Big Dave’s Blog
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6th Gen iPods won’t work with Linux, Winamp, or Media Center
6th Gen iPods won’t work with Linux, Winamp – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) I’m a big Apple fan, but this upsets me. On my Mac, I use iTunes, but my media library is managed on a Windows server running J. River Media Center (JRMC). iTunes is OK, but it doesn’t come close to what…
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Salt water as fuel?
MAKE: Blog: Salt water as fuel? My gut tells me this may be like the cold fusion tests, but can you imagine if salt water could be used as fuel? The possibilities are endless. Cheap, clean energy…
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Fan Powered Subwoofer
Eminent Technology A little on the expensive side, but I love the new way of thinking. When building an audio speaker, it becomes very difficult to reproduce anything near or below 20Hz. The problem is the speaker cone can’t move enough air. These guys decided to use a fan instead. Why not? Fans move air…
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Patent Trolls
Lawmakers take aim at patent speculatorsSpeculator of mundane patents casts a long shadow It’s good to see that legislators are even looking into patent reform. There are several issues at play here. First, there are the trolls that buy up vague patents and sue anyone even remotely related. They know they wouldn’t win a court…
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Management Methods, Models, and Theories
Management Methods | Management Models | Management Theories No wonder things are often messed up. How many methods can there be? For me, it’s simple. Lay out the ground rules and goals, and then get out of the way. The people are here to do a job. Let them do it!
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Planetary Imagery: 30 Years From Voyager Spacecraft
Planetary Imagery: 30 Years From Voyager SpacecraftI admit it. I’m a space and aircraft nut, but the Voyager program appeals to my engineer side as well. It has returned some of the most fascinating data, and it survived years past its expected lifespan. Voyager I & II have been operational for 30 years now. Not…
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Been away…
Been away for a while. Between working on my new company, Inquisix, and a much needed vacation, I haven’t had a chance to write anything in a while. Waking up every day to see the view below really does cause one to simply relax instead of working much. This is Newport Beach, CA, and my…
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Ruby Text Search
EDIT: A lot of people asked for a plugin of this library. You can find it on GitHub. Part of my current project screamed for some basic searching. In typical Ruby development fashion, the first thing I think of is “someone else must have done this already.” Sure enough, there were several, but the one…
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Checkers Solved
Machinist: Tech Blog, Tech News, Technology Articles – Salon I have to admit, I never thought of checkers as being a game that needed to be solved — never mind that it would take 18 years and several CPUs to do it. Now, it’s time to solve chess, but that might take a while. Checkers…
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Tagging
I came across this excellent post on Philipp Keller’s blog: Tag History and Gartner’s Hype Cycles. I agree with Philipp’s take that we seem to be in the area of disillusionment. The question remains, however, whether tagging really is on the rise in the way that most of us expect. Don’t get me wrong, I’m…