http://www.phigmov.co.nz/ Another Website About Stuff en rpatel@phigmov.co.nz (Raj) Copyright 2016 PivotX - 2.3.6 Sun, 03 Jan 2016 13:15:20 +1300 60 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=805 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=805#comm
Charles Stross (Sci-Fi Author, his Singularity Sky is awesome) discusses Network Security in the Medium Term, 2061-2561 AD.

Pretty fascinating - Networking Needs a VMWare. Some of this stuff is on its way . . .

The future looks bright - Building a new filesystem - ReFS for Windows 8.

This reminds me so much of William Gibsons 'Bigend Books' (Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, Zero History) I had to double check it wasn't fiction - Made Better in Japan. Theres also a touch of Umberto Ecos 'Travels in Hyperreality'. Remember, people - it has to be better than the real thing !

I caught this over on Boing Boing - pretty fascinating - Bringing a 50,000-ton forging press back to Life. Makes you wonder what other wholly unique mega-gizmos exist in the world ? ]]> 805@localhost/ links Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:58:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=792 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=792#comm
In the wake of the sub-prime fiasco and subsequent bailout this makes for interesting reading - What Good is Wall Street?.

Yes, I know we're almost half way through 2011 - this interactive article has some cool stuff in the pipeline - NYTimes Top Ideas for 2010.

A couple of related articles The end of the IT Department and The rise of Shadow IT suppliers. Maintaining infrastructure is costly - more and more people are turning to innovation and service outside of in-house-IT.

A peek into the future - FutureStates TV. Brief docu-dramas about different potential futures for earth and humanity.

Nifty - 3D Strandbeests. If you've ever seen Theo Jansens creations walk across the beach you'll be pleased to see you can now print them in 3D.

Commentary at the Economist on the recent DropBox security warning - Keys to the Cloud Castle.

I seem to be predisposed to IT nostalgia - Markdown is the new Word 5.1. As a user-experience 5.1 was pretty much a pinnacle - everything since has just been fluff. I cut my 'GUI WYSIWYG teeth' on Word 3 and 4 which were also great - they were also the last versions you could run off a single 3.5" disk on a Mac (on a dual FDD disk system your OS was on one disk and your app was on the other). ]]> 792@localhost/ links Sat, 28 May 2011 13:56:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=784 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=784#comm
Say what you like but these anachronisms just aren't going away - Mainframe dark age. A profitable niche market for some !

Would love to add these to my pencil case - These machines kill fascists. Remember the only good fascist is dead one.

Nice and simple infographic of Risk perception and actual hazards.

Its starting to look pretty definitive - Vaccines don't cause autism.

A website dedicated to documenting the tricks used by site-designers to ensnare or mis-direct web-surfers - Dark Patterns.

We all know its going to get messy - Why the IPv4 to IPv6 will be ugly. I think a lot of people out there are in denial.

Douglas Coupland is the author of cult classic 'Microserf', here he outlines his vision of the next decade - A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years. Nice read. ]]> 784@localhost/ links Sun, 07 Nov 2010 08:34:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=782 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=782#comm reproduce the polaroid, pin-hole or cheap russian camera look would appear to indicate a predilection for the imperfect.

The trend also manifests itself in the lomography movement - cheap film cameras that have flawed optics leading to quirky images. Lomography has also led to a resurgence in the use of medium-format film. Medium format film leads to much bigger pictures than 35mm film and allows for much more detail to be captured in a variety of sizes. Medium format cameras are now also very cheap and accessible as everyone off-loads their film cameras for digital.

I picked up a Mamiya RB67 for about $400 and a Rolleiflex for $500. This may seem a little pricey but these would have each cost a small fortune when purchased new. The RB67 takes 6cm x 7cm pictures and the Rollei takes 6cm x 6cm pictures. If you use a colour-slide film (like Velvia) you'll get a roll of developed negative from the developer you can shine a light through and project onto a wall. Its pretty darn cool.

Of the two I prefer the Rollei, its easier to carry, has a built in light-meter and the square 6 x 6 images look great. The Mamiya is a beast of a camera, it really needs a tripod and it will hurt your back carting it around (it weighs about 2.5kg!) - although when you see the sharpness of the pictures you will find the weight bearable.

Digital medium and large format photography also exists - but the cost is generally prohibitive. Getting a medium sized digital sensor camera package is going to set you back the equivalent of a mortgage down-payment on a house. ]]> 782@localhost/ links Sat, 28 Aug 2010 19:28:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=780 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=780#comm Parsing a Word document with PL/SQL. Given DOCX is essentially a compound file its pretty neat that you can dismantle it.

I'm a sucker for cool stationary - Paper and envelopes that look like icons.

Handy - Creating Active Directory Taskpads. Looks pretty straightforward.

All it takes is a little thought - Space Saving Furniture. Amazing stuff.

Impressive - SeaMicro - 512 servers in 10U. ]]> 780@localhost/ links Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:55:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=777 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=777#comm Eight Thoughts About Timescale.

Brilliant - Toronto subway etiquette posters.

Nice chart - Stages of a Photographer. I think I'm at the 'Everything I shoot is rubbish' stage.

Charles Stross writes about the recent Adobe/Apple Flash spat - The Real Reason Steve Jobs Hates Flash.

ArsTechnica does a rather nice review of Ubuntu 10.04. As of v 7 or 8 its actually been pretty usable by a mere mortal (ie your parents). ]]> 777@localhost/ links Sun, 09 May 2010 15:58:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=776 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=776#comm dotfiles.org. Great idea and resource. Shame I don't do much unix stuff anymore.

All sorts of things are falling under Microsofts new 'Forefront' banner (ISA is probably the most well known) - now their meta-directory product is coming under the same brand Forefront Identity Lifecycle Manager. It still seems overly expensive but the feature-set does look enticing.

Nifty - Why you can't work at work. My most productive time is probably from 7 to 9am - after that my day becomes primarily interrupt driven.

The art of writing is starting to disappear - I'm not a great writer by any means but proof-reading colleagues written work does make me wonder what happened to the education system in the five to ten years I between my schooling and theirs. Writing well, creatively and with humour appears to be a niche Clothing for Correspondence are happy to fill - you send them an item of clothing and they'll write something for you. Their samples are great - particularly the references ! ]]> 776@localhost/ links Sun, 18 Apr 2010 17:26:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=772 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=772#comm Avoiding a Digital Dark Age.

Fantastic (if a little grim) - World Press Photo Competition Winners 2010

Infographic - which health supplements are actually beneficial - Snake Oil Supplements.

Why most people no longer care about the file-system - /the/path/of/most/resistance. Very very true - at a home-user level the apps are now infinitely more important than where stuff is stored - just leave iPhoto/iTunes to look after itself and forget about where it puts things. ]]> 772@localhost/ links Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:05:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=767 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=767#comm
The scale is truly impressive - How Many Servers Can One Admin Manage?.

Another reason why Americans and their privitised healthcare are completely insane - The Cost of Care. ]]> 767@localhost/ links Sun, 03 Jan 2010 08:47:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=765 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=765#comm Bumptop. Nice idea but I'm not entirely sure it will have anything other than novelty value.

Nifty online presentation tool - Prezi. Put a new spin on your visuals.

I've got to rebuild my PC - still running the RC of Windows 7 - some of these tools look useful though - Windows 7 Helper Applications.

Apart form the terrible colour the new Pogoplug Mk2 looks like a remarkably cool gizmo. ]]> 765@localhost/ links Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:12:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=758 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=758#comm
Shauns writes about the recent 2Degrees mobile ad campaign which posits the theory that Kiwis have two degrees of separation. The ads got Rhys Darby in it so take a look.

Looks like 4.5 degrees-of-separation is still pretty good.

Now to add Sciblogs NZ to the sidebar and subscribe the the rss feed . . . ]]> 758@localhost/ links Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:40:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=757 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=757#comm Elite.

On a tenuously related note (its a game you play on a computer) try out one of the very first networked shooters - Bolo. Many an hour spent at university on a ropey old AppleTalk network playing this game.

Interesting experiment - The Secrets of Self Control. Fascinating insight into the subjects future too.

A look at a design classic - the Joy Division Unknown Pleasures album cover. Peter Saville definitely had a great eye and aesthetic.

One of my favourite modern sci-fi authors is also a Psion fan - Charles Stross laments the state of the current portable market.

This is an interesting technology tidbit - Apple may have dictated high-speed bus spec to Intel. In the same way the iMac kick-started USB adoption it may be another data-transfer standard will be more directly influenced by Apple.

One again the Long Now foundation look at long term data preservation - Team Digital Preservation keep your files current. I like the 'movage' nomenclature too. Neat word. ]]> 757@localhost/ links Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:37:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=755 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=755#comm ArsTechnica OS X 10.6 - Snow Leopard Review. Some of the under-hood plumbing changes bode well for the future. I'm dying to get it installed knowing full well I'll barely scratch the surface of its functionality.

Cloud-computing is all the rage - now you can tap into it securely - Introducing Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).

Create custom internet savvy boot images - Netbootme.

Fantastic tree sculptures - Gilroy Gardens.

The answer is yes - Should You Worry About Data Rot? ]]> 755@localhost/ links Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:48:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=754 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=754#comm SlowIT. 'Do less with less' is going to be my new mantra.

Handy - Alternative uses for everyday items.

Wellington could use some of these in a compact, noise-less form for normal households - 10 Wind Turbines That Push the Limits of Design.

True - Why Word is becoming irrelevant. Unfortunately the Office Suite is a juggernaut - convincing people they can get by with an older version (Office XP does what I need it to do), something free (OpenOffice) or web-based (probably a hard-sell for the less technology savvy).

A fascinating story from a guy who ranks amongst the modern software elite - Why writing a Windows compatible file server is (still) hard. I've heard a rumour that even Microsoft doesn't understand SMB/CIFS the way that the SAMBA creator does.

NetFlix have shared their Internal Values and Culture via slideshow. Impressive stuff. I liked the bit where they tackle innovation and complexity by just employing brilliant people - instead of being risk averse and process/procedure-heavy they find it easier to move ahead and fix things as they go. ]]> 754@localhost/ links Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:15:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=749 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=749#comm No to SQL? Anti-database movement gains steam. Flat files rule

Handy reference - Unix Xargs Piping Toolkit Utility.

Handy - 20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know.

Useful for troubleshooting - First few seconds of an https sessions.

This sort of thing cuts both ways - How to communicate securely under a repressive regime.

This looks useful Lamson. Easy email integration framework for applications.

Trying to remember the right word ? Try Tip of my tongue. ]]> 749@localhost/ links Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:48:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=748 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=748#comm email patterns can predict impending doom.

Take a look inside the worlds greatest keyboard. They should have used the M to crush the modern keyboard.

If you want to send a YouTube link but want to strip out all the attendant rubbish try QuieTube.

I came across this free Java based Active Directory web-admin tool while looking for a Sun Access Manager replacement - Corendal Directory. Looks handy.

Fantastic foresight - Opium Magazine layers ink which will expose different text over a loooong period of time. I wonder how they make sure this happens evenly ?

Another comparative infographic - bailout costs vs big historical events. Pretty amazing.

Long overdue - Microsoft trailing free antivirus application. If its anything like Forefront they'll be onto a winner. I wonder how Symantec, McAfee et al will be able to compete ?

Swoon worthy - Olympus E-P1. Un-boxing pics over here.

An in-depth look at the Conflicker Worm.

Always on the lookout for good mono-spaced fonts to use in Notepad or TextEdit - Anonymous Pro and Typografi. ]]> 748@localhost/ links Sat, 27 Jun 2009 09:59:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=742 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=742#comm first movie, this looks like more of the same but potentially better - The Yes Men Fix The World. Be sure to watch the trailer.

Every home should have one of these - Espress Book Machine. Books on demand!

I don't think its ever going to compete against Google but the Wolfram Alpha search engine looks like a fantastic research and discovery tool for students.

Another nifty Long Now post - 13500 Pages Etched Into Nickel. Its a shame they didn't zoom in 500x to see the content.

It looks like some companies are showing some foresight when it comes to Solar Power. Its a nice cost-model - I wonder when someone will bring it to NZ ?

One of the few games that plays well on my old MacBook, Half Life 2, has a mod that looks intriguing - Dear Esther. A nice review - Touched by the hand of mod Dear Esther.

Lest people forget the pioneering days of chip design take a look at this impressive effort Homebrew CPU is a Beautiful Mess of Wires. Amazing.

Like Stack Overflow did for Programmers, ServerFault aims to provide free assistance to System and Network Admins. ]]> 742@localhost/ links Fri, 29 May 2009 19:37:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=734 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=734#comm Build a Data Center in 26 Weeks. On a related note check out this video inside a Swedish Datacentre that has 'James Bonds Villain Lair' written all over it - its probably the coolest DC I've seen!

Another datacentre related post - Why do we chill datacentres ?

Genius - Telegram Stop. Send a real live telegram anywhere in the world via your browser for a nominal fee (<$5USD).

See how much water you consume - Daily Water Consumption. Its a fair amount of H20!

Looking forward to this film - Objectified. By the same guys that did Helvetica.

Interesting bit of art and technology - Tweenbots. How willing will people be to help a little robot get from one place to another ? Its a shame they didn't build some smarts or a web cam into the 'bot itself so it didn't have to rely completely on people for direction.

More good advice from Nassim Nicholas Taleb (author of the excellent 'Black Swan') - Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world.

Stock up on these t-shirts in case you're thrown back in time or you have to rebuild civilisation - close up of the information here. ]]> 734@localhost/ links Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:09:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=732 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=732#comm Google Server Design. Cool - a 12v battery built in!

I'm doing less and less unix so I'm starting to loose my touch (however lightweight that may have been) - its still good to come across online resources that provide handy tips and shortcuts like Commandline Fu.

MIT are offering students their own VM's - XVM. Pretty funky!

See the Long Now Foundations Rosette Project in all its zoomable glory.

Interesting stuff - How Google Routes around Outages. Still seems refreshingly chaotic.

The Internet Archive are moving from a Petabox setup to the Sun Datacenter Container.



My kind of CIO - Jeff Bezos spends a week working in an Amazon distribution centre.

Brilliant - Collected infographics of the current financial crisis.

Another one of those handy unix skills (esp with the upswing in Ubuntu) - Becoming an apt-guru.

If you 'cd' around a lot then try J for 'jump'. Looks handy. ]]> 732@localhost/ links Sun, 29 Mar 2009 10:46:00 +1300 Raj http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=729 http://www.phigmov.co.nz/?e=729#comm Siftables at TED and also covered Siftables at ArsTechnica. Toy blocks will never quite be the same. Imagine the same technologies built into mobile phones, or business cards (click them together to exchange details) . . .

Another in a long line of handy Drive Dock gadgets. Things have certainly come a long way since the clunky drive bays of the late 90's.

Always interesting to read of new tips - Managers as Servants. Must remember to send this to the boss.

For all your difficult math queries - ask Doctor Math.

Some brilliant tips - The Tao of War Photography.

Build it yourself for Linux or the Mac Homeworld - Opensource. I'll need to track down my Windows files so I can try the Mac port.

The dire state of the financial market has turned everyones gaze upon the dark and mysterious world of the Quants - check out these fascinating articles Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street and also They Tried to Outsmart Wall Street.

Last but not least PivotX is at Release Candidate status - if you're after a nice blog-engine that doesn't need a database give it a whirl. I'll be upgrading soon . . . ]]> 729@localhost/ links Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:58:00 +1300 Raj