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2006

  • 1 min read

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Check out this
post from The Unofficial Apple Weblog
(TUAW):

Filed under: Software, Stocking Stuffers

Almost a dozen companies are offering a 20% off sale until Christmas.
Rogue Amoeba, Bare Bones, Potion Factory, Unsanity and more. You'll
find a full list of participating developers at the MacSanta site.

(from: MacSanta:
20% off popular Mac Apps)

For all you mac users out there 🙂

  • 1 min read

TIME 2006 Person Of The Year: What a cop out!

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Time Magazine news "You?" as the person of the year? What a cop-out!
Check out [this

post](http://bagnewsnotes.typepad.com/bagnews/2006/12/time_2006_perso.html) from BAGnewsNotes:

You?

TIME's '06 Person of the Year is You? I mean, Me?

(from: TIME
2006 Person Of The Year: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (No?))

  • 1 min read

World’s Tallest Man Lends a Hand

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I just thought [this

post](http://www.wftv.com/slideshow/news/2691965/detail.html?qs=;s=1;w=480) was interesting and curious -- thanks Dowbrigade
News

FUSHUN, China -- Bao Xishun, the world's tallest man, reaches in
to retrieve objects from the stomach of a sick dolphin at an
aquarium in Fushun, in China's northern Liaoning province. Bao,
whose arms measure more than a meter in length, was called in by
the aquarium after experts failed to surgically remove
unidentified objects from the stomachs of two dolphins. Bao was
able to reach in and retrieve the objects, which turned out to
be pieces of plastic from their pool surround. (from: World's
Tallest Man Lends a Hand)

  • 1 min read

Holiday gift for the geek who has everything

Everyone has a column or article these days of gift suggestions. Here's mine for all of you who need to buy something for your favorite geek "who has everything." I bet they would really like these sculptures.

Check out the whole site, they start at about $80 for a pocket sized doohikee and go to like $300 for a larger one. Kind of pricey, I admit.

Bathsheba Sculpture, via Kevin Kelley, Cool Tools

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A good bit by Bruce Schneier about “Real-World Passwords”

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Check out this
post from Schneier on Security:

How good are the passwords people are choosing to protect their
computers and online accounts?

It's a hard question to answer because data is scarce. But recently, a
colleague sent me some spoils from a MySpace phishing attack: 34,000
actual user names and passwords.

(read the whole thing here: [Real-World

Passwords](http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/12/realworld_passw.html))

My password philosophy goes like this. I have a standard one that I use
for the majority of sites where I don't care at all if someone gets into
it. Then I have a series of 4, progressively more obscure ones that I
use on how important access control is, with the most impossible to
guess one on my financial accounts.

Reading this makes me wonder if I am not taking this far enough…

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Chess and Violent Meditation

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Check out this post from empire
state blues.:

"[snip…]Everything else is blotted out by the deafening sound of my
own consciousness, the ascendant primate mind, churning on all of its
terrifying and unknown cylinders. And playing chess is in some ways a
taking of communion with this austere machine-mind; this family tree
of decisions; this full blooming of abstract thought.[snip…]

(from: Chess and Violent
Meditation)

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JRuby 0.9.2

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I was discussing with a friend yesterday, really, what's the difference
between a scripting language and a 'real' language? Is Java a 'real'
language? After all it does run on top of an interpreter (the JVM.) But
what's an interpreter anyway? Is the only 'real' language C++? Even C# is
questionable?

Ah I think that's all old think. I do think there's a qualitative difference
between a Ruby and a Java, but it's not about scripting versus real. It's
about something else…. and by the way, what happens when Ruby is run on
top of the JVM?

Check out this
post from Artima
Java Buzz:

The JRuby development team have released version 0.9.2. "This release
has some great improvements: extensions openssl and readline now
working, code for a new graphical irb console, partial support fo…

(from: JRuby
0.9.2)

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Capital of Kazakhstan to be Covered in Gigantic Tent; Gizmodo HQ Moving to Kazakhstan

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Check out this
post from Gizmodo:

Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, will soon become one of the coolest
cities in the world. Why, you ask? Because they're planning to build a
500-foot-high "tent" over the entire metropolis to keep it…

(from: Capital
of Kazakhstan to be Covered in Gigantic Tent; Gizmodo HQ Moving to
Kazakhstan)

That's pretty cool, check out the whole post. And isn't Borat
(supposedly) from there? 🙂