Friday, March 26, 2004

AVR Chips. Low-cost micro-controller kits [Cool Tools]

5.11 Tactical Shirts. Cop shirts [Cool Tools]

Dwelling Portably. Tips for American nomads [Cool Tools]

Soya-based jet fuel promises greener air travel. New soya based jet fuel could lead to cheaper fuel costs and cleaner airlines. [Ars Technica]

A trip down memory lane with the GUI guidebook. The GUIdebook is a retrospective look at the GUI throughout the years. It's a fantastic trip through the past, from GEOS for the Commedore 64 to cute pictures of System 1. [Ars Technica]

Send your future self an email. FutureMe lets you address an email to yourself and set a date in the future to have it sent -- pass an email to yourself in ten years reminding yourself about your vow to never, ever drink peach schnapps again and see how well you're faring. Link (via Ambiguous) [Boing Boing]

Mythtv PVRs for sale. An Aussie company is shipping prebuilt mythtv-based PVRs. These are souped-up TiVo-like boxen built out of commodity hardware with all the features that I want, not just the ones that make the Luddites who run the movie studios comfortable. This analysis of the features (including several features that the manufacturer lamely decided to "hide") makes this box pretty drool-worthy indeed. Link (via /.) [Boing Boing]

Phil Agre- How to help someone use a computer. Excellent advice from Phil who I have been reading for over 10 years! (via Puzzlepieces) How to help someone use a computer: QUOTE Computer people are fine human beings, but they do a lot of harm in the ways they "help" other people with their computer problems. Now that we're trying to get everyone online, I thought it might be helpful to write down everything I've been taught about helping people use computers. UNQUOTE [Roland Tanglao's Weblog]

Panic's next cool app. Great teaser! I am definitely intrigued. From MacDevCenter.com: Dev to Dev: James Duncan Davidson Interviews Panic [Mar. 23, 2004]: QUOTE I got a sneak peek at the next little app that Panic will be releasing. I won't give away any details, but it's something that I really, really want for my Mac. And you very well might want it too. Stay tuned to the Panic web site. UNQUOTE [Roland Tanglao's Weblog]

Dijkstra - it's a superstition that programming is so easy that even a Republican can do it!. Ha! Laugh out loud as they say! Programming well like doing anything well is hard and anybody, even Republicans can learn to program (just like I painfully taught myself how to assemble Ikea furniture :-) !). But not everybody can put together and design great software just like not everybody can write design great furniture. So anybody who thinks all programmers are just equal units that can be shuffled around and tries to manage programmers that way is doomed to failure or worse mediocrity. From Dijkstra paper in his own handwriting: Why American Computing Science Seems Incurable": QUOTE In the essay, Dijkstra argues that the pressures that the high-tech industry is adversely affecting academic research. He says that industry pressure is causing the definition of being a good programmer to change from someone who is "able to design more effective and trustworthy programs" and who knows "how to do it efficiently" to somewho who thinks of "'industrial acceptance' as quality criterion" and writes programs such that "its main feature [is] that one could apply it unthinkingly." Programming, he says is becoming less a branch of applied math and more a branch of keeping the high-tech industry afloat, a problem aggravated by "a total lack of faith in [America's] educational system and a deep-rooted mistrust of intellectuals." UNQUOTE [Roland Tanglao's Weblog]

Tired of Silly Putty? Try Magnetoids. I like to play with a hunk of Silly Putty while I procrastinate in front of the computer. But these Magnetoids look (and sound) really neat. Link (Thanks, Kent W!) [Boing Boing]

The Making of Gollum. The creator of The Lord of the Ring's creepiest character shows how he brought it to life. [Extremetech]