October 2009 Archives

Reader Philip's OS X desktop not only gives him a quote of the day and tells him what happened this day in history—it also has a unique, interesting clock sitting on the background wallpaper.

The comic’s formative years are enshrined in the just-released The Bloom County Library: Volume One: 1980–1982, the first in a five-volume reprint series that will eventually archive the entire strip—even the stuff that makes its creator wince. “Who the hell remembers who Cap Weinberger was?” he asks. “It was shocking to see how much time I’d spent writing those names. The timeliness of the humor is definitely limiting.”

So what would it be like if superheroes like Batman, Spider-Man and Superman were updating their statuses, taking quizzes, and commenting on each other's profiles like the rest of us?

Keep all your data backed up on a Windows Home Sever. More than just a generic NAS box, Windows Home Server maintains backups, streams media files, and works as a file share across your home network.

And then there's the next meal. Who knows what we'll want to eat? Because we cook, we don't just see things as they are, raw and tough and fibrous. We look at what is and we glimpse the possible - that ugly fish can have crispy skin, and that bitter broccoli rabe would be delicious with garlic and oil. The pretty radicchio belongs in a risotto and those leftover scraps of meat will make a perfect stock. The world, it turns out, is a pretty delicious place. All it needs a little attention, and maybe just a pinch of salt.

To accomplish this, we decided that we needed a data warehouse. After numerous false starts and blind alleys, we decided to make our own system from scratch using MySQL.

Five Must-Have Tools for Any Kitchen

But now, in the digital age, it’s not only simple to create panoramic images on your home computer, it’s become increasingly easier thanks to advances in software. There are still some general guidelines to follow to help you increase your odds of producing great photos because remember, you can’t fix everything in a computer after the fact. I’ve made a number of mistakes over the years in learning about panoramas and it’s my hope that these guidelines will help shorten your learning curve and give you a head start in creating stunning panoramic images.

Statistics 36-350: Data Mining

Our internetexpert friends Gabe and Max have teamed up with Details magazine to produce an informative series of videos on how to be a stylish dude.

This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines of the game Starcraft. There will be lecture on various aspects of the game, from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted. Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course.

I’ve observed, over the years, that the not so well to do’s have some traits in common. The following list are my observations. These items aren’t bad per se, but when you see a good number of these traits in a person there’s a good chance they too are one of the not so well to do (read: poor)!

How to opt-out of Verizon's personal info-sharing scheme

Everything You Ever Really Needed to Know About Personal Finance On Just One Page

Trying this out at work, and the add-ins I've got only gave out that I've been to the Mozilla homepage. Somewhat reassuring, until the next wave of things that need to be blocked show up.

The epiphany I want to talk about is this: What are you waiting for? Seriously. I know you’ve got a mortgage and 1.5 kids, but during your sacred time when you discover that bright idea and subsequently discover that no established competitor exists… why aren’t you making the leap?

Over the past few months, I have been running this class to introduce readers to the fundamentals of the camera: the physics behind it all, how lenses and optics works, the mechanics of the camera and how to set and determine a photo’s exposure.

How does a modern day gentleman dress for the hot summer weather while still looking presentable?

Below we’ve made a series of videos on seven basic knots every man should know.

In the article “Real-Time Hackers Foil Two-Factor Security”, Robert Lemos, a science and technology journalist sheds light on a serious security issue. The article points out, how sophisticated cybercriminals are becoming. In fact, a new term, crimeware is used to describe their exploits.

Four years ago I wrote an article titled Keeping FreeBSD Up-To-Date. The goal was to document various ways that a FreeBSD 5.2 system could be updated and upgraded using tools from that time, in an example-drive way that complemented the FreeBSD Handbook.

Tonight’s entry revolves around a structure I first built back in the early 90’s when it was described in Fine Woodworking magazine (Fine Woodworking, August 1992, No. 95, pp. 40-41, by Pat Paterson). It is one of the most well-designed and most useful sets of saw horses (the article calls them “saw ponies”) I’ve ever seen. I have built quite a few sets of them, some as gifts, and have most recently built myself another set. Here is the article and the accompanying diagram. These are built from short 2×4 cutoffs and plywood scraps – items usually available around every garage or workshop!