July 3

Leonard Nimoy is fabulous (via fuckyeahleonardnimoy) (Clint Ecker (clintology))



Leonard Nimoy is fabulous

(via fuckyeahleonardnimoy)

"3GS video uploading for the Facebook iPhone app is a go—didn’t plan to include it in the 3.0..." (Clint Ecker (clintology))

“3GS video uploading for the Facebook iPhone app is a go—didn’t plan to include it in the 3.0 update, but it was really easy to code.”

- Joe Hewitt

Rev’It Turbine textile mesh motorcycle pants review (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken

The Rev'It Turbine textile mesh motorcycle pants are good riding pants, but may not be good for commuting or for use as overpants. Posted in: mesh , pants , rev'it , review , textile , turbine

Django Design Patterns (Clint Ecker (clintology))

Django Design Patterns:

This is a collection of patterns which we have found occuring commonly with Django. All of these either make collaboration easier, coding simpler or code more maintainable. None of them are design patterns in the sense of GoF design patterns. We call them design patterns as none other seem closer or more convinient. These are guidelines, which need to be overriden (very commonly, in some cases). Use your judgement when using them. As PEP8 says, “Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds.”

When you know you’ve made it (Durf.org (Durf)) by Durf

. . . is when you get phone calls at work from pump-and-dump operators. The guy on the phone just now told me he was from Addison Capital Management’s New Delhi office. This outfit has called me a few times in the past, usually to pitch some wealth management deal (offshore accounts to shelter my vast wealth from tax authorities or something).

Today the deal was on a company called EM International, which is about to announce a contract with JC Penney to produce furniture, or something. “It’s trading at $4.00 now. I won’t tell you it will go up to $10.00, but I can say that it will be trading at $6.25 within three or four months,” goes the guy. This is a deal to show me just what ACM can do for me and make me a loyal client.

A quick bit of Googling for EM International + JC Penney turns up this message board discussion in which two people report the very same EMIE/JC Penney story. Long story short, maybe I should have tried to keep the guy on the phone and get more info on the outfit to pass on to the authorities, rather than say “mm hmm, maybe not” and hang up on him.

Anyway, the most important thing to take away from all this is: Vast wealth! I gots me some of it, and they knows about it, yes they does.

Posted in: general

I had a great day ^_^ (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

The OCA gathering
I'd taken the day off today, thinking that after my morning's schedule I'd get some programming done at home. Things turned out a little bit different.

First off, this morning we had the second Open Coffee Almere meeting and it was a great success! The first meeting had only five or six people turn up and today we counted fourteen! That's awesome! One of our already-regulars was pessimistic and only expected three ^_^ A bunch of us managed to pry ourselves from our seats twenty minutes after the "official" end of the gathering, so you can assume we had a good time.

It was great meeting all these new people from Almere. First off it's a great opportunity for me to get to know the town, but there might actually be a few business opportunities around the corner :)

In the early afternoon I made two trips to the city dump to get rid of refuse from our bathroom. Ten bags of tiles and gypsum and all manner of crap needed to be brought there by car because the city's dumpsters aren't allowed to pick stuff like that up from your domestic address. Oh well, at least I got to flex my meager masculinity in a sleeveless shirt ^_^;

I did get a bit sunburnt today though, so if I keep it up a bit I may actually get a -little- tan this year :)

Today is also officially the day on which we've finished moving in. <Mario Kart>New record!</Mario Kart> We managed to unpack and store -everything- in three weeks. That's brilliant! Last night I also finished the cabling of the house, with Marli's help. Cat5e now runs up to the attic, hooking up my office and the printer to the home network.

Yep... Today was a good day!

Posted in: awesome , life , open coffee , work

(via jmdj) (Clint Ecker (clintology))



(via jmdj)
July 2

"XHTML 2 Working Group Expected to Stop Work End of 2009, W3C to Increase Resources on HTML..." (Clint Ecker (clintology))

“XHTML 2 Working Group Expected to Stop Work End of 2009, W3C to Increase Resources on HTML 5 2009-07-02: Today the Director announces that when the XHTML 2 Working Group charter expires as scheduled at the end of 2009, the charter will not be renewed. By doing so, and by increasing resources in the Working Group, W3C hopes to accelerate the progress of HTML 5 and clarify W3C’s position regarding the future of HTML. A FAQ answers questions about the future of deliverables of the XHTML 2 Working Group, and the status of various discussions related to HTML.”

- Archive of W3C News in 2009

Twitter Updates for 2009-07-02 (Devin's Life (Lurker)) by Devin

  • Haven't used this in a few days. How is everyone? #

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Posted in: tweets , uncategorized

Do you think she noticed? (The Jux Entente) by Crossed Reality

As Kirsty, Travis and I were parking at Costco after going to lunch today, a rather evil woman in an old white Celica cut us off and stole our parking spot right in front of us.

So, as we walked in, I split off from the group and placed an empty water bottle on the hood of her car.

Then, as we walked out, I placed an empty Costco-sized box of laundry detergent on the hood of her car.

Do you think she noticed?

Posted in: news

Happy Adoption Anniversary, Pearl! (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken

Lady Jaye and I adopted Pearl two years ago today. Time flies when you are busy eating everything you can possibly put your canine mouf on. Despite having absolutely horrific gas and puking up half-digested nuts and bird guts with alarming regularity, I am very glad we rescued the little white dog with Tina Turner [...] Posted in: dogs , pearl

Uh hey I’m trying to work here (via 704 Race) (Clint Ecker (clintology))



Uh hey I’m trying to work here (via 704 Race)

Excellent, gracefully degrading for just about everyone. (Clint Ecker (clintology))

Excellent, gracefully degrading for just about everyone.:

A really neat technique for providing embedded, video to almost every browser (including MobileSafari) using HTML5 when appropriate. No browser sniffing, no JavaScript required. The only issue I see is that the amount of code to provide all of this is bordering on unwieldy and definitely is ugly. Otherwise, its a brilliant solution to what is quickly becoming a huge headache:

Video for Everybody is very simply a chunk of HTML code that embeds a video into a website using the HTML5 element which offers native playback in Firefox 3.5 and Safari 3 & 4. Native OGG video playback in Firefox 3.5 (you get MPEG4 / H.264 playback in Safari).

No plugins to install. The video is played by the browser itself. It loads quickly and doesn’t threaten to crash your browser. In other browsers that do not support , it falls back to Adobe Flash. You can host locally or embed any Flash file, such as a YouTube video.

Hat tip to John Siracusa for pointing it out to me.

Shared Items - July 2, 2009 (Super Dave's Mundanities (DaveChen)) by dave

Posted in: shared

A Speeder’s Guide to Avoiding Tickets book review (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken

"A Speeder's Guide to Avoiding Tickets" is a book well worth reading if you are new to driving, or seem to get tazed a lot because you run your mouth during a traffic stop. Posted in: review
July 1

A new house, with new routines (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Since moving to Almere our lives have changed noticeably in a few ways.

For starters there's a short-term change, which luckily will only last two to three weeks: we need to go to the local swimming pool to take a shower. A contractor's currently renovating our bathroom and it'll take him about fourteen days. :/

Then, there's the big stuff...

Since moving in we've started separating our household garbage. In Utrecht we used to dump everything into trash bags, resulting in three to four bags of crap each week. These days we have separate boxes for paper, glass, plastics and chemicals/metals in our store room, resulting in only one bag of "misc" trash actually making it to the truck. Of course, it does mean weekly trips to the recycling station, but that's only half an hour each week.

Speaking of cleaning, the move has turned Marli into a veritable house mom! We used to share things pretty evenly, but now she's really taken charge! I'm very proud of her and also happy in the fact that I can focus more on other things now.

What else? Oh yeah, cooking! With the house came a Whirlpool induction hob. We had it serviced yesterday because it was a bit flaky, but I have to admit: cooking on induction is an absolute win :) I thought I'd be pining for a gas hob, but no. It's fast, it's responsive and there's less heat spreading into the kitchen and the rest of the house. Lovely.

Posted in: life
June 30

Wow, that new Airport Extreme is really something! (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

As described earlier I got one of those new Airport Extreme base stations for our new IT setup at home. I have to say, it's really something!

Of course the setup was a snap and I easily set it up like our old AExpress. Connecting to the new 5GHz network was a snap as well, and the old Kilala network's still there for my iPhone and Kaijuu's laptop. But what's astonishing is the range of the new 5 gig net! I'm typing this up in the attic, where (according to Speedtest.net I'm getting a 12.2 / 1.7 Mbps connection. One floor down in the bedroom we're at 27.3 / 2.5, just like downstairs. That's pretty damn good! The old 2.4 Ghz net would not have reached up into the attic.

Now all I need to do is worm the cat5e cable through the house, to get full 1 Gbps upstairs for backups, file sharing and printing.

Posted in: apple , geeky , other tech

100 Pushup Challenge (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken

So, there’s a thread over in the Lounge forum at Ars Technica about the 100 Pushup Challenge. The program prepares you to do one hundred pushups in a row — starting with 0 at week one, and ending up with 100 on week six. I just finished my second tour of duty with Tony Horton’s [...] Posted in: fitness & grooming , one hundred pushups

A little morning reading (rianjs.net (Hanser)) by Rian

I read an article last night by Michael Nielsen entitled "Is scientific publishing about to be disrupted?" It was probably one of the best articles I've read in at least a month. This morning I woke up earlier than expected, and I decided to check out the author's background, and suddenly it made sense that I was impressed with the content. Fortunately (unfortunately?) he linked to a bunch of other stuff he's written, and I found myself popping open new browser tabs as though I were browsing Wikipedia.

This led to a great deal of copying and pasting. 34, two-column, 10pt, 4×0.5" margin pages later, I have a whole pile of reading material. (I read offline because my attention span whilst on the computer isn't what it needs to be for longer, denser pieces.) I've worked my way through a great deal of it, and I find myself wishing I had stuck with Computer Science a while longer.

In any event, here's the list. Enjoy.

The last two aren't written by Nielsen, but they're worth reading, especially if you're interested in open science.

Posted in: culture , science & technology

Michael Jackson and the Scapegoat? (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

Michael Jackson was probably a complex character, just like every single one of us is probably a complex character. He probably did a lot of good things (would being successful at making music be considered a good thing?) and he probably did a lot of wrong things as well. A number of years ago, I got the distinct impression that we all wanted Michael Jackson to go away. The pejorative “Wacko Jacko” gained traction and he was widely maligned by entertainers, reporters, and regular folks. I’m not saying anything new.

Well, we got our wish. He went away. In his death, he’s being celebrated and he should be. Redemption is part of the human experience. I don’t want to take away from the rituals we perform when one passes away, no matter how far from our dailies lives they exist. It just all seems so duplicitous. The very voices and faces that ridiculed the person for who he was now celebrate his life or mourn his passing. I’m having a hard time believing that it’s anything but business for them. Just as they capitalized on his eccentricities and transgressing of our social mores, they’re capitalizing on his death. Part of me recognizes that this part of business. The reality is that one of the purposes of business (if not THE business) is to meet demand and demand comes from us.

So, do we mourn out of pure loss or do we mourn as an act of collective guilt? It was our prurience that brought Michael Jackson’s behavior to the forefront so we could flog him with our words and our brows. I feel that he was, in many ways, one of our modern scapegoats.

My own feelings on Mr. Jackson? I didn’t know him enough to like or hate him. I didn’t like the character Michael Jackson that the media showed me but we all know how that is. I really wanted the stories to go away but really, if it wasn’t him, it would be someone else so my complaint was a general one not one with him per se. His business was his business and the business that other people had with them was just that. My life was in no way enriched by reading the latest goings on.

The one thing we should be talking about that we aren’t talking about is our faceless aggregate prurience and our conceit to being this all-knowing eye. I’d like to see people asking if it’s okay to form an opinion on a subject after reading one news article. What about two? Read five to seven paragraphs on a subject and all of a sudden we’re experts. We’re informed. I just don’t think it works like that.

And yes, yes I am quite guilty of thinking that way myself. That’s why it’s worth talking about.

Blogged with the Flock Browser
Posted in: general thought

Jade and Steve’s Huevos Rancheros (All Things Chill (Special*Dark)) by specialdark@allthingschill.com

p1010007

I wanted to make a special breakfast before Steve and Jade flew back to SF, so I grabbed a few things from the Ballard market and mashed it up with the leftover grub from Saturday’s BBQ. Enter: HUEVOS RANCHEROS. WHHEEEEEEEE.

Here’s how I layered these bad boys (from bottom to top):

Fried corn tortilla
Black beans (w/ cumin and Mexican oregano)
Grilled corn (cut off the cob)
Ranchero sauce (tomato / ancho / jalapeno)
Fried eggs
Green onions
Grated monterey Jack cheese
Cilantro

I also had a bowl of crispy mojo pork to pick at too. I also served that with a huge plate of chicken hot wings (thanks Dallas). HAHA. Not the most traditional of breakfast side dishes, but these leftovers aren’t gonna eat themselves AND HEY WE’RE ALL ON VACATION. LOL.

Bfast with friends makes food taste better! :)

~Spec

Posted in: cooking culture , cuisine , recipes

Not all cliches are bad (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Judy Garland
One of the things Marli and I differ in greatly is my love for classic, musical movies. I for one love flicks like High society and The wizard of Oz, while Marli's the one who starts retching at the first sight of them. I guess she let me watch tonight's movie because it's my birthday. ^_^

Recently TCM aired Meet me in St. Louis (Wiki) at a rather inopportune time. Luckily we now have a DVR and we're using the heck out of it! Anywho, with Dana beside me on the couch I finally got to watch it to the end. All the cliches were there! The coy behaviour towards the naive love interest. At least one uber-camp song+dance. The misunderstanding between lovers. The big disaster that breaks them up. The sudden surprise that brings them together again. Yes, it was all there!



And then it struck me: it wasn't cliche! It was the -source- of the cliche! Everything that we know and love (and groan about) originates from these classic movies :)

So yeah, not all cliches are bad.

Posted in: movies

Stalking Punkie's Thoughts (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

My latest brain droppings

  • 00:15 "There's no 'S' in Burt Bacharach..." Or in Hal David. #
  • 00:38 "Its a Mr. Death or something. He's come about 'the reaping?' ... I don't think we need any..." #
  • 07:37 First Metro ride back since accident. My train was short; only 4 cars. But not that much more crowded than usual. #
  • 09:23 Made it to work, took about 40 minutes longer than normal. Trains running slower, pausing at stations longer, and using less cars. #
  • 09:24 I want to officially retire "Mondays suck" as a small talk topic. Mondays are a chance to start over again and have a better week, yo. #
  • 09:31 I want to shake the "Mondays suck" people and tell them I worked 9 years in retail w/NO WEEKENDS & EXTRA HOURS on holidays. Yeah. So there! #
  • 09:39 WMATA's Twitter feed people forget the 140 character minimum, and often their announcements end abruptly at a crucial preposition. #
  • 12:01 Three hours sleep is no way for me to go through life, brain. #
  • 12:06 Man, I am one crabby patty. #
  • 12:42 Why is it when *I* order delivery for ppl, shit gets fucked up? Every. Damn. Time. It's why I never order delivery from any place, any time. #
  • 13:35 @ephrog Gees man, so sorry... I have been through several of those. remember, no matter what you may feel, it's not your fault. #
  • 15:15 @ephrog *EVERY* layoff I have had was good in the long run, if not great. #
  • 16:15 RT @donttrythis How about some GREAT NEWS?! MythBusters' Kari is the proud mom of a baby girl! Congrats, Kari! #
  • 17:11 @ninjacooter yeah, the media doesn't have a clue what a scale of a disaster is anymore. #
  • 18:07 My train car has been losing power on and off all ride from Metro Center. Man, this transit system is in critical condition... #
  • 18:13 RT @DrewFromTV: Drew Carey on religious hatred: bit.ly/YWht8 #
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The reddest salmon I’ve ever seen. We subsequently cooked... (Clint Ecker (clintology))



The reddest salmon I’ve ever seen. We subsequently cooked and ate it. (via 704 Race)
June 29

Zeikos ZE-WRC5 Wireless Remote for Canon digital cameras review (Gibberish is my native language (DrFaulken)) by drfaulken

Here's the short story: the Zeikos wireless remote shutter release for Canon cameras is a piece of garbage. Posted in: canon , photography , review , zeikos

Giving up my iPod for a Walkman (Clint Ecker (clintology))

Giving up my iPod for a Walkman:

a 13 year old kid uses a 30-year old Walkman for a few days. Out comes some pretty funny stuff ;)

It took me three days to figure out that there was another side to the tape. That was not the only naive mistake that I made; I mistook the metal/normal switch on the Walkman for a genre-specific equaliser, but later I discovered that it was in fact used to switch between two different types of cassette.

I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down ‘rewind’ and releasing it randomly Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn’t is “shuffle”, where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.

So! The big three-O... (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

Hmm, I -do- feel a bit older today. I feel a bit sickish and my legs are wobbly, though this may be cause by yesterday's barbecue and the jog to catch my train ^_^

So, yes... Thirty. Three-O. Threeeee Zeeero... I play like in my teens, I work like in my twenties and luckily I run the rest of my life true to my age. Seems like a healthy enough combination to me.

Xander van D, if you happen to read this: happy birthday to you too :)

Posted in: life

How I started my day this morning: a big cup of tea, a cat, and... (Clint Ecker (clintology))



How I started my day this morning: a big cup of tea, a cat, and a Kindle (via 704 Race)

I really love this dress that Jacqui made. The fabric is cool... (Clint Ecker (clintology))



I really love this dress that Jacqui made. The fabric is cool (via 704 Race)

System Of Touch Launches Birdfeed (Clint Ecker (clintology))

System Of Touch Launches Birdfeed:

taylorcarrigan:

Birdfeed has quickly taken the place of all its competitors on the home screen of my iPhone. Birdfeed presents a beautiful, functional representation of Twitter across all aspects of its interface. Where other clients — even the venerable Tweetie — came more quickly to the shelves of the App Store, the time put into polishing Birdfeed really shows.

I would be remiss if I didn’t note that Buzz also—as of the last time I saw him—has an excellent beard!