Colorization Using Optimization. Wow. That sounds really boring and technical, but check it out anyway because it’s actually mind-blowingly cool. Those video clips at the end are so neat. (Link courtesy of Ernie’s mini-blog.)
Category: Computers
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ThinkSecret is no New York Times.
John Gruber tells Think Secret: “You’re no New York Times.” And you know what? I agree with him. People are jumping all over this lawsuit as some sort of sky-is-falling, First Amendment, bloggers-versus-The-Man type of thing, when in reality it’s about a crappy gossip site publishing trade secrets and trying to claim it’s legitimate journalism. It’s laughable. I also don’t buy the argument that Think Secret’s “reporting” is good for Apple and that it doesn’t hurt the company. Gruber effectively debunked that myth for me a few months ago.
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Man, I could so use an eye massage.
Eye Massager with USB Port. *blink, blink* Huh, whuuuuut? (Or maybe that should be *wink wink*?) (Link courtesy of John, who seems to have a much less dirty mind than I do.)
Edited 01/03/2025 – Link is sadly now dead.
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l33tsp33k
From Microsoft: A parent’s guide to computer slang. As John Gruber puts is, this is so square it’s hilarious. Now I’m off to eat some |-|4/\/\.
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The Evolution of Personal Audio
Check out this great photoessay on the “Evolution of Personal Audio“. It begins with the personal transistor radio and ends with the iPod. I’ve think I’ve had everything from the ghetto blaster onwards… (Except for the silly iPod snowboarding jacket. Nobody owns one of those.) It’s funny how quickly things date. I remember the Christmas when I got my Discman and how excited I was to have something so “high-tech.” Now when I see somebody on the bus struggling to change CDs while standing up it seems positively archaic.
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Dr Amy Jones
What better way to test my new moblogging ability than with the ol’ standby: a picture of our cat! More details on my setup in a minute…
Later: Okay, so all the cool kids nowadays are using Flickr to upload photos to their sites. I like to be contrary, though, so I asked the Snook how difficult it would be to roll this ourselves. Within a few hours, he had it up and running. Basically, I take a photo with my Sony Ericsson T610 and MMS it to a special e-mail address. I’ll let the Snook explain how he worked the server-side mojo: “I wrote a PHP script using the Mail_Mime component from the Pear Repository which scans a message for text and image attachments, saves and resizes the image, and inserts a post into the database. I use qmail to feed incoming messages to the script.” So that’s it! This image and the short bit of accompanying text went straight from my phone to w-g. (This extra bit was added by hand afterwards.) Now I’m envisioning all sorts of fun uses for this in the future. Maybe Crazy Jesus Lady would let me put her on the site…?
Even later: I just realized I should probably translate for the non-nerds in the audience. By “moblog,” I mean “mobile web logging,” which is a completely stupid and made-up way of saying that I take pictures with my cell phone and send them to my website. Just in case you were confused.
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Especially Bad Passwords
Especially Bad Passwords. Yowch. How many of yours are on the list? One of the fairly regular ones I use is smack dab in the middle. Guess it’s time to think up some new ones, huh?
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FYI
For the sake of any future Googlers: If you use Firewire Target Disk Mode to transfer everything from your iBook to your iMac, you may inadvertently transfer over the setting that displays your battery status. As an iMac has no battery, you will thus be unable to make the stupid indicator disappear. After much googling to no avail, Snookums helped me search through my preferences and find the relevant line in the “com.apple.systemuiserver.plist” file. Just delete that, logout, and when you login again the indicator will be gone!
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Boudicca II is finally here!
I got the e-mail last night that she was finally being shipped but I didn’t have a clue how long it would take. Then this afternoon Albert came by and said she’d arrived at the shop. I literally jumped up and down and squealed. Like a freak. In front of the customers. But I don’t care. Now I’m just waiting for Snookums to get home so we can open the boxes together and marvel at Apple’s sexy packaging. I guess I should clear off my desk, huh? I’ll probably be listing some of my excess Apple junk on eBay after tonight. Anybody want a copy of iLife or OS X 10.3? -
Good Things
- We finally got our television fixed, and it cost way less than we expected! Turns out that the explosion was just from the power supply, not the picture tube as we’d feared.
- My computer is finally on its way! I can’t wait to get it.
- My laptop is fixed! Adrian at AppleCentre Broadway really came through for me. The monitor’s been replaced and a new 40GB hard drive is installed. I can’t believe I now have two computers! That’s more than the Snook!
- I found my Halloween costume! God bless The Costume Shop. (And God damn ABC Costumes, none of whose dresses would even go over my arms. As Snookums later consoled me: “That’s because they were all made for drug-addled NIDA skanks.”) Now I just have to figure out how to duct-tape my boobs up near my chin.
