And for TOTAL newbies, try this:
on
Astronomy Hacks
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· Score: 3, Informative
For total night-sky newbies, try Stikky Night Skies. As they say, "Learn 6 constellations, 4 stars, a planet, a galaxy, and how to navigate at night-in one hour, guaranteed." Using a mix of programmed instruction and engaging text, this short-but-sweet book acts as in "installer program" that installs some basic, fun astronomical information into your brain.
They have the first section online here. If you can't already find Betelgeuse, you will be able to fifteen minutes after clicking on this link.
-Mark, simply an extremely satisfied customer, and budding night-sky observer
What? No Wallace and Grommit landing site?
on
Google Moon Debuts
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· Score: 3, Funny
The full-zoom view of the Moon is worth the price of admission all by itself. ("That's it Gromit....che..eeese. We'll go somewhere where there's cheese!")
It's too bad that they don't identify all the other historically significant moon landing and lunar event sites -- Wallace and Grommit's landing site from "Grand Day Out" (1991), the big splat from "A Trip To The Moon" (1902), the nuclear explosions opposite Moonbase Alpha (September 13, 1999). Now that I think about it, it's probably only a matter of days before someone makes this as a Google Moon Hack.
-Mark
First try "show known nodes"...
on
DECnet Isn't Dead
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· Score: 2, Informative
Stumbled onto a VMS/DECNet machine and want to explore a little? First try "show known nodes", and then... our friends at Phrack have a HOWTO guide, including a copy of the all-important "TELL.COM".
Operating System Concepts is a great book for learning about what an OS is and the design choices that go into building one. We used that book way back in my college days, and it's one of the few textbooks I actually kept. Here's an excerpt from the (linked PDF) chapter on Mach:
Mach 2.5 is also the basis for the operating system on the NeXT workstation, the brainchild of Steve Jobs, of Apple Computer fame.
So... does anyone here know what Steve Jobs and Mach have been up to since their halcyon days at NeXT?
In the first shot, we see Arthur's alarm clock going off at "7:42". Clearly, someone is on the ball!
Now we just have to hope the movie is actually good! (Or at least fun.)
-Mark
Apple ///, no. Apple SOS, yes.
on
Top 10 Apple Flops
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Actually, the Apple/// was a fairly successful small business computer in the early 80s. Visicalc sold a lot of machines for Apple -- including Apple///'s.
Now, Apple SOS (Sophisticated Operating System) for the Apple/// -- that was the problem.
-Mark, who's having SOS coding flashbacks now, thankyouverymuch
24 hours is a realllly long greylist time. I think we have ours set to something like one minute. All you really need to do is separate out the servers that will re-queue and try again from those that won't (spam engines).
You're right - it's not perfect. But greylisting is the first practical system I've seen that starts to shift the 'cost' of spamming onto the senders, by forcing them to re-queue the mail and re-attempt delivery.
Our Postfix mail server uses Postgrey (click link for graph showing effectiveness), and it's as close to 'magic' as I've seen yet in the antispam category.
Don't forget to add a sheet or blanket, too. Our 2-year-old (as of this past Tuesday, actually:) is endlessly entertained by a cardboard box and a sheet which can be used to line the box like a nest, or to cover the upside-down box, making it a picnic table, or to cover the opening of the sidewise-lying box, making it a cave ("tunnel!", she insists, and who am I to argue? We haven't covered 'topology' quite yet).
The box itself was a great find, and the addition of the sheet multiplied its uses manyfold.
It also made me unbelievably happy when she spontaneously grabbed a book and a flashlight, and scampered into the darkened cave ("TUNNEL!") to "read" the book to herself.
Hmm. Reminds me an awful lot of my Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. In fact, it's even more like this old prototype that Apple made while designing the TAM.
They're very similar, except, of course, that the new iMac doesn't come with a built-in TV tuner, FM radio, remote control, or matching pen-and-pencil set.
On the other hand, it runs faster than the TAM's 250Mhz, too...
The SLIMP3 has a two line florescent display and an infrared remote control; the Airport Express has neither. With the Airport Express there's no way to see -- or control -- what music is playing without running from the living room (where the stereo is) back into the study (where the Mac with AirTunes is).
You could use the ATI Remote Wonder RF remote control in the living room to skip forward and backward in the playlists while flying blind, but that's hardly the same as scrolling through them on the SLIMP3's text display.
What's needed now is something that looks and works like an iPod, but is actually an RF remote control for AirTunes...
In "The Lathe of Heaven" (a book by Ursula K. LeGuin, later made into a movie) the main character ("George Orr") is cursed by the fact that whatever he dreams of becomes truly real.
He is tormented by the knowledge that his dreams, which he cannot control, are destructively altering other peoples' lives, often retroactively. I won't give away the plot, but lets just say that someone tormented by their own unlimited power is probably a better person than someone thrilled by it.
In any case, George would have loved this. (And I really liked the book, and the movie.)
-Mark
See also Yahoo!'s "Most E-Mailed Pictures" page.
on
News at a Glance
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· Score: 1
Yahoo! News has a page that shows the 'most e-mailed' news pictures of the day. That page basically uses a sampling of Yahoo!'s visitors as a collaborative filtering team.
You can guess which pictures are the 'most e-mailed' ones: media/newsmakers, accidents/catastrophes/war, cute fuzzy animals, human freaks, and, of course, cleavage.
I currently have a Lombard PowerBook (aka G3 Series, "bronze keyboard") with a PowerLogix G4 upgrade daughtercard with a megabyte of backside cache. The PowerLogix software lets you turn the backside cache on and off, and adjust the cache's clock divider (e.g. 1:1, 3:2, 2:1, etc.). I accidentally turned the backside cache off a few days ago and within an hour I was cursing the sluggishness of the machine, and shopping the Apple Store for a replacement.
When I realized that the backside cache was compeltely OFF, and I turned it back on, performance immediately returned to a reasonable level. Unfortunately, that also eliminated most of my excuse for buying a new 15" PowerBook...
I just checked out the specs, and with the exception of the 12" model, the G4 PowerBooks all have a 167Mhz bus, and 512K of backside cache.
The G4 iBooks have only a 133Mhz bus and 256K of backside cache.
The faster buses and larger caches in the PowerBooks are going to keep them running faster than the new iBooks in real-world tasks, even if the CPU speed is the same.
-Mark
Major Major Major Major (from Catch-22)
on
In-Flight Reboot?
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· Score: 1
Joseph Heller's 1961 classic book "Catch-22" included a character named Major Major Major, who joined the army and was prompty promoted to the rank of Major, for reasons obvious to everyone around him. He was then and for ever after, "Major Major Major Major."
I once told our development team that I was going to ease up a little bit. The software no longer had to be Perfect; I was now willing to accept Excellent instead.
For what it's worth, US patent law can actually protect inventions starting from the "date of invention", usually meaning the first time that a description of the invention was written down.
And anyway, it doesn't look to me like all transparent caching is covered, just MII's old (late 90s) "supercaching" system. Nevertheless, the language in the patent is reasonably broad, and if they wanted to pay lawers to stir up a ruckus, they probably could.
They filed the application in 1997, but the patent was just granted this month. MII is simply asserting that that other companies have started using the patented method/apparatus in the time between when they filed and when the PTO granted their patent: nothing mysterious there.
Slashdot Mirror
For total night-sky newbies, try Stikky Night Skies. As they say, "Learn 6 constellations, 4 stars, a planet, a galaxy, and how to navigate at night-in one hour, guaranteed." Using a mix of programmed instruction and engaging text, this short-but-sweet book acts as in "installer program" that installs some basic, fun astronomical information into your brain.
They have the first section online here. If you can't already find Betelgeuse, you will be able to fifteen minutes after clicking on this link.
-Mark, simply an extremely satisfied customer, and budding night-sky observer
The full-zoom view of the Moon is worth the price of admission all by itself. ("That's it Gromit....che..eeese. We'll go somewhere where there's cheese!")
It's too bad that they don't identify all the other historically significant moon landing and lunar event sites -- Wallace and Grommit's landing site from "Grand Day Out" (1991), the big splat from "A Trip To The Moon" (1902), the nuclear explosions opposite Moonbase Alpha (September 13, 1999). Now that I think about it, it's probably only a matter of days before someone makes this as a Google Moon Hack.
-Mark
Stumbled onto a VMS/DECNet machine and want to explore a little? First try "show known nodes", and then... our friends at Phrack have a HOWTO guide, including a copy of the all-important "TELL.COM".
-Mark: (remembers VMS) && (age > 25)
So... does anyone here know what Steve Jobs and Mach have been up to since their halcyon days at NeXT?
In the first shot, we see Arthur's alarm clock going off at "7:42". Clearly, someone is on the ball!
Now we just have to hope the movie is actually good! (Or at least fun.)
-Mark
Actually, the Apple /// was a fairly successful small business computer in the early 80s. Visicalc sold a lot of machines for Apple -- including Apple ///'s.
/// -- that was the problem.
Now, Apple SOS (Sophisticated Operating System) for the Apple
-Mark, who's having SOS coding flashbacks now, thankyouverymuch
Recommended reading: Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age. This book maps out how pornography has propelled technology forward through the ages, from the printing press to the Internet. Amazon even lets you read the first few pages.
It's interesting to see the HDDVD/BluRay discussion in some longer-range historical light.
-Mark
24 hours is a realllly long greylist time. I think we have ours set to something like one minute. All you really need to do is separate out the servers that will re-queue and try again from those that won't (spam engines).
You're right - it's not perfect. But greylisting is the first practical system I've seen that starts to shift the 'cost' of spamming onto the senders, by forcing them to re-queue the mail and re-attempt delivery.
Our Postfix mail server uses Postgrey (click link for graph showing effectiveness), and it's as close to 'magic' as I've seen yet in the antispam category.
-Mark
Y'know, it would have been funnier if I'd gotten the units right the first time.
-Mark, pre-coffee
You were lucky to have a lake! There were one point six billion of us living in a shoebox in the middle o' road!
-Mark
Don't forget to add a sheet or blanket, too. Our 2-year-old (as of this past Tuesday, actually :) is endlessly entertained by a cardboard box and a sheet which can be used to line the box like a nest, or to cover the upside-down box, making it a picnic table, or to cover the opening of the sidewise-lying box, making it a cave ("tunnel!", she insists, and who am I to argue? We haven't covered 'topology' quite yet).
The box itself was a great find, and the addition of the sheet multiplied its uses manyfold.
It also made me unbelievably happy when she spontaneously grabbed a book and a flashlight, and scampered into the darkened cave ("TUNNEL!") to "read" the book to herself.
I know several people who are happy converts from WinAmp to iTunes.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Apple makes some really good software -- even for Windows.
-Mark
Hmm. Reminds me an awful lot of my Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh. In fact, it's even more like this old prototype that Apple made while designing the TAM.
They're very similar, except, of course, that the new iMac doesn't come with a built-in TV tuner, FM radio, remote control, or matching pen-and-pencil set.
On the other hand, it runs faster than the TAM's 250Mhz, too...
-Mark
The SLIMP3 has a two line florescent display and an infrared remote control; the Airport Express has neither. With the Airport Express there's no way to see -- or control -- what music is playing without running from the living room (where the stereo is) back into the study (where the Mac with AirTunes is).
You could use the ATI Remote Wonder RF remote control in the living room to skip forward and backward in the playlists while flying blind, but that's hardly the same as scrolling through them on the SLIMP3's text display.
What's needed now is something that looks and works like an iPod, but is actually an RF remote control for AirTunes...
-Mark, who wants one anyway for travelling
I still sometimes make the "brain cloud" gesture when I'm trying to explain why I act so (apparently) confused sometimes.
Joe Banks (played by Tom Hanks) in Joe Versus The Volcano has the worst office environment in the world.
I cannot elaborate; perhaps someone with stronger willpower can.
-Mark
In "The Lathe of Heaven" (a book by Ursula K. LeGuin, later made into a movie) the main character ("George Orr") is cursed by the fact that whatever he dreams of becomes truly real.
He is tormented by the knowledge that his dreams, which he cannot control, are destructively altering other peoples' lives, often retroactively. I won't give away the plot, but lets just say that someone tormented by their own unlimited power is probably a better person than someone thrilled by it.
In any case, George would have loved this. (And I really liked the book, and the movie.)
-Mark
Yahoo! News has a page that shows the 'most e-mailed' news pictures of the day. That page basically uses a sampling of Yahoo!'s visitors as a collaborative filtering team.
You can guess which pictures are the 'most e-mailed' ones: media/newsmakers, accidents/catastrophes/war, cute fuzzy animals, human freaks, and, of course, cleavage.
-Mark
I currently have a Lombard PowerBook (aka G3 Series, "bronze keyboard") with a PowerLogix G4 upgrade daughtercard with a megabyte of backside cache. The PowerLogix software lets you turn the backside cache on and off, and adjust the cache's clock divider (e.g. 1:1, 3:2, 2:1, etc.). I accidentally turned the backside cache off a few days ago and within an hour I was cursing the sluggishness of the machine, and shopping the Apple Store for a replacement.
When I realized that the backside cache was compeltely OFF, and I turned it back on, performance immediately returned to a reasonable level. Unfortunately, that also eliminated most of my excuse for buying a new 15" PowerBook...
-Mark
I just checked out the specs, and with the exception of the 12" model, the G4 PowerBooks all have a 167Mhz bus, and 512K of backside cache.
The G4 iBooks have only a 133Mhz bus and 256K of backside cache.
The faster buses and larger caches in the PowerBooks are going to keep them running faster than the new iBooks in real-world tasks, even if the CPU speed is the same.
-Mark
Joseph Heller's 1961 classic book "Catch-22" included a character named Major Major Major, who joined the army and was prompty promoted to the rank of Major, for reasons obvious to everyone around him. He was then and for ever after, "Major Major Major Major."
-Mark
I once told our development team that I was going to ease up a little bit. The software no longer had to be Perfect; I was now willing to accept Excellent instead.
Never underestimate the power of Good Enough.
-Mark
For what it's worth, US patent law can actually protect inventions starting from the "date of invention", usually meaning the first time that a description of the invention was written down.
And anyway, it doesn't look to me like all transparent caching is covered, just MII's old (late 90s) "supercaching" system. Nevertheless, the language in the patent is reasonably broad, and if they wanted to pay lawers to stir up a ruckus, they probably could.
They filed the application in 1997, but the patent was just granted this month. MII is simply asserting that that other companies have started using the patented method/apparatus in the time between when they filed and when the PTO granted their patent: nothing mysterious there.