Interesting Links

Sunday 20 March 2005 at 09:32 am New Scientist has an article on 13 things that do not make sense.

The RepRap Project is a 'Replicating Rapid Prototyper' in other words a device which could theoretically built itself. As also featured in this Engadget post about a robot created using this device.

Interesting - 30 Secrets of Atari.

Freeware - TinySpell spellchecks anywhere.

From the same place that brings us orange cheddar - Quebec margerine must be white.

Interesting Links

Monday 21 February 2005 at 8:56 pm 'Magic stuff happens' - why computing methodologies often fall victim to a common problem when documenting or describing key procedures. MobilePC has an excellent list of the Top 100 Gadgets. Howto - Firewalling with OpenBSD PF (Packet Filter). Fascinating - an Illustrated Guide to Cryptographic Hacking. Two articles on wood burning heaters and stoves. Kevin Kellys Cool Tools site has some 'One foot wonders' that occupy a minimum of space and are super efficient. Meta-efficient also has an article on Efficient Wood Burning Stoves. This looks like a fascinating concept - The Brain EKP. The demo looks great but I bet it costs an absolute arm and a leg and requires a huge amount of customisation, ongoing support and maintenance. I wonder what the backend tools are like - eg can a normal Sysadmin easily extend the product to other information stores ?

GFI Mail Archiver

Thursday 17 February 2005 at 12:55 pm Slightly Bigbrother-esque but I can see many organisations needing this level of accessible transparency - GFI Mail Archiver. Essentially archives all email sent and received to an Exchange server in an SQL database and makes it accessible via a web interface.

Exchange 2003 Real World Tweaks

Friday 11 February 2005 at 12:43 pm These guys are running a two part article on Exchange 2003 Server tips and tweaks - part 1 and part 2.

Interesting Links

Tuesday 01 February 2005 at 08:06 am Makes sense to me - Why everyone can't hire the top 1% of developers. Before the Simpsons - Matt Groening Apple Ad. Excellent resource for Music buffs - Rate Your Music. Heres a list of albums I own. Stream iTunes to your PocketPC - WiFiTunes. Flash demonstration of GNUstep Application Development. Looks easy. Another LDAP based tool to maintain a central authentication repository for Linux, Unix and Windows - XAD Identity Server. Not everything Apple has created has been a success - Top 10 Mac Failures . Build your own Knoppix style bootable CD using this GUI tool - LiveCD. Select packages, customise various templates and then generate a bootable iso image. What more could a person ask for - M&M Sorter. I guess it works for Pebbles and Smarties too.

Interesting Links

Friday 28 January 2005 at 08:11 am As the mini-Mac has started shipping there are a few excellent reviews that have started to appear - A mini-guide to Mac OS X for new Mini owners and AnandTech: Apple's Mac mini - Tempting PC Users Everywhere.

The Open Sourcing of Solaris has begun at OpenSolaris.org. The first component released is the DTRace tool.

Fascinating - NewsForge | Firebird targets the enterprise database. There is a Firebird Project underway to provide an Oracle PL/SQL emulation layer to help provide an Open Source alternative supported database to Oracle.

Some small but useful Mac OS X utilities - particularly Spark.

Application for Mac OS X to allow your phone to act as an answering machine - OVOLAB - Phlink.

Useful FreeBSD tool - Logmon. Allows you to monitor multiple Unix logfiles simultaneously.

OpenOffice Base - NewsForge | OpenOffice.org database application: A first look review.

Donationware - HornWare: SharePoints. Allows you to easily create Mac OS X shares from any directory.

Useful - MSI Packaging Tools.

Interesting Links

Friday 21 January 2005 at 07:59 am Nifty guide to User Mode Linux - Howto for UML. UML lets you run multiple virtual Linux machines on a single server in 'user mode' - as an application process rather than a single server utilising all of the hardware.

Windows clustering - Understanding How Cluster Quorums Work.

Only in Japan - Giant Red Self Destruct Button.

WTF - Defense Tech: AMERICA'S IRAN RAIDS ?!?!

At last something genuinely useful - Cliche Finder.

Humour - One does not simply walk into Mordor. Animated gif - watch it all the way through.

The net is full of opinions on the mini-Mac - this one seems to sum it up nicely - Mac mini - the "just enough" computer. It should be noted that there are two PC manufacturers that also make 'small' PC's - cappuccinopc and Logisys. Unfortunately both lack the style of the Mac (or anything else by Apple).

Interesting Links

Wednesday 19 January 2005 at 07:30 am A must read for Ruby and surrealist fans is whytheluckystiff who wrote the excellent Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby and has now created hobix which is a Ruby based blogging engine.

Nice hierarchical drive navigation menu for Windows Exmenu.

Mark Taw has collected his Favorite Smallware. And for the Mac - 43 Folders: MacOSX Inventory Collections.

One day I'll get my favourite keyboard - IBM model M keyboards. You can even get these classic devices with built in trackballs and thumbsticks.

Why this hasn't hit the mainstream I don't know - its certainly evidence of what home automation will be like in the very near future. Home Monitor on a Cell Phone was knocked up in 5hrs for a contest in 2001 and needless to say actually won the developer a new BMW.

An excellent explanation of Apple's Tipping Point: Macs for the Masses.

Very cool idea for a tree house - Free Spirit Sphere's. Bet they're not cheap.

These actually do sound pretty relaxing - Nippaz With Attitude - Music CD albums in a lullaby style for babies.

Bands and Record Labels

Wednesday 19 January 2005 at 07:29 am Bands:

Bailterspace




Band of Susans




Bardo Pond




Big Black
/ Shellac




Gravitar




Godspeedyoublackemporer




J Mascis / Dinosaur Jnr




Husker Du




Massive Attack




Mogwai




Portishead




Sonic Youth




Skullflower




Swervedriver




Record Labels:


Beggars Banquet




Charnel




Chemikal Underground




Constellation




Domino




Flying Nun




Freek




Manifold




Matador




Mute




RRR




Rough Trade




Southern / Quarterstick
/ Touch &
Go




Sub Pop




Too Pure




Wiija

Interesting Links

Thursday 30 December 2004 at 5:42 pm meta-creation_date: 22/12/2004 09:19:23
Engadget has a comprehensive and indepth review of the Sony PlayStation Portable/PSP.

Retro innovation - Commodore64 on a Joystick.

PCMagazine - Ten to AvoidThe Worst Products of the Year. The only one that doesn't ring true is the eMac but it is a PC magazine afterall.

More wikipedia goodness - Apple Newton.

Compact PC - Kim Young releases updated Sumicom mini-PC. The size of a drive bay. Awesome.

Great - Simple guide to LaTeX.

Interesting - MetroPipe Portable Virtual Privacy Machine. A virtual Linux secure machine that fits on a USB key and runs as a virtual machine.

A similar homebrew effort utilising WindowsCE to create a PortableCE.

Increasing privacy fears fuel efforts to improve anonymity - Tor anonymous Internet communication system.

Useful Windows tips - Windows Explorer Hacks.

One day I'll look into Plone and when I do I'll need some good documentation - The Definitive Guide to Plone.