Google Calendar's SMS Notifications

I'm not sure exactly when this happened, but google calendar now has support for sending SMS reminders to Canadian Cell phone carriers.

Robots think we taste like crispy breakfast treats

Go ahead.

Ask a robot.

It'll tell you, you "taste like bacon". Plus it just might have the firepower to do something about it!

I *HEART* Python

Introducing WSGI: Python's Secret Web Weapon - XML.com: "Introducing WSGI: Python's Secret Web Weapon

"The recent Python 2.5 release features the addition of the Web Server Gateway Interface Utilities and Reference Implementation package (wsgiref) to Python's standard library.

In the Java world, the servlet architecture meant that applications written with one framework could run on any server supporting the servlet API. The Web Server Gateway Interface (often written WSGI, pronounced "whiskey") was designed to bring the same interoperability that the Java world enjoyed to Python. "

This article looks at how to develop and deploy WSGI applications, and more specifically, how to use middleware components to provide facilities such as session handling, interactive debugging, and much more.

I haven't read it yet but it's on my to do list.

A friend of mine told me this story last week

Names have been changed for the hell of it.

Kirk: I want to go home. It smells like poo here.

Reema: Where's here?

Kirk: Work (the office). I just found out it's out battery backup for our servers. The batteries are leaking and smell like rotten eggs. We can't unplug them though cause it takes 5 minutes to boot the servers, and ALL out customers use them. So instead we have someone sitting in front of the UPS with a fire extinguisher watching. It's my turn at 3pm.

Classic!

I *HEART* Google

Playing Google Videos In Windows Media Player

"Turns out that Google Video’s downloads, called .gvi files, are just standard .avi files that have been altered to be unplayable in Windows Media Player ... almost every other video player can handle it, but for technical reasons, Microsoft’s can’t play it"

A Common Sense Approach to Tool Development

Gamasutra.com - Swiss Army Chainsaw

"kludges have their place - they let the user get on with their job. But whatever you do, don't allow multiple kludges to accumulate to the point that certain tasks become voodoo"

... web*cough*core ...


Of course, I mean no disrespect to those who fell in the Just-get-it-done wars. I just wish certain management-type-people were able grasp this. It would have made a lot of people a lot happier (including said management-type-people).

Prizes for Python users in the Computer Olympiad

http://mithrandr.moria.org/blog/419.html

Yaklike - chat with people browsing the same site

http://www.yakalike.com/

Sept 19th is "talk like a pirate day".

http://www.talklikeapirate.com/

If you program in Perl check out Acme::Lingua::Pirate::Perl

Parents deliver fast food through a school fence.

A group of mothers has started delivering fast food through a school's fence in protest at the campaign for healthier school meals.

There are quotes like "I don't know what my kids weigh but it's not always down to what they eat, it's as much to do with their genes" from a mother.

A spokesman for the chef said "If these mums want to effectively shorten the lives of their kids and others' kids, then that's down to them." He also explained "If parents are struggling to afford a school meal, then they should make the effort to construct a proper lunchbox with fruit and veg, dairy, bread, and protein — which can be done for under £1.20 — instead of taking the lazy option."

Fedora is not ready for mainstream yet.

I did another "software update" yesterday. Today I boot up and X11 doesn't work. I check the xorg.conf. It has not been edited. I found myself thinking "this is like on Slackware when I upgraded the kernel and I had to recompile the nvidia video driver".

Fedora updated the kernel on me. I guess that's part of updating software. Now just for a moment try to imagine how angry Steve Jobs would be if a Mac did that to a user? Think about it.

To Fedora's credit the problem is related to Nvidia not releasing source code for their video driver and letting it be integrated into the linux kernel.

To Fedora's deficit I don't recall being informed that the kernel was updated and custom added modules would need to be recompiled.

In the news 2006-09-18

Google is forming a Political Action Committee (aka PAC). The role of a PAC is to influence government to make actions in the interest of the PAC. Sometimes a PAC exists to make sure a candidate does or does not get elected.

First ipod and now this: Warner Music to distribute, license videos through YouTube

Nintendo's "Wiiiiiiiii" console comes with a "nunchuck attachment". The whole thing is expected to retail at $250 USA. It also says "first party Wii titles would in fact be region-free".

Urinals of the International Space Station "HabLab" module

From http://www.urinal.net/hablab/ :


While you're at it there is one from the South Pole http://www.urinal.net/south_pole/.

The site has tons of them. http://www.urinal.net/

Someone should take pictues of the U of Calgary's troughs at the new "Den" and send them in.

The future of NetBSD

Charles Hannum, one of the first four NetBSD developers, gets something off his chest.

http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2006/08/30/0016.html
has the following things to say:

The NetBSD Project has stagnated to the point of irrelevance. It has
gotten to the point that being associated with the project is often
more of a liability than an asset.


Partly due to lack of people, and partly due
to a more corporate mentality, projects were often "locked". One person
would say they were working on a project, and everyone else would be
told to refer to them. Often these projects stagnated, or never
progressed at all.

Even new hardware support is generally not being
originated in NetBSD any more; it's being developed by FreeBSD and
OpenBSD, and being picked up later.

Briliant step up on a smash-and-grab.

Bruce Schneier wrote:
"Attackers commonly force active failures specifically to cause a larger system to fail. Burglars cut an alarm wire at a warehouse and then retreat a safe distance. The police arrive and find nothing, decide that it's an active failure, and tell the warehouse owner to deal with it in the morning. Then, after the police leave, the burglars reappear and steal everything."

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/09/burglars_foil_a.html

One time where I used to work (about 10 years ago) the security alarm went off in the middle of the night. The security company claimed they came out to the office and everything was fine. In the morning a few laptops were missing and it looks like beer or some sticky fluid had been poured over a few of the keyboards. Oh and there was a giant hole in a floor-to-ceiling window.

At the time I thought it was incompetent security people. Maybe it was slightly brighter than average criminals.

"irony cafe" oh that's brilliant!

http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=14

New keyboard and NOT a rant.

I bought a new keyboard a while ago. A few things worth noting are:

- it is split keyboard. in the past some split keyboards have, well, sucked. The most common problems have been the mangled 'delete/insert/home/end/pg up/down' cluster and putting the ctrl keys in hard to reach places.

- it is a Microsoft keyboard. yes, that's right. I bought something from Microsoft. Now will you believe me that I don't hate microsoft, I don't think it is an "evil" company, and I don't think linux is perfect. I mean it when I say I think MS Windows has a crappy user interface and as someone once pointed out I mean it has a crappy user interface for me.

Anyway I bought a "Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000". I don't know what the 4000 means. Also none of the fancy keys work under linux so I don't know how useful they are. (There is a kernel patch I haven't bothered with.)

I've been using it for a couple weeks and it is on my recommended hardware list.

List of country's net worths

#1 is Japan worth $ 165 600 000 000
#150 is the USA worth $ -829 100 000 000

List of country's net worths:
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2187rank.html

In other news Canada only has 22 Billionaires:
http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2006/0327/112a.html

A vision of a future in which connectivity is literally in the air around us

Award-winning science fiction author Vernor Vinge, speaking at the Austin Game Conference, gave his vision of a possible future.
Keynote - Vernor Vinge On The 'Inside Out' Cyberworld

I've been wondering about this for a long time

Broadening Definition Of Gambling May Include Virtual Worlds