A Fat Man Goes Walking

I just put up my newest blog the other day. It's called Fat Man Goes Walking, and it's about my experiences with camping and other out–of–doors activities. I already have a review of a groovy piece of kit called a Volcano Kettle. Interested? Intrigued? Then head over and check it out! Although articles will be somewhat sparse right now (it is winter after all) things will pick up once I can get out–of–doors more often.

This is just perfect...

Freakin Hi Larry Us!

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Maybe flying cars aren't as far off as we thought...

This is totally cool.


Technorati Tags: Levitation, Casimir Effect, Cool

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This is too good.

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Aww look! He has a new toy!

I just got my grubby mitts on a sweet piece of machinery. I saw her over at the dealer, used but in perfect condition, and I had to have her. So, now I have two machines in my stable, one of which I am going to have to sell. Since I have the new one, I am going to sell the old one.

So, what do you think I am talking about? Take a guess and write a comment. I'll post the answer next time.

Until then!

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I am a computer GOD!

Look how fast I am, Ma!

Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

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It's amazing...

...how quickly time flies. The semester is almost over, and I cannot wait for it to end. I feel like a marathon runner who sees the finish line just ahead—on the other side of a steep steep hill. It's almost comically tragic how people just love to stick all of their biggest and hardest problems right at the end of the semester—right when you are the most worn out. Ah well, I must keep struggling. See you all again in a few weeks—hopefully with good grades to boast about.

Typographic Awesomeness

Sometimes, you just have to see it to believe it. This is a beautiful piece of art. Be warned, there is strong language in it, so watch where you view it.

Wow

All I have to say is wow! I really want to do this guy's job. Jeff Han is a researcher at NYU who does HCI research and design. He was involved in the iPhone project, as well as many other inventions. What I would give to work with this chap...

How to pick your cross harp

Taken from the wonderful tutorial over at www.bigroadblues.com

Everybody's playing blues in this key	You grab THIS harp (This is the key that's stamped on the Harp)
E	A
F	B-Flat
F-sharp	B
G	C
A-flat	D-Flat
A	D
B-Flat	E-Flat
B	E
C	F
D-Flat	F-Sharp
D	G
E-Flat	A-Flat

Just a bit of paleographic trivia

For thousands of years, man has commanded the use of writing. As we are marched forward to time's relentless drumbeat, our manuscript has evolved. Sometimes, however, it is instructive to take a step back and look at what has come before and how it has changed our world. Today, that step shall be our study of the long s, 'ſ' which is given in unicode by U+017F, and is used from HTML as ſ and ſ.

Rules for usage

ſ is used inside words, before the end of the word. For example, 'Congreſs' versus 'Congress.' The important bit is that ſ's shape makes it ideal for ligatures. For this reason, it survives to this day, just not in English. For example, to use a modern ligature for ſs in Congress, I would use Congreß. ſ is purpose–built to ligature with other letters. You can write it in an easy upward flow, then descend into your ligatured character. Oh, by the way: to type ß, you can use several techniques. On the mac, type option-s. In Windows, it's Alt+0223 or Alt+225. In X windows, use compose-s-s. Og course, in HTML it's ß

So, next time you are writing, consider using ſ as a way to both beautify your writing as well as a way to speed it up. Ligatures are handwriting's shortcuts to speed.

RepRap

Check out this article to understand what a RepRap is and why you might care..

Drums please!

We interrupt your regular broadcast for this special news bulletin.

Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please! I have an important announcement to make! I just spoke with the chair of the graduate selections committee here at uni. I have been recommended for admission to the Ph.D. program for Computer Science! Not only that, but I am also in line for a full tuition assistanceship program. Even better, one of the professors, who doubles as the sysop, is looking to get me as his TA and he has been told by the powers-that-be that he could recommend anyone he wants for the position...and he wants me! I confess that I am nearly faint with joy at this news!

Obviously, as a consequence of this joyous news, I am going to throw a party. Since a lot of you are working stiffs, this party will have to be scheduled around you. I'll let you all know the details once I know more. We now return you to your regular programming.

Russian Tunnel Video

You' think they'd have used salt...

And now your daily dose of news and views!

Welcome back folks! It's been a while since I last posted about anything of importance. Today, I have two articles to talk about.

First, let's look at this article from the Telegraph. While our going to war is bad enough, now the Bad Guys have created effective anti–tank weapons. These tank–killers will permanently disable an Abrams tank with DU (Depleted Uranium) armour. They will completely destroy the Humvees and other vehicles used by our forces. Terrifying. The question is: what can we do to fix this whole mess?

Just pulling out of Iraq won't do. We commited to being there, so we have to see it through. What we should do is demand a schedule from our leadership, showing us how much this will cost, what we'll gain for our lives and our money, and what we've done to and for the people of Iraq and the Middle East. It is very obvious that there are certain people in Iraq who would see us all dead. The article above supports this notion. The question is: are they the majority?

It is long past time for Iraq to take responsibility for itself. Perhaps we should remember that come November.

Now for something a little closer to home. Those who have heard of the TCM (Trusted Computing Module) almost universally decry it. They claim that it can make it possible for an OS to completely lock out the competition. Machines would be unable to boot GNU/Linux. People would not easily be able to rip their DvDs. That's all true. This article from Daring Fireball raises an interesting counterpoint: no one who is sane will actually do that to their hardware. Even if a TCM chip is installed, no one who claims to be open will actually use it.

The real question is: what about DvDs and other sorts of encrypted "content?" In short, TCM provides a very secure way to prevent you from playing movies that are encrypted with its technology. Should you be mad at the TCM system in your computer? No. It doesn't just screw your movie files up. It also has a lighter side. You can use it to protect your own information. TCM is a general service, just like the hardware clock, or the system scheduler. Who you allow to use it is entirely in your hands. You could use TCM to protect your address book, preventing viruses from being able to use it to spread themselves.

So if TCM is not so evil, then what do you do about the people who want to use it against you? I'm going to shift gears from the TCM issue to one that is much more abstract and more dangerous. Movie studios (and others who want control over your mind) survive on one thing alone: your money. Any of this stuff about them smashing your rights is utter nonsense. They can restrict your freedoms only because you pay them to!

Every time you buy a DvD, CD, Blu–Ray, or HD–DvD product from them, you are supporting their ideas and policies. Movies, like music, anime, comics, and most other forms of information are highly addicitve. Once you are hooked, it is very hard to quit "cold turkey." So, how do you send these people a message, telling them not to screw with you? Don't buy their shit!

Ok, that's all nice and idealistic, you're saying to yourself, but it's not that easy. Even if I stopped buying movies and DvDs and stuff, no one else will. The studios will keep messing with me, and I'll just get left behind while all of my friends get the latest new hawtness from Hollywood. True. If you stopped buying anything outright, and never mentioned it to anyone, chances are that the above scenario would result.

Having said that, there is something that we can all do that will work and will send a message. Don't buy into the new techology. Don't buy a PS3, Blu–Ray, or HD–DvD player or disk. Stick to plain old–fashioned DvDs and even—dare I say it—tapes. Most of your already have a DvD player, a DvD–ripping machine of some sort, or a VHS deck in your living room. These devices all work well, play a wide variety of movies, and will continue to work for a long time. The movie companies cannot phase out DvD until they saturate the market with HD/CRAP tech. This means that they will try every single trick in the book to get you to buy in. They will sell players at cost. They will sell movies at cost. Almost anything goes.

What they will never do is allow you to copy those movies and music to other places. They will continue to propagandize against the idea of information freedom until it ceases to exist as any sort of meme. Once they manage to saturate the market, they will stop making DvDs. Then everyone will be forced to "buy the White album again." Don't let them. Just say NO to Blu–ray and HD!

Some interesting things I saw:

First, these people have made a giant flag out of cars. Cute.

Next up, two very interesting flash programs that can amuse the mind for a little while.

And now for the vertical jet! (WMV)

Our final story: the creation of a rather terrifying precision munition by the Iraq insurgents.

View from my driveway

This is a snapshot of the basketball hoop in front of my driveway.

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Flock to flock!

I love Flock. It has so many features that make it worth using.Copyright ©2006 Toku Chan

Here's a question for you. Do you use online photo–sharing sites like Flickr or Photo bucket? Do you keep a blog somewhere? Are you the same kind of socialite as I? Do you find it annoying and difficult to get the damned pictures from your camera to your blog? Even more annoying when you want to re–use them or reference them elsewhere? If you said "yes" to any one of these questions, then flock might be worth looking at.

What is flock? In a word, social. Flock is a version of FireFox, already a great product, that has a re–designed interface intended for socialites. You can easily write posts to multiple blogs, add and edit pictures to any number of picture sites, including Flickr and Photo Bucket, and even drag and drop a picture into an HTML form. When you do, the system uploads the picture to flickr automatically, then inserts the IMG tag into your form, making it drop–dead easy to use and re–use pictures in any forum that accepts HTML. Cool, ne?

One other feature is worth mentioning: snippets. Flock supports the notion of grabbing a web page as a snippet. When you write a blog entry about that page, you need only drag and drop the snippet (like this http://lowroad75.comicgenesis.com/comics/20060610.jpg), and the system inserts the HTML code to point to it. If you just drag and drop the snippet, you just get the URL to it. If you right click and select copy HTML, you get this:



, (height and width tags are edited) which is a fully cited link to the resource. Nice trick, ne?

Living life to the Max!

I love this. I can't say that I remember this ad when it was new. I can say that turning my system up and listening to Dream Theater's Octavarium is a lot like this picture...incredible!