The Insomniac Coder

I thought I had recovered from this earworm a long time ago, but thanks to my boss, it's back in my head. I'll be having nightmares about it for the rest of the week. Grrr.

version4_button_down Originally uploaded by Major Nelson It now has a convertible D-pad, so it works as either a disc-type or plus sign-type button. The only thing I don't like is that the four buttons are not color coded and a lot of people use them by color instead of by the assigned letter.

Image via Wikipedia Wanna know how you know you're old? My high school drafting classes were all done with mechanic pencil, on proper paper and drafting tables. Worse, we were the last class in my university to train in paper drafting for our engineering drawing courses, we were the pilot class for ACAD, the next class was 50/50, and the "kids" that arrived two years later did all their coursework in ACAD. My favorite part was watching people do some sloppy shiat thinking nobody could tell just by looking at the screen. You can easily grade paper drawings by looking at the smoothness of the pencil lines , but on screen all you see is a straight line. The trick is to have the student send the drawing to a pen plotter , if the student did something stupid, it will show up when the pen plotter draws it. For example, curve transitions that are not snapped properly, chamfers, compound curves, or even lines that don't connect properly. Related articles by Zemanta A...

This came out yesterday, and got slashdotted this morning:   Here's what I don't understand: Why are people wasting time and resources reinventing the wheel ? Has any of these people looked around and noticed how now every major camera maker in the world has embraced HD video , to the point that it is possible to buy dedicated HD camcorders for around $200? Or how about HD video cameras with vibration control for under $400? Wouldn't this effort be better spent in decent video editing applications that are FOSS ? <HD editing rant> One constant with all of the HD cameras I have tried over the past two years (Kodak Zi6, Sony DSC W and TX series) is that HD editing sucks when you are constrained to whatever software ships with the camera or can be downloaded for free. And yea, I am including iMovie because it is STUPID how (I can attest to this until at least my switch to Windows 7 last year) that iMovie hides (used to?) the export choices that produce 720p o...

This is oneof these earworms I never see coming my way. Grrrr.

It is amazing how much can be taught without the subject even being able to notice it as a learning experience instead of entertainment. I really liked how the explain the balance between the forces of flight, and more than a bit annoyed that I screwed up and almost couldn't figure out the height puzzle.

Chrome 7 allows you to offload processing to your GPU . Since the feature is not ready for primetime, you have to enable it through a command line switch . You can do this easily by making a batch file that calls the following: C:\Users\ username \ AppData \Local\ Google \Chrome\Application\chrome.exe -enable-accelerated-compositing Once you run the batch file, you will be able to go to about:memory and note there is a new memory item called "GPU." Here's what mine looks like:  Related articles by Zemanta How to turn GPU acceleration on in Chrome 7 (zdnet.com) Enabling GPU Acceleration in Chrome 7 (thechromesource.com) Google Confirms Chrome GPU Acceleration (hardware.slashdot.org)

If this was a minigolf hole, you can't reach B from A. Ever. If this was a room lined with mirrors, and you lit a candle at point A, you can't see it from B, not even reflected.  Update: I guess I didn't explain this all the way through. You can't reach B from A with just one stroke, there's no direct line between them, and there is no way to bounce the ball (assuming perfect conditions). Thanks to Ben for pointing this obvious error. 

 If you don't "get" why red shirts are funny, read this . 

And had to check for myself because I was almost sure it was a photoshop:  

Image by pvera via Flickr This is a pretty good read. People still have this mindset that military service is where you go to when you can't cut it anywhere else and you only expect three warm meals and a cot. This may have been the truth many years ago, but it is nowhere close to reality . For example, the military is now delaying basic training to some people by up to 14 months. When I enlisted in 1992 my " delayed entry program " lasted about two months. In my case it was simple: they couldn't send me to basic training because I would graduate before my advanced class started, so there was no point in having me pass basic training, only to ride a mop bucket and a lawn mower for a couple months until the next advanced class started. It was a money decision. People don't understand it is a numbers game . Recruiters are sales people with quotas. Notice in the article a recruiter even uses the phrase "quality numbers." The way the quota is structur...

I am at a loss for words:   I majored in Mechanical Engineering , which means I took as much advanced math as it was humanly possible without switching my major to Math Nerd. It was a lot of math, and about 99% of it was pretty damn painful, it all hinged on who was teaching the class and having the wrong professor meant a high C at the best (I was VERY lucky, I got some incredible professors too, but there were also a few that were, well, not good). Now ANYONE can have access to all of this knowledge for free, they are posted on Youtube ! These are so good that Bill Gates gave them a shout out, both him and his 11-year old son have been using these for homework. The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) and they have produced over 1600 high quality educational videos on Math, Science, Economics and other stuff. Anyone can watch these videos, and they are structured so they can be used as part of a proper curriculum , not just for informal learning . Related articl...

Very obscure earworm unless you are at least in your 30s. Amusing if you are over 40 and remember the O'Jays original .

Richard Riehle in Office Space I have been killing some time by catching up with http://clientsfromhell.net , and I was almost depressed because a lot of the stuff that is supposed to be funny, well, isn't. It is hard to laugh at so many dumb things that I have actually experienced in real life. Then I saw this one : Me: “Here are the designs, and, with your approval, we’ll code them and put them up in a couple of days.” Client: “Why aren’t they up now?” Me: “We require client approval before we put up the final product, in order to make any changes.” Client: “I wanted it up yesterday.” Me: “Well, this is the first time that we’ve had a chance to meet in person and go over the designs.” Client: “But I wanted it put up yesterday.” Me: “I had emailed these to you for approval, but you never responded.” Client: “I thought you would just put it up.” Me: “Not without your approval, sir.” Client: “Well, put it up.” A week later. Client: “You know what, there are a few changes I ne...

I have hired a new customer support specialist to take care of my weekend "work" calls: National Geographic Photograph by Christopher Whittier Be warned that his people skills are a bit raw but I see a lot of potential in conflict resolution. 

Image by pvera via Flickr Slashdot Politics Story | Just Where Is The Lincoln Memorial, Anyhow? : "'Searching Google Maps for the Lincoln Memorial is returning the location of the FDR Memorial instead. Conservative bloggers smell a conspiracy since Glen Beck is holding his 'Restoring Honor' gathering at the Lincoln Memorial tomorrow (August 28). Notes for the map listing on Google state 'This place has unverified edits'; so, did someone claim the listing and edit the location?'" Let me tell you the extent to which this is simple, pure, unmitigated bullshit: you simply can't get lost looking for the Lincoln Memorial. Here's Pedro's Guide to Not Getting Lost in DC: Think of the DC Mall as a kite. The kite's long axis is East/West The center of the kite is the Washington Monument, you can't miss the thing, it is the tallest structure in the area. The left corner of the kite is the Lincoln Memorial. The line between the Linco...

"Inmates at Cook County Jail are allowed three privileges: television , books, and food . The staff has no compunction about denying its most difficult residents either of the first two, but under the Constitution , correctional facilities can’t withhold food. Nothing in the Eighth Amendment , however, says the food has to taste good. “This is not the Four Seasons,” says Tom Dart , the Cook County sheriff . “Inmates who are injuring people in jail will get their nutritional needs met, but we will not cater to their culinary desires.”"  This is really cool. They came up with a bland meatloaf-like concoction that doesn't taste much but it carries the minimum mandated diet elements you need to stay "healthy." A serving is 1,110 calories, the miscreants in question get two servings of the thing per day. Suing doesn't help much because the "loaf" doesn't taste bad, they mostly complain that it doesn't taste much, and their interpretation is co...

'This one runs on fat & saves you money' by Peter Drew of Adelaide Originally uploaded by carltonreid

Yup, another spammer recruiter sent me a cold inquiry, this time I sent him to Tub Girl  (link goes to the definition of Shock Site, not actual Tub Girl). Please don't try to follow that short URL!

"How could anyone live in such a place? Why don't they all just move up here?"

OK, this is both useless and desperate. Why are we still putting up with this cabling nonsense? Why not develop a secure means of replacing USB with a wireless technology , even if it is even shorter range than Bluetooth ? We don't need a new cable that goes 3GB/s because even if we had a device that could use such a connection, or computers can't sustain such a channel for long periods of time.  Instead we should be able to take a hard disk , pair it with our PC wirelessly , and then it would work at whatever speed, but only as long as the drive was within 3 feet from the PC. If we do this right, our PC will have one wire coming out of it, the power cord. Control devices should use a slower channel like Bluetooth or 802.11b/g/n, and all data channels should go over this high speed wireless channel. Even the Internet connection! We have had routers with push-button device pairings for a while, I don't see why we can't have it also work over this theoretical ch...

Image via CrunchBase It wasn't obvious from my first experiments, but the service allows you to receive phone calls, at least as long as you have a Google Voice number assigned. You will need to enable Google Talk in your Google Voice preferences, then you can assign your Google Talk as a target line for your phone contact groups. When I called my Google Voice number from my work phone, I got a pop up in Gmail that let me answer the call. Pretty damn nifty, and the price is right. Related articles by Zemanta Use Gmail to make VoIP calls: Hands-on review (news.cnet.com)

Oops, there goes my idea to NOT get PJ an iPod Touch. PJ loves using Netflix on his Xbox 360, he is going to go ballistic when I install it in our iPhonepod 3G (iPhone 3G not being used as a phone, but it is still a decent iPod Touch).

Image by csullens via Flickr Eli Wallach as The Ugly in " The Good, The Bad and The Ugly " Eli Wallach gets one too, about damn time! Too bad the writer of the article was too lazy to check IMDB and figure out that Eli Wallach was also in Coppola's Godfather III , and he stole every damn scene he had. Is it too much to ask reporters to spend a couple of minutes researching the material they are writing about? When you are reporting on a lifetime achievement award on a 94-year old master character actor with 162 movies to his credit, you could at least bother to list his five most popular films . Related articles by Zemanta Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard and Eli Wallach to Receive Honorary Oscars (slashfilm.com) Coppola to receive lifetime Oscar (bbc.co.uk)

FARK.com: (5577392) Theme of Farktography Contest No. 277: "The Book of Armaments" Details and rules in first post. LGT next week's theme My three entries are from my visit to the Pensacola National Naval Aviation Museum (right after 9/11) and a much more recent visit to the Dulles annex of the National Air & Space museum (the Udvar-Hazy center ):  Image by pvera via Flickr Model of the Fat Man nuclear weapon  Bell AH-1 Cobra Curtiss P40-E Warhawk Curtiss P-40E Warhawk , it is painted as "Lope's Hope" in memory of USAAC/USAF pilot and World War II ace, Donald S. Lopez (former Deputy Museum Director at the same museum). At the National Air and Space Museum , Smithsonian Institution , Udvar-Hazy Center (The "Dulles Annex"). Related articles by Zemanta World War II Divebomber Lifted From The Depths (luxist.com) Divers work to lift WWII plane from Calif. lake (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

X-37B unmanned space shuttle   This is really cool. Instead of trying to build a new shuttle, somebody actually figured out how to take the parts of the process that work (reusable vehicle that is blasted off like a rocket , then glides down like a plane) and made it smaller (read: cheaper) and unmanned. They also added some interesting capabilities, like the way it scoots in and out of the atmosphere to switch directions, which totally screws with anyone that is relying on basic orbital tracking calculations to figure out where it should be. Related articles by Zemanta Amateur Astronomers Spot Super Secret X-37B Space Shuttle Replacement [X-37b] (gizmodo.com) Secret X-37B space plane lost by sat-spotters for 2 weeks (go.theregister.com) Secret X-37B Space Plane Has Changed Orbit (space.com)

Hours since it was leaked that Google is working on providing free VoIP calls from within Gmail, Gtalk and Google Voice, I got a pop up in my Gmail asking me to install a plugin , and then it showed me this:  That's the good news. The bad news is that it froze both Chrome and IE. I didn't even bother trying it in Firefox . I did manage to make two of our phones ring, but that's about it. I have a very fast dual core laptop on Windows 7 -64, and everything ground to a halt every time I tried to place a phone call. I bet somebody screwed up and let too many people start using the service at the same time. As a norm Google services are released in a staggered fashion, but this just came up and I am sure I can't be the only one having trouble with this.  That said, it is interesting the timing of this release when the people that make the Magic Jack promised a free VoIP service two weeks ago and is already late by close to a week. I guess we'll see about that ......

They are fighting a lot of DERP today, so this is to cheer them up a little bit: 

Not the most annoying earworm by a mile, but I can't get it out of my head. Worse, with my bad luck I'll end up rick rolling myself.

Fred Gwinne as Herman Munster I feel like Dr. Frankenstein , and my monster is not very scary and more than a bit goofy-looking. And every time the customer bounces back the image with even more changes I imagine her (the customer, not my PM) as Rennfield (yea, I know, different story) as the one asking for the changes: Tom Waits as Rennfield "Master, Master, please move the Chinese text a tad more to the right, and make the chain logo a tiny bit smaller and move the ball with the other text to the other side of the kid with his head's chopped off..." And yea, I just described word-for-word something I just did to a banner. 

setup_9720 Originally uploaded by fotoopa This is photoopa's homebuilt rig, which uses lasers to trigger the shutter on the Nikon DSLR .

IMG_5198 monarchvlinder (Danaus plexippus) Originally uploaded by fotoopa This was shot by the "Photo Grandpa" (his nickname in Dutch is "fotoopa"), a Belgian that likes to shoot Macro with a rig that he designed and built to add laser triggers to his NIkon DSLR . The butterfly is a Monarch ( Danaeus plexippus ). Related articles by Zemanta where have all the butterflies gone? (greenantilles.com) Long Live the Monarch Butterflies...Or How To At Least Help (environment.change.org)

Not a fun day at the office.

Have You Seen This Flier Originally uploaded by prima seadiva Eh.

The spamming recruiter didn't budge after our previous encounter , he just sent me a new cold inquiry. Here's my reply:  Please don't try to go to that link, it is worse than Lemon Party.