Archive: Links

Links of Interest (June 21st 2007 Through June 29th 2007)

Friday, June 29th, 2007
Pirate keyboard
CORSAIR Ergonomic Keyboard For Pirates
David Allen Company Podcast
David Allen Company podcast
Writer Stalking
Vlog-paparazzia stalk author/podcaster Mathew Wayne Selznick at Balticon.
Locus Online: New Books, mid-June 2007
Locus online’s listing of new SF/F/H books for mid-June 2007
The Dawn of Dilbert
The original batch of Dilbert strips that were submitted to the cartoon syndicates (with reactions).

Links of Interest (June 8th 2007 Through June 20th 2007)

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
Got allergies? Tiny discovery nothing to sneeze at
I hope this comes to something. My tree allergy is so bad I can’t eat most fruit. I miss fruit.
Deconstructing a Star Wars AT-AT Imperial Walker Baby Stroller
Thingamababy analyzes a DIY stroller conversion from a handful of photos.
How To: Translate a foreign language RSS feed
Using Yahoo Pipes to translate RSS feeds. Looks nice and simple.
Future Sony e-book reader to offer IDPF format and Adobe DRM support?via Digital Editions
Sounds like the next version of Sony Reader will support the IDPF open ebook standard. I like reading ebooks from dedicated readers, but I hate the hoops I have to jump through to get them on there. Sounds like a step in the right direction.
Developers launch kid-safe add-on for Firefox
Glubble is a Firefox plug-in that allows parents to create a whitelist of approved sites to let their kids visit.
Dissecting a Plugin: Better Comments Manager
Ronald Huereca disects the “Better Comments Manager” Wordpress plugin, in what is hopefully the first of a series of articles of this type. Should be a great place to start if you’re trying to figure out how Wordpress plugins work.
Batman?s New Set of Wheels
Slice of Sci-Fi has pics of the new Batcycle for “The Dark Knight”
How victim snared ID thief / She chased down woman who had given her 6 months of hell
Karen Lodrick bumped into the woman who had stolen her identity, and gave chase for the next 45 minutes!
Primer, part two (glossary)
Glossary for Diana Peterfreund’s primer on publishing.
Primer, part one
Diana Peterfreund’s primer on publishing.
New Books, early June 2007
Locus online’s listing of new SF/F/H books for early June 2007
Ars System Guide: June 2007
When I’m building a new PC for someone, this is where I start. Great if you’re trying to get the most bang for your buck.

Links of Interest (June 5th 2007 Through June 7th 2007)

Thursday, June 7th, 2007
Video: RSS in Plain English
Brilliant explanation of what RSS is all about. Afraid to use those little orange icons you see everywhere? You won’t be.
Hire someone to run your errands
Hiring a personal assistant to got to free up your time for other things. Hmmmm.
The Power of Nuts
CBS renewed “Jherico” for seven more episodes due to fan protest involving sending nuts to the network (apparently 21,000+ lbs of them).
Global Variables and the WordPress Loop
Very detailed description of the WordPress Loop, and the globals available within.
Lecture: Joe Haldeman on “The Craft of Science Fiction”
SFFAudio points out a number of Science Fiction/Fantasy related lectures available at iTunes U (along with non-iTunes sources).
Icron offers USB 2.0 over power line solution
USB over powerlines. It sounds good. Why do I have the feeling that even if it does work, it won’t work for me?
GNU Emacs 22 finally released
Whoo hoo! I’m a fairly devout Emacs user, even on windows.

Links of Interest (June 1st 2007)

Friday, June 1st, 2007
DVR viewers push ad ratings up
This whole thing seems like a no-brainer to me, but it’s news to the suits.
Closing the book on Apple’s Mac mini
AppleInsider believes that the Mac mini is dead. Sounds like Apple will be pulling out of the sub-$800 market. It’s to bad if it’s true, because I have had money set aside waiting for the next-gen of the mini to be released. Guess I’ll upgrade my PC.
Lumosity - Brain Fitness and Memory Improvement
Online “brain fitness” program.
European robots assist children in forming relationships
Using robots to help autistic children form relationships.
Under stairs storage: brilliant
I never would have thought of doing this, but now that I see it I’m amazed at how obvious an idea it is.

Links of Interest (May 24th 2007 Through May 31st 2007)

Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Feed Your Television
Google Reader has added support for the Nintendo Wii (yeah, I’m bit behind on noticing this one).
Potter buffs may soon be able to visit Hogwarts
J.K. Rowling OKs a Harry Potter theme park in Orlando, FL. That could be fun. Unfortunately most of the article is about the upcoming book 7, but it sounds like it would be part of Universal.
Sci-fi writers join war on terror
Homeland Security calls on Sigma, a group of Science Fiction writers (including Jerry Pournelle, Arlan Andrews, Greg Bear, Larry Niven and Sage Walker) put together to advise government officials.
squirrels with lightsabers
as adviertized
Programming: How to build a Firefox extension
Occasionally I go looking for an extension to do something, fail to find it and start thinking I should write it myself. Maybe next time I will.
How To: Maintain threaded view in Thunderbird
I’ve been looking for this for years and I didn’t even know it.
Interface elements for jQuery
“Interface is a collection of rich interface components which utilizes the lightweight JavaScript library jQuery. With this components you can build rich client web applications and interfaces with the same simplicity as writing JavaScript with jQuery.”

Links of Interest (May 11th 2007 Through May 16th 2007)

Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
Stop! Hammer Time! Firefox Extension
Firefox Extension to MC Hammer-ize the stop button. Why? Not really sure.
Four H.P. Lovecraft Lectures in podcast form
Four lectures on H.P. Lovecraft by Dr. Justin Woodman
Ticketmaster
This family gives their kids TV watching tickets to help limit their TV input per week and keep mom and dad from being the “bad guys”.
Nudists Seek Younger Following, Graying Nudist Groups Reach Out To 20- And 30-Somethings
“Here’s the naked truth about nude recreation: The people who practice it aren’t getting any younger.”
Congress gets earful on net neutrality, CableCARD, YouTube from video execs
Ars Techica’s coverage of “The Future of Video” discussion from the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet hearing on May 10, 2007

Links of Interest (May 8th 2007 Through May 10th 2007)

Thursday, May 10th, 2007
Top 5 Roomba Hacks
Videos of some interesting Roomba hacks. Seeing a family of Roombas sing “Frosty the Snowman” is a riot (and only a little bit creepy).
17 Web 2.0 Sites Optimized for Your Wii
A nice selection of sites to visit on your Wii.
Sun?s Take on OpenID
Sun is offering trusted OpenID’s for all employees.
Spoon-Bending ‘Paranormalist’ Illegally Twists Copyright Law
Uri Geller v. YouTube. Great headline.
Hi, I?m a Marvel?and I?m a DC
Parody of the “I’m a Mac.., and I’m a PC” ads with comic book action figures.
Top 17 Search Innovations Outside Of Google
Interesting overview of search technologies.

Links of Interest (May 3rd 2007 Through May 7th 2007)

Monday, May 7th, 2007
Lost’s end in sight.
“Lost” has three more seasons (but with only 16 episodes each), ending in 2010. It’s still one of my top five shows, and I’m glad they are planning a definitive ending (not because I want it to go, but because it can’t go on forever).
DryerFox - It’s like Firefox, but inside a dryer!
Just what it sounds like.
IE 8: Opt-in for standards compliance
Apparently there will be a way to tell IE8 “my site is standards compliant”. I imagine that means the default assumption is “my site works in IE”.
MASSIVE: Microsoft May Acquire Yahoo for $50 Billion
Peter Cashmore’s take on the news that Microsoft is in talks to buy Yahoo! My immediate reaction is to wonder about Pipes and YUI.
Science Fiction and Politics University Course continues
“Professor Courtney Brown’s course at Emory University is a Political Science course entitled Science Fiction and Politics (Political Science 190).” The lectures are available free for download and as a podcast.
Can e-books hurt your eyes?
As someone whose vision is not at all good, this is near and dear to my eyes. Also this is one of the reasons I avoid DRM crippled e-books and PDF e-books. I want to view e-books on my preferred device, with my own font size choice.

Links of Interest

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
Reset Reasoning
Eric Myer’s explanation of why you would want to reset styles across browsers.
Reset Reloaded
Eric Myer’s reset CSS stylesheet. It levels the playing fields across (most) browsers. I’ll probably use this when I get back to redesigning my site.
Eric Talbot’s Blog
Eric Talbot (perhaps best know for his work involving turtles and/or skulls) has long been one of my favorite artists. His blog contains scans from his sketchbook.
Interactivities Ink Presents: Code Monkey
“Code Monkey is a cute short game based on the song of the same name by Jonathan Coulton. Be the first Code Monkey to win the heart of the Pretty Receptionist and complete two projects for Boring Manager Rob.”
MessageFaces
One of my favorite Thunderbird extensions. Adds support for X-Face and gravatar.com.
Totally Frakked: Dead Like Me Returns In Movie Form
Looks like “Dead Like Me”, which was a great show, is going to return in a direct to DVD movie.

Links of Interest (April 30th 2007 Through May 1st 2007)

Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
First of May - Joe Murphy Mix
A “Band-Aid” style version of Jonathan Coulton’s “First of May” recorded by a number of podcasters in support of The Joe Murphy Memorial Fund. Warning: Explicit Lyrics
Prototype JavaScript framework: Prototype 1.5.1 released
Release announcement for Prototype 1.5.1
Loupe.js
“[A]llows you to add a loupe (magnifier) to images on your webpages. It uses unobtrusive javascript to keep your code clean.” Interesting. I like the Xray example.
How A Small Press Author Stormed Amazon?s Charts (and beat Black Lab)
Video interview with Scott Sigler about Ancestor’s performance on Amazon, and the reaction.
Mr Potato Head: Spider-Spud
When a radioactive spider bit Peter Parker Potato, he became SPIDER SPUD!
Mr Potato Head: Optimash Prime
Potatoes in Disguise!