Wednesday Dec 29, 2004



Kids of the PlayStation generation playtest classic games from the '70s and '80s.

A collection of their thoughts on these classics. Priceless.

EGM: Do you feel badly shooting the humans?

Parker: No, that's my only amusement in this game. If they were like more detailed, maybe I'd feel something. But it looks like I'm shooting a popcycle.
(sic)

Thursday Dec 23, 2004



Paul Graham's presentation on Great Hackers, recorded at the Open Source Convention (OSCON) 2004 in Portland, Oregon. (available as text, mp3 download, mp3 stream, etc)

Paul answers the questions, what motivates great hackers? What do they need to do their jobs? How do you recognize them? How do you get them to come and work for you? And how can you become one?

Interesting stuff even if you're not a techie, worth a listen if you're not familiar with Paul Graham or necessarily agree with him.

Wednesday Dec 22, 2004



Via Craig this morning, a very sad (and surreal) sight. Sorry to lay this on you just before the holidays...



Tuesday Dec 21, 2004



         

The Lomo is a cheap camera made in St. Petersburg, Russia. The photos it takes have a distinct look people find appealing. The original tutorial everyone was referencing went away, but has now been resurrected as a new document on how to achieve a similar affect in Photoshop.

Monday Dec 20, 2004



Overheard in New York is a funny collection of conversation fragments, like this:

Yuppie: I don't think he's working now. All he ever talks about is monkeys and robots.

Sunday Dec 19, 2004



Make toys at home with common household materials, often in only a few minutes, that demonstrate fascinating scientific principles.

"Ya, ya" you're thinking- but these toys are plastic hydrogen bombs, film canister cannons, steam powered boats and such. Forget the kids- I'm gonna try some of these! You gotta love anything that has a chapter titled "Fun with high voltage."

I still have the spud gun (a Bic pen ink tube and length of clothes hangar as the plunger- back when they were both metal) and clothespin matchgun my dad made back when I was a wee one.

Friday Dec 17, 2004





For the ultralight backpacker, this stove weighs 0.4 oz (10 g) and will boil two cups of water (500 ml) in five minutes with two tablespoons (30 ml) of fuel.

Thursday Dec 16, 2004





An 1890s guide to Etiquette for English Gentlemen.

A lot of it sounds like a handbook for today's pimp.

Loads of jewelery? Tasteless throughout the ages. Do restrain yourself from gaudy displays of your family wealth. That's for the lady of the house to do. Keep it down to a watch, a signet ring, and a pair of decently small studs

Be good with a knife.(okay, that was taken out of context)

And of course, Know Your Audience.

Wednesday Dec 15, 2004



Via Freedom To Tinker, the world's smallest P2P application, happily republished because its under Creative Commons also:

# tinyp2p.py 1.0 (documentation at http://freedom-to-tinker.com/tinyp2p.html)
import sys, os, SimpleXMLRPCServer, xmlrpclib, re, hmac # (C) 2004, E.W. Felten
ar,pw,res = (sys.argv,lambda u:hmac.new(sys.argv[1],u).hexdigest(),re.search)
pxy,xs = (xmlrpclib.ServerProxy,SimpleXMLRPCServer.SimpleXMLRPCServer)
def ls(p=""):return filter(lambda n:(p=="")or res(p,n),os.listdir(os.getcwd()))
if ar[2]!="client": # license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0
  myU,prs,srv = ("http://"+ar[3]+":"+ar[4], ar[5:],lambda x:x.serve_forever())
  def pr(x=[]): return ([(y in prs) or prs.append(y) for y in x] or 1) and prs
  def c(n): return ((lambda f: (f.read(), f.close()))(file(n)))[0]
  f=lambda p,n,a:(p==pw(myU))and(((n==0)and pr(a))or((n==1)and [ls(a)])or c(a))
  def aug(u): return ((u==myU) and pr()) or pr(pxy(u).f(pw(u),0,pr([myU])))
  pr() and [aug(s) for s in aug(pr()[0])]
  (lambda sv:sv.register_function(f,"f") or srv(sv))(xs((ar[3],int(ar[4]))))
for url in pxy(ar[3]).f(pw(ar[3]),0,[]):
  for fn in filter(lambda n:not n in ls(), (pxy(url).f(pw(url),1,ar[4]))[0]):
    (lambda fi:fi.write(pxy(url).f(pw(url),2,fn)) or fi.close())(file(fn,"wc"))

Its been my intention to learn more Python these past couple of months, perhaps this will provide the inspiration to finally write that Craigslist search term notifier app (Python based) I've been meaning to start...

Tuesday Dec 14, 2004



Even if you're a sushi veteran, this how to eat sushi doc is an interesting read, with tidbits like:

Wasabi (wasabia japonica) is a plant that grows almost exclusively in Asia. It became a sushi dressing in the mid-1800's when the sushi preparers noticed that people who took small amounts of wasabi did not get sick. It turns out that one of wasabi's best properties is killing parasites in the fish. Its delicate aroma and sweet undertones enhance the flavour of the fish with which it's eaten.

A lot of it is definitely opinion though. This guy pushes Sho Chiku Bai hot sake, a double faux pas. (Sho Chiku Bai isn't premium enough to call out by name, and hot sake is rarely as good an one intended to be served cold- but then that's my opinion.)

Monday Dec 13, 2004





Engadget has an interesting read on hacking the iPod firmware.



Saturday Dec 11, 2004



rj12 network crimper

For those that read my previous entry on increasing your broadband DSL upload and download speed, I've got an update.

A couple of friends loaned me an RJ12 crimper and a spool of white CAT6 cable (I've got a spool of CAT5, but its bright blue. Great for patch cables, not so great for discreetly running along baseboards). I took my own advise and replaced even more of the line between the DSL modem and the PacBell phone box, so instead of having non-twisted pair running under/through the house until it reaches the phone plug in the office, I threaded CAT6 directly from the DSL splitter to the DSL modem- about 30' in length.

As I reported earlier, I was seeing an average of 600kbps down/300kbps up after the splitter and router upgrade mods. After running the CAT6, I was seeing a consistant 640/320. An increase in 40kbps down isn't much, but at least its consistant now- who knows what sort of interferance was randomly slowing things down on the way to my router before... and it had an added benefit. It didn't occur to me that my line would be capped- but seeing such consistant numbers across multiple speed test locations pointed at a limitation on my end.

So I gave my service provider a call (who BTW wins a prize for being very reponsive every time I've called) and they suggested that PacBell may have capped my line when I was having network issues a while ago. PacBell, in their infinite wisdom, never bothered to check the line for improvement in the months that followed. So sonic.net filed a ticket with Pacbell to uncap the line, and about an hour later (to PacBell's credit), I had voicemail from them saying they were going to run line checks . Checking my like again, I'm now getting 1270/320- doubling my download speed!

So I've got a 4th bullet now to add to the list of things to do to increase your speed: call your provider and make sure your line isn't capped. It doesn't cost a thing.

Friday Dec 10, 2004



Via Roy via Metafilter, aerial photographs of San Francisco after the 1906 quake/fire.

Amazing stuff. Way more style points than the more recent attempts- nearly 100 years later.

Its unfortunate more modern technology wasn't available. How awesome would it be to see the remains of the city in high res, like these beauties.





Via PhotographyBlog:

The R-1 film camera from inventor Clifford Ross is capable of taking photos that have "100 times as much data as the average professional digital camera" using film negatives. Ross's camera is capable of resolving amazing levels of detail - apparently a tree on a ridge four miles away is sharply focused.

More info available at CNET News.

Reminds me of some of the gigapixel digital photostitching efforts.

Thursday Dec 09, 2004



By way of Roy, the 100 Oldest Currently Registered .COM Domains.

Sun.com made it as #12, registered 03/19/1986- beating out network guys like 3Com and Cisco.



Looking for older entries?


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