August 2008
36 posts
Getting lousy data rates (50Kbps instead of 700Kbps) from my @plusnet broadband connection, think I’ve got a stuck BRAS profile…
Stanford's "autonomous" helicopters teach... →
Stanford computer scientists have developed an artificial intelligence system that enables robotic helicopters to teach themselves to fly difficult stunts by watching other helicopters perform the same maneuvers.
Great results for five Perl projects in Google... →
Google’s Summer of Code 2008 is wrapping up now…
WatchDeath Star over San Francisco, Imperial Fleet Week
MarkerIconOptions Wizard →
Create dynamically resized and colored marker-shaped icons for Google Maps.
Google App Engine Cookbook →
The App Engine Cookbook allows you to share, rate, and comment on App Engine recipes.
Do nuclear decay rates depend on our distance from... →
We think that the decay rates of elements are constant regardless of the ambient conditions (except in a few special cases where beta decay can be influenced by powerful electric fields). So that makes it hard to explain the curious periodic variations in the decay rates of silicon-32 and radium-226 observed by groups at the Brookhaven National Labs in the US and at the Physikalisch-Technische...
Direct Line Saves iPhone Users From Automated Call... →
The Direct Line application, lets you browse through the list of included companies, and select the one you want. It then calls the number for you and preselects the appropriate choices to get you put through to an actual person. No more phone hell…
London from above, at night →
The city of London, at night, featuring the financial district, NatWest Tower, and the River Thames. © Jason Hawkes
Attempting to find a decent reference source I can link for an article about programmer archetypes, e.g. hero programmers. Anyone?
GanttProject →
GanttProject is a free and easy to use Gantt chart based project scheduling and management tool for Mac OSX.
Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America? →
Jon Stewart, on the set of “The Daily Show,” tied Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams, Dan Rather and Anderson Cooper amongst American’s most admired journalists. And that was last year…
WatchGever Tulley on “5 dangerous things you should let your kids do” video on TED.com
Why We're Failing in Math and Science →
The Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports that Victor Deeb, a retired chemist who lives in Marlboro, has finally been allowed to return to his Fremont Street home, after Massachusetts authorities spent three days ransacking his basement lab and making off with its contents. Deeb is not accused of making methamphetamine or other illegal drugs. He’s not accused of aiding terrorists,...
Managed to fool Google Gears into installing inside Prism. But can’t convince Google Reader that it’s installed. Annoying!
Hmm, digging a bit deeper its possible extension support isn’t so much broken, as not yet implemented in Prism. Pity.
Prism →
Prism is a simple XULRunner based browser that hosts web applications without the normal web browser user interface. Prism is based on a concept called Site Specific Browsers (SSB). An SSB is an…
Finished my move from NetNewsWire to Google Reader. Using Prism (http://tinyurl.com/6gqgkq) to host Reader. Any ideas to Gears working?
Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback Scheme Fails To... →
After Live Cashback launched in May, Microsoft saw an initial one-month boost in its share of the U.S. search market (from 8.5 percent in May to 9.2 percent in June). But in July, its share slipped again down to 8.9 percent.
A to G →
The quick and easy way to get your AddressBook.app contacts into Gmail
I’ve decided I’m sharing too many things via Facebook and need an external link blog. Trying out Tumblr. Any other suggestions?
The First ACK (via Tumblr) at http://alasdairallan.tumblr.com/
Timbuk2 →
Not your average messenger bags.
Draganfly Industrial Aerial Video Systems & UAVs →
The Draganflyer X6 helicopter is aimed at commercial, industrial, and military use. The base model starts at US$14,995.
Anybody want to stump up for about half a dozen X6 helicopter and maybe a couple of Tangos so I can look into agent-based swarming flocks of heterogenous UAVs?
Computer viruses make it to orbit →
A computer virus is alive and well on the International Space Station (ISS). NASA has confirmed that laptops carried to the ISS in July were infected with a virus known as Gammima.AG.
NASA said it was not the first time computer viruses had travelled into space and it was investigating how the machines were infected.
British boffins perfect process to make any item... →
UK company Plasma Product Innovations (P2i) today demonstrated a chemical process it claims can render any material 100 per cent waterproof.
Grappling at an ungodly hour this morning with words like ‘hydrophobic’, ‘nanotechnology’ and ‘submicroscopic-surface-enhancement’, a small number of journalists were shown how a material normally very absorbent, such as...
Just went through my GMail inbox and properly tagged up all my email. Ouch!
Google offers Gears for Safari beta
Google Gears is a clever technology that allows social media applications like Google Reader, WordPress, and Remember the Milk to work offline in a browser, no Internet connection required. Gears has been around in the form of a Firefox plug-in for some time now, but the search giant just posted a beta that brings this functionality to Safari.
MoD judges clone-drone deathmatch →
The UK Ministry of Defence expects to announce the winner of its “Grand Challenge” urban-warfare robotics competition tomorrow. The last three days have seen the contending droids - those which came up to the start line in a serviceable condition, anyway - battling it out for the title in a purpose-built small town used by the British forces to practice city fighting.
