June 2006

News: Ubuntu 6.06 (aka Dapper Drake) released (thanks Brian!) #

Newsflash, Global Warming not developing fast enough, Glaciers to be removed manually:

The [Pascua Lama] project has faced strong criticism from environmental and community groups worried about water pollution and wary of the project’s original proposal to remove glaciers in the Andes mountain range.

Nope, this is not from The Onion. (Thanks Goli!) #

Interesting: Google AJAX Search API (Beta) #

RollingStone magazine is on a roll, hardy-har-har: First The Worst President in History? and now Was the 2004 Election Stolen? #

Going in my mom’s stocking this year: Shredding scissors #

Neato! DIY Mosquito Trap #

Quirky movie trailer of the day: Little Miss Sunshine #

For future reference: ThinkWiki, the Wiki Web for ThinkPad users. Here you find anything you need to install your favourite Linux distribution on your ThinkPad #

Wikipedia article of the day: Goobuntu

Goobuntu is the name of a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that is rumoured to be released by Google. Google has denied this, though they confirm that they internally work with Ubuntu and have slightly modified it to suit their needs.

Also worth noting is bug #1 in Ubuntu’s bug tracking system:

Microsoft has a majority market share in the new desktop PC marketplace. This is a bug, which Ubuntu is designed to fix.

Nice. #

Jason on the Pirate Bay (worth following) #

Now this, I admit, is newsworthy: New mom Angelina Jolie has reserved 24 domain names featuring various versions of her daughter Shiloh Nouvel’s name. #

Screenshot of the day: Navigation: Left is Best #

Boing Boing on Wired News on GNU Radio (software-defined radio, something to watch) #

Colbert’s commencement speech, how cool: the next thing you know, they’ll be translating the Bible. God wrote it in English for a reason! So it could be taught in our public schools. #

Snark. Hell has a population of 266 and the ZIP Code is 48169. #

Neato! Beautify a Face step-by-step in Photoshop #

To read later: Cut & Paste Culture #

Wikipedia article of the day: The Last Tree of Ténéré died in 1973 #

Future reference: Turn your $60 router into a $600 router #

This is not a novel idea, I read it first on Dare (who in turn read it on Joe Wilcox), but it is a novel way of putting it. Is the “Google Office” just a head fake? #

To watch later: The Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments (via Mark) #

Jaysus! Jason Kottke infected with Bird Flu Dance #

Tshirt of the day: some 6-6-06 humor #

I like Google and all, but I find this scary: Google Browser Sync #

Happy Birthday Robin! It’s starting to get amusing now, being carded, especially when I have two children in tow. #

Google making a very big push for Net Neutrality #

I nominate Jon Stewart to debate George W. Bush on gay marriage. Oh and by the way, watch this video: Jon Stewart tears open Bill Bennett on gay marriage #

Boingboing is on a roll today: “Fuck” costs $325,000 to utter over the airwaves

The Federal Government just increased the price for saying “fuck” on TV or radio from $32,500 to $325,000. That’s because Congress passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act (BDEA).

I would like to kindly know WHAT THE FUCK is wrong with our government? #

Photo of the day:
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Craptastic webdesign, but novel idea: Do-It-Yourself Impeachment #

Would someone please reply with an example of Republicans NOT sucking so hard? House rejects Net neutrality rules

Of the 421 House members who participated in the vote that took place around 6:30 p.m. PT, the vast majority of Net neutrality supporters were Democrats. Republicans represented most of the opposition.

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Quote of the day: One wonders why Joe Montana and Russ Francis ever retired since that slant pass worked every time. #

Close the Guantanamo Prison Camp! 3 Guantanamo Inmates Commit Suicide #

For future reference: Unofficial Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake) Starter Guide #

The cultural ramification of Snakes on a Plane:

As attention spans decrease and grassroots creativity grows, the power balance between buyer and seller has started to shift: Online customers aren’t content to consume a product — they chew it up and spit it out as something new.

(thanks Leona!) #

Neat. Use :visited pseudoclass to change background-image on links: Ticked-off visited links Reloaded #

I’m starting to think that Google Earth/Maps should be spun off as its own separate company (this could get big) #

It makes one wonder just how out of touch with reality the state department actually has become:

U.S. contentions that the suicides of three Guantanamo Bay prisoners were a publicity stunt or an act of aggression provoked international criticism Monday, with editorials and rights groups lashing out at the United States for detaining hundreds at the prison camp.

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The title says it all: Dude Blows Perfect Bubble Rings Underwater #

Two recent TJ articles: The tao of Trader Joe’s Devoted fans meet online to swap news, stay connected and For Trader Joe’s, a New York Taste Test #

Photo of the day: Mark, working #

Something maybe to do this weekend? RoboGames Friday-Sunday, June 16-18, 2006, Fort Mason Festival Pavilion, San Francisco, California (Thanks Dad!) #

Sally Greene reports that Raleigh Street in front of Spencer Dorm will soon be getting a makeover: This view will soon be history

I lived in Spencer Dorm for three years as an undergrad. This view is very familiar to me. #

Photo of the day: paint is peeling (NSFW if you think breasts covered with dry peeling paint are not safe for work) #

Movie trailer of the day: Wordplay, about New York Times puzzle editor and NPR puzzle-master Will Shortz #

More details on airline service out of Santa Rosa: Horizon Air to offer $99 flights to LAX (though it may come too late for me to take advantage) #

Quote of the day: a noose is just a suicide bomb with a very small blast radius, people! #

What is wrong with Congress? Support a complete and honest debate about the War in Iraq, NOT a consitutional amendment prohibiting flag desecration #

This is the person whose company I’ll be working for come Monday: Good f’ing lord, RIAA. Wake up. This is how we use music in the real world. Get over yourselves. (Hear, hear!) #

Sometimes I wonder if I have this: Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome. But then I also wonder if everyone has this. A lot of people drink coffee. #

Awesome! Yahoo! Celebrates Gay & Lesbian Pride #

This has provided me with multiple hours of enjoyable reading: Ask me about Google

If you want an easier to read synopsis, check out: An Inside View From a Google Employee #

It’s like SSI, except it’s all ajaxy javascript: HInclude #

Interesting read: Fear of Forking (if you’re into computing history, and the effects of software licenses) #

The great state of Georgia, this is your congressman: Georgia Representative Lynn Westmoreland, a Congressman who’s co-sponsored a bill to require the display of the Ten Commandments in the House of Reps and the Senate, doesn’t know them. #

Something I’d like to try to make: chicken rice #

News: Photos of [Marcia’s] naked boobs forthcoming #

Photo of the day: Bubbles #

This is funny in that it reads like two high school friends sending each other press releases instead of actually talking (the two “friends” in this instance being Microsoft and Adobe) #

Caption of the day: Dan Brown Need Pay No Attention To This (can you tell I’m catching up on my blog reading?) #

Character encoding is hard! Unicode Blues #

You’ve probably seen http:// and perhaps mailto: but did you know about the data: URI scheme? (learn something new every day) #

Tim Berners-Lee to big telecom: When I invented the Web, I didn’t have to ask anyone’s permission. (translation: step off beotch) #

Apostolos Gerasoulis: Ask.com is pimped out search engine. It is very tight. #

Syndication news: Bloglines now parses Atom 1.0 more correctly #

Michael Ruhlman, author of two of my favorite books (The Making of a Chef, and The Soul of a Chef), is guestblogging on megnut.com #

Photo of the day: Black Sun in Denmark

(those are birds!) #

To read later: The Semicolon Wars #

Kinky Friedman has a blog, let’s hope he gets elected #

To mull over later: Misconception: Renting is for Suckers #

For future reference: Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District events #

Federated Media in the news: Sausalito startup creates ad technology for blogs (thanks Marcia!) #

To read later: Why Religion Must End #

I guess it depends on your definition of war: “We’re at war, and for the [New York] Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous” #

Mark Pilgrim’s Ubuntu Linux software essentials (to read tomorrow at work) #

Technology term of the day: Thunk #

Firefox plugin of the century: SessionSaver

I’ve heard about this before, and maybe I didn’t do anything about it because it’s one of those features that should be built into the browser. But anyway, I installed it this morning and it’s amazing. Imagine Firefox shutting down (expectedly or unexpectedly) and being about to restart it with all your tabs open to the exact spot on the pages you were last browsing, with any text you’d been typing appearing in each textbox. Amazing! #

The only thing that is “disgraceful ,” Mr. President, is you. #

How do we reconcile the effect of Microsoft’s monopoly on innovation and philanthropy? #

How Mark greets me when I mouse over emails from him in Gmail:
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Heh. Neologism of the day. Stumbled onto this a while ago: kindie rock #

Heh. This certifies that I [___] brought a non-Apple laptop to RailsConf 2006. On purpose. Thank you. Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds. (via Sam Ruby) #

Nice: Magritte-esque laser etched powerbook #

Overheard on Forum this morning: Hyphenated American #

Useful information on root and sudo in Ubuntu #

New word: trad, rhymes with “rad”, refers to traditional folk music #

To my liberal friends, here is one reason why you should move to San Francisco (Mayor Gavin Newsom) #

Awesomest thing of the day: Dirty cars are artist’s canvas

(via Boing Boing) #

Hehe: Tech condiments #

My first MediaWiki patch: Configuration setting to customize session_name #