February 2005 Archives
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February 26, 2005
$1000 just for reading a EULA?
Proving the point that EULA's are widely ignored, PC Pitstop recently inserted a "special consideration" clause in its agreement that offered money to anyone who sent an e-mail to an address contained in the license. After 3,000 downloads and four months, one person finally took advantage of the offer and received a check in the mail for $1,000, according to the company's Web site.
It's treasure hunt time...
In reality, what you have here is Microsoft paying a mere $5 for bug reports and PC Pitstop paying $1000 for a survey to find out how frequently the EULA is actually read. In both cases, these are fairly cheap for the service they received.
Microsoft offers $5 windfall for errant software | Tech News on ZDNet
(EULA = End User License Agreement)
QDB
That's Quote Database. An it has nothing to do with bash (as in the shell) even though the URL is may evoke that feeling in some.
Travel around the country in style...
...with a net connection every where you go. This company provides the tools and training so you can have Direcway anywhere you stop your rig (so long as it has view of the correct satellite).
Very cool!
February 25, 2005
Cool Wacom drawing Tablet
... built into a 21" 1600x1200 LCD panel. Nice.
Cintiq 21UX -- Preorders for Delivery mid-to-late April - Cintiq 21UX-N0CP
February 24, 2005
Post-It's as Pixels at UCSC
And I used to go here... not that this building existed, but this is pretty cool and well done:
Will Google:Movie replace IMDB?
So, Google introduces it's new movie search and the blog community goes wild talking about it. Sure, it's not likely to get to the scale of Google:Calculator or even Google:Maps, but there are certainly a lot of fun things that can be done with it.
First off, reviews aren't just linked to but rather scraped such that an average rating can be given. Second off, if you search for a direct title you'll get to enter your zip code to get movie times. If you just search for something about the movie, you'll go directly to information about it, including reviews. Google's examples are fun, such as "red pill blue pill" but isn't there anything more interesting to search for? Ok, that doesn't quite do what I'd want. This one (fun with email) is close, where the real result is the third movie. This one (nuclear explosion) got some interesting results, but not the movie I was looking for.
So, will it replace IMDB? I'd say probably not. IMDB has so much more information. It could easily replace IMDB for figure out the name of a movie, but that's about it.
Another problem is having to put "movie:" in front of the searches. If you don't do this, but you search on a movie title that is currently in theaters, you'll get a new result box at the top, which is nice. But if you search for an older movie name, not only does it not come up with the result box, it often might come up early as an IMDB search hit. ;) (And it's not just that this particular title wasn't unique.)
So no, it won't take over IMDB. But can IMDB answer this age old question: What movies contain references to the Apple iPod? (IMDB result... tripod anyone?)
February 23, 2005
Compare the Performance of Various Programming Language
From C to Lisp, Java to Ruby, Haskell to Clean: find out how fast your favorite langue is in about 25 different performance tests.
Need to know which language is quickest for your particular problem or algorithm? Also a great place to look.
All of the code for the algorithms is also available in all languages tested.
Fun and interesting... and you might even learn something. ;)
Review of the Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000
This is a nice review of the SL-C3000, a much improved version over my Zaurus SL-C700. It runs on a processor that's two revs newer, the PXA-270 running at 416MHz, which is only 16MHz faster on the clock but lots faster with processor improvements and bug fixes that the later 760 and 860 had. The built in 4GB hard drive is wonderful. That leaves plenty of RAM for actually running applications and the CF card slot is still present for wireless options, although they should include WiFi and/or BT at some point, but the business of wireless is definitely different in Japan.
Given how long this has been out, I doubt I'd buy one at this point. My gadget budget is near non-existent these days and I'd probably rather get a new EV-DO phone (if only EV-DO was available in this area...) for some video-on-demand service. A new Archos would probably even beat out the SL-C3000, especially given all of it's multimedia capability and the fact that the latest ones run on Linux (PMA-400).
February 22, 2005
How to sell through Amazon
Simple instructions and getting books, CDs, and DVDs for sale through Amazon.
February 21, 2005
February 19, 2005
Fun with macro photography
The following two pictures are the same picture, with the second one being a crop of the first one.
The image was taken with a 75-300mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter with 57mm of extension tubes to make it all macro. The pepper shaker was about 18 inches away from the end of the lens.
The image was sized up with Adobe Camera Raw from 8 megapixels to 24 megapixels. The cropping is just under 4 megapixels. In one variant of this, I could see Laurie sitting on the couch next to me in the reflection. Quite amazing consider that the actualy size of the metal part of the shacker is barely 1/4" across.
Click on both of the following images for the full size version.
Unknown spider...
Here is another shot of the spider. They aren't that great as I had to take them through a window as it's raining outside...
What kind of spider is this?
I'm trying to figure out what kind of spider this is, but I haven't had any luck figure out what it is by looking around the net yet.
February 18, 2005
Cheap Whiteboards
Now this is a great idea. Add a couple strips of wood on the sides or top and bottom and the whole thing could be made a lot more flat (this picture makes it appear a bit... bumpy).
I wonder how well the surface holds up over time? Even good whiteboards tend to soak up the colors after a while.
Of Drivers on Highway 17
There are some really bad drivers on the road. Luckily, they usually make themselves obvious and you can steer clear of them (literally and figuratively). Unfortunately, there are also drivers that go out of their way to be annoying.
This morning there was this guy on 17 that was of this latter type. I was in the left lane, with plenty of cars to my right. I was going a wee bit fast considering it was raining -- about 60-62 mph. And this guy comes plowing up from behind and tailgates me -- he was literally about 4-6 feet off the rear of the car.
I could have tapped my breaks and had him nail me -- not in my best interest.
I come clear on the right, but he breaks around me (now going much too fast for the weather) not even checking to see if I'll get over. He then charges ahead, swerves back into the left lane (he's not using turn signals, either -- remember, it's raining). The proceeds to do the same thing to the next guy, also getting _way_ too close for any driving conditions, but dangerously close for the weather.
Then he slows down and gets back in front of me. Turns on his signal to exit off to the left (it's a highway, not a freeway) and slows down to about 15 mph -- right in front of me! Cars behind me had to swerve around me, coming incredibly close to hitting me.
He was _obviously_ doing this to be annoying.
Unfortunately, and I can't totally explain this, all I could think about for the next 10 minutes was that I wish as soon as he'd done that I had swerved around him and watched as the surprised driver behind me plowed right into him, sending him into oncoming traffic with a big semi there to plow him down. All because he wanted to go 75 mph in traffic already going 60-65 mph in the rain in an area where the speed limit is 50 mph for cars and 35 mph for trucks.
But then I realized too many nice (read: innocent) people might get hurt in the process. He seriously got me riled. Of course, I've realized that by me simply slowing down for him I actually probably prevented a big wreck.
*sigh* Oh well. Traffic was really light this morning so the rest of the drive was fine (and quick).
February 17, 2005
Miata Update
I called the auto shop that is working on our Miata (well, the place where I took it, anyway). They got back to me yesterday.
The engine is still out in Colorado at Flyin' Miata. Supposedly, only one guy at FM is doing engine work as they can't find anyone skilled enough to help him out. This means engines going there enter into a long queue.
Mine is supposed to be done within a couple of days and then shipped back to Hayward. Once there, it'll need to be put back into my Miata. This will (supposedly) only take a few days. In theory, this could all be done by next week. I'm betting on 3 weeks, which puts it into the early part of March. Any time between now and then, though, puts it right where I suspected after I got the call in early January: that it would be done by the end of February.
Oh well. It should all be worth it, although it's getting harder and harder to justify. On the plus side, it hasn't been gaining miles in the last few months.
February 15, 2005
Good Stuff...
... for anyone who finds email to be an interruption. I recently switched my email checking from 1 minute to 10 minutes. I might increase even farther because if I have a minute to look at email, I can always check it manually otherwise I really don't want to know. Of course, our company revolves around email and I don't have it notify me or anything.
Now what to do about my ever growing list of RSS feeds?
February 14, 2005
Odd Things
So, this morning I was talking to a coworker on how I don't bother with sorting email anymore because of the catch-up problem. That is, when I get behind catching up takes a long time and means sorting through lots of irrelevant email, etc.
This came up because of a coworked who was out for a while and will need to catch up on return.
Or maybe it came up because I'd read the bottom link below on pilers vs filers. I was a filer. I'm now a piler. Although I do have filters that sort out of a lot of mailing lists and other recurring things for me.
No, the odd things was that I had decided to do a lunch time search for anything related to AI at SourceForge. That led me to POPFile, which appears to do automatic email classification using a Bayesian like filter, which I read about recently in Hackers and Painters as a decent spam filter. I had wondered then if something like this couldn't be used for sorting as well as removal of spam.
Well, I'll see what this stuff is like soon enough, I guess. ;)
POPFile: POPFileDocumentationProject
ViewSonic 15" Monitor
I still have one monitor left. If anyone see it through this post, feel free to think of the asking price as no more than $15.
More info over at craigslist:
Cheap ViewSonic 15GA 15" CRT Monitor; Great condition; w/Speakers
February 11, 2005
This is Distracting.
If you have read this, read this:
On computer distraction : Lifehacker
Now you get the title. ;)
Did you click any farther? Did you blog about it yourself? Did sit and think about it for a moment?
If you've answered yes to any of these, this technology may just be for you.
It's definitely something I'd find interesting. Give me interruptions for 15 minutes every two hours. Unless it's urgent. But keep playing my music. Lower the volume while the interruptions come in. Change the red light at my cube door to green. (I wish.)
Beach at Sunset
The colors in this are kinda cool, even if the image itself is typical fuzzy Moto 710. At least it doesn't have the line static like many do.
UPS Pilots
I was listening to NPR this morning (a common occurance on my drive in). Apparently, the UPS and their Pilot's union are under negotiations and part of it is that they're hiring 200 new pilots.
That's not the interesting bit.
The interesting bit is that the average UPS pilot makes $172,000 a year. That's not bad at all for not having to dealing with passengers and such.
I had always heard that flying freight came before passenger work. If that's the csae, then passenger pilots must do reasonably well.
Now, why isn't this highlighted in mass media, or schools, for that matter? Everyone knows doctors and lawyers do well (and even us software nerds), but how many know that airline pilots are easily up near the top? (At least as far as salaried compensation goes... we're not talking about stock and other such things that can throw the balance in favor of luck (or good management and ideas))
February 10, 2005
Apple Mac mini for your Car
Of course, it fits perfectly into a DIN car stereo slot. But then what?
iDash is solving that problem with a touch screen interface designed for car use. Just give me good (offline) Navi functionality and I'm there. ;)
Handwriting => Font
This is a great way to make things from me completely illegible!
