Archives for: September 2007

Even holy water isn't exempt from airline security

09/30/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
What happens when the aircraft is overrun by vampires? Huh? You reckon 100 millilitres will suffice? (Via BoingBoing) more »
 

I'm not smart enough to work at Google

09/29/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
...although you probably knew that already. However, what I can say -- without ever having met anyone who has worked there -- is that the Googlites must be insufferable know-it-alls. (Via Kotke) more »
 

Extreme Spammage

09/28/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
Some pillock (IP 62.33.12.24) is spamming the Nimbleblog comment area with adverts. All posts are moderated and thus require the approval of Ritchie, Dena or myself before they appear. This means that the spam doesn't serve its purpose and, other than… more »
 

Vehicle navigation in Wales

09/28/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology
Link is to a Daily Telegraph (UK) story about problems with large vehicles being directed down inappropriate roads. I know Welsh roads and I'm stunned that even locals can drive anything larger than than a small sedan down them. It's too bad that people… more »
 

Audio CDs being premastered for MP3 artefacting

09/27/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology, Music
This is a little worrying. The Wall Street Journal has an article on how it's becoming common to master CDs optimized to sound good when compressed to MP3 and played on a specific DA converter and headphones. This is just so wrong on so many levels.… more »
 

The Halo Future

09/26/07 | by Adam | Categories: Games
Brilliant future mocumentary on the ridiculous hype surrounding Bungie's Halo 3 release. Oh, it's actually Microsoft these days? Never mind. (Via Gizmodo) more »
 

I Are An Engineer

09/25/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology
We're currently going through some job reclassifications at work and my new prospective title is "Senior Project Engineer". I like the sound of it but I'm not a professional engineer and APEGGA gets a bit antsy about the use of the word. I have to say… more »
 

One-Upping in the world of D&D

09/23/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
This Wired humour piece gave me a laugh. more »
 

Spammers Infiltrate Missouri-Columbia's Site

09/23/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Thoughts, Internet, Spamming
We got a small swack of spam comments today which point at pages on http://meta.missouri.edu/ serialize/tmp/@top/ (I've broken up the link here so the spammers don't get more traffic). I've sent the webmasters off a warning. UPDATE: Yay, the pages are… more »
 

Evolution of Hox Genes

09/23/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Thoughts, Science
A commenter at one of the blogs I frequent pointed out in passing this one very cool paper from January 2006 called HOX GENES: Seductive Science, Mysterious Mechanisms in the Ulster Medical Journal. I love the Hox, or homeobox genes. There aren't too… more »
 

So where does that copyright levy go?

09/22/07 | by Adam | Categories: Copyright
One of the questions about the levy placed on blank media is where does it go? In 2006, the proceeds of the levy were finally distributed amongst the allocated participants. In this case, it means over $60 million was divvied up amongst the following… more »
 

Canadian Dollar Flirting With Parity

09/21/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Announcements [A]
I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. The Canadian dollar is so close to the U.S. dollar. It has actually traded just above the U.S. dollar during the day. From Reuters: After pushing through the key 1-for-1 level on Thursday for the first time… more »
 

Odd iTunes shortcoming

09/21/07 | by Adam | Categories: Music, Macintosh
Depending on the genre of music I want to listen to, I typically either want to listen to a random collection of individual tracks or a random selection of albums. For example, most rock and pop albums work best when excerpted so I like to use a song… more »
 

Posting frequency

09/20/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
Why, yes, I am trying to make sure there's a new blog post a day. Best way to encourage people to read regularly, right? As an aside, there are some days where I do write a post but nothing appears on the main list. That's because there are some that… more »
 

Baby Axel Arrives!

09/19/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Announcements [A], Distractions
Arrrrr! At 6:56 pm on September 16, 2007, Axel Duma Annand transitioned from the world of womb to the world of people. To recap a little bit... more »
 

Environmentalism in unlikely places

09/19/07 | by Adam | Categories: Calgary
The quote is from a Russian general describing his country's new mega-bomb: Unlike a nuclear weapon, the bomb doesn't hurt the environment, he added. Oh good, it's green. That makes all the difference when you're being blown up. more »
 

A Place to Gather Intelligence on 1-800 Callers

09/19/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Distractions, Thoughts, Spamming
800notes.com is a simple site with but two purposes: letting people post information on persistent, unknown callers, and looking up such posted information. It helped me look up our of our persistent nuisances, 1-800-566-8064, which seems to do cold… more »
 

"Geeks In Love"

09/18/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
Link is to a rather wonderful Flash music video. Truly, this is serious Dena and Ritchie territory! (Via Pharyngula) more »
 

NASA QA

09/17/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology
A few days ago, Ritchie posted a link to a conspiracy-debunking site related to the Apollo and Gemini space missions. On one of the pages, there's a discussion about the huge number of outstanding defect reports when the various missions launched. The… more »
 

Play games much?

09/16/07 | by Adam | Categories: Games
 

"Internet People"

09/15/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology, Silly
As the original linker said: I recognize most of the people in this video, which might be a surefire sign that it is time to disconnect ;). Quite. (Via Amber Mac) more »
 

SQL Server 2000 Gotcha With Uniqueidentifiers

09/15/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Programming
If you're considering using uniqueidentifiers on your tables, particularly as primary keys, then you might want to upgrade your SQL Server or just check your SQL carefully if you're still running SQL Server 2000. In particular, doing a COUNT(field) on… more »
 

Wurlitzer iPod dock

09/14/07 | by Adam | Categories: Music, iPhone
Although the illustration has an iPhone rather than an iPod, this is quite a novel dock for the system. If I had the money (or an iPod for that matter) I could be tempted... :) (Via Gizmodo UK) more »
 

Isolated Big Baby Syndrome

09/13/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Announcements [A]
This baby has still not arrived, but it is getting huge! At the ultrasound this morning, we got an median estimate of 11 pounds 7 ounces plus or minus a pound and a half... so basically, anything from 10 to 13 pounds is what we're expecting. (As to why… more »
 

Food miles

09/13/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology
A few months ago I read and referenced an article on "locavores", or the process of eating only what can be sourced from a nearby region. This article from the Financial Times is the other side of the coin in terms of the energy cost of production.… more »
 

So that's where Giger got the idea...

09/12/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
I actually saw this description on the morphology of the moray eel in one of the Calgary free weeklies first, but Pharyngula has a better description plus I can actually link to it. Cute title aside, I'm pretty sure H.R. Giger came up with his "Alien"… more »
 

Goofy, but apt, T-Shirts

09/11/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
I gave this one to Ritchie about a year ago; I'm now thinking about repossessing it as based on the referrer logs he's doing quite well on readership by stirring up the creationist stewpot! more »
 

The "final" cut of "Blade Runner" is nigh

09/10/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
Sometimes I feel I'm the only person -- including the director -- who actually liked the film noir narration in the theatrical cut of "Blade Runner". The ending probably did improve with subsequent cuts but I felt stripping Harrison Ford's voice-overs… more »
 

So how's that prediction going, Dena?

09/09/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
They've been awfully quiet over in Annandland. I'm suspicious that there may be great evil brewing... :) more »
 

Peeing in The Colours of the Rainbow

09/09/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Distractions, Science
Why must it always be the same colour, anyhow? Well, different colours is usually a bad sign, but who knew there was such variety? With appropriate health warning provisos, here is a list of things that can make your pee change colour. Doing it on… more »
 

Kicking Horse Pass bridge open

09/08/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
When I drove through to Golden, BC, a few weeks back the new bridge was mostly built but not open. This meant I got to drive underneath it on the old highway. It's really very impressive to look up and see this huge thing towering above you. The photo… more »
 

Happy 1st Birthday to "Ready, Aye, Ready"

09/07/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
It's a bit of a belated wish; "Ready, Aye, Ready" turned a year old some time back in August when I was out of town. Alas I didn't get around to noting it then. Sorry, kiddo. Come to think of it, I'm not quite sure when the blog turned a year as we… more »
 

An Even Better Moon Landing Anti-Conspiracy Site

09/07/07 | by Nimble | Categories: Thoughts, Common Sense, Science
I really enjoy Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy site, and it has much to recommend it apart from its eminently sensible anti-hoax pages, including its oft-updated blog, notes on good and bad astronomy and really good forums. My new favourite on the anti-hoax… more »
 

Apple's iPhoto Books

09/06/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology, Macintosh
This probably isn't news to the true Mac'o'philes but it was for me: iPhoto, the photo manager that's part of the standard iLife suite included with every Mac, has the ability to generate books of photos. When I say books, I really do mean books and not… more »
 

Wired on getting back to work

09/05/07 | by Adam | Categories: Potpourri
How timely. more »
 

An unfortunately named product

09/04/07 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
"Death By Chocolate", eh? more »
 

End of an era: bye bye MUSE

09/03/07 | by Adam | Categories: Games
On QBlog, Richard Bartle has announced that MUSE, his company created to license MUD amongst other things, is closed. For me this is very much the end of a period. I started playing MUD (aka "Multi-User Dungeon", a text-based but extremely sophisticated… more »
 

User Friendly on software license activation/verification

09/02/07 | by Adam | Categories: Copyright
And here's another data point of the general inanity of continuous license verification (not the comic specifically but what it refers to.) I think Illiad makes the point quite well. more »
 

TomTom One

09/01/07 | by Adam | Categories: Technology, Reviews, Macintosh
Summary: stand-alone car navigation system I picked up a refurbished TomTom One earlier this year when Future Shop had a special on them. While it's worked pretty well inside the city of Calgary, I wanted to give it a good run for its money and the… more »