Nomadicoder

del.icio.us 'For" Tag

del.icio.us has a "for" tag for sending bookmarks to other del.icio.us users. I like to set aside time specifically to surf the Internet, and this feature is a good way to share links I think other may find interesting.

To use the for tag, post a URL to del.icio.us in the normal manner, but include a for:username in the tag line, where username is the del.icio.us user with whom you wish to share the link. For example, to share a link with me, include the tag "for:nomaricoder" along with the categories you use to describe the page.
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Be sure you include a description (usually the name of the web page) and a note - summary or personal comment about the page.

If you've never head of del.icio.us, here is more information about del.icio.us.

Excuse Me, That's Mine!

This morning I decide to stop by a Starbucks on the way to school. I placed my order (grande drip, room for cream, and a pastry), and while I'm waiting for the pastry, a young lady walks in and somewhat hurriedly places her order. The clerk hands me my order and I walk over to one of the tables in the corner to set my stuff down, then over to the table across from the barrista to put cream in my coffee. As I heading back to my table, the lady (who went out to her car for something) comes in and stops me and says, "Excuse me. That's mine." I reply, "What?" She says, "That's mine!" and grabs the cup from my hand. As she pulls it away, she squeezes the cup, pops the lid and sends coffee all over the place. Since the spray of coffee didn't have any froth or foam, or whatever it was she ordered, she figured that it wasn't her order. So, without saying a word, she headed over to the barista, picks up what she really ordered and heads straight out the door.

I stood there, coffee splattered on the floor and on my right arm, a bit startled that someone would do something like that. The clerk handed me a wad of paper towels and a new cup of coffee -- grande drip, room for cream. He apologized, but I told him that it wasn't his fault, it was her's

I don't recall hearing her apologize. But I was able to laugh at the incident at her expense. Best laugh I had all week. I also had something to blog about. Somehow I don't think she'll be doing that again anytime soon. One of the other customers said, "Maybe she wanted to meet you." I replied, "I'm not sure I want to get to know someone like that."

One Year of Podcatching

It was a year ago this week that I discovered podcasting. In August, 2004, I had been looking for software to automatically download RSS feeds in my iPod notes so I could dump Pluck. In August I first came across iSpider which became iPodder. In October I found iPodderX, and installed it. The first Podcast I subscribed to were The Daily Source Code, Trade Secrets, This Week in Amateur Radio, and Leo Laport's KFI Tech show. Of all those shows, the most memorable was Adam's first Studio A8 podcast, when something very cool happens 16:44 into the show.

Putting Things in Boxes

When critics of modernity say that we should stop classifying, they themselves are classifying. I heard one postmodern preacher say that we should stop putting things in boxes - that is classifying things as christian, secular, etc. But in doing so, he himself is classifying people.

It is in man's nature to organize and classify. Taxonomy is in man's very nature. Look at what postmodern's do when they enter into the folksonomic activities. They are classifying.

Theologically, God's first command to man was to name all of the animals He has created. Here man classifies and provides names for the animals. It is part of discovery. We find something, then we name it.

Bartas Technologies - CopyWrite

Bartas Technologies - CopyWrite:

Central Planning Doesn't Work for Baggage Systems Either

The Denver International Airport automated baggage system will be put to rest. According to this article, it appears that centralized control doesn't work very well for baggage systems.

Technology, too, has brought change. Back then, the big-brained mainframe doing it all from command central was the model of high tech. Today the very idea of it sounds like a cold-war-era relic, engineers say. Decentralization and mobile computing technology have taken over just about everything, allowing airlines, warehouse operators and shippers like FedEx to learn with just a few clicks the whereabouts of an item in motion, a feature that was supposed to be a chief strength of the baggage system.

It sounds like the failure of the soviet model of central planning:

"It wasn't the technology per se, it was a misplaced faith in it," said Richard de Neufville, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor de Neufville said the builders had imagined that their creation would work well even at the busiest boundaries of its capacity. That left no room for the errors and inefficiencies that are inevitable in a complex enterprise.

"The main culprit was hubris," he said.

Space Shuttle Sonic Boom

Here is a recording of last the Space Shuttle's Sonic Boom recorded from Tehachapi.

I should have set up a camera, because shortly before the boom, a bright light appeared to the south west, got increasingly brighter and passed directly over head. It was the Space Station, catching up with and passing by Discovery making her final approach for landing.

ActiveGrid 1.0

ActiveGrid released version 1.0 of their Application Builder and Application Server. I've been using it, and so far so good. I used the 0.6 and 0.7, and this is a vast improvement. It's nice that I can also use it on the Mac now and they've removed path dependencies for files. I still have one major peeve. It takes far too many steps to link tables.

I must admit, though, that I've only used the application builder. I still need to try out the LAMP Application Server.

The Spaceship Company

Burt Rutan and Richard Branson have announced they will form a The Spaceship Company to build and fly commercial suborbital spacecraft based on White Knight/Spaceship One. So far, it's been reported here and here.

I wish I had known this a few years ago

Lifehackers tells us how to cancel your AOL account. I wish I had know how to do this a few years ago. I had to set aside an evening to cancel mine.

Space Shuttle Windows Support

I've been listening to STS-117 coverage on NASA TV while working, and it's interesting that they've spent the last half hour working on windows support issues. During some of the work, one of the astronauts reported a BSoD. Wonder if they would rather be doing mission related rather than debugging system configurations and software.

What a Great Feature

One of my favorite features of Apple OSX 10.4 (Tiger) is the google and dictionary feature in contextual menus. Let's say you're reading a web page and you come across a word or phrase you don't understand, or want more information. Highlight (Select) the word or phrase (If it's not a hyperlink, you can double click on a word), and then control click the selection. You'll get a popup menu from which you can either search in Google, search in Spotlight, or look up in the American Oxford Dictionary that comes with Tiger. Very, very handy!

STS 114 Launch Set

Looks like NASA has found the problem with the fuel sensor and has set a new launch date for next Tuesday at 10:39AM EDT, within the original launch window. The problem was a faulty grounding in the wiring.

Medical Monitoring Pill

Engadget reports NFL teams using “Radio Pill” to monitor athletes’ temperatures. Wasn't there one of these in an episode of the Jetsons.

Keywords for Categories

Heeding Clay Shirky's talk on ontology a few months ago, I think that the only thing categories are good are for denoting broad divisions. Instead of the typical use of categories, I'll use keywords. That means dropping some categories and showing keywords somewhere on the blog entries.

This transition will take some time...