Tuesday, August 22, 2006

[news] Expiring Nukes

Everything has an expiration date—even nuclear warheads. Concerned that the United States' 10,000-strong stockpile of atomic bombs are past their prime, scientists at Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos Labs are vying to design the first new nuclear bomb in the United States since the W88 warhead in the mid-1980s ... But careful analysis of old warheads turned up no signs of weakness, raising questions about the need for new nukes ... To avoid violating international antitesting treaties, the stockpile is kept up to date via a $6 billion-a-year recertification program that tests existing weapons for signs of corrosion -- Discover Magazine
If we kept just a measly 1,000 nukes around, could we save $5 billion a year? If we really fired 999 nukes, will there even be anyone left to fire the 1000th nuke?

Too bad our most brilliant scientists aren't working on answers to these questions instead.

[find] Lore Sjöberg

This Wired contributor, Lore Sjöberg, is one funny geek.

Need to save this Wired article so I can find the rest of them.

Monday, August 21, 2006

[buy] Sansa m230 512MB MP3 Player

Goal: Lowest priced MP3 player with belt clip.
Found: Sansa 512MB MP3 Player + Silicon case with belt clip
Price: $50+$12 = $62 from CircuitCity

Sunday, August 20, 2006

[log] Steak and Chairs







Pierre's masterful steak, and my attempt to master the game of Chairs -- the age 21+ version -- My expression foretelling that I was to lose that round ...

Saturday, August 19, 2006

[find] Comic Book Creator

Just downloaded this. It promises to be hours and days and years of fun ... Let's see, what did I think really happen on the Vegas trip again? What's Pierre really saying in these pictures? Bwa ha ha.

[find] Google Coupons

Google now let's local businesses create their own listings and coupons. I made one. (Guess who is suffering from Google Envy today?)

Friday, August 18, 2006

[outing] Musical Theater Class Guest Night








[news] Google to pay $900M to power search and ads on MySpace

Google Inc. on Monday agreed to pay News Corp. $900 million (in guaranteed minimum revenue share payments) over three years to provide search and distribute advertising on the popular social network MySpace.com and the rest of the media company's Fox online network. --InformationWeek
Another "Hmmm" news. (Wow two in a row) News Corp paid < $600 million for MySpace not very long ago. Nice move, Mr. Murdoch. Now if only I can figure out his trick ..

[news] AOL Search Data

AOL's release of subscribers' search data is an unprecedented event that could spark a change in Internet privacy rules or it could spark a series of lawsuits, according to experts ... the company's research team ignored internal policies by deciding to publish search terms on an open Web site designed to help academics. They did not vet their plan through AOL's privacy team, he said. They attached the information to user identification numbers intended to protect subscribers' anonymity. --InformationWeek
This is one of the most "hmmm" events this year (ok, at least for me) -- For the first time, the regular public sees how revealing search terms are -- But of course that fact had been obvious all along. AOL just accidently pointed the headlight on the giant elephant in the room. Now people will start to seriously wonder about the power in the data that search companies have collected and hold.

Hmmm.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

[find] The Mug of vi

What I am printing out at work tomorrow. So classy. I never was a fluent vi user, so these are new to me from the mug of vi:


:>  indent

:<  outdent

[buy] Roomba

Roomba "Scheduler". From the iRobot site:

Our top-of-the-line vacuuming robot features a built-in scheduling system that adds ultimate convenience. Program up to seven cleaning times to clean automatically as often as you like--even when you're out. Includes filters, brushes, Cleaning Tool and 2 Scheduling Virtual Walls.

Purchased from: Costco @ $270

- Having a low profile means it will go underneath beds, sofas, and other furniture that we would never had touched.
- Running it during the day means we never hear the vacuum running.
- Watching in action is entertaining for hours.
- We love the first one so much, we now have two!
- Hooray for robots