“groovy mother...”

Entries for week beginning July 16, 2006

July 22, 2006

Steee-rike!

Steee-rike!

Joy bowling at King's. For a crappy cameraphone shot, I think this turned out pretty good!

Encoding RSS Titles

Yet another reason to switch to the unambiguous land of Atom 1.0. At least then, if a moronic client screws up, you can be an asshole and point them to the spec.

July 21, 2006

Coming Zune

Microsoft finally confess to the existence of their “Zune” player. Nothing much announced yet; just a teaser site with a man stroking a bunny.

NetworkX

Python package for modelling and graphing networks. Looks like it’ll be easier to work with than GraphViz.

The Pipettes - Pull Shapes

Top music video (blatantly/lovingly ripped off from “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls”) from quality new Spector-esque polka-dotted powerpop group.

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | NBC signs up YouTube sitcom

NBC’s commissioned six episodes of the sitcom “Nobody’s Watching”, after the rejected pilot garnered good reviews on YouTube.

The Editorial Cartoons of Clay Bennett: Security vs. Privacy

Excellent cartoon. From October 2001, but still as true today, sadly.

July 20, 2006

ThinkGeek :: Solar LED Address Numbers

It drives me nuts when I’m trying to find an address, but the house numbers are barely visible. I’ve just ordered one of these for our house.

Yahoo! Music Blog » Buy A Customized Jessica Simpson MP3 At Yahoo! Music

“Our position is simple: DRM doesn?t add any value for the artist, label (who are selling DRM-free music every day ? the Compact Disc), or consumer, the only people it adds value to are the technology companies who are interested in locking consumers to a particular technology platform.” Hells yeah!

EFF: Key Quotes from Today's EFF v. AT&T Decision

Some excellently common sense from the judiciary. “Dismissing this case at the outset would sacrifice liberty for no apparent enhancement of security.” Go donate the EFF some cash now!

coComment blog » What’s new?

coComment adds features that actually make it, you know, _useful_. It now tracks all comments left after you or a variety of blogging packages, and the Firefox extension means you don’t have to remember to hit the bookmarklet each time.

Happy Software Prole » Year 2038 Bug Strikes Early

The Year 2038 bug happens one-billion seconds early, due to a kludgy workaround in AOLServer.

YouTube - Daily Show 7/19/06 - Net Neutrality

Another great John Hodgman “Resident Expert” segment.

Pass in Time: The Definitive Collection

CD Purchase: Beth Orton - Pass in Time: The Definitive Collection

July 19, 2006

ESPN.com: Page 2 : Choosing my EPL team

Bill Simmons, American sportswriter, goes through an in-depth investigation to decide upon an English Premier League to support this season. A great read.

Self-destruct Button USB Hub | Uncrate

Pretend to be an evil villain whilst hooking up your digital camera.

Adobe Labs - Project: Lightroom

Adobe’s Lightroom photo-processing beta is now available for Windows in addition to OSX.

YouTube - The Big Lebowski - F_cking Short Version

Warning. May contain swearing.

July 18, 2006

AOL Retention Manual Revealed - Consumerist

Consumerist get their paws on the scripts & tools used by AOL to try to keep their users from cancelling. “If you stop and think about it, every Member that calls in to cancel their account is a hot lead. Most other sales jobs require you to create your own leads, but in the Retention Queue the leads come to you!” Wankers.

Hellodeo

I’ve recorded you all a message using Odeo’s other new app from last week.

The Eraser

CD Purchase: Thom Yorke - The Eraser

Belle & Sebastian Charity Album Details

Splendid indie line-up for an album benefiting Save The Children.

Sysinternals: Acquisition FAQ

Sysinternals (makers of frankly necessary tools that should have been included in Windows) has been purchased by MS. Unlike every other “purchased by MS” story, this one isn’t on April 1st. ‘wget —mirror’ is your friend.

flickrInspector

Amassed stats and assorted other geekery based upon your Flickr usage.

IPython - An enhanced Interactive Python

Improved console for Python. Includes, be still my beating heart, tab-completion for Python commands.

Matplotlib / pylab - matlab style python plotting

About to do a bunch of graphical data analysis. This seems to be the best graphic package for Python.

Popjustice £20 Music Prize: the 2006 shortlist...

Who gives a toss about yer Mercury arty wankfest? *This* is the music prize that matters. Some great choons in here.

July 17, 2006

Apple - Trailers - The Prestige

Trailer for the upcoming movie from Christopher Nolan (director of Momento and Insomnia). Looks good to me!

Formica Blues

CD Purchase: Mono - Formica Blues

Luxury

CD Purchase: Fantastic Plastic Machine - Luxury

Guerolito

CD Purchase: Beck - Guerolito

Jagged Little Pill (Acoustic)

CD Purchase: Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill (Acoustic)

July 16, 2006

Coding Horror: Separating Programming Sheep from Non-Programming Goats

Summary of a really interesting paper: Can you give potential CompSci students a test that will weed out those that will Just Never Get It?

Basset Hounds! Sunday 12:41 pm 7/16/06 Bristol, Rhode Island

Basset Hounds! Sunday 12:41 pm 7/16/06 Bristol, Rhode Island

Some of the bassets relaxing in the shade at the Colonial Basset Hound Rescue Basset Bash.

Maggie May, Sunday 11:23 am 7/16/06 Bristol, Rhode Island

Maggie May, Sunday 11:23 am 7/16/06 Bristol, Rhode Island

This adorable little puppy stole everyone's hearts at the Basset Bash.

saute-swinish