Category: geeky

10/01/09 04:20 - ID#49897

free souvenir

The thing about living in Buffalo is that you always need to take visitors to Niagara Falls. Now I actually like going to Niagara Falls, but this past summer we ended up taking two sets of people there on two consecutive weekends. When you get that much Niagara Falls, the eye tends to wander. And it doesn't have to wander far before it starts to see how much schlock you can get.

One of the things they'll try to sell you is a green-screen photo of you in front of Niagara Falls. You could just walk across the street and take as many pictures as you want of the real thing - for free - but I guess some people would rather pay cash for a dorky simulation. Now, thanks to technology,* you can get a dorky simulation for free!

::Download Flash SWF::

0. If the Flash app isn't directly above this, go here

1. Allow camera access, if necessary.
2. Get out of the camera frame.
3. Click 'Background.'
4. Use the slider to move the background, and adjust the threshold if necessary.
5. Say cheese, and click 'Save.'
6. There you go, you just saved eight bucks.

- Z

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Adobe Pixel Bender

Permalink: free_souvenir.html
Words: 213

Category: geeky

09/19/09 09:09 - ID#49810

tcp = traditional carrier pigeon ?

4GB of data was sent 60mi by carrier pigeon in two hours - 1:08 in flight, and the rest of the time to copy from the memory stick to the computer. In the same amount of time, South Africa's largest ADSL firm managed to send only 4% of the data.

This topic had already been addressed in 1990 by the IETF in RFC 1149, 'A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers'

which so far has failed to gain widespread adoption.

In all seriousness:
The bird carried 4.75 Mbps, which is approximately equivalent to three T1s at full utilization. The network speed of 190 Kbps is lowish, but within tolerance of residential ADSL upload [which is usually pretty crappy].

Sneakernet is a viable mode of transfer for large data sets, to the point where Amazon Web Services now offers enterprise-grade sneakernet uploads to their data center

- Z

Permalink: tcp_traditional_carrier_pigeon_.html
Words: 165

Category: geeky

07/26/09 07:55 - ID#49390

observation

You Linux guys got a real sense of humor.

- Fedora Core 8 installer

And yes, this goes into an infinite loop.

- Z

Permalink: observation.html
Words: 25

Category: geeky

04/02/09 11:07 - ID#48267

colors in the air

I have a client who was very explicit that I should not be using standard book colors for Pantone matching, and is now wondering why everything looks all wrong. In addition to straightening out the mess, I've been able to put together a complete Pantone color table with Web, RGB, CMYK, Lab, and [why not] Grayscale approximations.

This information is really difficult to find, and it shouldn't be. If it's useful to you, download it and save it for reference.

For everyone else: bunnies!

- Z

Permalink: colors_in_the_air.html
Words: 94

Category: geeky

02/05/09 12:01 - ID#47647

cute.

I never really looked closely at Apple's 'huge' icon for a Windows file server before.

Cute.

- Z

Permalink: cute_.html
Words: 20

Category: geeky

11/09/08 09:10 - ID#46618

pretty keen

From the 'I wish I'd thought of it first' file, the world's first $200 HSDPA ocarina

I lost this weekend to an emergency instaproject. It was a necessary thing that will let us offload a crapton of work onto the client; I just wish it hadn't been sprung on me so late for delivery so soon. I don't think I've ever spent so much effort shirking responsibility.

- Z

Permalink: pretty_keen.html
Words: 74

Category: geeky

10/28/08 06:53 - ID#46394

i didn't need to see this

but Google News wanted me to.

I went down to the Apple Store this morning to finally fix my dang Airport card. I can only get reliable reception if I'm in the same room as the base station, which is seriously starting to cramp my style. (e:dragonlady7) came along to get her top case replaced since we discovered it was covered under warranty. While we were waiting for Geniuses [genii] I wandered around to the Edutainment department and picked up this gem

Wandering back to the Genius Bar I told her I needed it. She was like: ok honey if you want to. Then when I read the back of the box I said yo, this shit is like a total ripoff of LEMONADE.STAND.

And she was like, wut. And I was like yeah it was actually kinda difficult because you'd get different weather and stuff and then the genius who was serving someone else was like yeah and then your mom would cut off your sugar and your costs would go up. And then the other genius was like yeah and then your road would be closed for construction. And I know the other people who had serious problems were getting kind of annoyed but we were taking it back old skool. Long story short, they want my box for 24-48hrs for diagnosis. Not today.

Here's an image I drew yesterday for reasons that are not anywhere near interesting*. I thought it was funny but couldn't come up with anything to say about it. No you can't buy this cap.

- Z

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We needed an image of a cap with a placeholder everywhere a logo would go.

Permalink: i_didn_t_need_to_see_this.html
Words: 296

Category: geeky

10/26/08 01:29 - ID#46345

more vista

I think the thing about Mac OS X is it doesn't have the same sense of humor about itself that Windows does.

Like seriously what does this even mean? Does it go into a larger Recycle Bin? C:/Windows/Dumpster?

Maybe it puts the Recycle Bin into itself, and you get Mobius trash.*

- Z

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For those who thought: 'wouldn't that make it Klein trash?' I bring you Acme Klein Bottles home of the Klein Stein and the Mobius Scarf

Permalink: more_vista.html
Words: 101

Category: geeky

09/29/08 11:47 - ID#45855

not a schrodinger joke

B's younger sister is gradually moving in with us. She brought her cat Remington with her first stuff a little over a week ago. But you know how you never see Clark Kent and Superman in the same room together? We don't have two cats now, we have one quantum cat. She is always gray and adorable, but sometimes she's Remi and sometimes she's Chita Rivera. Late at night you can hear her quantum states growling at each other, but when you come into the room, they collapse into one or the other with a flurry of galloping feet.

- Z

Permalink: not_a_schrodinger_joke.html
Words: 101

Category: geeky

08/09/08 06:53 - ID#45290

perverser

I had started this project a while ago (e:zobar,39008) but then my hard drive crashed and other things came up. I had some free time to myself this week [go figure] and so I started again.

Here's a demo

that doesn't do anything except look pretty. Er, ugly. It's weird enough seeing it in Mac OS X; bringing it up in Windows is more like: that isn't supposed to be there.

<geeky>I've switched from Java to Flex 3; the screenshot is the AIR app, and the link is the Flash app. I've had to build my own xp/Luna skin for Flex, since Flex only comes with the Halo skin. The Luna skin can be separated out for another project - not that there's any reason for it - but it's only as complete as I need it.</geeky>

- Z