Is it more sinister to talk on a cellphone while using a urinal, or to finish what you’re doing, and continue to stand in front of the urinal, chatting loudly on the cellphone in the men’s room?
Continue reading “One of life’s important questions:”
Author: Eddie Roosenmaallen
By day I'm a senior backend engineer at Deel.
In my off time I explore Linux, JavaScript and the web, and I try to share some of my knowledge and some of my humour online.
And the walls come down? Google and Facebook have joined Dataportability.org!
This is a huge step towards an open, interoperable social web; Google and Facebook are probably the two largest collectors and holders of data (social and otherwise) on the web, and they have been among the most reticient about sharing their data.
Yesterday, it was announced that representatives from Google, Facebook and Plaxo have joined the Dataportability.org workgroup.
This is a huge step towards an open, interoperable social web; Google and Facebook are probably the two largest collectors and holders of data (social and otherwise) on the web, and they have been among the most reticient about sharing their data.
Modern Fairytale – Marina V
The album has a dreamy, emotional feel, well suited to the title. The songs are all deeply personal, largely based on Marina’s experiences in touring and in growing up
Overall Rating: Five Stars
Why Super Nintendos Lose Their Colour
I found a great article about the whys and wherefores of plastic yellowing in classic machines:
The article focuses mainly on the SNES, but mentions old Macs as well, and should apply equally to anything made of the official “this is a computer” grey or beige plastic.
The short version: Plastic is an organic compound (made of basically the same stuff as people) which breaks down over time. As it breaks down, it reacts differently to light and turns yellow. If the composition of the plastic is not perfect (exactly correct proportion of catalysts, flame retardants, pigments, &c.), the breakdown will occur faster. It’s also accelerated by visible and UV light, heat, and oxygen.
The yellowing is caused by the chemical composition of the plastic changing, so it’s irreversible. The author does go on to list some ways to mitigate the damage, but reiterates that there is no non-destructive way to fix it — you can remove the damaged plastic, or cover it.
Site update time, once again
Over the past few days, I’ve put some work into the site:
- Updated to WordPress 2.3.2, which was entirely painless
- Began work on a new theme, which you may have noticed. Over the next while, I’ll be putting more into it; currently it’s very minimalist, little more than an XHTML skeleton with a couple moving parts.
More to come.
Go green by going black? …not convinced.
I just came across an interesting post about energy savings based on the colour of a webpage (specifically, Google – but the idea applies everywhere): A black Google start screen? | Wired Gecko.
I’ve found other posts dating back to May of this year (The Numbers Guy) on the subject, so it’s really not a new idea.
The largest part of my doubt is the question of technology. In a CRT, it does indeed use more energy to display bright colours than dark (ref. DOE Energy Star Desktop Information). A CRT produces bright colours by directing an energy beam at the front of the screen; more brightness == more energy used.
I annoyed Google! Go me!
I’m too impatient to wait for Calculator.app to load, or for the Calculator dashboard widget to catch up with me. The solution? Google.
If my computer is turned on, there’s generally a web browser open. [tag]Google Calculator[/tag] meets my needs, and it’s faster than opening a local app or taking my boots off (if I need to count past 10).The downside? Apparently it annoys [tag]Google[/tag] if you do it a lot:
Pink and Portable – WD’s Passport goes Pink for October
El Reg has a quick blurb about Western Digital’s Passport portable hard drive.
Looks like a nice little unit: 250GB, USB2.0, &c.
As part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, WD will make a dontation to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for each pink Passport drive sold. Going one step further than most, WD’s donations will continue beyond month’s end – they will continue until February 29.