stillhq.com : Mikal, a geek from Canberra living in Silicon Valley

Blathering for Tuesday, 03 November 2009

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:03:00 GMT

17:36: Mikal shared: Why do we have an IMG element? [dive into mark]

An interesting read. Those who ship win.

23:03: Mikal shared: Response to "TSA Takes Big Gulp over Britney"

Ice is a solid and therefore allowed is one of the most retarded things I have heard this year. Should we all just freeze our water bottles before flying?

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Blathering for Monday, 02 November 2009

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:34:00 GMT

02:34: Mikal shared: 3rd Annual Nigerian EMail Conference

Slightly racist, but still funny.

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Blathering for Friday, 30 October 2009

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:48:00 GMT

17:44: Mikal shared: Can being laid off really make you better off? - BusinessWeek.com- msnbc.com

Interesting article from Business Week. A recent study found that those laid off by Boeing were better off psychologically than those who remained with the company. This was mainly because of a combination of survivor guilt and continued stress about being in an insecure position.

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Blathering for Thursday, 29 October 2009

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:41:00 GMT

14:23: Mikal shared: Monitor bandwidth by pid | commandlinefu.com

Via Steve Walsh. This one looks useful.

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Blathering for Wednesday, 28 October 2009

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:51:00 GMT

14:26: Mikal shared: Official Google Mobile Blog: Announcing Google Maps Navigation for Android 2.0

Horrible product name. Cool product. Free turn by turn GPS directions for Android.

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Blathering for Sunday, 25 October 2009

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:09:00 GMT

17:03: Mikal shared: NSFW: Weezer, plane crashes and everything else thats worrying about the real-time web

A good commentary on the real time web.

17:20: Mikal shared: MCLD blog: MythBuntu/MythTV: A week of tweaks

Someone using MythNetTV comments that there is no documentation. I think he's looking for http://www.mythtvbook.com/wiki/Using_MythTV_as_a_Video_Aggregator

17:34: Mikal shared: Students in tears over HSC 'nightmare' - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Oh the poor babies. When they're big kids are they going to stop and cry when they experience a situation they haven't before? Are they going to refuse to do things at work just because they're new?

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Blathering for Saturday, 24 October 2009

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:38:00 GMT

06:36: Mikal shared: "I Will Break Your Fucking Camera"

I wonder who the tenant at 555 California is? Who wants to be guarded by badly trained thugs?

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Blathering for Friday, 23 October 2009

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:35:00 GMT

08:24: Mikal shared: Economy flyers' fantasy realised: a bed for $150

I love this idea. I would totally pay $150 (about 10% of the cost of a SYD -> SFO return ticket) to have a bed like surface. Air NZ has been offering to guarantee an empty seat next to you for a while, but the bed idea takes it to the next level.

08:26: Mikal shared: College Student Needs Personal Assistant To Help Him Be College Student [Employment]

I don't see why this is particularly news worthy -- people have had PAs for ages.

18:43: Mikal shared: Consumer Reporter Keeps Buying Things That Catch Fire [Dangerous]

Hmmm. I have two of these. It might be time to put them in the bin.

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Blathering for Thursday, 22 October 2009

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:41:00 GMT

09:27: Mikal shared: Coordinated motorcycle performance video from the 1950s

This is cool. I wonder if US cops could so something similar with tasers?

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Blathering for Wednesday, 21 October 2009

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 19:02:00 GMT

13:02: Mikal shared: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain this to you

An interesting note about what happens when the free content community clashes with traditional publishing.

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Blathering for Monday, 19 October 2009

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:58:00 GMT

01:24: Mikal shared: Practical Arduino: done

Well done to Jon and Hugh on finishing the book!

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Blathering for Friday, 16 October 2009

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:31:00 GMT

00:45: Mikal shared: YouTube - Oshiri Kajiri Mushi

Bottom biting bug! This is the song we played the most in Taiko at the arcade.

00:48: Mikal shared: YouTube - crazy frog

Oshiri Kajiri Mushi reminds me of Crazy Frog.

05:10: Mikal shared: Naked airport scanners in child porn uproar

Heck, the whole technology is creepy.

05:54: Mikal shared: One Buck = 80 Bucks

You know what they say... the happiest two days in the life of a mounted deer-head owner are the day he obtains the buck-head and the day he sells it. Let's make each other happy.

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Blathering for Thursday, 15 October 2009

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:19:00 GMT

02:50: Mikal shared: Mono is a trap evidence

These slides are interesting. I worked for a Microsoft ISV back in the day, and the would consistently pressure us to do things that clearly weren't in our best interests (and that they weren't doing to their products either). An example is porting our millions of lines of code to .NET, at the same time that they weren't doing that to their own code.

I wonder how Microsoft can get away with using language like this in a world in which they are under antitrust scrutiny? I would have though words like "war" and "kill" would be antitrust triggers.

02:54: Mikal shared: Core Values: The silicon behind Android

An interesting summary of the current state of play with Android SoC chips. I dispute the statement that Android's feel sluggish, but that's clearly subjective. Otherwise a good article.

04:06: Mikal shared: Google Unwraps Androids Giant Eclair

Name a desert beginning with F that you'd like to see in giant form...

05:17: Mikal shared: The Geography of Jobs - TIP Strategies

Interesting employment growth visualization for the last five years in the US. Can you spot Hurricane Katrina?

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Blathering for Wednesday, 14 October 2009

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 19:21:00 GMT

06:52: Mikal shared: Just 30 firms dominate the internet - The Inquirer

Interesting article about the state of the web. Let's not confuse the web with the entire internet please though.

07:35: Mikal shared: The error of our ways - Local News - News - Opinion - The Canberra Times

Interesting article about how being seen to fail is so damaging to reputation that people aren't willing to take risks any more. I wonder if things like social networking will change this over time -- everyone will have so much dirty laundry that voters will end up finally realizing that politicians are imperfect, just like them.

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Blathering for Tuesday, 13 October 2009

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:44:00 GMT

00:51: Mikal shared: Air New Zealand blasts IBM over system crash

Its seems like IBM dropped the ball here pretty badly. However, it remains to be seen if Air NZ specified levels of reliability in their outsourcing contracts.

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Blathering for Monday, 12 October 2009

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 04:26:00 GMT

04:33: Mikal shared: Greens call for end to car salary loophole - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I was talking about the status of FBT for leased cars with a friend just the other day. Personally, having seen people go for hundreds of kilometer drives at lunch time just to get into the next mileage bracket for tax, I think its time for salary sacrificing of car leases to end. I also like the idea of salary sacrifice for public transportation, which is something they've had in the US for ages.

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