Sunday, May 27, 2007
Four Finger Salute
We recently bought a MacBook to replace an old Dell desktop for our kids. We wanted a laptop for portability and decided to get a MacBook because they're familiar with both Windows and OS X.
To run Windows, I decided against Bootcamp for now and bought a copy of Parallels. The integration between the two operating systems is very fluid and the performance of Windows applications under Parallels is great. As I was trying things out, at one point I wanted to bring up the task manager and by habit tried Ctrl-Alt-Del (aka the three-finger salute). No dice. The Delete key on the MacBook keyboard is really Backspace. But using the Fn key modifies it to be Del. So the magic sequence is now a four-finger salute: Fn-Ctrl-Alt-Del.
To run Windows, I decided against Bootcamp for now and bought a copy of Parallels. The integration between the two operating systems is very fluid and the performance of Windows applications under Parallels is great. As I was trying things out, at one point I wanted to bring up the task manager and by habit tried Ctrl-Alt-Del (aka the three-finger salute). No dice. The Delete key on the MacBook keyboard is really Backspace. But using the Fn key modifies it to be Del. So the magic sequence is now a four-finger salute: Fn-Ctrl-Alt-Del.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Knock Knock Joke
While cleaning up the backyard this afternoon I remembered an old joke:If you don't get it, say the last line quickly. Oh, and we have a dog.
Knock knock
Who's there?
I'm a pile up
I'm a pile up who?
Friday, May 25, 2007
Apple's market cap will exceed IBM's
Within two years. So says analyst Georges Yared in this article. Read the last line of Fake Steve Jobs' reaction. Comedy gold.
Star Wars at 30
Today is the 30th anniversary of the release of Star Wars. I remember watching it for the first time in a theater. I was hooked from the very first scene — a tiny spacecraft racing through space, pursed by a giant Imperial Star Destroyer that filled the screen.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
What does $456 billion buy?
The total cost of the Iraq war may reach $456 billion in September, according to the National Priorities Project, an organization that tracks public spending. It's hard to grasp how much money that is. As a point of comparison, What does $456 billion buy? How about 30 Big Digs? (Please, one was enough!) Or 14.5 million years through Harvard? Or you could buy a huge chunk of the tech sector — the combined market value of Apple, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, Adobe, Intuit, Sun Microsystems and Symantec combined is less that $456 billion.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
How to destroy a hard drive in five seconds
I'm getting rid of an ancient PC. It still runs but is old enough that none of the parts are worth saving. It's going to get recycled but I didn't want to go through the trouble of wiping the hard drive. So I decided to destroy it. Initially I tried to take it apart but the drive unit is sealed and I couldn't get the cover off. So I took a hammer to it. The case is lot more sturdy than I expected But after a few whacks, the cover was off. And now the drive is in pieces and it's unlikely that anyone but the NSA could get the data off its mangled platters. But it took a while. What if you had to destroy a hard disk in a few seconds? Here's one approach.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Mouse movement
When I was a kid I thought that there were tiny people inside radios and televisions. Here's a similar take on how the cursor is moved around on your screen. Be sure to move the mouse around quickly and click. Funny stuff.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
The Long Take
We were discussing long tracking shots in film the other day at lunch in reference to the stunning long takes in Children of Men. I mentioned a couple memorable long takes that I remembered from Hitchcock's Rope and Altman's The Player.
The Long Take on the Daily Film Dose is an extensive list of long takes including commentary and many of the actual clips including the car scene from Children of Men. If you haven't seen the film yet, you may want to wait, it's a graphic scene and gives some of the plot away. Btw, here's a great clip on how a couple of the long takes in Children of Men was done; extraordinary.
The Long Take on the Daily Film Dose is an extensive list of long takes including commentary and many of the actual clips including the car scene from Children of Men. If you haven't seen the film yet, you may want to wait, it's a graphic scene and gives some of the plot away. Btw, here's a great clip on how a couple of the long takes in Children of Men was done; extraordinary.
Monday, May 07, 2007
You Can Own An Integer Too!
Get your own 128-bit integer here. Hurry, there are only 3 × 1038 left! For some reason, I'm reminded of the bar scene from It's A Wonderful Life:
Nick: [ringing the cash register repeatedly] Get me. I'm givin' out wings.Note: for some background on why owning 128-bit integers might be significant to some people, see details here.
Friday, May 04, 2007
Silverlight and DLR
I'm pretty happy about the Silverlight and DLR announcements from MIX07. I've played with the technology a little bit but I've still got a lot to learn. John Lam has a good collection of links on Silverlight and DLR including Mark Pilgrim's skeptical rant. I don't know whether Silverlight will be wildly successful or not but the technology looks very cool, especially the DLR work. I look forward to spending more time digging into it.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Zotz!
Tom Poston died yesterday. He was a funny guy. Most people probably remember him as George the handyman from the Newhart show. I had no idea that he was married to Suzanne Pleshette (who played Bob Newhart's wife on The Bob Newhart Show).
I recall seeing him for the first time in a cheesy movie called Zotz! It was one of the first movies I can remember seeing as a kid. They gave out plastic Zotz! coins in the theater. In the movie, Poston's character finds a magic coin. If he says "Zotz!" while holding it, everyone around him moves in slow motion. If he points his finger at someone and says "Zotz!" at the same time, they die. The trailer for Zotz! can be found here. Skip ahead to 3:25.
I recall seeing him for the first time in a cheesy movie called Zotz! It was one of the first movies I can remember seeing as a kid. They gave out plastic Zotz! coins in the theater. In the movie, Poston's character finds a magic coin. If he says "Zotz!" while holding it, everyone around him moves in slow motion. If he points his finger at someone and says "Zotz!" at the same time, they die. The trailer for Zotz! can be found here. Skip ahead to 3:25.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Hackety Hack
Hackety Hack is a simple programming environment for kids and beginning programmers. It's Why The Lucky Stiff's response to his own essay The Little Coder's Predicament.Hackety Hack combines a browser (Gecko) and a programming language (Ruby) to create a simple programming environment with a similar feel to Squeak. It's currently in beta. Give it a try.
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