October 2011
1 post
“‘xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx’.replace(/[xy]/g, function(c)...”
– How to create a GUID / UUID in javascript
“Gosling on IBM: “They’d do anything they can to screw Sun over. I...”
– Interview with James Gosling
September 2010
2 posts
“And please, when you grow up, don’t wear sweatpants that say...”
– The Reluctant Father
“Implying somebody masturbates is considered an insult although it’s the...”
– The Guide to Life, The Universe and Everything
August 2010
1 post
Technology and Society by Neil Postman →
April 2010
2 posts
“The Failed Simulation Effect - Accomplishments that are hard to explain can be...”
– The Surprising Psychology of Impressiveness
Simo Häyhä →
March 2010
3 posts
The terrorist model for banks →
“Financial reform; thy inspiration is, err, Al-Qaeda? Or deforestation? Can that be right?”
The Bomb for Beginners - A do-it-yourself guide to... →
Building a nuclear weapon has never been easier. NATO’s Michael Rühle provides step-by-step instructions for going nuclear, from discretely collecting material to minimizing the fallout when caught. These simple steps have worked for the likes of Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea, among others. The nuclear club is open to your country, too.
“With an explanation firmly in hand, we now feel we know something. And the...”
– Article
January 2009
1 post
December 2008
2 posts
WatchHow to Build an Igloo
November 2008
15 posts
Watch3D Projections On Buildings
“From all the goods purchased in US, only 1% is still in use after 6 months”
– The story of stuff
“If the read/write head [of a hard disk] were a Boeing 747, and the hard-disk...”
– Tom’s Hardware
Cafe’s Dilemma: What to do with the Wi-Fi...
“A Dutch cafe has taken a sort of middle ground. Its baristas don’t pressure patrons to spend more, and its internet is still free. But the cafe frequently changes the name of its wireless network to things like:
OrderAnotherCoffeeAlready
BuyAnotherCupYouCheapskate
HaveYouTriedCoffeeCake?
BuyaLargeLatterGetBrownieForFree
Would this annoy you or perhaps make you laugh and buy another...
“Open source drives innovation by making yesterday’s technology a...”
– Open source: the new patent regime
October 2008
1 post
One of the tactics that the British used against... →
“The plan was simple: Build a laundry and staff it with locals and a few of their own. The laundry would then send out “color coded” special discount tickets, to the effect of “get two loads for the price of one,” etc. The color coding was matched to specific streets and thus when someone brought in their laundry, it was easy to determine the general location from...
September 2008
9 posts
List of problems solved by MacGyver →
“MacGyver defuses a highly advanced nuclear warhead using a paper clip to short circuit the timing device”
“MacGyver repairs a blown fuse using the aluminium wrapper of a stick of chewing gum to close the circuit (this was tested and confirmed to work by MythBusters).”
“MacGyver lights a fuse without a match by concentrating sunlight on the fuse with his watch...
On prioritizing feature development →
“For those of you thinking that data driven development requires a complex system of monitoring and analytics, you’ll be surprised to know that you can even do it with something as simple as a 404 error. Tech-savvy members of the web community know that a 404 error is likely the fault of the web developer. However, Stephen Kaufer of TripAdvisor.com wagers that when your Mom surfs the...
“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster...”
– Henry Ford
Ten things you don’t know about the Earth →
“If the Earth were shrunk down to the size of a billiard ball, it would actually be smoother than one. When I was in third grade, my teacher said basketball, but it’s the same concept.”
“Jumping into hole through the Earth is like orbiting it. It takes the same amount of time to fall all the way through the Earth and back as it does to orbit it, if your orbit were right at the...
Windbelt - cheap generator alternative, set to... →
“With rotary power, there’s nothing out there that generates under 50 watts,” Frayne says. So he took a new tack, studying the way vibrations caused by the wind led to the collapse in 1940 of Washington’s Tacoma Narrows Bridge (aka Galloping Gertie).
“Frayne’s device, which he calls a Windbelt, is a taut membrane fitted with a pair of magnets that oscillate between metal coils. Prototypes...
August 2008
2 posts
Queen guitarist Brian May gets astrophysics... →
“Guitarist and songwriter Brian May has completed his doctorate in astrophysics—three decades after he put academia on hold to form the rock group Queen.
The rocker was awarded his qualification Thursday by London’s Imperial College and said submitting his thesis, “Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud,” to supervisors was as nerve-racking as any stadium gig”
July 2008
12 posts
“The history of science is supposed to obey a simple equation: Time plus data...”
– The future of science is art article in SEED Magazine
Chronicle of a trip to Iceland →
“The medieval world was cruel and violent, yet even so, the Vikings had a reputation as the worst of the lot. Yet today the former Viking countries — Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland are arguably the nicest and most civilized people on earth. How did this amazing transformation come about?”
“There are many such springs in Iceland, but the most amusing is a large facility...
Memory and addiction →
“We like to think of our memories as being immutable impressions, somehow separate from the act of remembering them. But they aren’t. A memory is only as real as the last time you remembered it. The more you remember something, the less accurate the memory becomes
The Nader experiment, simple as it seems, requires science to completely re-imagine its theories of remembering. It...
Cherry-picking →
“The term cherry-picking is also applied to the behaviour of new entrants into old industries, firms which try to choose their customers carefully. By calculating which consumers are profitable (and appealing to them while ignoring those who are not) such a firm can sometimes rapidly gain market share.”
What is Pecha Kucha →
“Their innovation, dubbed pecha-kucha (Japanese for “chatter”), applies a simple set of rules to presentations: exactly 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. That’s it. Say what you need to say in six minutes and 40 seconds of exquisitely matched words and images and then sit the hell down.”
Oyster Card's smartcard system hacked. Details of... →
“London Transport’s Oyster Card system was hacked earlier this summer by Dutch researchers who managed to turn a laptop into a mobile card lab to score a day’s worth of free rides. Now, a Dutch court has ruled that Radboud University Nijmegen can publish details of the attack later this year, despite protests from the chipmaker involved.”
Global warming’s new hybrid — the Grolar bear or... →
“As hybrids go, this ain’t the Prius.
What do you get when you combine warming’s impact on the habitat of grizzly bears with the melting of the polar bears’ Arctic ice feeding ground?”
WatchDavid Lynch on where ideas come from