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Saturday, February 22, 2003 |
somethin' for the ladies
in Little Saigon, they call it Ngau Pin. in my house, we call it Beef Penis. no matter how you slice it, that's a whole lot of cow. thank heavens it comes with "Handling Instructions." [the reverse cowgirl's blog]
5:33:41 PM 
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GNU Radio's got your DTV transition *hangin'*. GNU Radio is a software-defined radio project implemented in Free Software. Using an ossciliscope, an analog-to-digital converter, and software that can pick out individual transmissions from the results, GNU Radio can be adapted to receive analog or digital TV, AM or FM radio, cellular traffic, 802.11a, b and g, and anything else that runs over the electromagnetic spectrum, subject to the speed of the analog-to-digital converter, the CPU, and the ability of codec authors to write decoders for different apps. Eric Blossom, the lead on GNU Radio, envisions a $65 FireWire peripheral in five or ten years that can handle every radio application you use today, all at once.
Except that under the terms of the Broadcast Flag mandate that the FCC is considering at the moment, all digital television demodulators will have to be designed to be tamper-resistant (i.e., not GPLed). If Hollywood gets its way, in other words, GNU Radio would be illegal.
Which is a damned shame, 'cause Eric just got DTV tuning and demodulation running. Link Discuss (via Oblomovka) [Boing Boing Blog]
5:22:37 PM
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Something Military Happening in Boston???.
Something Military Happening in Boston???
I just heard from a friend who was driving on Storrow Drive in Boston and he told me that he saw "20 to 30 soldiers in fatigues going over one of the foot bridges crossing the Charles River with weapoons in hand -- not slung but actually out". Anyone local know anything? George W taking out those Harvard Liberals perhaps? [The FuzzyBlog!]
5:20:47 PM
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Security you can hear at home.
Iraqwar.info: Listen to DC combat air patrols. Here's the audio. The background is utter silence broken by aircraft chatter. Here's what I've heard in the last two minutes:
Fourfivetwo?
Cccccchh.
Hrrlwwlenken.
Cccchhwelcome.
Tower to Tinker?
CccchNrdlschoolbreak.
Nordabout onefiveseven.
Number two complete and we are swapping raids.
Fivefourtwo.
Thirtyfourfortyfive grwonswor five rrgon slowly please.
Information window parameters. You're going to have to ree ... the background noise.
What I have is about six x instrumentation window parameters appear to be over water.
Fiveonefive ronseddiwood look attem.
Confirm Ron. He's workin those parameters and is lookn ta fixem.
Fourfivetwo disconnect. Five two would be out low to the south.
Leh.
Tooz um twentyone thousand.
No that's fine.
Yellowjackets twofour oh.
Ccch linproceedem.
Y'know they have the miniDVD players inna make me one of them so you can listen to your CDs while you play around.
Maybe I'll do that.
Steel flow guages and my eyeballs are getting fried cuz it's so late.
Onefortytwo twothousand climbing to four thousand nnrndr roll.
Rrrn.
Makes me feel safer already. [The Doc Searls Weblog]
5:13:07 PM
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 We held a press conference today in Amsterdam where we showed the first episode of the "Adam's Family" series. Standing room only and great (p)reviews. The Dutch daily Telegraaf [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
5:12:19 PM
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Ten Technologies Picked at Demo 2003.
Demo 2003 was held this week in Scottsdale, Arizona. This is an unusual event because exhibitors must show technologies at work, not just presentations.
Jon Fortt, a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News, picked ten promising technologies he thinks "are poised to change the way we interact with technology in the next three years or so." Here is this list.
Mok Reality Editor (Turns digital pictures into 3-D environments)
PKZIP 6.0 (Compresses and encrypts files before you send them)
TerraPlayer (Streams MP3s from your PC to any room in the house)
Socratic Tutor (Sets up a whiteboard instant messaging session between tutors and students in need)
Pixim D2000 Video Imaging System (Displays streaming video in better detail despite bad lighting)
MailFrontier Anti-Spam Gateway (Blocks unwanted e-mail before it hits your in-box)
Liquid Machines V1 (Controls access to sensitive corporate documents, at work or at home)
Fax2it/Scan2it (Keeps digital record of outgoing and incoming faxes)
Infoscope (Translates image of text from one language to another)
BigFix Enterprise Suite (Closes security holes on networked computers)
Please read the article for additional details, like prices and availability.
Source: Jon Fortt, San Jose Mercury News, February 20, 2003 [Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]
5:08:32 PM
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how many kurds died?. After some morning conversation with my inlaws about Iraq, I decided to do some research on Saddam. I find it difficult to believe that I've never seen much visual proof of the 1.4 million Saddam alledgedly killed. Mind you even one person is too many in my book, but google came up with an interesting article from World Net Daily
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"Having looked at all of the evidence that was available to us, we find it impossible to confirm the State Department's claim that gas was used in this instance. " |
The article was originally published in 1998 and again in october 2001 after 9-11 and accurately predicts more:
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"I continue to make inquiry into the situation in Iraq, as it is likely to brew up into another crisis one of these days when the U.N. has no choice but to conclude that Iraq is not hiding any weapons of mass destruction - or if they are, they are so well hidden that nobody is going to find them." |
Pointers to Saddam atrocities are appreciated.
[Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]
5:07:59 PM
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Island nation collapses. Nauru, a south-seas island, has dissolved into chaos. Nauru used to be one of the righest nations in the world, until its lucrative phosphate mines dried up, leaving a "moonscape" behind. No one on the island had been paid since last year, and the plan to become an offshore tax haven resulted in the nation becoming a money-laundry for the mob. There seems to have been a presidential coup on Jan 8, and all communications with the island have been cut off since then, except when visiting ships dock long enough to gather bits of news like the fact that the presidential palace has been burned to the ground.
The problem is so bad that more than 400 banks were registered to one mailbox alone, international investigators say.
The island has also begun interning asylum seekers while their applications to live in Australia are processed, in return for aid from Canberra.
However this appears to have gone badly wrong.
Late last year, Australian immigration officials admitted that the asylum seekers, mainly Iraqis, had been running their own detention centre since officials abandoned the site following a riot.
"Effectively you could call it a self-managed centre," a senior Australian immigration official told an inquiry.
Link Discuss (Thanks, Paul!) [Boing Boing Blog]
I've always enjoyed stories on islands. I remember when the DNR in Minnesota sold a lighthouse on an island for $80,000. I was crushed that I didn't know about it before hand.
5:01:40 PM
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Harold goes Mobloggy.
FoneBlog from NewBay
FoneBlog from NewBay is "a comprehensive software system that allows mobile phone users run personal websites (called 'blogs') by sending pictures, text and soundclips from their phone." (via Dan Gillmor) [Werblog]
How FoneBlog works
- Users register by sending an SMS messge to a special mobile number (you can also register online)
- Users receive their website name and a password by SMS message to their mobile phone. Inital website name is determined by the network operator (e.g. www.operator.com/mobilenumber).
- Users send SMS, MMS or email messages to a special mobile number
- FoneBlog creates a new entry for each message and places it at the top of their website. Previous entries are moved down and each day a new page is created.
- The blog can be viewed by any web browser
Users can also login to their blog using a web browser to add and edit entries, choose different skins, setup privacy options and change other settings.
[Audioblog/Mobileblogging News]
Now Bloggers Can Hit the Road
Wired News -> Now Bloggers Can Hit the Road. Mobile weblogging, or moblogging, is the latest trend in the world of blogs. New software allows users to update their weblogs remotely with cell phones and other handheld devices. By Peter Rojas. [Wired News] [Marc's Voice]
4:56:59 PM
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Decentralize homeland security: An interesting meld of homeland security and smart mobs is positing in this article, which points out several ways in which distributed networks and intelligence could be effectively used to keep people safe. Unfortunately, the US has an entirely centralized mentality, even while funding decentralized, mesh-based battlefield systems for soldiers! [80211b News]
4:55:54 PM
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You Could Make a Dead Man Broadcast: The Rolling Stones have an extensively networked operation on the road based on Wi-Fi and linked via satellite because land-based high-speed service is difficult at their venues (which seems odd, given how many traveling groups depend on it). This business-oriented article explains the Stones organization's use of Wi-Fi for communication among themselves, for updating the Web site with live details of concerts, and for providing a lifeline back to family and loved ones. [80211b News]
4:55:27 PM
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Ethnomathematics - What Next?. Mathematics is the same everywhere in the world. It is a true universal language. But some folks are upset about it, because of its Western roots. So now we get Ethnomathematics! From the New York Times (free subscription required), we learn: The only possibility of building up a planetary civilization depends on restoring the dignity of the losers.'' Robert N. Proctor, who teaches the history of science at Pennsylvania State University, says he wants to counter the notion ''that the West is the be all and end all'' when it comes to mathematical studies. ''After all,'' he adds, ''all math... [Useful Fools]
4:37:16 PM
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Faking the Lomo effect. I've always liked the look of Lomo photos (typically bright colored and highly saturated with darkened edges), but I didn't want to worry about getting another camera or messing with film & scanning. Yesterday I asked people if there was a Photoshop filter that could turn a regualr photo into a Lomo-style photo. Several people responded with the Melancholytron filter and a tutorial on achievin... [kottke.org]
4:32:47 PM
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Hermann Hesse. "If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us." [Quotes of the Day]
11:20:55 AM
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Will You Watch Movies on your PDA?.
This is the weekend, so it's time to see a movie. But with the help of Pocket PC Films, a Californian company, you don't have to go to the theater. You just need your PDA, according to this CIO Magazine's story, "Now Playing -- Anytime, Anywhere."
Darrell Griffin and his business partner devised a technology to compress filmed content from CD-ROMs into a format PDAs could display. Then in November 2001, Griffin helped launch Pocket PC Films, in Sherman Oaks, Calif., to distribute video content for Pocket PC and Palm OS devices. Film fans can buy CD-ROM titles, load them on their computer and sync them into their handheld device.
Here is what it looks like.
Pocket PC Films now distributes 25,000 titles, priced from $9.99 to $49.99, that run the gamut from 1941's King of the Zombies to Oliver Stone's more recent Natural Born Killers. The company also provides self-help and business-oriented content, as well as classic TV packs with shows like Dragnet and the Sports Illustrated's "Swimsuit 2002" special -- the most popular title so far.
I have a hard time imagining someone watching a 2-hour film on such a small screen. But here is Pocket PC Films movie store if you're interested.
Source: Megan Santosus, CIO Magazine, February 15, 2003 Issue [Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends]
11:19:14 AM
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There was a screen shot included in the piece. I got an upset email from Jacob Levy asking if George Matesky knew I was broadcasting the fact that I was considering hiring him. Heh. There really was a George Matesky, but he died before I was born. He was a semi-famous anarchist who blew up phone booths in New York. One of the first terrorists? [Scripting News]
11:18:06 AM
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© Copyright 2003 Mark Oeltjenbruns.
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