Archives for: February 2009

Why I dislike rebates #59

02/28/09 | by Adam | Categories: Whining
You know how rebates work, right? You get a certain amount off whatever it is you're buying but you don't get it at the till. You need to submit some paperwork and then you'll be sent a cheque for whatever the amount was. The basic premise behind it is… more »
 

DeMille Technical Books Is Still Alive!

02/22/09 | by Nimble | Categories: Announcements [A]
Quite frankly, I thought they were done for when the very cool bookstore that they joined, McNally Robinson, closed its downtown Calgary store. It was sheer happenstance that on my way to pick up a lost book at the transit lost and found (what can I s… more »
 

That can't be right

02/21/09 | by Adam | Categories: Technology, Music
Recently I was looking at Apple's iTunes FAQ documents and the one on "Backing Up Your Music" caught my eye, particularly this paragraph: if your hard disk becomes damaged or you lose any of the music you've purchased, you'll have to buy any purchased… more »
 

MacWorld on audio quality and compression

02/19/09 | by Adam | Categories: Technology, Music
MacWorld has an interesting post on audio quality in the digital realm. Worth going through are the reams and reams of reader comments at the end. My personal take: While bitrate may matter, the quality of the encoding algorithm matters more as does… more »
 

Theory and Evidence

02/18/09 | by Nimble | Categories: Thoughts, Common Sense, Science
The phrase "it's only a theory" is bandied about in some circles these days, but it's inappropriate when it comes to talking about a scientific capital-T Theory, in particular one whose sesquicentennial takes place this year. Cries of "prove it" and… more »
 

Christopher Booker - Welcome to Twit Club

02/09/09 | by Nimble | Categories: Common Sense, Science
In this, the 200th anniversary year of the birth of Charles Darwin, some people feel obliged to weigh in on the subjects of Darwin, or evolution, or what have you, and show themselves to be right twits in the process. Take a look at Christopher… more »
 

Law of Equivalent Toddler Badness

02/07/09 | by Nimble | Categories: Distractions, Thoughts
One thing I have noticed about our toddler - your toddler may vary - is that if he is ever up to anything bad - say, for example opening DVD cases and ripping the inserts out of them, and we STOP him - he will proceed onto things of "equivalent… more »
 

Cake mistakes

02/04/09 | by Adam | Categories: Silly
While many cake mistakes that turn up on the web are simply poor craftsmanship, the USB cake linked to here is -- I think -- decently done. Sadly the design is based a misunderstanding but probably ended up being more interesting that whatever image the… more »
 

Fellout 3

02/03/09 | by Adam | Categories: Games
Well, "Fallout 3" is now played through. It's been about three months since I started with it and there's been very little playing of other games in the meantime and a couple of blog posts. I reckon that's not bad value for money. What wasn't such good… more »