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Flickr: Seattle Municipal Archives

2008 Aug 25, 11:39"The Seattle Municipal Archives documents the history, development, and activities of the agencies and elected officials of the City of Seattle. Strengths of the records include those documenting engineering, parks, urban planning, the legislative process and elected officials. Holdings include over 6,000 cubic feet of textual records; 3,000 maps and drawings, 3,000 audiotapes; hundreds of hours of motion picture film; and over 1.5 million photographic images of City projects and personnel."PermalinkCommentsvia:swannman photo flickr seattle history public-domain

Microsoft launches 3D wonder Photosynth for consumers | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone - CNET

2008 Aug 22, 5:35Photosynth now available and easy to use: "Photosynth, a technology demo from Microsoft Live Labs, has graduated from its "ooh, that's pretty" status to being a viable Web service for consumers. The technology, which takes a grouping of photographs and stitches them into a faux 3D environment, can now be implemented with photos you've taken on your digital camera or mobile phone, and converted right on your computer. Previously, the process of stitching these photos together took weeks of processing on specially configured server arrays. With its latest version, Microsoft has managed to shrink that into around the time it takes to upload your photos."PermalinkCommentsvia:felix42 photosynth photos photography 3d microsoft free tool

I Dont Even Know

2008 Aug 22, 2:20Awesome flash game. Reminds me of Hypercard days past. It also kind of reminds me of Wario Ware.PermalinkCommentsgame flash humor

YouTube - Tiger Woods 09 - Walk on Water

2008 Aug 22, 1:25This is the best its-not-a-bug-its-a-feature ever: "As a response to a fan video from Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 08, Tiger Woods and EA SPORTS demonstrate that the "glitch" Levinator25 thought he found in the game, is not a glitch at all."PermalinkCommentstiger-woods golf video videogame jesus humor

Mike's Digital Home : How To: Share Recorded TV with other Media Centers

2008 Aug 21, 10:40"I see a lot of questions in the Media Center newsgroups and forums asking how to access recorded TV from another Media Center in the house. This is fairly easy to accomplish. In this entry I'll walk you through it in Vista; XP is almost the same except for some of the steps for sharing and securing the folder."PermalinkCommentstv vista windows mce sharing mediacenter dvr howto

Facebook Profile Views Application - Failed Idea

2008 Aug 21, 11:24

I had an idea for a Facebook app the other day. I wondered who actually looked at my profile and thought I could create a Facebook app that would record this information and display it. When I talked to Vishu though he said that this wasn't something that Facebook would be too happy with. Indeed the Platform Policy explicitly disallows this in section 2.8. This explained why the app didn't already exist. Its probably for the best since everyone assumes they can anonymously view Facebook profiles and would be irritated if that weren't the case.

On the topic of assumed anonymity, check out this article on the aggregation and selling off of your cell phone data including your physical location.

PermalinkCommentstechnical facebook privacy cellphone extension

Deriving a Non-Recursive Fibonacci Function Using Linear Algebra

2008 Aug 20, 10:51

In my Intro to Algorithms course in college the Fibonacci sequence was used as the example algorithm to which various types of algorithm creation methods were applied. As the course went on we made better and better performing algorithms to find the nth Fibonacci number. In another course we were told about a matrix that when multiplied successively produced Fibonacci numbers. In my linear algebra courses I realized I could diagonalize the matrix to find a non-recursive Fibonacci function. To my surprise this worked and I found a function.
The Nth Fibonacci value is (1 + sqrt(5))^N - (1 - sqrt(5))^N all over sqrt(5) * 2^N
Looking online I found that of course this same function was already well known. Mostly I was irritated that after all the algorithms we created for faster and faster Fibonacci functions we were never told about a constant time function like this.

I recently found my paper depicting this and thought it would be a good thing to use to try out MathML, a markup language for displaying math. I went to the MathML implementations page and installed a plugin for IE to display MathML and then began writing up my paper in MathML. I wrote the MathML by hand and must say that's not how its intended to be created. The language is very verbose and it took me a long time to get the page of equations transcribed.

MathML has presentation elements and content elements that can be used separately or together. I stuck to content elements and while it looked great in IE with my extension when I tried it in FireFox which has builtin MathML support it didn't render. As it turns out FireFox doesn't support MathML content elements. I had already finished creating this page by hand and wasn't about to switch to content elements. Also, in order to get IE to render a MathML document, the document needs directives at the top for specific IE extensions which is a pain. Thankfully, the W3C has a MathML cross platform stylesheet. You just include this XSL at the top of your XHTML page and it turns content elements into appropriate presentation elements, and inserts all the known IE extension goo required for you. So now my page can look lovely and all the ickiness to get it to render is contained in the W3C's XSL.

PermalinkCommentstechnical mathml fibonacci math

[whatwg] Web Applications 1.0 Draft

2008 Aug 20, 9:48Apple will or will not license the canvas tag? 'Apple Computer, Inc. ("Apple") believes it has intellectual property rights ("IP Rights") relative to WHATWG's Web Applications 1.0 Working Draft, dated March 24, 2005, Section 10.1, entitled "Graphics: The bitmap canvas". At this time, Apple reserves all rights in its IP Rights and makes no representations as to Apple's willingness or unwillingness to license these IP Rights. However, in the event that the Web Applications 1.0 Working Draft, dated March 24, 2005, becomes part of a formalized draft standard at W3C or IETF, for example, Apple is prepared to address the disclosure/licensing rules of such organizations.'PermalinkCommentsapple patent html ip html5 canvas whatwg browser browser-war

YouTube - Norm MacDonald - Bob Saget roast

2008 Aug 18, 4:06Norm MacDonald performs at the roast of Bob Saget. Must be viewed with context of entire roast in mind in which roasters spout profane offensive insult humor. Norm does a sort of un-roast consisting of jokes from the back of milk cartons or cracker jack boxes. Not at all offensive. Funny conceptually and of course since its Norm MacDonald its hilarious in practice. Later described by Jim Norton: "Watching your set, was like watching Henry Fonda pick blueberries."PermalinkCommentsnorm-macdonald bob-saget roast comedy-central humor video youtube

This American Life

2008 Aug 18, 11:29"A special program about the housing crisis produced in a special collaboration with NPR News. We explain it all to you. What does the housing crisis have to do with the turmoil on Wall Street? Why did banks make half-million dollar loans to people without jobs or income? And why is everyone talking so much about the 1930s? It all comes back to the Giant Pool of Money."PermalinkCommentspodcast audio economics npr radio mortgage

Red/Brian - redemption!

2008 Aug 12, 11:02Prerinsing dishes for the dish washer is bad! "Remember when your mom would make you wash dishes before putting them in the dish washer? Remember how backwards that sounded, remember how you just didn't see the logic, but she made you do it anyway? We were right!"PermalinkCommentsvia:kris.kowal ecology water dishwasher dishes awesome

philosecurity - Blog Archive - Guerilla Public Service

2008 Aug 11, 3:58Fellow kindly fixes spelling error on trailer mounted electronic roadway message signs. Pulls up, connects keyboard, reads password off the side of the enclosure, etc. "Not far from my house is one of those temporary trailer-mounted variable message signs, which for the past several weeks has been advising motorists that ..." I always wondered what it would take on those signs. And if all the passwords are four characters long...PermalinkCommentssecurity hack howto sign humor

Dr. Horrible Link Roundup

2008 Aug 10, 3:33

Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog is an Internet only show you may have already watched and heard everything about. If you missed this somehow, its a musical by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) staring Neil Patrick Harris as an aspiring super villian who can't get up the courage to talk to his laundromat crush. Its very funny, fairly geeky, and on the Internet so of course I've enjoyed it thoroughly and have some links to share. It surprised me how many blogs that I don't usually see posting the same things telling me about it: first on Eric's blog, then The Old New Thing, and even Penny-Arcade.

Dr. Horrible's again available online via Hulu with commercial interruption.

Check out the official fan site. They link to such things as the owner of Dr. Horrible's house. He had appeared on Monster House, a reality show about remaking people's homes like Monster Car or Pimp My Ride is about remaking folk's cars, and had his house turned into a evil scientist's lab. Consequently its a perfect fit for Dr. Horrible and in return the owner appears in one of the final scenes and in the credits as the 'Purple Pimp'. Apparently the purple suit is his. Also on his blog you can find out what's happened on that big chair that appears in the show. All I'll say about that is, good thing Neil Patrick Harris wears a lab coat while sitting on it.

At the recent Comic Con some attendees took video of the Dr. Horrible Comic Con panel (video clips contain spoilers) some of which I've grouped together. Besides the videos containing the creators and stars of the musical who are all hilarious (see Felicia Day's comment on twittering) there's also some excellent bits about a possible second installment and information on the impending DVD. To finish off this series of Dr. Horrible links check out this Venn Diagram of Felicia Day's work.

PermalinkCommentsdr. horrible doctor horrible humor link roundup

Paul Ewald asks, Can we domesticate germs? | Video on TED.com

2008 Aug 8, 12:29"Evolutionary biologist Paul Ewald drags us into the sewer to discuss germs. Why are some more harmful than others? How could we make the harmful ones benign? Searching for answers, he examines a disgusting, fascinating case: diarrhea."PermalinkCommentsvideo ted evolution biology

TopatoCo: To Do List T-Shirt

2008 Aug 6, 3:44Read shirt then visit comic for full appreciation. "Okay! If you were reading this comic where T-Rex had a great idea for a tattoo, but wanted to 'test drive' it first, then this is the shirt for you! It is also the shirt for you if you want a shirt that is essentially like wearing foreplay."PermalinkCommentshumor tshirt clothing

New office, new cubes

2008 Aug 5, 6:32

Second Window OfficeNew Patent CubesMy previous window office was ripped from me when our team moved buildings but now I've got another. The photo is poor because I didn't get the lighting correct and it depicts the office before I've moved all my crap into it. I have a lovely view of our parking lot and freeway which Jane spun as an 'urban view'. At any rate I'm not complaining: I like knowing what its like outside and that there is an outside. The day after I found out about my office, I also got two new patent cubes. I didn't have any pictures last time so I took some now and blacked out their text for fear of laywers.

PermalinkCommentsmicrosoft patent cube office nontechnical

Dark Knight and Mariners Baseball

2008 Aug 4, 8:39

The weekend before last I saw Dark Knight with some friends from work and then we all ate at Z'Tejas after. Like everyone has said and as the name implies Dark Knight is... dark. Dark Knight was a little over the top at times as compared to Batman Begins but I really enjoyed it. Two times during the movie I thought it had ended but I was wrong. The Joker is both frightening (Cringe inducing line "Wanna know how I got these scars?") and humorous ("Where is Harvey Dent? ... You know where Harvey is? You know who he is?", as well as the pencil magic trick). I can certainly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Batman Begins. The previews included Burn After Reading a new Coen Brother's comedy that I look forward to, and Quantum of Solace which hopefully does the same thing Dark Knight has, keep up the new direction on the refreshed franchise.

Safeco Field Suite photoThis past weekend Sarah and I went to a Mariners baseball game. I think this is the first MLB baseball game I've seen in person. Sarah's company gave out tickets for the game and the use of a suite. Its a room half way up the stadium with comfortable chairs, a mini-fridge built-in to the marble counter-topped center table, and a big flat screen television with the game on it. I suppose that's in case you don't want to turn to the right and sit at the window, or walk out onto the balcony which features three rows of comfy chairs overlooking the field. Anyway there was free food and drinks and I met some of the people Sarah works with.

PermalinkCommentsbaseball batman nontechnical

View from the Safeco Field Suite

2008 Aug 3, 12:53

sequelguy posted a photo:

View from the Safeco Field Suite

PermalinkCommentsseattle washington baseball mariners safecofield

In the Safeco Field Suite

2008 Aug 3, 12:52

sequelguy posted a photo:

In the Safeco Field Suite

PermalinkCommentsseattle me washington baseball mariners safecofield

Safeco Field Suite

2008 Aug 3, 12:52

sequelguy posted a photo:

Safeco Field Suite

PermalinkCommentsseattle washington baseball mariners safecofield
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