The MUST-KNOWS you should know!

Just stuff I'm reading...

2008-04-03T03:13:00.003Z

You may want to browse...
http://www.allmyfaves.com/ for an immense list of stuff, by logo
http://www.quamut.com/quamut/guitar/page/barre_chords.html for how-tos on more than just guitars
http://www.libraryspot.com/ for books, of course
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/index.html for grammar
http://www.startspot.com/network/ and for everything, it seems
http://www.phrases.org.uk/and search by phrase
http://www.refdesk.com/index.html and check your references
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Max%20Ernst and read about surrealism
http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/ and Alfas
http://hindsight.trulia.com/map/#lat=34.053&lon=-118.243&zoom=10&mix=0.319 and look at this map of US development over time - very nice work!
http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/03/the_future_is_goople.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-listserv-_-MAR_2008-_-StratExec and one I'm laughing at - stretching to find parallels between Google and Apple. It's a joke, riiiight?

You must know everything by now, surely...

2007-10-04T01:38:00.000Z

Google Earth Flight Sim... ctrl-alt-A

2007-09-02T11:22:00.000Z

Yes folks, there's a flight simulator built into Google Earth and by Jove it works. Just try ctrl-alt-A or maybe ctrl-windows-A when over a location and a screen will appear giving you some options. It works, and it's as realistic as Google Earth itself. Big wow factor. I picked it up from Techcrunch, here.

Chart software on the web

2007-08-29T05:31:00.000Z

Need to draw some flowcharts? Used to Visio but not tied to it? Try Gliffy or a newcomer from Lenovo, Best4c, for free diagramming and charting on the web...

The Prodigy - Firestarter ( live, T in the Park )

2007-08-24T12:06:00.001Z

LIve version of Firestarter... weird, creepy.. fan-tas-tic.

Prodigy - Breathe

2007-08-24T11:56:00.001Z

Outside of rock, of R'n'B and the classics, there lies the Prodigy and electronica. I do like this...

Virtual Rome... you must see this!

2007-07-20T07:27:00.000Z

Read about the virtual Rome project here and check it out here. Yes, I mean Ancient Rome. Absolutely engrossing.

The Addams Family Theme (Original 1964)

2007-07-13T09:42:00.001Z

Can't resist...

Drobo... yes, it's bulletproof storage

2007-06-27T22:55:00.001Z

OK - I really like this idea. First let me paint this picture. You have a sqillion MP3s, videos and images on your PC and no backup. Or you backup onto another PC or a storage unit. Or maybe you backup on a few DVDs. Whatever, it's a pain. But if your main PC dies you lose the lot, so you take the small pain over the big, big pain.

Now Drobo is a smart storage box that takes 3.5inch hard drives in standard bays. That's not new - you can buy big external HDD boxes that plug in via FireWire or USB anyway. What distinguishes this one is its smarts. It hides the complexity of RAID and other redundancy methods inside so you don't need to know. Instead it just handles whatever goes wrong. Lose a drive? No problem, Drobo has made a backup. Need more space? No problem, slide another HDD inside and Drobo will format it and start sharing the load across the other drives. Seamlessly, apparently (I haven't tested it but others like CNET have). And from your PC it just looks like one volume, not a collection of drives. Yippee! I want one!

Mobiles yes, computers no?

2007-05-24T06:42:00.000Z

The SMH is spruiking the end of the computer, as the young people of Japan adopt smaller form factors in lieu of PCs. They suggest that this trend will spread across the world. I tend to agree, although by 'computer' we have to accept that they mean 'PC'. And I have some reservations.

Japan is a smaller, more densely populated country that Australia, so wireless communication is easier - and cheaper. This applies less so to the US, but similar geographic factors do apply. The Japanese also use a different keypad, which restrains the immediate spread of the exact same gadgets. And again the content provided - or perhaps desired - is different because the culture is different. Aussies will not necessarily see small form factor mobile computers as such an asset, especially without the content to drive their use or the network and bandwidth to deliver that content. We certainly lag in bandwidth - and both Australia and the continental US are geographically huge, making it more difficult to saturate the market with wireless gadgetry. It's a big factor in take-up.

I do think the computer as we know it is dying, if slowly. It peaked around the year 2000 and hase been collapsing since. It's morphing into a notebook-size and will probably shrink further, but purely for practical reasons at least 30% of the PCs will 'always' need full-sized keyboards, or at least a new way to input data. I'm certainly not going to want to type all day on a Palm Pilot, Blackberry or Blackjack-sized keypad - or smaller! I even use a full-sized keyboard with my notebook/laptop. Perhaps a direct brain-computer data feed is what I need instead?

I think those direct feeds will come, but not inside the next 5 years. I almost said 10. Almost. But when on the train or bus - sure - small is a goer. Even when jogging or cycling (maybe not cycling). An all-in-one mobile-sized pocket 'computer' is certainly the way of the future for PCs if we get all the ducks lined up...

Trendtracker... a cool tool

2007-05-22T05:40:00.000Z

Another cool tool... Trendtracker from MobiFeed.

IT gets technical

2007-05-03T21:45:00.000Z

Check out IBM DeveloperWorks online - and especially Spaces, a new social-networking-Web 2.0 collaborative developer area. I'm not that technical - I understand maybe 45-50% of what's going on but I love to stay informed of what's at the cutting edge. This is a great site to visit and browse but as I say it's for developers and those interested in coding with IBM products or open standards. (And yes, I work for IBM and these are my views, not necessarily the company's.)

Pete Townshend's Lifehouse Method

2007-04-26T10:44:00.000Z

Songware? It seems odd that a great live band like the Who would find itself promoting software-generated songs, but apparently Pete Townshend has been working - nay dreaming - about this for 30 years. Who's next grew out of Lifehouse - Pete's idea of a connectedness that expressed itself through songs... and was for Pete a glimpse of a future world where connectedness was pervasive, electronic and creative. Which brings us to The Method, software that apparently takes personal data like a birthdate, a photo, an audio file and a beat and produces music.

Pete talks about it here on MP3.com... The legendary Who guitarist and songwriter said... that he is set to launch a new Web site that he has been thinking about for nearly 30 years. Dubbed The Method, Townsend said the site will use music composition software to take a person's physical attributes and compose a brand new, personalized piece of music for that person.

"I've been thinking about this for such a long time," he said. "The gathering that the Internet offers is meditation. You lose yourself when you're listening to good music." Townshend said he hopes the site will provoke more people to take advantage of the immediacy of the Web.

And Yahoo! says this: Rocker Pete Townshend on Wednesday unveiled an Internet-based software program that will help music fans compose personalised tracks at the click of a button. The Who guitarist/songwriter said that with a voice recording, a digital image and a rhythm clapped into a microphone, his new "Method" software will create spontaneous digital music and allow anyone to be a composer, and possibly a rock star. "You can put data in and get a piece of music out. It's as simple as that," said Townshend, a technical wizard who pioneered the use of the synthesiser more than 35 years ago on the classic tunes "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O'Riley." The project, which started percolating during his art school days in the 1960s, was developed by mathematician/composer Lawrence Ball and software developer Dave Snowdon.

From May 1, users will be able to get free access to the Web site (http://www.lifehouse-method.com) for three months, and will be able to compose instrumental tracks that they can e-mail or post on their Web sites. From August 1, it will become a subscription-based service.

Sounds intriguing, anyway.

The Church

2007-04-26T06:49:00.000Z

No, not that church, the Aussie band called Church! I stumbled over this discography for the Church whilst searching for Damien Lovelock - he of Celibate Rifles and soccer commentary!

I just reckon we all should know about this stuff. I can recall seeing the Church at the Sylvania Hotel, of all places, in the early 80s. Excellent.

Because I can!

2007-04-24T12:59:00.000Z

The strange tale of Earthrace

2007-03-20T22:53:00.000Z

Earthrrace is a futuristic-looking speed boat on a mission - to set a record time around the world, using biodiesel fuel. Well they have had some problems since setting out but this one tops the lot, sadly. Here's the press release:

"Press Release – 20th Mar 2007

For Immediate Release

Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala – Earthrace collides with fishing vessel.

At 00:30 local time, on the 17th of March 2007, Earthrace was involved in a collision with a small fibreglass fishing skiff off the coast of Guatemala, one fisherman is still lost, presumably drowned, and a second fisherman seriously injured and in the hospital.

Earthrace was en-route from Panama to Acapulco, on the second leg of her attempt to set a new world record for a powerboat to circumnavigate the globe on Biodiesel. She left Balboa Yacht Club in Panama on the evening of the 16th of March, but early in the morning of the 17th, a heat exchanger on the starboard engine developed a hairline crack that leaked increasing amounts of oil into the bilge. The crew attempted to repair the crack using epoxy liquid metal, but it failed to stem the oil flow sufficiently to allow continuous engine operation. The decision was made to voyage the remainder of the leg to Acapulco on just the port engine, and at reduced load, limiting speeds to around 16 knots.

At 23:58 on the 17th of March, Earthrace Captain Pete Bethune awoke Anthony Distefano, the Engineer aboard Earthrace, to commence his two-hour watch. At 00:15, now the 18th of March, Ryan Heron, who had been struggling to sleep, got up from his pipe cot and had a short chat with Anthony, before returning to bed.

At 00:30, Distefano spotted a small white and red flashing light directly ahead. According to maritime law, flashing lights are to be used as navigational aids, marking things such as channels. Boats are marked with solid white, red and green lights only. Distefano, assumed the flashing light was on some form of beacon, and was checking the GPS system to locate which beacon he was looking at. The small size of the bulb gave him the impression the light was still considerable distance away. A few seconds later, Earthrace collided with a small fiberglass fishing vessel, approximately 5m in length.
Immediately following the accident, three fishermen were visible off the stern of Earthrace. Carlos Contreras Cruz, the youngest of them, clambered onto the transom step of Earthrace and collapsed. 51-year-old Pedro Salazan Gonzalez remained struggling between the hull of the fishing vessel and the transom, and was also gasping for air. Earthrace Skipper Pete Bethune jumped in and helped push the man up to the transom step, while Earthrace Engineer Anthony Distefano, pulled him from above. Distefano had seen a third man in the water minutes earlier and had thrown him a life buoy to cling to. Bethune swam over to the area but failed to locate him. After 15 minutes of searching from the water, the crew decided to start the port engine and circle the area to look for the third fisherman.

A number of Mayday calls were placed, initially on Channel 16, then several other frequencies, in an effort to get assistance with the search. Requests were made in both English and Spanish.

Earthrace scoured the area for ninety minutes, before driving over to 3 boats fishing nearby, and asking for assistance in the search. The fishermen were unwilling to help. Earthrace returned to the collision area and resumed the search for several more hours.

By now it was evident that the port propeller or driveshaft of Earthrace had been severely damaged in the collision. Engine speed could not be taken over 800rpm, without inducing excessive vibrations. With the starboard engine already out through the damaged heat exchanger, Earthrace now had a maximum speed of just 5 knots.

On being rescued, Gonzales had complained of severe pains in his stomach and chest, and David Stark, the trained doctor aboard Earthrace had been monitoring his condition. The blood pressure started at 104 / 60, but had steadily decreased as time passed. A second visit was made over to the local fishing vessels, requesting them to take Gaonzalez, along with Dr. Stark, to a hospital where the man could receive full treatment. The local fishermen again refused to help, despite being offered US$300 in cash, which were all the funds the crew had at the time.
At 05:20, the decision was made to commence the voyage to Puerto Quetzal, some 40 nautical miles South. The team was hoping that one of the local boats, or perhaps a military vessel, could be encouraged to meet Earthrace part way, and then take the Gonzalez on to port at reasonable speed. At 5 knots, it was going to take Earthrace 8 hours to reach port, by which time the crew believed the man would be dead.

By now, calls were increasingly made to several organizations, including the US Coastguard, in an effort to get local support for a medical evacuation. Calls were also placed to the US embassy in Guatemala.

Gonzalez blood pressure which had started at 104 / 60, continued to decline, so the decision was made to administer saline solution intravenously. On reaching 70 / 60 the crew believed the patient was dying before their eyes, and placed several more urgent phone calls saying in effect " this patient will die here if we do not have him evacuated". Meanwhile Earthrace continued its painfully slow voyage towards Puerto Quetzal.

At 6:35am, crew starts the starboard engine in an effort to get more speed. The engine oil starts to froth from water it is contaminated with, and within minutes much of the oil is lost into the bilge. The starboard engine was therefore turned off.

Bethune and Distefano then go into the water with masks to inspect for driveline damage. Three of the four blades on the port propeller were bent. Using a monkey wrench they bent the tips as straight as they could, but with only minimal impact. This allows boat speed to be increased to 7 knots.

At 6:56am, an email is received informing Earthrace that the US Coastguard has made contact with Guatemalan authorities, but that no boats are immediately available to help with the evacuation. At 07:20 an email is received saying a US Lt. Colonel has been in contact with the Guatemalan Coastguard, and that they are en-route to provide assistance. Then at 07:23, an email arrives saying a US Navy Vessel has left the Port of San Jose heading for Earthrace.
By now, over 2.5 litres of saline solution had been administered to Gonzalez, and he had started to make gradual improvements, despite suffering continual and severe pains in his chest and abdomen.

At 09:40 am, Earthrace crew spot a Naval Vessel heading towards them and make contact via VHF Channel 16. At 10:05am, the Vessel arrives alongside, as does the Dolphin I, a small 15ft fishing boat. The patient is transferred to the Dolphin I, which then left urgently to get the man to hospital. Ironically, the crew aboard Dolphin I was the same that had refused to provide assistance the night before.

Gonzalez was taken to Hospital Privado Genesis near Guatemala City, and treated by Dr. Carlos Enrique Robles Mendez. He was operated on, and found to have a perforated intestine, a perforated stomach, and a fractured sternum. He is now in a stable condition and expected to recover. Medical opinion is that the saline solution administered to the patient saved his life.

Earthrace was escorted into Puerto Quetzal and placed under military guard, with the crew confined to the boat and naval base, pending an investigation. The crew of Earthrace is all safe and is being treated well by the local authorities.
Given that this matter is now the subject of an official investigation, Earthrace crew has been advised to make no further comment at this time."

USB guitar, USB record player... what's next

2007-02-27T02:13:00.000Z

This is a good site, lots of useful as well as marginally useless gadgetry. I do like the USB guitar. The USB record player is not new but looks cool, and the cassette-drive for the PC saves connecting wires!! Well actually you still connect the wires, just once, inside your PC. Check out Firebox.

Hang on, whatabout this cool USB microscope from ThinkGeek?

USB devices the world doesn't need

2007-02-27T00:11:00.000Z

OK, some of these are mildly useful, but a cannon to fire balls? A lava lamp? A world-destruct button? Hmmm. Fun, though. USB devices - powered from your PC and guaranteed to give a giggle as we pump out yet more greenhouse gases... from PC World.

OK, ok, it's a bit techo but I love it

2007-02-08T22:40:00.000Z

I love the fact that as a kid I knew computers to be huge boxes that filled rooms. Traffic stopped as they were lifted by crane into buildings. I love it that they used punched cards for programming. I love it that in my first real job I used a "terminal", an Olivetti machine with no visual display, just an impact printer, a modem the size of a small cupboard and a keyboard with helpfully coloured keys. I love it that in another job mini computers did whiz-bang number crunching and stored data on huge, truly floppy disks. And I loved the early PC kits, the TRS-80, CP/M and the early Apples that began to proliferate inside universities. And I loved the first IBM PC, with its tiny 64Kb of RAM, green screen, single mini-floppy and no hard drive. And then those wonderful full-size hard disk drives, the Winchesters, which slimmed down and yet grew to a massive 20Mb. Wow, all that and we are only up to maybe 1984.

Having lived through all that, the trip to today's PCs has been a rocket sled. Tom Yager gets excited about AMD's new quad-core-but-with-so-much-more "Barcelona" chip. It's faster yet greener and really takes it up to Intel. Read on, and buy one when you can.

Useful tools...

2007-01-23T21:09:00.000Z

Another useful tool - PDF to text converters. It can be frustrating getting text out of PDF files. Frankly I hate PDF files and cringe when someone misguidedly links to an Acrobat file. As though I want to waste time opening Acrobat inside (or outside) of my browser when simple HTML will do the job 90% of the time. Anyway, here's a converter - I haven't tried it and there's plenty more out there if you search.

Ravings of a looney

2007-01-22T01:31:00.000Z

What really matters? What do we really need to know to get through life?

I am stressing "know", here, as in the working knowledge that gets us what we need and want throughout our lives. On a more physical level what we 'need' is sufficient food, shelter and exercise to allow us to sustain our bodily functions over a reasonable lifetime. It's not unreasonable to hope for reasonable health, unstunted growth and mental development over a period of say 30 years. It sounds short, but it's a minimum. Any more of that sort of life is quite a blessing, any less verges on misfortune or even tragedy.

These physical needs are pretty much the bottom rung of Maslow's hierarchy. And it does depend somewhat on where you are, of course. If you are sitting under a burning sun in a sandy desert then water would figure more highly, as would shade, food and some basic survival information. Alone on the high seas and you'd want all of the basics, plus a map would be handy.

But survival is more than just the basics. You can get by, or you can make more of it and leverage your assets. To do this involves some core knowledge. Whether you get it from me, from your parents, friends or siblings; or if you just figure it out yourself, no matter: it will make our lives somewhat brighter.

Firstly, we all die. Corollary, we get one shot at this. You may say, 'Well, derr! As if I didn't know that." Sure, we all know it, but do you live by it?
You may also believe in reincarnation, or an afterlife. Well and good, but if you are wrong...let's assume what we see is what we get, and accept for the moment that we do just "go". So...
Let's live as though life matters. Instead of lying in the sun turning brown, or lazing in a chair just being, let's ask ourselves what we are doing and what we hope to achieve by our actions. It may be that lying in the sun is exactly right for you. A nice tan may help us attract a mate, or just make us feel good. It may be that the warm glow of the sun is boosting our stocks of vitamin D and taking a good rest is just what we needed to 'recharge'. It may also be a waste of otherwise productive time and lead to skin cancer later in life.

So what am I raving about?

Well I think the keys to the kingdom are:

Respect yourself and those around you, do good in your life
Goals are good, so get some
Exercise keeps us healthy, so do it daily
Happiness is worth it, so pursue it
A little hunger keeps us healthy, so don't over-eat
An active brain will keep us younger, longer, so think about that
And kids are what we are here for, in the end, so have one or 2 of those as well if you get the chance ;-)

And if that doesn't work for you I don't know what will!

QuickMath - another maths site

2007-01-16T21:50:00.000Z

Can't know too much about maths, can one? Well QuickMath is pretty darn good.

Teoria - Music theory website

2007-01-16T21:45:00.000Z

An excellent music theory site... highly recommended.... Teoria.

IBM tops top 500 super computers

2006-11-16T21:39:00.000Z

So what? I can hear you saying. What does 280.6 teraflops/second mean anyway? It's still way slower than the human brain, and bigger, and hotter! And why does it matter to me that IBM dominates the list over archrival HP? I guess it doesn't matter, really - it's just bragging rights for IBM (and as I work for IBM I have to say these are my views and mine only and not necessarily those of the corporation). It's nice to see AMD claw back some ground with the Opteron, too. Network World reports here.

Urban legends 101 - Al Gore and the Internet

2006-11-07T01:48:00.000Z

Worth checking out the Urban Legends site - even if only to compare and contrast the media myth of Al Gore having said he had 'invented' the Internet with his stated contention that he had helped to 'create' it. It's hair-splitting, but a good point. In context it's clear he didn't say he invented it, only helped to get the funding together back in '77. So why do the media continue to report a lie?