Author: Dan

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July’s Link Soup

Here is another post of interesting but mostly unrelated things. First off is Serenity, the web site of the big screen sequel to Firefly, Joss Whedon’s cancelled sci-fi/western series. I own Firefly – The Complete Series, on DVD and am really looking forward to the movie.

Next is an urban legend about the Twelve Days of Christmas from Urban Legends Reference Pages. Another urban legends site is UrbanLegends.com.

If you’re annoyed at sites that ask for registration, try BugMeNot.com. Or use dodgeit to create “fake” email addresses.

You can find out how popular your name is at Name Statistics.

And finally, Iraqi Cat Reunited With G.I. War Buddies. Maybe now they can find weapons of mass destruction.

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Engagement + 1 week

I have been engaged for one week. I asked Stephanie to marry me last week. We were camping with the John 23rd young adults group at Fall Creek Falls State Park. The wedding date is Friday, June 10, 2005.

In other news I’m headed back to Knoxville next month, but first Stephanie and I are headed to Arkansas to see her parents. After that I was going start classes and teaching at UT, but it’s highly likely I’ll be having surgery on my knee instead.

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SETI@home and BOINC

SETI@home is transitioning to BOINC. Last month I mentioned BOINC and how you could run several projects with one client. SETI’s client was getting a little long in the tooth, and BOINC lets new calculations be done on the data without totally rewriting the client. I think part of the reason they switched is that SETI@home is losing it’s appeal. By switching to something that can run multiple projects, SETI@home increases the chances that people will stick with SETI, even if they also run another project.

I’m still running the old command line version on the iMac, but I installed BOINC on the PC. It can can in the background and can kick in when the user is idle, I have it set to start working after I’m idle for 10 minutes. It seems to work okay, although I’m not sure how the credit system works.

If you have any doubt that searching for ET life is a nearly impossible task, check out this page on the famous Fermi Paradox. Fermi’s paradox serves as a reality check for the Drake Equation.

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Link Soup

Here are lots of mostly unrelated things I have found recently that I thought were interesting. A site explaining the history of Moof the Dogcow, a little image used by some programs to show page orientation for printers. This is a site about the dangers of dihydrogen monoxide, (H20). Next, a group of actual monks that sell ink, toner, and other printer, fax, and copier supplies.

Next we have an online map and guide to the Simpsons’ hometown, Springfield. And then just what everyone needs, a online guide and recipe list for ramen noddles. And finally just in case you needed reasons not to vote for George W. Bush, Bush in 30 Seconds.

As a side note, I’ve stopped making links in my posts show in new browser windows, it was just getting annoying. Just use the back button if you really really want to get back here. Of course I may change my mind later.

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You’ve got Gmail

Well actually, I’ve got Gmail. librarymonk@gmail.com to exact. Gmail is Google’s new webmail service, currently in a closed beta test. What makes Gmail special is spam filtering, a fast interface, and oh yeah 1 gigabyte of storage space. Feel free to sent me email at this address, it’s not like I’m in danger of maxing out my storage quota anytime soon.

And also Google related, here’s what to tell someone when they ask you a dumb question.

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Movable Type and Opera

New licences have been announced for Movable Type. The biggest change is a new Unlimited Personal Edition for $99.95. It allows “for an unlimited number of authors and weblogs for personal use”. This is really what people wanted, and why there where huge complaints about the new licence. The cheaper Personal Edition, $69.95, now allows for unlimited blogs and 5 authors. I bought the Personal Edition within a few weeks of the new licence. Six Apart upgraded me from the Personal Edition to the Unlimited Personal Edition for free since I was an early adopter. Six Apart is really trying to mend fences now, but the damage has already been done I think. WordPress still looks pretty good, for those that want totally free and open source solution.

The Firefox browser is version .09 and the Thunderbird mail client is now at version 0.7 Both programs look great when you use the Charamel theme. But there is also a new version of Opera out. (7.5) You remember Opera don’t you? The non open source, free (with ads) browser made by a company in Norway? Opera 7.5 sports a new (and very nice) user interface and everything Firefox has, standards compliant rendering, tabbed browsing etc. Plus an intergrated mail client with spam filtering. It’s definitely worth a look.

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