GreenFuel Technologies

There is something so incredibly amazing about a power plant that burns carbon based fuels, but reduces emissions by generating bio-diesel, ethanol, and food-grade protein. Check out GreenFuel Technologies or read about their work with the Arizona Public Service Company, then, I don't know, write your representatives in congress. If this technology could be used to produce spirulina... well, great things could happen, that's for sure.

Sanctuary!

The fist episode of Sanctuary (http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/) was released today, a low resolution video to follow. The episodes are a little heavy on the CG, but I think it is well done. It's a little short, at 17 minutes, so I hope that they keep to a fairly quick release cycle. From the Sanctuary Wikipedia entry:

Amanda Tapping stars as 157 year old Dr. Helen Magnus, one of the first female doctors in the Royal College during Victorian England. She was engaged to Jack the Ripper, and also has a daughter by him, Ashley. However, Ashley does not yet know that Jack is her father. Dr. Magnus's father started a sanctuary for supernatural creatures, collected from all over the world. In her work with these creatures, Dr. Magnus has acquired her great longevity.

neat is simple is neat

Found this on Brass Goggles:

All done with still images and some panning.

OMFG zombies.

or, HAH part 2. a movie trailer mashup of "A Hard Days Night" and "Night of the Living Dead" really nice work, I think. Off to check my supplies of canned food and shotgun shells... It still looks like the earth itself is burning out my back door.

HAH

Hah. HAH. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Well, maybe it's the clouds that tint the earth like yellow sporting glasses, or the constant ash falling like snow, but these forest fires have me in a decidedly post-apocalyptic mood. Prepare for zombie content!

fun and games. and great reflections.

I usually don't prattle on about games, but a demo video for a new one really caught my eye. I found this on the Ubuntu Gamers Arena; It's called Nosferatu and can be found here: http://www.nosferatuthegame.com/ The video is below.

Gritty

One of my all-time favorite works (in any form of media) has just released an update. The online/print comic Platinum Grit now has issue/episode 18 "FOR A PAIR OF FINE CARROTS pt 1" up for your viewing pleasure. This is also the first issue to bear the ominous yet intriguing NSFW credentials. As always, the ever increasing size of the issues, the latest 208 pages, still seem entirely too small once finished. I am now eagerly awaiting the next installment... Damn you Trudy Cooper, I love you.

New Google Reader Firefox Extension

Saw a link to this little beauty on the Mozilla Links site. It is just a simple little unread article counter that resides in the Firefox status bar. The original article can be found here, the extension here.

Well, a post a day

was good while it lasted. Just finished a tremendous meal of country fried cube steak, jasmine rice, green beans cooked with onions and bacon, poached baby carrots with butter and brown sugar, and a hot, crispy loaf of white mountain bread. Dear God that was good. I never can seem to time the gravy so it is ready with everything else though... oh well.

Someone who will not be named had to remind me of the release date for the seventh and final Harry Potter book... you macadamia nut... so it is unfortunately right at the forefront of my thoughts. It's so bad that I have even took a step into the world of fan fiction and read the remarkably satisfying "Harry Potter and the Seventh Horcrux" by Melindaleo, a 34 chapter novel which, while certainly not written to the standards of J.K.Rowling, attempts to maintain a level of consistency with the original works that surprised me. This book is in fact making the rounds on torrent sites, claiming to be a leak of Deathly Hollows.

I've installed the latest official Ubuntu release 7.04, Feisty Fawn, and must say I am quite pleased. The new Restricted Driver Manager made installing the proprietary ATI driver a snap, it seemed to have a problem replacing the original xorg.conf file when i disabled it. Simple enough to fix, however. After making my way past the error messages, I logged in to the text console, sudo'd to root, and replaced the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf with the backup copy: xorg.conf.original-0

For some unfortunate reason, the ati driver decides to max out my video's contrast settings about 5 minutes after booting up. Have to see about fixing that... At least the power management for this notebook seems to be far better supported in this release, and it's always a pleasure to see all of the extra polish in each new release.

1922-2007

I just can't believe Kilgore Trout is dead. Between this, and the death of Raul Duke, I have no heroes left.

Human Interface Guidelines for Command Line Applications

Human Interface Guidelines for Command Line Applications. I've always wished that Command Line apps were a little more usable. I think that a few guidelines, if followed would make the command far more approachable and intuitive. The GNU habit of using single dashes for abbreviated arguments and double dashes for full text is handy, but can often be confusing when described in man, info and simple descriptions. I am sure that there is documentation on these design standards for GNU tools, but until I find it, I wanted to post these ideas, based on what I have found useful in the command line apps I have used. * All programs, when run with no arguments, should not execute but display a simple description and list of common commands.
Example:

$>foo Description:

foo is a sample application meant to serve as a example of proper command line behavior.

Examples:

To start foo: foo --start
To start foo with a file: foo --start filename.ext

* When running in a non-interactive manner, a command to stop the program should be displayed.
Example:

$>foo --start
To stop foo, press control+x at any time.

* If the program is passed an argument that it does not understand, it should produce a "friendly" error message and display the simple description.
Example 1:

$>foo --bar
foo does not understand your request to "bar"
Description:

foo is a sample application meant to serve as a example of proper command line behavior.

Examples:

To start foo: foo --start
To start foo with a file: foo --start filename.ext

Example 2:

$>foo bar
foo could not find a file named "bar"
Description:

foo is a sample application meant to serve as a example of proper command line behavior.

Examples:

To start foo: foo --start
To start foo with a file: foo --start filename.ext

My Top Five Google Complaints:

Sorry for the missed update yesterday. I was picking my mother up from the hospital. Selfish bastards. You, not mothers. Mothers are wonderful people. Well, most of them. Selfish bastards. So,I actually worked on this stupid list. I have quite a few complaints, as anyone who has met me could tell you. These five, however, are places where I really feel google dropped the ball. things that they absolutely should have implemented, and just didn't. Or haven't yet. With the exception of #2, there is no excuse for these features to be missing. So, without further non-sense, My Top Five Google Complaints:

1. There is no search function in Reader.
2. I still can't collaborate in Pages.
3. Publishing from Docs to blogger does not transfer title or allow you to add blogger tags.
4. I can't export single Note's "nodes" to Docs, only whole Notebooks.
5. Reader doesn't have an option to display _unread_ news from oldest to newest.

Created in their image

Ever since enrolling in a crappy high school pottery class, I have had a love for sculpture. I always regretted my lack of skill with pencil, pen, and brush, but clay was my bitch. I blame an early affair with play-dough. While not having a readily accessible kiln has hampered my ceramic works, I have continued with my three dimensional diversions. Don't get me wrong, it's all crap. But I don't do it for acclaim or fortune (fortunately) I do it for me. Since I mainly work with found materials, I found the works of the following artists to be quite... um diverting.

Tara Donovan

Tara Donovan has used materials as mundane as fishing line, clear plastic drinking straws, paper plates, office supplies, tar paper, and even styrofoam cups to create ethereal, friking breath-taking organic structures. I seriously want "Untitled 2003" in my dream house(tm)

Lockwasher

"Lockwasher" creates ray guns, robots, and rockets in a wonderfully anachronistic 1950s style from random junk stuff you could find at most flea markets. This reminds me all to much of how I passed many a bored night while my father wrenched away in our garage.

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith creates some wonderful and touching sculptures, both kinetic and static, with what I feel are strong steam punk influences. I have a particular fondness for his figurative works, and feel quite inspired to try a few of my own.

So whats up with the name Sunergos anyway?(Pt.2)

I mentioned in part one that Sunergos was supposed to be an operating system. That's not completely true, but we'll stick with that for now. I didn't describe exactly what Sunergos was meant to be, and there is one reason for that: Mission Creep. It is the bane of all project leaders, even when that project is naught but vaporware.

Initially, Sunergos was born on windows, when I worked for a tech support company and nearly every application I used was web based. At this point, I'd had almost five years of web development under my belt. After setting the windows shell to use Internet explorer, I set about creating an interface for all of the resources I used for my day to day work. With that an idea borne of a bit of ambition, normally absent from my psyche, reared it's ugly head: A browser-based desktop. Not a new idea, I know. but in that idealistic turn of the century, it was certainly something I had never seen.

Working on a windows based platform (first 98, and later 2000) posed some serious stumbling blocks, not the least of which was the availability of free information. While I was far from an expert with *nix, my experience with Openbsd and later Mandrake 7.2 led me to the (correct) assumption that the open source community was the ideal outlet for this nearly all consuming idea. With an open source operating system as a base I could customize the entire environment, tuning everything to my purpose, and distribute the whole thing.

This put me at a serious disadvantage, though. As I have previously indicated, I had limited experience with this environment. However, that great electronic oracle-- the Internet-- could provide all that I needed and I set myself to achieving a state of complete saturation with my newly adopted obsession. Unfortunately, during my journey toward enlightenment, to a zen like oneness withTeh Source, the infamous bubble did it's infamous bursting. Instead of using my new-found free time to advance my cause, I took more of a chicken little approach and started stockpiling rice, beans, and 12 gauge ammunition...

Hmm, starting to get flashbacks here. I'm going to go and make some plywood squares to mount over my windows, clean my guns, and check the canned food stocks. But, I promise to be back soon for another exciting installment of "What the Hell is Sunergos." Now that the history is essentially explained, I can cover some of the stolen inovative ideas that, when combined, would have made Sunergos "The Best OS Ever"

Newmans Own

I just finished watching Cool Hand Luke. Other than being really impressed with the (admittedly heavy Christian) imagery, I have to wonder if the bespectacled antagonist from the Cohen Brothers film O Brother Where Art Thou was intentionally modeled on the "road boss" in Cool Hand Luke.

Like a Rare Jewel

So, I've been looking at Ruby on Rails for developing a combination blog/wiki/forum/cms solution. Seeing as I am a poorly expereinced programmer, Ruby was an obvious choice. This is seriously a... well, for lack of a better word, Zen programming language. For anyone who interested in an incredibly easy to learn language that still has the power to take over the world, I recommend Ruby. It is well documented and portable enough that I will give you a personal money-back guarantee that it will work on your computer. There are many resources available for free, as I have come to expect from open source projects. I have included a quote from one that I am enjoying far too much for it to actually be programming "manual."

why’s (poignant) guide to ruby :: 2. Kon’nichi wa, Ruby

Pretend that you’ve opened this book (although you probably have opened this book), just to find a huge onion right in the middle crease of the book. (The manufacturer of the book has included the onion at my request.)

So you’re like, “Wow, this book comes with an onion!” (Even if you don’t particularly like onions, I’m sure you can appreciate the logistics of shipping any sort of produce discreetly inside of an alleged programming manual.)

Then you ask yourself, “Wait a minute. I thought this was a book on Ruby, the incredible new programming language from Japan. And although I can appreciate the logistics of shipping any sort of produce discreetly inside of an alleged programming manual: Why an onion? What am I supposed to do with it?”

No. Please don’t puzzle over it. You don’t need to do anything with the onion. Set the onion aside and let it do something with you.

I’ll be straight with you. I want you to cry. To weep. To whimper sweetly. This book is a poignant guide to Ruby. That means code so beautiful that tears are shed. That means gallant tales and somber truths that have you waking up the next morning in the arms of this book. Hugging it tightly to you all the day long. If necessary, fashion a makeshift hip holster for Why’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby, so you can always have this book’s tender companionship.

You really must sob once. Or at least sniffle. And if not, then the onion will make it all happen for you.

For more fun and games, I highly recommend why's blog as well.

and then your mother tells you

the ekg indicates a heart attack. she seems to be doing well.

Napster is Dead! Long Live Napster!

Well, the spirit of napster, anyway. Sorry, I know I said that there would be something of substance, but thanks to the following article on Techcrunch, I've spent the last two days watching scrubs on GoFish... I mean, just looking at the listings. I'm not confessing anything here. I'm not under oath. God, don't you pigs have anything better to do?

Forget YouTube: Go To These Sites If You Want Hard Core Copyright Infringing Content Michael Arrington 97 comments »

YouTube is clearly the most popular video sharing site on the web. But limits on video length, DMCA takedown notices and billion dollar lawsuits have damaged YouTube’s ability to facilitate serious copyright infringement. The smaller guys are now stepping in to fill the void.

Full length copies of well known TV shows and/or movies are readily available on a number of YouTube competitors. Watch, for example, The Office on DailyMotion, Scrubs on GoFish, or SouthPark on Veoh...

So whats up with the name Sunergos anyway?

It was never a nickname for me, although it has become one in some circles. Sunergos is a Greek word that I originally came across when looking for a synonym for the word synergy. Sunergos is the name of a Linux distribution that has been cooking on my back burner for the better part of a decade. I have no illusions as to my abilities as a programmer or *nix guru, so I have done little work on the Sunergos distro outside of theoretics and high-level planning. A few recent articles have put Sunergos back toward the frontal parts of my brain. While I doubt that I will ever see my baby birthed, I would at least like to share my vision with the rest of the world. So, over the next few days, I hope to describe some of the features I wanted Sunergos to have, as well as the articles that inspired my sense of rejuvenation. I have a feeling that logic behind my choice of a name will become self evident.

Enjoying the weather before the next storm (Pt.1)

Or, a quick look at a few of my favorite pages which have sprung up with all of this web 2.0 nonsense. The Google "Suite" were just going to be a part of this article, but there are so many I've decided to split it up into two parts and devote the first half just to the big G:

Gmail - Perhaps the first mainstream appearance of the web too point oh, and frequently referred to as "web mail done right" Gmail features massive storage space (and seems to increase it at a rate of ~1 gigabyte per year) a great search function, handy dandy labels, an excellent filter system (and I don't just mean spam), unobtrusive advertising, free pop and smtp access, and idiot-proof integration with the google chat service, Google Talk, in an easy to use interface. Everyone should have gmail. Seriously. Call your congressman, send a letter to the UN, something. If you have more than one gmail account, I highly recommend the firefox plugin "Gmail Manager" which acts as an account manager and mail notifier, allowing you to monitor both accounts and access them quickly, in addition to allowing sendto: links to work with gmail.

Reader - Google Reader is an aggregator for rss feeds. In addition to plugin-free integration with firefox (2.*) this reader features a sharing function, allowing you to create your own rss or html feed of articles selected from your aggregated feeds. I swear, it's as neat as a snake eating it's own tail, and from what I hear the practically-trademarked super-slick minimalist google interface is up for improvements in the near future. I'm not sure how they intend to improve on perfection, however.

Docs and Spreadsheet - I'll roll these two together, even though they are two separate services. Spreadsheet was google's baby and docs, if I am not mistaken, was birthed after the acquisition of startup http://www.writely.com/. Regardless, this is stone simple office document creation right here, although simple may be a deceptive word. I admit that my needs are generally simple, but I have yet run into a feature here that I needed but couldn't find. I think that the sheer brilliance in this user interface, when compared to MSOffice, OpenOffice, or even my favorite, Gnome Office, comes from its inability to hide features in the menu bar. Everything just has to be there on the page. Again, collaboration and publication is built in so that it feels down right cozy. Have to wonder why Google Docs is missing the discussion tab that Spreadsheets feature.

Pages - I am sad to say that while I like Google Pages, it is the most poorly implemented service I have tried. As far as Google services go, I mean. The interface is smooth and clean and well thought out, everything I would expect, but the layout/editing engine seems buggy as hell. Seriously, it reminds me of Microsoft Word circa 1996. At least with Pages, I can go to the code and fix those little bugs as they arise. Still, I would expect more from a wysiwyg interface, even one as advanced as this. There is also a limited selection of templates, considering the tech powerhouse that is backing this home page service. What I would really like to see are theme generators, a la the proliferous myspace layout generators. The ability to make your Google page your Google Wiki should be there too. Not a full blown world-writable Wiki mind you, but an invite only affair. Google is really pushing collaboration in all of their other services, I'd like to see Google Pages catch up.

Calendar - This is a very functional, clean, standards compliant, and easy to use service-- Although I have to admit that sharing your calendar feed should be easier. This is another service made all-the-more valuable with a Firefox plugin. While there is no official plugin, the aptly named "Google Calendar Notifier" is quite effective and adjusts well to personal preference. Having said all this, Calendar is seriously hurting for some Gtalk notifications, a la Remember the Milk.

Notebook - If you have ever tried Microsoft's OneNote office application, Google Notebook will seem familiar. I'm really not using as often as I should. The Firefox plugin (recently overhauled)for this is the one thing that really makes it worth having in my opinion, although it can act a bit of the insect at times. As someone who constantly saves snippets here and there from various web pages, it should be essential for me. Still a little hooked on notepad though... this essentially makes notes into a scrapbook for the web, and like most of Google's other offerings, you can make your notebook publicly viewable and search-able.

Blogger removes the hassle of remembering yet another - The new non beta blogger is quite nice indeed. Those rat-bastards who designed myspace should really look at how the new template editor works (while taking extensive notes) and then shoot themselves in the head. The fact that I can now use my Google loginusername and password, too. Unfortunately, The interface still seems a little out of place with the rest of the minimalist-yet-hyperfunctional offerings from Google. Integrating the editor into the post management page would go a long way toward fixing that though. BTW: looks like you can now post to blogger directly from Google Docs as well as Reader.

Groups - Oh, man, Newsgroups. Nothing can quite pique fond memories of those early days of the web like newsgroups. Ok, so they were mostly used for porn and posting copyrighted material for public download, but at one point newsgroups were *the* forum for expressing our simian ideas. Google groups manages to capture this wondrous past and breath new life into the service whilst making the whole shooting match indexed and searchable.

That's all for now kiddies. Did you learn anything?