Technology
Moving Beyond TV
Thanks to Jeremy Zawodny for drawing my attention to Clay Shirky’s talk on the cognitive surplus. Shirky makes some excellent points. Give it 17 minutes of your time and watch. My comments follow.
I agree with Shirky, we like to do more than we like to watch. That’s why it was so funny when Peter Sellers, […]
Build a Boeing 777 in Four Minutes
Here is a little bit of just “plane” fun to brighten your Monday. Watch Boeing build a new 777 in just four minutes.
Coming Soon: OpenOffice.org 3.0 Support for Microsoft Office 2007 Files
I run my company using OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office. It does everything we need and costs a whopping $0.00; not a bad deal for a small business. To be more specific, OpenOffice.org
Gives us word processor and spreadsheet programs that more than handle our documentation needs,
Allows us to open Word and Excel documents which clients […]
Electronic Computers: What I Do for a Living
I have trouble explaining what my job is when I am talking to people who do not “surf the web.” Fortunately, Charlie, over at ModernMechanix.com has posted an article from the June 1958 issue of Modern Mechanix, which explains all:
ELECTRONIC COMPUTERS - what they are and what they do
AUTOMATION has given new importance to electronic […]
podPress
Late last night, I ran across podPress, “a dream plugin for podcasters using WordPress. It’s so cool that Candy went to sleep… because I was donking around with the computer far into the night.
I have updated my two previous podcast postings, Podcast #1 and Performance Bonuses for Politicians. If you get a chance, go back […]
The Best Programmers’ Editor
I learned vi back in the bad ol’ days of 1980 when I was fresh out of college and working on a PDP 11/70 running UNIX version 6 with DEC VT100 terminals on a dozen users’ desks. Life was good. I even wrote a short book, How to Use Vi in 10 Easy Lessons, which […]
Free On-line Ubuntu Linux Desktop Training
Seven months ago, I switched from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux on my primary (work and home) computer. Life has not been perfect with Ubuntu Linux (it wasn’t perfect with Windows, either) but I certainly judge the experience to be an overwhelming success.
If you are considering trying Linux, and I strongly encourage you to at […]
Why I Don’t Worry About Instant Messaging
I don’t worry about kids these days becoming so involved with social networks (Facebook, MySpace, etc.) and instant messaging (AIM, text messages, etc.) that they become isolated from real human contact. Why not? XKCD says it perfectly:
Long distance relationships are hard. IM can turn a friend down the street into a long distance relationship.
Excuse me. […]
“Having Sex…” on Thanksgiving
That title got your attention, didn’t it? It got mine, too. Jump back to Thanksgiving morning in the Zemon living room.
I am quietly sitting in my easy chair, sipping coffee and enjoying the peace of the day before we rush into the hustle bustle of hosting the annual turkey day feast. All is right in […]
New Home Theater Projector
Woo hoo! Just six years after Candy and I upgraded our stereo system to a 5.1 home theater system, we replaced the 27″ television with an Optoma HD72 projector. The picture we now see has diagonal measure of approximately 90″. The improvement is so dramatic that I could easily become a couch potato. Everything seems […]
Software Release Guide
This is not funny. Not one bit! ;-)
Once you start playing with software you quickly become aware that each software package has a revision code attached to it. It is obvious that this revision code gives the sequence of changes to the product, but in reality there’s substantially more information available through the rev-code than […]
Video Inside a 4-Stroke IC Engine
Here is some amazing video, shot at 1,000 fps, of the inside of a cylinder of a four-stroke internal combustion engine:
The Matrix Goggles
English Russia brings us The Matrix Goggles (follow the link so you can watch the video).
Russian artists from Moscow presented in London the totally useless but somehow cool device - goggles that you can put on and feel yourself like a robot from a Terminator movie or like somebody else from “the cyberspace”.
Better than rose […]
Don’t Trust Technology!
Oh my God! You can’t trust technology, at least not in St. Hilary in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. According to Reuters:
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s first official road signs to warn drivers about the dangers of trusting their satellite navigation devices (satnavs) were introduced on Tuesday in a Welsh village.
For more chuckles, read, Drivers […]
A Penny Per Email
Spam disgusts me. It has rendered free email, one of the most heartfelt examples of human cooperation, completely untenable.
I have been relying on email, for business and personal connections, since I worked at TRW in 1980. I used to run a medium-sized UUCP hub at FileNet in Orange County, CA on a VAX 750 named […]
Internet Omnivore
I seem to be an internet omnivore, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project
Omnivores make up 8% of the American public.
Members of this group use their extensive suite of technology tools to do an enormous range of things online, on the go, and with their cell phones. Omnivores are highly engaged with […]
What a Job!
You’ve got to see this to believe it. And even then, you might not believe it.
glumbert.com - High Power Job
I was dubious until another member of a forum where this video appeared wrote,
My neighbor works for Santee Electric in the transmission line area and he does this. He is 60 year old and still rides […]
The View From an RC Airplane
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fly in an RC airplane? Watch this:
Father’s day is coming and I would gladly accept one of those.
The Value of Documentation on Quick Decisions
When I say, “Documentation,” how do you react? Probably with one of these: Bleh. A drag. Who reads it? The code is self documenting. Or my favorite: It’s intuitively obvious to the most casual observer.
This morning, I ran across Slashdot’s article, Five AJAX Frameworks Reviewed
Dr. Dobb’s Journal reviews 5 AJAX frameworks:… [the] reviewers… eventually settled […]
Building Machines Which Learn Like A Human
Ever since I was an undergrad at the University of Michigan in the late 1970s, I have wondered how we think. Modern digital computers are marvelous machines but they don’t hold a candle to what a very young child can do. For instance, it is absolutely trivial for you to recognize a bicycle when you […]
Single Sign On - Finally
Don MacAskill over at SmugMug (my favorite photo sharing site) brought my attention to OpenID, a budding solution to an old computer problem: If you use a computer, you have way too many passwords to conveniently remember. You might use one or two passwords, perhaps a simple one for web sites that you do not […]
Missing My Hi-Fi Music
Thanks to FunkeyMonk at Slashdot, I am now conscious of a trend in which I have been unwittingly participating. I have spent quite a bit of time building a library of music that I like and quite a bit of money building a “hi-fi” to play the music, yet most of the time, I listen […]
Machine Gun Sentry Robot
NewLaunches.com brings news that Samsung develops machine gun sentry robot.
Samsung has partnered with Korea university and developed the machine-gun equipped robotic sentry.
Do you remember the scientists who worked on the atomic bombs and later regreted their decisions to do so? I am afraid that we are about to see history repeat itself. One of these […]
Hack the Vote: Steal the Election
It’s almost Halloween (and election day) so it’s time for scary stories. I firmly believe that the scariest stories are the ones that also happen to be true. Being the nasty guy that I am, I bring you a tale which should terrify you to your democracy loving core: Ars Technica’s How to steal an […]
What’s New in Firefox 2.0
Are you wondering what is new in Firefox 2.0? Read eWEEK Labs Walk-Through: Firefox 2 Final Release.
Download Firefox (for free) from Mozilla.com.
Tech Tidbits : Technology and the jury
My wife recently served on a jury for a federal criminal case and has some interesting observations. Rather than try to summarize it, I will simply refer you to her posting, Technology and the jury. Fascinating stuff!
Ms. Dewey Search Engine
Ms. Dewey is simply too funny. Crank up your speakers and prepare for a hillarious Flash event.
I don’t think that she will replace Google but then again… you never know….
Book Wish List and More
I continue to find more uses for the wonderful (and $free) LibraryThing. Like so many of us, I have bunches of books that I have never had a good way to keep track of but now I do. Like…
My wish list — yes, I do accept donations :-)
My to-be-read list. Most of these books are […]
Using LibraryThing
LibraryThing seemed so obviously good that I simply dived in head first and started cataloging all of the books in the house, even though I did not know what I would do with it beyond that initial step. I am even more convinced of LT’s utility because the first opportunity to actually use my on-line […]
LibraryThing
I’m addicted to LibraryThing. It only took a few hours and I only have a start on cataloging my library. This is great stuff!
Must sleep… must sleep… must ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzz
Is It Time to “Upgrade” The “Stereo?”
In many technological avenues, I am an “early adopter,” racing off to get the latest gadget because I can see all of the interesting possibilities, even though it may not really work very well (yet). But when it comes to my “home theater,” I am still living in the caveman days. Though we upgraded the […]
How Many Lightbulbs Does it Take to Change the World?
What if you could save money and do good by just changing a lightbulb? You can.
Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity.
What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in […]
My Working Day
I was whining to Scott Gurley about the inordinate amount of time it had taken me to fix a display bug in Internet Explorer. He sent me a copy of a pie chart which pretty accurately depicts how I spend many of my days. Enjoy:
Checking Your Laptop as Luggage
Do you travel on commercial airlines and carry your laptop computer? If you are like me, you worry about your computer when you do. eWeek has a nice little article about how to protect your computer when you check it: Checking Your Laptop as Luggage
There are cases out there that purport to be both cheap […]
eMusic: Music Without DRM
Are you sick and tired of being told that you cannot make legitimate copies of your own music? Did you buy a song for your iPod only to later discover that you could not play it on something else that you own? A “little” company, eMusic.com, has the answer: they sell good music for a […]
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Experience with OpenDNS
It has been almost three weeks since we began using OpenDNS and I am ready to Pronounce Judgement: Use OpenDNS. It works.
We had only one small problem. My wife uses a virtual private network (VPN) to access her company’s intranet. The default OpenDNS settings are incompatible with the VPN’S need to provide DNS resolution within […]
Firefox Usage Climbing
A little article on Slashdot points out that worldwide Firefox usage has reached 13%. Within the USA, 16% of us use Firefox. Germany leads the pack, with 39% of web surfers using Firefox.
What is OpenDNS and Why Should You Care?
OpenDNS opened it’s doors on Monday, which was a nice birthday present; thank you very much. Why should you care?
DNS, or domain name service, is one of the key underpinnings of the internet to which little attention is paid. It is the service which turns domain names like “cheerfulcurmudgeon.com” and “cnn.com” into addresses of computers.
In […]
Jet-Powered VW
When bugs fly / Auto geek hits highway for surreptitious runs in jet-powered VW
I can’t even think of anything to add.
IE7 Web Site
I just ran across this cool resource on Internet Explorer v7: www.ie7.com
Ugly Web Site? That May Be OK.
We have all seen them: web sites that have great stuff on them but which look like they were designed by a trash compactor. Mark Daoust of SiteReference delves into them in his posting, The Surprising Truth About Ugly Websites.
He makes some good points, in particular that some target audiences will be put-off by a […]
Impressive Vex Robotics Kit
As reborted in BotMag.com, Jamie Hyneman and the Mythbusters are impressed and I want one.
Jamie Hyneman: As a holder of some patents and a designer and builder of dozens of prototypes and devices, I must admit I was expecting to turn up my nose at a do-it yourself robotics kit from Radio Shack. But guess […]
The Great Escape
I just fought my way up a wind tunnel, scrambled through a ventilation duct, clambered across 40 yards of rope netting, rolled under a fence, and burrowed through a mass of grapefruit-sized plastic spheres. Now I’m facing two doors. One leads to freedom. The other to a room with something nasty in it, possibly involving […]
Trust & Privacy
You may have noticed that I am “somewhat” concerned about erosion of our privacy. Here is another example, reported by ThinkProgress.org. Mind you, I am not picking on the GOP here; I am sure that the Dems are just as bad in other places and times. I just want you to be aware that it […]
Why Windows Vista Won’t Suck
ExtremeTech.com has a great article delving into Windows Vista and explaining, in plain English, how it will improve your experience with your computer. Why Windows Vista Won’t Suck is long but well worth skimming.
We’re here to pull it all together and tell you why we’re excited about Vista. Here’s a list of what’s new […]
“Big Brother” for Real
Have you ever read George Orwell’s book, 1984? Fifty-six years ago, Orwell created a fictitous world where Big Brother (the government) delved so deeply into its citizens lives that it could completely control them.
Do you remember when, two years ago, Congress shut down the Total Information Awareness program because it collected too much private information […]
Mazda Plans Dual-Fuel Car in Japan
I have always liked the looks of the Mazda RX-8 but lamented the lack of a convertible roof. Now I have another reason to like the car. One of these days, I might have to buy one. FOXNews.com: Mazda Plans Dual-Fuel Car in Japan
Mazda said the RX-8 Hydrogen RE, based on its popular RX-8 sports […]
WordPress 2.0.1 Released
If you are considering starting your own blog, WordPress is excellent software with which to do it. Installation is trivial. Once installed, WordPress pretty much gets out of your way and simply allows you to write. The software handles the grungy details of making your web site look nice without distracting you from your creative […]
2006 Nissan Urge Concept
David pointed me at Serious Wheels’ page on the 2006 Nissan Urge Concept car. Nissan and Microsoft have incorporated an Xbox 360 into a real car.
the Nissan URGE concept car allows drivers (while parked) to play “Project Gotham Racing® 3” using the car’s own steering wheel, gas pedal and brake pedal while viewing the game […]
Apology: Software Upgrade
Yesterday, I upgraded the software which runs the Cheerful Curmudgeon site to the latest version, WordPress 2.0. Unfortunately, this seems to have made some articles reappear as new for some of you. My apologies if you are seeing the same articles again.
Other than that hitch, the upgrade to WordPress 2.0 seems to have gone smoothly.
Since […]
‘Ear bud’ headphones can cause hearing loss, experts warn
My name is Art and I’m a worried father. The Associated Press is reporting on studies which indicate that iPods and other portable music players are often used in ways which damage hearing. I am particularly disturbed to learn that the ear bud headphones are significantly worse than other kinds of headphones. Naturally, my son […]
Government Site Serves Up Entertaining Irony
As reported by Netcraft in US Government Security Site Vulnerable to Common Attack,
The U.S. government site that tracks cyber security risks was recently found vulnerable to cross-site scripting, a technique commonly used in hacker attacks and web site spoofing. Several security sites have published a demonstration of the security hole in the web site for […]
Travelling with VOIP
I am on the road this week, working in Syracuse, NY. I recently replaced my desktop computer with a laptop to facilitate this sort of trip. My phone system is VOIP (voice over internet protocol) based so, in theory, it should have been easy to take it with me. This ended up being significantly more […]
Sony BMG Replaces Invasive Music CDs
In case you are not aware, Sony BMG recently released over 50 music titles with some anti-piracy software on the CDs. The software, dubbed XCP, silently installs a "root kit" on a Windows computer, opening up some nasty security risks. The only difference between XCP and the stuff the you buy McAfee VirusScan or Norton […]
Transitioning to Greener Fuels
If only we could stop using fossil fuels, polution levels would plummet, colicky babies would be cured, my Husky dog would shed less, and world peace would prevail. Hydrogen, solar power and electricity offer tantalizing alternatives to gasoline, natural gas, and coal. There are lots of problems with switching to hydrogen, including the cost of […]
MySQL 5 Arrives
eWeek writes, MySQL 5 Arrives
Three years in the making, MySQL 5.0 was finally released on Monday. MySQL AB delivers new, and long-awaited, ANSI SQL features in this latest version of the popular open-source DBMS.
These new features include both read-only and updated views, stored procedures row-level triggers, both read-only and non-scrolling server-side cursors, and stored […]
Bank Shuts Down Web Site After Phishing Attack
Would you like to lose all of the money in your bank accounts? Fall for a phishing attack. These are web sites which are cleverly designed to look like your real bank’s web site but which actually collect your personal information and hand it over to crooks and thieves. Here is a short story about […]
Highly Recommended: OpenOffice.org 2.0
The long anticipated version 2.0 of OpenOffice.org (the $free Microsoft Office "replacement") was released yesterday. OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the equivalent of Microsoft Office Professional: Access, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint plus a drawing program which Office does not have. Additionally, OOo can create Adobe Acrobat files, which Office cannot. Did I mention that OOo costs nothing? […]
Free Database Software
MySQL 5.0
Database software, such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, can be tremendously expensive, often costing more than the rest of the entire computing system (hardware, operating system, and application software). It looks like this equation may be changing.
The Register reports in, MySQL destined for ‘majority’ market share
MySQL is fast approaching […]
Laptop Will Not Hibernate
This is so frustrating. I have this nifty new laptop that I have upgraded to 1.25 GB of memory and it will not hibernate. Virtually all of the time, I get a bubble that says, “Windows - System Error, insufficient system resources exist to complete the API,” just like in this screen snapshot which […]
Coming to a Browser Near You: Microsoft Office Replacement for Free
This press release on Sun’s web site announces the new agreement between Sun and Google for Google Desktop on Sun’s Java platform. That is very nice but the last couple of paragraphs hint at something much bigger:
Only the Beginning
The distribution of Java and the Google Toolbar underscores Google’s advocacy of Java technology….
The agreement between Sun […]
A Better Photographic Mousetrap
Every once in awhile, someone integrates existing technologies in a way that clearly makes life better in simple, clear ways. I think that Kodak has done so with their EasyShare-One camera. Wired News reports it well in, Death of the Digital Middleman
After a summer-long delay, Kodak has begun shipping the first digital camera with […]
Cheaper Memory: Thanks iPod Nano?
Nikonians News: Cheaper Memory: Thanks iPod Nano? mentions, “Consumers may enjoy short-term price drops on flash memory-based products thanks in part to the iPod Nano.” If you are looking to buy another memory card for your digital camera, this fall may be the time. I knew that I liked the iPod Nano; now I have […]
Weekend o’ Death
This must have been a weekend o’ death, with my laptop dying and Joseph’s venerable “big screen” monitor passing on to the next world. It turns out we both suffer from / relish the symptoms of “dual monitor syndrome.” It sounds like he has a pair of LCD screens while I use the LCD in […]
Replacing My Desktop Computer
Time for another big technology leap. I am switching from a desktop to a laptop as my full time machine. Until Saturday morning, I had had a desktop machine and a laptop. The laptop died a horrible and inconvenient death, though. (Now all it says when I boot is, “Trap 00000006 Exception.”)
Rather than buy […]
Diamonds are not forever
According to this article in PhysicsWeb, Diamonds are not forever (August 2005), diamond is no longer the hardest material. Don’t you just hate it when the underpinnings of the world, the things you know, turn out to be untrue?!
The hardness of a material is measured by its isothermal bulk modulus. Aggregated diamond nanorods have a […]
Finding Support for Open Source Software
We have all heard of open source software. Many of us have even seen it in action (e.g., the Firefox web browser or the Thunderbird email program). One nagging concern still blocks many people from actually using open source software: how do you get technical support?
Certainly paid support is the easy-to-find option for many programs, […]
Understanding URI, URL, and URN
Prompted by a question from my wife, I finally went off and figured out the difference between a URI and a URL and a URN. I gleaned my analysis from the W3C’s article, URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0. This might be the key paragraph:
Over time, the importance of this additional level of […]
The Origins of Ctrl Alt Del
Ever wonder where Ctrl Alt Del came from? Watch this short video: The Origins of Ctrl Alt Del
DHTML Utopia Modern Web Design Using JavaScript & DOM
I found DHTML Utopia Modern Web Design Using JavaScript & DOM reviewed in Slashdot. The review makes it sound good enough that I will at least drop by the bookstore and take a look at it… and will probably buy a copy.
Taking the Fingerprint of a Piece of Paper
Scientific American has a short article on-line about “finding” the fingerprint of virtually any surface, such as paper, cardboard or plastic. By bouncing a laser off of the surface and measuring how the light scatters, researchers can identify one piece of paper from a package… and the fingerprint does not change even if the paper […]
Migrate Applications from Internet Explorer to Mozilla
IBM has published an article about porting IE-specific applications to work on Firefox and Mozilla, Migrate apps from Internet Explorer to Mozilla.
Ever have trouble getting your Internet Explorer-specific Web applications to work with Mozilla? This article covers common issues associated with migrating applications to the open source Mozilla-based browser. You’ll first learn basic cross-browser development […]
RSS: The Executive Summary
Demystify the buzz. ION RSS printed* a good article in April titled Of course, you know what RSS is … so here’s an article for your clueless boss. The good news is that you don’t have to be a clueless boss to learn from Nick Aster’s words.
* How long will it be until nothing is […]
What New Users Need to Know About OpenOffice.org
Linux Journal recently published a nice article which introduces OpenOffice.org. If you have heard me (or someone else) rave about how great OOo is but have been hesitating to try to out, give OOo Off the Wall: What New Users Need to Know About OpenOffice.org a quick read.
Then download and try OpenOffice.org (it’s free).
VOIP Round-Up
Slashdot has nicely pulled together a few links about a Keynote Systems study on VOIP call quality in New Study Finds VOIP is Getting Better
I feel like I have been conducting my own survey over the last couple of years. I started with Vonage, used it for a year, and then installed my own Asterisk@Home […]
The Future of RSS is Not in Blogs
Sharon Housley of FeedForAll hits the nail on the head in her article The Future of RSS is Not in Blogs.
RSS feeds give readers a tremendously powerful tool to find and read the stuff which interests them.
Blogs give writers soapboxes from which to spread their witticism.
Most people are readers and “should” care about RSS feeds. […]
Alternatives to Passwords
The CNN article Bank to require more than passwords describes Bank of America’s plan to query web site users for personal information after they enter their passwords. The idea is to more firmly establish their identity.
It makes me wonder, though. Why bother with the password at all? How well would an authentication system work if […]
Interview with the Search Engine
Reminiscent of the old Eliza artificial intelligence program, and a lot more “relevant,” SatireWire has interviewed Jeeves of AskJeeves.com in their article, Interview with the Search Engine :-)
You can try talking with Eliza here and read about Eliza in Wikipedia.
My thanks to Jeremy Zawodny for finding this and brightening my day!
particletree · API Roundup
Chris Campbell did a very nice job of collecting a bunch of key web APIs onto one page in his API Roundup. Now all I need to find is the time to play with all of them.
Thanks, Chris!
Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger
Scoble rants about RSS feeds that aren’t full text. Rather than being “bad,” I think that the style of RSS feed simply tells you something about the author’s motivation. Does he want the reader to have the information? Or is it more important to get the reader to visit the actual web site and view […]
Remembering Netscape: The Birth of the Web
Picture a world without Google, without eBay or Amazon or broadband, where few people have even heard of IPOs. That was reality just a decade ago. The company that changed it—bringing us into the Internet age—was a brilliant flash in the pan called Netscape. For the tenth anniversary of its IPO, FORTUNE recruited dozens of […]
Email forwarding amounts to ritual gift exchange
I have two reactions to Email forwarding amounts to ritual gift exchange from NewScientist.com
Doh! I knew that! How do I get paid to do “research” like this?
Isn’t that interesting? I’ll bet there are a lot of people who never thought of that.
I am a bit fascinated that people actually study this stuff. I have always […]
Google Toolbar
Google just released a Firefox version of their Google Toolbar. This is a wonderful and free tool that can make your web browsing much easier. Installation is a snap and, if you don’t like it, you can simply uninstall.
The platypus of the Internet, from the Google Blog, has some details about the development. Or you […]
PHP Filters
OWASP has a collection of PHP Filters (a/k/a functions) to sanitize user inputs. I have not used them but they sure look useful!
MIT Weblog Survey
If you use IM or email or blogs, take a few minutes and take the survey.
This is a general social survey of the greater weblog community being conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Our goal is to help understand the way that weblogs are affecting the way we communicate with each other. Specifically we […]
Search gets personal
The Google blog contains this article, Search gets personal, about “remembering” what you searched for and clicked on and using those data to improve your search results.
It’s very early but very interesting. Definitely worth a look. Click to check out Google Personalized Search.
Diamonds in the Rough: RSS Aggregators
Would you be interested if I told you that you could have your own, personalized newspaper, for free, cleanly organized, with up-to-the-minute information, and with sources from the local paper, the newswires, the web sites that you like, and people “in the know” who you trust? Get interested because you can have all this.
The magic […]
Garmin Quest GPS
For years, I poo pooed the fancy-dancy expensive GPS navigators appearing in people’s cars. I’ll admit it; I was wrong. I got a Garmin Quest GPS a couple of weeks ago and am simply amazed at how useful it is and how accurate the database is.
It is obvious that the Quest has benefited from […]
2-Year OpenOffice High School Case Study
NewsForge has an article about University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy’s conversion from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice.org. Unlike previous articles, this one looks back with two years of perspective.
From the NewsForge article:
The cost analysis was compelling — the Linux option could be implemented for around $21,000, more than $100,000 less than the Microsoft […]
Straight Line Designs
Boing Boing gets credit for bringing this to my attention. Straight Line Designs creates some of the most unusual furniture I have ever been delighted to see.
Coincidentally, their Flash animation is stunningly wonderful! I wish I had that talent. The intro page is cute but the main site menu make wonderful use of both motion […]
Load Acrobat Reader Faster
Forever Geek has a great tidbit on how to make Acrobat load faster on Windows. This made a world of difference for me:
Find the Acrobat Reader folder. On my system, with Acrobat 6 installed, this is C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 6.0\Reader
Open the plug_ins folder.
Move all of the files and folders to the Optional folder except these three: […]
Big Brother is Watching in Chicago
From Slashdot we learn that Big Brother, and everybody else, is watching if you commit a crime in Chicago. Check out ChicagoCrime.org to see where the bad guys are operating in the Windy City.
Possibly more practical is this Cheap Gas hack.
Hats off to Google Maps, which is providing the underlying mapping data for both of […]
Stock Photography, Images, Animations, Graphics
Looking for images for your web site? Be they photographs, animations, or graphics, here are a couple of good places to look.
iStockphoto has a wide variety of stock photography with some graphics. Prices are incredibly cheap, just $1 for low resolution stuff that is suitable for web sites.
Animation Factory has a huge variety of GIF […]
On-line Photo Galleries
I have two favorite on-line photo galleries, depending on whether you want to host the photos on your own server or let someone else handle the heavy lifting.
For free stuff on your own web server / web site, nothing beats Gallery. This works great until you start to fill up the disk on your hosting […]
Fond Memories of Amdahl
Deadprogrammer’s Cafe has a wonderful posting titled Amdahl : Business in the Front, Party in the Back which includes photos of a board out of an old Amdahl 470 mainframe. That was the first “large” computer that I ever used, at the University of Michigan in 1976.
Ahhh… those were the days. ;-) Those of us […]
Bug Fixed: One Reason Why Open Source is Cool
Ever wonder about why people like me continually rave about the wonders of open source software? One reason is because bugs get fixed really fast. Witness some of the security flaws in Firefox which were reported recently and patched within a few days.
Here is a more personal example. I had been having a problem with […]