mcgees.org

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.

Another Magic post.  Wow.  I’m completely flabbergasted, blown away, amazed, impressed, excited.  What a wonderful mechanic.  What a wonderful card. What creativity. And Mike didn’t even mention the best part, which is that the discard happens at instant speed, which is just what my multiplayer discard deck is missing, to the point that I was considering maindecking Vedalken Orrery. It will be a fun, challenging card to play, trying to keep track of what I’ve seen in my opponents’ hands to know if I can safely activate Nezumi Shortfang if I already have one flipped.

Follow?  I mean, if you play Magic, do you follow? Otherwise there’s really no chance you could follow, so go ahead and ignore the rest of this post. Here’s how it would play out: I’ve cast a Nezumi Shortfang and used it when my opponent has one card in his hand. The player discards that card, and I flip Nezumi Shortfang (if you haven’t followed the link to the card yet, do so now.) Then my opponent gets back to two cards in hand, and I have a second Nezumi Shortfang in play. What does my opponent now have in his hand? If he has an instant, I can activate the Rat, and in response he can cast the instant. Then when the Rat’s ability resolves, he’ll have one card in his hand, which he’ll discard. The Nezumi Shortfang will flip and become a second Stabwhisker the Odious (great name), but under the new Legends rule, both Stabwhiskers will die as a state-based effect. So for the cost of having his hand forced slightly, he’ll change my one-for-zero into a much more favorable (for him) two-for-two. So I’ll have to be really sure I keep track of what he’s holding, knowledge I should have received from Duresses and so forth. But what if he’s drawn a card or two that I haven’t seen yet? I’ll have to make a guess based on what he’s played so far: what are the instants he’s likely to be playing, and and what’s the likelihood of him holding one. Even if it’s a Giant Growth, it would probably behoove him to Giant Growth one of my creatures so that his hand can empty and the Rat can flip.

“[Phoebe] may be our first encounter with a Kuiper belt object.”

This guy takes requests for songs to write and record. The preceding bit consisted of excerpts from a song that is the opposite of a diss track. He also undertakes severely constrained writing assignments, such as writing a Christmas song about falling down the stairs using only words beginning with B, E, M, P, and S: “Similarly my back’s sore probably pained ever since sliding so effervescently past seventy stairs … So everybody better buy me some super excellent presents.” But that’s not quite as cool as the constraints on False Impersonation — read the Songs To Wear Pants To page for details.

ASCII Art Stereograms.  For real.  The fact that this is possible makes my brain hurt.

Great print quality on any paper, even sandpaper (up to 300 grit) … Quick printing at up to 9 pages per millisecond in black and 7 pages per hour in color

Pop quiz: Who’s this? (Nudity)

No, it’s not.  It’s this girl. (Semi nudity)

Another shot from the same shoot to strengthen the case. (Nudity)

But good grief, it’s convincing, isn’t it?  There’s an entire possible career open for this “Emmie”.

Overstock.com’s prices on books are amazing!  They undercut Amazon on every item I wanted to buy.  I thought that there would be no way they could undercut $10.50 for Eats, Shoots & Leaves (that’s 40% off list), but Overstock just wants $7.87 for it (55% off list).  Unbelievable.

Anton Chekov is a nicer guy than I would have expected. I have a couple of complaints with his supporting large chain bookstores rather than the independent booksellers that drove his early success, but at least he was nice enough to give a reading. A shame that B&N kicked him out. I’m not the only one upset: a woman in the audience was “shocked” and “outraged” that they would evict an author who was trying to give a reading. But it’s OK, after being thrown out he was considerate enough to hold a book signing in Union Square.

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Read the page for details about the astute 11-year-old, as well as the student who apologizes to Chekov for missing his Central Park play last summer.

As someone with a fair amount of experience with tastings, I can assure you that the “New Cheerios” survey is completely plausible.

So many other bits to remark on.  Do you want to trade shoes?”  The time warp (“For the remaining five loops, I looked at my watch and said “5:25″ at the exact same moment; it was now part of our sequence.”) Could you keep a straight face during these stunts? I don’t think I could, and I have improv experience. And why do I find this wonderful and Tom Greene’s antics deplorable? (I think it’s because so many of Greene’s bits have a strong thread of inherent cruelty to them, and these don’t.)

I have a feeling that it should really bother me that I think this stunt would have been more impressive if the cupcakes were poisoned. I mean, OK, not really, but in a fictional story, say. No? OK, well, forget I said anything.

Weirdest.  Thing.  Since.  ToHearADuckQuackPressSeven.

I hate those period-delimited descriptions.  Can’t.  Stand.  Them.  But nothing else will prepare you for subservientchicken.com.  Don’t ask questions.  Don’t Google for information.  Just go and tell the chicken what to do.

OK, since I’ve been asked multiple times: You may have gathered from internal syntactic clues, such as the discontinuities in image and lighting between the end of an action and the neutral state; or from internal evidence from room objects jumping around untouched; or from external reasoning such as “with multiple people visiting, he can’t be reacting to every person’s request in real time”; or from his inability to perform certain tasks; or from Eliza-like errors of extracting keywords from larger phrases and using them in the wrong sense (”turn into a newt” causing him to turn in place); or from the inability to precisely refine or repeat actions (”jump twice” yielding a single jump, “turn around three times” not being performed three times) — But the answer is, no, there’s not a live guy in a chicken suit following your instructions.