Gammatron

ISBN and How it Works

Explanation of the International Standard Book Number and how to calculate the check digit. If you dont feel like doing the math yourself (you lazy bastard), I found a ISBN Calculator to do it for you.

5:37:46 PM  #  

LUHN Formula (via robot wisdom)

The LUHN formula, also called modulus 10, is a simple algorithm used to validate the number on a credit card. It works on cards issued by all the major credit card companies, including American Express, Visa, Master Card, Discover, and Diner’s Club. Originally created by a group of mathematicians in the 1960s, the LUHN formula is in the public domain, and anyone can use it.

5:32:08 PM  #  

How Film Is Transferred to Video

Highlights the differences between PAL and NTSC transfers, and the advantages and drawbacks to different methods of transferring film, including hard matte/anamorphic, full-frame, and soft matte.

9:42:34 PM  #  

State Quarters, Part 2

Ratings of this year’s state quarters. See also: 1999 state quarter ratings

The Massachusetts coin also has an outline of the state on it. I could see Texas doing this, they put the state on everything from gravestones to Jell-O molds, but Massachusetts has too many islandy bits to be a Jell-O mold.

10:28:16 PM  #  

The 1982 Rubik’s Cube World Championship (via mrpants)

9:24:12 PM  #  

Cable Modem/DSL Tweak Guide

Optimize and secure your broadband connection. This site offers quick and easy methods for tuning TCP Receive Window. It also explains why this is the only speed tweak that actually works and the others (such as TTL and system.ini tweaks) are bogus.

9:22:25 PM  #  

Google Toolbar Beta

Get a Google toolbar for IE 5.0+ (Windows only). It seems to work pretty well and is pretty handy.

8:23:31 PM  #  

BlueSigns

This is a travel-service similar in concept to eXitSource [24 Sep 2000] but this supposedly works over cell phones. On the plus side, it’s not a WAP application - you call a number and talk to the computer, so it should work with any phone. It magicly determines your location (probably by getting your cell tower) and then you tell it what you’re looking for (e.g. gas, food, hotel, etc). You can also attempt more structured queries on their website. Unfortunately, they only tell you about places they’ve extorted money from, and they don’t appear to have been very successful at that - I looked for “restaurants” on Interstate 20 in the entire state of Georgia and got zero results.

8:11:37 PM  #  

Cliche
Watch: domo.arigato -roboto (google) (inspired by gmt+9)

1:42:44 PM  #  

DarkTick

Some excellent time-wasting games (reflex is addictive), and some teaser screenshots of potentially interesting applications.

8:57:58 PM  #  

Bobby

Bobby is a clever web-bot that will scan a given URL for potential accessibility problems. It does a pretty good job of suggesting simple fixes for most problems, too.

8:30:20 PM  #  

some cable modem photo galleries:

• cable-modems.org
• cablemodeminfo.com

11:04:33 PM  #  

GnatBox-Flash

A turnkey software firewall (see also Freesco or Linux Router Project). Most of these are single-floppy based systems, but the GB-Flash is a 16MB flash card that plugs directly into your IDE port. Very Cool.

10:26:40 PM  #  

Lighting Up the Ecosphere

Using satellite images to map urban growth both in the USA and around the world.

6:09:13 PM  #  

Personal Satellites

Get your own 4-inch cube, 1kg satellite into orbit for $45,000.

6:04:20 PM  #  

ISS End of Life Disposal

NASA slideshow outlining proposed method of de-orbiting ISS at its end-of-life by using the yet-to-be-launched propulsion module.

11:13:06 PM  #  

Space Station User’s Guide

An ISS newslog. This pretty much obviates the official NASA status reports [29 Oct 2000] as it includes all of those reports plus news from tons of other sources.

11:11:16 PM  #  

US Postal Abbreviations

Seems unremarkable at first, but this list of two-letter state abbreviations also includes US territories such as the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Samoa as well as the military “states”.

1:27:31 PM  #  

The Last Century - What Went Wrong

Very long essay on how and why our current politcal situation differs drasticly from what most big 19th century thinkers would have predicted. Very balanced, and extremely thought-provoking; a lot of its conclusions seem obvious but I had never considered them myself or heard anyone else articulate them.

9:23:24 PM  #  

Faster than a Speeding Bullet

Amtrak finally got their Acela high-speed train running between Boston and New York. The train can cruise around 150MPH, which isn’t quite as fast as Japanese or European high-speed trains, but it’s a lot better than the Amtrak Superliner’s top speed of about 70MPH. It doesn’t look like the Acela will be travelling anywhere besides the northeast US for quite a while, though.

3:08:07 PM  #  

Picture Postage (via yuppie slayer)

In a move sure to outrage philatelic purists, the Canada Post Corporation now offers postage with any picture you want on them. They’re not really custom stamps, though, because you have to use an additional generic postage frame [qv] around them to actually mail anything with them. So they’re more like rectangular stamps with the middle cut out, and I would assume you could put whatever you wanted inside the frame, not just the stickers you can get from CPC. This seems like another Canadian marketing gimmick like the holographic coins [12 May 2000]. Australia seems to have started this trend with their two-part stamps [P-Stamps] featuring an “official” stamp attached to a customizable tab [more].

9:24:11 PM  #  

Cryptography: a Summary of the Field for Engineers

A short, practical introduction to modern cryptographic concepts and implementations.

6:37:09 PM  #  

Measuring Dynamic Range

Another step forward in creating more scientific and objective digital camera examinations.

Dynamic range has been something we’ve always talked about in our reviews but previously have not been able to quantify. Thanks to a collaboration between DPReview and Digital Domain Inc. (QImage Pro - Michael Chaney) we now have a test procedure for measuring dynamic range.

6:35:39 PM  #  

Users Like Wireless Ads

Barf… get ready to get spam on your cell phone.

6:29:58 PM  #  

The Myth of Fingerprints (via crypto-gram)

The authority of fingerprint evidence rests on two contested assumptions. Although conventional wisdom since the nineteenth century has accepted the doctrine that no two fingerprints are alike, no one has really proven the proposition’s validity. But if the question of the uniqueness of fingerprints seems pedantic, consider a more practical concern: How reliable is fingerprint evidence anyway? Can forensic technicians really match a fragmentary or smudged print taken from a crime scene to one and only one human fingertip, to the exclusion of all others in the world?

2:43:03 PM  #  

True Stupidity (via
presurfer)

A great amalgamation of anecdotal stupidity. Newspaper headlines, laws, advertisements, exam answers, etc…

10:56:45 PM  #  

Flocks, Herds, and Schools

Interesting discussion about the problems to be tackled in modeling the movements of large groups of animals.

The aggregate motion of a flock of birds, a herd of land animals, or a school of fish is a beautiful and familiar part of the natural world. But this type of complex motion is rarely seen in computer animation. This paper explores an approach based on simulation as an alternative to scripting the paths of each bird individually. The simulated flock is an elaboration of a particle system, with the simulated birds being the particles. The aggregate motion of the simulated flock is created by a distributed behavioral model much like that at work in a natural flock; the birds choose their own course.

6:32:52 PM  #  

The much-hyped antarcti.ca launches map.net - unusable. next, please!

10:50:43 PM  #  

wapjag.com WAP
Simulator

Seems to work, though I still don’t see much point to it. Manila has built-in WAP-ification if you really like squinting to read this stuff.

9:25:56 PM  #  

The Amazing Blenderphone

It’s a combination blender and telephone. It’s fully functional as a telephone or blender.

9:03:09 PM  #  

Sony MemoryStick Application Modules

Some prototype devices which fit into a MemoryStick slot: a GPS receiver, a small camera, and a thumbprint reader.

12:06:40 PM  #  

Prime Time

Excellent story on the possible connection between the Riemann Hypothesis [details] and quantum physics. Also included is a good non-technical background on the Hypothesis and attempts to prove it.

9:22:48 PM  #  

TerraServer Redirector

If you click on the above link, you’ll get an error, but if you tack a latitude and longitude on to the end (examples provided on the error page) it will redirect you to the appropriate TerraServer image, which is great considering their own crappy interface.

9:14:05 PM  #  

Hole-punch Cloud Photos

Strange cloud formations over Floida caused by interaction between the jet stream and ice crystals in the atmosphere. I tried digging around google for more examples but only came up with a near miss [qv].

1:08:59 PM  #  

CEO Weath Meter

See values of CEO holdings and real-time changes in worth for many publicly traded companies.

1:04:45 PM  #  

Periodic Table - Flash Version

A little over the top - pretty, but not very practical.

11:35:47 AM  #  

Internet Explorer 5.5 Advanced Security Privacy Beta

Now with third-party cookie blocking, so you can get the benefits without the annoyance of cookies from ad networks. I’ve been using it all day and I haven’t noticed any pages break yet.

6:36:06 PM  #  

Cloth
Keyboards (BBC)

Jeez… just think how much of a dork you’d look like with this.

6:33:05 PM  #  

Densa Quiz

Clever, but they give it away when they say “the obvious answer is the wrong one!”

5:22:36 PM  #  

CM Watch - Download Japan’s Best TV
Commercials! (via mrpants)

QuickTime required, but the commercials are awesome.

8:29:26 PM  #  

CyberRodeo

Yeehaw (or as they say, “YeeHa!”) its the new internet steakhouse in Fort Worth, TX. OK, so its not “new”, their page says “copyright 1995-97″ - and their “state-of-the-art”
facility includes eight Pentium 100MHz computers.

Sponsor your own DUKE NUKEM 3D Tournament at the Rodeo Steakhouse

7:55:46 PM  #  

Foosball Images

Lots of foosball-related pictures and movies.

7:52:21 PM  #  

RxList

The closest thing to a web-based Physician’s Desk Reference.

7:03:25 PM  #  

Planetary Photojournal

This service, developed as a collaboration between NASA’s Planetary Data System Imaging Node, the Solar System Visualization Project, and JPL’s Media Relations Office, is designed to provide you with easy access to the publicly released images from various Solar System exploration programs. The system database is currently populated with approximately 2500 images; more are being added every day.

6:58:47 PM  #  

If that guy on CNN had said that Nader voters “threw their vote away” one more time last night I would have absolutely puked. Who was it that said “the only wasted vote is a vote for someone you don’t believe in”? It seems to me that the people who really did waste their vote were the ones who were going to vote Nader but voted for Gore because of the closeness of the race.

And Nader didn’t take the election away from Gore - the Democrats created the Nader Candidacy by repeatedly promising Nader consessions in return for his not running himself and offering his support, then invariably forgetting about those promises after election day.

6:56:55 PM  #  

What’s in the driver’s license bar code? (via privacy digest)

It appears the 2D bar code on the back of many new driver’s licenses is a standard format developed by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, and doesn’t contain any “secret” information, but:

I’m sure that you’ll be comforted knowing that the AAMVA is fulfilling its mission “to more effectively serve the driving public” by developing standards for the storage and exchange of facial, fingerprint and signature images.

6:55:55 PM  #  

“Confusing” Palm Beach, FL Ballot

This is the much hyped ballot from Palm Beach County which some voters say confused them enough to mistakenly vote for
Buchanan instead of Gore. As you can see, the arrow from Gore’s name does not point to Buchanan’s slot, as some were reporting this morning, an the format would make it equally easy for a would-be Bush voter to mark Buchanan as their choice, or for a Gore voter to cast for the Socialist candidate. Also, NPR reported that this county has a track record of high Buchanan support, and one of the supposedly confused voters they interviewed admitted that she was “in a hurry” - so I have no sympathy for her.

On the other hand, I have to give some credence to the claim that the layout was confusing, as this was the only race on that ballot that had candidates listed on both sides - see also [pg 2] [pg 3] [pg 4] [pg 5] [pg 6] [pg 7] [pg 8] - but not taking the time to read the directions is no excuse.

Then again, after seeing another picture of the ballot in the actual voting booth [qv] as it appeared to voters, I have to say that there is no way a resonable person who was devoting their full attention to the process (as any responsible citizen would) could get this wrong.

5:53:17 PM  #  

What I want from napster (or whoever):

1) Reputation Management. I want to know before I start downloading if some guy has a bunch of crappy encodes or took a wav file of some guy telling me I’m going to hell for pirating music and labeled it as Metallica or something.

2) Audio-content-based search. Sort of like the Query-by-image-content thing IBM is working on [6 Nov 2000]. This could be accomplished with some cooperation from Tuneprint, etc. Napster would look at a mp3 (or ogg, wma, etc) file that I already have and determine certain characteristics of it such as time signature, what instruments are used, how many singers (four-part harmony, etc), eventually getting sophisticated enough to be able to differentiate between, say, bluegrass and heavy metal. I could then pick a subset of those characteristics that I want to find, and it would return a list of files that match. That would totally rule. r00l, even.

The first part is easy. The second part is *really* hard given current technology.

Of course, the first part is moot if napster turns into a broker for big record companies.

10:35:47 PM  #  

Mapblast has a new, very improved directions interface [new] (much cleaner, no distracting ads, and none of those offers to mark all starbucks locations for you [old]), but they still default to the old clumsy version. Once you get your directions, click the “try our new directions!” banner-link (sounds obvious, but I missed it in the clutter).

9:40:55 PM  #  

Zim’s Crack Creme

For those times when you’re too busy to fire up the pipe, try this handy rub-on creme.

9:32:16 PM  #  

Soldiers in Distress

Some pretty gruesome candy wrappers with an Esperanto theme.

That is, everything written on the chocolate label is in Esperanto.

9:31:11 PM  #  

The Scoop on Poop

A new exhibit at an Illinois children’s museum includes a toilet with fake human waste. An unrevealing photo is included in this story.

9:28:46 PM  #  

Referer Logs: What’s the deal with AOLSearch? This site is #2 in a search for “flower arangement”(sic) [8 jun 00], but only #9 for “sophisticated bitches” [2000.06.11]!

10:20:54 PM  #  

High on a Mountain

Excellent in-depth profile of bluegrass superstar Del McCoury.

The Del McCoury Band has enjoyed playing to enthusiastic audiences all over the world. But in Japan, where the band’s recordings sell especially well, the fans exhibit some curious behavior. They come to the concerts dressed in cowboy outfits and American Indian regalia, McCoury said. “Of course, I never dress that way.” The group first went to Japan in 1979. Shortly after, McCoury appeared on the cover of Japan’s June Apple magazine with the title “Mr. Bluegrass.” The musicians have fond memories of their last trip there in 1993. “That was the best tour I had,” McCoury said. They played major cities throughout the country, including Tokyo, and even made a live performance video. “There’s a lot of country music fans and bluegrass fans there. They know everything you do there; it’s amazing.”

10:01:55 PM  #  

Tune In, Download, Sell Out

Modern Humorist has updated their now famous MP3 Communism poster to reflect the recent ironic deals signed by Napster and Scour. You can’t buy the new one, though.

7:16:53 PM  #  

Query By Image Content

IBM’s new image-based search engine technology. So far, it seems pretty rudimentary but once this becomes more refined the potential is pretty awesome. The Hermitage Museum has already implemented this to search their gallery database [qv]; it’s pretty clumsy but provides interesting results.

7:02:28 PM  #  

Buckyball Transistors

6:35:47 PM  #  

Die Itchy und Scratchy Fanpage

Excellent Itchy & Scratchy page, but it’s in German. Of course, Itchy and Scratchy transcend linguistic barriers, so you can still enjoy most of it. I also found an Itchy and Scratchy webring [qv], but its pretty crappy: out of 10 clicks on the “random site” link, I got 9 404’s and one page that was just a general Simpsons page, and didn’t even have any Itchy and Scratchy info.

Zu Hause sind sie in der “Krusty-Show” der “Simpsons”, und sie sind die Lieblingsserie von Lisa und Bart.

9:12:54 AM  #  

The Campaign Scandal Generator

Classic. The “Drudgify” button is a stroke of genius.

Bush campaign accuses Gore of falsely claiming to have seen Star Wars Episode II already while growing up!!!!!

8:53:18 AM  #  

“AIX is to Unix what a bowl of steaming dog sh*t is to chocolate mousse.”

– Anonymous Coward

9:16:32 PM  #  

Homemade Vacuum Tube
Triode (via htp’ discussion
group)

9:03:26 PM  #  

The Truth Of Reality

An odd collection of wacko theories thrown together on one site with very little organization. They sell t-shirts, too!

7:23:10 PM  #  

Vladimir Kramnik Interview (1996)

There is very little info on the web about Vladimir Kramnik [bio/pic], the new world chess champion. This short interview is only interesting because it mentions Kasparov’s prediction that Kramnik would be the next champion.

8:53:23 AM  #  

ISS Diagram

Simple USAToday-style Infographic showing the various compenents of ISS. I thought I logged this yesterday but it mysteriously disappeared.

7:09:42 PM  #  

Jumping the Shark

Also known as “Creeping Scrappy-Dooism”:

It’s a moment. A defining moment when you know that your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant that you know from now on…it’s all downhill. Some call it the climax. We call it jumping the shark.

6:55:11 PM  #  

History
Of Nerf

10:16:32 AM  #