Archive for October, 2005
So long Blogger, hello WordPress!
Posted by Biffster in Blogs, Open Source on October 31st, 2005
After far too long putting up with Blogger’s problems (slowness, entries either not publishing or getting lost), I’ve finally made the move to something else. My choice? WordPress, the open-source blog publishing platform. I’m working out the kinks here, but I already have most things set up correctly, and have imported all posts from Blogger and set them up here.
There’ll be changes, especially with the look and feel of this blog, as time goes by.
The Daily .WAV
Posted by Biffster in Miscellany on October 23rd, 2005
The Daily .WAV “Now in our 10th year of annoying your cubemates.” A new, short wav file every single day. They just really, really need an RSS feed!
Planet PDF’s Free PDF eBooks
Posted by Biffster in Miscellany on October 23rd, 2005
So what’s beetter than Project Gutenberg’s free text eBooks?How about Planet PDF’s PDF format free eBooks? Planet PDF apparently took a bunch of Guttenberg’s text files, turned them into high-quality PDFs, and have them free for download. Produce your own quality prints of Leo Tolstoy, Great Expectations, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and more.
TV Cream’s Top 100 Toys
Talk about a blast from the past! TV Cream is running an article listing the Top 100 Toys from the ’70s and ’80s. Looking through the list has been a blast. I didn’t have a lot of the toys growing up, but it’s been quite fun seeing the ones that I did have. My favorite of the bunch, Mouse Trap, is ranked criminally low at #54:
The inspiration for the device came – we’re pretty sure – from the old Chuck Jones Warner Brothers cartoons, in particular a recurring motif where a character (usually Sylvester) rigs up a ridiculously complicated mousetrap consisting of ropes, pulleys, safes, fridges, irons, electric fans blowing model boats, roller skates with pool cues tied to them, upended tubs of water, etc. etc. all setting one another off in a long line. Which made great viewing, but Jones and co. were always careful to leave out the doubtless long, tedious hours spent hammering, sawing and constructing the trap in the first place. MB attempted, bravely, to incorporate this into the game itself, with pieces (the diver, the barrel, the drawbridge, the boot, the marble, et al) going up one by one as mousey counters moved round the board.
Mess with Outlook user’s minds!
This looks like a fun activity: hack email headers to mess with Outlook user’s heads!
Microsoft Outlook uses a rectangular bar above the message header to display information and warnings about the message you’re reading. It may report that you replied on such a date, that an attachment was suppressed, or that line breaks have been removed. Sometimes, though, you might see a very different message—perhaps something like “This message violates the USA PATRIOT Act” or “ERROR: Microsoft Outlook detected. Get a REAL email client!” As it turns out, anybody who can control the custom headers for outgoing e-mail messages can cause such a warning to appear. E-mail server administrators have this level of control, as do spammers, hackers…and you! Here’s how.
I’m not an Outlook fan, and I strongly recommend that other’s use a less-dangerous email client. But this sounds like a lot of fun! 
Geek News Central Podcast
What’s that? I’m linking to a non-Linux tech podcast? Well, yeah! Because the Geek News Central Podcast is a very well-done podcast. It’s entertaining and often amusing – something that most people cannot do well. Sure, the host tends to be a little too Microsoft-oriented at times (endorsing Outlook? puh-leaze!). But Todd Cochrane is also interesting and engaging. You can tell that he lives in Hawaii: Hawaii residents have a natural air of laid-backness about them. And Cochrane exudes this air in his podcast.
Definitely subscribe right now if you don’t already listen to his show!
Joke of the day: “Slashdot Redesign: Scared by Digg?”
Here it is, yesterday’s Joke of the DaySlashdot Redesign: Scared by Digg?: “Is Digg scaring Slashdot into a fast and sloppy redesign? It is quite convenient that as Digg creeps up in the ranks Slashdot is suddenly getting an overhaul.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I just spit coffee all over my monitor, but it was so worth it!
