June 2009
41 posts
WatchThis was too good to pass up. (via whatson:dangurewitch)
Pirate Bay Bought Out, Suddenly Respects... →
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
VMware Fusion 2.0.5 Changelog →
Among the fixes:
CPU usage spikes during Unity drag and drop operation
In a Windows XP Professional virtual machine, the VMwareUser.exe process (part of VMware Tools) might use 100% of the CPU and cause the virtual machine to stop responding. This issue is resolved in VMware Fusion 2.0.5.
Awesome. Although I’m not sure I’ll run in unity mode frequently, at least I know I...
Elton John - “I Need You to Turn To”...
iPhone HD? →
The [iPhone CPU] features a built-in, 720p multiformat codec (MFC) video Engine which ensures smooth 30fps videoencoding and playblack at low power consumption, and supports threetypes of TV out interface (NTSC/PAL/HDMI)
From Google’s HTML view of the product sheet; actual PDF here. Interesting that the brain of the iPhone 3G S can decode and encode 720p at 30fps.
“He walks the positive side of the fine line separating ‘arrogance’...”
– Kevin Gilbert
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It's that time of the year again
Despite never having been disastrously hurt by data loss, I’m obsessed to the point of possible compulsion to keep good backups.
At any moment, I typically have all of my pictures, documents, and music backed up—at the very least—in quadruplicate:
Original copies on my MacBook
Time Machine backup
rsync copies on my server
RARs split across DVDs, which are kept outside...
“You should work at your relationship, but your relationship shouldn’t be...”
– The missus, who is wise beyond her years.
This begs an interesting question... →
In a speech on Thursday, acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps said the agency ‘should determine whether some of these arrangements adversely restrict consumer choice or harm the development of innovative devices, and it should take appropriate action if it finds harm.
So let’s assume, for the sake of discussion, that AT&T exclusivity on the iPhone ended sometime soon. Where...
Some other Snow Leopard changes
Finally, Mac OS X will drop the age-old standard of tracking hard drive capacity in terms of base 2 numbers. Whereas 1MB is usually equal to 1,024KB, and 1GB is equal to 1,024MB (that’s 2^10, in case you were wondering), hard drive manufactures have for years used more common base 10 counting, so 1MB equals 1,000KB, 1GB equals 1,000MB, as so on. Snow Leopard will adopt the same...
“But developers are like alcoholics. If you put more system resources in front of...”
– Jason Chen
Wow, I'd DEFINITELY like to sign up now!
Me: I'm a Verizon customer. I'm concerned about coverage, for example, in my house [in a major suburban area of the capital of my state].
ATT Guy: Well, I can look it up for you! ... Ah, I see there are *three* towers that are reasonably close to your house. In my experience, that means that, say, your phone will work in one part of the living room, but not the other, for example.
Me: ...
ATT Guy: At least, that was my experience when I lived off [a major thoroughfare not far from our house].
Me: So what happens if we get the phones and the service at our house is terrible? Is there a return policy?
ATT Guy: Well, if you return the stuff within 48 hours, there's only a restocking fee.
Me: And how much is that?
ATT Guy: $20 for a non-iPhone and 10% for an iPhone.
Me: ...
ATT Guy: So, what do you think?
Missus (aka, voice of reason): I don't think we'd like to pre-order an iPhone today.
Seriously, AT&T is doing an excellent job of convincing me *not* to buy an iPhone.
Dropbox Mac/Linux Tip
Frequently I’ll take a bunch of pictures and throw them into a Dropbox gallery to share with friends and family. When I do that, I don’t want to have a second copy of the pictures (in ~/Dropbox/Photos/), as well as the “real” copy (in ~/Pictures/).
This duplication can be avoided using symbolic links and a tiny bit of Terminal kung-fu.
Say I want to share the folder...
And thus begins the hardest part of the year.
Today is, for me, a normal day of work. It’s also my wife’s first day off for summer. She teaches high school, and busts her butt the whole year, and deserves the time off. But now, she gets to relax… until she decides to repaint the entire house. :)
This is always a really hard time for me, though, as I have to continue to go in to work every day all summer long knowing...
Top Gear Season 13 Trailer →
So unbelievably excited for this.
Kung Fu Kid →
Holy crap, Will Smith’s son Jaden and Jackie Chan are starring in this pending Karate Kid remake. This should be interesting.
See also on Wikipedia.
Pay-as-you-go 3G broadband comes courtesy of... →
I’ve been barking up this tree for a while now. I don’t understand why this idea hasn’t caught on.
There are plenty of people, I reckon, who want to have the option of being always connected, but don’t want to commit to it. Virgin Mobile is now offering quasi-pay as you go wireless broadband, at semi-reasonable prices.
Of course, the caveat is that the cost of entry...
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Today
Is my MacBook’s first birthday. Awww.
And that concludes our geek moment for today.
Watchperoty:
shutupinternet:
willw:
Live App Store Sales
Apple made this awesome installation at WWDC.
This is awesome.
More mesmerizing than hopping dock icons.
What I learned from today's WWDC
AT&T Sucks.
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I love technology
I was updating our financial records with purchases made over the last few days, and then ensuring that our records match those of our bank. I noticed a couple extra transactions on our credit card, made recently, that I didn’t expect to see.
Thankfully it wasn’t identity theft; it was just the purchases the missus made moments ago on her way home from work.
I saw the record of...
Thanks, UPS!
My server survived a ~2 hour power outage last night, thanks to my uninterruptible power supply:
[casey@lapserver ~]$ w
08:39:26 up 207 days, 14:16,
It’s the small victories. Especially for geeks.
w00t
New world record for my Ubuntu server. It’s been up over 200 days (since roughly November 8):
[casey@lapserver ~]$ w
20:24:20 up 205 days, 2:01
Last time this happened a tree fell on a power line and the repair took longer than my battery backup lasted. That was at 199 days.
WatchReally great segment about Dave Matthews Band from one of my favorite TV shows, CBS Sunday Morning.