Author: andy

Pointers

Flipstart PC. Ultra-portable PC with a 1GHz CPU, 30gig hard disk, 1024×600 screen, and running full Windows XP. Gotta have one. (Via The Inquirer)  #

Kuro5hin: We Are Morons: a quick look at the Win2k source. A quick, superficial look at the style and content of the leaked Windows 2000 source. The malignant hive-mind that is K5 does its thing. #

NY Times: Facinating article on the work that goes into “finishing” the tone of new  Steinway pianos.

Quote: Lord Butler

Lord Butler: “You have to be selective about the facts … It does not follow that you mislead people. You just do not give the full information … It is not justified to mislead, but very often one is finding oneself in a position where you have to give an answer that is not the whole truth.”

(This is the same Lord Butler who is now investigating government intelligence gathering before the Iraq war.)&nbsp

Okay, so whats going on here?

Nothing for months, and then all this … stuff suddenly appears. What’s going on I hear you ask?

  1. I bought a copy of Uru in mid-November and didn’t do much of anything else apart from play it. God, it was great.
  2. Even without Uru, commuting (currently averaging 2? hours/day) leaves me with little time for blogging. My current blogging software only works from home, and I don’t seem to be spending much time there at the moment. I keep notes of things that I’ve found interesting, hence the recent “pointers” postings, but its just linking to other blogs.
  3. I’m finally doing what I should have done six months ago: writing my own blogging software. This takes even more time that I don’t really have, but its getting there. I currently have an XML-based “filing system”. I’m going to layer some services – feed generation, article sorting, etc. on top of that. The actual output will be generated from inline ASP.net code in a similar way to the current CityDesk setup. There’ll be a rich client (with href deployment) that I can use to post from any PC with the framework installed. I may also have a minimal web interface for situations where I don’t have a .net-enabled machine available.

So that’s the story. I’m sorry for the loss of service, and I hope I’ll manage to keep something going until the software gets built. In the meantime, hang-in there. Okay? &nbsp

Pointers

Guardian: Interview with “history’s most generous philanthropist”, Sir William Henry Gates III, Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. #

OpenVPN: “…an easy-to-use, robust, and highly configurable VPN (Virtual Private Network) daemon which can be used to securely link two or more private networks using an encrypted tunnel over the internet.” I haven’t actually tried this, but it looks pretty good. #

Bochs: A portable IA32 emulator. Also on Sourceforge. (Via Slashdot)  #

The Glass Engine: “enables deep navigation of the music of Philip Glass. Personal interests, associations, and impulses guide the listener through an expanding selection of over sixty Glass works.” (Via Raymond Chen)

Pointers

Seymour Hersh: The Stovepipe. How conflicts between the Bush Administration and the intelligence community marred the reporting on Iraq?s weapons. #

Indymedia UK: Who Is Hutton? (Via Adam Curry) #

K5: Why your Movable Type blog must die. “All of your blogs talk about the same crap.” Heh heh. #

Time Sneath is building a list of UK .net bloggers. #

Individual Preparedness and Response to Chemical, Radiological, Nuclear, and Biological Terrorist Attacks. From the scary guys at RAND. (Via Kevin Kelly) #

The Mountain and the Clock. Stewart Brand on building the Clock of the Long Now. (Via WorldChanging)

Pointers

WorldChanging: “Reuters reports that the Danish company Aresa Biodetection has developed genetically-modified flowers which change color when their roots come in contact with Nitrogen Dioxide in the soil. Explosives used in mines produce NO2 as the chemicals gradually decay.” Very cool. #

NY Times: In Online Auctions, Misspelling in Ads Often Spells Cash.