Viewing House [TV program] on my laptop
May 17th, 2008Hugh Laurie on House, M.D. is “must see TV.” Should you miss an episode of House, click on Primetime Rewind.
11 year old asks his Mom: “what’s that funny sound” (telephone busy signal…)
May 16th, 2008An 11 year old boy called a friend form his home (wired, POTS) phone, but when heard an unfamiliar sound he asked his mom what the “noise” was. She explained he was hearing a BUSY SIGNAL. Almost everyone has call waiting (or uses a mobile phone) so the young man had never heard a busy signal. We live in interesting times.
Bruce Schneier on Travel and Data Security
May 16th, 2008Bruce Schneier writes about precautions when taking your laptop into the US.
Donald Brown on Human Universals (video)
May 12th, 2008Video: “Anthropologist Donald Brown is the leading authority on “human universals” - the hundreds of attributes that every human has in common. He has found that all of us, no matter where we were born or what else we believe, share traits like the use of tools, the desire to gossip, wariness around snakes, and a desire to feel empathy.” [via Daphne Page]
Factoid: eBay’s Kijiji leads Craigslist in four countries
May 12th, 2008Noam Cohn reports (in a longish article about Craig Newmark): “The suit [ebay vs. Craigslist] was set in motion by eBay’s decision to introduce a rival online-classified site, Kijiji, in the United States last year. Kijiji is already the market leader in Canada, Germany, Italy and Taiwan.” Who knew?
Dave Winer on what being “open” means
May 11th, 2008Dave Winder says: “Open is a funny thing, you can’t be partially open. You can’t edge your way toward open. You can’t be open and hold the valuable stuff in reserve for yourself.
Number of Servers for Google, Microsoft and Facebook (Hint: mindboggling numbers)
May 10th, 2008Spencer E. Ante writes about how Facebook will spend the $100 million in venture debt it recently raised. Answer: Facebook will buy another 50,000 servers. Even more interesting is a snapshot of the scale of server farms Google and Microsoft are using.
Tommy Jarrell on fiddle: Sprout Wings and Fly (1983) — An example of why I want to make a documentary film
May 9th, 2008Watch the first three minutes of Sprout Wings and Fly. You’ll be charmed. I promise. More background at J-Walk.
Video demo of Google Earth 4.3 — OMG!
May 9th, 2008WOW! Check this video demo of Google Earth 4.3 with 3D buildings, lighting effects and integrated street view
Andy Lester’s ack — a better grep than grep + bonus: “stuff being destroyed” download video)
May 9th, 2008My programmer friends are giving ack high marks. Ack (created by Perl guru Andy Lester) is a fext file search utility that understand file hierarchies. It’s way more powerful and flexible than the standard Unix/Linux grep. Here’s what one code jockey has to say about ack:
James A. Martin on Using Google Docs Offline
May 8th, 2008James A. Martin writes about using Google Docs Offline. If this is reliable, working online usually, then syncing to laptop when going of fthe net would be very usefuIl.
BANK OWNED FORECLOSURES (Arroyo Grande, CA — May 5, 2008)
May 8th, 2008Sign of the times: BANK OWNED FORECLOSURES. A recently opened store front in Arroyo Grande, CA.