Technology

Just under a month after ordering, with a shipping schedule fraught with manufacturing delays and pushed-back dispatch dates (Not complaining, I’m not the only one so everyone was shocked by the demand also) I recieved my new UK kindle 3g at 11 this morning. Immediately I loaded some math-loaded PDF’s which the free.amazon.com document converter handled with ease, then started going through my usual list of sites on the free 3G network, Twitter (largley fine but sluggish), Facebook (buggy with regards to javascript elements, occasionally freezing completely needing to be latched-off and on again) Google-Apps Mail(constantly refreshing and wouldn’t load stably), google reader (worked perfectly out of the box including keyboard shortcuts, which are awesome!) and my ToDo list of late, TeuxDeux (sluggish and slightly misaligned, but usable) ...

So we’re only a few weeks into developing this idea, and first I’m going to give some credit where credit’s due; the people that I’m working with this have been brilliant, I want to give special thanks (in no particular order) to Ryan Grieve (@thegrieve), David Kane, Ben Harrison, Martin Gilchrist (@Gilchrist_LLP), Jonny Milliken, Dan Reid, and Chris Murray (@kris18890). Anywhere, where are we now? Currently we’re trying to secure storage space from QUBSU, as well as negotiating using The Space as an exhibition area, working with Digital Circle to come to some partnership agreement, with two major event ideas; ...

Why PulseAudio? The Freesound Project Aggregates Creative Commons Licensed Sound Effects [Sound Effects] ONE LAST CHANCE TO SAVE THE HOTEL PENNSYLVANIA Venting Frustration Will Only Make Your Anger Worse [Mindhacks] U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don’t Even Know It: Laurence Kotlikoff - Bloomberg -_ “So the IMF is saying that closing the U.S. fiscal gap, from the revenue side, requires, roughly speaking, an immediate and permanent doubling of our personal-income, corporate and federal taxes as well as the payroll levy set down in the Federal Insurance Contribution Act.” ...

Contrary to popular belief, the concept of a ‘hacker’ (or at least self described ones) has very little to do with coding and networking wizards pounding through systems and stealing valuable information or just destroying everything they touch. In fact, Google (and Princeton University’s) first definition of the word has more to do with Golf than security (try it by googling “define:hacker”). The so called ‘hacker subculture’ is usually taken as a group of not necessarily like minded, but creative individuals with or without technical or theoretical skill, including artists, musicians, carpenters, machinists, or extreme knitters, and can generally be shortened down to ’tinker-ers’ or ‘messers’.Belfast is a growing hub of technology, software, and art of all forms within Europe; and with Londonderry being named the ‘City of Culture’ for 2013, it is clear the Northern Ireland is no longer (or never was?) the poor child of British (and Irish) creativity and excellence. ...

This is it; my first convention! Yes folks, I’m going to be attending (and volunteering) at TheNextHOPE (@thenexthope), 16-18 July. I’m really looking forward to my first real foray into a tech/hacker community, but don’t really know what to expect. But I’m going to jump in anyway. The tickets are only $85, or $100 at the door, but if you register on-line, you get an awesome hackable RFID tracking badge. Unfortunatly my partner (non-techie) has very little interest in going but I’m sure she’ll enjoy the fashion district on her own (or with the girls). ...

Learn to Prepare Tasty Five-Ingredient Meals in Under Ten Minutes [Cooking] Star Trek: Tik Tok [Video Mashup] RedShift Makes Your Screen Easier on the Eyes at Night [Downloads] Google releases command line tool for accessing Web services Five Tactics For Getting Sleep On Long-Distance Flights [Travel] Every couple of months, when I’m planning another puddle jump, I say ’this time I’ll plan to sleep on the plane’. Every couple of months, I don’t sleep on the plane. Hopefully this will help… Or maybe just few more whiskeys. Five Tactics For Getting Sleep On Long-Distance Flights [Travel]

Apple Blindsides More AppStore Developers Making me feel slightly better about not jumping on the AppStore bandwagon; I know that Android Market is the same animal, but you can be sure that this kind of creeping guidelines are going to seriously alienate alot of developers and edgy investors. Science Senasational Claims By Matt Simmons About The BP Leak Disregarding the possible conspiracy theories* you could create on this topic, this might be the final nail in oil’s coffin - at least in the US. ...

EDIT - 2017 Updated broken links thanks to heads up from Paul @ Art of Blog Ok, its been a busy few weeks, and I’ve let the blog slip again, but coming up: Implementing Google Webfonts Ubuntu Dot-File Dropbox Synchronisation Drupal 6 Installation of Ubuntu 10.04 My Revision Scheduling/Tracking System Summer Plans including VPN work for Dr David Laverty and CUDA research with Alastair Mckinley and Dr Alan Marshall

Illustrated Guide Explains Your Mind’s Decision Biases [Mind Hacks] NIST Releases Updated Handbook of Math Functions Matplotlib For Python Developers

Designing next steps Surprise! It’s a hung Parliament. What Sites Future Employers Are Checking When Looking at You [Job Search] Syslog Better Logging Tutorial Open Source Guacamole Puts VNC On the Web