tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30615192012-02-16T03:22:00.511-05:00More than you need to know.Dougnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4681100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-51329213654045321852007-09-23T20:39:00.001-04:002007-09-24T13:15:36.144-04:00

What if real life meetings had the same politeness standards as comments on the Internet? YouTube has the answer (put on your headphones -- contains NSFW language).

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-88137765284103704592007-08-14T23:05:00.000-04:002007-08-14T23:23:34.362-04:00

About two and a half years ago, I proposed that Apple create a tool to track what programs one runs and then reports on what alternatives are available under Mac OS X. Apple ignored me and never realized what a brilliant idea this is. We're half way there now. Wakoopa provides a tool which tracks what you run. Register, download a small application and install. Wakoopa runs in the background and

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-25826570716304768892007-04-25T09:42:00.000-04:002007-04-25T09:47:04.891-04:00

The editors at LifeHacker have compiled some of their favorite Firefox extensions for enhancing gmail and put them all together into a single extension called Better Gmail. Of those included, I've been using and loving Gmail Macros for a while.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-35355693863682565732007-03-28T22:00:00.000-04:002007-03-29T15:13:48.853-04:00

I learned today that Google Maps provides transatlantic driving directions. For example, if you choose to drive from Washington, DC to London, England, Google suggests driving to Boston. You navigate to downtown Boston and then: 20. Turn right at Long Wharf 0.1 mi 21. Swim across the Atlantic Ocean 3,462 miles and then continue on

Dougnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-55569408139873658592007-03-21T11:23:00.000-04:002007-03-21T11:26:00.479-04:00

Space.com has a wonderful article explaining why the vernal equinox can shift and points out that from 1981-2102, Spring will begin no later than March 20. The myth that Spring starts on March 21 must be quashed. People who suggest that should be loudly corrected. On a completely unrelated note, March 20 just happens to be my birthday.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1159566587662767292006-11-24T22:03:00.000-05:002006-11-24T22:38:53.060-05:00

This is an exploration of solutions. I don't have my perfect solution yet, perhaps somebody will help. The short question is "what's the best way to combine the sound from my ipod and the sounds from my computer into one set of headphones?" Here's the situation: I've got an iPod which I sync with my work computer. When I want to tune out the noise of the office, I currently listen via iTunes.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1158950689772165362006-09-22T14:39:00.000-04:002006-09-24T20:59:54.520-04:00

Gina Trapani, editor over at lifehacker.com, has been diving deep into cygwin and command line goodness for a while. Earlier this week, she posted an article about customizing the command prompt. I added a comment about my shorter directory path, but I'll replicate here, because I have better control over the formatting of the code (and, I guess, for the people who read me, but not lifehacker):

Dougnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1158616690023571862006-09-18T17:54:00.000-04:002006-09-18T17:58:10.040-04:00

I think it's time to try anime. Based on various reviews and the fact that it won an Oscar a few years ago, Spirited Away has been in my list of movies to rent for a long time, but I've never gotten around to renting it. Now ranting tech blogger, Steve Yegge has written a long post about why he likes anime and gives some recommendations. Tags: anime

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1158261348460545422006-09-14T15:15:00.001-04:002006-09-14T15:26:27.420-04:00

"A few days ago I was thinking about doing something good with my life. Instead I decided I would sign up for Wisconsin Ironman."    -- Thus begins my cousin's new blog chronicling his year of preparation for the race on September 9, 2007. Tags: ironman, triathalon

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1156253515763622232006-08-22T09:30:00.000-04:002006-08-22T09:31:55.783-04:00

The Washington Post ran an article a couple weeks back on improving gas mileage. It's written from the point of view of a hybrid driver, but it says that these tips can be used in other vehicles as well. Tags: hybrid, mileage, prius

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1155246793937270132006-08-10T17:47:00.000-04:002006-08-11T09:13:11.750-04:00

It's been a while since I posted and even longer since I posted something just fun and not too techy. But this just cried out for propagation -- a new(-ish) song from Jonathan Coulton (the guy who covered "Baby Got Back" in a nice, easy, banjo-heavy acoustic style): If Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that being trapped in a mall surrounded by a million zombies would be really troublesome.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1151691395639070522006-06-30T14:11:00.000-04:002006-06-30T14:17:55.403-04:00

Mark Pilgrim has updated his "essentials" list to reflect his recent switch from Mac to Ubuntu linux ("Ubuntu, which is an ancient African word meaning "can't install Debian".") This is a nice list of useful software (and links to each) for linux. His older list is for mac users. Tags: linux, mac, ubuntu, essentials

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1151525094792444962006-06-28T22:00:00.000-04:002006-06-28T23:19:55.346-04:00

I've been using X1 desktop search since I got a free copy in Oct. 2004. The news of the day is that it's now free for everybody (via LifeHacker). Try it. I like it a lot. Tags: search, x1

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1151501207387473412006-06-28T09:26:00.000-04:002006-06-28T09:26:47.480-04:00

I believe my wife will start to use this when we're driving in unknown areas -- even though I'm usually the driver and she's the navigator.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1151073816425191122006-06-23T10:43:00.000-04:002006-06-23T10:45:31.006-04:00

Steve Yegge writes about Emacs 22 -- specifically about its internationalization support and its improvements to search and replace by regular expression. He writes: Emacs 22 sports an amazing new editing feature that's had me drooling in anticipation since I first heard about it, maybe six or eight months ago. As you can well imagine, that's a lot of drool. And what might the feature be, you

Dougnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1149690240070034152006-06-07T10:15:00.000-04:002006-06-07T10:32:36.483-04:00

There's a rumor that Apple and RIM, creator of the BlackBerry, may be forging a partnership. Speculation is that they might try to build on each other's innate strengths. I use a BlackBerry for a while and was unimpressed. It does "push email" well and wireless sync well, but that’s about it. The basic PIM tools are weaker than what my PalmOS Handspring Visor had 6 years ago and there is

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1149107439229291282006-06-01T22:30:00.000-04:002006-06-06T17:24:30.690-04:00

This week on "Wait Wait -- Don't Tell Me!", the NPR news quiz, host Peter Sagal and soccer expert and radio host Steven Cohen discuss soccer and the World Cup. Sagal's introduction: Those Americans who are watching sports late at night, say, and they can't find any baseball or football or basketball or golf or NASCAR or lacrosse, wrestling, bowling, scrabble, curling, knitting, might find

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1148587811815552482006-05-25T16:10:00.000-04:002006-05-25T16:11:07.530-04:00

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels. A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have." Happy Towel Day. Thanks for all the fish good books, Douglas Adams

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1147464894705159172006-05-12T16:07:00.000-04:002006-05-12T16:14:54.716-04:00

It has happened to everybody and will continue to happen, hopefully without too much embarrassment. You have two or more chat windows open and you type something and then realize, after having already hit enter (or the send button) that you typed it to the wrong person. So, I propose that rather than typing out "sorry, wrong window" every time, we standardize on "sww". If I type that to you, now

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1147448709919306342006-05-12T11:43:00.000-04:002006-05-12T11:45:09.940-04:00

"It really is an html frame, with a jpg, of a scan, of a print, of a digital picture, of a print, of a word document, of the information that needs to go on the web." Tags: wtf

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1145985290438394842006-04-25T13:13:00.000-04:002006-04-25T13:14:50.446-04:00

A couple years ago, I wrote about screen. Blogger Bill Clementson recently saw The Light about screen as well and I reviewed my original post. In it, the first link was to a very nice collection of pages maintained by Sven Guckes. For his own reasons, Sven has decided that he could no longer maintain his information pages about screen. After a little probing, I found a couple ways to see what

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1145208693144467042006-04-16T13:20:00.000-04:002006-05-19T10:32:24.370-04:00

In the April Fools day show of Coverville, Brian Ibbott claimed that Blondie's "Call Me" was a cover, originally done as a surf rock instrumental by a group called The Original Onions. While that was a fun gag (and the whole show had some other great psuedo-original versions), I liked the surf rock sound. The mp3s from the now-defunct Original Onions are available for free download under a

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1142880324598986112006-03-20T13:45:00.000-05:002006-03-20T13:45:24.666-05:00

Similar to , a specialized 20 questions game: Guess the Dictator or Sit-Com Character

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1142362888980440742006-03-14T14:01:00.000-05:002006-03-14T14:03:23.710-05:00

Reported many places, a humorous story about fans from U. Cal., Berkeley who played a wonderful prank on an opposing player during a basketball game against USC. This version of the story actually has a post-game interview with the victim and he took it surprisingly well, especially given that apparently rattled him enough during the game that he show only 3 for 13 from the field.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1140042702547974932006-02-15T17:31:00.000-05:002006-02-15T17:31:42.600-05:00

Human Foosball - looks like fun. Technorati tags: foosball

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1138203268416379762006-01-25T10:34:00.000-05:002006-01-27T22:00:16.110-05:00

This is old news, but not to me. I'm not a gamer, but from what I understand, the Madden football game lets you download rosters of real players into the game. But back in September, they had to take down a roster update because it showed New York Jets lineman Michael King as being only 7 inches tall. The cool thing is that there are pictures!

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1129907901304353272006-01-20T22:49:00.000-05:002006-03-13T16:27:09.283-05:00

A rant on why I don't like underlined links and why Bloglines and 37signals have prompted me to write about it. When Tim Berners-Lee created the first web browser in the early 1990s, the links in the text were identifable because they were underlined. It wasn't possible to change the color of the text as Berners-Lee did his work on an early NeXT workstation. While these machines had plenty of

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1137605510552813542006-01-18T21:31:00.000-05:002006-01-18T22:24:36.583-05:00

Earlier today I listened to episode 6 of the Inside the Net podcast in which the hosts interview the founder of Pandora. Here's how a TechCrunch post describes the site: If you don’t agree that this is the coolest application you’ve seen in a long while, re-read this post over and over until you agree, because you are wrong. I am in love with Pandora. No, wait, that's not very useful; accurate,

Dougnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1135905441390064102005-12-29T20:05:00.000-05:002005-12-29T20:20:16.490-05:00

I've been back from India since Dec 17 and have gotten swept up in holiday activities. A comment from somebody calling him/herself paliopolis today asked if I was back. So, without further ado, here are some thoughts on my trip: My flight to Mumbai eventually pushed away from the gate in Frankfurt at 15:40, just over four hours late. Some of this additional delay was caused by a passenger who

Dougnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1135352036784837842005-12-23T10:33:00.000-05:002005-12-23T10:34:43.526-05:00

Yesterday morning NPR aired an interview with the inventor of Zubbles - The World's First Colored Bubbles!. They'll be available this Spring, so I expect we'll be having these at my kids' birthday parties. Technorati tags: bubbles

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1134580511793335912005-12-14T12:10:00.000-05:002005-12-14T12:15:11.803-05:00

I'm in Bangalore now and have more thoughts on India, but haven't put them together yet. I was talking with my wife and she shared two wonderful quotes from my 4.5 yr old daughter: We were leaving the house and she saw the reminants of rock salt and asked what it was. I said we put salt down when it is icy because salt melts the ice. She thought a minute and said, "Mom is the sun made of salt?

Dougnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1134305985692543142005-12-11T07:50:00.000-05:002006-04-19T12:09:34.273-04:00

I'm en route to a business trip in India. I arrived around 7:00 am and expected to depart at 11:35, but the Air India flight coming from Chicago was delayed. Seriously delayed. Projected departure time is now 15:05 - three and a half hours late. I'll get into Mumbai around 3:00 am and will be ready to go to meetings at 8:30. I plan to sleep on my flight since I won't be able to sleep much at the

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1134055241290083582005-12-08T10:20:00.000-05:002005-12-08T10:21:57.046-05:00

From an article in the New York Times, retro handsets from Hulger which plug in to cell phones (complete with spiral cords) or connect wirelessly via bluetooth. Technorati tags: cellphone headset

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1133384223117087672005-12-01T21:51:00.000-05:002005-12-01T22:42:57.736-05:00

I've been using Firefox for well over a year now and I'm still finding new tricks. Below I discuss using keywords for easy, fast custom searches, the nifty foXpose extension, keyboard shortcuts, and my current list of installed extensions. Keyword search shortcuts The absolutely coolest, most useful new trick is the ability to easily assign a keyword to a search. For example, go to Wikipedia.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1133402796718292542005-11-30T21:01:00.001-05:002005-12-06T12:57:08.713-05:00

For no good reason, I was looking at the stadiums for next year's soccer World Cup. The first photo of Frankfurt's new stadium has the caption "FIFA World Cup Stadium Frankfurt: football-only temple." But doesn't it seem a little ironic that on the Official Site of the World Cup, a few of the photos demonstrate that the American interpretation of "football" has made it to Germany? Technorati

Dougnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1133216711265744642005-11-28T17:25:00.000-05:002005-11-28T17:26:21.543-05:00

Irakli posted a link to an incredible video showing Brazilian soccer star Ronaldinho demonstrating some amazing skills with the ball (and some new Nike shoes). The most amazing thing is that he kicks the ball into the crossbar from 18 yards out and it bounces right back to him -- four times. Maybe The soccer site bigsoccer.com has a long discussion as to the validity of this video. Some people

Dougnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1132969425007030622005-11-25T20:43:00.000-05:002005-11-25T20:46:46.476-05:00

Bookmark this (or send to del.icio.us): A frustrated and enterprising geek named Paul English has published a cheat sheet on how to bypass phone menus and talk with an actual human. As of today, there are 108 companies listed. Technorati tags: phone reference

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1132334254069009782005-11-18T12:17:00.000-05:002005-11-18T12:25:41.760-05:00

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, is offering a free PDF download of his book God's Debris. The blog entry says a little about why he's doing this, but he put it a little better in the most recent edition of his newletter, "I’m giving it away because I found out that most people who read it end up either recommending it or buying the paper version as gifts for other people." This is not a

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1131989021423282792005-11-14T12:18:00.000-05:002005-11-14T12:24:51.950-05:00

I've enabled a couple features introduced by Blogger over the past 6-12 months -- comments and backlinks. Comments are configured to allow anybody to post, but I've turned on word verification (aka captcha). I've heard read too many stories about comment spam hitting blogs -- even blogs with low traffic like this one. If you don't like it, don't comment. You're always free to send email to me,

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1131987142726354192005-11-14T11:52:00.000-05:002005-11-14T12:47:37.280-05:00

Tom Kyte, of the extremely useful Ask Tom Oracle help site (and column), has been travelling a lot lately and writes in his blog that he's now All caught up...: Most importantly – the scroll bar is gone from my inbox! I have 14 emails in my inbox. 12 of them are to-do items – so maybe I’m not all caught up, but I’m not that far behind anymore. The post discusses in more details how he manages

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1131639769110931482005-11-10T11:22:00.000-05:002005-11-14T11:52:41.606-05:00

Justin Everett-Church demonstrates how the new Flash-based Yahoo maps can be customized with images, colors, and borders. He gives as examples pirate and radar themed maps. Technorati tags: maps

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1131574493748692052005-11-09T17:14:00.000-05:002005-11-09T17:14:53.806-05:00

The most mind-blowing article I've read all week... Bruce Schneier quotes from an InfoWorld article in which a woman describes using a network sniffer at security-professional conferences and discovering that computer security professionals don't practice good security practices. Technorati tags: passwords security

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1128552259334762892005-10-05T18:44:00.000-04:002005-10-05T18:44:52.686-04:00

Lifehacker has an interesting article about tools for finding the stuff on the web that Google's spiders don't index. In addition to links to helpful sites, the bit that I'll remember is to add "database" to my search queries to use Google to find relevant databases of other information.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1128025950373959362005-09-30T08:19:00.001-04:002010-02-15T12:22:21.729-05:00

Earlier this week, a co-worker asked for my help diagnosing a problem on one of our sites. Some pages just weren't working in Internet Explorer, but were working fine in Mozilla Firefox. Odder still, the HTTP status code returned was 199. Normal returns from a web server have status 200, errors are 500, redirects are in the 300 range, 404 is for missing pages. I've never heard of 199. I

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1127226449713729552005-09-20T10:19:00.000-04:002005-11-14T12:03:13.746-05:00

I've been using gaim as my primary instant messenger program for around five years now. With one program running, I can connect to AIM, MSN, icq, Y!, IRC, and more -- and yes, I have used all of these, although I use Yahoo chat mostly for notifications of new Yahoo mail. Additionally, it logs all conversations so that I can use my desktop search tool (currently X1) to find that code example sent

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1126215929037293942005-09-08T17:45:00.000-04:002005-09-08T17:46:51.556-04:00

Maybe it's just because I've been working too hard for the past few weeks, but this blog post had me laughing out loud.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1125434891806928892005-08-30T16:48:00.000-04:002005-08-30T16:49:20.893-04:00

"It's the suckiest phone I have ever had. It sucks so much it should have been a vacuum cleaner." Read the description of a "really nasty mobile phone" for sale on eBay . Actually, it isn't necessarily for sale, "You have a choice, you can bid for the phone or you can bid for a homemade DVD of it's slow demise. I plan to use a vice, a drill, possibly an angle grinder, some flamable liquids, a

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1123509405543792802005-08-08T09:56:00.000-04:002005-08-15T16:01:53.566-04:00

Owners of TomTom GPS navigation systems can buy John Cleese's voice to guide their way. Hmmm. Technorati tags: Cleese GPS tomtom

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1123179338999941312005-08-05T14:13:00.000-04:002005-08-15T16:00:57.723-04:00

I've been working with the bash shell under linux, solaris, and cygwin for some five years and I've just now discovered that bash has support for tab completion of more than just file names. Not only that, but somebody has done a lot of hard work for me and put together bash completion code for many commonly used programs. It does seemingly obvious things, such as offering known host names when

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1122992148771305212005-08-02T10:15:00.000-04:002005-08-02T21:36:41.270-04:00

Apple introduces a mouse with more functionality than just one button, the Mighty Mouse. An early mac ad touted the benefits of one button, "Some mice have more than one button. The Macintosh has only one. So it's extremely difficult to push the wrong button." Now I'm afraid I'll push the wrong button. This mouse looks cool. It all makes sense now. Apple didn't want to release just another

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1122666559190740012005-07-29T15:49:00.000-04:002005-07-29T15:55:12.640-04:00

From the good folks at SysInternals, " Running Windows with No Services" in which the author discovers to his own surprise and to the surprise of Microsoft's VP of the Core Operating Systems Division that Windows XP can actually run without any services running. You can even surf via Internet Explorer. There are some little things that are impossible -- like logging out. Don't try this at home

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1122485786792316082005-07-27T13:36:00.000-04:002005-07-27T13:41:39.930-04:00

Via borklog, I took the The 3 Variable Funny Test and according to the results my humor style is the Wit (60% dark, 8% spontaneous, 16% vulgar) your humor style:CLEAN | COMPLEX | DARK You like things edgy, subtle, and smart. I guess that means you're probably an intellectual, but don't take that to mean you're pretentious. You realize 'dumb' can be witty--after all isn't that the Simpsons'

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1122318002545696492005-07-25T15:00:00.000-04:002005-07-25T15:00:32.970-04:00

In case you aren't following the story about Karl Rove allegedly leaking the name of a CIA operative, John Stewart has a nice review of the story -- it's quite informative, it's funny, and they managed to work in a video clip of monkey cleaning a cat.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1121781527186036972005-07-22T17:58:00.000-04:002005-07-22T18:00:26.303-04:00

A few months ago a computer I deal with had an uninvited visitor who got in with the help of a weak password and installed a bunch of nasty stuff -- including a program called "vadimII". I googled for this and found a discussion in which a user said: Ok. Your goal will be to reformat your drive and then reinstall Linux from scratch. Sorry, ain't no other way. Eventually, the machine did have to

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1121533177229098712005-07-16T12:58:00.000-04:002005-07-19T10:23:19.376-04:00

I think there are some lessons to be learned in this story of recovery of a server that was down... not only down, but down for a couple hours before it was noticed. Technorati tags: linux nagios monitoring

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1120242956906161002005-07-01T14:25:00.000-04:002005-07-01T14:38:43.513-04:00

My recent post on the comparative size and weight of digital versions of Amazon's Penguin Classics collection, got a nice mention over at TeleRead. Apparently the bloat in the Adobe Reader file format is nothing new. I'd never seen this blog before, they cover ebooks in pretty good depth. There are more articles there about the Librie I mentioned, but the big gadget hype seems to be about the

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1120153113104342972005-06-30T13:38:00.000-04:002005-07-01T10:58:01.686-04:00

Seen a while ago on the Unofficial Google weblog, Sightseeing with Google Satellite Maps. One of my favorites is an airplane taking off from Atlanta that can be seen three or four times as you scroll the maps Technorati tags: google maps satellite

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1119899930608010712005-06-27T20:09:00.000-04:002005-06-27T21:15:26.886-04:00

Bork posted a link to Amazon's sale of The Penguin Classics Library Complete Collection, an impressive (and expensive) collection of 1,082 titles weighing over 700 pounds. Interestingly, the top three titles browsed by people also shopping for this are (emphasis added): The Portable Beat Reader by Various The Portable Mark Twain (Penguin Classics) by Mark Twain The Portable Sixties Reader (

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1119639529186009902005-06-24T14:53:00.000-04:002005-06-24T15:52:09.890-04:00

As my co-workers know, I'm an incorrigible emacs weenie and since I started using it in 1990 before it supported basic mouse features common in modern editors, my fingers are very used to getting around emacs quickly. So, a couple weeks ago, my fingers were aching from the awkward stretch to alt-left arrow to go back a web page and I knew that if the more industrious emacs users of the world

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1118784934741640752005-06-14T17:35:00.000-04:002005-06-14T17:35:34.783-04:00

Danny Gregory writes about a nifty mac tool called Delicious Library that displays your book, movie, music, etc collection. You only need scan the bar code with a "quicktime-supported digital video camera" (e.g. iSight). I will say no more, because the screen shots on Gregory's blog or the product's page say more than I could. (Save as reference for when I have my own mac)

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1117135404775581192005-05-26T15:18:00.000-04:002005-05-26T15:23:24.780-04:00

A couple weeks ago, I posted a Geeky Friday story about a successful defense against a distributed denial-of-service (DDOS) attack. Today I've come across a BBC story in which they describe on video how a computer can become infected. It's not nearly as technical and I think it's a pretty accessible explanation about what can happen to your computer if you're not careful.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1117044768809039162005-05-25T14:12:00.000-04:002005-05-25T14:16:11.420-04:00

I just heard that a shooting happened in my "exclusive D.C. neighborhood" this morning -- see coverage from a local news station. It's kind of spooky. The good news (for me anyway) is that the suspect is a relative of the victim and it's not a random act. The video does have some nice shots of how nice my street looks covered by the foliage of the 60+ year-old willow oaks lining both sides.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1116945192547751592005-05-24T10:26:00.000-04:002005-05-24T10:50:12.943-04:00

Following up on my most recent post, I googled for "wavigo skype" to see how other people compared Skype and Wavigo. I found the quote "Wavigo is Skype done right and honorably" (or "the honorable way") a few more times (here, here, here, here, etc) and all done by a user calling himself (herself?) Bohdana. In fact, of the top ten results in the "wavigo skype" search, all either have this phrase

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1116944426046267602005-05-24T10:20:00.000-04:002005-05-24T10:26:03.426-04:00

Via TinyApps blog, Marc Eisenstadt writes a lengthy blog post on how Skype can monopolize your computer's resources. This borders on the sort of thing I usually save for a Geeky Friday post, but I think the content is at a high enough level that it shouldn't scare you away. Better yet, Eisenstadt quotes from (and links to) three source, one "highly technical article", one "less technical article"

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1116603245976378252005-05-20T08:31:00.000-04:002005-05-20T14:42:50.603-04:00

I've been using iPodder for about six months now to explore some of the many podcasts. One of the best I've found is IT Conversations. As the title suggests, they podcast interviews, speeches, presentations, etc about information technology subjects. It's all well and good, but they're too prolific for me -- in the past week they've published eleven shows for around six hours of listening. I

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1115735178228432272005-05-10T10:26:00.000-04:002005-05-10T10:31:59.316-04:00

This completely blew my mind. 20Q.net is a neural-net based game of twenty questions which has been building its knowledge base for something like 17 years. I've played it three times and it successfully guessed what I was thinking of each time ("shoelace", "juggling club", "pacifier"). My jaw dropped and I spun my office chair in awe. I found this via Kevin Kelly's Cool Tools blog where he shows

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1115664118444671352005-05-09T14:40:00.000-04:002005-05-09T14:41:58.446-04:00

If you can slog through the advertising and work around the blocked pop-ups and still launch the player, you can listen to Muppet Radio on live365.com (via MuppetCentral.com).

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1115395719599377812005-05-06T12:07:00.000-04:002005-05-06T14:17:16.933-04:00

The Unofficial Google weblog writes about a new feature in gmail (not yet publicly announced) that give you an option to always show the images from the sender of the message you're reading. This is a lot more convenient than having to click "display external images" everytime you open your "Daily Dilbert" every day. Speaking of new features for gmail, in case you haven't already discovered this

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1115313710447506822005-05-06T08:21:00.000-04:002005-05-06T11:47:45.003-04:00

Seen on slashdot, How a Bookmaker and a Whiz Kid Took On an Extortionist — and Won. If you like gripping, readable yarns like this sort, you'd probably also like The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll, but you've also probably already read it.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1115228700304472792005-05-04T13:45:00.000-04:002005-05-05T13:23:17.296-04:00

From LifeHacker, Time Management for Anarchists: The Movie, a flash presentation with an approach to time management.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1115045406179232752005-05-02T10:50:00.000-04:002005-05-02T10:52:10.986-04:00

Last week a co-worker mentioned LinkedIn.com to me, referring to it as somewhat like friendster, but more professionally oriented. It sounded intriguing, but I didn't actually sign up until I read Fred Wilson's post on his "A VC" blog that I grokked? how this site could be of more use. Fred finds it useful for reference checks for potential hires, due diligence, etc. Anyway, I'm linked in and

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1114637020269283112005-04-29T17:23:00.000-04:002005-04-29T17:06:44.060-04:00

Possibly an urban legend, but somehow I doubt it, the story of a "Dangerous Hacker!." I wish somebody would track down this idiot by his IP address and ISP and find out what happened after he disappeared offline.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1114809336976040822005-04-29T17:15:00.000-04:002005-04-29T17:15:36.976-04:00

Just when I had recently discovered how easy it is to edit the CSS of a web page using the Web Developer Extension for Firefox, I discover the Aardvark which does much of the same stuff -- but more easily when all you want to do is to print just the main content of a page (without the navigation bar, ads, etc.). Click through to the Aardvark page and click on the "run the demo" link at the top

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1114443588354204862005-04-25T11:39:00.000-04:002005-04-25T11:39:48.356-04:00

T-Mobile now has a "Personal Coverage Check" site which shows signals strength on street-level maps. I've already determined that I'll have decent coverage when I go to my cousin's wedding this summer in Nebraska.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1113853735716948832005-04-19T20:48:00.000-04:002005-04-20T16:48:37.146-04:00

Via LifeHacker, "How to get that perfect shave", a long how-to article which tells you how you can get a perfect shave. The most amazing thing for me is that the author felt the need to keep your face wet "with plenty of hot water before, and during, the entire shave." Is that why I know people who have trouble shaving? I thought this was obvious.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1113852102446667632005-04-18T15:16:00.000-04:002005-04-18T15:52:27.633-04:00

Did you hear that Adobe is acquiring Macromedia? As I wrote about back in January, I can keep up-to-date on more news sources because I use an RSS aggregator. The downside to following more news sources is that they sometimes repeat the same story. So far, I've seen this headline from MetaFilter, OSNews, Slashdot, NY Times, Ika's Weblog, Scripting News, and The Server Side. (Want something more

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1113504671318313592005-04-14T20:48:00.000-04:002005-04-15T10:31:17.873-04:00

So I posted my Unitarian Jihad name, but it wasn't until Bork reposted that link that I actually bothered to read the article. I can't say that I don't support their cause, especially when they promise that "Pockets of reasonableness and harmony will appear as if from nowhere!" and that "We will require all lobbyists, spokesmen and campaign managers to dress like trout in public."

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1113426939834383932005-04-13T17:15:00.000-04:002005-04-14T14:44:17.913-04:00

Finally found a mobile-friendly interface to Wikipedia. Palm/Treo users can start here (this is just a light HTML version so you can load it in other browsers as well), or go to their list of other starting pages for other WAP or HTML devices. It's not clear to me if this is a dynamic interface to the live site or if they've downloaded a snapshot of the wikipedia database. [Later... after using

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1113360053240196572005-04-12T22:39:00.000-04:002005-04-12T22:40:53.243-04:00

Two words that you just don't see together very often ever: "Unitarian Jihad". My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Howitzer of Looking at All Sides of the Question. Get yours.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1113100993081190952005-04-11T22:33:00.000-04:002005-04-12T09:48:21.573-04:00

Last weekend I heard most of an episode on the NPR radio show "This American Life". Act 2 was about a group called Improv Everywhere that "causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places." This includes stunts such as repeating the same 5 minute scene twelve times in a Starbucks (prompting some patrons to ask if they're in a time warp), or entering subway trains without pants and pretending it's

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1112983158844264462005-04-08T13:59:00.000-04:002005-04-08T14:25:39.300-04:00

On DCist.com, Mike Grass waxes eloquently about spring in Washington DC. He includes a nice quote from Alistair Cooke's discussing DC's seasons including a comparison of DC's summer to "those outposts on the Persian gulf where bad vice-consuls are sent to rot".

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1112645597332010592005-04-04T16:03:00.000-04:002005-04-04T16:46:11.306-04:00

We rented Closer this past weekend. I wish I had been more up-to-date in reading my weekly mailings from screenit.com. If I had read the newsletter from March 25, I would've read this review: "CLOSER" (2004) (Julia Roberts, Jude Law) (R) Drama: The lives and loves of four strangers (including Roberts & Law) become hopelessly intertwined as desires, deception and self-centeredness drive them into

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1112281765254614042005-03-31T10:09:00.000-05:002005-03-31T10:13:15.740-05:00

While doing quick research to see if I can drive my hybrid car solo on Virginia's HOV lanes (I can't because my car isn't registered in Virginia), I learned that there's another attempt to get HOV privileges that won't work either: Q: I'm pregnant. Do I count as one person or two? A: In the HOV world, you're one person. However, babies of any age count as a person. (from VDOT's HOV FAQ)

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1108950803022065102005-03-25T17:42:00.000-05:002005-03-25T16:47:00.186-05:00

(Ad images from a gallery of Apple and NeXT ads at macmothership.com) I first encountered NeXT machines when I was an undergrad and the chair of Vassar's CS department was on NeXT's academic advisory committee and NextStep was at version 0.8 (and before its subsequent case changes to NeXTStep or NeXTSTEP). Around 1989 or 1990 NeXT started promoting their computers with the ads above.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1111616503099321622005-03-23T17:21:00.000-05:002005-03-23T17:21:43.100-05:00

Colin Powell recently visited Google's headquarters and walked in on a google employee washing her underwear.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1110942971349997062005-03-20T22:16:00.000-05:002005-03-20T23:23:29.560-05:00

"This is not a guide for wusses whose aim is merely to wipe out humanity. If total human genocide is your ultimate goal, you are reading the wrong document. There are far more efficient ways of doing this, many which are available and feasible RIGHT NOW. Nor is this a guide for those wanting to annihilate everything from single-celled life upwards, render Earth uninhabitable or simply conquer it.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1110827862440948142005-03-14T14:17:00.000-05:002005-03-14T14:17:42.440-05:00

Via Lifehacker, in Firefox "Ctrl-Enter when entering web addresses in my browser’s address bar as it automatically adds “www.” to the front and “.com” to the back of whatever I typed in. Saves me at least 1,000 key strokes a week. "

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1110475823232210712005-03-10T12:30:00.000-05:002005-03-11T14:22:33.133-05:00

While researching ways to make life in cubicle farm more productive, I found a wiki page about "Good Thinking Music" with links to mp3 streams. Another page on the same site gives arguments against listening to music while trying to think. The geeky part of this all is one proposed method of creating white noise for unix/linux users: $ dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/audio # or /dev/dsp on Linux

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1110422430992391902005-03-09T21:40:00.000-05:002005-03-09T21:40:30.993-05:00

Just like the TRON Guy did.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1110399167915337492005-03-09T15:12:00.000-05:002005-03-09T15:13:55.366-05:00

The L.A. Times has suggested that Bono could be the next head of the World Bank (cnn.com story). What might this mean for Washington? U2 concerts twice each year for the big meetings? Mandatory wrap-around sunglasses for K Street lawyer?

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1109957310357156512005-03-08T19:28:00.000-05:002005-03-08T16:32:47.176-05:00

Here's what happens when the guy doing the play-by-play for a cricket match really doesn't want to be there. It's pretty humorous and if you know nothing about cricket, you can skip the bits where he actually describes the action and still enjoy. (via Critical Section)

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1109944938826706732005-03-04T08:57:00.000-05:002005-03-04T09:02:18.826-05:00

On my way to work this morning, I passed a taxicab with the owner's name printed on the door: "A. TILAHUN"

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1109611319210838642005-02-28T12:21:00.000-05:002005-02-28T12:22:57.540-05:00

There have been a bunch of stories in the techie and gadget press lately about a security breach at T-Mobile. Wired News has an article that it all stemmed from a known hole in BEA's WebLogic application server that had been discovered 18 months before the suspect in the T-Mobile breach was arrested. The lesson is obvious: patch your production systems.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1108697351277167572005-02-20T13:17:00.000-05:002005-02-20T13:19:47.696-05:00

So as my nostalgia trip of a few days ago probably demonstrated, I'm more than a little tempted to get a mac. But, could I get by in with a mac in my non-mac work world? There are two ways to answer this question. I could just jump in and see, or I could identify all programs I'm now using at my job and do the appropriate web research to see what's available for the mac. I don't have the time or

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1108749232532910932005-02-18T12:53:00.000-05:002005-02-18T12:55:18.606-05:00

Real Programmers don't need to look at the keys. So why not get a blank keyboard?

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1108652298960090792005-02-18T08:58:00.000-05:002005-02-17T22:10:02.810-05:00

Via Tiny Apps.org's blog, "An Illustrated Guide to Cryptographic Hashes". I've used md5sum directly to verify big downloads and I had a basic understanding of how hashes are used to store passwords in plain text files. The author addresses something I've wondered about: "it seems obvious that many input streams are available that can produce any given hash." (also known as a collision). He goes

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1108678025947567982005-02-17T17:07:00.000-05:002005-02-17T17:07:05.946-05:00

Today I learned that not only does Google have a one page cheat sheet, but I also didn't know that you can search for synonyms (e.g. searching "~auto" will also find truck, car, etc) and you can search for words near each other (e.g. "red * blue" will find the words red and blue separated by exactly one word).

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1108593202390864762005-02-16T17:24:00.000-05:002005-02-16T17:33:22.390-05:00

I just spent a half-hour sitting in front of Ika's Mac Mini, exploring the Xcode and InterfaceBuilder development tools. Xcode is the modern equivalent of the old NeXTStep ProjectBuilder tool (introduced in NeXTStep 3.0 in 1992), InterfaceBuilder is amazingly similar to the InterfaceBuilder which shipped with the first NeXT computer I ever played with, running NeXTStep 0.8 in 1989. Pretty

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1108396109115480782005-02-14T10:45:00.000-05:002005-02-14T10:48:29.116-05:00

Bork posted a link to My Little Golden Book About ZOGG. It sheds new light on why my children act the way they do sometimes.

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3061519.post-1108136045445335462005-02-11T10:34:00.000-05:002005-02-11T10:42:27.003-05:00

From an article in the Christian Science Monitor about Wikipedia's list of unusual articles which includes a discussion of the history and usage of the umlaut in heavy metal band names which is subsequently analyzed in a movie (flash) presenting a scholarly analysis of the evolution of this page. How can people say the Internet is full of drivel?

Dougnoreply@blogger.com0