Random Ruminations: Links

Linkfest — 05-10-2008

Posted 18:00 PST Sat May 10, 2008 in Links

Young Son sent me a link to an on-line comic, Looking for Group. It’s good. In fact, it’s very good.

Rogue Amoeba produces some fine Macintosh software. They also offer some cool freebies of which Soundsource is very good.

The Journal of Irreproducible Results is quite good, especially for science (scientist) types.

The Case-Shiller Index tracks housing prices. I heard a podcast in which the theme was bottomfishers looking for good buys in the housing market. We’ve been holding off the big push for a house, in part because I do not want to buy in a declining market. I reviewed the data for Las Vegas and they’ve seen about a 25% decline there. I’m wondering what it is up here in northern Nevada.

ET Geowizards is an excellent set of tools for GIS work.

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Linkfest — 05-03-2008

Posted 18:00 PST Sat May 3, 2008 in Links

Here we go!

Panda Systems produces some really neat small utilities. I’m trying out PandoCalendar right now because I need a small calendar on the desktop when I’m picking due dates and meeting dates. It’s cool — and it’s freeware! W00T.

The Orkin commercials (here and here) are an absolute scream, and genuinely creepy!

I’ve been interested in ground-water/surface-water interactions for almost two decades. Recently, USGS released a new model for use in simulating such interactions. I haven’t reviewed it yet, but it will be interesting to see what they came up with.

I received this bit of Carly Simon video with my weekly Borders email. It’s not bad. I haven’t thought about Carly Simon in years, but a number of her songs stick with me, thirty years after Carly Simon was born.

I admit I’m interested in Kawasaki’s KLR 650 as a possible dual-sport machine. There are some rides I’d like to do that are away from paved roads, where Windfola excels. I haven’t gone very far down the path of learning about the machines, but am starting to look…

I’ve always wanted to fly. For years I did the virtual flight thing on-line, but it isn’t the same. I remember many years ago an interest in auto-gyros. A friend recently forward this to me. Interesting.

In 1976, Rick Monday stopped a flag burning. Good form.

You have to see this. Only 100 tons…

I think I’d like to take a motorized tour of the Lake Tahoe area. What do you think?

I love a lot of desktop space. But, this seems extreme, even for me!

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Linkfest — 04-26-2008

Posted 18:00 PST Sat Apr 26, 2008 in Links

Here we go!

The Skeptologists could be interesting. We’ll have to wait and see.

Saiga 12S semi-automatic shotgun. The anti-gun folks will hate it. Need I say more?

Finally, a reasonable voice on the climate-change issue. This is well worth the effort of reading and watching.

Post Secret is a secret worth sharing — again and again. There has to be something good in the release of that thing that’s been back there in the back of your soul for years. It isn’t absolution, but I believe it’s healthy.

I’ll bet you wouldn’t sign a petition to ban dihydrogen oxide or would you?

Have you seen an Uno yet?

Tocatta and Fugue in D minor anyone?

For those interested in things statistical, R Version 2.7.0 is now in the wild.

Todd Jarrett on shooting a pistol is excellent.

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Linkfest — 04-19-2008

Posted 18:00 PST Sat Apr 19, 2008 in Links

Hmm… Interesting… My weekly link-list (or remainders) is morphing into a set of mini-opinions/reviews/whatever. I didn’t expect this.

A Blu-Ray writer for OS X is a suitable object of lust. The price is currently quite steep — $730. Ouch.

I started wondering about modeling groundwater-surfacewater interactions more than a decade ago. I got so far as to map how such a model should be developed to incorporate appropriate feedback between the two different mechanics. USGS recently announced a new model.

I’m not using my iPhone the way it was designed. I’m using it as a PDA. I haven’t used the iPod capability much at all. However, this bit of video is an excellent introduction to hosting a number of different formats on the iPhone. I think this will work for me. My media server is my home desktop Mac. My working machine is my MacBook Pro. I can synchronize both to my iPhone, once I construct the appropriate playlists. Now I can have a few images of my kids/grandkids on my iPhone (grandparent alert!) as well as some tunes and podcasts (and maybe a video or two). Cool.

BMW does some interesting motorcycles. This one is something completely different.

For something completely different, how about an article on the presidential candidates’ positions on environmental issues?

OK, I’m tempted.

Big Dog has to be seen. (Hat tip to The Bird Brain.)

I was reminded of the old Is Hell Endothermic or Exothermic? hack the other day. It’s a funny play that reminded me of the proof that 0=1. I should have done that to my students over the years… but I didn’t.

Texas Tech University is reviewing faculty workloads (here and here). I haven’t tracked everything about this, but I can imagine the faculty are quite upset.

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Linkfest — 04-12-2008

Posted 18:00 PST Sat Apr 12, 2008 in Links

Here’s a link to a report on motorcycle crashes in Michigan. It’s interesting.

This is amazing.

Jerry Hettich crash…

I was unfamiliar with the term head fake until I watched the video. If you want to know more about Randy Pausch, it’s here and here. Both are worth a review. I’ll have a more detailed article sometime later, focusing on my thoughts, when I get a chance to write it.

I think Roy D. Mercer is a hoot.

This is genuinely creepy.

Then Came Bronson was a television series that aired in the late 60’s. I remember it, slightly. I don’t know what reminded me of it, perhaps a Zen moment thinking about motorcycles. I wish I could find a copy of the series to rent. It was an interesting thesis. A video-CD or DVD-R recording is avaiilable from http://bestoldtimemovies.com/.

Because I started tracking old television shows, I found www.tvshowsondvd.com to be an excellent resource.

I use Textpattern to drive Random Ruminations and have been for several years. Although I’ve considered moving to another content management system (Movable Type sometimes calls, or rather re-calls), Textpattern does some things so well that I’m reluctant to go through the conversion process yet again. The excellent wiki is well worth the time to read if you’re using this environment, or just interested in Textpattern.

OK, here’s another link. This one is to Bungie Software’s open-source site. I saw a blurb on Marathon and thought it might be worth a try.

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Linkfest — 04-05-2008

Posted 18:00 PST Sat Apr 5, 2008 in Links

Well, I’ll be in Missouri when this posts. I have no idea what ‘net access will be like. Nonetheless, I’ll post a few interesting links here, if I find any…