I have been working with computers for a lot of years. And I believed, until today, that I had achieved a level of mastery in the art of computer destruction second to none.
But now I must humbly bow down before the Master destroyer of technology….
My friend Chris was out visiting this past week (he just went home yesterday). While he was here, in addition to several movies and a dozen hours or so of computer gaming, we went to the Abbotsford Airshow.
I planned on taking a bunch of pictures, but unfortunately I hadn’t properly charged my camera. As a result, I only got a few. I’ve included a bunch of Chris’s pictures to round out the selection. Here is a nice picture of a couple of “aggressor” camouflaged F-5 Tiger jets: click on the picture to go to the gallery folder with the airshow pictures.
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 😉
Continue reading Goofy ideas that make sense…
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… Continue reading Crude on the surface, but elegant…
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. Continue reading Google hates me…
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. Continue reading Server Cooling upgrade #2
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.
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.
Continue reading Klingon speakers required…
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.
Continue reading Hackers are like painters…