Slashdot Mirror

I run dual 19" LCD's (similar to your dual 21" CRT's) and while this isn't too shabby, it's kinda annoying when one is working on stuff and it spans more than one screen (even though my bezel's are less than 1"). For instance, here's a 3,108x300 pixel panorama from Longs Peak Colorado (the original is 17,797x1,1718 pixels) and being able to streatch thigns across the screen is pretty darn nice at times. Good luck with your wife! ;-)

Just to followup on my own post, part 1 (with detailed log data and whois records) is now posted where I talk about how Graeme stole my web site and tried to profit from it.

The contact information on the web site was my own (!) ... so all I could do was take a look at whois data and send 'em a "WTF" note - it did get resolved (whole summary coming shortly), but having at least SOMEONE to contact via whois was helpful.

Having said that, it does suck that the spammers harvest these Email addresses.

I have some satellite pictures of my house and would like to have have it programmed to zoom in on my neighbor when she is sunbathing topless two doors down ... ;-)

There is no hope for me "The Fun Guy" ... heck, I even have a Nigritude Ultramarine Hulk ;-)

As noted, the details on this are sketchy, but I HIGHLY doubt it's a 70 megapixel camera - just a rotater/stitcher on top of a run-of-the-mill digicam platform. What they probably make easy for you is keeping the exposure exact, the shooting location the same, and stitching it all togather for you.

You too can do this (with a little effort) - for example, here is a Longs Peak Panorama generated by stitching togather a dozen or so pictures from a Canon G5 consumer digicam. It does look a bit wierd seeing a rotated view on a flat surface though.

Are these the three shotgun dudes guarding your house three days/week?!? ;-)

BTW, along the lines of that Grand Canyon shot, Page 3 of the original article also showed a stitched panorama of Pike Peak, Colorado - if you are interested, here is series of pictures of Longs Peak Colorado which includes a Longs Peak Panorama similar to the one in the original article - this is yet another example where digital makes stuff like this easier.

BTW, along the lines of that Grand Canyon shot, Page 3 of the original article also showed a stitched panorama of Pike Peak, Colorado - if you are interested, here is series of pictures of Longs Peak Colorado which includes a Longs Peak Panorama similar to the one in the original article - this is yet another example where digital makes stuff like this easier.

You want him to learn in a "real-world" settings rather than a video game - there is no "reset" button in the former. Along those lines, the local police almost always have a "drunk driver/accident" exhibit which shows what a car looks look after a crash - and may also have pictures of victims - yea, it's a SHOCK, but you really want to impress upon him that he has to be careful, not only for himself, but for others.

And going out with him (again, in the real-world) might be FUN for father/son rather than sitting in front of a screen - he'll be leaving the house shortly and going off on his own, so you might regret not spending this time now.

Finally, I still do something like this with my wife who's "worried" about driving in snow - I take her to a empty parking lot and have her drive around to see what it feels like to slide/brake/etc. in snow - highly, highly recommended with your son if you live where weather is a factor - slippery roads are a whole new ballgame. Make sure you emphasize the difference between pumping the brakes (for older cars) and anti-skid braking where you do NOT want to do this.

Oh yeah, one more thing - tell him to watch out for Photo Radar - we don't need any more pictures like that one! ;-)

OK - lets see how smart /.'ers are ... if you took a manometer up in the blimp with you, would the pressure go up or down as you rise in altitude ... and would it matter if the blimp is filled with Helium or Hydrogen?!? ;-)

Hulk still thinks Slashdot shoulda thrown their hat in the ring, but they declined, saying it wouldn't be proper ...

He does a real nice job describing his experience with it in an article titled "A Postcard from VisitorVille" which includes some nifty pictures - highly recommended viewing.

You may have a second chance around Christmas Time - I'm thinking of implementing the same concept/idea for my webcam/webcontrolled Christmas lights - see item #3 in what's planned/new for Christmas 2004 ... which if successfully implemented, will make for a additional factor to consider in my Slashdot Effect Analysis

You may have a second chance around Christmas Time - I'm thinking of implementing the same concept/idea for my webcam/webcontrolled Christmas lights - see item #3 in what's planned/new for Christmas 2004 ... which if successfully implemented, will make for a additional factor to consider in my Slashdot Effect Analysis

HEY ... better to meet people on the web that say, on the road - how would you like to meet this guy who got caught Nose Picken' on Photo Radar ;-)

Seriousely, the NX stuff is a "good" thing to add to slow down malicious code - the only thing better would be a HULK Instruction which would SMASH Puny Human malicious code ... ;-)

Read more about RoShamBo here

I don't pay too much attention to the ads since it kinda runs by itself, and my experience is that Google does a pretty darn good job targetting 'em ... but I sometimes get a bit of a chuckle out of what shows up - for instance, I have some Lunar Eclipse Pictures and one of the Adsense ads was some place selling real estate on the moon! ;-)

I don't pay too much attention to the ads since it kinda runs by itself, and my experience is that Google does a pretty darn good job targetting 'em ... but I sometimes get a bit of a chuckle out of what shows up - for instance, I have some Lunar Eclipse Pictures and one of the Adsense ads was some place selling real estate on the moon! ;-)

You can read more at my Slashdot Effect on Christmas Lights page.

You can read more at my Slashdot Effect on Christmas Lights page.

HEY ... if you are going to make the first post, at least include a picture of a weapons of mass destruction ;-)

Back in the 1995, the Usenet group boulder.general had some bozo who kept asking who the "Administrator" of this Usenet Group was (for those that don't know, there is none!) ... so a couple of us kept speaking up and jacking him around by saying we were ... but then (in typical Uselessnet fashion), there was a a big discussion about how come WE were the administrators, and how it should be decided ... it was all light-hearted.

We talked about settling with Rock Paper Scissors (aka RoShamBo) ... but we decided the best way was a DOOM deathmatch ... and thanx to Google, I actually found a web page that documents the DOOM Deathmatch to determine who is the Administrator of boulder.general ;-)

I also found a Usenet thread courtesy of Google Groups Note that we played on Pentium 90 MHz machine - was pretty state-of-the-art back then! ;-)

I figure as a UW fan, you'd appreciate the pictures of CopperTone Girl at Husky Stadium and McMahon Hall Handstands ... 7 stories up! ;-)

I figure as a UW fan, you'd appreciate the pictures of CopperTone Girl at Husky Stadium and McMahon Hall Handstands ... 7 stories up! ;-)

I had something similar happen with my christmas lights display when a friendly neighbor vandelized my snowman ... but I don't think he was aware I had a webcam on it and caught him in the act! ;-)

My all-time favorite (and semi-unique) was whupping my brother in a game of Rock Paper Scissors ( RoShamBo ) after he Slashdotted my Christmas Webcam.

I had something similar happen with my christmas lights display when a friendly neighbor vandelized my snowman ... but I don't think he was aware I had a webcam on it and caught him in the act! ;-)

My all-time favorite (and semi-unique) was whupping my brother in a game of Rock Paper Scissors ( RoShamBo ) after he Slashdotted my Christmas Webcam.

If you are interested, read more about how Swatch and syslog are used in a large production environment.

First, lets use an M-1 Carbine to hunt 'em like rats!
After that, have the Three Shotgun Dudes shoot 'em up!
If the spammer is still kick'in, fire an RPG at 'em!
And finally, to finish 'em off, use these weapons of mass destruction!

Put whatever is left of the spammer on my back yard, and I'll have The Incredible Hulk drop off my roof and SMASH 'em!

First, lets use an M-1 Carbine to hunt 'em like rats!
After that, have the Three Shotgun Dudes shoot 'em up!
If the spammer is still kick'in, fire an RPG at 'em!
And finally, to finish 'em off, use these weapons of mass destruction!

Put whatever is left of the spammer on my back yard, and I'll have The Incredible Hulk drop off my roof and SMASH 'em!

First, lets use an M-1 Carbine to hunt 'em like rats!
After that, have the Three Shotgun Dudes shoot 'em up!
If the spammer is still kick'in, fire an RPG at 'em!
And finally, to finish 'em off, use these weapons of mass destruction!

Put whatever is left of the spammer on my back yard, and I'll have The Incredible Hulk drop off my roof and SMASH 'em!

First, lets use an M-1 Carbine to hunt 'em like rats!
After that, have the Three Shotgun Dudes shoot 'em up!
If the spammer is still kick'in, fire an RPG at 'em!
And finally, to finish 'em off, use these weapons of mass destruction!

Put whatever is left of the spammer on my back yard, and I'll have The Incredible Hulk drop off my roof and SMASH 'em!

First, lets use an M-1 Carbine to hunt 'em like rats!
After that, have the Three Shotgun Dudes shoot 'em up!
If the spammer is still kick'in, fire an RPG at 'em!
And finally, to finish 'em off, use these weapons of mass destruction!

Put whatever is left of the spammer on my back yard, and I'll have The Incredible Hulk drop off my roof and SMASH 'em!

GREAT job Scaled Folks - next stop is 100 Kilometers up! ;-)

P.S. While they are up there, can you take some more some pictures of my house! ;-)

I agree with another poster that ultimatelly these guys want to sell you something, and it is that company that should (also!) get busted big-time. These guys are in the same sewer as Email spammers - too bad we can't just have the Hulk drop on 'em! ;-)

Trying to "restrict" sudo access via ! commands is dumb - there are too many shell escapes, etc. At some point, you MUST trust your admins, so just give 'em sudo=ALL. Having said that, I would setup syslogging to a central loghosts, and have some sort of audit process so if someone does an "su root" or a "sudo csh" (or futzs with the syslog configuration), then you beat 'em over the head with a baseball bat! ;-)

Ohhhh ... you say can't do the later ... then you are basically screwed, since if you don't have management support for this, you'll never succeed unless all of your admins realize having logging/accountability/etc. of root-type actions is a darn good thing for everyone - those type of folks work hard to make SURE whatever they do is logged ... whereas there always seems to be at least one admin who thinks they are above this stuff - some eventually learn, some don't.

BTW, note the loghosts (plural) above ... you should have this allready in place for general security purposes ... and NO admin should have access to all of the loghost machines - i.e. this allows you to deal with renegade Sysadmins who cover try to cover their tracks ... or worse yet, someone who tries to "frame" another Sysadmin.

sudoscript was allready mentioned as a nice compliment to sudo, and the sudo tools are also handy for some auditing features.

Trying to "restrict" sudo access via ! commands is dumb - there are too many shell escapes, etc. At some point, you MUST trust your admins, so just give 'em sudo=ALL. Having said that, I would setup syslogging to a central loghosts, and have some sort of audit process so if someone does an "su root" or a "sudo csh" (or futzs with the syslog configuration), then you beat 'em over the head with a baseball bat! ;-)

Ohhhh ... you say can't do the later ... then you are basically screwed, since if you don't have management support for this, you'll never succeed unless all of your admins realize having logging/accountability/etc. of root-type actions is a darn good thing for everyone - those type of folks work hard to make SURE whatever they do is logged ... whereas there always seems to be at least one admin who thinks they are above this stuff - some eventually learn, some don't.

BTW, note the loghosts (plural) above ... you should have this allready in place for general security purposes ... and NO admin should have access to all of the loghost machines - i.e. this allows you to deal with renegade Sysadmins who cover try to cover their tracks ... or worse yet, someone who tries to "frame" another Sysadmin.

sudoscript was allready mentioned as a nice compliment to sudo, and the sudo tools are also handy for some auditing features.

If I were you, I'd go for it! Remember you have to do a few things per the contest rules per the link above, but in case you are wondering, I have ZERO issues with you taking the credit and walking off with the prize(s) if you win - after all, it is YOUR web site! ;-) You have a good chance of taking it - unless someone gets a link from a Page Rank 100 page - after my article submission, I realized this is a pretty funny link that I forgot to add.

I would totally mod-up your post, but I'm a schmuck ... so hopefully someone else will for you (although obviousely you can do so yourself) as I bet a buncha Slashdott'ers would also say go for it!

alek

P.S. Actually Timothy, if you do win, can I ask a favor and get a couple hours heads-up if you guys Slashdot my Christmas Lights again? I'd like to warn the neighbors before the lights go beserko, and also monitor things when the deluge hits - X10 is a bit squirrly, so even with some multi-threading, I'm going to be pushing it with the 1 (versus 5) second throttle this year ... and it's hard to test this. BTW, if you haven't tried it, you might get a chuckle out of the Javascript pop-ups if you click from Slashdot on my Christmas Webcam link.

If I were you, I'd go for it! Remember you have to do a few things per the contest rules per the link above, but in case you are wondering, I have ZERO issues with you taking the credit and walking off with the prize(s) if you win - after all, it is YOUR web site! ;-) You have a good chance of taking it - unless someone gets a link from a Page Rank 100 page - after my article submission, I realized this is a pretty funny link that I forgot to add.

I would totally mod-up your post, but I'm a schmuck ... so hopefully someone else will for you (although obviousely you can do so yourself) as I bet a buncha Slashdott'ers would also say go for it!

alek

P.S. Actually Timothy, if you do win, can I ask a favor and get a couple hours heads-up if you guys Slashdot my Christmas Lights again? I'd like to warn the neighbors before the lights go beserko, and also monitor things when the deluge hits - X10 is a bit squirrly, so even with some multi-threading, I'm going to be pushing it with the 1 (versus 5) second throttle this year ... and it's hard to test this. BTW, if you haven't tried it, you might get a chuckle out of the Javascript pop-ups if you click from Slashdot on my Christmas Webcam link.

As alluded in the "Note to Slashdot Editors" (thought they would prune that), I first want to emphasize I have NO relationships with the folks running this content - I just think it is hilarious, although it will certainly provide some insights into how Google works, and we'll see all sorts of whacky things from the SEO pro's - again, I am not one of 'em.

Second, I hadn't thought about Slashdot ranking 1st for the contest as some have suggested - now that would be a crackup! Unfortunately, Slashdot won't allow you to place in IMG tag in a post (a requirement of the contest is a small image on the page), plus I'm not a member of the SearchGuild, so I'm not elgible ... maybe Cmdr Taco or Timothy need an iPod and/or 17" LCD - go for it! ;-)

Third, you know the folk at Google have gotten wind of this contest, and if I were them, I'd put a link on the main page to their own nigritude ultramarine page. I.e. Google should NOT tinker with their algorithms, but with a link from their PR10 main page, that certainly should shoot 'em up in the rankings. I gotta wonder if the pre-IPO Google would do this - we'll see with the "new" Google ;-)

Fourth, I appreciate some of the comments from folks about my Christmas Lights and the Christmas Webcam with webcontrol (yes, you can turn the lights ON and OFF via the web) which actually been on Slashdot before - in fact, you can read my Slashdot Effect Analysis from last year. I assure you it should be MUCH more interesting this year, as due to some multi-threaded optimizations, I think I'll be able to reduce the throttle from minimum 5-second updates to 1-second updates. I'm going to have to be REALLY NICE to my neighbors, 'cause it will be quite the flickering light show in December/2004 ... although I usually fire it up for a test-run in October as part of my Halloween Decorations and Lights.

alek

P.S. One thing slight off-topic is the Google Compute project which I thought I mention to those Slashdotters with idle CPU time that want to help the Stanford Folding@Home project - this really is a good cause.

As alluded in the "Note to Slashdot Editors" (thought they would prune that), I first want to emphasize I have NO relationships with the folks running this content - I just think it is hilarious, although it will certainly provide some insights into how Google works, and we'll see all sorts of whacky things from the SEO pro's - again, I am not one of 'em.

Second, I hadn't thought about Slashdot ranking 1st for the contest as some have suggested - now that would be a crackup! Unfortunately, Slashdot won't allow you to place in IMG tag in a post (a requirement of the contest is a small image on the page), plus I'm not a member of the SearchGuild, so I'm not elgible ... maybe Cmdr Taco or Timothy need an iPod and/or 17" LCD - go for it! ;-)

Third, you know the folk at Google have gotten wind of this contest, and if I were them, I'd put a link on the main page to their own nigritude ultramarine page. I.e. Google should NOT tinker with their algorithms, but with a link from their PR10 main page, that certainly should shoot 'em up in the rankings. I gotta wonder if the pre-IPO Google would do this - we'll see with the "new" Google ;-)

Fourth, I appreciate some of the comments from folks about my Christmas Lights and the Christmas Webcam with webcontrol (yes, you can turn the lights ON and OFF via the web) which actually been on Slashdot before - in fact, you can read my Slashdot Effect Analysis from last year. I assure you it should be MUCH more interesting this year, as due to some multi-threaded optimizations, I think I'll be able to reduce the throttle from minimum 5-second updates to 1-second updates. I'm going to have to be REALLY NICE to my neighbors, 'cause it will be quite the flickering light show in December/2004 ... although I usually fire it up for a test-run in October as part of my Halloween Decorations and Lights.

alek

P.S. One thing slight off-topic is the Google Compute project which I thought I mention to those Slashdotters with idle CPU time that want to help the Stanford Folding@Home project - this really is a good cause.

As alluded in the "Note to Slashdot Editors" (thought they would prune that), I first want to emphasize I have NO relationships with the folks running this content - I just think it is hilarious, although it will certainly provide some insights into how Google works, and we'll see all sorts of whacky things from the SEO pro's - again, I am not one of 'em.

Second, I hadn't thought about Slashdot ranking 1st for the contest as some have suggested - now that would be a crackup! Unfortunately, Slashdot won't allow you to place in IMG tag in a post (a requirement of the contest is a small image on the page), plus I'm not a member of the SearchGuild, so I'm not elgible ... maybe Cmdr Taco or Timothy need an iPod and/or 17" LCD - go for it! ;-)

Third, you know the folk at Google have gotten wind of this contest, and if I were them, I'd put a link on the main page to their own nigritude ultramarine page. I.e. Google should NOT tinker with their algorithms, but with a link from their PR10 main page, that certainly should shoot 'em up in the rankings. I gotta wonder if the pre-IPO Google would do this - we'll see with the "new" Google ;-)

Fourth, I appreciate some of the comments from folks about my Christmas Lights and the Christmas Webcam with webcontrol (yes, you can turn the lights ON and OFF via the web) which actually been on Slashdot before - in fact, you can read my Slashdot Effect Analysis from last year. I assure you it should be MUCH more interesting this year, as due to some multi-threaded optimizations, I think I'll be able to reduce the throttle from minimum 5-second updates to 1-second updates. I'm going to have to be REALLY NICE to my neighbors, 'cause it will be quite the flickering light show in December/2004 ... although I usually fire it up for a test-run in October as part of my Halloween Decorations and Lights.

alek

P.S. One thing slight off-topic is the Google Compute project which I thought I mention to those Slashdotters with idle CPU time that want to help the Stanford Folding@Home project - this really is a good cause.

As alluded in the "Note to Slashdot Editors" (thought they would prune that), I first want to emphasize I have NO relationships with the folks running this content - I just think it is hilarious, although it will certainly provide some insights into how Google works, and we'll see all sorts of whacky things from the SEO pro's - again, I am not one of 'em.

Second, I hadn't thought about Slashdot ranking 1st for the contest as some have suggested - now that would be a crackup! Unfortunately, Slashdot won't allow you to place in IMG tag in a post (a requirement of the contest is a small image on the page), plus I'm not a member of the SearchGuild, so I'm not elgible ... maybe Cmdr Taco or Timothy need an iPod and/or 17" LCD - go for it! ;-)

Third, you know the folk at Google have gotten wind of this contest, and if I were them, I'd put a link on the main page to their own nigritude ultramarine page. I.e. Google should NOT tinker with their algorithms, but with a link from their PR10 main page, that certainly should shoot 'em up in the rankings. I gotta wonder if the pre-IPO Google would do this - we'll see with the "new" Google ;-)

Fourth, I appreciate some of the comments from folks about my Christmas Lights and the Christmas Webcam with webcontrol (yes, you can turn the lights ON and OFF via the web) which actually been on Slashdot before - in fact, you can read my Slashdot Effect Analysis from last year. I assure you it should be MUCH more interesting this year, as due to some multi-threaded optimizations, I think I'll be able to reduce the throttle from minimum 5-second updates to 1-second updates. I'm going to have to be REALLY NICE to my neighbors, 'cause it will be quite the flickering light show in December/2004 ... although I usually fire it up for a test-run in October as part of my Halloween Decorations and Lights.

alek

P.S. One thing slight off-topic is the Google Compute project which I thought I mention to those Slashdotters with idle CPU time that want to help the Stanford Folding@Home project - this really is a good cause.

Feel free to mod this as off topic but I am very impressed with the authors site: nigritude ultramarine. Those are some impressive Christmas lights!

Another cool thing is Iridium Flares which are bright flashes of reflected sunlight from the Iridium satellite solar panels for 5-20 seconds - here is an excellent writeup about those including how to predict 'em!

Another cool thing is Iridium Flares which are bright flashes of reflected sunlight from the Iridium satellite solar panels for 5-20 seconds - here is an excellent writeup about those including how to predict 'em!

I.e. get some new devices, play around with them, and write the obvious stuff about them. The article talks about how he "stopped" Smart Tags and Turbo Tax licensing ... but I'd argue "DUHHHH" ... everyone agreed these were bad ideas ... but if the WSJ writes about, then I guess it must be true! And his comments on the user interfaces aren't exactly rocket science. Note that since he is such as "name", he gets amazingly early access to stuff, and folks I know in "bizness" say he has a HUGE influence.

It has seemed in the last few years that his assistants are mentioned more often in the columns, which leads me to wonder if he has scaled back his workload/reviewing/writing and just coasting on his name/column.

I.e. I'm not sure that whoever is the technology editor at the WSJ makes that much difference - as long as they are reasonably competent in their reviews/writings, they will be well read.

Having said all of the above, he has an column read by millions in the WSJ ... where all I have is my personal web page! ;-)

Should be a lot more fun than watching my grass grow! ;-)

I imagine this page would be about as exciting as anything else they are looking at. alek