Science-and-geeky-stuff

I have a wireless network at home. I don't like its limited range. And I've been thinking about buying an "official" range extender from my access point's manufacturer.

But when I saw this range extending antenna, I nearly jumped right in and ordered it.

The idea of an antenna based upon a hacker's toy (using a Pringles or similar can to get extra WI/FI range) strikes me as very intriguing. And the Cantenna seems, on the surface at least, to be based on some reasonably sound antenna principles.

I might still buy one, even if I'm not sure whether it really works. The concept appeals to me, and its not outrageously priced ;)

I came across this rather crude-looking home-brew CD changer mechanism in a Slashdot article. It takes me back to my days in High school, when guys built computers with wooden cases. Except this is a wooden mechanical device interfaced to a computer… (more…)

Another chapter has been written in the ongoing saga of my battle with Google’s news site and my desire to post “top news” links from it on my page.

In this latest episode I had to do battle with their restructuring of their page, the inclusion of new translated characters in their URLs, and other problems. I *think* I have it licked, although it may take another few refreshes before the “bad” news items get pushed off my my page. (more…)

I’ve mentioned before how my server is overheating. Well, this weekend I took hole saw in hand and added some better fans to the chassis. You can check out my photographic journey through the upgrade if that sort of thing interests you. (more…)

Gollum won an award on MTV's Movie Awards for best CG character...and you have to check out Gollum's acceptance speech.

My Linux server, the system that this website and several others run on, is hot. I don’t mean that its a really high performance computer (although its not bad): I mean its several degrees too warm.

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Apparently, a government office in Oregon is seeking fluent speakers of Klingon in order to serve some of their clients.   I've admitted elsewhere to being a geek, but even I have to draw the line somewhere.   It seems to me that Klingonese is worthy of some academic interest, in that its one of the most completely formed fictional languages developed. But why does a public agency need staff that can speak the language? That seems pretty silly...   Well, ready the article closely, and it will begin to make sense. The agency treats mental health patients. And, apparently, some of their "clients" (read: crazy people) speak nothing but Klingon.   On the plus side, now there is gainful employment available for all those uber-geeks that learned Klingonese...

I'm a hacker...not a security hacker, not a script kiddy, but an old school, widget-writing code developer. I write code, I don't theorize about it.

But I've always felt guilty. My brief stint in University (I dropped out of Honours Comp. Sci after about six months) made me feel like real computing science was all about mathematics and set theory. Then I found this article by Paul Graham, which really hit a chord with me.

Basically, Paul's suggestion is that Computing Science is, for many people, not a science. Instead, it is more akin to an art form. Coders like myself don't write out some mathematical theory for a program, then transcribe it. Instead, we work with materials and theories to create. Some of what we do is sketching, some of it transcends mere sketching and becomes "beautiful". But it is a far cry from a formal science for many (most?) programmers.

Just like a good artist or architect, good hackers don't program randomly: we start with a theme or a context (the requirements for an application, a problem that needs to be solved), and create something "organically" that fulfills or perhaps transcends our original intent.

I've spent a good chunk of my life feeling guilty, or sometimes angry, regarding the way I code versus the way I had been taught I was *supposed* to code. Paul's article helped me see this in a different light. In fact, its encouraged me to dig a bit more into theory: not because I feel I have to, but because it might help me be a better coder.

Everyone knows that Microsoft products are the subject of a great deal of hacker attention. Sure, Microsoft hasn’t in the past been very good about securing their products, but with all the script kiddies and coders making them their #1 target, it isn’t too surprising that problems keep cropping up. (more…)

You may recall that I was lamenting earlier this week that several of my news feeds had choked and died. I don’t give up easily… (more…)