Away on Business

So, it will be a slow blogging moment for the next few weeks. I am in San Francisco (mostly) until the end of September. I'll keep things up as best I can, but updates will be much more sparse.

Windows Vista the last of its kind

Techworld.com - Windows Vista the last of its kind: "Vista will be the last version of Windows that exists in its current, monolithic form, according to Gartner.

Instead, the research firm predicts, Microsoft will be forced to migrate Windows to a modular architecture tied together through hardware-supported virtualisation."

Well, anyone who has suffered through reading any of the rest of the blog earlier knows that I absolutely already said this was likely to be the case (and a damn fine idea). If you haven't used virtualization (VMWare, Zen, VirtualPC) you have no idea just how radically this alters your ideas about how hardware and operating systems are supposed to be used. You need to RUN (not walk) to the nearest download of your choice* and start experimenting.

*(VMWare has trials and the workstation product is very cheap)

Rock and Roll Daily » Blog Archive » Bob Dylan Rails Against Crappy CD Sound

Rock and Roll Daily » Blog Archive » Bob Dylan Rails Against Crappy CD Sound: "I remember when that Napster guy came up across, it was like, ‘Everybody’s gettin’ music for free.’ I was like, ‘Well, why not? It ain’t worth nothing anyway.’"

and this is from Bob Dylan? Damn insightful if you ask me.

Wired News: Refuse to be Terrorized

Wired News: Refuse to be Terrorized: "The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics.

The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act."

-----------------------------------

Amen. At least not everyone is following the crowd of sheeple. We MUST NOT LET THEM WIN. Yet by overreacting, we do just that. Ironic? No, just sad.

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Blogging for sex

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Blogging for sex: "Well, if blogging turns out to be a way to get laid, everybody will be doing it."

I...uhm, er... well...

Likebetter.

Likebetter. - The Red Ferret Journal

Interesting. Like an advanced version of the Rorschach Test.

D2E Robotics to offer programmable bot this October - Engadget

D2E Robotics to offer programmable bot this October - Engadget

More Robot goodness. This one looks like it could well be a new overlord, oh wait... it is only 1 ft tall :)

Verizon surcharges DSL customers

Verizon surcharges DSL customers: "For ages, Verizon had been lobbying the US government to deregulate DSL and to drop a tax on the technology. The outfit finally won and its customers were expecting to see a drop in their bills any day soon.

However in a notice to customers, Verizon said that it would begin imposing a surcharge of its own."

Oh yeah, telcoms have their customers best interest at heart.

Mind you, I am not a real proponent of having the governemtn fund everything. We should pay for the services we use/want, but great care is needed in this type of service since you may not have an alternative provider. Many places have just one choice for services like phone and cable.

Federal Appeals Court: Driving With Money is a Crime

Federal Appeals Court: Driving With Money is a Crime: "Federal Appeals Court: Driving With Money is a Crime
Eighth Circuit Appeals Court ruling says police may seize cash from motorists even in the absence of any evidence that a crime has been committed.
"

Scary. Hopefully this will get heard by the Supremes, probably not though. They have been a bit too willing to pass on cases that hedge in on freedoms and liberties. Innocent until proven guilty? Maybe not according to this.

Wi Fi Bunny freaks me and family out

Wi Fi Bunny freaks me and family out

This is really funny. Why oh why would you even put yourself up for this?

Here is a link to what the THING actually is:

NabazTag Bunny

The Mini-Moo Blues

So I admit, I am a slave to getting a cup (or 4) of coffee first thing in the AM when I am working. We have (my employer) a service that stocks all of the stuff, yet since we (my employer) goes on the cheap side to save a few bucks, the stuff they actually stock is more like a handfull of dirt and grass than coffee grounds. So a few of use have our own carafe and buy our own coffee to brew.
I noticed this morning another discouraging sign, the mini-moos have become micro-moos. For those not familiar, a Mini-Moo I refer you to Who is Mini-Moo> Normally I would have guessed that they hold oh maybe a 1/2 ounce of creamer each. Today when I grabbed a handfull to restock, I noticed they seemed really, really light. So I hold them up to the light and 'lo!' they are lighter becuase they have about 1/2 of the creamer content they used to.
Does this actually accomplish anything other than selling less product for the same money? Color me doubtful... Dump TWO in and carry on.

Man on a Mission - 8/11/2006 - Design News

Man on a Mission - 8/11/2006 - Design News

Now this is a great idea. I personally know that the worst case scenario always goes through my mind when I fire up the table saw...

Neat video

Movies

Amazing wind powered walking machines. No, not tiny ones...huge ones.

The Musty Man - Hating America

The Musty Man - Hating America: "And that's the backside of backpacking. You can't stay - going native is its own sort of non-solution, and most backpackers are smart enough to know that they don't really belong in the place they've been in a permanent way, no matter how they feel about it while they're there, but it does have a way of temporarily, overwhelmingly reordering your sense of the 'haves' and 'have nots' in such a way that your own problems seem embarrassingly small. When you feel shitty, you apologize for it. When other people express worry about their relationships or their jobs or their parents or anything else, you resent them, because you feel like they don't have real problems. But you hate that behavior in yourself, so you resent yourself."


Ahh the epiphany of someone who has travelled abroad, for the first time, in a third world country. You really don't have any way to describe this to someone who has not done it. It can be a life-viewpoint-altering experience, if you are of a mind to accept that much change.

...a prank in time...

Mike gets a new office!

Ahh, the smell of righteous retribution...

Ken Rosenthal: Pictures

Ken Rosenthal: Pictures

Very interesting photography. The themes are classic, if you find them intriguing or midly dark and disturbing that is a personal preference. Art should take the everyday and transform it into something that makes us stop and question our perceptions...and this certainly qualifies.

The Cost of Computing?

"Power and cooling defies Moore's Law: "Gartner's Stephen Prentice said that while it was unlikely that power and cooling costs will outpace the cost of systems as early as next year, it was true that electricity and cooling is catching up with systems' costs.

But he said that the industry was definitely headed toward a point when punters will pay more for power and cooling than they did for the computing."

Woman faces court over rail line drive

Woman faces court over rail line drive | NEWS.com.au: "A BRISBANE woman who allegedly drove a car onto a railway line, honking her horn at a train in front of her, has been charged with dangerous driving."

Only because there is no statute on the books for Extra Stupid Driving.

A Gamers' Manifesto

A Gamers' Manifesto:

"Instant-Failure Stealth Levels. Ack. This brings back horrible memories of a Goldeneye level where if you tripped an alarm, an infinite number of bad guys poured forth. We knew a man who failed that level 37 times, then got the Infinite Health cheat for it and came back. He intentionally tripped the alarm, the guards rushed out. Laughing maniacally, he proceeded to shoot those fuckers for four hours, killing 1,183 of them - 682 with groin shots - before his thumbs cramped up. Your game should not create this kind of bitterness. "


If you haven't read this before, it is really worth the 5 minutes or so it takes to do it.

Boing Boing: Transparent canoe-kayak

Boing Boing: Transparent canoe-kayak

Now this is just too cool. A clear canoe. Damn I almost want one.

Schneier on Security: Security and Monoculture

Schneier on Security: Security and Monoculture

Both the shifting machine code encryption and memory randomization techniques discussed here are brilliant ideas. If they can be shown to be light on CPU as well--and for the second method I see no reason it should be--then these will likely be quickly adopted into the open source OS flavors very quickly.

Skywalker jet packs in development - Engadget

Skywalker jet packs in development - Engadget: "the allure of a jet pack strapped onto your back just doesn't seem to lose its luster"

Nope, that just never gets old :) I wonder if Lucas takes offense at the name?

Body Armor Fit For A Superhero

Body Armor Fit For A Superhero: "it's a mix of polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in laxatives and other consumer products, and nanobits of silica, or purified sand. Together they produce a 'sheer-thickening liquid' that stiffens instantly into a shield when hit hard by an object. It reverts to its liquid state just as fast when the energy from the projectile dissipates."