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Swarmbots team up to transport child

2009 Jan 13, 12:30A swarm of robots drag a child across the floor. The future is now! "In the meantime, the video below shows that an army of swarmbots belonging to researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland can work together to pull off quite a feat - transporting a small girl across the floor."PermalinkCommentsvideo humor robot robots drag

Back from California

2008 Dec 30, 2:29

Sarah and Me at ChristmasSarah and I are back from a short Christmas visit to California. We spent the days around Christmas with much of my extended family in Sacramento many of whom I had not seen in quite a while. It was nice to see everybody again. I ended up taking a few pictures on Christmas in order to add to the digital photo frame I gave Grandma.

San Francisco Pier at NightWe flew in and out of San Francisco on Virgin America which was really nice. The staff is trying their best to be hip but accessible, the safety instructional video is entertaining, there's mood lighting, and all seats have entertainment systems as well as power outlets and USB ports to charge your electronic devices. They don't have many flights which appears to mean shorter lines. And it was cheaper to fly with them and then rent a car and drive to Sacramento then to fly in to Sacramento. I'll for sure be flying with them again given the opportunity. Before flying back Sarah and I spent a day in San Francisco, where we decided that if we don't go back to Fisherman's Wharf again in this lifetime that would be acceptable, saw the Golden Gate Park and met up with my friend Jake who I haven't seen in at least four years. Next up, happy new year!

PermalinkCommentschristmas virgin america family personal san francisco

View From Hotel

2008 Dec 30, 8:31

sequelguy posted a photo:

View From Hotel

PermalinkCommentssanfrancisco california pier

Sarah in front of Bay Bridge

2008 Dec 30, 8:30

sequelguy posted a photo:

Sarah in front of Bay Bridge

PermalinkCommentssanfrancisco california sarah baybridge

San Francisco Pier at Night

2008 Dec 30, 8:30

sequelguy posted a photo:

San Francisco Pier at Night

PermalinkCommentssanfrancisco california pier

Ice Skating Rink

2008 Dec 30, 8:30

sequelguy posted a photo:

Ice Skating Rink

PermalinkCommentssanfrancisco california iceskating

Statue Near Hyatt

2008 Dec 30, 8:29

sequelguy posted a photo:

Statue Near Hyatt

PermalinkCommentssanfrancisco california art

View From Top of Hotel

2008 Dec 30, 8:29

sequelguy posted a photo:

View From Top of Hotel

PermalinkCommentssanfrancisco california art hotel

Sonja Eddings Brown is Rather Unpleasant - The Rehabilitated Student

2008 Nov 16, 10:13"Imagine my mild surprise when I discovered that the woman who terrorized me in my final days in high school is the face of Proposition 8. Sonja Eddings Brown is everything you would expect a Proposition 8 supporter to be: someone with misplaced values and a knack for being a big bully. Yes, a middle-aged mother of three went out of her way to threaten to kick a high school senior out of her valedictory speaking position simply because the student refused to have (strange) words placed her mouth and to be used as a propagandistic advertising vehicle."PermalinkCommentspolitics education california sonja-eddings-brown high-school via:kris.kowal

Halloween and Gas Park Weekend

2008 Nov 4, 10:14

Gas Works Park, SeattleGas Works Park, SeattleThe weekend before last Sarah and I went down to Gas Works Park in Seattle. Gas Works Park is a former Seattle Gas Light Company gasification plant now turned into a park with the machinery kept intact and found right on the shore of Lake Union. There's a large hill right next to the plant with an embedded art installation from which you get an excellent view of the park and the lake. Anyway a very cool place. Afer, we ate at Julia's of Wallingford where I stereotypically had the Santa Cruz omelet. Good food, nice place, nice neighborhood.

Trick-or-Treat at MSFT by Matt SwannThis past weekend was Halloween weekend. On Halloween at Microsoft parents bring their kids around the office buildings and collect candy from those who have candy in their office. See Matt's photo of one such hallway at Microsoft. The next day Sarah and I went to two birthday parties the second of which required costume. I went as House (from the television show House) by putting on a suit jacket and carrying a cane. Sarah wore scrubs to lend cred. to my lazy costume. Oh yeah and on Sunday Sarah bought a new car.

PermalinkCommentsgas works park halloween personal sarah

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Locksmiths

2008 Nov 3, 2:01Software that can produce the design for a key from a photo of a key. "Scenes from one of the proof-of-concept telephoto experiments using a new software program from UC San Diego that can perform key duplication without having the key. Instead, the computer scientists only need a photograph of the key."PermalinkCommentssecurity photo software research paranoia key

Investigation of a Few Application Protocols (Updated)

2008 Oct 25, 6:51

Windows allows for application protocols in which, through the registry, you specify a URL scheme and a command line to have that URL passed to your application. Its an easy way to hook a webbrowser up to your application. Anyone can read the doc above and then walk through the registry and pick out the application protocols but just from that info you can't tell what the application expects these URLs to look like. I did a bit of research on some of the application protocols I've seen which is listed below. Good places to look for information on URI schemes: Wikipedia URI scheme, and ESW Wiki UriSchemes.

Some Application Protocols and associated documentation.
Scheme Name Notes
search-ms Windows Search Protocol The search-ms application protocol is a convention for querying the Windows Search index. The protocol enables applications, like Microsoft Windows Explorer, to query the index with parameter-value arguments, including property arguments, previously saved searches, Advanced Query Syntax, Natural Query Syntax, and language code identifiers (LCIDs) for both the Indexer and the query itself. See the MSDN docs for search-ms for more info.
Example: search-ms:query=food
Explorer.AssocProtocol.search-ms
OneNote OneNote Protocol From the OneNote help: /hyperlink "pagetarget" - Starts OneNote and opens the page specified by the pagetarget parameter. To obtain the hyperlink for any page in a OneNote notebook, right-click its page tab and then click Copy Hyperlink to this Page.
Example: onenote:///\\GUMMO\Users\davris\Documents\OneNote%20Notebooks\OneNote%202007%20Guide\Getting%20Started%20with%20OneNote.one#section-id={692F45F5-A42A-415B-8C0D-39A10E88A30F}&end
callto Callto Protocol ESW Wiki Info on callto
Skype callto info
NetMeeting callto info
Example: callto://+12125551234
itpc iTunes Podcast Tells iTunes to subscribe to an indicated podcast. iTunes documentation.
C:\Program Files\iTunes\iTunes.exe /url "%1"
Example: itpc:http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=35
iTunes.AssocProtocol.itpc
pcast
iTunes.AssocProtocol.pcast
Magnet Magnet URI Magnet URL scheme described by Wikipedia. Magnet URLs identify a resource by a hash of that resource so that when used in P2P scenarios no central authority is necessary to create URIs for a resource.
mailto Mail Protocol RFC 2368 - Mailto URL Scheme.
Mailto Syntax
Opens mail programs with new message with some parameters filled in, such as the to, from, subject, and body.
Example: mailto:?to=david.risney@gmail.com&subject=test&body=Test of mailto syntax
WindowsMail.Url.Mailto
MMS mms Protocol MSDN describes associated protocols.
Wikipedia describes MMS.
"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" "%L"
Also appears to be related to MMS cellphone messages: MMS IETF Draft.
WMP11.AssocProtocol.MMS
secondlife [SecondLife] Opens SecondLife to the specified location, user, etc.
SecondLife Wiki description of the URL scheme.
"C:\Program Files\SecondLife\SecondLife.exe" -set SystemLanguage en-us -url "%1"
Example: secondlife://ahern/128/128/128
skype Skype Protocol Open Skype to call a user or phone number.
Skype's documentation
Wikipedia summary of skype URL scheme
"C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe" "/uri:%l"
Example: skype:+14035551111?call
skype-plugin Skype Plugin Protocol Handler Something to do with adding plugins to skype? Maybe.
"C:\Program Files\Skype\Plugin Manager\skypePM.exe" "/uri:%1"
svn SVN Protocol Opens TortoiseSVN to browse the repository URL specified in the URL.
C:\Program Files\TortoiseSVN\bin\TortoiseProc.exe /command:repobrowser /path:"%1"
svn+ssh
tsvn
webcal Webcal Protocol Wikipedia describes webcal URL scheme.
Webcal URL scheme description.
A URL that starts with webcal:// points to an Internet location that contains a calendar in iCalendar format.
"C:\Program Files\Windows Calendar\wincal.exe" /webcal "%1"
Example: webcal://www.lightstalkers.org/LS.ics
WindowsCalendar.UrlWebcal.1
zune Zune Protocol Provides access to some Zune operations such as podcast subscription (via Zune Insider).
"c:\Program Files\Zune\Zune.exe" -link:"%1"
Example: zune://subscribe/?name=http://feeds.feedburner.com/wallstrip.
feed Outlook Add RSS Feed Identify a resource that is a feed such as Atom or RSS. Implemented by Outlook to add the indicated feed to Outlook.
Feed URI scheme pre-draft document
"C:\PROGRA~2\MICROS~1\Office12\OUTLOOK.EXE" /share "%1"
im IM Protocol RFC 3860 IM URI scheme description
Like mailto but for instant messaging clients.
Registered by Office Communicator but I was unable to get it to work as described in RFC 3860.
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office Communicator\Communicator.exe" "%1"
tel Tel Protocol RFC 5341 - tel URI scheme IANA assignment
RFC 3966 - tel URI scheme description
Call phone numbers via the tel URI scheme. Implemented by Office Communicator.
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office Communicator\Communicator.exe" "%1"
(Updated 2008-10-27: Added feed, im, and tel from Office Communicator)PermalinkCommentstechnical application protocol shell url windows

Language Log - Congress plans bailout for grammar epidemic

2008 Oct 23, 2:18I had no idea lingual prescriptivists vs descriptivists were split in a partisan manner: '... The Secretary [of the Department of Education] released a report that includes dire warnings of impending doom...The cause of this immanent catastrophe is, of course, those pesky linguists, the libertarian destroyers of good usage who claim that, well, anything goes. According to the report, "the language problem has now reached the crisis level and we are now experiencing a severe epidemic of bad grammar that will affect the very fiber of our nation." The Secretary added, "an alarming number of children are suffering from the bad advice given by those socialist, left-wing, atheistic linguists and we just gotta do something about it."'PermalinkCommentshumor language politics grammar

Cadbury Bunny Sneaks Mint

2008 Oct 7, 2:49
Cadbury the bunny takes a moment from hiding under the chair to eat some mint. She comes out just to grab some mint and then goes back under the chair repeatedly for two minutes.
From: David Risney
Views: 328
1 ratings
Time: 02:01 More in Pets & Animals
PermalinkCommentsvideo

Cadbury Hits Fireplace Shovel

2008 Sep 1, 4:45
Cadbury jumps out of her toy box hitting the fireplace shovel, and does a few other cute things.
From: David Risney
Views: 76
1 ratings
Time: 00:44 More in Pets & Animals
PermalinkCommentsvideo

Cadbury Nibbles Toy Box

2008 Sep 1, 4:17
Cadbury sits in and eats her box of toys. She enjoys eating her toy box more often than playing with any of the toys.
From: David Risney
Views: 343
2 ratings
Time: 00:16 More in Pets & Animals
PermalinkCommentsvideo

rec.arts.sf.science qdFAQ

2008 Aug 26, 3:42Links to write ups on how much energy it would take to destroy the Earth or at least make it inhabitable in various fashions: "Destroying the Earth, It is often asked what it would take to shatter the Earth into little pieces. Erik Max Francis gives a rough answer. A less drastic measure would be to sterilise it by heating the outside. Brian Davis does the arithmetic, but I think he should have calculated what it would take to boil the oceans, which is a few thousand times more by my BotEC. Occasionally it is asked what would happen if you shot a fast-moving projectile at the Earth; I've written something up."PermalinkCommentsscifi science math

How renters work the system to live for free in one of America's most expensive cities - News - SF Weeklypage 4 - SF Weekly

2008 Aug 18, 3:46Legal corner case bugs exploited for free rent in SF. "Getzow is getting pretty well known along the Polk Street corridor. Unlike other serial evictees, who move among different neighborhoods, all of his eight evictions in San Francisco have occurred in a 20-block area known as Lower Nob Hill."PermalinkCommentsarticle legal rent house eviction san-francisco

Reporters sans frontieres - Beijing Games 2008

2008 Jul 30, 10:45"Reporters Without Borders therefore offers the following practical advice to foreign journalists to help them cover the human rights situation in China." Install Tor, use PGP and other interesting things.PermalinkCommentscensorship china internet privacy olympics journalism

Bluelounge - The Sanctuary

2008 Jun 9, 4:44"The Sanctuary is a beautiful, simple solution to a real everyday problem. A place to put the multitude of personal items we all carry around so they are easily located again when later needed and, always fully charged"PermalinkCommentsgift gadget design cable battery phone mp3player charger shopping product
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