Eat The Apple

The Year of the Flip Flops

2004-10-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

If your in the market for flip-flops, check out some of the styles President Georgie recommends.

Great Animation on War Corporatism

2004-10-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful Constructivist-esque animation critiquing US foreign policy and the "." It's a collaboration between young British designer Simon Robson and friend Barry McNamara, who provided the rant for Robson to visually riff on.

Thanks Boing Boing

Java Skyline: Learning JavaServer Pages

2004-09-16T11:45:00.000-07:00

I need to learn JSP scripting for work and was pointed to this excelent JavaServer Pages Tutorial

Detailed Map of Springfield

2004-09-14T16:01:00.000-07:00

spring_map
Originally uploaded by mikeg626.

This reminds me of the copious quantities of free time I had at University.

Bug

2004-09-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

Bug
Originally uploaded by mikeg626.

This is my new buddy, Bug. Isn't she cute?

Own Up To It

2004-09-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

Face facts. Bush is a slacking law flouting party boy who did not fulfill his obligations to the military in a time of war because he is well connected.

Free Version of Akamai

2004-09-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

Familiar with Akamai? It's a distributed computing scheme to deliver highly requested content-- or content that experiences demand spikes-- via the web. Some of their clients are MSNBC, Lycos and Apple. Akamai allows these enterprises to deliver a constant quality of service to their customers, even during peak traffic times by distributing requests throughout the Akamai network to an external web cache. It's cool, but pricey.

Step in Coral... a project by NYU to do the same thing via a P2P network. How does it work? Make a request of a site like http://www.yahoo.com only append .nyud.net:8090 to the address. If the page is already in the cache, it will be servered up to you. If not, the system caches the page and then delivers it to your browser.

Links on the cached page point to cached versions of the liks on the "live" page. Check out http://eattheapple.blogspot.com.nyud.net:8090 .

This could be very useful if, say, a Blogspot Site releases a massively popular update and everyone comes to the site to check it out. Typically, in that situation the quality of service our standard web host could provide may be inadequate. However, the author thought ahead and cached all of the pages for the whiz bang post to Coral. Now requests for that information are distributed along Coral's network of servers and everyone can get the information they want.

Pretty sparkly.

All The Best News You Haven't Read

2004-09-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

Project Censored has come out with its list of the most censored (read: least reported) media stories of 2003-2004, like: "U.S. Develops Lethal New Viruses", "Media and Government Ignore Dwindling Oil Supplies" and "Reinstating the Draft"

Firefox - Rediscover the web

2004-09-06T14:18:00.000-07:00

Firefox has really helped me to rediscover at least the way that I browse the web. I've been using Firefox for a while-- since it was named Phoenix. and have recently made use of a number of Firefox extensions.

Other people are recognizing the value of Firefox as well. In the last nine months the usage of Firefox has doubled so that it now has a marketshare of 14.9%.

Sailors Accused of Iraqi Prisoner Abuse

2004-09-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

Four US Navy Seals are denying the charge that they abused Iraqi Prisoners during their tour.

Lesson learned: Prisoners and seamen don't mix.

Iran To Extract Own Uranium

2004-09-04T20:54:00.000-07:00

It seems that within the next two years Iran will be able to extract uranium from beneath its central desert.

I suppose that within the next two years the US will be doing some extracting of its own.

US Considers "Black Box" Portable Nuclear Plants for Developing Countries

2004-09-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

The sealed "SSTAR"('small, sealed, transportable, autonomous reactor') reactors would last about 30 years delivering as much as 100 megawatts. Dimensions of 15 meters high and 3 meters wide, with a weight of about 500 tons, would allow for for transportation by ships or very large trucks. Providing these "closed Source" reactors to developing countries may significantly reduce the risk of nuclear proliferation associated with the use of nuclear power.

Here is one conceptual design of the SSTAR nuclear reactor, enclosed in its transportation cask. "When it is upright, SSTAR will be about 15 meters high and 3 meters wide, and its total weight will not exceed 500 tons. This compact size will allow the nuclear reactor to be transported on a ship and by a heavy-haul transport truck." (Credit: LLNL).

Pentagon Censors InformationOn Sharing Information

2004-09-02T22:31:00.000-07:00

In an act so self-referential it would make Douglas Hofstadter implode, The Pentagon censored sections of a training video intended to instruct federal employees on Freedom of Information Act Policies.

Portland, OR WiFi Network Growing Steadily

2004-09-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

While Philadelphia considers going wireless from border to border, Portland's Personal Telco is spreading into a variety of public spaces.

United States: "Broadband Backwater"

2004-09-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Broadband Reports has an article that broadband services among countries including United States are falling behind: 'Bombarded with tales of South Koreans and Swedes watching high-definition soap-operas via 100Mbps connections, the media has apparently developed a nasty case of broadband envy. Reuters suggests the US has 'missed the high speed revolution',

Last week Business Week dubbed America a 'broadband backwater'.

Meanwhile, my view must be skewed here in the NW where free WiFi hotspots are common, and cable modem connections are the norm and download speeds are typically 120 Mbps-- and can go as high as 300 Mbps.

Everyone Loves Truth, Right?

2004-09-01T22:29:00.000-07:00

The Swift Boat Vets aren't the only ones looking for the truth.

Magic Thousand

2004-09-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Today the US hit 1000 dead in the war for Iraqi (Oil) Freedom.

Philadelphia Considers Unwiring Itself Into 135 Sq. Mi. Hotspot

2004-09-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

...and here, I never thought I would be proud to come from Philadelphia.

"For about $10 million, city officials believe they can turn all 135 square miles of Philadelphia into the world's largest wireless Internet hot spot....the city would likely offer the service either for free, or at costs far lower than the $35 to $60 a month charged by commercial providers"

Acts of Gord: Love the Gord, Fear the Gord

2004-09-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

I have the happy task of working for a consulting firm where a few of the customers are a little less than completely savvy on the whole "computer" thing.

This is fine and expected, but these people are the individuals who are writing specifications for their global company's custom applications. It can be a little frustrating.

That's why reading about Gord and the special brand of customers who frequent his Video Game Rental store gives me a bit of solace.

Troutgirl

2004-08-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

This is just crazy. Friendster hired a PHP developer to rewrite their site from the *dreadfully slow* J2EE model to the somewhat not so dreadfully slow PHP model.

The person they hired for this-- Joyce Park, a Web developer living in Sunnyvale, Calif., keeps a blog named Troutgirl. She wrote about Friendster's switch to PHP in her blog twice mentioning their PHP transition. Due to her writeup about the change-- in which the only negative sentiment is that the J2EE implementation was "pokey"-- she was fired.

Seems like Joyce is a good lawyer and a wrongful termination suit away from sweet, sweet justice.

IT Workers Hanging On To Scarce Jobs.

2004-08-31T14:23:00.000-07:00

USA Today and the San Jose Business Journal are reporting the results of a survey conducted by Aon Consulting that states voluntary turnover in the tech industry is at 8.9%, and that it is 'the lowest in the history of the surveys, which date back to the mid-1980s'. What does Aon predict? a spike in turnover rates once the economy heats up.

So, just as everything starts to roar, productivity will come to a crawl in the IT industry as everyone dumps their crappy jobs and the uninitiated are sucked into maintaining legacy code.

A Peaceful 500,000 Protest Bush in NYC

2004-08-31T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of Thousands Protest Bush in NYC,
Police Form Small Yellow Ring.

Half A Million People protest Bush at the NYC Republican Convention. Bush turns to Cheney and asks: "Why are the people so unhappy, Daddy?"

Cheney just drinks some more bourbon, closes his eyes and goes to his happy undisclosed location.

Homeland Security Nightmare

2004-08-31T08:41:00.000-07:00

Tech Zone has a review for a new Victorinox product. The Swissmemory USB Victorinox is the first knife to be equipped with a USB flash drive. Besides 64 or 128mb of data, it includes such useful items as a ballpoint pen, red light, scissors, nail file, and a knife.

Now try getting on a plane with this thing.

The Pet Whisperer

2004-08-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

Waiting in line at Petco with indestructible tennis balls for my obsessive lab, I had the chance to meet with "Awanne" who introduced to me as a "Pet Whisperer", and handed me her card for her business named "Thunder In The Mountains". According to her card, she's very talented and able to communicate with animals, plants *and* humans.

It doesn't stop there. She also practices, and teaches massage in a variety of flavors: Usui, Shiki, Ryhoho, Reiki, Reflexology, Craniosacral, Bowen... even something called "Hollow Bone Healing" which even Google hasn't heard about. She's even online.

So awful... so awful.