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The Baudboys: Microsoft's Finest A Cappella

2008 May 5, 11:21"The Baudboys are an all-male a cappella group composed entirely of Microsoft employees. Risking the wrath of fellow employees by rehearsing in on-campus conference rooms, The Baudboys sing a variety of popular and original music."PermalinkCommentsmusic baudboys microsoft

Set Gmail as Default Mail Client in Ubuntu :: the How-To Geek

2008 Apr 3, 6:48The comments have info on URI template for gmail message composition: "https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&tf=0&to=`echo $1 | sed 's/mailto://'`"PermalinkCommentsgmail mail uri howto reference google

"How do I search my Gmail mailbox?": Tech Support from Ask Dave Taylor!

2008 Apr 3, 2:49Looking for URI template to search over my gmail and found it in the comments: "http://gmail.google.com/gmail?search=query&view=tl&fs=1&q=%s"PermalinkCommentsgmail email google reference uri search howto

WebSlices now appearing in a Wikipedia article near you - istartedsomething

2008 Mar 28, 10:07"Trust the open-source lovin' contributors at Wikipedia to be early adopters of Microsoft web technologies. Beginning just a couple of days ago, Wikipedia user "Soum Yasch" began building Wiki templates to support the new content-subscription featurPermalinkCommentsie8 ie browser wikipedia article

garfield minus garfield

2008 Feb 27, 2:35"Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic?" My fav so far: "I'm an empty grocery sack."PermalinkCommentshumor garfield satire comic remix via:swannman

Identifying Vegetables with 20q Pocket Mind Reader

2008 Feb 26, 2:24

A shallot sliced in two.At the grocery store the other day Sarah and I attempted to find shallot for a recipe, but I can't tell the difference between shallot, sweet onions, yellow onions, etc. etc. We found something that we decided was the closest we'd find in the store and I believe we picked correctly because at checkout the cashier rang it up as shallot.

I think this could be a practical problem that the 20q Pocket Mind Reader should be able to solve: obtain the name of an unidentified object. When we got home I decided to test the 20q Pocket Mind Reader on shallot. Unfortunately, it told me I had an onion, but I think if these were designed for identifying unknown objects based solely on information you can obtain by looking at it, rather than requiring knowledge of seeds, where it grows, etc. it would do better. Or I could just ask someone who works at the grocery store.

PermalinkCommentsonion shallot toy 20q random

The Anonymity Experiment | Popular Science

2008 Feb 26, 11:28An article about a fellows attempt to be anonymous in his daily life.PermalinkCommentsprivacy article read popular-science

Mechanically Separated Meat - Blog Archive - Super Mario World vs. the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Physics

2008 Feb 19, 8:57A video of a player's many attempts at the same level in a hacked Super Mario World game overlayed on top of one another.PermalinkCommentsvideo mario game quantum-physics via:boingboing

Reusing Internet Explorer's Builtin CSS

2008 Jan 29, 9:32

When throwing together an HTML page at work that other people will view, I stick the following line in for style. Its IE's error page CSS and contaits a subtle gradient background that I like.

This uses the res URI scheme. You can see the other interesting IE resources using my resource list tool.PermalinkCommentsresource technical css internet-explorer ie res

Excercise Bike and Tacoma Screw Products

2008 Jan 13, 11:07

Sarah and I got an exercise bike on sale and when attempting to put it together found that it was missing a bag of about ten different screws. The manufacturer website said we could order a replacement bag for thirty dollars (!!) but since the instructions listed the various kinds of screws we needed I figured we could just go to a hardware store and buy them.

We started at Home Depot because I didn't know better. The screws are all listed in metric sizes which is apparently uncommon and a helpful senior worker forwarded us to McLendons whose stock was better but we were again redirected this time to Tacoma Screw Products.

Tacoma Screw Products is great! See them for your hardware needs first! The store has a back area with every kind of screw ever. I felt a little out of place as as all the customers looked like contractors. The employee who helped me explained the various options I had in screws as the bike instructions weren't as explicit as they could have been. In the end I bought all my screws for only one dollar (much better than $30!) and they all fit correctly.

PermalinkCommentsscrew bike personal tacoma screw products nontechnical

YouTube - From Boiling to Frozen

2007 Dec 13, 1:02Video of a cup of boiling water being thrown into the air outside with sub-freezing temp. Found on The Old New ThingPermalinkCommentsyoutube science water ice video

Angie and Kane Went Away

2007 Nov 19, 12:35Angie and Kane Go Away PartyTwo weekends ago I went down to California for Angie and Kane's going away party. It was fun despite going to a country western club. It was a very large place with plenty of space for line dancing, a dentist chair turned into a make-margaritas-in-your-mouth chair, and of course a mechanical bull. Surprisingly, I did not fit in.

Jon's Go Away PartyThis past weekend Sarah and I went to the EMP and SciFi Museum. The last time I was there was for the Star Trek convention (I'm cool) and Sarah hadn't been before. We also ate in the attached diner which was acceptable.PermalinkCommentsemp seattle nontechnical

Bunny Yawns

2007 Nov 13, 8:47
Cadbury yawns.
From: David Risney
Views: 1165
5 ratings
Time: 00:10 More in Pets & Animals
PermalinkCommentsvideo

XSL Identity Transfom

2007 Oct 12, 4:08As noted in the XSL Transformations spec you can create the identity transform using the xsl:copy element. With the MSXML implementation of xsl:copy the example the spec gives produces slightly ugly elements. For instance given it produces . In order to ensure empty elements turn out pretty I've modified the example as follows:
    
        
            
                
                    
                
            
            
                
                    
                
            
        
    

This got me thinking about inverting XSLTs. Clearly in general an XSLT isn't invertible since an XSLT can completely ignore the input XML and produce something else entirely but then the above is an example of an XSLT that is invertible. So there is a subset of XSLTs that are invertible, how might you produce the inverse of an XSLT, and would this ever be useful?PermalinkCommentsxml msxml inverse xlst xsl

XSL Transforms in JavaScript

2007 Oct 7, 4:12In a previous post I mentioned an xsltproc like js file I made. As noted in that post, on Windows you can write console script files in JavaScript, name them foo.js, and execute them from the command prompt. I later found that MSDN has an XSLT javascript sample which looks similar to mine, but I like mine better for the XSLT parameter support and having a non-ridiculous way of interpreting filenames. The code for my xsltproc.js follows. The script is very simple and demonstrates the ease with which you can manipulate these system objects and all it takes is opening up notepad.
var createNewXMLObj = function() {
   var result = new ActiveXObject("MSXML2.FreeThreadedDOMDocument");
   result.validateOnParse = false;
   result.async = false;
   return result;
}

var args = WScript.arguments;
var ofs = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");

var xslParams = [];
var xmlStyle = null;
var xmlInput = null;
var inputFile = null;
var outputFile = null;
var error = false;

for (var idx = 0; idx < args.length && !error; ++idx)
   if (args.item(idx) == "-o") {
      if (idx + 1 < args.length) {
         outputFile = ofs.GetAbsolutePathName(args.item(idx + 1));
         ++idx;
      }
      else
         error = true;
   }
   else if (args.item(idx) == "--param" || args.item(idx) == "-param") {
      if (idx + 2 < args.length) {
         xslParams[args.item(idx + 1)] = args.item(idx + 2);
         idx += 2;
      }
      else
         error = true;
   }
   else if (xmlStyle == null) {
      xmlStyle = createNewXMLObj();
      xmlStyle.load(ofs.GetAbsolutePathName(args.item(idx)));
   }
   else if (xmlInput == null) {
      inputFile = ofs.GetAbsolutePathName(args.item(idx));
      xmlInput = createNewXMLObj();
      xmlInput.load(inputFile);
   }

if (xmlStyle == null || xmlInput == null || error) {
   WScript.Echo('Usage:\n\t"xsltproc" xsl-stylesheet input-file\n\t\t["-o" output-file] *["--param" name value]');
}
else {
   var xslt = new ActiveXObject("MSXML2.XSLTemplate.3.0");
   xslt.stylesheet = xmlStyle;
   var xslProc = xslt.createProcessor();
   xslProc.input = xmlInput;

   for (var keyVar in xslParams)
      xslProc.addParameter(keyVar, xslParams[keyVar]);

   xslProc.transform();

   if (outputFile == null)
      WScript.Echo(xslProc.output);
   else {
      var xmlOutput = createNewXMLObj();
      xmlOutput.loadXML(xslProc.output);
      xmlOutput.save(outputFile);
   }
}
PermalinkCommentsjs xml jscript windows xslt technical xsltproc wscript xsl javascript

BlueBadgeMojo.com: Cafeteria Tour 2006

2007 Sep 21, 11:57Microsoft employees seek to visit all Microsoft cafeterias in Redmond and document the experience in blog form.PermalinkCommentsfood microsoft blog humor

Communications: No Quechup please

2007 Sep 4, 1:28I got a quechup invite this morning. Thankfully not from someone I know so I was already tempted to trash the letter. Turns out to be a bit of a spamming issue.PermalinkCommentsspam quechup network social privacy

Palak And Meghal's Wedding

2007 Sep 1, 4:32
The child in front of me kept staring at me.
From: David Risney
Views: 59
0 ratings
Time: 00:07 More in People & Blogs
PermalinkCommentsvideo

Moved

2007 Aug 6, 4:07I've moved from my previous apartment in Redmond into Sarah's condo in Kirkland. Over the past week I'd been coming home from work and packing and sorting all of my belongings. Everything had a few destination options: I donated two carts of computer related junk (two CRTs, two desktops, six laptops, untold number of cables, piles of network and sound cards, etc) to RE-PC and six garbage bags of clothing that I either never wear or into which I have worn holes into friendly looking clothing donation bins. Of course I still need to find some place to get rid of my 15 inch CRT TV, VCR, DVD player, and X-Box. I finally emptied my bags of coins that had been collecting for about seven years (one of the bags was from my college orientation) through Coinstar and got ~$160. Some items seemed to fit very well at work like my satirical RIAA propaganda poster and my Darth Vader Nutcracker. This past weekend I had movers come and actually move my furniture. Most of its now in storage except for my living room which is moved into Sarah's second bedroom. Now all I have to do is unpack...PermalinkCommentsmove personal repc recycle nontechnical

Instructables EMP shopping cart locker

2007 Jul 2, 9:04Build a device to remotely lock shopping carts.PermalinkCommentsarticle humor electronics shopping-cart wireless diy via:swannman
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