December 2006

History of the Canon BX Print Engine

History of the Canon BX Print Engine, for all those folks out there still rocking a Xante B/W Accel-A-Writer. Related: a do-it-yourself Apple LaserWriter 630 exit jam repair kit.

Posted on December 28, 2006 12:23 PM | link to this entry

Christmas Digital Photography Tips

16 Digital Photography Tips for Christmas. Lots of good stuff in here, from people shots to atmospheric hints.

Posted on December 23, 2006 6:04 PM | link to this entry

Kill-A-Watt

This little gadget plugs into a wall socket and displays just how much power any appliance or electrical device pulls when turned on. I'd buy this for the sheer geekery of it. (via)

Posted on December 21, 2006 2:23 PM | link to this entry

Vintage Hot Rods

Here's a link to a series of vintage (post WW2) pictures from speed trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats. There is something absolutely classic, timeless, and beautiful about the design of cars towards the end of the entry.

Posted on December 20, 2006 9:21 PM | link to this entry

Seatguru

Seatguru, a site providing information about seating on commercial airlines. Does your assigned seat have a power jack? Is it near the lavatory?

Posted on December 20, 2006 9:18 PM | link to this entry

iTunes Power Tips.

iTunes Power Tips, from Lifehacker. Of special interest: this link to tips on managing multiple libraries, which is, unfortunately, Windows-oriented.

Posted on December 20, 2006 1:40 PM | link to this entry

Archival CD/DVD information

How to choose CD/DVD archival media. DVD+R is supposed to be the best. Then why doesn't my Mac recognize (or like) the DVD+R media I've got?

update: Looks like it might have been the Superdrive in my old iBook that didn't like the media I bought; I just burned a DVD+R in the new MBP and it worked like butter.

Posted on December 15, 2006 11:30 AM | link to this entry

CarMD

Hmm, this is pretty cool. CarMD is a little gadget that plugs into your car's computer and diagnoses any problems it may have, along with estimates for repairs. Pretty slick.

Posted on December 15, 2006 10:46 AM | link to this entry

Windows and OS X with parallels

How to run Windows and Mac apps side-by-side with Parallels. This may come in handy in a couple of days...

Posted on December 13, 2006 5:40 PM | link to this entry

Abu Ghraib Whistleblower

If you have the time, read (or watch the Tivo) this 60 Minutes article about the whistleblower of Abu Ghraib. The logic of those who brand him a "traitor" is mind-boggling; they claim he "put our troops in harm's way". What about Donald Rumsfeld, who publicly identified the whistleblower on live television? Doesn't that qualify as "putting troops in harm's way?" People should be celebrating this man (Darby), not castigating him. This country is pretty fucked up.

Posted on December 11, 2006 4:07 PM | link to this entry

Tourfilter

A website to catalog upcoming live music in the area: Tourfilter. Too bad DC is the closest listed city to me, but since most national and international tours skip B'more, it's worth the drive. Thievery Corporation at the 9:30 club on the 20th!

Posted on December 11, 2006 2:42 PM | link to this entry

Charlie Brown Scrubs Christmas

This is probably very old, but...A Charlie Brown Christmas performed by the cast of Scrubs. (youtube link)

Posted on December 11, 2006 11:44 AM | link to this entry

Peapod Rules

Peapod, how do I love thee? More ways than can be counted, especially when work is coming fast and furious, and I have barely enough time to dress myself let alone grocery shop. A nice man with a wide smile just dropped off a weeks' worth of groceries, and shopping took all of 15 minutes. The internet is awesome.

Posted on December 7, 2006 3:18 PM | link to this entry

Sock Stocking Stuffer

Christmas hint for me: Some synthetic socks I can try to keep my feet warm. I think I'd prefer to try Coolmax socks.

Posted on December 5, 2006 4:03 PM | link to this entry

Photon for iPhoto

Attempting to find a better way to post pictures here via iPhoto, I came upon Photon, which is supposed to use the mt-xmlrpc.cgi interface. I'm still having problems with the export process, and Daikini's website is minimal at best, which means there's no documentation, and I'm getting errors during export with no return values.

~~I'm also trying out a 30-day demo of Flickrexport for iPhoto -> Flickr posting. More later, so stay tuned.~~ Nevermind. Any software that freezes my whole application until it gets a serial number and won't let me demo gets uninstalled.

Why does this have to be so hard?