2005-03-30
PSPwiki
Actually the proper link is http://psp.holybell.to/index.php?PSPwiki. The site is all in Japanese, and apparently is a compilation site of information from 2channel, etc. If you want the latest buzz, gotta be able to read it!
偶然の出会いの話
It's not fair that this chick got to meet the Ulfuls. I'm jealous. I've met Hayao Miyazaki (if you could call saying "Hi" meeting him), but it's not the same as meeting rock stars....
News, 2005.03.30
Wired News
RFID Cards Get Spin Treatment: The Department of Homeland Security stooges are spinning RFID chips by calling them "contactless chips". Call a spade a spade. And how's this for use of RFID?
File Sharing Has Supreme Moment: P2P has good and bad uses, but the idea itself is neutral. Certain services that cater to piracy should be dealt with individually, if the Court chooses to go down that route. Not all P2P needs to be governed.
Baby Sputnik Flies the Coop: Launching a satellite by chucking it out the window.
News.com
Sony to challenge block on PS2 sales
Octopuses running like humans?
Disc expiration dates debated
RFID Cards Get Spin Treatment: The Department of Homeland Security stooges are spinning RFID chips by calling them "contactless chips". Call a spade a spade. And how's this for use of RFID?
"Let's say you are in Beirut, carrying a passport with an RFID tag," said Steinhardt. "A terrorist with a portable reader device could easily tell who is the American (in a public space)."
File Sharing Has Supreme Moment: P2P has good and bad uses, but the idea itself is neutral. Certain services that cater to piracy should be dealt with individually, if the Court chooses to go down that route. Not all P2P needs to be governed.
Baby Sputnik Flies the Coop: Launching a satellite by chucking it out the window.
News.com
Sony to challenge block on PS2 sales
Octopuses running like humans?
Disc expiration dates debated
2005-03-29
Another use for the PSP
Should the PSP stand for "Portable Stash o' Porn"? A Wired News article by Gina Lynn points out the utility of the PSP for viewing erotica.
Better yet, the article has a link to a free utility called PSP Video 9 to convert media to something viewable on the PSP. I can't wait until a UMD burner comes out...512MB sticks of Memory Stick Pro Duo are still spendy. Damn proprietary formats.
The article also links to a lengthy review on Engadget.
Better yet, the article has a link to a free utility called PSP Video 9 to convert media to something viewable on the PSP. I can't wait until a UMD burner comes out...512MB sticks of Memory Stick Pro Duo are still spendy. Damn proprietary formats.
The article also links to a lengthy review on Engadget.
News.com Post(s)
In a fit of annoying geekiness, I posted this on a News.com article on the PSP:
In the past I also posted a comment regarding the stupids who think that saying whatever they want in a blog is a right. Bah. Looks like some dumbass posted an idiotic reply to my comment, which I'll have to address at some point. Obviously he doesn't know what he's talking about—the Declaration of Independence basically supports my statement, and the Constitution itself mentions nothing about rights. The Amendments that are the Bill of Rights do. Although it's pointless to argue with idiots, when I ego-surf that link is near the top so I need to retort for posterity.
Camping out overnight is pretty dedicated. Still, the truly hard-core U.S. game fanatics would've pre-ordered their PSP from Japan and taken the long flight across the Pacific to pick it up when it was released three months ago (Dec 16)! The even more insanely hard-core would've been at the Tokyo Game Show in September 2004 just so they could play one before anyone else. ;)
Check out the "official Playstation showroom" in Ginza: http://www.playstation.jp/cmc/ginza/
In the past I also posted a comment regarding the stupids who think that saying whatever they want in a blog is a right. Bah. Looks like some dumbass posted an idiotic reply to my comment, which I'll have to address at some point. Obviously he doesn't know what he's talking about—the Declaration of Independence basically supports my statement, and the Constitution itself mentions nothing about rights. The Amendments that are the Bill of Rights do. Although it's pointless to argue with idiots, when I ego-surf that link is near the top so I need to retort for posterity.
2005-03-27
News, 2005.03.28
Wired News
TSA Work Sloppy, but Not Illegal: Just because something's not illegal doesn't mean it's not wrong. This is criminal negligence, and it's being perpetuated by our government. These are the people who would presume to say that they know what's best for you and the U.S., and have the arrogance and impudence to assert such. Well, the reality is, they're incompetent.
IRS May Tax Your eBay Sales: Theoretically, the government has the capability to tax everything, e.g. all earnings. (Of course illegal earnings aren't likely to be reported, are they?) Most states have a "use tax" whereby if you purchase an item via the Internet, or by phone, etc., you are obligated to declare this on your State taxes and pay a percentage. One reason this is bogus is that retailers are rebated some of sales tax to cover infrastructure costs of collecting. So people are expected to keep their own records and spend their own time collecting this money for the state? Not friggin' likely!! When they pay people for time spent on taxes, possibly it's worth considering maybe thinking about it in a distant, unlikely sort of way. Anyway, if the tax law is so complicated that normal people can't figure it out, then it's at least in some ways morally wrong. Just keep in mind that if you pull a H.D. Thoreau and commit "civil disobedience" that you have to be willing to put up with the consequences: Thoreau was jailed for failing to pay taxes. Hey, the IRS is a bunch of Mafia thugs who have the law on their side.
It's Not Graffiti, It's Grafedia: So uh, why doesn't anyone think that graffiti is wanton property damage? How would these punks like it if someone decided to spraypaint crap all over their apartment or house? For instance, "I am a gay graffiti 'artist'—please abuse me hard." Well, like the article says, it doesn't have to be spraypaint, but who wants the impermanence of sidewalk chalk? Original graffiti might've been territorial, but artistic graffiti is no good if it's erased before someone sees it.
PSP Launch Powered by Publishers: Hmm, are those second-generation devices? Maybe I should've waited until the bugs got worked out....
c|net
FCC unplugs states' rules on 'naked' DSL
Pez to dispense MP3s instead of candy
Trading places: Real estate instead of dot-coms: The upcoming real estate dot-com crash? People are taking the wrong approach toward real estate. The point is that value appreciates when expansion occurs, so speculation should occur prior to that point. Otherwise it's likely to be overvalued when one buys. It should be another indicator of the fragility of the field in that Fannie Mae (and to a lesser extent Freddie Mac) aren't doing too well right now. Fannie Mae's stock (FNM) is off 40% compared to a year ago because of inflated accounting. There's only so much money people are willing to pay for housing. Some people are making money, but a lot more are getting fleeced—and they don't know it yet.
Trillian IM flaw exposed: When are dufus programmers going to start checking their buffers for overflow conditions?! Amateurs.
All the news that robots pick: Sometimes there's no substitute for the filtering and classification capabilities of a flesh and blood human being.
TSA Work Sloppy, but Not Illegal: Just because something's not illegal doesn't mean it's not wrong. This is criminal negligence, and it's being perpetuated by our government. These are the people who would presume to say that they know what's best for you and the U.S., and have the arrogance and impudence to assert such. Well, the reality is, they're incompetent.
IRS May Tax Your eBay Sales: Theoretically, the government has the capability to tax everything, e.g. all earnings. (Of course illegal earnings aren't likely to be reported, are they?) Most states have a "use tax" whereby if you purchase an item via the Internet, or by phone, etc., you are obligated to declare this on your State taxes and pay a percentage. One reason this is bogus is that retailers are rebated some of sales tax to cover infrastructure costs of collecting. So people are expected to keep their own records and spend their own time collecting this money for the state? Not friggin' likely!! When they pay people for time spent on taxes, possibly it's worth considering maybe thinking about it in a distant, unlikely sort of way. Anyway, if the tax law is so complicated that normal people can't figure it out, then it's at least in some ways morally wrong. Just keep in mind that if you pull a H.D. Thoreau and commit "civil disobedience" that you have to be willing to put up with the consequences: Thoreau was jailed for failing to pay taxes. Hey, the IRS is a bunch of Mafia thugs who have the law on their side.
It's Not Graffiti, It's Grafedia: So uh, why doesn't anyone think that graffiti is wanton property damage? How would these punks like it if someone decided to spraypaint crap all over their apartment or house? For instance, "I am a gay graffiti 'artist'—please abuse me hard." Well, like the article says, it doesn't have to be spraypaint, but who wants the impermanence of sidewalk chalk? Original graffiti might've been territorial, but artistic graffiti is no good if it's erased before someone sees it.
PSP Launch Powered by Publishers: Hmm, are those second-generation devices? Maybe I should've waited until the bugs got worked out....
c|net
FCC unplugs states' rules on 'naked' DSL
Pez to dispense MP3s instead of candy
Trading places: Real estate instead of dot-coms: The upcoming real estate dot-com crash? People are taking the wrong approach toward real estate. The point is that value appreciates when expansion occurs, so speculation should occur prior to that point. Otherwise it's likely to be overvalued when one buys. It should be another indicator of the fragility of the field in that Fannie Mae (and to a lesser extent Freddie Mac) aren't doing too well right now. Fannie Mae's stock (FNM) is off 40% compared to a year ago because of inflated accounting. There's only so much money people are willing to pay for housing. Some people are making money, but a lot more are getting fleeced—and they don't know it yet.
Trillian IM flaw exposed: When are dufus programmers going to start checking their buffers for overflow conditions?! Amateurs.
All the news that robots pick: Sometimes there's no substitute for the filtering and classification capabilities of a flesh and blood human being.
2005-03-25
Using an iPod with Linux
Also includes a list of iPod models/generations and pointers to other resources.
Data loss disaster stories
These data loss stories are amusing. Some are funny, some dumb, some undoubtedly apocryphal, but one is bound to get a chuckle out of one of them.
This is just wrong.
2005-03-24
BackHome Magazine
BackHome Magazine is an interesting publication. I wouldn't go so far as to say they describe "how to be a crazy militia-man", but they're on that against the grain bent. At the same time, a lot of what they say is reasonable from a logical perspective. When the majority of society lacks logic or any semblence of understanding of the way things work, perhaps they who seem a little off-kilter are the ones who really have it right.
There's an article in the March/April 2005 issue regarding what could come to pass when the oil reserves really start dwindling. The author paints a grim picture, mostly because our entire way of life revolves around the abundance of cheap fuel. Maybe I ought to start buying gold and guns....
There's an article in the March/April 2005 issue regarding what could come to pass when the oil reserves really start dwindling. The author paints a grim picture, mostly because our entire way of life revolves around the abundance of cheap fuel. Maybe I ought to start buying gold and guns....
Web Specs
I was searching for the RSS spec on the W3C's website, and discovered that it's not hosted on there. Ironically, although it's not one of their standards, they still have RSS feeds.
While browsing, I found some interesting standards work. Too bad standards take forever.
W3C Internationalization (I18N) News
An Introduction to Multilingual Web Addresses: A long while ago, I thought it'd be cool to use %-escaped Unicode in URLs to eliminate the alphabet-only restriction. That still seems like the most reasonable method. Also see IDN links.
XML Binary Characterization Measurement Methodologies: Compiled markup?
Here are the RSS specs. There's RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0. One might think, "Why not just use 2.0?" These are actually different ad-hoc standards, based one a strange and twisted history. The rss-specifications.com site has additional useful information.
While browsing, I found some interesting standards work. Too bad standards take forever.
W3C Internationalization (I18N) News
An Introduction to Multilingual Web Addresses: A long while ago, I thought it'd be cool to use %-escaped Unicode in URLs to eliminate the alphabet-only restriction. That still seems like the most reasonable method. Also see IDN links.
XML Binary Characterization Measurement Methodologies: Compiled markup?
Here are the RSS specs. There's RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0. One might think, "Why not just use 2.0?" These are actually different ad-hoc standards, based one a strange and twisted history. The rss-specifications.com site has additional useful information.
2005-03-23
Today's News, 2005.03.24
Limited interesting news today....
Mozilla fixes Firefox security flaw based on GIF library buffer overrun failure.
Various tech news articles on News.com coverage of the PC Forum conference. Freeman Dyson on colonizing space for fun.
Microsoft criticized for IPv6-like patent: once again being hypocritical for criticizing the U.S. patent system for lack of quality and oversight, yet they do stuff like filing a patent without disclosing prior art or acknowledging the work of the standards committee. Check out the Public Patent Foundation for scrutiny of patents that defy logic.
Google presidents/founders and CEO not to receive bonuses this year: Those Google Guys are again leading the way.
Mozilla fixes Firefox security flaw based on GIF library buffer overrun failure.
Various tech news articles on News.com coverage of the PC Forum conference. Freeman Dyson on colonizing space for fun.
Microsoft criticized for IPv6-like patent: once again being hypocritical for criticizing the U.S. patent system for lack of quality and oversight, yet they do stuff like filing a patent without disclosing prior art or acknowledging the work of the standards committee. Check out the Public Patent Foundation for scrutiny of patents that defy logic.
Google presidents/founders and CEO not to receive bonuses this year: Those Google Guys are again leading the way.
Celebs who don't exactly look great in hi-def
Here's a list of celebrities whose flaws in appearance are readily apparent under the high-resolution scrutiny of HDTV. This is pretty amusing, but I wish they had screen captures to back up the claims!
In case you were wondering how much data recovery costs...
ActionFront Labs' website on data recovery from HDDs.
News, 2005.03.23
EFF appeals judge's ruling against Apple fan sites and their "right" to publish illegally obtained information under the cloak of "journalism".
A Wired News article about the new PowerBook's tilt sensor, which mentions Amit Singh.
An article on News.com describing a bunch of missed opportunities in the tech field that ended up making fortunes. I wasn't aware that Intel's first microprocessor was actually a Japanese design....
A Wired News article about the new PowerBook's tilt sensor, which mentions Amit Singh.
An article on News.com describing a bunch of missed opportunities in the tech field that ended up making fortunes. I wasn't aware that Intel's first microprocessor was actually a Japanese design....
2005-03-22
Internationalized Domain Names
Bruce Schneier's 2005.02.16 commentary on Unicode glyph security issues.
An article on CircleID regarding the IDN homeograph spoofing attacks.
The IDNA spec.
An article on CircleID regarding the IDN homeograph spoofing attacks.
The IDNA spec.
2005-03-21
Roll-up video phones
Gizmodo has a post about flexible screen phones. Cool. Just like on Earth: Final Conflict! (Which was cool until they killed off the main character a couple seasons in.) Only another couple years away, eh? Here's the original link.
Blank Optical Media
Wired News has an article on blank media that's quite interesting. Apparently Taiyo Yuden is the most coveted media. That's good to know. Of course, the ones made in China suck!
Club CD Freaks, for those who have a media preference.
digitalFAQ.com has some DVD media information as well.
Club CD Freaks, for those who have a media preference.
digitalFAQ.com has some DVD media information as well.
Game Boy Advance Hacktoys
Multi Boot: Allows booting one's own code on the GBA, as well as burning to flash. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like this will actually save ROM code like the Flash Advance Linker, which apparently is no longer sold by Lik-Sang.
Movie Player: Uses Compact Flash memory to store data for playback. Can handle MP3s, a special movie format, and playback of ROMs.
Review on flash linkers. Apparently this is the recommended one.
One other interesting item: ATA/ATAPI adapter, which allows ATA devices to be attached to the GBA. Maybe we could use these at HGST for testers....
Movie Player: Uses Compact Flash memory to store data for playback. Can handle MP3s, a special movie format, and playback of ROMs.
Review on flash linkers. Apparently this is the recommended one.
One other interesting item: ATA/ATAPI adapter, which allows ATA devices to be attached to the GBA. Maybe we could use these at HGST for testers....
UNIX Archive
There's a way to get some of the early original Unix source code! Check out the PDP Unix Preservation Society site. The FAQ describes how to obtain a license for the source.
Apple OS X Filesystems
Interesting links on filesystems:
A bunch of cool info on filesystems on OS X, but with general background as well. Also, a HFS+ fs debugger—sweet!! Amit Singh kicks ass.
The Apple specs for the HFS+ format.
A bunch of cool info on filesystems on OS X, but with general background as well. Also, a HFS+ fs debugger—sweet!! Amit Singh kicks ass.
The Apple specs for the HFS+ format.
The Link Page
<< Edit 2007.02.11: Link removed >>
This site is supplementary to my main blog: "::G's Blog". Being unable to filter or categorize posts on Blogger, I hesitate to post news, technology links, and the like. So I figured since Blogger is free, I'd just make another blog and post links to that. It's hard to keep track of all the URLs that fly past in one's daily struggle. Here's another stream-of-consciousness, URL-wise.
This site is supplementary to my main blog: "::G's Blog". Being unable to filter or categorize posts on Blogger, I hesitate to post news, technology links, and the like. So I figured since Blogger is free, I'd just make another blog and post links to that. It's hard to keep track of all the URLs that fly past in one's daily struggle. Here's another stream-of-consciousness, URL-wise.
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