DisplacedBeiruti

Anguish Languish

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Fri, 11 May 2007 19:52:00 +0000

English is not very organized, which probably contributes to its flexibility...but it can make it very hard to spell.

I ran across this link which claims that:

When all the words in a given passage of English have been so replaced, the passage keeps its original meaning, but all the words have acquired new ones. A word that has received a new meaning has become a wart, and when all the words in the passage have become warts, the passage is no longer English; it's Anguish.

This link has some fun examples of Anguish Languish: Anguish Languish

Winning those eBay auctions

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Tue, 08 May 2007 19:50:00 +0000

I've recently lost a number of eBay auctions at the last minute or so. Someone was telling me about www.powersnipe.com . I think the idea is that you put in a bid and the bidding software or website waits until the last few seconds and executes your bid. The idea being that you don't drive the price up and you still have a good chance of winning the auction. I checked it out but the price seems to be a bit steep for me given that I don't buy on eBay that often.

I searched and found www.esnipe.com which seems to have a price model that matches how often I buy on eBay a bit better. I noticed that esnipe.com has the ability to have a bid group so you could bid on multiple items and as soon as you won one the other bids would be canceled so you'd have a better chance of winning at least one.

I haven't tried it but next time I'm interested in something on eBay I just might try it.

ebay items nobody wants

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Tue, 08 May 2007 19:48:00 +0000

The site www.lastminute-auction.com tracks eBay auctions that are ending soon and where the current bid if very low. I haven't snagged anything using it but it looks like it might be useful.

Clever Attractors

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Mon, 07 May 2007 23:50:00 +0000

Playing around with physics....

http://www.thecleverest.com/content/attractors.html

Solar Roller

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Mon, 07 May 2007 00:49:00 +0000

Read about this: http://cachefly.oreilly.com/make/mc_beambots.pdf which is from a Make magazine article telling you how to make tiny little solar robots that move about when sunlight hits them. Sounds like they would be a fun little project.

Eraser shaped like a keyboard delete key

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:51:00 +0000

Just what I need...an eraser shaped like a keyboard delete key.

http://store.artlebedev.com/catalog/office/tersumus/

Born on a Blue Day

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 17:47:00 +0000

I heard a fascinating interview today while in the car on On Point Radio with Daniel Tammet who has a rare form of autism called savant syndrome. The interview can be heard here.

Daniel sees numbers and words as objects, they have shape and color. The title of his memoir "Born on a Blue Day" refers to the fact that he was born on a Wednesday which for him has a blue color. He described the shapes and colors of some numbers for the interviewer.

He needs order and can be overwhelmed by stimuli but feels it is important for him to work with researchers because he may be able to give them a window into helping those with autism.

I was encouraged by how articulate he was and the fact that he was able to encourage parents of kids with autism and Asperger's Syndrome.

Daniel has a website: www.optmnem.co.uk.

I think the On Point Radio interview is worth listening to.

Geocaching

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 21:47:00 +0000

I've recently started geocaching. Check out www.geocaching.com where you can find cache locations and see what is happening to a particular cache. I mostly do it with our youngest son. He and I have found that it is a fun way to spend time outdoors and some of the caches require puzzle solving skills. We've also done it with other members of the family as well...our oldest son also is pretty good at it.

I bought the most inexpensive hand-held GPS I could find the Lowrance iFINDER GO, which works fine for me.

We go to the www.geocaching.com web-site, find a cache near our location, put the coordinates into the GPS and head off to find the cache. Typically we bring something small to place in the cache and in return we take something (if anything grabs my son's fancy). We then log our success (or failure if we can't find the cache) at www.geocaching.com.

Sometimes a cache contains a Travel Bug which is a registered "something" whose movements between caches is tracked at www.geocaching.com.

Apart from the joy of spending time outdoors with family members the other unexpected benefit as been that we've discovered a lot of parks/conservation areas close to us that we never knew even existed.

Planes landing in cross-winds

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:50:00 +0000

Some pretty strong cross-winds!

This one is looking at the plane coming in head on.

This is looking at different landing from behind.

Boeing 747 Facing Extreme Cross Wind

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 14:41:00 +0000


This is an amazing video of a Boeing 747 facing an extreme cross wind. Pretty impressive bit of piloting!

Hidden ipod commands

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:49:00 +0000

I can never remember the commands to turn on ipod diagnostics. You can find a nice little display at Hidden iPod Commands. Commands are listed for the various iPod models.

Anti-spam

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 13:53:00 +0000

I was reading the news at spamgourmet.com (a service I highly recommend) and they pointed to a couple of things to help combat spam and spammers. Spamspan provides some code to help obfuscate email addresses on web pages. Sharkbait can be used to feed spam email address harvesters fake email addresses that contain the IP address of the harvester in the email address so that the harvester can be reported to their ISP.

I should probably say a bit more about spamgourmet.com. I have used the free service for a number of years and don't know what I'd do without it. I've actually donated $$ to them to keep them running. :) The basic idea is that you set up an account which will forward your email to a real email address. You can then generate new spamgourmet email addresses on the fly when asked for an email address but your real email address is hidden from the folks to whom you give the spamgourmet email address. The on-the-fly email addresses can be set to expire after the addresses have been used a certain number of times and they can be "recharged" if you decide you want to continue to receive email through that address. They even have the option that allows you to respond to an email you receive via spamgourmet which will hide your real email address.

It is a great service, well executed and on top of that it is free. I highly recommend it.

Thought provoking article on understanding vs. writing code

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 19:00:00 +0000

I thought this was a very interesting article and it certainly rings true for me based on my experience.

I'm not sure quite that much time is spent understanding code but I'm sure it is a lot more than most people think.

When Understanding means Rewriting

Strong enough to hold multiple elephants!

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:05:00 +0000

A new superglue has been discovered which is used by bacteria to hold on to rocks in rivers. It is incredibly strong and can be dissolved with enzymes which might allow it to be used in surgery, dentistry, etc. Pretty interesting stuff...

I heard about this on the NPR Technology podcast for Wednesday 2006/04/12 and then found more info on it at this Discovery Channel link.

Cool way to move a vehicle

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 16:42:00 +0000

Check out this video at airtrax. Pretty neat way to move a vehicle.

Non-spherical 'armored' bubbles

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 22:29:00 +0000

Pretty wild!

Non-spherical 'armored' gas bubbles by ZDNet's Roland Piquepaille -- Researchers from Harvard University have found a way to build stable 'armored' bubbles with non-spherical shapes. They can obtain peapod-, doughnut- and sausage-shaped bubbles by coating ordinary gas bubbles with a layer of particles and then fusing them." This new process might lead to new textures for ice creams or shaving foams.

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:06:00 +0000

Julia in motion

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:06:00 +0000

What are you drawing Kellan? Max, Kellan, Piper

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:06:00 +0000

Max, Kellan, Piper, Mary

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:05:00 +0000

Kellan

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:05:00 +0000

Leslie, Kris, Jeff, Ella, Donna, John, Christa, Dan

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:05:00 +0000

Max, Dan, Donna, Jeff, Christa, Chris, Ella

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:04:00 +0000

Donna, Leslie, Jeff, Mary, John, Ella, Christa, Max, Dan

Cape pics

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 18:22:00 +0000

Just added some Cape Cod pics from late August.

noreply@blogger.com (SomeWhoCallMeTim) — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 17:53:00 +0000

Dan's back, Piper, David, Melissa