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Was poking through the Old English-plus-translation version of Beowulf I have, and was intrigued that the first line was:

Hwæt, we Gar-Dena in geardagum

There you go, Dena's in Beowulf!

(Even though it means the Danes, here: Gar-Dena = spear-Danes)

Not knowing where Tolkien got his inspiration, there's an awful lot of homage to Beowulf in Lord of the Rings. Beowulf refers to Middle Earth, ring-givers, and one of the Old English words for king, apart from "cyning" (kewningg) is "þeoden" (the "þ" giving a "th" sound). Theoden King indeed!

Link: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1776532/

If you ever wondered what that gizmo near the bottom of Darth Vader's helmet was, the title above gave it away.

(Via Daring Fireball)

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/15/nchocolate115.xml

Squishing fine chocolate truffles with one's thumb? Hanging is too good for him (harumph).

(Via BoingBoing)

Link: http://www.seriouseats.com/videos/2007/10/mario-batali-video-how-to-sauce-pasta.html

Interesting video from a TV chef on how pasta should be served with the sauce adding to the flavour rather than being the overwhelming focus. I rather agree -- the best lasagne is the one where the noodles act as a structural component separating the meat, cheese and tomato rather than as something limp floating inbetween the other pieces of filling. I feel much the same way about fresh tomato sauces; make it sticky, thick, gungy, but sparing. Tomato-flavoured water is for the consomme.

(Via Kottke)

Link: http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/posts/Random/RASN2-Swears-2007-10-16-15-00.html

Funny post from a Mac developer on a four letter issue he encountered when generating license keys for his product.

(Via Daring Fireball)

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071004.BCTOTEM04/TPStory/National

Another day, another silly misinterpretation of copyright law. Sadly, it's a Canadian case this time.

(Via BoingBoing)

There is a site that summarizes many of the proteins that creatures have in common with one another. Most of the creatures listed are bacteria, but there are a few multicellular organisms with respective codes: Microsporidia [E], thale cress [A], a worm [C], the fruit fly [D], baker's yeast [Y], fission yeast [P], and humans [H]. "Coming soon", they have rice, the mosquito, chimpanzees, dogs, mice and rats.

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Dena and I haven't really been posting a ton, with the new baby in tow, but with five weeks and a bit of baby under our belts, I think I'm ready to share a bit of the whole experience :)

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Link: http://www.kottke.org/07/09/bringing-back-the-housecall

I'm sure there many reasons for the decline of the housecall in favour of the centralized clinic, but this post makes for an interesting read. Summary is that a doctor in the US has given up the office and takes the show on the road using modern technology to coordinate vists to his patients.

(Via Kottke)

Link: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5324590

Ten hours is how long it takes to fill a 160GB iPod using USB2.

Ow.

(Via Wired)

Link: http://ipodminusitunes.blogspot.com/2007/09/apple-cuts-us-off.html

Oh, for pity's sake. I was leaning in favour of picking up the new larger capacity iPod and then I read that Apple's locked down the hardware such that iTunes is required to put music on it. Why?

(Via BoingBoing)

Link: http://xkcd.com/303/

It really doesn't matter what the programmer is actually doing; as soon as the words "code's compiling" are spoken, a free period appears to be granted.

I suppose I could counter that with "document the change while you're waiting" and watch heads explode.

Every year, a crop of shows are made for the TV networks. Of these, only a few actually make it to air. But what happens to the ones that aren't selected?

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Link: http://crunchgear.com/2007/10/08/the-couch-made-from-20-old-macs/

Another use for dead(ish) computers: make a really hard couch out of their corpses.

(Via PopGadget)

Link: http://www.chiptune.com/

This is a neat concept: a website built in Ajax that looks just like a Workbench 1.3 vintage Amiga.