Here’s what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
Pretty interesting stance taken by a leading tech blog sick of being hounded by merciless PR people.
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
I’m glad this happened post premiership.
For future reference…
Also awesome, also from ThinkGeek. This one’s $7.99.
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
More stuff journalists like.
Fired, Divorced, Then Diagnosed with Brain Cancer… so he got a job at Starbucks. See, they’re not all bad. Right?
Admit it. You’ve always looked at Dr Evil with envy because of Mini Me. I know I have. A little me running around doing my bidding would be awesome. Especially if the “mini me” was every bit as funny as I am. And if they looked, and sounded, like me that would be extra awesome.
Well, your own army of robot minions is no longer an unattainable dream. Little Island, A Japanese company, is producing them upon request. No idea what it costs though. But here are the specs:
Features:
We produce the Look a Like Doll with the hand making.
The Look a Like Doll is able to make a speech in the person’s voice.
It is possible to talk over from the remote place to
the person who exists completely in front of the Look a Like Doll,
and to monitor it.
It is possible to use it as only LAN cable is connected with
the power cable, and the setting doesn’t exist.
The operation only turns on the power on/off switch and is OK.
Please call when you end, “Shutdown”. ”
Function
Voice recognition
It is possible to operate the Look a Like Doll using Voice recognition.
Voice synthesis
The Look a Like Doll synthesize the person’s voice, and it talks using the voice.
Remote Control
It talks from the destination with the person who exists completely in front of
the Look a Like Doll.
The appearance in the room etc. can be seen.
RSS reading out
The Look a Like Doll will tell you Today’s weather and fortune-telling, etc.
Specifications
☆ Shape
We will make Look a Like Dall for the customer’s hoped design.
The height is about 40cm.
☆ CPU
LX800（500MHz)(AMD Geode)
512MB DDR SDRAM
80GB Solid State Disk
10/100Base-TX Ethernet
☆ Software
WindowsXP（Ｍｉｃｒｏｓｏｆｔ）
ＡｌｉｆｅＥｎｇｉｎｅ
☆ Power Supply
ＡＣ１００－２４０Ｖ １．２Ａ
☆ Others
Camera：0.1M pixel CMOS sensor
Speaker：1W(0.5W+0.5W)(200Hz-20kHz)
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
There are a couple of questions that spring to mind when I read a story like this. One, who knows the kind of facts used in this sentence:br(The Death Star has) a volume of 17.16 quadrillion cubic meters. At 1/10 volume, we’ll need 1.71 Quadrillion cubic meters of steel, weighing in at 134 quadrillion tonnes. In 2008 steel products, from wire to ingots were selling for an average of $962 per tonne, so our cost of steel alone is $12.95 quintillion.brTwo, who cares enough to research this bit:br(The Death Star has) a volume of 17.16 quadrillion cubic meters. At 1/10 volume, we’ll need 1.71 Quadrillion cubic meters of steel, weighing in at 134 quadrillion tonnes. In 2008 steel products, from wire to ingots were selling for an average of $962 per tonne, so our cost of steel alone is $12.95 quintillion.
Table PC – a good idea.
I’m very much looking forward to watching the Wire when my order from JB Hifi arrives. They were (and I’m not sure if they still are) selling them for $15.98 a season.
My brother-in-law Hilton asks a pertinent question regarding Bigpond. brI have to agree. Their page is hideous.
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
Driscoll talk gets twittered. Social networking and ministry converge.
That’s a graphical illustration of the typical path of the home consumption of a coffee snob. If you’ve skipped any of those stages good on you. The path from International Roast to roasting international beans at home is one filled with pitfalls and dangers.
The best way to traverse this is with the help of others. I’ve found the forum at coffeesnobs.com.au to be particularly helpful in my own personal coffee (r)evolution.
The forum was most helpful during the rebuild of Sheila, my Rancilio beastie.
I’ve collected a bunch of links to particular discussions that I think are vital to such a process.
1. Choosing a Grinder
2. Corretto
3. Buying used coffee equiptment – I’ve bought two grinders from this part of the forum, and been happy with both. I only bought the second because upgradeitis set in. Mostly because my other one was fine for home use, but I now roast beans for other people and take my machine to parties.
4. Plunger tips
5. Stovetop tips – you can get crema using a stovetop
6. Coffeesnobs glossary – helpful guide to finding your way around the forum.
This is something I would like to do when I have some spare time – but I also don’t want to electrocute myself. The Panasonic SD-200 breadmaker I use for roasting is annoying because you can’t just switch it on and make it spin. This modification adds a switch that just turns the motor on and off.
Other good coffee sites/articles:
“Ingredients for perfect espresso”
Knockbox – a forum moderated by the aforementioned Ministry Grounds (where I buy my green beans) Neil Atwood, good Australian alternative to coffeesnobs.
Home Barista – a world wide forum – mostly US centric. With a great “How tos” section
Whole Latte Love – full of reviews and stuff. Including this article on “rituals of espresso” that’s pretty helpful.
Coffeeparts – a great parts wholesaler who are more than happy to provide helpful customer service. I’ve bought a bunch of parts and paraphernalia from them.
Crema Magazine – an Australian coffee journal.
Cafe Grendel – a great coffee blog.
The Knockbox – another coffee blog run by an evangelical Christian who home roasts.
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
GimpShop is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) dressed up as Photoshop.
Stupid RFID technology.
Fonts are fun. I shared a link to this site in the “best bits” post below but it’s worth a post all of its own.
YourFonts will create a font from your handwriting for “FREE” (as in beer). Will upload mine when it’s done.
Here’s what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
Very cool.
I’m all for splashing out on a quality USB drive. But these are ridiculous.
“No one ever leaves a speech or a eulogy or a presentation saying, “I wish it was longer.” Same goes for sermons.
This XKCD comic is particularly shared for my brother in law’s benefit.
This new printer is going to give caffeine addicts a new quick fix. Struggling through the onset of a caffeine headache? Just eat that document you’ve just printed.
That’s right. This technology uses used coffee grounds as ink. That’s a printer that would be pretty sustainable in our household. Currently we put our coffee grounds in the garden. It’s a labour intensive printing process – but ink is pretty expensive and apparently bad for the environment.
Here’s what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
Cool firefox add on that lets you highlight a batch of links and open them all in tabs. Brilliant.
Leah on the cyclone.
Cool idea, only available in the US currently but it’s nice to see the social aspect of the internet harnessed this way.
Technology grand master Kevin Kelly (founder of Wired magazine) has the same problems with Twitter that I do. He doesn’t really get it. Me neither. Although I’m trying. The difference – he made one post and has 888 followers, I’ve made about 8 and have 6.
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
Proof that game companies hate customers. And further proof that Tetris on Facebook is the best gaming option out there.
Just to clarify…br”What’s a bokeh you say? It’s that oh-so-wonderful fuzziness in the background of photographs with a shallow depth of field and accompanying starry highlights. You can create you own bokeh effects with a little craftiness. The term bokeh is an anglicized version of a Japanese word used to describe the portion of a photograph that is out of focus behind the area of principal focus in a picture. When you see a portrait that has a creamy soft background and a nice crisp focus on the person being photographed, you are seeing bokeh. The shape of the highlights—sometimes round, hexagonal or other geometric shapes—is determined by the shape of the aperture in the lens”
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
Some of these are useful and helpful. Some are not.
Which tribe are you? Worth a look.
I once lived with a guy who could solve a Rubik’s cube in under 2 minutes – no matter the configuration you gave to him. This iPhone app promises to solve it for you in 20 moves. Reminder to self “thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s iPhone”…
The video is a little slow so I won’t post it here. But this is a step closer to the advent of self healing transformers who will protect us from the evil decepticon menace.
Here’s a list of mathematical solutions to the previously posted clock.
Is this enough to stop me wanting an iPhone? I doubt it.
How do you say “busted” in German or French… I was going to ask how you say “busted” in Swiss – but the answer is “you don’t”.
Guide to better living. Sample:br”Answer e-mails from junior people before more senior ones. Junior people have further to go and tend to remember who slighted them.”
Become a full spectrum worrier – know all the different frequencies out there that might be giving you cancer.
Wow.