Comment Re:Better design (Score 1) 454
And here is another solution http://blog.ambor.com/2009/02/remote-control-by-sms-with-gsm-phone.html which gives a bit more granularity in your control.
Comment Fit-PC with Turnkey Linux (Score 1) 697
I run 5 small sites on a single Fit-PC (http://www.fit-pc.com/) running Tunrkey Linux (http://www.turnkeylinux.org/).
Instead of a HD, I've installed a CF card using a CF to IDE adapter, so the setup is completely solid state.
The server has no fan, is not much bigger than a deck of cards and has been quietly working away at 3W for the past year.
Comment Useful for functional fonts (Score 1) 378
This will be very useful for functional fonts such as Harvey Balls or Dice - up until now they needed to be drawn. By embedding a font you can start to use the fonts in online applications such as games or dashboards, etc.
Here are a couple of proof-of-concepts... (obviously you need a compliant browser to view this)
Comment Old Mac Mini still the fastest of them all (Score 1) 200
My old 2006 vintage Mac Mini still seems to be the fastest in the land. I did the infamous Merom Upgrade to it almost 3 years ago and it's still alive and kicking. The Geekbench on my machine comes out to 3060.. you can see the full details here:
http://www.ambor.com/public/meromswap/meromswap.html
Comment The media wont last (Score 1) 465
After having successfully rescued some 1929-era shellac 78rpm records, I tried to migrate some late 1990s era CD-Rs to a hard drive and most of them had already deteriorated enough to corrupt data.
There are tools to overcome some of this, but don't count on any media lasting in an "archive" - you must have plan in place to regularly migrate the data to newer media.
You can read more about it here: http://blog.ambor.com/2009/01/rescuing-corrupted-files-from-old-media.html
Brains Work Best At Age of 39 267
Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles are reporting that while some people may think "life begins at 40," all it seems to do is slow down. According to recent research, at age 39 our brain reaches its peak speed, and it's all downhill after that. "The loss of a fatty skin that coats the nerve cells, called neurons, during middle age causes the slowdown, experts say. The coating acts as insulation, similar to the plastic covering on an electrical cable, and allows for fast bursts of signals around the body and brain. When the sheath deteriorates, signals passing along the neurons in the brain slow down. This means reaction times in the body are slower too."
Comment Re:HP calculators (Score 1) 124
HP calculators have always been hackable.
The reason that the 12C / 12C Platinum is allowed on exams (e.g. CFP and CFA Certification Exams, and the GARP FRM Exam) is precisely because they are deemed "not hackable" by the people running the exams.
I guess professors today are a bit more savvy, but when the HP28 first came out and I asked my history professor if I could "bring a calculator" he couldn't see why not
Submission + - Forensics Expert says Al-Qaeda Images Altered
WerewolfOfVulcan writes: Wired reports that researcher Neal Krawetz revealed some veeeeeery interesting things about the Al-Qaeda images that our government loves to show off.
From the article: "Krawetz was also able to determine that the writing on the banner behind al-Zawahiri's head was added to the image afterward. In the second picture above showing the results of the error level analysis, the light clusters on the image indicate areas of the image that were added or changed. The subtitles and logos in the upper right and lower left corners (IntelCenter is an organization that monitors terrorist activity and As-Sahab is the video production branch of al Qaeda) were all added at the same time, while the banner writing was added at a different time, likely around the same time that al-Zawahiri was added, Krawetz says." Why would Al-Qaeda add an IntelCenter logo to their video? Why would IntelCenter add an Al-Qaeda logo? Methinks we have bigger fish to fry than Gonzo and his fired attorneys... }:-) The article contains links to Krawetz's presentation and the source code he used to analyze the photos.
From the article: "Krawetz was also able to determine that the writing on the banner behind al-Zawahiri's head was added to the image afterward. In the second picture above showing the results of the error level analysis, the light clusters on the image indicate areas of the image that were added or changed. The subtitles and logos in the upper right and lower left corners (IntelCenter is an organization that monitors terrorist activity and As-Sahab is the video production branch of al Qaeda) were all added at the same time, while the banner writing was added at a different time, likely around the same time that al-Zawahiri was added, Krawetz says." Why would Al-Qaeda add an IntelCenter logo to their video? Why would IntelCenter add an Al-Qaeda logo? Methinks we have bigger fish to fry than Gonzo and his fired attorneys... }:-) The article contains links to Krawetz's presentation and the source code he used to analyze the photos.
