Measuring the speed of light with chocolate and a microwave
I knew from the title of this article that I had to write about it in my blog. I read the article and the physics seem pretty sound to me. Who would have thought that chocolate could be so instrumental in a speed of light experiment? This is definitely the coolest thing I've seen in a while! I've seen kits in catalogs for speed of light experiments and none of them are as simple as this. The kits typically use a laser, beam splitter, long fiber optic cable, interference pattern, etc. I just can't get over the simple elegance of the chocolate method.

CipherSaber Home Page
SKye mentioned this in his blog and I thought it was interesting. I think that the page has too much of a paranoid tone to it, but I agree with the basic elements of the message. I also think that it's really cool. :)

CBC News: Keep your darn cucumbers: miffed monkeysI decided to share this article simply because I liked the headline so much. Yeah, the article is interesting and well-written, but that headline is a classic. Maybe I should start saying, "Keep your darn cucumbers!" in everyday conversation.

CBC News: Five-second food rule fails microbiology test
Deep down inside, we all knew that the five second rule was silly. Now somebody is exposing the fraud to the world. :)

Ultr@VNC - Remote Control Software
This is the best version of VNC that I could find. It is amazing! This is an example of open source software at its best. Another good example is GnuPG. Do you have your GnuPG key yet?

Talk Like A Pirate Day - September 19
I couldn't pass this one up. If we're going to celebrate another holiday, we may as well pick a fun one.

Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures
This is a marvelous site for anyone who is interested in computer science. It defines terms very precisely and it has links to other sites with more information about the term. I wish that I had known about this site earlier.

Aussie RocketCam
I couldn't get the videos to work, but the still images are the best I've seen from an amateur rocket. Maybe the videos will work for me another day.

Metal Storm Videos
No, it's not a rock band. Metal Storm is a company that is researching new ways to get their customers to buy ammunition at record high rates. :) Actually, they have developed a technology to get a high rate of fire from a gun. See the 36 barrel prototype video to see/hear what 1,000,000 rpm is like.

Floatation phone cuts off the world
Here's a wonderfully goofy gadget: A sensory deprivation telephone. Because sometimes, you just really need to focus on one thing at a time. :) "And whenever you want to make a call, you will need to have your Isophone with you, plus a heated swimming pool."

Logitech - News
Logitech announced that have shipped over 500 million computer mice. That's a lot of mice! Their site says, "Stretched end to end, they would circle the Earth 1.6 times. Stacked up, they would fill 48 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Gathered together, they would be heavy enough to sink the Titanic (again)."

I wonder how many of these mice are still in use? How many are stuck in the backs of closets and drawers? They have an interesting time line on their web page.

For those who don't know, Perl is a programming language. The name is an acronym for "Practical Extraction and Report Language." One thing about Perl that sets it apart from many other languages is that there are many ways to accomplish any given task.

So, I logged onto one of the school's computers and typed "man perl" to get the perl instruction manual. I noticed near the end of the document a line that says, "Perl actually stands for Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister, but don't tell anyone I said that."

A couple of paragraphs laters, it says, "The three principal virtues of a programmer are Laziness, Impatience, and Hubris." I guess when you write the man file, you can put whatever you want in it.

Just thought I'd share that so that other Unix/Linux users might get a chuckle.

BLOGGER :: Announcing Several New Features for Free Users
"Yeah!" (Need I say more?)

I, Cringely | The Pulpit
In his latest column, Cringely discusses a subject that should be a concern to all of us: identity theft. In particular, he explains how a huge scale version of the crime may be committed. It would take major changes at all levels of government (here in the USA, anyway) to prevent this.

I find most of Bob Cringely's columns to be interesting. This one is one of my favorites.

September-11th.us
I like to think of myself as someone who doesn't go overboard with 9/11 reminders. I do not forward the chain letters that I get this time every year. (I don't forward chain letters at all, actually.) I do not waste my time and energy creating new memorials for the tradgedies of September 11th. So many others already exist. Many of these were created by people who were affected much more personally than I was. Anything that I create would seem to me like just another example of someone jumping on the band wagon. I don't feel like I have a new perspective to offer at this point in time. I say this because I feel overwhelmed by the volume of offerings from other people. When I try to put my feelings to words, I feel like the events and issues have already been talked to death. Somehow, though, some people still manage to come through with appropriate and worthwhile reminders for the rest of us. www.September-11th.us is an example of a good memorial. It is worth a look.

Paint by Numbers Home Page
My good friend SKye tipped me off to this page. It's a great place to waste a few dozen hours. Thanks, SKye!

The First Computer Bug
According to the US Navy, today is the 58th anniversary of the first computer bug. Their web site says:

"Moth found trapped between points at Relay # 70, Panel F, of the Mark II Aiken Relay Calculator while it was being tested at Harvard University, 9 September 1945. The operators affixed the moth to the computer log, with the entry: 'First actual case of bug being found'. They put out the word that they had 'debugged' the machine, thus introducing the term 'debugging a computer program'. In 1988, the log, with the moth still taped by the entry, was in the Naval Surface Warfare Center Computer Museum at Dahlgren, Virginia."

Here's a picture.

I had some fun with the Google Toolbar. I have PageRank enabled on my toolbar and I visited a few search engines. Google had an importance rating of 10/10. Lycos and Altavista had ratings of 9/10. MSN Search had a miserable rating of 4/10! Even I have a web page that rates 4/10. I knew that MSN search wasn't the most popular page out there, but I thought that with all of Microsoft's efforts to make people use it, it might get a better rating than that.

Duck echo mystery finally quacked
I always thought this thing about duck quacks not echoing was a little fishy, but I accepted it most of my life anyway just because so many other people told me that it's true. The link above does a great job of explaining what really happens.

TAM Homepage
Some creative people with way too much time and money on their hands have dones a very cool thing. They flew a model airplane non-stop across the Atlantic. This is old news, but still worth mentioning. It took five tries. It's a good thing that the fifth try worked, because they only built five planes.

Check out this bathroom floor! I don't think I would ever install a floor like this because I would spend too much time looking for patterns in the tiles. Then again, I might go with these tiles if I got enough to cover the walls, floor, ceiling, and counter top. :) That would rock! Maybe I could get stencils and paint the shapes on the cabinets as well. :) I wonder how well they could be made to work on non-euclidean planes, such as the bathtub and toilet.

It would be interesting to test this pattern as a form of camouflage. After all, when you're hiding in the woods, breaking up your shape is sometimes a lot more important than being the same color as the trees. (See Razzle Dazzle Camouflage.)

I want a battery like this. Actually, give me several. :) I don't know how well they work in the long run, but the coolness factor is definitely there.

Here is another cool battery.

NASA opens new chapter in supersonic flight
This is cool. Maybe now we will be able to get supersonic planes to fly over populated areas. This could help open the door to supersonic commercial planes in the USA.

SKye got me started on this. He's a cool guy.

A new blog was born today.