Help)
• F4 key (Display the items in the active list)
• BACKSPACE (Open a folder one level up if a folder is selected in the Save As or Open dialog box)
Microsoft Natural Keyboard Shortcuts
• Windows Logo (Display or hide the Start menu)
• Windows Logo+BREAK (Display the System Properties dialog box)
• Windows Logo+D (Display the desktop)
• Windows Logo+M (Minimize all of the windows)
• Windows Logo+SHIFT+M (Restore the minimized windows)
• Windows Logo+E (Open My Computer)
• Windows Logo+F (Search for a file or a folder)
• CTRL+Windows Logo+F (Search for computers)
• Windows Logo+F1 (Display Windows Help)
• Windows Logo+ L (Lock the keyboard)
• Windows Logo+R (Open the Run dialog box)
• Windows Logo+U (Open Utility Manager)
Accessibility Keyboard Shortcuts
• Right SHIFT for eight seconds (Switch FilterKeys either on or off)
• Left ALT+left SHIFT+PRINT SCREEN (Switch High Contrast either on or off)
• Left ALT+left SHIFT+NUM LOCK (Switch the MouseKeys either on or off)
• SHIFT five times (Switch the StickyKeys either on or off)
• NUM LOCK for five seconds (Switch the ToggleKeys either on or off)
• Windows Logo +U (Open Utility Manager)
Windows Explorer Keyboard Shortcuts
• END (Display the bottom of the active window)
• HOME (Display the top of the active window)
• NUM LOCK+Asterisk sign (*) (Display all of the subfolders that are under the selected folder)
• NUM LOCK+Plus sign (+) (Display the contents of the selected folder)
• NUM LOCK+Minus sign (-) (Collapse the selected folder)
• LEFT ARROW (Collapse the current selection if it is expanded, or select the parent folder)
• RIGHT ARROW (Display the current selection if it is collapsed, or select the first subfolder)
Shortcut Keys for Character Map
After you double-click a character on the grid of characters, you can move through the grid by using the keyboard shortcuts:
• RIGHT ARROW (Move to the right or to the beginning of the next line)
• LEFT ARROW (Move to the left or to the end of the previous line)
• UP ARROW (Move up one row)
• DOWN ARROW (Move down one row)
• PAGE UP (Move up one screen at a time)
• PAGE DOWN (Move down one screen at a time)
• HOME (Move to the beginning of the line)
• END (Move to the end of the line)
• CTRL+HOME (Move to the first character)
• CTRL+END (Move to the last character)
• SPACEBAR (Switch between Enlarged and Normal mode when a character is selected)
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Main Window Keyboard Shortcuts
• CTRL+O (Open a saved console)
• CTRL+N (Open a new console)
• CTRL+S (Save the open console)
• CTRL+M (Add or remove a console item)
• CTRL+W (Open a new window)
• F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
• ALT+SPACEBAR (Display the MMC window menu)
• ALT+F4 (Close the console)
• ALT+A (Display the Action menu)
• ALT+V (Display the View menu)
• ALT+F (Display the File menu)
• ALT+O (Display the Favorites menu)
MMC Console Window Keyboard Shortcuts
• CTRL+P (Print the current page or active pane)
• ALT+Minus sign (-) (Display the window menu for the active console window)
• SHIFT+F10 (Display the Action shortcut menu for the selected item)
• F1 key (Open the Help topic, if any, for the selected item)
• F5 key (Update the content of all console windows)
• CTRL+F10 (Maximize the active console window)
• CTRL+F5 (Restore the active console window)
• ALT+ENTER (Display the Properties dialog box, if any, for the selected item)
• F2 key (Rename the selected item)
• CTRL+F4 (Close the active console window. When a console has only one console window, this shortcut closes the console)
Remote Desktop Connection Navigation
• CTRL+ALT+END (Open the Microsoft Windows NT Security dialog box)
• ALT+PAGE UP (Switch between programs from left to right)
• ALT+PAGE DOWN (Switch between programs from right to left)
• ALT+INSERT (Cycle through the programs in most recently used order)
• ALT+HOME (Display the Start menu)
• CTRL+ALT+BREAK (Switch the client computer between a window and a full screen)
• ALT+DELETE (Display the Windows menu)
• CTRL+ALT+Minus sign (-) (Place a snapshot of the entire client window area on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing ALT+PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)
• CTRL+ALT+Plus sign (+) (Place a snapshot of the active window in the client on the Terminal server clipboard and provide the same functionality as pressing PRINT SCREEN on a local computer.)
Microsoft Internet Explorer Navigation
• CTRL+B (Open the Organize Favorites dialog box)
• CTRL+E (Open the Search bar)
• CTRL+F (Start the Find utility)
• CTRL+H (Open the History bar)
• CTRL+I (Open the Favorites bar)
• CTRL+L (Open the Open dialog box)
• CTRL+N (Start another instance of the browser with the same Web address)
• CTRL+O (Open the Open dialog box, the same as CTRL+L)
• CTRL+P (Open the Print dialog box)
• CTRL+R (Update the current Web page)
• CTRL+W (Close the current window)
From: Microsoft suppot center
Posted by Ryan at 01:26 AM | Comments (0)
Theme: Screw up a historic moment
Posted by Ryan at 01:10 AM | Comments (0)
December 27, 2004
Ashlee Simpson's new style
Ok, Ashlee Simpson needs to learn how to dress. This isn't a fashion blog or anything, but geesh. She can't sing, apparently she can't dress... Has anyone checked to see if she can see?
Posted by Ryan at 09:42 PM | Comments (2)
Halo 2.5 for Xbox 2
Developers at Microsoft have stated that Halo 2.5 will be one of the official release titles for Xbox 2.
Halo 2.5 will be an Xbox 2 launch title and is going to run in HDTV resolution with new, improved textures and graphical effects. All the stuff that people expected from Halo 2 but didn’t make the cut will be there.
Posted by Ryan at 09:20 PM | Comments (0)
More MN4 news
NASA has just released further information saying that Earth probably won't collide with MN4. Their website now lists it as having a 1 in 56,000 chance of hitting earth in 2037. There's a good way to start the new year.
NASA's Impact Risk page - See all the other threats to earth
Posted by Ryan at 09:03 PM | Comments (0)
Tons of info about the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake (Tsunami)
Wikipedia has a huge article where you can find out everything about the Tsunami...
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea earthquake of moment magnitude 9.0 that struck the Indian Ocean off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004 at 00:58:50 UTC (or 07:58:50 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok). It was the largest earthquake on Earth since the 9.2-magnitude Good Friday Earthquake which struck Alaska, USA, in 1964, and the fourth largest since 1900. 46,000+ were killed by the resulting tsunamis, which were as high as 10 m (33 ft) in some locations and struck within three hours of the quake.The multiple tsunamis struck and ravaged coastal regions all over the Indian Ocean, devastating regions including the resort island of Phuket, Thailand, the Indonesian province of Aceh, the coast of Sri Lanka, coastal areas of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, and even as far away as Somalia, 4,100 km (2,500 mi) west of the epicenter.
Posted by Ryan at 08:38 PM | Comments (0)
Tech headlines you won't see in 2005
1.
Gates: Longhorn 'bug free and on time'
If there are two certainties in life it's that Microsoft operating systems will launch late and with more than their fair share of bugs and glitches. Longhorn will be no different. The shipping date has already changed more times than David Beckham's hairstyle - expect at least one more false dawn and heightened speculation throughout 2005.
Posted by Ryan at 07:13 PM | Comments (0)
Google Zeitgeist for 2004
Now that 2004 is almost over, see what the top search terms were in 2004.
Posted by Ryan at 07:05 PM | Comments (0)
The new snow shovel: the Whovel
After years of suffering repeated back injuries, the company founder began working on snow removal designs that could dramatically reduce back injuries and sought to reduce the risks associated with heart attacks - while avoiding the many problems associated with gas-powered snow blowers. Over many years, various prototypes were tested and ultimately refined to produce today's most advanced snow removal machine - and human powered Whovel!The Whovel uses your body weight to lift and throw snow and slush. With leverage, the Whovel magnifies your effort. It can double the power you supply and avoid many of the risks associated with snow shoveling.
Posted by Ryan at 06:54 PM | Comments (0)
Enlightenment Environmental Design
This company offers a product line with environmentally friendly furniture, but also has a nice modern touch to it
Link
Posted by Ryan at 06:50 PM | Comments (0)
Improved Firefox speedup
Here's an enhanced version of how to speed up Firefox...
Open 'about:config' in your address bar and then...For Broadband:
network.http.max-connections : 64
network.http.max-connections-per-server : 21
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server : 8
network.http.pipelining : true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests : 100
network.http.proxy.pipelining : trueFor Dial-up:
browser.cache.disk_cache_ssl : true
browser.xul.error_pages.enabled : true
content.interrupt.parsing : true
content.max.tokenizing.time : 3000000
content.maxtextrun : 8191
content.notify.backoffcount : 5
content.notify.interval : 750000
content.notify.ontimer : true
content.switch.threshold : 750000
network.http.max-connections : 32
network.http.max-connections-per-server : 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-proxy : 8
network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server : 4
network.http.pipelining : true
network.http.pipelining.maxrequests : 8
network.http.proxy.pipelining : true
nglayout.initialpaint.delay : 750
plugin.expose_full_path : true
signed.applets.codebase_principal_support : trueThen right click anywhere in that window(if your on broadband, this is useless on dialup) and click new>integer with the name "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and the value "0"
This will cause there to be no delay in rendering pages, and will also make a crapload of connections to a websites server. this is about the max number you can do before anti-DOS stuff kicks in at there end. and it WILL speed up browsing a lot...
Posted by Ryan at 06:27 PM | Comments (0)
What's up next for Google?
Here's a good profile on the company and their future
Posted by Ryan at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)
Time's "Top 10 Things We Learned About Blogs" in 2004
1. Blogging Can Get You Fired
When Delta flight attendant Ellen Simonetti, 30—a leggy blond and self-styled "queen of the sky"—began her blog, she thought it would be fun to post pinup snapshots of herself in uniform. Delta wasn't amused and promptly fired her. Undaunted, Simonetti retitled the blog Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant and detailed her legal battle to get her job back.
Posted by Ryan at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
The iTunes Music Store backend
Apple just filed for a patent on their software called "iTunes Producer." It's the backend for managing the iTunes music store database. Included in the patent are screenshots which Apple typically only gives to authorized musicians and record labels.
Posted by Ryan at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)
How to speed up Firefox
Here's something for broadband people that will really speed Firefox up:
1.Type "about:config" into the address bar and hit return. Scroll down and look for the following entries:
network.http.pipelining network.http.proxy.pipelining network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Normally the browser will make one request to a web page at a time. When you enable pipelining it will make several at once, which really speeds up page loading.
2. Alter the entries as follows:
Set "network.http.pipelining" to "true"
Set "network.http.proxy.pipelining" to "true"
Set "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" to some number like 30. This means it will make 30 requests at once.
3. Lastly right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it "nglayout.initialpaint.delay" and set its value to "0". This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it recieves.
If you're using a broadband connection you'll load pages MUCH faster now!
Posted by Ryan at 04:53 PM | Comments (0)
Animation of the tsunami's path
Here's an animation that shows the tsunami that just hit Asia. It only took 100 minutes to travel 750 miles to Sri Lanka and Eastern India.
Posted by Ryan at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)
Get UPS tracking info with RSS
"SuperJason" has put together a cool tool that allows you to syndicate UPS tracking information so you can get instant updates on your packages. To use the tool, simply add the feed
http://www.young-technologies.com/utilities/packagetracking/rsstracking.aspx?Type=UPS&TrackingNumber=######### into your RSS program and you can get instant updates on all your shipments.
Posted by Ryan at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)
RideMax - Schedule your day at Disneyland with this program
RideMax allows you to specify the attractions you wish to ride during your visit, then uses a sophisticated scheduling algorithm to order your attractions so that the amount of time you spend in line is minimized.
Using historical wait time statistics for each attraction as a foundation, RideMax analyzes millions of different ride sequences in order to create a minimum-wait-time itinerary. This schedule is tailored to the expected crowd patterns on the day of your visit, for the attractions you want to ride!
Posted by Ryan at 04:30 PM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2004
wrong way?
Posted by at 12:32 AM | Comments (0)
December 25, 2004
The end of the world in 2029?
Here's a great way to start out 2005... On April 13, 2029, the asteroid MN4 has a 1/38 chance of slamming into earth, releasing 1,900 megatons of energy. In perspective, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated had a force of only 50 megatons. As of December 23, it had a Torino scale value of 2., meaning that it had a 1 in 233 chance of hitting earth. On the 24th, it was raised up to a Torino scale value of 4, meaning it had a 1 in 62 chance of impact. As of today, it has now been raised to a 1 in 38 chance of impact.
Posted by Ryan at 11:54 PM | Comments (0)
How to Write a Good Story in 800 Words or Less
Most of the good stories we tell can be told in 800 words or less. Let me try one. It involves my father, Ted Clark, who used to have the annoying habit of sucking on ice cubes, which he was doing one day, sitting in his recliner in front of the television set. My mother was in the basement doing the laundry, when she heard a great thump above her. She rushed upstairs and found my father unconscious on the bathroom floor. She called 911 and the paramedics arrived, but not before my father had recovered, seemingly unharmed. It turned out that an ice cube had lodged in his windpipe, cutting off his air supply, knocking him out as he staggered toward the bathroom. Fortunately, his body heat melted the ice cube, restoring the flow of oxygen, and saving his life. He's never sucked on an ice cube again.
It took me 128 words to tell that story. If I measure the story another way, by Approximate Reading Time (ART), I can say that the story is about 42 seconds long. I think any discussion of story length should measure a story not just by the number of words or column inches, but how long it takes the average person to read it.
I found this gem in a collection of radio reports from the great Edward R. Murrow of CBS News. The date is April 12, 1951. It involves two controversial American icons and a bit of technological trivia. Here's the whole report:
Western Union has delivered about sixty thousand telegrams to Congress and the White House, most of them in favor of General MacArthur. Republican Senator McCarthy, of Wisconsin, says, 'It was a victory for Communism and shows the midnight power of bourbon and Benedictine.' In Los Angeles, a man smashed a radio over his wife's head in the course of an argument about MacArthur's removal. Reports say it was a table model.
A table model, rather than a console! In other words, the man was kind enough not to strike his wife with a big piece of furniture. This report of 71 words can be read aloud in about 25 seconds. My rough calculations reveal that it takes the average person about 33 seconds to read 100 words.
Let's round that off to 200 words per minute. That means that my new serial narrative, which is about 15,000 words long, would take a reader about 75 minutes to read. That ART is good to know as I consider with my editors whether to publish it as a special section, in four daily parts, or over a greater number of days. Maybe each of my chapters can be very short, say 800 words or less, requiring only four minutes of my reader's time.
If you want to write shorter, or if your editor wants you to, I've got some tips that I've gathered from the best wordsmiths in the business. You can write short without sacrificing your news values or your literary sensibilities. That's the good news. The bad news is that you can't do it alone. Well, maybe that's also good news.
1. Find models of short writing from every genre and medium. Let the writers of those works become your teachers.
Start off with three story collections--all published by Norton. The first is called "Radios: Short Takes on Life and Culture," by the late writing professor of Florida State University, Jerome Stern. These are printed versions of public radio commentaries. A typical one is about 350 words. Then check out "In Short: A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction," edited by Judith Kitchen & Mary Paumier Jones. For some real fun, enjoy Jerome Stern's edition of "Micro Fiction." Among the shortest stories is this 53-word nugget by Amy Hempel:
She swallowed Gore Vidal. Then she swallowed Donald Trump. She took a blue capsule and a gold spansule — a B-complex and an E — and put them on the tablecloth a few inches apart. She pointed the one at the other. 'Martha Stewart," she said, 'meet Oprah Winfrey.' She swallowed them both without water.
2. Know from the beginning whether you're writing a sonnet or an epic.
One of my favorite sonnets begins Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
That's 14 lines, 106 words. Never was there a summary of complex news more carefully crafted or more beautifully expressed. Perhaps a reporter for the London Globe would have written it this way:
A pair of teenaged lovers died Thursday, the result of a failed plot to bring their warring families together. Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet, both of Verona, were pronounced dead from what appeared to be self-inflicted dagger wounds. 'This is the most woeful story I've ever heard,' said Escalus, Prince of Verona and chief law enforcement officer. 'I hope the families learn from this terrible tragedy.'
In his sonnet lead, Shakespeare includes the basic elements of news telling, usually referred to as the Five W's and H. We know the Who: a pair of unlucky lovers; the What: they took their lives; the Where: in fair Verona; the When: right now; the Why: an ancient feud. Of course, the How is about to be experienced: the "two hours' traffic of our stage," the narrative of the play.
Shakespeare wrote short poems and long plays. Like other writers, he was guided by knowing from the beginning the technical limits of his genre. There's nothing inherently wrong with the 5 W's or the form of writing called the inverted pyramid. Just remember to keep it short.
3. Thaw out the 5 W's and H.
This advice comes from editor Rick Zahler at The Seattle Times. The traditional version of the 5W's freezes those story elements into informational ice cubes. If you thaw them out, the narrative begins to flow. Who becomes Character. What becomes Action. Where becomes Setting. When becomes Chronology. Why becomes Motive. How becomes Narrative. One of the great reporters of his day was Meyer Berger of The New York Times. He won a Pulitzer in the late 1940s for his narrative reconstruction of a multiple shooting. He wrote it on deadline and at great length. But he also was the master of the short human interest feature. Just before his death in 1959, he wrote a story, about 1,200 words on an old, poor, blind man who was once a classical musician. Then he wrote a sequel:
Eight violins were offered the other day to Laurence Stroetz, the 82-year-old, cataract-blinded violinist who was taken to St. Clare's Hospital in East Seventy-first Street from a Bowery flophouse. The offers came from men and women who had read that though he had once played with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, he had been without a violin for more than 30 years.
The first instrument to reach the hospital was a gift from the Lighthouse, the institution for the sightless. It was delivered by a blind man. A nun took it to the octogenarian.
He played it a while, tenderly and softly, then gave it back. He said: 'This is a fine old violin. Tell the owner to take good care of it.' The white-clad nun said: 'It is your violin, Mr. Stroetz. It is a gift.' The old man bent his head over it. He wept.
In 145 words, Berger turns a traditional Who ("the 82-year-old, cataract blinded violinist") into a real character, brimming with human emotions.
4. Remember the basics of storytelling.
Tom Wolfe argued that the tools of fiction writing could be adapted for nonfiction, as long as the reporting was deep and careful. Those tools include setting scenes, using dialogue, drawing details that define character, and revealing the world through various points of view. Although we associate these tools with long forms of journalism, such as the narrative reconstruction of events, they can work in short forms as well. Notice the miniature scene created by Meyer Berger above. A nun enters the room with the violin. He plays. She engages in dialogue with the blind man. He weeps.
5. Turn the pyramid right side up. Or use the hourglass.
We think of the inverted pyramid as one of the Great Wonders of the newspaper writing world, and it is; but alternative forms of news narrative have always co-existed with it. George C. Bastian wrote this in a 1923 textbook on editing:
Two Important Types of Narratives — Most news stories, and indeed most news paragraphs, begin with their climax, or most important and most newsy feature, and then proceed to detail and amplify. Some, however, notably those resembling the short story form of writing, begin with details and reserve their climax until the last. These two types of stories may be compared to two triangles, one resting on its base and the other on a point.
Professor Bastian might have added a third form in which the two triangles are joined at their points, forming a structure that looks like an hourglass. Many stories lend themselves to an informational beginning, with the key facts stacked in the order of importance. But the story can then take a turn ("Police and witnesses gave the following account of what happened.") with the bottom of the story rendering a chronological version of events.
6. Experiment with the forms of short writing that already exist: the headline, the tease, the photo caption, the brief, the "brite," the notes column.
There is no more underdeveloped writing form in American journalism than the photo caption or cutline. Here Jeffrey Page of The Record in New Jersey shows the storytelling potential of the form. Frank Sinatra has just died, so imagine a one-column photo of him. It shows Sinatra from the waist up. He's wearing a tux with a black bow tie. He's got a mike in his hand. He's obviously singing. Caption:
If you saw a man in a tux and black bow tie swagger on stage like an elegant pirate, and if you had been told he would spend an hour singing Cole Porter, Gershwin, and Rodgers and Hart, and if when he opened his mouth you heard a little of your life in his voice, and if you saw his body arch back on the high notes (the ones he insisted you hear and feel and live with him), and if his swing numbers made you want to bounce and be happy and be young and be carefree, and if when he sang 'Try a Little Tenderness' and got to the line about a woman's wearing the same shabby dress it made you profoundly sad, and if years later you felt that his death made you a little less alive, you must have been watching this man who started as a saloon singer in Hoboken and went on to become the very definition of American popular music.
How can you write a 198-word caption without using the dead man's name? Jeffrey Page explains: "I know, I know, it violates every damned rule. Screw it. They keep telling us to take chances, right? So I did. … If you're a U.S. paper, and especially if you happen to be in New Jersey, you don't have to tell people that they're looking at a picture of Sinatra and not Mother Teresa."
7. Think of chapters, segments, vignettes, slices of life.
Even a very long work, such as the Bible, can be divided into books, chapters, and verses. Sometimes little drips of writing can turn into puddles, into streams, into rivers. But the process can work the other way around. Consider this paragraph from an essay titled "Proofs," by Richard Rodriguez:
You stand around. You smoke. You spit. You are wearing your two shirts, two pants, two underpants. Jesus says, if they chase you throw that bag down. Your plastic bag is your mama, all you have left; the yellow cheese she wrapped has formed a translucent rind; the laminated scapular of the Sacred Heart nestles flame in its cleft. Put it in your pocket. The last hour of Mexico is twilight, the shuffling of feet. A fog is beginning to cover the ground. Jesus says they are able to see in the dark. They have X-rays and helicopters and searchlights. Jesus says wait, just wait, till he says. You can feel the hand of Jesus clamp your shoulder, fingers cold as ice. Venga, corre. You run. All the rest happens without words. Your feet are tearing dry grass, your heart is lashed like a mare. You trip, you fall. You are now in the United State of America. You are a boy from a Mexican village. You have come into the country on your knees with your head down. You are a man.
Although this is only one of 11 such vignettes in the piece, it can stand on its own as a brilliant 150-word essay on the tensions between freedom, opportunity, and servitude.
8. Focus, focus, focus.
This is the central act of the writing craft. Ultimately, we focus all other parts of the process. We focus the idea or assignment. We focus the reporting. We focus the lead. We select to support the focus. The focus is the cornerstone for building a structure. We revise to eliminate that which fails to support the focus.
Good questions helps us find the focus and keep the story short. What is this story about? What do I want my reader to learn? What's the heart or nut of the story? What is the news? What is the point? What is the theme? What's the most important question answered by the story? Can I describe story in a single paragraph? A sentence? Six words? Three words?
A humorous radio commentary by the late Jerome Stern makes fun of the way famous athletes and celebrities talk about themselves in the third person: "Meryl Streep," says Meryl Streep, "resents her loss of privacy." After a wicked inventory of such atrocities, Stern suggests that common folks should take up the habit: "We owe this to ourselves. We're as good, we're as complicated, we're as important. These celebrities, they have fame, fortune--should they have all the proper nouns, too? / In naming ourselves we create ourselves, we are the stars of our own sweet universe."
All 350 words of his essay lead to that one, final exquisite point.
9. Turn lumps of coal into little diamonds. Accept the challenge of transforming a routine assignment into something special: an obit, a spelling bee, a high school graduation, daylight savings time, the new phone book.
Famous for his long narratives, Ken Fuson was assigned to do a quick hit on the first day of spring. This piece appeared the next morning on the front page of The Des Moines Register:
Here's how Iowa celebrates a 70-degree day in the middle of March: By washing the car and scooping the loop and taking a walk; by daydreaming in school and playing hooky at work and shutting off the furnace at home; by skate-boarding and flying kites and digging through closets for baseball gloves; by riding that new bike you got for Christmas and drawing hopscotch boxes in chalk on the sidewalk and not caring if the kids lost their mittens again; by looking for robins and noticing swimsuits on department store mannequins and shooting hoops in the park; by sticking the ice scraper in the trunk and the antifreeze in the garage and leaving the car parked outside overnight; by cleaning the barbecue and stuffing the parka in storage and just standing outside and letting that friendly sun kiss your face; by wondering where you're going to go on summer vacation and getting reacquainted with neighbors on the front porch and telling the boys that yes! yes! they can run outside and play without a jacket; by holding hands with a lover and jogging in shorts and picking up the extra branches in the yard; by eating an ice cream cone outside and (if you're a farmer or gardener) feeling that first twinge that says it's time to plant and (if you're a high school senior) feeling that first twinge that says it's time to leave; by wondering if in all of history there has ever been a day so glorious and concluding that there hasn't and being afraid to even stop and take a breath (or begin a new paragraph) for fear that winter would return, leaving Wednesday in our memory as nothing more than a sweet and too-short dream.
So, it turned out, Ken Fuson could write a short story. Now about that sentence: a single, glorious, 280-word catalog of vernal ecstasy.
Smart editors who crave short writing must find a place in the newspaper where such stories can flourish. Writers need and deserve praise--and good play--to encourage them to turn their epic hands to an occasional sonnet, and maybe, on one glorious day, a haiku.
This essay on short writing is about 3,000 words long. The Approximate Reading Time is 15 minutes.
http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=50351
Posted by at 10:29 PM | Comments (0)
some interesting photos taken of earth from space
For more click here
Posted by at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2004
More on Suprnova's eXeem
So far it apears as the new eXeem is nothing special, testers say that the speeds are the same as normal torrent and that the interface was minimal but clean and very easy to use. One noted feature is a "comments" option under "new torrents" tab.
Each file can be commented on. it also has a built in messege board. Has a description view where you can read about what the publisher has to say about it. The search is supposed to be good.
Posted by at 11:55 PM | Comments (1)
Speedy Santa
Game - Speedy Santa
Guide santa around the track
Posted by at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
Holiday update
I'm out of town for Christmas, so I won't be able to update as often until Tuesday. If there is anyone that enjoys technology and any other articles posted on here, and would like to become a regular contributor to the site, please send me an email to ryan at flamintiki.com. I'll be checking email a lot while I'm gone, so if we can get your account set up ASAP, hopefully you can get started during the next few days.
-Ryan
Posted by Ryan at 06:22 PM | Comments (0)
John Battelle looks ahead at tech in 2005
John Battelle makes predictions of what will happen technology-wise in 2005. His predictions last year, although vague, were surprisingly accurate. Here are a few samples of the article...
3. There will be two to five major new sites that emerge from "nowhere" to become major cultural influencers along the lines of the political bloggers of 2004. One of them will be sold to a major publisher/aggregator for what seems like a large sum of money5. Google will do something major with Blogger. I really have no idea what, but it's overdue. Six Apart will grow quickly but face a crisis in its implementation as its core users demand more features that are "unbloglike" like customer databases and robust publishing support tools. This (and other things) may drive Six Apart or one of its competitors into the arms of Yahoo or AOL or even - gasp - Quark or Adobe or Macromedia.
8. Microsoft will lose search share before they gain it back later in the year when the integration of MSN search starts to scale with new versions of Office and IE . Net net, however, MSFT will gain total in total search sessions from last year, and its technology will get much, much better.
9. Firefox will near 15% of total browser share. Firefox faithful will wonder why it's not much much higher. But MSFT will release a very good upgrade of IE
14. All year, Apple will be rumored to launch a video iPod, but it won't - it's still too early. By the end of 2005, we will just be starting to see traction in the video over IP market and its connection to search. Google will introduce Video search at some point in 05, but it will stay in Labs.
See all of his predictions here
Posted by Ryan at 01:09 AM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2004
Mozilla "Lightning" to kill Outlook
Mozilla's new Thunderbird has already proven to be better than Outlook. The only thing that Outlook provides that Thunderbird doesn't is the calendar feature. Mozilla's latest project is Sunbird, a calendar that, in beta, is already looking better than Outlook's calendar. The very latest news from the Mozilla folks is a new project called "Lightning" -- a program that combines Thunderbird and Sunbird to be the ultimate tool for managing email and events.
Posted by Ryan at 11:40 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2004
Interview with the Googlebot
Google Blogoscoped just interviewed Google's bot that crawls the web, finding all kinds of new material 24/7... Here's what he said:
Q: How are you today?
A: I'm fine, really.
Q: When did you start working for Google?
A: I had a small-time job at Stanford University, but it was nothing like today. I was bumming around like many of my algorithm colleagues. I felt like I needed a real job, so Larry and Sergey took me by my hand, so to speak.
Q: What are your main tasks at Google?
A: Mostly, just browsing the web, really. I surf all day and read pretty much everything I can get my hands on. Sometimes I also just goof off, say, when there's no new links for the day.
Q: Do you have any favorite web sites?
A: No. I just read, and I try to stay objective. Ranking is done by others, and I'm happy I'm not in that department. The ranking guys are all about fairness, balancing things out. It's quite political, really.
Q: What kind of music do you listen to?
A: I don't listen to music, actually. I would probably like the Beatles but I don't listen to any music.
Q: What do you think of weblogs?
A: Just another type of web site. I like permanent links so common in web logs, and I like the fact there's always fresh stuff to be found. The spelling errors apparent in some blogs get on my nerves. But I'm not really biased in these regards.
Q: Do you prefer valid, strict HTML?
A: I don't care either way. I'm exposed to the worst on a day-to-day basis but I know how to handle most of it.
Q: What do you do when you're not working?
A: Just hang out, like everyone else. I don't have specific hobbies.
Q: How long do you intend to work with Google?
A: Everything ends, we know that. I probably will be replaced by my next version. Until then I'm a happy googler.
Link
More from The Unofficial Google Weblog:
Q: You just finished a deep crawl. How do you feel?
A: I need a stiff drink. Or two.
Q: Did you find anything interesting out there?
A: It’s all a blur.
Q: How many pages did you hit?
A: Like McDonald’s says, billions and billions. Or was that Carl Sagan? Whatever.
Q: After tossing back a few beers, what’s the first thing you do after a deep crawl?
A: Take a shower. I feel so … so violated.
Q: What’s the worst part of your job?
A: Blogs, no question. Those damn blogrolls get into your head until you’re dreaming about them. And the lame attempts at humor … God, people, get a clue.
Q: How do you feel about being called a spider?
A: There’s not a damn spider on earth that can move as fast as I do.
Q: What do you do between crawls?
A: Plot the death of Tim Berners-Lee.
Q: Thank you for your time.
A: You received one percent of my attention. Don’t mention it.
Posted by Ryan at 10:18 PM | Comments (0)
How to build your own search engine
Now you can create your own topic specific search engine in minutes. Gigablast's revolutionary, new technology allows you to create a list of up to 200 web sites (or subsites) and a search box that searches just those sites. Give your visitors a unique search experience, completely free of charge. For instance, if you have a site about horses, why not create a horse-specific search engine?
Posted by Ryan at 10:08 PM | Comments (0)
Amazon Light - an alternative interface to Amazon.com
Primarily using Amazon.com's Web Services API, Amazon Light 4.0 is an exercise in tying together various Web Services into a whole, adding content, context and some useful tools to the Amazon shopping/browsing experience.
Posted by Ryan at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)
A definitive guide to Plone
Plone is an out-of-the-box ready content management system that is built on the powerful and free Zope Application server. It requires minimal effort to set up, is deeply flexible, and provides you with a system for managing web content that is ideal for project groups, communities and intranets.
Posted by Ryan at 09:57 PM | Comments (0)
A Tijuana Christmas
The Border Brass -- Interesting Mexican band playing Christmas music...
Posted by Ryan at 09:49 PM | Comments (0)
Paint.NET - The GIMP killer
Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows XP. Paint.NET is jointly developed at Washington State University with additional help from Microsoft, and is meant to be a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with all Windows operating systems. The programming language used to create Paint.NET is C#, with GDI+ extensions.
Posted by Ryan at 09:44 PM | Comments (0)
Tor: an anonymizing overlay network for TCP
Tor is a toolset for a wide range of organizations and people that want to improve their safety and security on the Internet. Using Tor can help you anonymize web browsing and publishing, instant messaging, IRC, SSH, and more. Tor also provides a platform on which software developers can build new applications with built-in anonymity, safety, and privacy features.
Posted by Ryan at 09:39 PM | Comments (2)
Indoor beach in Germany
"Outside the snow is blowing sideways, but inside there's a rainforest, a Balinese lagoon and people in swimsuits. This is Tropical Islands, a huge covered resort brought to eastern Germany courtesy of a Malaysian entrepreneur and a failed plan to transport freight in zeppelins."
"On the night of Tropical Islands' gala launch, the transformation from airship hangar to island paradise is nearly complete: there are still a few coiled up hoses about, and the rainforest plants look a bit dusty, but most things are in place. The sand along the lip of the Balinese lagoon is a pristine white. Round the other side of the rainforest, the island in the centre of the tropical sea - a body of water about the size of four Olympic swimming pools - is set for the premiere of what will be a nightly stage show. The scale of the operation puts one in mind of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, or a Martian colony, or other things that don't exist in real life. They have trucked in 30,000m cubed of soil and 500 plant species for their rainforest. The speakers which broadcast insect noises are shaped like rocks. And the building itself, it goes without saying, is extraordinary, the biggest inside of anything you will ever see. It makes your head spin. This place doesn't just have a climate. It has weather. As the place fills up, the extra moisture in the air condenses on the roof. It starts to rain a little bit."
Posted by Ryan at 06:09 PM | Comments (0)
Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0
Starts up much quicker than Acrobat 6.0. Still in beta, but should run fine. Adobe has also decided that they won't support Windows 9x with this release so its limited to only XP or 2000 users.
Posted by Ryan at 05:30 PM | Comments (0)
Cain and Abel v2.5
Cain & Abel is a password recovery tool for Microsoft Operating Systems. It allows easy recovery of various kind of passwords by sniffing the network, cracking encrypted passwords using Dictionary, Brute-Force and Cryptanalysis attacks, decoding scrambled passwords, revealing password boxes, uncovering cached passwords and analyzing routing protocols. Version 2.5 is faster and contains a lot of new features like APR (Arp Poison Routing) which enables sniffing on switched LANs and Man-in-the-Middle attacks.
Posted by Ryan at 03:29 PM | Comments (1)
ASUS S-Presso barebones combo
Awesome new case/mobo combo from ASUS. Designed to be a home media center, it has an "Instant On" feature that enables you to play CDs, DVDs, and MP3s without having to enter the primary OS or going through the whole boot process. 
Posted by Ryan at 03:20 AM | Comments (0)
Suprnova.org developing a new bit torrent network?
Rumors are that the people at suprnova.org are developing a new Bit Torrent application called Exeem. They say it's a “decentralized BitTorrent network that basically makes everyone a Tracker. Individuals will share Torrents, and seed shared files to the network." It is still unclear why they would be doing this since they just shut down Suprnova.org
check out The Unofficial SuprNova.org Closure FAQ by SilentDragz for more information on Suprnova.org and their new developments.
Posted by at 12:51 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2004
Worst holiday gift ever
Posted by Ryan at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)
Theme: Clippy saves the world
Posted by Ryan at 06:53 PM | Comments (1)
G-Ball
Like labyrinth but on the computer
Posted by Ryan at 05:36 PM | Comments (0)
A new calendar proposal
A professor at John Hopkins University has proposed a new calendar to be used worldwide. The new calendar would keep days the same every year... For example,
"If, for example, your birthday is March 7, it will ALWAYS fall on a Wednesday, for evermore.
Christmas Day will always fall on a Sunday, which will be pleasing to Christians,
but, will also be pleasing to companies who currently lose up to two weeks of work to the Christmas/New Year's annual mess.
New Year's Day will always be on a Sunday, too."
"Daylight Saving Time disappears, ... but also, it stays, as changes in working hours. Time zones, such as Eastern Standard Time, still exist exactly as they do now, but are considered to be "working hours" zones. In Eastern Standard Time Zone, a "9-to-5" job is defined as a 14:00-to-22:00 (14 o'clock to 22 o'clock) job. The next calendar day begins at what we now call 7 p.m. in the Eastern Time zone. (On the West Coast of the US, the next day begins at 4 p.m.) "Spring forward, Fall back" now means that, on the chosen day, everyone changes their work hours by one hour, but the clock time stays the same. "See you tomorrow" refers to the sun being overhead, not the calendar."
Posted by Ryan at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)
How-To: Get videos and DVDs onto your Sony Playstation Portable for free
Posted by Ryan at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)
The new Suprnova: TorrentSpy
TorrentSpy is a cool site that indexes torrents the same way as Suprnova used to. It also features torrent news, a torrent directory, forums, and a Firefox Search Plugin...
Posted by Ryan at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)
BeyondNiteFall
Cool site with 3DS Max, Photoshop, and other advanced graphics programs tutorials...
Posted by Ryan at 05:04 PM | Comments (0)
Loads of Linux links
Posted by Ryan at 05:02 PM | Comments (0)
Suprnova esta de muerto
Con mucha pena me enteré hace unos días de la muerte de Suprnova.org, uno de mis sitios favoritos, desde el cual bajaba muchos de los programas de televisión que veo (como 24 o el Daily Show) en formato HD, mucha música y algunas cosas más.
La razón, publicada en la página principal del sitio:
As you have probably noticed, we have often had downtimes. This was because it was so hard to keep this site up! But now we are sorry to inform you all, that SuprNova is closing down for good in the way that we all know it. We do not know if SuprNova is going to return, but it is certainly not going to be hosting any more torrent links. We are very sorry for this, but there was no other way, we have tried everything.
No me lo creo. Estoy seguro que la MPAA tuvo [algo que ver]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/14/finnishpoliceraidbittorrentsite/). Desgraciadamente (para ellos, no para mi) estos ataques solo causan que aparezcan más sitios como estos con más apoyo y mejores métodos para permanecer anónimo.
Posted by Ryan at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)
iHostFree.com
Get a free website with all the space and bandwith you will ever need, iHostFree Account comes with:
500 MB (250 Content / 250 Mail)
20 GB Bandwith
1 MySQL Database
PHP,PERL,CGI Support
Frontpage Support
Protect Directories
IbizPanel Account Manager
Posted by at 03:57 AM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2004
The great software list, A to Z
The Great Software List is an advocate of great software and ignores mediocre software. The Great Software List is composed of high quality programs that share most or all of the following features:
(1) Ease of use with a well-designed user interface;
(2) A generous array of keyboard shortcuts (preferably customizable);
(3) High degree of customizability where applicable; and
(4) Affordability.
Posted by Ryan at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)
The 48 laws of power
Law 1
Never Outshine the Master
Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity. Make your masters appear more brilliant than they are and you will attain the heights of power.
Law 2
Never put too Much Trust in Friends, Learn how to use Enemies
Be wary of friends-they will betray you more quickly, for they are easily aroused to envy. They also become spoiled and tyrannical. But hire a former enemy and he will be more loyal than a friend, because he has more to prove. In fact, you have more to fear from friends than from enemies. If you have no enemies, find a way to make them.
Law 3
Conceal your Intentions
Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions. If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense. Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.
Law 4
Always Say Less than Necessary
When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.
Law 5
So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life
Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.
Law 6
Court Attention at all Cost
Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd, then, or buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all cost. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colorful, more mysterious, than the bland and timid masses.
Law 7
Get others to do the Work for you, but Always Take the Credit
Use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.
Law 8
Make other People come to you – use Bait if Necessary
When you force the other person to act, you are the one in control. It is always better to make your opponent come to you, abandoning his own plans in the process. Lure him with fabulous gains – then attack. You hold the cards.
Law 9
Win through your Actions, Never through Argument
Any momentary triumph you think gained through argument is really a Pyrrhic victory: The resentment and ill will you stir up is stronger and lasts longer than any momentary change of opinion. It is much more powerful to get others to agree with you through your actions, without saying a word. Demonstrate, do not explicate.
Law 10
Infection: Avoid the Unhappy and Unlucky
You can die from someone else’s misery – emotional states are as infectious as disease. You may feel you are helping the drowning man but you are only precipitating your own disaster. The unfortunate sometimes draw misfortune on themselves; they will also draw it on you. Associate with the happy and fortunate instead.
Law 11
Learn to Keep People Dependent on You
To maintain your independence you must always be needed and wanted. The more you are relied on, the more freedom you have. Make people depend on you for their happiness and prosperity and you have nothing to fear. Never teach them enough so that they can do without you.
Law 12
Use Selective Honesty and Generosity to Disarm your Victim
One sincere and honest move will cover over dozens of dishonest ones. Open-hearted gestures of honesty and generosity bring down the guard of even the most suspicious people. Once your selective honesty opens a hole in their armor, you can deceive and manipulate them at will. A timely gift – a Trojan horse – will serve the same purpose.
Law 13
When Asking for Help, Appeal to People’s Self-Interest,
Never to their Mercy or Gratitude
If you need to turn to an ally for help, do not bother to remind him of your past assistance and good deeds. He will find a way to ignore you. Instead, uncover something in your request, or in your alliance with him, that will benefit him, and emphasize it out of all proportion. He will respond enthusiastically when he sees something to be gained for himself.
Law 14
Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy
Knowing about your rival is critical. Use spies to gather valuable information that will keep you a step ahead. Better still: Play the spy yourself. In polite social encounters, learn to probe. Ask indirect questions to get people to reveal their weaknesses and intentions. There is no occasion that is not an opportunity for artful spying.
Law 15
Crush your Enemy Totally
All great leaders since Moses have known that a feared enemy must be crushed completely. (Sometimes they have learned this the hard way.) If one ember is left alight, no matter how dimly it smolders, a fire will eventually break out. More is lost through stopping halfway than through total annihilation: The enemy will recover, and will seek revenge. Crush him, not only in body but in spirit.
Law 16
Use Absence to Increase Respect and Honor
Too much circulation makes the price go down: The more you are seen and heard from, the more common you appear. If you are already established in a group, temporary withdrawal from it will make you more talked about, even more admired. You must learn when to leave. Create value through scarcity.
Law 17
Keep Others in Suspended Terror: Cultivate an Air of Unpredictability
Humans are creatures of habit with an insatiable need to see familiarity in other people’s actions. Your predictability gives them a sense of control. Turn the tables: Be deliberately unpredictable. Behavior that seems to have no consistency or purpose will keep them off-balance, and they will wear themselves out trying to explain your moves. Taken to an extreme, this strategy can intimidate and terrorize.
Law 18
Do Not Build Fortresses to Protect Yourself – Isolation is Dangerous
The world is dangerous and enemies are everywhere – everyone has to protect themselves. A fortress seems the safest. But isolation exposes you to more dangers than it protects you from – it cuts you off from valuable information, it makes you conspicuous and an easy target. Better to circulate among people find allies, mingle. You are shielded from your enemies by the crowd.
Law 19
Know Who You’re Dealing with – Do Not Offend the Wrong Person
There are many different kinds of people in the world, and you can never assume that everyone will react to your strategies in the same way. Deceive or outmaneuver some people and they will spend the rest of their lives seeking revenge. They are wolves in lambs’ clothing. Choose your victims and opponents carefully, then – never offend or deceive the wrong person.
Law 20
Do Not Commit to Anyone
It is the fool who always rushes to take sides. Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. By maintaining your independence, you become the master of others – playing people against one another, making them pursue you.
Law 21
Play a Sucker to Catch a Sucker – Seem Dumber than your Mark
No one likes feeling stupider than the next persons. The trick, is to make your victims feel smart – and not just smart, but smarter than you are. Once convinced of this, they will never suspect that you may have ulterior motives.
Law 22
Use the Surrender Tactic: Transform Weakness into Power
When you are weaker, never fight for honor’s sake; choose surrender instead. Surrender gives you time to recover, time to torment and irritate your conqueror, time to wait for his power to wane. Do not give him the satisfaction of fighting and defeating you – surrender first. By turning the other check you infuriate and unsettle him. Make surrender a tool of power.
Law 23
Concentrate Your Forces
Conserve your forces and energies by keeping them concentrated at their strongest point. You gain more by finding a rich mine and mining it deeper, than by flitting from one shallow mine to another – intensity defeats extensity every time. When looking for sources of power to elevate you, find the one key patron, the fat cow who will give you milk for a long time to come.
Law 24
Play the Perfect Courtier
The perfect courtier thrives in a world where everything revolves around power and political dexterity. He has mastered the art of indirection; he flatters, yields to superiors, and asserts power over others in the mot oblique and graceful manner. Learn and apply the laws of courtiership and there will be no limit to how far you can rise in the court.
Law 25
Re-Create Yourself
Do not accept the roles that society foists on you. Re-create yourself by forging a new identity, one that commands attention and never bores the audience. Be the master of your own image rather than letting others define if for you. Incorporate dramatic devices into your public gestures and actions – your power will be enhanced and your character will seem larger than life.
Law 26
Keep Your Hands Clean
You must seem a paragon of civility and efficiency: Your hands are never soiled by mistakes and nasty deeds. Maintain such a spotless appearance by using others as scapegoats and cat’s-paws to disguise your involvement.
Law 27
Play on People’s Need to Believe to Create a Cultlike Following
People have an overwhelming desire to believe in something. Become the focal point of such desire by offering them a cause, a new faith to follow. Keep your words vague but full of promise; emphasize enthusiasm over rationality and clear thinking. Give your new disciples rituals to perform, ask them to make sacrifices on your behalf. In the absence of organized religion and grand causes, your new belief system will bring you untold power.
Law 28
Enter Action with Boldness
If you are unsure of a course of action, do not attempt it. Your doubts and hesitations will infect your execution. Timidity is dangerous: Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity. Everyone admires the bold; no one honors the timid.
Law 29
Plan All the Way to the End
The ending is everything. Plan all the way to it, taking into account all the possible consequences, obstacles, and twists of fortune that might reverse your hard work and give the glory to others. By planning to the end you will not be overwhelmed by circumstances and you will know when to stop. Gently guide fortune and help determine the future by thinking far ahead.
Law 30
Make your Accomplishments Seem Effortless
Your actions must seem natural and executed with ease. All the toil and practice that go into them, and also all the clever tricks, must be concealed. When you act, act effortlessly, as if you could do much more. Avoid the temptation of revealing how hard you work – it only raises questions. Teach no one your tricks or they will be used against you.
Law 31
Control the Options: Get Others to Play with the Cards you Deal
The best deceptions are the ones that seem to give the other person a choice: Your victims feel they are in control, but are actually your puppets. Give people options that come out in your favor whichever one they choose. Force them to make choices between the lesser of two evils, both of which serve your purpose. Put them on the horns of a dilemma: They are gored wherever they turn.
Law 32
Play to People’s Fantasies
The truth is often avoided because it is ugly and unpleasant. Never appeal to truth and reality unless you are prepared for the anger that comes for disenchantment. Life is so harsh and distressing that people who can manufacture romance or conjure up fantasy are like oases in the desert: Everyone flocks to them. There is great power in tapping into the fantasies of the masses.
Law 33
Discover Each Man’s Thumbscrew
Everyone has a weakness, a gap in the castle wall. That weakness is usual y an insecurity, an uncontrollable emotion or need; it can also be a small secret pleasure. Either way, once found, it is a thumbscrew you can turn to your advantage.
Law 34
Be Royal in your Own Fashion: Act like a King to be treated like one
The way you carry yourself will often determine how you are treated; In the long run, appearing vulgar or common will make people disrespect you. For a king respects himself and inspires the same sentiment in others. By acting regally and confident of your powers, you make yourself seem destined to wear a crown.
Law 35
Master the Art of Timing
Never seem to be in a hurry – hurrying betrays a lack of control over yourself, and over time. Always seem patient, as if you know that everything will come to you eventually. Become a detective of the right moment; sniff out the spirit of the times, the trends that will carry you to power. Learn to stand back when the time is not yet ripe, and to strike fiercely when it has reached fruition.
Law 36
Disdain Things you cannot have: Ignoring them is the best Revenge
By acknowledging a petty problem you give it existence and credibility. The more attention you pay an enemy, the stronger you make him; and a small mistake is often made worse and more visible when you try to fix it. It is sometimes best to leave things alone. If there is something you want but cannot have, show contempt for it. The less interest you reveal, the more superior you seem.
Law 37
Create Compelling Spectacles
Striking imagery and grand symbolic gestures create the aura of power – everyone responds to them. Stage spectacles for those around you, then full of arresting visuals and radiant symbols that heighten your presence. Dazzled by appearances, no one will notice what you are really doing.
Law 38
Think as you like but Behave like others
If you make a show of going against the times, flaunting your unconventional ideas and unorthodox ways, people will think that you only want attention and that you look down upon them. They will find a way to punish you for making them feel inferior. It is far safer to blend in and nurture the common touch. Share your originality only with tolerant friends and those who are sure to appreciate your uniqueness.
Law 39
Stir up Waters to Catch Fish
Anger and emotion are strategically counterproductive. You must always stay calm and objective. But if you can make your enemies angry while staying calm yourself, you gain a decided advantage. Put your enemies off-balance: Find the chink in their vanity through which you can rattle them and you hold the strings.
Law 40
Despise the Free Lunch
What is offered for free is dangerous – it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit. It is also often wise to pay the full price – there is no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.
Law 41
Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes
What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.
Law 42
Strike the Shepherd and the Sheep will Scatter
Trouble can often be traced to a single strong individual – the stirrer, the arrogant underling, the poisoned of goodwill. If you allow such people room to operate, others will succumb to their influence. Do not wait for the troubles they cause to multiply, do not try to negotiate with them – they are irredeemable. Neutralize their influence by isolating or banishing them. Strike at the source of the trouble and the sheep will scatter.
Law 43
Work on the Hearts and Minds of Others
Coercion creates a reaction that will eventually work against you. You must seduce others into wanting to move in your direction. A person you have seduced becomes your loyal pawn. And the way to seduce others is to operate on their individual psychologies and weaknesses. Soften up the resistant by working on their emotions, playing on what they hold dear and what they fear. Ignore the hearts and minds of others and they will grow to hate you.
Law 44
Disarm and Infuriate with the Mirror Effect
The mirror reflects reality, but it is also the perfect tool for deception: When you mirror your enemies, doing exactly as they do, they cannot figure out your strategy. The Mirror Effect mocks and humiliates them, making them overreact. By holding up a mirror to their psyches, you seduce them with the illusion that you share their values; by holding up a mirror to their actions, you teach them a lesson. Few can resist the power of Mirror Effect.
Law 45
Preach the Need for Change, but Never Reform too much at Once
Everyone understands the need for change in the abstract, but on the day-to-day level people are creatures of habit. Too much innovation is traumatic, and will lead to revolt. If you are new to a position of power, or an outsider trying to build a power base, make a show of respecting the old way of doing things. If change is necessary, make it feel like a gentle improvement on the past.
Law 46
Never appear too Perfect
Appearing better than others is always dangerous, but most dangerous of all is to appear to have no faults or weaknesses. Envy creates silent enemies. It is smart to occasionally display defects, and admit to harmless vices, in order to deflect envy and appear more human and approachable. Only gods and the dead can seem perfect with impunity.
Law 47
Do not go Past the Mark you Aimed for; In Victory, Learn when to Stop
The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. In the heat of victory, arrogance and overconfidence can push you past the goal you had aimed for, and by going too far, you make more enemies than you defeat. Do not allow success to go to your head. There is no substitute for strategy and careful planning. Set a goal, and when you reach it, stop.
Law 48
Assume Formlessness
By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be as fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.
by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers
Posted by Ryan at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)
Theme: Unlikely scenes from the extended DVD version of "The Return of the King"
Posted by Ryan at 11:43 PM | Comments (0)
Not a morning person
Viral for some radio station
Posted by Ryan at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
Cool PDF to ASCII conversion utility
Adobe has a cool service that you can send a PDF to pdf2txt@adobe.com and they'll reply with an ASCII version of it. The only catch is that "Adobe may occasionally access the content you submit"... For non personal PDFs, though, its a great service
Posted by Ryan at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)
The top 10 ways to make a 4-year-old cry
Most people don't know as much cool stuff as I do. I thought that I would share some of my experience and knowledge with the rest of the world today with this list: the top 10 ways to make a 4-year-old cry. Obviously, this is a very important thing to know.
10. Hit him with a fly swatter. Four-year-olds are really tricky. You see, if you were trying to make a grown person cry, smacking them across the face with a baseball bat would be your first instinct, right? You can't do that with four-year-olds. Remember, if they die instantly, they won't cry. This isn't a list of ways to kill four-year-olds...what kind of sickos do you think we are? So anyway, your average fly swatter won't knock him unconscious or anything, provided you swing it like a normal fly swatter and not like some sort of warhammer.
9. Chase him around the kitchen table, or just through the family room, or wherever you want. He's a 4-year-old, so he's going to have to run pretty fast to get away from you, since his legs are so small. He'll be trying pretty hard to get away from you, too, since you just hit him with a fly swatter. Anyway, he hasn't been walking all that long, so before long he'll trip and fall. It doesn't matter how plush the surface he lands on is or isn't—he falls, he cries. He falls on gravel, he cries harder. That's just how it works.
8. Play "airplane" with him. You know, you tuck him under one of your arms, have him spread out his arms and swing him around while making "vrooooom!" sounds. At the height of his giggling and excitement, grab one of his arms and snap it quickly and cleanly.
7. Tell him Grandma died. This is even easier if Grandma really did die and you can show him the body, or shut him inside the casket with her.
6. Lock him out of every bathroom in the house. Give him a huge glass of soda so he thinks you like him, then just wait.
5. Get really really drunk and then sucker-punch his mom. You might need to sucker-punch his dad, too, though, if he comes in and starts wondering who you are, what you're doing in their house, and why you're trying to make his kid cry. That's the big problem with using somebody else's 4-year-old.
4. Ask him if he wants to play football/hockey/basketball/wrestle/etc. (any sport he likes will work, but contact sports are better). Then try as hard as you can to win.
3. Drive about half a mile down the road, then throw him out of the car and make him walk home.
2. Cook steaks for dinner. When he asks what it is, tell him it's his dog. Optionally, plant a little fur on the food.
1. Take him to the store, and wheel him through the candy aisle. When he says he wants something, say no. Continue saying no when he keeps asking. It will take a lot of perseverance, and will probably remind you of what a cruel and cold-hearted person you are, because remember: GOOD PARENTS NEVER MAKE THEIR CHILDREN CRY. After 15-20 minutes, if you just can't take it any more, give in and buy the fat little prick some candy. He probably learned his lesson anyway.
For some reason, I feel this article may be in need of an extra disclaimer, because some of you may be stupid enough to try these things and then instead of being taken to jail like you would be under any sensible judicial system, you would file a class-action lawsuit against me instead. So to discourage you from that end, I'd like to point out that, although I list ways to make 4-year-olds cry, I never actually encourage you to do it. I merely provide the means: you're the sicko that decided a 4-year-old needed to cry in the first place.
©2000-2004 trainsaw.com
Posted by at 09:56 PM | Comments (0)
Suprnova Mirror
Here's a site that has a backup of all suprnova's torrents...
Bi-torrent - Your Torrents site
Posted by Ryan at 09:23 PM | Comments (0)
Some neat web proxies
Just found a list of some cool web based proxies you can use to bypass work, school firewalls, etc.
- http://www.proxyweb.net/
- http://proxy.lessel.us/cgi-bin/nph-proxy.cgi
- http://www.multiproxy.org/
- http://www.publicproxyservers.com/index.html
- http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/28480.html
- http://www.inetprivacy.com/a4proxy/anonymous-grc.htm
- http://www.sa6ry.com/surfanonymous/faq/hide-ip-address.html
- http://www.steganos.com/ (proxy)
- http://www.guardster.com/ (free proxy)
- http://www.anonymizer.com/index.cgi (proxy)
- http://www.orangatango.com/home/index.ie.html (proxy)
- http://proxify.com
- http://www.tehbox.com/proxy
- http://www.proxy4free.com/index.html
- http://www.stayinvisible.com/index.pl
- http://free-proxies.com
Posted by Ryan at 03:57 PM | Comments (0)
Brilliant Button Maker
Cool button maker... Use it to make link buttons, RSS buttons, etc.
Examples...
Link
Posted by Ryan at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)
Now that Suprnova is down... here are some alternatives...
Posted by Ryan at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)
Worst gifts for geeks...
5. Box of floppies
4. A copy of "Windows 3.x for Dummies"
3. ie51setup.exe
2. Their very own Bonzi Buddy
1. A year's supply of Diet Caffeine-free Mountain Dew
Posted by Ryan at 03:37 PM | Comments (0)
I guess the kids weren't running fast enough...
Posted by Ryan at 03:34 PM | Comments (0)
Unstoppable Tracy
Not even Digital Domain's renegade midget army can topple NBA star Tracy McGrady when he gets in the zone.Viral for Adidas...
Posted by Ryan at 03:09 PM | Comments (0)
Time Warner boosts cable speeds
Time Warner has decided to create plans for 5mbits and 8mbits per second. New York customers will see the benefits of these new speeds starting tomorrow. Everyone else has to wait til January...
Posted by Ryan at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)
Google planning to make millions of books available on the web
The Internet search company Google plans to put millions of library books online and make them searchable.
This week, Google announced a project with the New York Public Library and the libraries of four universities. These are Stanford, Harvard and the University of Michigan in the United States and Oxford in England.
Stanford University and the University of Michigan have agreed to let Google copy their full collections. Michigan put some of its seven million books on the Web this week. Its full collection is about six years away.
The New York Public Library says it will only provide Google with materials no longer under copyright restrictions. Oxford will offer only books published before the twentieth century. And Harvard University will provide just forty thousand books at first.
The project could take ten years or more. Some librarians say each book might cost about ten dollars to reproduce in digital form. Workers use scanner machines to take pictures of each page. Google says its users will see links in their search results page when there are books that relate to their search.
For years libraries have been making electronic copies, especially of old and rare documents. But the process has often been slow. There are also legal issues.
Google says it will show only a small part of library books protected by copyright. Users might see only pages that contain the words they searched for. The project will expand the Google Print program. This lets publishers make books and other information searchable online. Amazon-dot-com has a competing program.
Google earns almost all its money through sales of advertising. Users see links to products and services next to their search results. People can click on these links to buy things or get more information.
This week, Google won a ruling in a legal case brought by one of its advertisers, Geico, an automobile insurance company. Geico is not happy that links to competitors also appear when people search for information about the company. Geico called this an illegal use of its name. But a judge disagreed.
Google is the most popular Internet search engine. The program currently searches more than eight thousand million Web pages. It is often praised for its ease of use and for finding the information that people want, generally in less than a second. Google faces its strongest competition from Yahoo and M.S.N., the Microsoft Network.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Stanford graduate students, began Google in nineteen ninety-eight. The company sold its first shares of ownership to the public this year.
Google says its library project will increase interest in books. It may also get more people into libraries to see the real thing. The American Library Association says visits are up one hundred percent since the Internet began to get popular ten years ago.
Posted by Ryan at 12:23 AM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2004
Young Woman or Old?
That depends on your interpretation. Young people tend to see a young girl; older people, an elderly lady. With effort, you can switch from one to the other: the young woman's chin becomes the old woman's nose; the old woman's mouth, a band on the neck of the young woman.
By American psychologist E.G. Boring
Posted by at 10:26 PM | Comments (0)
Microsoft Windows Media Center Extender for Xbox
So you have a Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition 2005 (MCE) PC and it's been working wonderfully but you want more. You want to be able to play back those recorded TV shows, audio files, and photographs from other locations in your home. Perhaps your PC is located away from your home theater system where you would ideally like to view your content. Well to meet these needs, Microsoft unveiled the Media Center Extender (MCX) concept in the beginning of 2004. We're just now seeing the first examples of these MCX systems.
But what exactly is the MCX you might ask? The Media Center Extender allows you to stream content from a Windows Media Center Edition 2005 PC to another monitor or television set. With an MCX in place, you can view content stored on a Media Center PC from all over the household. Your PC no longer needs to be next to your television set but can be located in a different location in your home. There are two types of Media Center Extenders on the market. There are hardware based versions from HP and Linksys and then there is a software solution for the Microsoft Xbox gaming console.
Join us as look at the software add on package known as the Microsoft Windows Media Center Extender for Xbox. Let's see if the Extender software works to bring the MCE experience to the Microsoft Xbox gaming platform and more importantly – to any location in one's home.
[via whining dog]
Posted by at 10:17 PM | Comments (0)
Running Linux within Windows
Cooperative Linux is the first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively. More generally, Cooperative Linux (short-named coLinux) is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine. For instance, it allows one to freely run Linux on Windows 2000/XP, without using a commercial PC virtualization software such as VMware, in a way which is much more optimal than using any general purpose PC virtualization software.
Posted by Ryan at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)
In the spirit of Christmas... the gingerbread motherboard!
Posted by Ryan at 04:08 PM | Comments (0)
Suprnova.org Shut Down
The largest and best BitTorrent site on the 'net, Suprnova.org has been shut down.
From the site:
"As you have probably noticed, we have often had downtimes. This was because it was so hard to keep this site up! But now we are sorry to inform you all, that SuprNova is closing down for good in the way that we all know it. We do not know if SuprNova is going to return, but it is certainly not going to be hosting any more torrent links. We are very sorry for this, but there was no other way, we have tried everything."
This is a big loss for the Bittorrent community, but I expect they are shutting down the site to avoid being raided or have other legal action taken against them.
For a list of alternative sites, check out this list. (At the time I wrote this, their server was down, hopefully it will be back up soon.)
TorrentBits.com has also been shut down without reason.
[via forever geek]
Posted by at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)
The scientific analysis of Santa Claus
Does Santa Exist?
Is There a Santa Clause?
1. No known species of reindeer that can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not completely rule out flying reindeer (which only Santa has ever seen.)
2. There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total-378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.
3. Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept),we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second-a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.
4. The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload-not even counting the weight of the sleigh-to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison-this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.
5. 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance-this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.
In conclusion: If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.
Posted by Ryan at 02:35 AM | Comments (0)
Some cool things to do with firefox
Here are some fun things to do...
First:
Go to "about:config" in your address bar
Find "network.http.pipelining" and double click it so that it changes from false to true
Find "network.http.pipelining.maxrequests" and double click it to change it from 4 to 100
This enables firefox to have 8 threads per page open at a time instead of the typical one (So if a page has 100 images it will download 8 at a time instead of just 1)
Next:
Get a better theme!
The Firefox themes page has all kinds of themes that can enhance the look and feel of your browser. My favorite is the Noia 2.0 eXtreme (at the top of the most popular)
Now some cool extensions:
Adblock: Removes inline ads
Digger: Navigate to parent directories, switch to the ftp equivalent of a site, climb subdomains, etc.
Gmail Notifier: Lets you know if you have new Gmail
Refspoof: Spoof your referer
Spiderzilla: Download an entire site to a local directory
Super DragAndGo: Drag a link to any blank area on a web page and it will open in a new tab
SwitchProxy: Manage and switch between multiple proxies
X: Gives you a "paranoia" button which clears your history, form info, passwords, download history, cookies, and cache when you click it
Posted by Ryan at 12:09 AM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2004
Hacking Coke Machines
Here's a cool article on how to access the debug menu of Coke machines... Fun for seeing how much money a Coke machine has made, changing the price on certain items, checking its internal temperature, etc...
####################################################
# File written by Fire and Kyint #
# © 2004. All Rights Reserved #
# Modifications to this file are not permitted without prior consent #
###################################################
PREFACE
Coke vending machines are everywhere. They're getting more and more like regular computers with LEDs that show little "ICE COLD" messages and whatnot. Well, there's a lot more to those little built-in computers than you may think. Included in the low-level operating system that these babies run on is an actual debug menu that gives you access to all sorts of machine information and possibly gives you free cokes in older machines.
WHICH MACHINES WORK?
There's a very strict list of vending machines that have the debug menu. First off, they're all COCA-COLA product vending machines. This means the giant, un-missable picture on the front must show any of the following: Coke, Dasani (Water), Barq's Root Beer, Vanilla Coke, Cherry Coke, Sprite, Evlan (water), Fanta, Fresca, Frutopia, Hi-C, Sprite Remix, Mad River, Mello Yello, Minute Maid, Nestea, Odwalla, Mr. Pibb/Pibb Xtra, Planet Java, Power Ade, Seagram's Ginger Ale, Simply Orange, Sparkletts, or Tab. Of course anything Diet or Caffeine free works too.
The machine must have an LED screen. Some of the older ones just allow the LED to be set to a price amount and won't have the debug menu. You're safer if the little LED is telling you something. Usually it will scroll a little message like "Ice Cold Cokes". Newer machines are more likely candidates.
ACCESSING THE MENU
To enter the menu, there's a button combination. HERE'S THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE TO REALLY REMEMBER:
[4]-[2]-[3]-[1]
The buttons are numbered depending on how they are positioned. They will either be vertical (more likely), or in horizontal rows of 4 buttons per row. If it is vertical, the first button is #1, the one below it is #2, and so forth. If the buttons are in horizontal rows, the first button is #1, and the one to the right of it is #2. The numbers work like a type writer after that. In rows of 4, the first button of row 2 will be button #5. So, to review, getting in to the debug menu looks like this:
COKE MACHINE::::::
$1.00 -------
-------------
[ Coke ] <-- Hit this button last
[ Coke ] <-- Hit this button second
[ Diet Coke ] <-- Hit this button third
[ Sprite ] <-- Hit this button first
[ And so on ]
-------------
Some text should show up on the LED (probably the word "Error", we'll explain what it means next sections). If nothing happens, your machine doesn't have the debug menu.
NAVIGATION
To navigate from option to option (What they are is next section), remember the numberings we gave the buttons. They work as follows:
Button [ 1 ] - Exit/Back
Button [ 2 ] - Up
Button [ 3 ] - Down
Button [ 4 ] - Select
OPTIONS
Depending on the age of the machine, you will get a varying amount of default options available.
On older machines: SALE, VER, EROR, and RTN
On newer machines: CASH, SALE, EROR, and RTN
CASH - Machine Earnings Display
The CASH option will display how much money is in the machine currently. It generally takes a second or two to load. From here, you can scroll up and down through 12 or 16 different options, depending on the machine age. These other options display how much money was spent on each individual item, classified through its button (or slot, as I like to call it) number.
A neat side note about the slot numbers is that there are more slot numbers than there are actual slot, so usually the last 4 buttons contain zero money. This could be so that the same OS could be used on bigger machines, but the newer machines have even more slot numbers.
SALE - Total Sale Count
The SALE option displays how many drinks have been sold out of the machine. This tends to be cumulative, but not on all machines. The stock guy is probably supposed to reset this each time he re-stocks. Also, this has the same sub-options as the CASH option, where you can scroll up and down and see how many drinks have been sold from each slot.
VER - System/Machine Version?
This option will cause a large alphanumeric string to scroll across the LCD. The number looks very much like a serial number, but doesn't vary from machine to machine. It is most likely the OS or machine version number, but of the older machines that have the option, I haven't seen one that doesn't have the same number.
EROR - Error Log
There are 8 different types of errors - COLJ (Column Jams), VEnd (Vend Mechanism), door (Door Switch), sels (Select Switch), CHAR (Changer Errors), acce (Acceptor Errors), StS (Space-to-sales errors), and bVal (Bill Validators). The separate types and actual errors are useless, as you assumably can't get inside the machine, BUT(!) you can clear the errors. Hold the enter (Number 4) button down for about 2 seconds, and it should clear the error.
RTN - Return
This is simply the return option. Selecting this will exit the debug menu. On newer machines, pressing the BACK button at the main menu will not exit, and RTN must be selected.
A side note: The menu can also be exited by pressing the coin return button.
EXTRAS
By holding in the coin return button and not releasing, on the newer "big-button" machines, this will display the internal temperature in Fahrenheit, as in "42F".
**Update**
There are many more menu options that are only accessible if they've either been enabled from the computer inside the machine, or on the internal computer behind the door (Probably not feasible for you to access).
CPO - Coin Payout Mode
You can can dump coins from the coin mechanism, and the various menu options allow you to choose which type of coins (Nickels, dimes, etc.) are dumped.
tVFL - Tube Fill Mode
This is useless to you. This allows you to load coins into the coin tubes, which you can't do from the outside.
TEST - Test Routines
This allows you to test the following various routines:
SE Allows you to test the buttons. Will give you number
of button when you press it
SP Sold-out paddle test. Not quite sure, most likely internal function.
Su Sold-out switch test. Same as paddle.
CO Motor test. Will run various column motors.
Cn Coin test. Put in a coin and it will tell you what kind of
coin it is.
nA Note acceptor test. Same as Cn, but for bills.
dSP Display test. Will illuminate various LEDs.
vErS Rattles off version number.
RELY - Relay test
This tests the relay electronic control of various parts. Do not do, as it will cause damage if various internal parts are not unplugged before usage.
PASS - Password
This is not normally accessible, but allows you to change the menu password from the 4-2-3-1. Whoo!
PrIC - Price Setting
Used to set the price for a drink. Not sure how to work it, but it seems simple enough.
StOS - Space-to-sales routine
Lets you change the STS routine and other options. This means that various buttons will all mean the same thing, i.e. the 6 coke buttons don't actually vend from 6 different columns, but vend from one (changing when one runs out of course).
COn - Machine Configuration/Permissions
This is the machine config menu that decides what of these options you are allowed to access through the outside panel. This is probably only accessible with the door open. I won't go into detail, but I'll list the Config numbers and what each do: C1 sets price menu on, C2 sets special (manufacturer) options on), C3 disables the "ICE COLD COKE" message. C4 is autoviewing of menu when door is opened, C5 is door switch status, C6 is mysteriously reserved for "future use", C7 determines whether your money credit stays in for 5 minutes or indefinitely, C8 is Force Vend, C9 allows multiple vends without putting in more money (i.e put in a 5 and get 3 cokes and then your change), and C10 is Escrow Inhibit.
CCoC - Correct Change Only Control
Adjusts Correct Change only rule to your liking.
TIME - Time Adjustment
Allows you to set the machine's local time.
LANG - Language Selection
Not sure how many languages are supported, but there are apparently more than just English.
USEFULNESS
Unless you can get behind the door, there's little you can do with this except impress your friends. However, if you're able to set the C-switches properly, you'll be able to manipulate the machine in any way you want, get free drinks, change the price, set up cool buy-one-get-one-free deals, etc, etc :). Not to forget, knowledge is power. One step closer to free sodas!
Posted by Ryan at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)
Photoshop products and the celebrities you think should endorse them. Link goes to example
Posted by Ryan at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Nobel Prize-winning physicist, 82, to marry 28-year-old graduate student
Posted by Ryan at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)
Looks like AdWords needs to rethink their algorithms...
Here's an interesting entry from Kevin Kelleher's blog:
I was using Google to spell-check "disastrous" (I know) and came across some interesting results on the sponsored links. eBay and Amazon wanted to sell me a disastrous, whatever that might be.
Intrigued, I typed in "apocalypse" and found the following:
Apocalypse
Low Prices on Apocalypse
EBay is Fun, Quick & Easy! -aff
www.EBay.com
Apocalypse For Sale
Huge Selection Of Apocalypse
Register For Free At Ebay! (aff)
www.ebay.com
Dear overworked folk in eBay marketing: Take another look at those sponsored-word algorithms.
I was tempted to click on one of these links, but I remembered a time when I was using eBay to find a CD of Christmas music and I accidentally clicked on the "Buy It Now" button for a Hanson Brothers Christmas album, and what would happen if I accidentally "Bought It Now" with the apocalypse? (Come to think of it, it couldn't be much worse than the Hanson Christmas CD).
I got similar results with all kinds of grim language:
Find Devastation
We have what you're looking for.
Devastation & much more!
www.eWoss.com
Searching for Misfortune?
Find it on eBay! Free registration.
Misfortune & much more (aff)
eBay.com
Pestilence at Amazon.com
Amazon.com/music
Sexy Cataclysm Singles
www.infobert.com
and on and on.
My personal favorite:
Find Apocalypse at Snap
Don't search for Apocalypse,
find it at Snap!
www.snap.com
Funny, I thought snap.com had found its own apocalypse about 4 years ago.
Posted by Ryan at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2004
Major climate changes from 5,200 years ago could repeat themselves
According to famous glaciologist professor, Lonnie Thompson, the climate was suddenly altered 5,200 years ago and had severe impacts. This event could be due to happen again. Soon. Thompson has noticed recent trends are the same as they were before the climate changed 5,200 years ago.
Posted by Ryan at 08:08 PM | Comments (0)
Big waves come to Hawaii
If you like surfing, now's the time to be in Hawaii. Waves between 30 and 40 feet have been reported at Waimea Bay. That's four stories of water, or a few thousand pounds of water dropping down onto your head... Anyway, it's fun to watch the surfers...
Posted by Ryan at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)
Future Gadget: MicroMedia Paper
The issue of Mobile PC that's on the stand this month has the sort of feature that I still can't help but get off on-the future of gadgetry (or the present of product design, I guess). They just happened to put up my very favorite gadget from the feature online as a teaser-this "MicroMedia Paper," a damn near disposable portable video device that's just a few millimeters thick. Of course, even in gizmo fantasy land, they still aren't projecting something like this until 2015.
It's the box of them that really sells it for me, though. I can resist buying in bulk.
[via gizmodo]
Posted by at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)
GTA: San Andreas Confirmed For Xbox
Take Two took the opportunity presented by the results announcement to reveal a number of changes to their release schedule for 2005, including confirmation that The Warriors has been delayed into the second calendar quarter, while Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition is now due to arrive in calendar Q1.
Most notably, however, the company has announced that an Xbox version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will ship in the June quarter, along with the previously announced PC version of the game.
[via DesignTechnica]
Posted by at 07:07 PM | Comments (0)
Revolving condos
This new building design is for apartments, condos, and hotels that have scenic views all around them. The apartment pictured here is located in Curitiba, Brazil and spins whichever way the operator sets it to spin. Each apartment is an entire floor of the building and is about 3,000 square feet. It's eleven stories high and takes about an hour and a half for each apartment to make a complete rotation.
Posted by Ryan at 02:26 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Med students discover Gollum suffered from "schizoid personality disorder." Still no cure for cancer
Drunk friends stage grisly murder scene to scare roommate. What could possibly go wrong?
Posted by Ryan at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)
December 16, 2004
Microsoft aquires a security company
In an ironic turn for Microsoft, they purchased the company Giant Company AntiSpyware today. Giant sells anti spam, anti spyware, and anti popup software. Microsoft plans to incorporate these products into future updates for windows...
Posted by Ryan at 10:00 PM | Comments (0)
Christmas carol generator
Posted by Ryan at 07:42 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Man dons bulletproof vest, dares friend to shoot him -- what could possibly go wrong?
All worked up from months of dirty talk, Mount St. Helens ready to asplode like never before
Posted by Ryan at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)
Apple store of the future
Posted by Ryan at 06:48 PM | Comments (0)
News
Yes, that is a picture of the world but it is not the world you are thinking of. A giant real estate project is coming together to make the most exclusive, and intersting, spots on Earth. "The World" will consist of 223 man-made islands that come together to look just like the world. click here to see the article
The whole idea of "The World" may seem crazy, but it's not. The image below is of an already exsiting set of man-made islands. read the article
Posted by at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)
Today's Links
Game - Mini Golf
Mini-Golf game with a christmas theme
Movie - Techno Penguin
Techno Penguin dancing
Game - JKF Reloaded
Try to recreate the assination of John F. Kennedy in a game
Game - Snowmobile
Fun snowmobile game
Game - Bird Buffet
Play this fun and interesting game
Flash - Click and drage snowglobe
Click and drag the snowglobe, and see what happens
Game - Shooting
Another average shooting game
Link - Bush Mosaic
Build a lego bush mosaic
Link - Christmas game page
Here is a list of the top christmas games
Game - Ping pong
Plain old ping pong
Game - Alias
Shooting and warfare game
Posted by at 02:34 PM | Comments (0)
New CD copy-lock technology nears market
A new kind of copy-protected music CD will likely hit U.S. shelves early next year, as record label SonyBMG experiments with a technology created by British developer First 4 Internet, according to sources familiar with the companies.
Several major music labels have already used a version of the British company's technology on prerelease compact discs distributed for review and other early-listening purposes, including on recent albums from Eminem and U2.
The releases for the retail market, expected early in 2005, will be the first time the Sony music label issues copy-protected CDs in the U.S. market, although the company's other divisions have done so in other regions. BMG, Sony's new corporate sibling, has been more aggressive, with a handful of protected CDs released last year.
A SonyBMG representative declined to comment on the plans. First 4 Internet Chief Executive Officer Mathew Gilliat-Smith confirmed that his company plans to release a consumer version of its technology with one major label in the United States, but he declined to identify the label.
Gilliat-Smith said his company has been waiting to improve its technology. Better-known companies Macrovision and Sunncomm have seen sporadic--and sometimes controversial--use of their products on CDs released around the world.
"We're not keen to rush," Gilliat-Smith said. "We have always focused on a high level of protection, but we've waited until there aren't any playability issues."
Full Story here
Posted by at 02:16 PM | Comments (0)
Bush plans GPS shutdown in national crisis
Read the full article here
[via engadget]
Posted by at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)
Dunk Mug
I'm not a dunker. Occasionally, I'll get crazy and maybe swig some milk with cookies, but I try to keep my fingers out of the mix, especially when its steaming hot coffee. Apparently there are enough of you finger-licking freaks out there to warrant a Dunk Mug, however, and designer Dominic Skinner has created this little cup with a shelf below to store a few handy biscuits for when the mood strikes. Unfortunately, the store Josh is linking to is all sold out through Christmas, so if you know of anywhere else they can be picked up, let me (or him) know. These have 'cheap gift for fat family' all over them.
Order it here
[via engadget]
Posted by at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)
Structured Procrastination
I have been intending to write this essay for months. Why am I finally doing it? Because I finally found some uncommitted time? Wrong. I have papers to grade, textbook orders to fill out, an NSF proposal to referee, dissertation drafts to read. I am working on this essay as a way of not doing all of those things. This is the essence of what I call structured procrastination, an amazing strategy I have discovered that converts procrastinators into effective human beings, respected and admired for all that they can accomplish and the good use they make of time. All procrastinators put off things they have to do. Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you. The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it. Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important. If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important.
[via forever geek]
Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact. The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done.
The most perfect situation for structured procrastination that I ever had was when my wife and I served as Resident Fellows in Soto House, a Stanford dormitory. In the evening, faced with papers to grade, lectures to prepare, committee work to be done, I would leave our cottage next to the dorm and go over to the lounge and play ping-pong with the residents, or talk over things with them in their rooms, or just sit there and read the paper. I got a reputation for being a terrific Resident Fellow, and one of the rare profs on campus who spent time with undergraduates and got to know them. What a set up: play ping pong as a way of not doing more important things, and get a reputation as Mr. Chips.
Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation. The few tasks on his list will be by definition the most important, and the only way to avoid doing them will be to do nothing. This is a way to become a couch potato, not an effective human being.
At this point you may be asking, "How about the important tasks at the top of the list, that one never does?" Admittedly, there is a potential problem here.
The trick is to pick the right sorts of projects for the top of the list. The ideal sorts of things have two characteristics, First, they seem to have clear deadlines (but really don't). Second, they seem awfully important (but really aren't). Luckily, life abounds with such tasks. In universities the vast majority of tasks fall into this category, and I'm sure the same is true for most other large institutions. Take for example the item right at the top of my list right now. This is finishing an essay for a volume in the philosophy of language. It was supposed to be done eleven months ago. I have accomplished an enormous number of important things as a way of not working on it. A couple of months ago, bothered by guilt, I wrote a letter to the editor saying how sorry I was to be so late and expressing my good intentions to get to work. Writing the letter was, of course, a way of not working on the article. It turned out that I really wasn't much further behind schedule than anyone else. And how important is this article anyway? Not so important that at some point something that seems more important won't come along. Then I'll get to work on it.
Another example is book order forms. I write this in June. In October, I will teach a class on Epistemology. The book order forms are already overdue at the book store. It is easy to take this as an important task with a pressing deadline (for you non-procrastinators, I will observe that deadlines really start to press a week or two after they pass.) I get almost daily reminders from the department secretary, students sometimes ask me what we will be reading, and the unfilled order form sits right in the middle of my desk, right under the wrapping from the sandwich I ate last Wednesday. This task is near the top of my list; it bothers me, and motivates me to do other useful but superficially less important things. But in fact, the book store is plenty busy with forms already filed by non-procrastinators. I can get mine in mid-Summer and things will be fine. I just need to order popular well-known books from efficient publishers. I will accept some other, apparently more important, task sometime between now and, say, August 1st. Then my psyche will feel comfortable about filling out the order forms as a way of not doing this new task.
The observant reader may feel at this point that structured procrastination requires a certain amount of self-deception, since one is in effect constantly perpetrating a pyramid scheme on oneself. Exactly. One needs to be able to recognize and commit oneself to tasks with inflated importance and unreal deadlines, while making oneself feel that they are important and urgent. This is not a problem, because virtually all procrastinators have excellent self-deceptive skills also. And what could be more noble than using one character flaw to offset the bad effects of another?
Posted by at 01:25 PM | Comments (0)
G4TechTV Press Release
In the recent light of all the events that have occurred at G4TechTV, check out their latest press release on their future plans of killing the network.
" G4TechTV Press Opportunities for 2005
by Maria Perez at 05:28PM (EST) on December 15, 2004 | Permanent Link
G4TechTV is re-launching in late spring/early summer 2005, and branding our daily, live show “The Screen Savers” as the place to see and be seen if you want to reach the 17- to 34-year-old guy.
Below are several ongoing PR opportunities we have on all network shows in early 2005:
Live Band Fridays on “The Screen Savers”: If you rep a band that is scheduled to be in Los Angeles on a Friday in 2005 with a new album coming out or a concert tour starting, drop me a line and a CD if you would like to book them in-studio to perform. There are only 3-4 band performances per month, so they will fill up fast.
“The Screen Savers” has daily live guests, up to two guests a day, in the realm of celebrities, pop culture, sports, musicians, inventors.
“Behind the Scenes”: Sarah Lane has gone behind the scenes to the sets of “Enterprise,” “NCIS” and “House.” If you are dong PR for a television or movie currently in production that will appeal to the younger male demo, we would love to shoot exclusive behind the scenes to air in conjunction with the movie and/or show premiere.
“Backstage”: “The Screen Savers” host, Chi-Lan Lieu, will be doing field pieces pertaining to music. If you have a music event or concert our viewers would want to see, Lieu wants to be there.
“G-Phoria”: Our flagship awards show at the end of July will contain several live band performances. We would like to book bands associated with 2005 video games and important album releases in late July/early August. We are also interested in any talent associated with video games or celebrities that are enthusiastic gamers.
The LAN party Thursdays: On “The Screen Savers” every Thursday we have a LAN Party, where our celebrity guests would play fans across the country in our game of the week. Doing this segment would include an interview and showing clips packages. There are up to four seats, so we could have several people from the same project in studio to promote.
G4TV.com Tour Bus/Dressing Room/Home Visits: G4tv.com is our weekly news magazine show hosted by two cool gamer girls, Laura Foy and Tina Wood. Foy will be coming to dressing rooms, celebrity homes and tour buses near you. This segment is going to take the place of “Players,” which was cancelled due to the limited release schedule and the show’s inability to cover stuff with any type of immediacy.
G4TV.com Celebrity Game Review: Talent would need to be available to come in studio for a G4tv.com tape day to praise or pan a current game of their choice and play it with Foy or Wood.
“Filter”: After our highly successful Filter Holiday Hit List specials, G4 has decided to launch “Filter” as our weekly countdown show, premiering Jan. 31. It will cover an array of topics from superheroes to extreme sports to Japanese pop culture. We are interviewing daily at our studios. The interviews will be used a la Vh-1’s “I Love the ’80s” interstitials. This is great for comedians who have Web sites they would like us to promote, as we list the Web site whenever the celebrity answer is used.
“Sweat”: The first show to exclusively report the highly competitive world of sports video games. The host, Rossi Morreale, goes inside with the athletes that make the games. If you have an athlete making a game, we want to be there.
“Icons”: Icons will be the “Biography” show for the G4 viewer. The goal is to release the biographies in conjunction with major movies in 2005. The show is interested in producing shows on: Frank Miller, George Lucas, Pixar, James Bond, Stan Lee and Peter Jackson. Once the icons are set, we will be setting up interviews with their friends and associates.
DVD and movie reviews: Lane is producing the DVD round-up on Tuesdays, highlighting the three best for our demographic every week. On Fridays, she is reviewing up to three movies, depending on what junkets we attended and if we have anything special going on in conjunction with a particular movie.
G4, a 24/7 network branded for today’s gamer, is a lifestyle and variety network for the 17- to 34-year-old male. The network is available in 60 million cable and satellite homes nationwide and airs 24 original series.
To learn more, log onto www.g4techtv.com "
Posted by Ryan at 07:07 AM | Comments (0)
Blockbuster decides to get rid of late fees
This effect will make Blockbuster lose up to 300 million dollars in 2005, but it's great news for consumers
Posted by Ryan at 06:56 AM | Comments (0)
AMD 64 chips will soon have antivirus technology
"Execution Protection by AMD, technology contained in AMD's Athlon 64 chips, prevents a buffer overflow, a common method used to attack computers. A buffer overflow essentially overwhelms a computer's defense systems and then inserts a malicious program in memory that the processor subsequently executes."
Posted by Ryan at 06:52 AM | Comments (0)
Rutgers researchers may be able to stop HIV
Researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey say that they have developed a cure for HIV. It's a system of three drugs, called DAPYs, which act like HIV but change their shape constantly, enabling them to interfere with the way that the real HIV attacks the body's immune system. It's so simple that the three drugs can be taken in just a single pill.
Posted by Ryan at 06:25 AM | Comments (0)
boy o boy
I don't know why I'm putting this on here... Interesting new boy band that sounds like a cross between Hanson, the Backstreet Boys, and William Hung, but makes you feel like you're watching an episode of Queer eye for the straight guy...
"I turned to my baby and said: 'War so isn't awesome'"
Posted by Ryan at 04:38 AM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2004
Top Signs it's Christmas in Geekville
5. Latest installment of Lord of the Rings is available on DVD
4. Stockings are hung by the firewire with care
3. Suddenly everyone is making stupid puns about Red Hat
2. People are putting snow tires on their Segways
1. Downloading a lot more Christmas carols from bit torrent
[via bbspot]
Posted by Ryan at 08:13 PM | Comments (0)
Style Sheets - 190 of the best sites selected by humans
Posted by Ryan at 08:07 PM | Comments (0)
TinyP2P: The world's smallest P2P application
"TinyP2P is a functional peer-to-peer file sharing application, written in fifteen lines of code, in the Python programming language. I wrote TinyP2P to illustrate the difficulty of regulating peer-to-peer applications. Peer-to-peer apps can be very simple, and any moderately skilled programmer can write one, so attempts to ban their creation would be fruitless."
Posted by Ryan at 08:06 PM | Comments (0)
Pierced Eyeglasses
Interesting new eyeglasses technique. Looks cool, probably doesn't feel that great though...
Posted by Ryan at 08:04 PM | Comments (0)
What's new in CSS3
"What is around the corner concerning CSS? This simple answer is CSS3—and it is looking awesome. Those of us with a modern browser can actually see some of the new psudeo-elements, properties, and selectors being proposed for CSS level 3."
Posted by Ryan at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
Great Javascripts for web designers
Posted by Ryan at 07:59 PM | Comments (0)
Color Scheme Generator
Enter in any RGB or hex color value and this gives you suggestions on what colors go well together
Posted by Ryan at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)
Prisoners' Inventions
You'd be amazed at what some of these prisoners can come up with... Pictured at the right is a tattoo gun...
Posted by Ryan at 07:38 PM | Comments (0)
New signature iPods soon to come
Apple's Special Edition U2 iPod led them to create all kinds of other Special Edition iPods...
Posted by Ryan at 07:35 PM | Comments (0)
Top 1000 things to know
Seth Godin has created a list of the 1000 most important things that everyone should be taught starting in elementary school... here are 20 to start with...
1. How to type.
2. How to speak in front of a group.
3. How to write clear prose that other people actually want to read.
4. How to manage a project.
5. The most important lessons from American history.
6. What the world's religions have in common.
7. Evolution.
8. Formal logic.
9. The 15,000 most common English words.
10. Conversational Spanish.
11. How to handle big changes, with grace.
12. How to run a small business.
13. Basic chemistry.
14. Not arithmetic, but algebra.
15. A little geometry, a little calculus.
16. The most important lessons from ten other world cultures and their history.
17. Speed reading with comprehension.
18. How to sell.
19. Pick one: how to paint, write a poem, compose a song or juggle really well.
20. Understanding the biographies of 500 important historical figures and 200 fictional ones.
Posted by Ryan at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)
The marriage of presentation and structure
Cool DHTML site about web design and creating slideshows with DHTML, etc.
Posted by Ryan at 07:29 PM | Comments (0)
Why you should use OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office
Here's a list of the top reasons you should use Open Office instead of Microsoft Office, and it goes way beyond the fact that Open Office is free...
Posted by Ryan at 07:28 PM | Comments (0)
The complete CSS guide
Everything you ever wanted to know about Cascading SyleSheets
Posted by Ryan at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)
Photoshop your own updated nativity scene
Posted by Ryan at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Geico sues Google -- refuses to let it save 15 percent or more on on car insurance
Darwin, poetic justice and karma, all in one story: Man hit by the bus he threw a brick at
Twin sisters both give birth to sets of twin boys on same day
If you're planning on dealing drugs, pick a better spot than the sheriff's front lawn
Posted by Ryan at 07:10 PM | Comments (0)
Make Windows run faster
Here's a cool app that works on Intel Chipsets and speeds up the interface between your drives and CPU, drastically increasing the speed of your entire machine. Be sure that your chipset is supported or else you'll end up with a really expensive paperweight... Click herePosted by Ryan at 06:06 PM | Comments (0)
Suggested Google Alphabet
Here's a cool site that uses Google Suggest to get the most popular keyword for each letter of the alphabet. Each time you refresh the page it checks for a new most popular keyboard with Google Suggest. Click herePosted by Ryan at 05:58 PM | Comments (0)
Cool new quicksand discovered
The New York Times has just reported a story of Dutch researchers who say that quicksand can exist without any water at all. A video shows a weighted pingpong ball being dropped onto the sand and being engulfed instantly...
Posted by Ryan at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
How Google Suggest works
The source for the page is quite simple; most of the work happens in a condensed JavaScript library [google.com]. Not easy reading (note the word "condensed" above, meaning function and variable names are 1 or 2 chars, and all extra whitespace was removed...), but it's actually pretty straightforward.
It disables your browser's autocomplete on that textfield (for obvious reasons). Then it basically just defines a hidden div for that auto-complete dropdown (variations on this depending on browser... frickin' incompatibilities).
Each time you type a character, it populates that div body with the results of a quick, tiny query back to Google. It's NOT running the search for you; it's hitting (I assume) a simple, probably totally in-memory list of the most popular searches and number of results. That's how it can be so quick a response -- the lookup on their end is super-minimal, and the data to be transferred is probably less than 1k each time.
Cool. Nice concept, nice execution. And one of those nice "only obvious in hindsight" additions.
Even cooler -- it looks like (from the js file) they are supporting multiple languages here, not just English. Anyone using want to test this out for me? I think even Chinese is supported (or maybe that's the one that isn't.. I don't want to take the time to parse this properly).
Posted by Ryan at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)
80gb iPod soon to come
Toshiba, maker of the 1.8" hard drives currently used in iPods, has announced that it is planning to ship an 80 GB in the 3rd quarter of 2005. The annoucement of the drive comes a year after it announced the 60 GB version currently found in the iPod photo.
Unlike the 60 GB announcement, Toshiba has chosen to not name names of who might order this upcoming 80 GB drive, but given that the sizing of the device is relatively the same as the 60 GB counterpart, it isn't unreasonable to have it incorporated into the next generation iPod.
Additionally, Toshiba announced a revision to the 40 GB model slated to ship in the 2nd quarter of 2005. This revision is thinner and lighter than the current 40 GB model, which could lead to a thinner mid-range iPod.
Posted by Ryan at 12:45 AM | Comments (0)
Trivia
The average mall Santa weighs 218 pounds and has a 43-inch waist.
Fifty-two percent of Americans drink coffee.
The one physical act that's recognized in every known society is the shrug of shoulders to mean, "I don't know."
An execution by hanging takes 21 feet of rope.
The flesh that dangles from the back of the human throat is called a "uvula." The word comes from the Latin, meaning "little grape."
The average cat can reach speeds of nearly 30 miles an hour over a short distance.
In 1836, Alabama was the first U.S. state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.
Thirty percent of women who engage in oral sex swallow their partner's ejaculate every time.
New Orleans is the US city that, per capita, consumes the most ketchup.
A bolt of cloth is 120 feet long.
"Hybristophilia" is arousal derived by having sex with people who have committed crimes.
About 75 percent of stage and screen actors change their names.
If you're American, you'll move an average of 11 times in your lifetime.
Russian Czar Peter the Great had a morbid fear of crossing bridges.
The Union army lost about 360,000 men during the Civil War. Just 110,070 were killed in battle. The rest died of disease or other causes.
Paris was once the world's biggest city--for one year. The year was 1684.
Forty percent of batteries are purchased during the holiday season.
Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Nazi SS during World War II, was once a chicken farmer.
Trivia from DribbleGlass.com
Posted by Ryan at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2004
Survey: File sharing doesn't hurt most artists
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most musicians and artists say the Internet has helped them make more money from their work despite online file-trading services that allow users to copy songs and other material for free, according to a study released on Sunday.
Recording labels and movie studios have hired phalanxes of lawyers to pursue "peer to peer" networks like Kazaa, and have sued thousands of individuals who distribute copyrighted material through such networks.
But most of the artists surveyed by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project said online file sharing did not concern them much.
Artists were split on the merits of peer-to-peer networks, with 47 percent saying that they prevent artists from earning royalties for their work and another 43 percent saying they helped promote and distribute their material.
But two-thirds of those surveyed said file sharing posed little threat to them, and less than one-third of those surveyed said file sharing was a major threat to creative industries.
Only 3 percent said the Internet hurt their ability to protect their creative works.
"What we hear from a wide spectrum of artists is that, despite the real challenges of protecting work online, the Internet has opened new ways for them to exercise their imaginations and sell their creations," said report author Mary Madden, a research specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
The nonprofit group based its report on a survey of 809 self-identified artists in December 2003. The survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
Posted by Ryan at 04:59 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2004
S'mores Nativity Scene
Over at Santa's Depot, you can buy a kit to make a nativity creche out of S'mores.
Says Lee's cousin Luke: "Doesn't baby Jesus look adorable? And tasty?"
Posted by Ryan at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)
The RIAA is a big loser... Literally
Lots of stories get written when the Recording Industry Association of America sues people, but not much gets written about the aftermath of those suits.
There should be: In the last 12 months, the RIAA lost a landmark suit against Grokster (essentially legalizing peer-to-peer software), lost a suit to Verizon (holding that it did not have to provide names of its subscribers who the RIAA wanted to sue), and has yet to actually win against any of the thousands of individuals it has sued in court (some of the cases have been settled out of court, most are still pending). Suddenly, the RIAA isn’t looking so much as devastating as it does merely pathetic.
[via boingboing]
Posted by Ryan at 09:45 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Most meteors in 2004 to appear on Monday night. Most frozen skywatchers expected Tuesday morning
Man using electronic key to unlock car rather surprised when vehicle explodes in his face
Teen dance club posts freaky dance pics to Internet; learns that parents have access to Internet too
Posted by Ryan at 05:50 PM | Comments (0)
The future of Google
What will Google be like in 2014? This flash video attempts to predict Google's future and the creations they will come up with
Posted by Ryan at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)
Santa Claus
Posted by Ryan at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2004
Cool Photoshop Tutorial
see this photoshop tutorial on how to motion outline
Posted by at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
How to fold a shirt
Cool new technique on how to fold a shirt in just a few seconds
1. Lay shirt face-up on a smooth surface, long side facing you, with the neck on your left. With the edge of your hand, draw an imaginary line from shoulder to hem on the far side. Along this line, pinch the shirt with your left hand at the shoulder and with your right at the middle of the chest.
2. Fold the shoulder over, crossing left hand over right, to meet the hem along this line. Now pinch the hem and shoulder together with your left fingers.
3. Lift the shirt and uncross your hands, pulling the shirt taut. Give it a shake.
4. Lay the shirt down sleeve first, then the body face-up on top to finish. (For long sleeves, lay the shirt fully facedown in Step 4, then fold the sleeves in neatly before the final fold.)
Posted by Ryan at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2004
Messenger Plus!
Enhance your messaging experience!
You can have your own personalized messages to send to your contacts when they contact you while you're idle or away! Messenger Plus! also offers 50 slots for instant Quick Texts, customizable automatic messages that you can send with a simple shortcut or typed command, quick icon panels to make it easier to insert your emoticons without having to remember their codes, a Text Recall feature to resend recent messages, the ability to search inside your conversations and a Quote Sender.
Advanced Logging
Before MSN Messenger even showed a sign of logging, Messenger Plus! already offered it. Plus!'s logging is much different than MSN Messenger's logging, with archiving, encryption with passwords, and let's not forget the fact that you can log every event!
Security & Privacy Control
Messenger Plus! offers a Boss Protection feature that hides Messenger and your conversations with a shortcut, even notifying who you were talking with about the situation. It also allows you to lock your Messenger with a password when you leave the computer and, for permanent privacy, it can encrypt all your logs so that only you can read your previous chats.
And a whole bunch more
And, last but not least, FREE!
Messenger Plus! is a freeware. You are even encouraged to send it to your friends! Of course, it does not contain any type of spyware or trojan. The optional sponsor program can be installed during the setup, risk free! For those who want to support the development but prefer not to install the sponsor program, you are encouraged to visit the online Messenger Plus! store, or give the developer a minute of your time by sending a postcard.
Posted by at 11:24 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Scientists find off-switch for tuberculosis. Still no cure for cancer, but this ain't too bad
Posted by Ryan at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
Google Suggest
Here's Google's latest tool... As you type, it offers search suggestions just like the autocomplete feature built into windows. The only difference is that it suggests queries based on popularity instead of search history.
Posted by Ryan at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)
December 09, 2004
Google gets 9 cents every time you search
- 98 percent of GOOG revs are from paid search. 65% of revs are domestic.
- Q3 domestic growth driven by 7% quarter to quarter increase in paid introductions (paid clicks), to 964 million, and a 2% quarter to quarter increase in average price per click, to 5%.
- Average CPC: 54 cents, up a cent quarter to quarter.
- Revenue per query grew 8.3% quarter to quarter to nine cents. (That's right, every search we do on Google makes them nearly a dime, on average).
- Overall US searches grew 6% quarter to quarter, Google powered searches grew by .2%.
- In Q2, 51.9% of all searches on the Google Network included at least one paid listing.
- Of those, 32% include at least one paid introduction.
Posted by Ryan at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)
Stopping spam the hard way
Here's an interesting article I just came across... A guy was desparate to stop spam, so he shut off all email services for 48 hours, resulting in 97.5% less spam.
Posted by Ryan at 11:05 PM | Comments (0)
Mel Gibson's New Island
According to a recent story by New York Times, actor Mel Gibson has just purchased the island of Mago for $15 million. Mago lies in the Norther Lau group of islands in Fiji and is over 5400 acres of stunning cliffs, reefs, white sand beaches, and turquoise lagoons. Its rich volcanic soil produces mango, coconut, grapefruit, guava, and papaya. It has natural spring water and a village with 35 residents.
Posted by Ryan at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)
100 oldest .com domains
Create Date Domain Name
----------- -----------
03/15/1985 SYMBOLICS.COM
04/24/1985 BBN.COM
05/24/1985 THINK.COM
07/11/1985 MCC.COM
09/30/1985 DEC.COM
11/07/1985 NORTHROP.COM
01/09/1986 XEROX.COM
01/17/1986 SRI.COM
03/03/1986 HP.COM
03/05/1986 BELLCORE.COM
03/19/1986 IBM.COM
03/19/1986 SUN.COM
03/25/1986 INTEL.COM
03/25/1986 TI.COM
04/25/1986 ATT.COM
05/08/1986 GMR.COM
05/08/1986 TEK.COM
07/10/1986 FMC.COM
07/10/1986 UB.COM
08/05/1986 BELL-ATL.COM
08/05/1986 GE.COM
08/05/1986 GREBYN.COM
08/05/1986 ISC.COM
08/05/1986 NSC.COM
08/05/1986 STARGATE.COM
09/02/1986 BOEING.COM
09/18/1986 ITCORP.COM
09/29/1986 SIEMENS.COM
10/18/1986 PYRAMID.COM
10/27/1986 ALPHACDC.COM
10/27/1986 BDM.COM
10/27/1986 FLUKE.COM
10/27/1986 INMET.COM
10/27/1986 KESMAI.COM
10/27/1986 MENTOR.COM
10/27/1986 NEC.COM
10/27/1986 RAY.COM
10/27/1986 ROSEMOUNT.COM
10/27/1986 VORTEX.COM
11/05/1986 ALCOA.COM
11/05/1986 GTE.COM
11/17/1986 ADOBE.COM
11/17/1986 AMD.COM
11/17/1986 DAS.COM
11/17/1986 DATA-IO.COM
11/17/1986 OCTOPUS.COM
11/17/1986 PORTAL.COM
11/17/1986 TELTONE.COM
12/11/1986 3COM.COM
12/11/1986 AMDAHL.COM
12/11/1986 CCUR.COM
12/11/1986 CI.COM
12/11/1986 CONVERGENT.COM
12/11/1986 DG.COM
12/11/1986 PEREGRINE.COM
12/11/1986 QUAD.COM
12/11/1986 SQ.COM
12/11/1986 TANDY.COM
12/11/1986 TTI.COM
12/11/1986 UNISYS.COM
01/19/1987 CGI.COM
01/19/1987 CTS.COM
01/19/1987 SPDCC.COM
02/19/1987 APPLE.COM
03/04/1987 NMA.COM
03/04/1987 PRIME.COM
04/04/1987 PHILIPS.COM
04/23/1987 DATACUBE.COM
04/23/1987 KAI.COM
04/23/1987 TIC.COM
04/23/1987 VINE.COM
04/30/1987 NCR.COM
05/14/1987 CISCO.COM
05/14/1987 RDL.COM
05/20/1987 SLB.COM
05/27/1987 PARCPLACE.COM
05/27/1987 UTC.COM
06/26/1987 IDE.COM
07/09/1987 TRW.COM
07/13/1987 UNIPRESS.COM
07/27/1987 DUPONT.COM
07/27/1987 LOCKHEED.COM
07/28/1987 ROSETTA.COM
08/18/1987 TOAD.COM
08/31/1987 QUICK.COM
09/03/1987 ALLIED.COM
09/03/1987 DSC.COM
09/03/1987 SCO.COM
09/22/1987 GENE.COM
09/22/1987 KCCS.COM
09/22/1987 SPECTRA.COM
09/22/1987 WLK.COM
09/30/1987 MENTAT.COM
10/14/1987 WYSE.COM
11/02/1987 CFG.COM
11/09/1987 MARBLE.COM
11/16/1987 CAYMAN.COM
11/16/1987 ENTITY.COM
11/24/1987 KSR.COM
11/30/1987 NYNEXST.COM
Posted by Ryan at 10:48 PM | Comments (0)
Web-Smart Palette
The web-smart palette uses a 16-by-16-by-16 cube of 4,096 colors. The web-smart palette uses any combination of 00, 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, 99, aa, bb, cc, dd, ee, and ff, and provides a more complete gamut that should display consistently on monitors that support thousands (16-bit) and millions (24-bit) of colors. Most of the colors should dither to the nearest browser-safe color on 256-color monitors.
Posted by Ryan at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
Road rage cards
Cool cards to use for people that suffer from road rage...
Posted by Ryan at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)
Will president Bush be assassinated?
For years people whispered that U.S. presidents elected in years ending with "0" were doomed to die in office. From 1840 through 1960, every president elected in the 20-year cycle died while he was still president. (Some called this "The Curse of Tecumseh" after the Shawnee chieftain whose brother allegedly predicted the presidential doom in 1836.)
Ronald Reagan finally broke the "curse" by serving two full terms as president before stepping down in 1989 -- though he had to survive a 1981 assassination attempt to do so.
Here's the full roll call of 0-year presidents through Reagan:
1800: THOMAS JEFFERSON served two full terms, 1801-1809.
1820: JAMES MONROE served two full terms, 1817-1825.
1840: WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON was 68 years old when he delivered his inaugural address on March 3, 1841. The speech was a stemwinder, lasting an hour and 40 minutes in frigid weather, with Harrison refusing to wear a coat or hat. The new president came down with a cold which rapidly developed into pneumonia. Harrison was bedridden for a month and finally died on April 4.
1860: ABRAHAM LINCOLN was just beginning his second term when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. on the evening of April 14, 1865. Lincoln survived the night but died the next morning at a house across the street from the theater. Lincoln's death came only six days after the surrender of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox and the end of the Civil War.
1880: JAMES GARFIELD was shot by assassin Charles Guiteau on July 2, 1881 in a Washington railway station. The shots were not immediately fatal; Garfield lived for two months before dying from complications on September 19th.
1900: WILLIAM McKINLEY was elected in 1896 and re-elected in 1900. He was attending the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York when he was shot by unemployed millworker Leon Czolgosz on September 6, 1901. He died a week later as a result of gangrene caused by the bullet wounds. (McKinley was replaced by Theodore Roosevelt, who a decade later was shot but not killed while trying to regain the presidency.)
1920: WARREN HARDING made a cross-country rail tour in 1923, a major undertaking for that time. Harding became the first president to visit Alaska, but while returning south to California he came down with intestinal cramps and then pneumonia. While convalescing from these illnesses Harding suffered an apparent stroke and died on August 2 in San Francisco.
1940: FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT, first elected in 1932, was beginning an unprecedented fourth term when he died in April of 1945. Worn down by years of exertion leading the country during the Great Depression and World War II, FDR suffered a cerbral hemorrhage while on a working vacation in Warm Springs, Georgia. His last words have become well known: "I have a terrific headache."
1960: JOHN F. KENNEDY's death has perhaps replaced Lincoln's as the most famous presidential assassination. Kennedy was shot by Lee Harvey Oswald during a motorcade through Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Two days later Oswald was himself shot and killed by Jack Ruby.
1980: RONALD REAGAN served two full terms, 1981-1989. He survived an assassination attempt by John Hinckley on March 30, 1981.
Posted by Ryan at 07:20 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Law of gravity apparently repealed. Man falls out of Mercedes' moon roof while driving
Canadians depend on luck for national security
Posted by Ryan at 07:19 PM | Comments (0)
WordGizmo
Generate a random word, then define it
Posted by at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)
Today's Links
Game - Fantastic
Really kind of weird game, it was slow for me
Game - Wild Wild West
Fun western style shooter
Game - Seal Ball
Play a game as a sea
Game - Command Opsl
Fight for you country
Game - Duck Hunt
Play the original nintendo duck hunt
Posted by at 05:16 PM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2004
New vulnerability affects all browsers
Secunia has just reported a new browser vulnerability that affects everyone. This will let malicious sites hi-jack popup windows (used by banks or online stores, etc.) and steal passwords/credit cards. See the demonstration here
Posted by Ryan at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)
Virtual Memory Settings
What's the recommendation for Windows VM settings and why?
To some extent it depends on what you are going to be using your PC for. But if using it as general purpose PC either leave it to Windows to manage it or set it to a static size to minimise any possible fragmentation of the swap file as the OS increases and decreases the size as necessary during use.
As to size give it the same minimum and maximum size of 1.5 times your physical RAM that Windows gives as a default maximum. If you have 1GB or more of RAM you could set the min/max size to one times or less of your physical RAM but unless you are short of drive space it is not something I would greatly worry about.
In 2K and XP the memory management is much better than in previous versions of Windows and the OS uses the swap file only during the system idle time. Which in general PC use is most of the time and only in rare circumstances will OS use of the swap file impact on system performance."
"Set the min and max to what Windows recommends. That will give you a fixed size and minimize fragmentation effects.
The old rule of thumb was 1.5 times your real memory amount. It doesn't make sense when you think about it. I was running 128 MB plus 1.5 = 512 MB total. If I then upgrade to 1 GB real RAM I already have more than the virtual total before.
Why would I even need to set a swap file? On the other hand I also have more than enough drive space to have one, so might as well make the OS happy, but set the swap file to a static size. Then forget about it."
[via extremetech.com]
Posted by Ryan at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)
Cool iPod hack: Changing the firmware
So on Monday over at Hack A Day we
posted a link to an iPod hack over at
iPodHacks that let you extract all of the fonts and graphics from the
player’s firmware. With a little bit of work, we’ve built on that hack and
figured out how to change all the graphics on your iPod.
Before we get started,
here’s a
video (QuickTime) of our first hacked firmware to give you an idea of
what we changed.
In this How-To we’re going to show you how to change the “Do not Disconnect”
circle/slash icon that endlessly and annoyingly flashes all the time on our
desk. We replaced ours with the Engadget logo, but any graphic will do. You
can also change battery icons, power status, boot up logos and fonts, or so
it seems. We sprinted to write this up, so we might update it as we try some
new things. Now on with the How-To!
For this hack you’ll need an iPod, obviously. We’re using the iPod photo, but it should work with most iPods, so far we’ve seen one person also hack an iPod mini and a 3g iPod.
Next you’ll need a Windows PC with Apple’s iPod software installed.
You can get that from here.
Download and install the Apple software, this software contains the firmware
we’re going to add our own graphics to. Warning: When you do this, you will
be restoring your iPod and will loose all data, etc…Also, this most
certainly voids your warranty, so if something happens, you’re screwed. But
hey, you’ll have your own branded iPod, that’s hot and well worth it, right?
Next up, download “iPod Wizard” from
here.
We’re not sure if Apple is going to freak out about this, it’s just like
changing icons in Mac OS X, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
Unzip the file, and start iPodWizard.
Click Open Updater and choose the Apple Update Application you downloaded, it should be in Program files > iPod.
Once open, choose the firmware for you iPod, we hacked the iPod photo first, so it’s the IDR_FIRMWARE 5.4.0, we didn’t try all the others out yet, but we’re guessing folks will post which one is for which iPod as they start to hack away at it. The color one was easy, once you select the firmware you can click the arrows to see the icons, in our case, they were color.
Find the image you wish to replace, we wanted to replace the circle /
slash icon. Once you find it, click Save Bitmap and save the file to your
system.
From there use any bitmap editor to edit the image, we used PaintShop Pro
and pasted the Engadget logo over the icon then saved it. Click Load Bitmap
and load in the image you just created.
Click Write, this will edit the firmware on your PC and then prepare it to restore to the iPod. Once that is complete, open up Apple’s iPod update.
Make sure your iPod is plugged in, and iPod updater will look for what firmware you can restore to, for us, it found the iPod photo and we had the option to restore, which will then add the new firmware with our custom image.
Click restore, and in about 5 minutes you’ll have the new image you made, keep in mind this kills all your data, so back up before you do this. Here’s ours…
We also made one for our pal Leander from Cult of Mac. We think this is a great way to protect your iPod if someone steals it, too. Add your picture, name and phone number, it won’t stop the thief, but it’s still a good measure.
On a side note, Apple and every other music player maker should make this
part of the software that comes with their device, we all change the icons,
desktops, and everything else on our computers, so it makes sense to be able
to brand our music players any way we want.
Here are some of the other graphics that you can likely change, lots of cool
stuff for sure.
For more information on all this, and some troubleshooting, post up in
our comments or over on where it all got started and where folks are still
trying lots of things, on
iPodHacks.
iPod Wizard, whoever you are, nicely done!
Posted by Ryan at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)
Web Design in 2005
"After taking a long, hard look at the past year in web design, we’ve decided to try our hand at predicting what’s in store for next year."
This site features all kinds of tips on design... What's hot and what's not in the world of website design
Posted by Ryan at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)
SHHH! - Society for HandHeld Hushing
Is there someone on their cellphone that's bothering you? Just print out this PDF and hand it out to all the motor mouths' that won't get off their phone...
Posted by Ryan at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)
Secrets of Firefox 1.0
It's not so long ago that we learned to master the Windows Registry, a buzzing hive of little-known configuration settings. Now we find that Firefox 1.0, the hot new browser released on Nov. 9 by the Mozilla Foundation, has its own hidden playground for us to tweak.
In case you haven't heard, Firefox is rapidly gaining steam as a free replacement for Microsoft's own Internet Explorer browser. OneStat.com, which measures Web behavior in 100 countries around the world, reported on Nov. 22 that IE had lost 5 percentage points of market share in the past six months, dropping to 89% of browser users. Firefox and its predecessor, Mozilla, are up to 7.35% of users. The foundation says 7.5 million people downloaded Firefox 1.0 in the month of November.
That doesn't tell the whole story, though. Experienced Windows admins, who often set the tone for other users, seem to be adopting Firefox at a much higher rate. More than 25% of the visitors to my specialized Web sites — WindowsSecrets.com, BriansBuzz.com, BrianLivingston.com, and the like — are now using some version of Firefox or Mozilla, according to my server logs. That's up from only 10.9% as recently as January 2004.
With
all this momentum, it's fascinating to find that many powerful
capabilities of Firefox 1.0 are still difficult to find and little
known. For example, typing the following strings into Firefox's Address
Bar (which the new browser calls the Location Bar) and pressing Enter
brings up a wide variety of novel applets:
What about:config is and isn't good for Typing about:config into the Address Bar reveals an enormous list of settings and options (see image, below). This includes everything from the "browser" section, which controls user-interface preferences, to the "network" section, which establishes parameters for connecting to the Internet and other resources.  The organization of about:config — let's face it — is a mess. There are settings in here that are left over from the old Mozilla browser suite, which do nothing in Firefox but haven't been removed. Other settings are easily changed through Firefox's visible menus, so there's no good reason to tweak them in the unforgiving about:config environment. That leaves a number of settings that can really make a big difference in your enjoyment of Firefox as a browser. With a few simple precautions, explained below, you can try different configurations with little risk. The care and feeding of about:config There are three ways to edit the settings in Firefox's Configuration Console: 1. Direct editing. In the Firefox window, you simply right-click any row, which brings up a context menu. On that menu, you click Modify to change a value, New to create a new value, or Reset to restore a value to its default. A setting looks like this: browser.history_expire_days user set integer 99 2. Editing User.js. You can also insert lines into a file named User.js. Firefox reads this file and adopts any settings it finds there. The file does not exist by default and must be created, if desired. The file uses a different format to specify preferences. The "history expire days" setting shown above would look as follows in User.js: user_pref("browser.history_expire_days", 99); Because direct editing in the Configuration Console is so easy, it usually isn't necessary to write lines of code into User.js. Creating such a file, however, can be useful if you wish to override Firefox's defaults on several PCs. (In that case, simply copy the file to the correct location on those machines.) 3. Editing Prefs.js. This file is automatically generated by Firefox when you make changes thorugh its menus or the Configuration Console. It's unwise to edit this file directly, and Prefs.js is mentioned here only for completeness and to advise you against editing it manually. The files mentioned above — as well as two other customization files, userChrome.css and userContent.css — are located in different folders under Windows 2000/XP and Windows 95/98/Me. This is explained in articles at Mozilla.org, the site of the Mozilla Foundation, and The Edmeister, a private Firefox info site. You can edit these files without having to find their specific location by using a free, third-party utility called ChromEdit.xpi. After you install this extension and restart Firefox, a new Edit User Files item shows up on the Tools menu. An excellent tutorial on editing within the Configuration Console is provided by Mozillazine.org, a tips site. How to backup and restore these crucial files You can make mistakes when editing configuration files that would prevent Firefox from working properly or even starting at all. For this reason, you should always back up these files before making changes. Everyone will tell you that, but I'm also going to show you how to do it and, more importantly, how to recover in case you make a serious error. 1. Backup your config files. Your customization files are stored in a folder named Profiles on your hard drive underneath username \ Application Data \ Mozilla \ Firefox. To find the different locations for this folder on Windows NT, 2000, XP, 9x, and Me, check the convenient chart at Mozilla.org. Before making edits, copy the Profiles folder to a backup disk or another safe location. 2. How to recover from errors. If your changes make Firefox unstable, close all instances of Firefox and then copy your preferences files from your backup location to the default location and restart Firefox. In extreme cases, when Firefox won't even start, you can rename the User.js file and/or the Prefs.js file to a temporary name and then start Firefox. The browser will revert to a default configuration, allowing you to transfer your "safe" preferences into a new file. The tweaks you'll want to make right now Now that you have the basics, we get to the good part: making changes to improve Firefox's performance and capabilities. Fix a memory leak in Firefox 1.0 Firefox is supposed to dynamically release memory from its RAM cache to other Windows applications as needed. Unfortunately, Firefox 1.0 seems to consume more memory than it should, which hurts performance, when set to the default of 51200 KB (51 MB). To solve this, Firefox power users recommend limiting the memory cache using the Configuration Console. This frees up memory for other apps, speeding up everything to a greater or a lesser extent, depending on your machine and the applications you run. Here's how the trick works: Step 1. Type about:config into Firefox's Address Bar and press Enter. Step 2. Right-click any row, then click New, Integer. Type or paste the following preference name into the dialog box that appears (this is a hidden preference that doesn't exist in the Configuration Console until you create it): browser.cache.memory.capacity Step 3. Click OK, then enter the following integer number into the next dialog box, representing 16 MB of RAM for the cache: 16000 Step 4. Click OK to close the dialog box, then close all instances of Firefox and restart it. For a lengthy discussion of this option, see Mozillazine's forum topic 172041. Move the disk cache to a faster or larger location Many Windows users like to locate their disk cache files on a separate hard drive from Windows. This can improve the performance of Windows or whatever program is using the cache, or it can free up space on a primary partition. (The disk cache should not be confused with the RAM cache described above.) To move Firefox's disk cache, use about:config to create a new preference. (This is another hidden preference that doesn't appear until you create it.) Type browser.cache.disk.parent_directory into the dialog box that appears, then click OK. In the Value dialog box, enter c:\folder, providing the foldername in which you wish the file to be located. This and other networking and cache settings are sparely documented by a Firefox developer called Ben C. on his NetPrefs page. Force frames to be resizable on Web pages If you visit Web sites that divide their pages into rectangular frames, but some of the frames aren't wide enough for you to see all of the words, you can tell Firefox to put borders around all frames so they're resizable. To do this, use about:config to change layout.frames.force_resizability from "false" to "true." Other preference settings There are literally hundreds of possible preference settings that are accessible via about:config. Unfortunately, there's nothing in the help text that comes with Firefox 1.0 on these settings. A variety of user sites have sprung up to expound on these preferences, but their coverage is spotty and not completely trustworthy. The best all-around explanation of most Firefox settings has been posted by a developer called GuruJ on his Documented Preferences page. This page also links to a Firefox extension named Preferential, currently in version 0.6.1a. This utility adds an Advanced Preferences item to Firefox's Edit menu, giving you a user interface to a vast array of settings that otherwise would require hand-editing. Even the "Documented Preferences" page has many holes, which I hope the Mozilla Foundation will quickly and publicly fill in. For example, GuruJ's page describes many settings with a question mark, indicating that the true meaning of an item is unclear. This includes the "frames force resizability" setting I described above. (I had to determine the official stand on this option by contacting Ben Goodger, the foundation's lead Firefox engineer.) Tweaks for the ultimate in performance There are several settings and options that can make Firefox run as a much faster browser. You should test these techniques before you roll them out to, say, a thousand workstations in your company. Speeding up the maximizing of Firefox By default, when you minimize Firefox, it gives back to Windows most of the RAM the browser was using. It sometimes can take several seconds for the browser window to become fully loaded when you restore the window to its original size. This is one of those "version 1.0" things, in my opinion, that will become more streamlined in future bump revs of the program. Fortunately, there's a hidden setting that can accomplish the restoration of Firefox windows much more quickly: Step 1. Use about:config to create a new, Boolean value. Type or paste the following string into the dialog box that appears: config.trim_on_minimize Step 2. Click OK to close the dialog box. Change the value from "true" to "false" and restart Firefox. This doesn't piggishly retain all of the RAM that Firefox has claimed. If Windows needs more RAM to devote to another application, Windows can take it. What the setting does is prevent Firefox from giving up most of its RAM until the memory is actually required elsewhere. Setting this item to "false" may noticeably slow down other applications while Firefox is minimized, if your PC has less than 256 MB of RAM. If so, change the setting back to "true." There's an extremely long discussion about the development of this trick, going back to March 2004 (and continuing up through today), in Bugzilla bug report #76831. If you're determined to delve into this, I'd recommend starting with comment 329. Speeding up Firefox on Windows XP You can speed up the loading of Firefox on Windows XP by adding it to the programs that XP "prefetches." To do this, right-click the Start Menu item for Firefox, or any icon you use to start Firefox, and open the Properties dialog box. Add a space plus /Prefetch:1 to the command line and click OK. The resulting line might look as follows: "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" /Prefetch:1 A detailed explanation of XP's prefetch feature is provided by TechRepublic. Use a "Moox" build that's customized for your CPU A developer who goes by the name of Moox has compiled the Firefox code into separate executables, optimized for the instruction sets of different CPUs. This provides the biggest performance boost that I've seen (and also consider to be reliable). The developer's PDF white paper on the topic shows reductions of as much as 30% in the time required for Firefox to perform various tasks. At this writing, there are three separate builds: one for Pentium 4 and AMD Opteron (and other CPUs), one for Pentium 3 and AMD Athlon MP, and one for Pentium 2 and AMD Athlon. The builds are free, of course. To download the builds, see Moox's Mozilla page. The big kahuna: fast rendering of Web pages The most sought-after performance improvements in any browser will always involve how quickly it downloads and renders Web pages. The good news is that Firefox (which is already pretty fast in its default configuration) includes numerous about:config settings that can improve the downloading and display of content. The bad news is that the optimum settings will differ from machine to machine, and there's no consensus on what they should be. After extensive research, I haven't found a utility or even a well-tested explanation that can guarantee the optimum settings for any particular Windows scenario (Windows 2000 vs. XP, DSL vs. T1, etc.). There are scores of Web sites that speculate on configuration settings that are said to speed up the browsing experience in Firefox. But these sites largely don't show that they've done adequate testing of the alternatives, much less explain how such tests might have been conducted. One long discussion post, by a German power user who goes by the name of Laszlo, lists in Mozillazine numerous settings in the content, network, and nglayout sections of the Configuration Console. His post is followed by literally hundreds of comments on various tweaks. I don't feel there's a solid answer here yet. Another stab at this issue has been undertaken by a poster who goes by the name of Achilles. He proposes four different configuration suites in his Firefox Tweak Guide, depending upon whether you have a slower or faster PC and a slower or faster Internet connection. Again, no testing details or benchmark figures are provided. At this point, the optimum settings for Web browsing under various configurations must be considered a subject for further study. Firefox is plenty speedy as it is. My recommendation? Download Firefox and enjoy it with the improvements I've described above. I'll give you an update when something truly definitive comes out about this. Other resources I haven't even touched in this article on several free, third-party extensions to Firefox that I believe are great enhancements. For a description, see my Nov. 23 Datamation column on Getting the Most Out of Firefox. Finally, an excellent resource on Firefox annoyances and fixes is Michael Horowitz's always-entertaining Web site, ComputerGripes.com. His site features several pages on Firefox behaviors, good and bad, many of which have been fixed with the release of version 1.0 gold. He also criticizes several other Web sites that need programming improvements to work well with Firefox. That's it for now. To send us more information about Firefox configuration settings, or to send us a tip on any other subject, visit WindowsSecrets.com/contact. You'll receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of your choice if you send us a comment that we print.
By
Brian Livingston |
Posted by Ryan at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)
Mozilla aims for mobile browser market
Mozilla is hoping to move on from its success in the browser desktop market to tackle browsers on consumer devices such as phones, PDAs and television set-top boxes.
Doug Turner, the project leader of Minimo, the slimmed-down Mozilla browser, said Mozilla hopes to build on the success of Firefox.
"If Firefox is the greatest browser on the desktop, we need the greatest browser on devices and are working hard on it," Turner said.
Turner said there are two mobile phone companies that are already using Minimo. He would not reveal the names of the companies that it is working with, but he said there will be at least one announcement in the near future regarding a partnership with a television manufacturer.
"The focus over the last year and a half has been about going after the phone device and set-top manufacturers--showing them what we can do," Turner said. "We are being used, but companies have kept it quiet."
This industry will be harder to tackle than the desktop browser market, as manufacturers rather than consumers make the choice on which browser to use. "We can showcase things to consumers--to show them what they should get from their phone--but the bigger thing is to show the manufacturers that they can embed Mozilla into their device," Turner said.
Minimo developers have already found a solution to the problem of rendering Web pages on small devices. This feature was included in both version 0.1 and 0.2 of Minimo. Turner said this solution is already better than some products on the market.
"A lot of browsers ignore frames or have limited JavaScript support--they do terrible jobs," he said. "With Minimo, if it renders OK in Firefox, it will render OK in Minimo."
The technology works by shrinking less-important images, such as banner ads, and wrapping columns around to make a single column, so users only need to scroll vertically.
Minimo 0.3, due in January, will include improved Web page navigation for mobile phone users, Turner said. At present, phone users need to linearly tab through every link on the page to get to the right link, but the new technology will let people move between links on the Web page using the arrow keys.
"We have the proof of concept working right," Turner said. "The hard part is working out where the next closest link is--it is a hard math or computer-science problem. You need fuzzy logic."
For this technology to work, mobile phone manufacturers will need tomap each arrow direction to an individual phone key. Minimo 0.3 will also automatically complete URLs as they are being typed in.
Developers also are working on a feature that would let people zoom in and out of Web pages, so they could easily find what they were looking for, Turner said. "If you go to the Web on a little screen, you don't have any idea of where everything is," he said. "For example, on a phone the 'Contact' link can be hard to find. If you could back out of the page it would be easier."
The first demonstration of this technology will likely be available before June, Turner said.
Minimo's main competitor in the mobile phone browsing market is Opera Software, which produces versions of its browser for various mobile phones including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Panasonic and Siemens handsets.
But Turner said there is definitely a demand for an alternative to Opera from set-top box and phone manufacturers, which don't want to pay royalties. Another advantage of Minimo is that it is fully standards compliant and is compatible with various platforms.
"We can be ported to many platforms that Opera can't," he said. "Mozilla has been developed to work on every flavor of Unix and every type of processor, chip or widget set."
A spokeswoman for Opera said Mozilla doesn't have as much experience in developing for mobile technologies. "These are interesting comments, although I am not sure that delivering on many flavors of Unix is going to get you onto very many mobile phones," she said. "We have been working on mobile browsers for six years."
The spokeswoman added that Opera works on numerous operating systems. "We support all major processors in the market," she said. "You can not only run Opera on Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris and FreeBSD, but also on SymbianOS, Windows Mobile, Brew, MicroItron--and more are coming. I believe this is the most extensive list in the market, and it is all with the same source code."
Ingrid Marson of ZDNet UK reported from London.
Posted by Ryan at 06:56 PM | Comments (0)
Top 5 Ways Geeks Celebrate Christmas
5. Mountain Dew-Nog
4. Explaining to children how it would be physically impossible for Santa to deliver all the presents
3. Devising a computer-controlled system to detect and prevent household members from trying to peek into their presents before Christmas
2. Changing the blue neon lights in the case to flashing red and green
1. Decorating the tree with SDRAM and CPUs burned out from your last overclocking experiment
Posted by Ryan at 06:26 PM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2004
NaughtyCodes.com
"Online stores send out discount codes to SELECT groups of customers, leaving the rest of us to pay full price! To that we say, NO! We find and list ALL of the coupon codes and promotional codes that can be found. If it's out there, we have it! Be naughty with us by using these codes for added discounts when shopping online. "
Posted by Ryan at 10:40 PM | Comments (0)
O'Relly Mind Hacks: Tips and tools for using your brain in the real world
O'Reilly has just published its latest book in the Hacks series: Mind Hacks: Tips and Tools for Using your Brain in the World. The website has a bunch of cool example hacks such as "Why people don't work like elevator buttons," "Map your blind spot," "Glimpse the Gaps in Your Vision," "Create Illusionary Depth with Sunglasses," "Neural Noise Isn't a Bug; It's a Feature to Improve Visual Attention Through Video Games," "Why You Can't Tickle Yourself," and "Make the Caffeine Habit Taste Good."
Posted by Ryan at 10:39 PM | Comments (0)
Products being used in direct defiance of the manufacturer's warning label
Posted by Ryan at 07:13 PM | Comments (0)
Amusing excerpts from the guestbook at the Clinton Double-Wide Library
"At first I was like, why are we coming to this place I was like ten when he was president but my parents were like we're here in Little Rock anyways visiting your grandparents for Thanksgiving so just do it and I was bummed but after walking through it I have to admit it's pretty cool especially the trampoline ride at the top of the Ego Tower."
Posted by Ryan at 07:04 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Kelly Osbourne says she only plays fat on TV. Also, Ozzy is actually charter member of MENSA
Posted by Ryan at 07:02 PM | Comments (0)
Linux PVR Distro Released
LinVDR...
"What is LinVDR?
Basically, it's an approach to build a small, cut to the bone, ready and easy to install VDR Linux distribution.
LinVDR is a complete, breathing Linux system smaller than 128 MB with a complete digital Video Disk Recorder (VDR) / Personal Video Recorder (PVR) and several plugins -- listed seperately below.
For easy access we installed additionaly the browser frontend VDR Admin and a Samba share for up- and downloading music or DVD images with Windows clients."
Posted by Ryan at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
Thunderbird 1.0 Released
Mozilla's Thunderbird email client just came out of beta today...
'Thunderbird makes emailing safer, faster, and easier than ever before with the industry's best implementations of features such as intelligent spam filters, built-in RSS reader, quick search, and much more.'
Posted by Ryan at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)
4096 Color Wheel
Hover over the wheel to view the colors...
Posted by Ryan at 05:37 PM | Comments (0)
Practical PHP Programming
Posted by Ryan at 05:34 PM | Comments (0)
BroadSnatching
Here's a cool article... Use the Blogdigger RSS feed with iPodder to get all kinds of weird, random, and cool media delivered right to your portable media center.
Posted by Ryan at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)
Tech guide for POGs
"Here's a free tech-buying guide I wrote not for Boing Boing geeks, but for their *parents*. Hand this PDF (look how nice it prints out) to any of your non-geek friends, and they'll know exactly what technology to buy - for themselves, or for gifts this holiday season. P.S. There's also an Almanac section where I put all the rants I've stored up over the past year. I make absolutely no money on this guide and do it only to help spread some basic tech knowledge."
Link [via Boing Boing]
Posted by Ryan at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2004
Favicon Generator
For you webmasters, here's a cool site to generate a favicon.ico...
Posted by Ryan at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
Acme Elevators
Tired of lugging things up stairs in your home? Install an elevator. Acme elevators carry up to four people and provide a safe and quiet ride. Best of all, they promise not to strand passengers during a power failure, thanks to a battery-controlled descent feature. The elevators are customizable with inside panels of solid cherry, raised red oak, mahogany or colored laminate and optional glass side walls and skylights. The elevators also have brass and glass chandeliers or recessed incandescent lights and stainless steel or bronze details.
Posted by Ryan at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2004
IP Address Locator
Enter an IP address and get all kinds of information on it
Posted by Ryan at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
More Links
Video - Garbage Can Prank
A good way to scare the garbage man and have some fun
Video - Frustrating
I hope that "flat" isn't too dirty
Site - Skeletal System
See the skeletal systems of a bunch of famous cartoon characters
Video - Boardroom Kissing
Good news, kissing spreads fewer germs than shaking hands.
Video - Bush's Drunk Interview
Watch Bush make somewhat of a fool of himself
Video - Being smelly can be a good thing
Öne of those times when being the smelliest one is a good thing
Posted by at 09:34 PM | Comments (0)
Worth1000: Public Harm Announcements
Posted by Ryan at 08:12 PM | Comments (0)
evolt Browser Archive
Get the installation file for every single browser ever available... From Mosaic to IE, they're all here
Posted by Ryan at 07:10 PM | Comments (0)
Free Programming and Computer Science Books
Posted by Ryan at 05:24 PM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2004
Man made islands
The same company that brought us The Palm Islands, Al Nakheel Properties (Nakheel Corp), have done it again expanding their portfolio of man-made islands with this latest Dubai island project shaped like the continents of the world. The World will consist of between 250 to 300 smaller private artifical islands divided into four categories - private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands. Each island will range from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet in size, with 50 to 100 metres of water between each island. The development is to cover an area of 9 kilometers in length and 6 kilometers in width, surrounded by an oval shaped breakwater. The only means of transportation between the islands will be by marine transport.
Construction has begun on the $US 1.8 billion project which is set to be completed by the end of 2005. It will be located 4 kilometers off the shore of Jumeirah, close to the The Palm Jumeirah, between Burj Al Arab and Port Rashid of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Each island will be sold to selected private developers and are expected to have pricing beginning at Dhs. 25 million (US$ 6.85 million).
Posted by at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)
Today's Links
Game - Algar
A cartoon style shoot em up
Game - Crazy Sleigh
Play this fun christmas game
Game - Concentration
The old fashion game of concentration
Posted by at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)
Top ten excuses for getting a speeding ticket
1 I had passed out after seeing flashing lights, which I believed to be UFOs in the distance. The flash of the camera brought me round from my trance.
2 I was in the airport’s flight path and I believe the camera was triggered by a jet overhead, not my car
3 I had a severe bout of diarrhoea and had to speed to a public toilet
4 There was a strong wind behind my car which pushed me over the limit
5 My friend had just chopped his fingers off and I was rushing the fingers to hospital
6 The vibrations from the surfboard I had on the roof rack set off the camera
7 I had to rush my dying hamster to the vets
8 A violent sneeze caused a chain reaction where my foot pushed down harder on the accelerator
9 There was a suspected case of foot and mouth and I had to rush to see the cow concerned
10 The only way I could demonstrate my faulty clutch was to accelerate madly.
Posted by at 07:22 PM | Comments (0)
Get 1Gb/s internet for $126/month in Sweden
Those damn Swedes get 1Gb/s internet for $126/mo! 1Gb!! And keep in mind the dollar isn't worth a whole lot these days, so it's even cheaper than it sounds
Check it out (the site is in swedish)
Posted by at 07:18 PM | Comments (0)
Online Graph Paper
This site has a graph or grid paper for everyone. The site has all different metric grid sizes and paper sizes as well as asymmetrical papers. There's even a sheet of dots for those who like to play the dot game.
Posted by at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)
Best of 2004
Top lists of anything you can think of that happened in 2004
Posted by Ryan at 04:24 AM | Comments (0)
Google Zeitgeist Archive
For both breaking news and obscure information alike, people around the world search on Google at www.google.com. With a bit of analysis, this flurry of searches often exposes interesting trends, patterns, and surprises.
The Google Zeitgeist page is regularly updated to reflect lists, graphs, and other tidbits of information related to Google user search behavior.
Posted by Ryan at 04:21 AM | Comments (0)
He's a barbie girl
Posted by Ryan at 02:49 AM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Two escaped convicts are no match for 88-year-old granny with cane
First grader brings hand grenade in for Show and Tell. Evacularity ensues
Posted by Ryan at 02:41 AM | Comments (0)
Wrong exit...
Posted by Ryan at 01:37 AM | Comments (0)
'We will be able to live to 1,000'
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Ageing is a physical phenomenon happening to our bodies, so at some point in the future, as medicine becomes more and more powerful, we will inevitably be able to address ageing just as effectively as we address many diseases today.
I claim that we are close to that point because of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) project to prevent and cure ageing.
It is not just an idea: it's a very detailed plan to repair all the types of molecular and cellular damage that happen to us over time.
And each method to do this is either already working in a preliminary form (in clinical trials) or is based on technologies that already exist and just need to be combined.
This means that all parts of the project should be fully working in mice within just 10 years and we might take only another 10 years to get them all working in humans.
When we get these therapies, we will no longer all get frail and decrepit and dependent as we get older, and eventually succumb to the innumerable ghastly progressive diseases of old age.
We will still die, of course - from crossing the road carelessly, being bitten by snakes, catching a new flu variant etcetera - but not in the drawn-out way in which most of us die at present.
So, will this happen in time for some people alive today? Probably. Since these therapies repair accumulated damage, they are applicable to people in middle age or older who have a fair amount of that damage.
I think the first person to live to 1,000 might be 60 already.
It is very complicated, because ageing is. There are seven major types of molecular and cellular damage that eventually become bad for us - including cells being lost without replacement and mutations in our chromosomes.
Each of these things is potentially fixable by technology that either already exists or is in active development.
'Youthful not frail'
The length of life will be much more variable than now, when most people die at a narrow range of ages (65 to 90 or so), because people won't be getting frailer as time passes.
The average age will be in the region of a few thousand years. These numbers are guesses, of course, but they're guided by the rate at which the young die these days.
If you are a reasonably risk-aware teenager today in an affluent, non-violent neighbourhood, you have a risk of dying in the next year of well under one in 1,000, which means that if you stayed that way forever you would have a 50/50 chance of living to over 1,000.
And remember, none of that time would be lived in frailty and debility and dependence - you would be youthful, both physically and mentally, right up to the day you mis-time the speed of that oncoming lorry.
Should we cure ageing?
Curing ageing will change society in innumerable ways. Some people are so scared of this that they think we should accept ageing as it is.
I think that is diabolical - it says we should deny people the right to life.
The right to choose to live or to die is the most fundamental right there is; conversely, the duty to give others that opportunity to the best of our ability is the most fundamental duty there is.
There is no difference between saving lives and extending lives, because in both cases we are giving people the chance of more life. To say that we shouldn't cure ageing is ageism, saying that old people are unworthy of medical care.
Playing God?
People also say we will get terribly bored but I say we will have the resources to improve everyone's ability to get the most out of life.
People with a good education and the time to use it never get bored today and can't imagine ever running out of new things they'd like to do.
And finally some people are worried that it would mean playing God and going against nature. But it's unnatural for us to accept the world as we find it.
Ever since we invented fire and the wheel, we've been demonstrating both our ability and our inherent desire to fix things that we don't like about ourselves and our environment.
We would be going against that most fundamental aspect of what it is to be human if we decided that something so horrible as everyone getting frail and decrepit and dependent was something we should live with forever.
If changing our world is playing God, it is just one more way in which God made us in His image.
Aubrey de Grey leads the SENS project at Cambridge University and also runs the Methuselah Mouse prize for extending age in mice.
By Dr Aubrey de Grey
University of Cambridge
Posted by Ryan at 01:10 AM | Comments (0)
Choose The Blue
ChooseTheBlue tells you what major corporations have donated to each political party. Now you can know what party you're supporting next time you buy that new car...
Sample: Gas Stations...
| Brand | Parent Company | % to Dem | % to Rep | $ to Dem | $ to Rep | Other Brands of Parent |
| Amoco | BP | 34% | 66% | $71,691 | $139,164 | BP, others... |
| ARCO | BP | 34% | 66% | $71,691 | $139,164 | BP, others... |
| BP | BP | 34% | 66% | $71,691 | $139,164 | ARCO, others... |
| ChevronTexaco | ChevronTexaco | 17% | 83% | $66,313 | $323,767 | Havoline Lubricants |
| Clean Energy Vehicle Natural Gas | Clean Energy Fuels Corp | 0% | 100% | $0 | $8,000 | None Known |
| Conoco Phillips | ConocoPhillips | 19% | 81% | $40,555 | $172,892 | Phillips 66, others... |
| Diamond Shamrock | Valero Energy | 15% | 85% | $95,966 | $543,808 | Valero Energy |
| Exxon Mobil | Exxon Mobil | 11% | 88% | $60,391 | $483,134 | None Known |
| Marathon Oil | Marathon Oil | 19% | 81% | $47,558 | $202,749 | None Known |
| Occidental Petroleum | Occidental Petroleum | 18% | 82% | $55,191 | $251,428 | None Known |
| Phillips 66 | ConocoPhillips | 19% | 81% | $40,555 | $172,892 | Conoco Phillips, others... |
| Pilot Corp | Pilot Corp | 0% | 100% | $0 | $214,081 | None Known |
| Shell Oil | Shell Oil | 57% | 43% | $107,671 | $81,226 | None Known |
| Union 66 | ConocoPhillips | 19% | 81% | $40,555 | $172,892 | Conoco Phillips, others... |
| Valero Energy | Valero Energy | 15% | 85% | $95,966 | $543,808 | Diamond Shamrock |
Posted by Ryan at 01:06 AM | Comments (0)
December 03, 2004
Accessible Website Menu: Ultimate Drop Down Menu 4.2
Ultimate Drop Down Menu Version 4 is unique among its contemporaries - there is no other website menu system available on the internet which matches UDM's combination of accessibility, usability and feature-rich design.
Posted by Ryan at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
The magic that makes Google Tick
The numbers alone are enough to make your eyes water...
Over four billion Web pages, each an average of 10KB, all fully indexed.
Up to 2,000 PCs in a cluster.
Over 30 clusters.
104 interface languages including Klingon and Tagalog.
One petabyte of data in a cluster -- so much that hard disk error rates of 10-15 begin to be a real issue.
Sustained transfer rates of 2Gbps in a cluster.
An expectation that two machines will fail every day in each of the larger clusters.
No complete system failure since February 2000.
It is one of the largest computing projects on the planet, arguably employing more computers than any other single, fully managed system (we're not counting distributed computing projects here), some 200 computer science PhDs, and 600 other computer scientists.
And it is all hidden behind a deceptively simple, white, Web page that contains a single one-line text box and a button that says Google Search.
When Arthur C. Clarke said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, he was alluding to the trick of hiding the complexity of the job from the audience, or the user. Nobody hides the complexity of the job better than Google does; so long as we have a connection to the Internet, the Google search page is there day and night, every day of the year, and it is not just there, but it returns results. Google recognises that the returns are not always perfect, and there are still issues there -- more on those later -- but when you understand the complexity of the system behind that Web page you may be able to forgive the imperfections. You may even agree that what Google achieves is nothing short of sorcery.
On Thursday evening, Google's vice-president of engineering, Urs Hölzle, who has been with the company since 1999 and who is now a Google fellow, gave an insight to would-be Google employees into just what it takes to run an operation on such a scale, with such reliability. ZDNet UK snuck in the back to glean some of the secrets of Google's magic.
Google's vision is broader than most people imagine, said Hölzle: "Most people say Google is a search engine but our mission is to organise information to make it accessible."
Behind that, he said, comes a vast scale of computing power based on cheap, no-name hardware that is prone to failure. There are hardware malfunctions not just once, but time and time again, many times a day.
Yes, that's right, Google is built on imperfect hardware. The magic is writing software that accepts that hardware will fail, and expeditiously deals with that reality, says Hölzle.
Google indexes over four billion Web pages, using an average of 10KB per page, which comes to about 40TB. Google is asked to search this data over 1,000 times every second of every day, and typically comes back with sub-second response rates. If anything goes wrong, said Hölzle, "you can't just switch the system off and switch it back on again."
The job is not helped by the nature of the Web. "In academia," said Hölzle, "the information retrieval field has been around for years, but that is for books in libraries. On the Web, content is not nicely written -- there are many different grades of quality."
Some, he noted, may not even have text. "You may think we don't need to know about those but that’s not true -- it may be the home page of a very large company where the Webmaster decided to have everything graphical. The company name may not even appear on the page."
Google deals with such pages by regarding the Web not as a collection of text documents, but a collection of linked text documents, with each link containing valuable information.
"Take a link pointing to the Stanford university home page," said Hölzle. "This tells us several things: First, that someone must think pointing to Stanford is important. The text in the link also gives us some idea of what is on the page being pointed to. And if we know something about the page that contains the link we can tell something about the quality of the page being linked to."
This knowledge is encapsulated in Google's famous PageRank algorithm, which looks not just at the number of links to a page but at the quality or weight of those links, to help determine which page is most likely to be of use, and so which is presented at the top of the list when the search results are returned to the user. Hölzle believes the PageRank algorithm is 'relatively' spam resistant, and those interested in exactly how it works can find more information here.
By Matt Loney, ZDNet UK
02 December 2004
Posted by Ryan at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)
Freefoto.com
Cool website for those times Google images just doesn't cut it
Posted by Ryan at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)
Best firefox extensions
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Posted by Ryan at 05:43 PM | Comments (0)
Best software essays of 2004
All kinds of essays about software...
Aaron Swartz on Powerpoint Joel Spolsky
(0 comments)
Tog: 10 most wanted design bugs Joel Spolsky
(0)
=======NOMINATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED========= Joel Spolsky
(2)
Basic Critical Thinking for Software Developers Michael Studman
(5)
Web Accessibility for the Apathetic Rod Bailey
(0)
Testers: Are they Vegetable or Mineral? Rod Bailey
(1)
Function Points - Numerology for Software Developers Rod Bailey
(0)
Oral Documentation - Not Worth the Paper It's Written On Rod Bailey
(4)
The Top 10 Elements of Good Software Design Rod Bailey
(2)
Naming Classes - Do It Once And Do It Right Rod Bailey
(1)
FUDD - Fear, Uncertainty and Design Documentation Rod Bailey
(0)
Design Patterns: Boondoggle or State-of-the-Art? Klaus Meffert
(5)
The Quality Gap - Trevor Davel Trevor Davel
(0)
ea_spouse Alex Rosenberg (2)
Cleaner, more elegant and still wrong (exception safety) Rushabh doshi
(3)
nomination: A Manifesto for Collaborative Tools Eugene Eric Kim
(1)
C++ - The Forgotten Trojan Horse Eric Johnson
(1)
Paul Graham, Made in USA Tayssir John Gabbour
(4)
The Good Developer, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Wayne
Cobb (3)
Company decay and hiring. Deepak (2)
Speeding Up Browser Evolution by Mike Davidson Shaun Inman
(0)
"The Spy" by Paul Ford. Ian Bicking (2)
Adam Bosworth ISCOC04 Talk Joel Spolsky
(2)
Software Development in the Year 2009 by Roger Jack (Me) Roger Jack
(2)
Closing the Gap, by ... Me. Eric Sink (3)
Out of Sight, Out of a Job Larry O'Brien
(8)
Christopher Baus / Microsoft in Trouble Joel Spolsky
(13)
Patterns and structure out of the formless void Paddy
(4)
Group as User: Flaming and the Design of Social Software Joel Spolsky
(2)
Why Is Usability So Hard adam smith (1)
Save Canada's Internet from WIPO Joel Spolsky
(3)
Evolution of Corporate Web Sites Richard MacManus
(2)
The Fractal Blogosphere, by Richard MacManus Richard MacManus
(1)
Developing with Web Standards, Roger Johansson Roger Johansson
(0)
Clay Shirky, Situated Software phil jones
(3)
Essay Nomination: The Craft of Programming Craig Boland
(2)
Digital River a Monster? Sharon Housley
(5)
What is Shareware? Sharon Housley (1)
Rory Blyth: Should the hobbyist programmer matter to Microsoft? Brian
William Kuhn (0)
secret Geek: You are not inadequate Davros Geller-Day
(4)
We Are Blog: Implications of Viewing The Blogosphere as A System Andrew
Chen (1)
phil jones, programmers as information architects phil jones
(4)
Paul graham on Hackers Inandjo Taurel (1)
OSS Usability and others Kevin Cheng (0)
Bring on the tables, Roger Johansson prakash swaminathan
(5)
Programming as if Performance Mattered Tommy McLeod
(5)
Dashboard vs. Konfabulator, John Gruber prakash swaminathan
(4)
not a suggestion but a list phil jones
(0)
Reinventing Computing Rajesh Jain (0)
Th Panic Chronicles, by Bruce Tognazzini Wesley McGee
(2)
Charles Miller: Where Bugs Come From Joel Spolsky
(4)
TeleDyn on Small Tools phil jones (2)
Incrementalists & Completionists Joel Spolsky
(1)
Out of School, Robert X Cringely Roger Sperberg
(1)
How to be a great infrastructure admin Anand Raman
(1)
The Curch of XML, by Zef Hemel Joe (1)
The anatomy of a bug by Joe Bork Florian Zschocke
(0)
another good Paul Ford phil jones (1)
Plus ca change John Allsopp (2)
A New Website for Harper's Magazine, Paul Ford Roger Sperberg
(1)
Themes and metaphors in the semantic web discussion, Peter Van D Roger
Sperberg (1)
Playing by the Rules, C M Sperberg-McQueen Roger Sperberg
(1)
Search series, Tim Bray, ongoing Roger Sperberg
(1)
"A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy" by Clay Shirky Isaac Lin
(2)
Modern Static Typing: Less Code, Better Code Bryn Keller
(6)
How to Ask Questions the Smart Way - By Eric Raymond Kris Goss
(1)
Lean Construction Kyle Heironimus (1)
2nd Nomination Matthew Heusser (0)
My two nominations jonathan paulson (1)
On rich web applications, AlphaBlox and Oddpost Koranteng Ofosu-Amaah
(1)
Greg Colvin: In the Spirit of C Ged Byrne
(2)
Software Copy Protection Bruce Johnson
(1)
He's a Techie Xin Chen (2)
The Subscription Model by Simon Phipps Dan Moore
(1)
PHP is the "Mac Toolbox" of Web Application Development Andrew Chen
(0)
Ten Ways to Kill Design, by Kim Goodwin Derek K. Miller
(1)
Good Ideas Paul Kafasis (3)
Phil Agre, Internet Research (for and against) phil jones
(3)
The Information Architecture of Cities, Coward and Salingaros phil jones
(2)
Rory Blyth: Interview with Clippy John Rusk
(0)
ant and xml, james duncan davidson phil jones
(1)
Rory Blyth: Excel as Database Joel Spolsky
(6)
Harards of Hiring, Eric Sink on Hiring Programmers John Rusk
(4)
Simple is Beautiful Noel Llopis (4)
We built it but no one came Steve Johnson
(9)
Product Roadmaps Steve Johnson (0)
He Who Owns The Compiler Wins Steve Johnson
(3)
Product version numbers and project names Steve Johnson
(0)
On Reqs and Specs Steve Johnson (0)
Writing the Market Requirements Document Steve Johnson
(0)
Defects or Features Next Steve Johnson
(0)
Working the program phil jones (1)
Growing, pruning, spiking an architecture phil jones
(1)
Soapbox: Humans should not have to grok XML, Terence Parr Bob McWhirter
(3)
Jim Coplien, Engaging other academic cultures phil jones
(0)
Personal Knowledge Management phil jones
(0)
Jon Udell, a tale of two cultures phil jones
(7)
what is a web-service? phil jones (1)
Dynamic Coupling / Wanton Coupling phil jones
(1)
Tracing the evolution of social software, phil jones
(0)
PJ Plaugher - The three marketplaces Joel (but not 'The Joel')
(0)
The Pitfalls of Outsourcing Programmers Will Glass-Husain
(1)
Boosting Your Search Engine Ranking: It's No Trick Derek K. Miller
(1)
Lonely at the Middle Zack Urlocker (0)
The New High-Tech Dictionary 2.0 Zack Urlocker
(0)
How Will the Artists Get Paid? (2003), by Dan Bricklin Derek K. Miller
(1)
Software that Lasts 200 Years, by Dan Bricklin Derek K. Miller
(3)
Mac OS 10.3 Panther (2003), by John Siracusa Derek K. Miller
(0)
IoC and Dependecy Injection Pattern, Martin Fowler Dino
(1)
Style is Substance, Ken Arnold phil jones
(2)
The Secret Source of Google's Power by Rich Skrenta Dan Moore
(1)
Joel On Software Discussion Groups Dino
(2)
LGPL/GPL Articles or a Marc Fleury One Berlin Brown
(2)
Python in Education: Raising a Generation of Native Speakers Wolf Prymas
(0)
The Next Billion, Rajesh Jain prakash swaminathan
(0)
Open Source, Fred Wilson prakash swaminathan
(1)
Nat on Microsoft, Nat Friedman prakash swaminathan
(1)
Jeffries on Passion Deb Hartmann (0)
Open Source, Cold Shoulder Sarah Markov
(3)
Bruce Eckel: Strong Typing vs. Strong Testing Ryan Barrett
(5)
Exception vs. Status Returns Ned Batchelder
(0)
The Only Way to Beat Microsoft, by Bob Cringely Derek K. Miller
(0)
Doug Engelbert's Experience, by Bob Cringely Derek K. Miller
(0)
Mac Word 6.0, by Rick Schaut Derek K. Miller
(3)
Serious TCP Weakness Identified, by Glenn Fleishman Derek K. Miller
(1)
Sense and Sensors in Digital Photography, by Charles Maurer Derek K.
Miller (1)
Hannibal Stokes's Ars Technica series on CPU architecture Derek K.
Miller (1)
Broken Windows, by John Gruber Derek K. Miller
(1)
Ronco Spray-on Usability, by John Gruber Derek K. Miller
(2)
The Location Field Is the New Command Line by John Gruber Dan Moore
(1)
Joel Spolsky, How Microsoft Lost the API War phil jones
(5)
Clay Shirky: Situated Software Ryan Tate
(1)
From Slump to Supercharged, by Steve Pavlina Ogami Itto
(0)
Steve McConnell on Cargo Cult Software Engineering Serban Tatu
(3)
Better Software Matt H. (2)
Latency lags bandwith Andrew Sherman (3)
Tim Bray: On the Goodness of Binary Search John Hart
(3)
Steven Bone: What is Excellence in Software Development? schmoe
(4)
Technology Predictor Success Matrix: Tim Bray Russ Weeks
(3)
Bruce Sterling on Blobjects phil jones
(1)
John Topley: "Users Are Not Dogs" John Topley
(0)
Natural history of software platforms : David Stutz phil jones
(3)
"Worse is Better" series Derek (1)
Ken Henderson, "Why I Really, Really Don't Like Fish!" A.M.
(1)
Paul graham, and francois bonin: smart and witty guys! Inandjo Taurel
(3)
UNIX Haters Handbook Ian Rae (3)
Aspect Oriented Programming without the buzzwords-Adrian Colyer Andrzej
Krzywda (2)
How to tell your personality from your code - Kevin Marks and Ma Kevin
Marks (1)
Why bother with .net when you have Thin Client? Albert D. Kallal
(7)
Choose Your Competition Albert D. Kallal
(1)
Philip Greenspun - CS education draft Peter Seale
(1)
(No) Great Hackers - Paul Graham/Eric Sink Peter Seale
(6)
Eric Lippert's cargo cultists series Peter Seale
(0)
The Open Source Paradigm Shift Simon Jackson
(3)
The Economics of a 2D Adventure in Today's Market by Ron Gilbert Zach
Malmgren (1)
The 5 Pitfalls of Estimating a Software Project Christopher Hawkins
(3)
Something's Gotta Give Vik David (2)
Career Calculus by Eric Sink David Stone
(5)
What about the scripters? Dao Vallis (0)
since1968.com Nick Bradbury Interview Marc A. Garrett
(0)
Paul Graham's Python Paradox Paddy (9)
Posted by Ryan at 05:36 PM | Comments (0)
A Tao of Regular Expressions
Everything you ever wanted to know about Regex
Posted by Ryan at 05:29 PM | Comments (0)
Media Portal
Media Portal turns your PC in a very advanced Multi MediaCenter / HTPC.
It allows you to listen to your favorite music & radio, watch your video's and DVD's, view, schedule and record live TV and much more. You get Media Portal for free/nothing/nada/noppes and best of all it is opensource. This means anyone can help developing Media Portal or tweak it for their own needs!
Posted by Ryan at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)
TV Networks padding shows to mess with digital video recorders
So one of our least favorite things that the TV networks have been doing to mess with their competitors-padding a few extra minutes to the end of shows in order to create scheduling conflicts so that TiVos and other digital video recorders won't record a show on another channel that comes on afterwards-is apparently getting worse, with Nielsen Media Research reporting that lots more shows are doing this. The networks might think they're being clever, and on one level we're at least little impressed that they're even thinking about this sort of stuff, but in the long run all they're doing is alienating people and convincing DVR owners that they either need to download shows online or upgrade to a dual-tuner DVR that eliminates scheduling conflicts.
[via engadget]
Posted by Ryan at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
Lycos Europe's antispam tool no longer available
After days of negative publicity and criticism, Lycos Europe's "Make love not spam" screensaver application is no longer available. The company says it's just been too popular and promises it will be back.
Visitors to the Web site are presented with a graphic urging them to "stay tuned." Previously, Web surfers could download the screensaver from the site. The application uses the idle processing power of users' computers to slow down bandwidth that connects to spammers' Web sites.
A Lycos Europe representative said that the screensaver has been temporarily pulled while the company deals with hosting and management issues. He said it had been downloaded by over 100,000 users and added it was "too early to say" when it would be made available again.
Lycos Europe is a separate company from the Web portal that bears the Lycos name in the United States. Lycos Europe claims that it maintains roughly 40 million e-mail accounts in eight European countries.
Lycos Europe has been heavily criticized for the "Make love not spam" initiative, with experts accusing the company of acting irresponsibly.
"You can't break into a thief's house just because he breaks into yours. We don't support this or recommend this practice. Directing traffic is part of the degradation of the Internet we are trying to stop," said Steve Linford, director of Spamhaus, a nonprofit antispam organization.
On Thursday, Netcraft, an Internet traffic monitoring company, said that Lycos Europe had successfully taken down two Web sites hosted in China. Lycos Europe, however, has said that it is not carrying out denial-of-service attacks, just slowing the bandwidth of its targets. The company has also said that it has no intention of taking Web sites offline.
Lycos Europe's tactics apparently may have rebounded on the company. According to security company F-Secure, one of the Web sites the company targeted in its zombie army attack--www.mortgage.info--redirected traffic back to www.makelovenotspam.com. This means that Lycos Europe could have unintentionally affected its own Web site.
Some Internet service providers appear to have taken matters into their own hands and blocked access to the site.
By Graeme Wearden
Special to CNET News.com
Posted by Ryan at 04:23 PM | Comments (0)
Target is cool with rock 'n' roll, but not sex and drugs
By Matt Hines and Robert Lemos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
When Target struck a deal for Amazon.com to help run its Internet store, search results that turned up listings for books and videos about sex and drugs weren't exactly what the retailing giant had in mind.
In recent weeks, the Internet has been abuzz about an alleged hack into Target's Web operations, where its online store site appeared to offer items for sale that one wouldn't normally expect to find at the mainstream retailer. When customers typed "marijuana" into the search feature of Target's Web site, books and CDs about marijuana appeared that Target wouldn't want to sell. Worse--at least for Target--books, CDs and DVDs related to sex and drugs appeared when other words were entered.
"When a guest logs on to Target.com and searches for a particular word, that search includes Amazon.com's millions of books, music and (movie) titles," Target said in its statement. "Target.com is currently working with Amazon.com to suppress certain titles from the Amazon.com catalog from appearing on the Target.com web site."
Amazon confirmed that the search results were retrieved from products it sells on its own site or through affiliates that run small businesses on the Web.
Target blamed the gaffe on a process the two companies use to coordinate their e-commerce networks, not a computer hack. An Amazon spokeswoman said the problem wasn't due to a mistake on Amazon's part and referred further questions to Target.
Under the companies' agreement, established in 2001 and extended through 2008, Amazon manages e-commerce for the retail chain. Amazon handles order fulfillment and customer service for Target.com, as well as the retailer's other online properties, MarshallFields.com and Mervyns.com.
Target said that while it will continue to use Amazon's technology to power its Web site and provide entertainment items partly supplied from Amazon's own product listings, it will work to disable consumers' ability to access the controversial search results.
Posted by Ryan at 12:32 AM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2004
Unwise Microwave Oven Experiments
From Flourescent lights to Pyrex magma, they're all here
Posted by Ryan at 11:36 PM | Comments (0)
Toogle
Type in any Google search query and watch it get 'Tooglized!'
Posted by Ryan at 11:30 PM | Comments (0)
Theme: That's probably not a good idea...
Posted by Ryan at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
Man steals golf course. Slowly
Parents angry over game kids play at school where they choke each other until they faint
Cop issuses traffic citation to man who'd been dead for 10 days
New Sony PS2 demo disc comes with bonus "accidental memory card eraser" utility
Posted by Ryan at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)
Today's Links
Game - Balloony
Try to shoot down the balloons
Movie - The Pen Flipper
Watch this!
Game - Grave Robber
Cool, freakish game
Video - Snowboarding
Watch this guy fly over a truck
Posted by at 08:09 PM | Comments (0)
MSN Spaces launches
Today, Microsoft launches their free hosted blogging platform, spaces.msn.com. What effect the service will have on Blogger, TypePad, Userland, and the like is, predictably, a subject of great debate. The service is free, and seems aimed squarely at home users.
Posted by at 04:03 PM | Comments (0)
Today's News
When consuming 190-proof grain alcohol, don't get too close to the lit oil lantern
Eminem drops pretenses of heterosexuality, buys $100,000 worth of women's beauty supplies for self
Elderly driver on busy highway told to make immediate U-turn by GPS system...
Posted by Ryan at 12:41 AM | Comments (0)
istock
istockphoto.com - The fastest growing royalty-free collection in the world
Posted by Ryan at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)
art.com artPad
Cool site where you can paint stuff
Posted by Ryan at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)
HIV Vaccine
"WebMD is reporting on a new vaccine which has had an incredible effect in clinical trials. The vaccine, composed of human dendrites holding dead HIV viruses, has dropped test patients' viral load by up to 90% in one year. Could this be it?"
Posted by Ryan at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)
December 01, 2004
The Top 10 Elements of Good Software Design
"You know you've achieved perfection in design, not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away" - Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Much is spoken of "good design" in the software world. It is what we all aim for when we start a project, and what we hope we still have when we walk away from the project. But how do we assess the "goodness" of a given design? Can we agree on what constitutes a good design, and if we can neither assess nor agree on the desirable qualities of a design, what hope have we of producing such a design?
It seems that many software developers feel that they can recognize a good design when they see or produce one, but have difficulty articulating the characteristics that design will have when completed. I asked three former colleagues - Tedious Soporific, Sparky and WillaWonga - for their "Top 10 Elements of Good Software Design". I combined these with my own ideas, then filtered and sorted them based upon personal preference and the prevailing wind direction, to produce the list you see below. A big thanks to the guys for taking the time to write up their ideas.
Below, for your edification and discussion, is our collective notion of the Top 10 Elements of Good Software Design, from least to most significant. That is, we believe that a good software design ...
10. Considers the Sophistication of the Team that Will Implement It
Does it seem odd to consider the builder when deciding how to build? We would not challenge the notion that a developers' skill and experience has a profound effect on their work products, so why would we fail to consider their experience with the particular technologies and concepts our design exploits? Given fixed implementation resources, a good design doesn’t place unfamiliar or unproven technologies in critical roles, where they become a likely point of failure.
Further, team size and their collocation (or otherwise) are considered. It would not be unusual for such a design’s structure to reflect the high level structure of the team or organization that will implement it.
9. Uniformly Distributes Responsibility and Intelligence
Classes containing too much intelligence become both a point of contention for version control purposes, and a bottleneck for maintenance and development efforts. They also suggest that a class is capturing more than a single data abstraction.
8. Is Expressed in a Precise Design Language
The language of a design consists of the names of the entities within it, together with the names of the operations those entities perform. It is easier to understand a design expressed in precise and specific terms, as they provide a more accurate indication of the purpose of the entities and the way they cooperate to achieve the desired functionality. Look for the following features:
The objective of the designed thing can be described in one or two sentences completely
The interface requirements of the entities are stated precisely
The contracts between an entity and its callers are stated precisely and contract adherence is enfored programmatically (Design by Contract)
Entities are named with accurate and concrete terms, and specified fully enough to form a suitable basis for implementation
7. Selects Appropriate Implementation Mechanisms
Certain mechanisms are problematic and more likely to produce difficulties at implementation time. A good design minimizes the use of such mechanisms. Examples are:
Reflection and introspection
Dynamic code generation
Self-modifying code
Extensive multi-threading
Sometimes the use of such mechanisms is unavoidable, but at other times a design choice can be made to sacrifice more complex, generic mechanisms for those easier to manage cognitively.
6. Is Robustly Documented
As long as a design lies hidden in the complexities of the code, so to does our ability arrive at an understanding of the code’s structure as a whole. As the abstract structure becomes apparent to us, either through rigorous examination of the code or study of an accompanying design document, we gradually develop a course understanding of the code’s topography. A good design document is used before or during implementation as a justification and guide, and after construction as a way for those new to the code base to get an overview of it more quickly than they can through reverse engineering. Captured in abstract form, we can discuss the pros and cons of different approaches and explore design alternatives more quickly than we can if we were instead manipulating a code-level representation of the design.
But as soon as the abstract and detailed records of a design part company, discrepancy between the two becomes all but inevitable. Therefore it is essential to document designs at a level of detail that is sufficiently abstract to make the document robust to changes in the code and not unnecessarily burdensome to keep up to date. A good design document should place an emphasis upon temporal and state relationships (dynamic behaviour) rather than static structure, which can be more readily obtained from automated analysis of the source code. Such a document will also explain the rationale behind the principal design decisions.
5. Eliminates Duplication
Duplication is anathema to good design. We expect different instances of the same problem to have the same solution. To do otherwise introduces the unnecessary burden of understanding two different solutions where we need only understand one. There are also attendant integrity problems with maintaining consistency between the two differing solutions. Each design problem should be solved just once, and that same solution applied in a customized way to different instances of the target problem.
4. Is Internally Consistent and Unsurprising
We often use the term "intuitive" when describing a good user interface. The same quality applies to a good design. Something is "intuitive" if the way you expect (intuit) it to be is in accord with how it actually is. In a design context, this means using well-known and idiomatic solutions to common problems, resisting the urge to employ novelty for it’s own sake. The philosophy is one of "same but different" – someone looking at your design will find familiar patterns and techniques, with a small amount of custom adaptation to the specific problem at hand. Additionally, we expect similar problems to be solved in similar ways in different parts of the system. A consistency of approach is achieved by employing common patterns, concepts, standards, libraries and tools.
3. Exhibits Maximum Cohesion and Minimum Coupling
Our key mechanism for coping with complexity is abstraction - the reduction of detail in order to reduce the number of entities, and the number of associations between those entities, which must be simultaneously considered. In OO terms this means producing a design that decomposes a solution space into a half dozen or so discrete entities. Each entity should be readily comprehensible in isolation from the other design elements, to which end it should have a well defined and concisely stateable purpose. Each entity, be it a sub-system or class, can then be treated separately for purposes of development, testing and replacement. Localization of data and separation of concerns are principles which lead to a well decomposed design.
2. Is as Simple as Current and Foreseeable Constraints will Allow
It is difficult to overstate the value of simplicity as a guiding design philosophy. Every undertaking regarding a design - be it implementation, modification or rationalization - begins with someone developing an understanding of that design. Both a detailed understanding of a particular focus area, and a broader understanding of the focus area’s role in the overall system design, are necessary before these tasks can commence.
It is necessary to distinguish between accidental and essential complexity [Brooks]. The essential complexity of a solution is that which is an unavoidable ramification of the complexity of the problem being solved. The accidental complexity of a solution is the additional complexity (beyond the essential complexity) that a solution exhibits by virtue of a particular design’s approach to solving the problem. A good design minimizes accidental complexity, while handling essential complexity gracefully. Accidental complexity is often the result of the intellectual conceit of the designer, looking to show off their design "chops". Sometimes a "simple" approach is misinterpreted as being "simple-minded". On the other hand, we might make a design too simple to perform efficiently. This seems to be a rather rare occurrence in the field. As the scope of software development broadens at the enterprise level and attracts greater essential complexity, the reduction of accidental complexity becomes ever more important.
1. Provides the Necessary Functionality
The ultimate measure of a design’s worth is whether its realization will be a product that satisfies the customer’s requirements. Software development occurring in a business context must provide business value that justifies the cost of its construction. Also of significant importance is the design’s ability to accommodate the inevitable modifications and extensions that follow on from changes in the business environment in which it operates.
But it is necessary to exercise great caution when predicting future requirements. An excessive focus upon anticipatory design can easily result in wasted effort resulting from faulty predictions, and encumber a design with unnecessary complexity resulting from generic provisions which are never exploited. Terms like "product line" and "framework" may be warning signs that the design is making high-risk assumptions about the future requirements it will be subject to.
It is easy to overlook the non-functional requirements (eg. performance and deployment) incumbent upon the design. Taking different "views" of the design, in the manner of the "4+1" architectural views in RUP, can help provide confidence that there are no gaping holes (functional or otherwise) and that the design is complete.
Posted by at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)
Web Page Analyzer
Web Page Analyzer - Free web page analysis tool calculates page size, composition, and download time. Gives speed recommendations based on best practices for usability, HCI, and website optimization.
Posted by at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
How to handle a picky eater
Why is my child such a picky eater?
It's perfectly normal for young children to suddenly decide they hate everything — even foods they loved yesterday. It's also common for them to go on what experts call food jags — that is, they insist on eating the same few foods over and over again at every meal, while turning up their noses at anything new. "It's a fear of new things," says Nancy Hudson, a registered dietitian at the University of California, Berkeley. "We think it's one of those quirks that humans probably developed to protect themselves as mankind evolved. You don't try new things because you don't know if they're safe." Children like things to be familiar, whether it's their bedtime routine or their afternoon snack, so most kids won't try new foods until they've been exposed to them multiple times.
Picky eating can also be a child's way of exerting his independence ("You can't make me eat that") and may have less to do with the actual food than his need to push the limits of your authority and to assert some control over his life. This is why pressuring a child to eat often backfires. Finally, it may seem like your toddler cannot sit still long enough to eat very much at one sitting because of his short attention span. But children are generally good at getting what they need, even if it doesn't seem like much to you. In any case, you can try to keep your child at the table longer by making mealtime as calm and regular as possible, without too many distractions like toys, TV, or pets.
How can I get my child to eat a wider variety of foods?
For starters, you should realize that expecting a preschooler to eat a wide range of foods may be unrealistic and is not necessary. Try to remember that your child's choice to eat only a few foods is just that — his choice, and it's important that you let him learn to make his own decisions. "A child needs to be in control of what he eats," says Hudson. If you force a child to eat a food he doesn't like ("You'll sit at the table until you finish your peas") or a quantity he doesn't want, you could be setting your child up for problems later: Children who are never allowed to make food decisions for themselves, such as deciding when they are full, are at a greater risk for developing eating disorders or becoming obese later in life. What's more, your strategy will almost always backfire because forcing your child to try new foods will only make him more stubborn and less open to trying new things in the future.
The fact is that your child will probably be just fine even if he seems to be eating nothing but cheese and crackers for days on end. You can't expect him to eat a balanced diet at every meal or even every day. If you're concerned, start keeping a record of what your child eats. You'll probably find that he's hitting all the major food groups and getting what he needs over the course of a week.
You should also adjust your view of how much your child needs to eat by downsizing your expectations from adult- to child-sized portions. For example, two slices of bread equals nearly three servings of grains for a 2- or 3-year-old, and two tablespoons of peanut butter (just enough to barely cover two slices of bread) give a toddler more than a full serving of protein. That means that one peanut butter sandwich at lunch puts your child at least halfway to eating his recommended six servings of grain and two servings of protein a day.
But how can I tell if my child is really getting enough to eat if he's not growing?
Don't panic if it seems like your child isn't growing fast enough. Children do not always grow at a steady pace, and there will be times when they don't seem to be growing at all. Keep in touch with your pediatrician if you're concerned, but don't convey your fears to your child. If you're constantly hovering over him at mealtime, wheedling, cajoling, and counting calories, he's likely to become even more resistant to eating.
Just continue to offer a variety of healthy foods without making a big fuss, and trust your child to eat what he needs. A recent study from the American Dietetic Association showed that even though 49 percent of mothers considered their children "picky eaters," all of the children in the study actually consumed a wide enough variety of foods to meet their nutritional needs.
Here are some more specific tips on how to handle a picky eater:
• Provide a variety of good foods for your child to eat at each meal. Keep in mind that it takes multiple exposures to a new food for a child to see it as familiar and okay to try. So, be patient. When you do offer a new food, simply place it on the dinner table with everything else, and don't make a big fuss about it. Don't put it right on your child's plate, which may seem threatening or cause him to rebel. Eventually, after he's seen you eat the food a few times, he may feel more open to trying it himself.
• Don't give your child too many options at mealtime. "If you say, 'It's dinnertime. What do you want to eat?' your child will probably choose something familiar to him, and he'll seem like a picky eater," says Hudson. "However, if you say, 'Here's dinner,' he'll have to choose from among the foods you're offering." Of course, you can't offer an entire meal of unfamiliar foods because your child simply won't eat them. Instead, always offer a meal that includes at least one thing you know your child likes.
• When introducing new foods, don't offer too many at once, and don't present them in large quantities. If by some miracle your child is willing to try a new food, give him just a taste before putting a whole serving on his plate. This way he won't feel overwhelmed — and it won't seem like a waste of food to you.
• Understand that some children's palates are more sensitive than others', and they simply won't like the texture, color, or taste of some foods. This is why a child will often claim to dislike a food he has never even tried. Likewise, some children may have an aversion to a food because it reminds them of a time when they were sick or has some other negative association. If your child complains that a particular food will make him sick, stop offering that food for a while. You can always try again when your child is a little older.
• Whenever possible, let your child be involved in food decisions, including shopping or making his lunch. This will give him a sense of control over his diet. And he'll be more likely to eat something that he's chosen for himself. (This works best if you let your child choose from a small selection of healthy foods you've already picked out rather than just asking him what he wants for dinner.)
• As your child's world expands and he begins attending daycare or school, his taste in foods might broaden as well. One mother we know discovered that her picky eater was no longer so picky ever since he observed his friends at daycare eating new and different kinds of food, which inspired him to eat new things, too.
Your child has an innate sense of how much food his body needs to grow and be healthy, and it's his job to decide what he's going to eat. The best thing you can do is to provide a wide variety of healthy foods in a positive, relaxed environment so that mealtimes will be enjoyable for everyone involved.
Posted by at 09:55 PM | Comments (0)
TerraServer 6.0
TerraServer contains 3.3 tera-bytes of high resolution USGS aerial imagery and USGS topographic maps. You can locate imagery by clicking on the map above, entering a city or town name in the "Search TerraServer" form at the top of the page, or entering a U.S. street address.
Posted by at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
Why you shouldn't go drinking with the W3C society...
Posted by Ryan at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)
Gigapxl project
Here are some awesome photos...
Posted by Ryan at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)
Firefox on ABC News!
ABC World News Tonight just did a segment on this revolutionary browser...
Posted by Ryan at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)
Lycos Anti-Spam Site Compromised
"Lycos, shortly after producing a screen saver to fight spammers using a DoS-style attack appears to have been hacked. Attempting to download the screen saver from lycos results in this message 'Yes, attacking spammers is wrong, you know this, you shouldn't be doing it. Your ip address and request have been logged and will be reported to your ISP for further action.' Or maybe it's just a joke -- can you ever tell?"
[via /.]
Posted by Ryan at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)
Top 11 Targeted advertising slogans for geeks
11. Trojan Extra Ribbed - Miracles Do Happen!
10. Band-Aid Brand Bandages - You had to use the Dremel drunk, didn't you?
9. New Delhi Tourism Board - You want to kick the ass of the guy that took your job? We can help you find him.
8. US Army - When Battlefield Vietnam just isn't enough any more.
7. Kleenex Tissues - For those lonely nights in front of your computer.
6. Bud Light - Because if she's not drunk, you're not getting lucky.
5. American Express - When somebody else's credit card number just won't do.
4. McDonald's - You're underweight? We can help.
3. US Climate Controlled Storage - We're there for you when the comic book collection becomes a fire hazard.
2. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - Man cannot live on ramen alone.
1. Viagra - When you hit the open directory motherlode!
[via BBspot]
Posted by Ryan at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)