31
2005
Back after a long hiatus
Whew! That’s the longest I’ve been away since this site was established more than 5 years ago. Posting should once again be much more frequent.
One of the reasons I’ve been away was that I got really tired of dealing with comment spam, but I’ve finally gotten around to upgrading to the most recent version of Movable Type to take advantage of some of the newer spam filtering options. I did find it amusing that within minutes of doing the upgrade (and before installing any comment spam filters) there were two spam comments posted. The battle continues…..
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11
2005
Graph Paper PDF Files
If you ever need graph paper, you can find a wide variety of downloadable/printable graph paper in PDF format over at incompetech.com (you can even generate custom layouts). You’ll also find montly and yearly calendars.
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21
2004
Custom Printed M&M’s
A while back, I wrote about the fact that you could order customized M&M’s by selecting from 21 different colors to produce your own blend. Well, now you can add custom printing as well, with two lines of up to 8 characters each, and you can include two separate messages if you like.
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18
2004
ASIMO Video Clips
Honda Dreamers TV (HDTV) has some video clips of the new ASIMO, including the announcement, shaking hands, and one of ASIMO running.
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15
2004
Next-Generation ASIMO
Honda has announced their next-generation ASIMO humanoid robot, with posture control that allow it to run at up to 3 km/hr, improved autonomous maneuvering, and enhanced visual and force sensor technologies for smoother interaction with people (allowing it to allowing it to give or receive an object, or shaking hands). They have also update the ASIMO website, including some nice technical information (with some geared for teachers) and a movies page.
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19
2004
Widgets
With the release of Konfabulator for Windows, I’ve been tinkering around with building a few widgets of my own. I’d like to be able to monitor the servers and systems I take care of, and to quickly be able to see when there’s a problem requiring my attention. I’ll probably also take a look at the .Net-based Kapsules. More on this after I get something running.
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16
2004
Power Outages and Lessons Learned
We tend to have a lot of power outages here in Anchorage - sometimes due to wet, heavy snow, but more frequently it’s from colliding weather systems sending strong winds down the mountains (often 100 mph or greater). There didn’t seem to be anything that severe last week, but I noticed the lights flickering and dimming a number of times, and an unusual number of light bulbs needed to be replaced around the house.
I’ve been amazed over the years that I’ve never had a piece of computer equipment fail. Not a single hard disk, CPU or monitor. Of course, I have simple surge protectors everywhere - except on one TiVo.
Michele called me at work to report that the TiVo was behaving strangely - lots of pixelation, stuttering and stopping. It would response to commands from the remote control - but in slow motion (sometimes minutes). I had her try a reboot, but the problems persisted.
A quick search over at the Tivo Community Forums made it clear that the problem was due to a hard disk problem. Following a link to WeaKnees.com I quickly decided it was best to upgrade the 80-hour TiVo with a 120gb drive, but since it was Friday I was going to have to wait until Monday for the replacement drive to arrive.
In the meantime, I picked up a surge protector with battery backup for the TiVo, as well as one for each computer, and started a long-overdue backup of some critical data to DVDs.
The replacement drive arrived from Weaknees yesterday, and installation was incredibly simple. It was also an opportunity to do a little housekeeping inside the TiVo - there was some pretty hefty dust buildup inside. Going through the guided setup was easy, but a little slow (I guess I was a little impatient), but within an hour the TiVo was back in business, with season passes set up - all ready for tonight’s premier of the Amazing Race!
I’ll be doing backups on the computers on a more regular basis now - I suspect that my lucky streak has ended, and it’s just a matter of time until something else gets zapped.
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03
2004
What’s up with QRIO and ASIMO?
It’s been an unusually long time since there has been anything new on either the Sony QRIO or Honda ASIMO - I wonder what they’re up to? Does anyone have any recent updates on either??
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12
2004
The Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science
Robert L. Park, professor of physics at the University of Maryland at College Park and the director of public information for the American Physical Society, compiled his Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science in an attempt to help federal judges detect scientific nonsense. He’s also the author of Voodoo Science: The Road From Foolishness to Fraud. Another great book on critical evaluation of “scientific” claims is Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark, and of course, there’s always The Amazing Randi.
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21
2004
Another Extension for Spirit and Opportunity
The twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have been given another six-month extension (which will take the mission almost a full year past the original 90-day plan following an earlier five-month extension).
The rovers are just emerging from 12-day communications blackout period when Mars passed nearly behind the sun, and have also passed the winter solstice on Mars - now days will get longer and the rovers will get more sunlight to keep their batteries charged.
Plans are for Spirit to drive to the top of Husband Hill so it can get a view all the way to the edge of Gusev Crater, and Opportunity will drive out of Endurance Crater to take a peek at its nearby discarded heat shield and then make a 3-mile drive to Victoria Crater.
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