MyQuire (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

MyQuire has been acquired.  Mission accomplished.

Posted in: science , technology

Slightly Droll (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

Posted in: science , technology , wtflol

Ubiquity (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

A friend of mine had me look up Ubiquity today.  It looks extremely promising.  One of the apps that I’ve leaned on considerably is Quicksilver and this seems like something in the same vein.  Here’s a demo: 

The demo is painfully Web 2.0 in all its vernacular and tunnel vision on improving how we interact with web pages but let’s face it, the internet sucks and could use some (maybe lots) of help.  I hope this project gains steam and hits beta soon.

Another thing I thought I’d share is ies4osx.  I suspect it’s painfully old and everyone knows about it but me but in case you haven’t and you need it.  Well, there it is.  It’s so clever.  It makes me clap my hands!

Posted in: science , technology

Hey Folders! (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

This is kind of neat if you label your folders at all:  Hey Folders!

Posted in: science , technology

Epiphany! (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

I’ve realized that the Invertible Matrix Theorem is like the friend that you “forgot” to invite to the movies with the rest of your friends but shows up anyhow. You know one of your other friends invited him but they’ll never own up to it. You understand.

Posted in: science , technology

Yep! (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

Someone at work told me about Yep.  It’s like iTunes for your PDFs?  It’s actually really handy for anyone that has PDFs scattered everywhere.  Check it out if you use OS X.

Posted in: science , technology

My Simple View of Chrome (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

No live bookmarks, no use.  There’s been a lot of competitors to Firefox coming out of the woodwork but until I see some delicious support out of the box or close to out of the box then I’m not interested.  There’s plenty of usability guys out there I’m sure breaking down Chrome and its interface, I’m not one of those.  I’m a simple user with simple expectations.

Posted in: science , technology

White House Briefed on Potential for Life on Mars (Stonetable) by Adam

I did a double-take when I read the news on Slashdot this morning (the original article is on Aviation Week). The White House has been briefed by NASA officials concerning new data that is “much more complex” than the results of the test that confirmed water on Mars.

They’ve confirmed “Earth-like” soil and water. This latest news that has sparked intrigue may be related to the wet-chemical tests, where water from Earth is stirred with Martial soil. My mind is roiling with the possibilities. We may have to wait two to four weeks before an official announcement is made, though.

Go Phoenix!

Posted in: science , uncategorized

What is a Matroid? (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

This.

Posted in: science , technology

Astronomers Discover Elusive Object (Stonetable) by Adam

Posted in: science , uncategorized , writing

The Fourth Dimension as it was explained to me as a lad (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

This blew my mind when I was a kid, and influenced my thought process ever since then. This is totally worth 7 minutes 16 seconds of your time. You don't even have to be technical as long as you know what a "right angle" is. Posted in: 4th d1mension , flatland , sagan , science

Something I have noticed: (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Most of the time, when they speak about hydroponic gardens, greenhouses, growing plants in lunar colonies, and so on... they speak about tomatoes. Recently I read yet another "growing plants in space" article which mentions they now have found that hardy cyanobacteria can grow in lunar soil.

Lunar soil is inhospitable to plants because many of the nutrients it contains are locked up in tough minerals that the plants cannot break down. "It will not be able to support the growth of tomatoes" or other food plants, says Igor Brown of NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, US.

Now, for me, tomatoes aren't that great as a main staple. They are nice in a sauce, but only with a grain product like pasta (which also requires eggs) or bread. Also, I would imagine a plant like a tomato has too much "waste" product: stems and leaves. People also forget how poisonous tomato stems and leaves are; they are a relative of the nightshade family of plants, which include eggplants, potatoes, peanuts, and the deadly poinsettia.

I would want a plant that is mostly edible, like carrots, onions, radishes, lettuce, celery, beets, and so on. Make the most of what we are growing per square inch.

Then I think of all the other stuff we need like salt, protein, sugars, and complex carbohydrates that rabbit food simply won't give us. I am sure we can create salt if we have the right minerals, and maybe we could use soy protein, but how long would a space farer last in such an isolated environment? Posted in: cyanobacteria , moon , science , tomatoes

I hate doing bills (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I am in a mental war whether to do bills, or not. I have to do them, but another part of me resists, and the whole thing is making me very depressed. It's 1am, and I am barely doing anything but staring at a pile of bills. I don't understand what the problem is, and I seem to be unable to force myself to do them, which means I will be up all night until I make myself do them.

This weekend was an odd mix of being on call, getting paged, and all kinds of silliness. I had a very relaxing time babysiting for the Heare kids on Saturday. It was the first time I really bonded with "SR," as she will be known in my blog, because that's what aksident calls her over IMs (the others are K-Man and Spike). She's nine, very astute, and also a lot smarter than she lets on. Fandom teaches you many things, and one is the measure of true intelligence and wisdom versus arrogance or personification, because we get assaulted by a lot of examples of all those qualities in their various exaggerated forms. SR is damn smart and has a scientific bent she shows from time to time, but keeps this card folded close to her chest for reasons I can only guess at.

So on Saturday, I introduced her to a non-Newtonian fluid mix of cornstarch and water. She was mesmerized and played with it for almost an hour; describing out loud the experience as she experimented with doing different things. Like the mind of a scientist, and not the pink foo-foo Barbie model we thought she may end up as because she was very pink foo-foo Barbie girly at a young age.

I didn't get home util 1am, and then I had to do some online work until 4:30am because the new DST time change has fucked up computers (the OS is usually okay, but the software we use never got a patch when the bew DST changes were made by Bush, so they all crashed).

Then I got invited on a spur-of-the-moment thing and ended up at Hooters with a bunch of erotic toy and sexual aid distributors (long story, har har). I am not really a fan of Hooters, mostly because I am not into sports or ogling girls. While our company was nice (we're all going to new Orleans next month), I was still a little creeped out by the single men who eat there. People who look like "Larry the Cable Guy" sit there, eating and drinking alone, watching the skinny and busty women like lions watching elk. Yeeesh.

Then I got a migraine, got really depressed, and now I have to do bills so here I am. Posted in: bills , heares , science

Google IMAP! (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

Boosh!  Google rolls out IMAP support.  Short story, only a little boring:  I was just chatting with a coworker about how awesome it would be if Google developed IMAP support.  Well.  Heh.  Cacow.

Rachel and I can’t attend the Kelowna, BC Matthew Good show so I’ve decided to auction the tickets through their site with proceeds going to MSF.  Rachel and I talked about it some with a debate about whether they should go to a Breast Cancer fund or MSF.  I think I won the debate only due to Rachel being relatively ambivalent to where the funds would go.  She asked me why I didn’t ask for proceeds to the EFF, I replied that I felt that considering there’s a good chance that the person donating the money would be Canadian, I wouldn’t feel right about having money coming from someone outside of the U.S. to fix American problems and I’m not really up to breast with Canadian political issues outside of what is mentioned on the front page of the MG website.  It would seem an international organization that is without political agenda other than providing medical care to all humans would be the way to go.  I’ll mention here when the tickets finally go up for auction on the website should anyone that reads this feel like bidding or perhaps just monitoring the thread.  Good luck tickets, I hope you send some money MSF’s way.

I’ve been having some weird issues with my lower chest.  It’s been a bit of a trip.  So far we’ve eliminated pneumonia and perhaps a variety of other lung and heart issues.  I don’t have the laundry list, it’s in my file.  The currenty theory is that I have an out of place rib that perhaps may be affecting my breathing and creating pressure on other parts of my lower chest.  I hope that’s it.  It’s disconcerting to have issues with one’s body in the general area of the heart and lungs.  Critical operations there.

Posted in: general thought , science , technology

Seeing the 4th dimension (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Carl sagan once said, as a child, he was reading the John Carter Barsoom series, which is a series of books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (yes, of Tarzan fame) about a guy who ends up on Mars, and zany madcap fun ensues. There was a passage that states a color which mankind could not see; “[W]here are the words to describe the glorious colours that are unknown to earthly eyes? where the mind or imagination that can grasp the gorgeous scintillations of unheard-of rays as they emanate from the thousand nameless jewels of Barsoom?” The young Carl tried very hard to see a new color, but try as he might, all he could come up with was a form of purple of brown.

I had a moment like this as a child, when I was told by many books I could not see the fourth dimension (including Sagan himself). I read the adventures Edwin Abbot describes in Flatland, in a story where a 2-d being is tossed into the third dimension. I have heard countless people speculate that the 4th dimension was time itself, including Einstein.

So I tried real hard to “see” the 4th dimension since age 12. My journey towards this has resulted in a very strange view on life, I can assure you. Most of it would sound totally crazy to anyone outside of fandom, and to half the people inside of fandom. And the best I can do is say I have a general idea, based on what I have seen and try and extrapolate it down to three dimensional theory; if I am correct at all.

But rather than break this down into a discussion of physics, let me tell you a rather odd side-effect.

*IF* the 4th dimension IS time, and I am not convinced it is, it makes for a very convenient way to use the concepts of three dimensional objects in space. Not only “where” it is (3D), but “when” it is(+ 1D = 4D). In this way, an object could exist in the same space if it were different times. The 4th dimension shape of any object shifts and changes like a stop-motion blur through time. Like an apple changes shape as time goes on. To “dumb it down to 3D,” you’d see an apple as a strange object like a cone that fades to nothingness. The thin point at one end is the apple’s creation from a bud, and then at the end, the destruction of the apple via consumption or rotting is where the parts return back to a fragmented atomic state.

But, since the apple is made of atoms, this is an illusion, which is why the 3D model is flawed. But the concept of what makes an apple and apple is what’s being tracked here, and you’d have to define in your model when does an apple become and apple, and when is an apple no longer one? So convert a model down to 2D, say you have a picture of an apple you want to scan on a white background. Where does the picture begin and where does it end? And when you see that apple on the paper, you know in your head that it looks different if the picture was taken at another angle.

When I realized this, I also realized not only is space relative to the observer, but so is time.

Taking our 3D apple, we are seeing a “slice” of the apple as it is NOW. It’s a solid 3D object, kind of round. I assure you a month or so ago, the apple looked very different. It was smaller, and green. A month or so from now, if you somehow did not let the apple get eaten, it would be a mushy brown lump.

After this mind blowing revelation (at age 13, no less), I started to realize that people could also be seen as the same. Indeed, people change as time goes on, but are the same people... but then again, what would you define as “the same person?” The spirit?

I post this not because I want to make a point, but to explain some of my writings at a later date. Posted in: 4th dimension , metaphysics , science

Opera 9.5 Alpha (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

Ars Technica published a first impression of the Opera 9.5 alpha.  I finally remembered to download.  I’ve been using it for about five days now and I think that it could very well be my browser of choice for some time.  Of course, it’s fast.  Speed is a secondary concern over how it works with so-called web 2.0 websites.  All of my standard sites have worked with little issue.  Gmail only has one tiny rendering issue that is easy to hide.  Every other site has worked like a charm for me.  So, if you’re in the market for a browser that sucks less, give 9.5 (or 9.23 if you’re less daring) a spin and see if you like it.

Posted in: science , technology

Nerdy Tats (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

I have a tattoo of a Venn diagram on my left arm. I don’t really advertise it because it’s a tattoo my wife and I both have and it’s a personal expression. If someone catches a glimpse I get the invariable incredulous question, “Is that a Venn diagram?” I explain to them that it has less to do with my background in mathematics and more to do with it representing in symbolic terms my marriage with Rachel. Apparently we’re not the only ones that have done such things (nor did I assume such). I give you science tattoos!

Posted in: general thought , science , technology

Sierpinski Gasket Too! (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

My demonstration of the Sierpinski Sieve (or gasket) is up now too! Really, there’s not a whole lot of oohs and ahs going on in the demonstration; it’s very simple and can only iterate so far before it bogs one’s computer down in calculations. Although one can go further since only 3^n calculations are being made as opposed to 8^n where n is the step the demonstration is on. If one is so inclined, these figures can serve as a gateway into learning about Hausdorff dimensions.

Posted in: science , technology

Sierpinski Carpet Demo (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

I uploaded and submitted a couple of Mathematica demonstrations a few weeks ago. One of them has been published. It’s really a very simple demonstration but it utilizes the nifty new manipulate control in Mathematica 6. You can check out the demonstration even if you don’t have Mathematica 6. You can download their Mathematica Player and look at the demonstrations for free! Hopefully my Sierpinski Gasket will be up there soon. Good times with Mathematica 6.

Posted in: science , technology

Futuristic city (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

When I was in 7th grade, I had a biology teacher named Mr. Gladding. They say he was married with kids, but he just oozed homosexuality with a huge litany of stereotypes: soft passive voice, limp wrist, lilted voice, clear nail polish, and pastel sweaters. I don't say this because I didn't like him; he was a good guy, and a pretty good teacher. One of the tortuous things my parents did was an "assignment book," which Mr. Gladding refused to sign his initials. His full name? Frank Alan Gladding. I kid you not. But apart from that, we had a good repertoire, and while I agreed with almost everyone else he was SO gay, unlike the other kids, I didn't care. Mr. Gladding kept me interested in science, which given the state of mind I was in at the time, was pretty impressive on his part.

One of the lessons he had was "design a city of the future." Mine was an undersea city. I recall it's durability was due to a material that when pressure was applied unequally, it would become stronger due to an advanced crystalline structure. Thus, the city was under a dome of the material, which solved a lot of problems. The idea was partially mine, but also came from some short story sci-fi I had read once about domed cities and structural support of arches and eggs.

The project had a fatal flaw, however. When you have a class of 30 students who are expected to give a 5 minute presentation followed by 10 minutes of question and answers, not only does that take 2 weeks to complete (thus allowing more and more "unfair" slack time for those later in the alphabet), but it let those of us later in the alphabet to better prepare for some questions. My last name started with the letter "L" and so I had a week of listening to harder and harder questions that started with Mr. Gladding asking basic things like, "So where does the trash go?" to students who were allowed to ask really hard things like, "What to you do with the dead?" The first set of students were torn apart because they really were creative with the look of the project, but didn't study hard of more mundane practical matters, and I think got lower grades because they didn't add basic services like sewage and fire protection. Then the rest of us got better grades because we added those things in before our presentation came up. These futuristic cities went from Barbie's Dream Castle in the beginning to some serious plans by the time it came to me. I had it all, man. I had plumbing, sewage, waste disposal, fire, police, and everything that would later get me addicted to "Sim City." I was proud; I had thought of everything.

Then one kid asked, and his was the first question, "What would you do in a terrorist attack?"

Actually, he didn't phrase it that way, but he did say, "if the material is stronger on the outside where the pressure of the ocean keeps it strong, what happens if an explosion happens on the inside?" I said we kept everything at least half a mile away from the edge, with a nice park so people could look out of windows at the see floor. Nothing to explode there.

"So what if an evil guy puts a bomb in the park?"

I got a B- because of that question. That and my handwriting was crooked on the project poster, and I spelled two words wrong. But I was crushed. I kept thinking, "Why would anyone do that?" The sea would rush in and everyone, including the bomber, would die... oh, what if it was remote controlled? Or the bomber had an escape pod? I felt this rush of anger and unfairness that someone would ask such a question, as did many students when they got knocked down, I am sure. But everything unraveled at that one simple question.

When the threat comes from the inside, all the rules change.

Sometimes, when I am struck blindly in life by a new set of vulnerabilities, like 9/11 and other events, I think back to that classroom. Posted in: 11 , 9 , childhood , city , gladding , science , threat

Google Desktop for Linux! (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

If you’ve been interested in Google Desktop for Linux, they’ve released a beta to download and use. I have to say that I am slightly intrigued although I’m not sure how much more efficient in terms of expediency it can be over using the standbys locate, find, and a bit of grep.

Posted in: science , technology

Mathematica 6 Webinars! (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

Dare I use one of the most hated words on the Internet? I dare! I dare! I was browsing about the Wolfram website and found that they’re offering a variety of online seminars covering a variety of topics in Mathematica. The big deal? They’re free! While it won’t nearly be the same level of interaction (if any) of a live class, they do have a significant price difference. So if you’re using M.6 and you’re looking for a head start, this might be the place. I, for one, am highly interested in the graphics portion as I understand they’ve completely reworked their graphics handling. That and the demonstrations seminar on the 5th. Am I a total nerd? All signs point to yes!

I should add that they’re currently only scheduled for this week and the next. There may be future additions.

Posted in: science , technology

Stoned (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

Some time ago, I mentioned that my iPod died and that I was in search of a replacement. One probably more affordable and offering greater portability than the market leader. Ars ran a pseudo-review on a couple of digital audio players (DAPs). The review and the comments triggered an interest in the Creative Stone so I went out looking for more details. A few other reviews out there seemed to confirm that the Stone might be what I’m looking for. So I bought one.

I’m hoping it can truly fit in with my non-homogeneous computing habits although I’m keeping my expectations low. If I can manage it well on my Mac and Slack box, the recording is coherent, and the audio doesn’t sound terrible then I’ll be happy. If I can manage it with either Rhythmbox or Songbird, I will be happier. I’ll put it through the paces for a week when I get it and I’ll post my thoughts. For every review I read out there, not any many of them seem to put it into different situations to see how it behaves.

Posted in: science , technology

Is This OS X or Windows? (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

So I posted a question that has gone unanswered on Ars and poorly answered on the Apple Support forums before that. The desperation on me must be palpable since we use SMB for everything non-SVN in our office, my laptop’s inability to not just browse SMB but perform reliably during and after said browsing greatly hampers my work.

So, for those you that don’t read the Ars OpenForum, here’s an executive summary:

Sometimes when browsing SMB shares, Finder will peg my processor for about five minutes (beachball and all), the icons will get all wacked out in Finder for both the shares and my local directories, Safari will say I’ve moved files after downloading them, and it won’t let me shut down, log out, or restart my machine. These symptoms have only manifested after browsing SMB shares so far. None of them occur without the others. It’s a real party. The only way to bring my laptop back to relative sanity is to hold down the power button for X seconds. I can’t remember how long, maybe 5 or so.

I’ve done the Disk Utility dance and I’ve hit a wall on where to go next for troubleshooting. Ideas? I’ll buy you a beer if your answer is at least logical and something I haven’t done yet.

Posted in: science , technology

Mathematica & Slackware 11 (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

I had to deal with an odd issue with my Linux install of Mathematica 6. Since my issue may not be unique, I’m going to post the problem and solution. My error reads, “Mathematica could not establish a connection to the kernel. Kernel: Local. Low-level MathLink error: The linkname was missing or not in the proper form.”

The issue lies in Mathematica’s inability to access shared memory. I edited my /etc/fstab and added the following entry: tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

It works as one would normally expect.

Posted in: science , technology

More on the Mac Front (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

If one was paying attention to the WWDC, there was a segment about EA and gaming on the Mac. There was a best-of list prattled off so that Mac users that game would have something to be excited about. However, as this journal entry at Ars points out, things are not quite as they seem to be. Apparently, Transgaming’s Cider technology will be making this happen. This has possible negative implications for Mac gamers and is something that should be watched closely. I’m sure that if they turn out to suck, people just won’t buy it. The market is great like that sometimes.

Posted in: games , science , technology

Pondering Peters Place Priority Upon Pontificating About PCs (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

I had to wait a couple days after the WWDC to talk about Leopard. I think it’s Leopard. Some big cat, right? Anyhow, there’s plenty of great Previews available. The features I’m most excited about is more Automator and Spaces. QuickLooks looks pretty handy too.

As you may have heard, Apple now has Safari available for the Windows environment now too. I wouldn’t rush too fast on making it your main stay browser. It’s still very much in beta and apparently there’s already a number of major security holes found. These holes are of the “0wn3d” persuasion. This will be very interesting to watch because Apple has really thrown down the gauntlet and stated they can develop on Windows now too.

Can they patch and support their applications better than Firefox? I don’t really think that Apple is serious about shooting at IE for market share. Perhaps I’m wrong but given the number of people out there still using IE, only contrarian folks such as you and I would be interested in Safari. I think Safari will cut a little bit out of Firefox’s user base. Funny thing is, as much as I try to get rid of Firefox, I keep coming back to it because it’s the only browser that I know of that just works for everything. This more than likely is because is because every developer pretty much builds for it (isn’t that right John). We’ll see though, perhaps in a year or so, Safari will have as much market share as Firefox and it will have come out of IE’s share.

The bigger question is this, what is Apple planning that they’re developing apps on Windows? What does Mr. Jobs designing? If they’re planning on tackling Microsoft, they had better patch the Microsoft Office hole. MS stops developing Office for the Mac and Apple is in serious trouble. Just like back in the day when Mr. Gates called up the guy before Mr. Jobs (I forget his name) and said, “You start selling Mac OS for the PC and we stop selling Office.” I doubt the atmosphere is like that today but MS needs Apple less now since the talk of the MS monopoly is old and tired. Certainly Jobs is aware of these issues and has something to address them? It’d be hubris otherwise.

UPDATE: Safari 3.01 is out with fixes to the critical holes cited above.  First swing and a hit, we’ll see how this plays out as time “t” progresses.

Posted in: general thought , science , technology

eMusic DLM 4.0 Alpha (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

If you’re an eMusic customer, you may be interested in the alpha version of their download manager.  It’s based on XULRunner, which is what SongBird is also based upon.  The new eMusic DLM is a little spotty when it comes to Linux support right now; it honks at me for not having the right version of GLIBC installed but the Mac version installed and ran with little issues.  Of course, since it’s XULRunner, it uses memory right up which is typical of any app built with that code base.  As it is though, I prefer the eMusic DLM to what they have currently and perhaps you will too.

Posted in: science , technology

Slacking and Slacking (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

I thought I’d post a couple of handy links for any Slackers out there.  SlackBuilds is a great site for  finding hand built packages.  LinuxPackages is also a very nice site.  I’m sure you probably know of them but in case you don’t, well, there you go!

Posted in: science , technology

KDE 4 and the Shiny (Bandemax DOT net) by phouse

More from the KDE blog regarding the updated windows manager for KDE 4.

From the blog post:

KWin promises to ensure that KDE get the graphical boost it needs to keep the eye-candy folks happy, while providing new and usable features for the desktop environment that would not have otherwise been possible. Yet, it maintains the rock-solid foundation that a long history as an integral part of KDE has provided. It will still work (with reduced levels of effects) on any system that KDE 3 ran on, so no-one is left out in the cold. It is already the default for KDE 4 in SVN, and will be showing up in future beta releases.

I have spare cycles and I love to occupy them in eye candy related activities, so I’m looking forward to more updates. One of the features I really enjoyed was the alt-tab thumbnails. It’s simple but really increasing usability when moving between applications and windows. The video in the blog has a video playing and the video continues to play without interruption or loss in performance as a thumbnail. That’s hot sauce.

Posted in: science , technology