2000.03 (Mar)
2000.03.31 (friday)
A Collection of Digital Texts with Automatic Methods for Acquisition and Cataloging, User-Defined Typography, Cross-searching of Indexed Content, and a Sense of Community
9:09:12 PM #
That’s why I spit when someone trashes a site with pics of cats because they think it isn’t “well designed”.
Personally my hair is a mess, I’m wearing a torn t-shirt, and I want to know why I have to please some dork with long sideburns and pierced nipples.
12:25:58 PM #
Marmite Yeast Extract
4500mg of sodium per 100 grams.
MARMITE is a concentrated yeast paste, enjoyed at any time of the day, whether on toast for breakfast, in sandwiches at lunchtime or as an added ingredient in stews and casseroles.
9:47:29 AM #
Flying success for space ‘lifeboat’
Nasa’s prototype “flying lifeboat” has flown through its most stringent test so far, though not without a bumpy landing.
7:05:29 AM #
Kids Get Wireless Communicators?
Some very cool, very cheap wireless devices coming soon from Tiger Electronics, maker of the Furby. 7:04:08 AM #
2000.03.30 (thursday)
Empeg MK2 new features 9:39:59 PM #
Empeg Mk2
The infamous in-car MP3 player gets a facelift.
8:56:59 PM #
Goldin Accepts Blame for Lost Mars Missions
It’s about time Goldin took some responsibility for forcing NASA to operate on an ever-shrinking budget; whenever Congress started talking about budget cuts, Goldin always was happy to oblige them, sometimes even offering bigger cuts than they wanted. Plus he hates the “worm” logo and has tried to eradicate it.
2:27:54 PM #
Cyborg Name Generator
G.A.M.M.A.: General Artificial Machine Manufactured for Assassination
12:10:37 PM #
Editor’s study finds elitist ‘gap’ between journalists, readers
Unlike huge numbers of middle Americans, journalists rarely frequent yard sales, do home remodeling, use coupons when they shop, or own Chevrolets. But they are more apt to belong to country clubs, have maids, own Mercedes, play racquetball and trade stocks, often because they have few or no children.
7:38:51 AM #
2000.03.29 (wednesday)
Federal Judge OK’s Deep Linking
U.S. District Judge Harry Hupp dismissed four counts of Ticketmaster’s claim, writing that “deep linking by itself . . . does not necessarily involve unfair competition.”
11:10:05 AM #
2000.03.28 (tuesday)
Engine Cutoff Doomed Polar Lander
In looking into reasons why the engine quit, they found faulty software that mistakenly told the lander it was on the ground when in fact it was still above the surface.
5:22:06 PM #
Bart Simpson Beats Monroe And Mandela in Icon Poll
“Cyberbabe” Lara Croft, so beloved by computer game players, finished at number eight, ahead of Mother Teresa.
1:30:35 PM #
Olympic Torch to Go Underwater
Pyrotechnic technology had been developed to make a “fierce flame” too powerful to be drowned out by water…
9:37:29 AM #
2000.03.27 (monday)
OptOut - Internet Spyware Detection and Removal
A small little windows application that looks for a few known “spyware” programs and removes them, including cleansing traces they might leave behind in the registry. (now obsolete - try lavasoft adaware instead) 9:25:11 PM #
Cold pizza passes the taste test
A Scottish chemistry lecturer believes she has discovered the scientific reason why cold, left-over pizza, tastes so good the morning after.
11:36:21 AM #
2000.03.26 (sunday)
(fior ditalia placeholder)
8:25:10 PM #
Ten Things You Need to Know About X-Box
The X-Box has things that make it different from most consoles — a hard drive, an architecture that reflects PC design — but Microsoft is keen to point out that most of these things will be invisible to the player. Its online strategy is aimed at online gaming — not browsing or emailing. The hard drive will be used to enhance and expand gameplay — not for storing patches or working around problems. The Windows 2000 kernel will be tiny and — again — invisible to the user. At no point will you see anything onscreen that relates to current PC technology.
8:22:10 PM #
Alabama Consumers’ Alliance - Crusade against Binding Arbitration 8:18:52 PM #
US Geological Survey - Real-Time Water Data 8:15:26 PM #
2000.03.16 (thursday)
on vacation until the 26th
10:07:37 AM #
SDSC’s Security Experiment - worm.sdsc.edu
The purpose of this experiment is to determine the “life expectancy” of a popular commercial operating system when attached to the public Internet.
9:07:37 AM #
2000.03.15 (wednesday)
Americans from coast to coast are expressing shock and outrage over the level of detailed questioning from the federal government and the 2000 Census, with thousands of citizens vowing to pay fines rather than submit to the private nature of the inquisition, according to congressional sources.
“The census count is already breaking down,” said one Hill source. “People are in revolt! Calls are flooding into our office… They are very upset about the intrusive nature of the questions, such as how a person gets to work, whether they have any disabilities, how many cars they own, what their income was and who they work for!”
7:59:22 PM #
Microsoft To Pay Nvidia $200M In April For X-Box Technology
Nvidia will receive $200 million from Microsoft in April as an advance payment for its development of high-performance 3D graphics chips and a multimedia subsystem for the software giant’s eagerly awaited X-Box game console, Nvidia said Monday afternoon in a regulatory filing.
7:37:19 PM #
Hello Kitty Has No Mouth 7:35:14 PM #
NEAR Renamed for Asteroid Pioneer
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) probe has been renamed in honor of pioneering astrogeologist Dr. Eugene Shoemaker.
3:03:32 PM #
Digital Equipment Corporation - Computing Timeline
Excellent resource for a history of computing.
1:46:12 PM #
OED now online (finally) 10:15:11 AM #
Linux Expo 2000 Cancelled 5:23:25 AM #
2000.03.14 (tuesday)
6.270
MIT’s Autonomous Robot Design Competition
7:59:10 PM #
White Day, March 14, as opposed to Valentine’s Day, is a completely Japanese event. While women give gifts to men on Valentine’s Day in Japan, on White Day, men should return the favor and give gifts to women from whom they received gifts or chocolate, or to women in whom they are romantically interested.
7:34:33 PM #
Herbert Kornfeld is BACK 3:29:58 PM #
X-Box Interview
The latest insider info courtesy of Microsoft’s X-Box guru J. Allard
Once the Nvidia NV 25 chip is in place, we think it will be capable of producing about 300 million polygons per second.
11:46:56 AM #
2000.03.13 (monday)
preparing to move to weblogger.com 4:41:00 PM #
New US government “cybercrime” website - whatever
4:40:00 PM #
2000.03.12 (sunday)
Remember Zzyzx Road (26 Feb)? Well, here’s another picture of it from The International House of ZZYZX:
11:50:00 PM #
More RoadLinx!!!
- Freeways of the Deep South
- Every known freeway exit junction in the US
- Three-Digit Interstates
- Highway Sign Gallery
11:45:00 PM #
“One of the biggest problems is that PS2 only features 4MBs of video memory [Dreamcast has 8MBs comparatively] and you have to contain both the frame buffer and textures in it,” a developer told IGN64 anonymously. “For the resolution you’re expecting [presumably 640×480], come on — there is probably only 1MB left over for textures after all is said and done. That’s ridiculous. That’s a huge problem. Either Sony finds a work-around quickly to get textures from main memory in a better way, or that’s going to be a long-term problem in the same way the miniscule 4K texture cache has plagued the Nintendo 64.”
11:09:00 PM #
Bill Gates in his “tough guy” leather X-Box jacket:
11:06:00 PM #
X-Box Analyses (via voodoo extreme):
5:21:00 PM #
Unreal Universe has some screen shots of the X-Box mpeg demo if you dont want to download the whole 11 MB. BTW, I hear that the demo was rendered in real time…
10:28:00 AM #
ICQ:
Funny the thread that runs through these PC graphics chip companies: TDFX - Founded by SGI hardware/software engineers NVDA - lots of SGI engineers even before the personnel exchanges GigaPixel - founded by SGI engineers from the Infinite Reality graphics HW engineering group
My ICQ response:
TDFX = "web designers" of the 3D hardware world NVDA = "web server programmers"
9:05:00 AM #
Inflatable Rigidizable Space Structure
9:01:00 AM #
Updated X-Box specs: looks like it will be an Intel processor after all. HDTV support will be included!
8:35:00 AM #
BBC on the X-Box
8:15:00 AM #
‘Lost’ moons of Uranus sighted after 14 years
8:11:00 AM #
2000.03.11 (saturday)
KCS Railroad Locomotive Assembly Tour 7:04:00 PM #
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch: tourist trap
6:56:00 PM #
Escapees RV Club supporting RVers and the RVing lifestyle
4:46:00 PM #
Intel says a Pentium will power the X-Box, but MicroSoft hasn’t officially said anything other than “x86 compatible”
4:40:00 PM #
(atl restaurant placeholder)
4:30:00 PM #
Excellent epinion of the Apex AD-600A DVD player
10:24:00 AM #
Arthelote Hanaimosbevienacha, Professional Exorcist (warning: annoying music loop)
9:16:00 AM #
2000.03.10 (friday)
Tyvek Clothing - great for Devo-esque uniforms! 3:45:00 PM #
Somewhat impressive X-Box demo (11.2MB MPEG)
1:30:00 PM #
The official X-Box press release. Reuters was able to get some additional details:
The system will also use an Nvidia graphics processor, a third generation chip called the NV25 that is not yet on the market. Microsoft said its graphics will be more than three times as fast as the highly praised graphics on the new Sony Playstation2.
The X-Box also will include 64 megabytes of memory, an eight gigabyte hard disk drive, a DVD (digital video disk) player and a 100 megabit Ethernet controller card for fast Internet access when broadband services like DSL are available at home.
I’m still wondering if it will have memory cards, but with the hard drive I’m starting to doubt it.
7:34:00 AM #
2000.03.09 (thursday)
Janet Reno seeks to curb press freedom online: she wants the Privacy Protection Act amended to exclude computers. Fascist.
2:11:00 PM #
Stephen King’s new short story available exclusively in electronic form. I think this will be great for short stories, but for full-length works I still want paper. 8:33:00 AM #
New York’s new $210 Million Planetaruim:
Since the Rose Center for Earth and Space opened last month amid praise for its architecture and multidimensional tour of the universe, visitors have lined up with enthusiasm. And, sometimes, they have left in confusion. As one woman complained, “My brain hurt when I was done.”
7:09:00 AM #
2000.03.08 (wednesday)
(pokemon stadium review placeholder)
9:17:00 PM #
2000.03.07 (tuesday)
Excellent! The Apex AD-600A DVD Player Secret Menu! This allows you to bypass region codes! I’m going to buy one this weekend - you can get them at Circuit City for about $180, but you have to ask the salesperson for them as they don’t normally have them on the sales floor. 10:50:00 PM #
More X-Box rumors: looks like GigaPixel is no longer going to supply the graphics chipset, Nvidia is back in… the Christmas 2001 ship date seems too far away, though - I think we’ll see it sooner than that.
10:43:00 PM #
KING DOME Implosion Preview!!!! Live broadcast 26 March at 08:30 PST (16:30 UTC)! FREE 3D GLASSES!!!!
5:55:00 PM #
Bell Labs Text-to-Speech: big fun! Pick from 8 different voices, three different output formats - type any text you want and it spits out synthesized speech! 5:48:00 PM #
2000.03.06 (monday)
Scary stuff from yesterday’s Weapon Systems Handbook:
- smoke generator
- bad-ass laser deathray
- soldier support systems
- force provider propaganda
- Hornet tank-weapon thingy
- scary black helicopter Airborne Command and Control System
- super-top-secret Army Key Management System complete with cool NSA black-box “key processor”
5:45:00 PM #
Vacation idea: learn to be a freight conductor with the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad!
5:36:00 PM #
Boeing is still looking for those Space Station parts they threw away:
The tanks apparently were sent to the landfill last month after they had been moved outside a building, still in their wooden crates, to make room at a Boeing plant, officials said Thursday.
4:36:00 PM #
2000.03.05 (sunday)
This handbook outlines the major programs that we are pursuing to equip the Army of the 21st century
11:56:00 PM #
All about Kudzu!!!
- Invasive Alien Species - Kudzu (kudzu is originally from Asia)
- The Amazing story of Kudzu (lots of pics)
- The Truth about Kudzu
5:30:00 PM #
Georgia teen develops a new way to kill kudzu: If you’ve never been to the deep south, you probably have no idea what a problem kudzu can be.
Farris developed a special laboratory culture containing ground-up kudzu leaves and used it to grow the fungus. He applied each laboratory crop to kudzu vines, re-isolated it and grew it again in the laboratory. Over many generations, the fungus appeared to develop an increased virulence against the vine and a reduced appetite for fruit and nut trees.
5:20:00 PM #
I just downloaded a program called Zone Alarm, which is a personal psuedo-firewall I’ve heard some good things about. I’ll post more details after I’ve had a chance to play with it more. 5:09:00 PM #
FBI notes and memos on Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard
5:02:00 PM #
The inventory of a fanatical Coca-Cola collector 12:06:00 PM #
Olympic and Soccer logos and mascots
12:01:00 PM #
BBC: ePaper Dolls thingy
11:30:00 AM #
BBC: Cathedral design/coloring book online
11:27:00 AM #
ICQ:
i really hate people who list "whats in my CD changer" on their "weblogs". i put that in quotes because most of the people who do it dont have weblogs, the have online journals that they call weblogs. like I give a shit about thier crappy musical taste. It wouldn't be so bad if they listed some reasons they like that CD or something like that.And of course its always some crap you’ve never heard of. I bet they just make stuff up in an effort to be “cool”.
11:20:00 AM #
School May Have Overreacted to Student’s Site:
the ACLU suggested that “substantially disruptive” is a high standard that means more than just hurt egos or unpleasantness among school administrators or others at the school. 11:07:00 AM #
Thousands Clamber in the Streets for PlayStation2:
One of the people that the writer interviewed was either from Taiwan or Hong Kong and mentioned that he was planning on taking the unit back home so that he could begin making mod chips and pirate software.
11:02:00 AM #
PlayStation2 Launch: The Pictorial Exposé:
Apparently this game really sucks. Still, it’s a wacky Japanese dancing game and it has Britney Spears in it. So, I like it already.
10:52:00 AM #
2000.03.04 (saturday)
Boeing workers accidentally let Space Station parts go to the dump: dumpster diving gets interesting! 6:11:00 PM #
Email:
I just destroyed one of the Kodak CD-Rs I was gonna throw away that had personal info on it. I just looked away and folded it with one hand. It popped VERY loudly and produced a cloud of gold confetti. It was tres cool. You could sell these things are party favors, like those little confetti cannons with the string. The PNY 80 minute ones will simply fold in half without breaking.
5:15:00 PM #
Via Computer Privacy Digest, some secure instant messaging tools:
- Fireball - looks like a pimped out ICQ clone.
- Magnum 5000 - another clone.
- Top Secret Messenger is a plug-in for ICQ which sounds like the best solution, but its costs $15 :(
- Jabber should eventually surpass them all, including ICQ - its embedable and extensable in every way, and it has bck-end compatibality with all other IM systems(you can communicate with ICQ and AIM users, and future IM systems). It sounds too good to be true!
9:10:00 AM #
2000.03.03 (friday)
Breakthrough In Solar Sail Technology:
You know how when you finally get that crap off the index cards, it’s clinging to your fingers, and you’ve got to sort of shake your hand to get rid of the wrapping? Well, that stuff has an area mass of 15 grams per square meter. . . Our stuff has an area mass of about 5 [grams per square meter].
9:07:00 AM #
2000.03.01 (wednesday)
Tom Green / Monica Lewinsky Update:
Her only companion is a raunchy MTV comedian who recently brought her to his native Canada and publicly humiliated her by making her take part in a self-promoting press event in freezing cold temperatures on a restaurant rooftop!
11:21:00 PM #
Beloit College Releases the Class of 2003 Mindset List 11:18:00 PM #
It’s time to…PRESS YOUR LUCK!!:
The history of the WHAMMY and its evolution throughout the years! Now has pics!
11:09:00 PM #
Classic Arcade Trivia: they’ve upped the prize this month to a $250 buy.com gift certificate!
6:21:00 PM #
Periodic Table of the Elements: unununium
6:15:00 PM #
Real-time travel times for the Atlanta area. Pretty useless if you’re not in Atlanta or if you’re not familiar with the area, but still a pretty cool and useful technology showcase.
2:48:00 PM #
Clinton finds screen saver “amazing”:
A White House spokesman explained Clinton’s apparent fascination with the screen saver by joking, “His only has the presidential seal, and it doesn’t move.”
10:29:00 AM #