OK, yes yes yes, I’m way late to the party, but geohashing is wicked-cool.  Programmed spontaneity!  I’d put it at much cooler than geocaching and almost as cool as DCP (there are links in the post proper).

I’ve held off getting an iPod because they hadn’t crossed into the realm where they met my needs.

They have now.

Here’s the model:

So, we’ve all done work.  Apple designed it; Amazon is selling it; I’m recognizing that I want it.  Now it’s the turn for a dedicated reader to buy one for me.  Wishlist.  kthnxbye

20 July 1969: The first manned moon landing.

25 years later: A comet crashes into Jupiter.

Another 15 years later, to the day: Another comet crashes into Jupiter.

Why do I get the distinct impression that this is First Contact, and clever beings in the Kuiper Belt are shaking their two-apiece heads in wonderment and saying, “Really?  They missed that?”

I have it on good authority that they will go back in time to insert geniuses to write the best music of a decade (something called “grunge music”), and insert a genius to write the best indie stage productions of a decade (something called “the best indie stage productions of a decade”), all on 20 July.  And when this still fails to impress us, they will send the rest of the Kuiper belt to hit our little planet.

I have it on good authority that they will feel sad about it, though.

I received a very cute attempt at a cease-and-desist letter by the head of StampWants, Mark Rosenberg, whom I had called racist due to his preference for having large numbers of categories for some countries and no categories for others.  I’ve rephrased and my revision is here.

Starting this October, U.S. television network NBC will be running an action series starring Christian Slater.

Startled, I contacted NBC/Universal, and was given the following explanation:

We at NBC were initially reluctant to risk a high-budget series with Christian Slater in the lead roles.  But that’s before we secured Scott Weiland to score it and Terry Gilliam and Orson Welles as co-directors.  With this combination of talent, we decided there was no way we would lose our time and money.

(Nerds, hover over that Christian Slater link.  He is assigned a number that implies that he was the 225^th added to IMDB.  The first?  Serq Afgnver.  Bracketing him?  Nyvpvn Fvyirefgbar at 224 and Jvyy Fzvgu at 226.  WEIRD.)

Check out 960946038000 and marvel at the über-efficiency of FedEx!  They really are frakking unbelievable.  I think it’s time to invest.

Some of you have already gotten this in an email from me, but I strongly advise you to sign up for Obopay.  In short, it’s a secure way to send money from your mobile phone to another person’s mobile phone, even if he or she has not signed up yet.  It’s much like Paypal, with the killer app being the restaurant phenomenon of no one having enough cash: this way, everyone can text their contribution to one person, who then puts the bill on a credit card (it needs a PIN, so if someone steals your phone, they cannot empty your bank account or credit card.)

Also useful for movie tickets, splitting parking costs, paying for auctions, and so forth.  Unlike Paypal, which takes a (large!) percentage of the money from the seller, Obopay just charges the sender a small fee (for now it’s a dime, but it’s going up to a quarter next month.)

OK, here’s the pitch: sign up using that link I’ve provided, and I’ll get a referral bonus.  I could really use the cash.  As soon as you add a funding source, you’ll be set up as an Obopay registered user.  Then, I’ll send you $1 (via Obopay) — your first Obopay receipt — as thanks.  OK?  Please sign up your mobile phone, and use one of the links.

U.S. only for right now, sorry.

Merci.

This is awesome.  It is a Google Maps mashup that locates blue mailboxes as well as UPS and FedEx locations, on a Google Map, complete with the times of pickup or hours of operation.

If you ask Google what time it is in Singapore, Google will tell you.  It will also give you a link to this page about the tumultuous history of Singapore’s time zoning.

Want to see almost real-time video of an eagles’ nest off the coast of California as it is alternately fed by Mom & Dad?  Go here for the eaglecam.

Linux users in X have it great.  Type mplayer http://media1.vcoe.org/eaglecam1 in a shell window, set the window that pops up as “always on top”, and just hang it somewhere on your screen(s).

Thanks, Amal!

GoogSpy is pretty cool.

I had a fantastically real-seeming dream about publishing a book and having it printed on the most luxurious paper I’ve ever felt.  It was printed on the processed fibrous bark of some bush that doesn’t actually exist.  The paper was dense, smooth, almost velour-textured.  It gave crystal-clear impressions to the ink deposited on it, and was luxurious to fan through.  It was almost warm to the touch, naturally dyed (kind of taupe-colored), and exceedingly sexy.

This is one of the few multi-sensual dreams I’ve experienced, and the first exceedingly tactile, almost erotic, dream I can recall that did not involve strategic female fat deposits.  In other words: I had a booby dream about paper.

And now I’m on a search for ultrafine papers.  I use 28 lb. Crane’s Crest cotton paper in my regular correspondence.  This dream paper made that feel like 300-grit sandpaper.  Pointers?

Ten years ago, I had an inkjet printer (it was a Canon) with amazing mechanical registration: you could print a document, take out the paper, put it back in the tray, print the same document on top of it, and you couldn’t tell!  Everything was perfectly aligned, to the sub-millimeter.  This was a sub-$100 printer.  So I know this technology exists in consumer-ready form.

The other piece of my idea is OCR software.  Again, what I need from it is far less than what is available right now.

What do I want?  I want an all-in-one scanner/printer doohickey.  Take a form — any reasonable size — and feed it through the document feeder.  The hardware would scan it, the software would identify the fields where one needs to enter text (they will usually be underlined or have boxes for each letter) and then allow you to type, like those fill-in PDF files.  You would type the text you want on the form, feed it through the document feeder again, and, Bingo!  It would print out your answers, perfectly legibly, onto the empty form.  It would size its font and everything to be just right.

I thought of this in college, years ago.  I’m tired of waiting for venture cap to make a fortune building this myself.  I just want someone to build it now.  Take the idea.  Make your million bucks.  Just charge less than $200, and I’ll buy at least one.

Please.  Now.  My handwriting’s getting worse as we speak.  Build it now.

“Mesmerizing” is how my brother described it.  I wish I knew more adjectives.  That hardly does it justice.

Two YouTube links in one day?  Shenanigans!  OK, just ignore the last one if you have to, and go watch this one.

The Cowon A2 is a portable media player (think juiced-up iPod).  I can strongly recommend it.  Key features:

• Mounts as a USB volume, so it’s Linux-compatible (as well as Windows and Mac)
• Has a 4-inch 16 x 9 (widescreen) high-contrast LCD display (much larger than the iPod’s)
• Plays a ton of formats, many more than iPod, including XviD and FLAC, as well as your normal MP3, AVI, etc.
• Can output RCA A/V, or record from any RCA A/V source (such as your DVD player, TiVO, VCR, camcorder, etc.)
• Ten-hour playback time on one charge
• Case folds back into a viewing stand.  Case is also really cleverly designed, to allow open access to ports, switches, buttons, and speakers.
• Ability to work as a USB host, so you can plug flash drives, digital cameras, and so forth into it
• Lots of features I haven’t explored yet: use it to read documentation, see lyrics to your songs as they play, graphic equalizer, tune/record FM radio, schedule A/V recordings

Wishlist:

• Wi-Fi connectivity plus web browser (via USB WiFi adapter)
• “Shuffle” toggle from within playlist browser rather than through Music Options
• Automatic recognition of letterboxed NTSC, to expand into full-screen 16 x 9

All these should be possible through firmware hacks.  I don’t know if anyone is working on it yet.

In Windows, the easiest way to convert DVD video to video viewable on the A2 seems to be DVD Decrypter followed by AutoGK.

OK, I’ve listened to the album Lovelorn probably seven times straight through, and it really stands up to repeat listening.  I just would love a version with a real symphonic backing, rather than a synth.  I actually have a spare copy, and maybe two, if someone wants it.

Or, order it:

I need.  I need.

You know Google can do unit conversion, right?

Before discarding your used Sonicare toothbrush heads in favor of fresh ones, be sure to salvage the small, powerful, presumably neodymium magnets at the interior base of the head.  They are black, sometimes are epoxied in, and sometimes are floating.  These are strong, valuable, and presumably add significantly to the Sonicare head fabrication costs.

To order new heads, you can use the following links.

I got a web-enabled phone today and thls is my first mobile post.  The site doesn’t look too shabby on it either.

I am training myself on the handwriting recognition now.

In letter recognizer:

L ne qvlck brown aox jumlyfd over tre laz y dog.

In Transcriber:

i-re quick brown fit jumped over the lazy dog.

More work to come.

i-nequick R 71

If you are mailing items from the US to other countries, or have been assigned the task of writing software that can handle every country (and would like some indigestion), check out this exceptionally good guide to international mailing.

Example of content:

In MAURITIUS, the use of postcodes has been introduced on a trial basis in a single delivery office. This trial, limited for the moment to the Curepipe office (742CU001 CUREPIPE), has not yet been extended to other offices owing to numerous difficulties, such as the lack of street names, house numbers, etc.

Also, you can check out the USPS International Mail Manual.  More from this to follow.

Whale apparently thanks rescuers.  Is this too much anthropomorphizing?  I expect not.

Grow a grass armchair: “The Grass Armchair is a kit to grow a seat in your yard… You will need about 240 litres of soil, to fill in the frame. First find the right spot, because once the armchair has grown you won’t be able to move it!!”

Forgetting what our local portal server at work was called, I typed in portal in Firefox’s address bar.  That was not the name of the server, so Firefox did its magic, running an “I’m Feeling Lucky” search at Google and giving me the first match: http://www.firstgov.gov/. It’s a massive, wonderful U.S. Government web portal. Auctions, taxes, science for kids, census data, blue pages, product recalls, forms — massive amounts of stuff. Well recommended.

Neighborhoodies.com. Custom-lettered clothing, no minimum order, lots of choices in clothing styles, real designers designing every piece. T-shirts are about $20. Looks wonderful. Anybody have experience with the company?

(Coupon code “BLOGGER” for 10% off, according the the ad on MeFi.)

Sandbag Superadobe shelters are made from sandbags filled with local earth and barbed wire. They can withstand earthquakes and are suitable for refugees and disaster victims. They can be made into permanent shelters, can have multiple rooms, and have just won an architectural award.

Does your home rotate?  This one does.

Google begins to digitize paper books.  Amazing potential.

Whisky-themed neckties. Unfortunately the Euro exchange rate makes them $43 apiece. (Have you seen the exchange rates recently? $1.34 to buy a Euro; $1.95 to buy a pound.)

Cartograms give more realistic election data than geographic maps, and most states are purple anyway (this is really good — if you follow only one link on this page, make this it.)  More on cartograms, and one of the world that will lead you to the conclusion that, as a first-order approximation, the whole world is Asia.