Month: March 2013

By nate@arstechnica.com (Nate Anderson), Ars Technica – August 10, 2010 at 03:55PM

Baylor University doesn’t want its students using peer-to-peer networks. A BlueCoat PacketShaper locks down bandwidth to students, and all inbound ports are blocked by the campus firewall to keep “computers from acting as servers or super nodes in peer to peer networks.”

Illinois State uses a packet shaping device called the Packeteer; it singles out P2P traffic and clamps down hard on its available bandwidth to ensure it can’t disrupt other, likely more productive uses of the campus network. In addition, the school’s intrusion prevention system tries to block P2P traffic in both directions at the campus border, though only if it comes from residence and wireless hotspots—faculty and staff are trusted to use P2P applications responsibly.

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By John Biggs, TechCrunch – August 10, 2010 at 10:18AM

A young lady named Jennifer – the Internet is now hunting down her last name – sent a selection of thirty-three photos to her entire office of twenty people detailing why she’s quitting. Mostly it was because of a man named Spencer who called her a HPOA (go ahead and look it up or just look at the pictures) but you’ll note one important slide in her presentation.

That’s right: Spencer was a TechCrunch reader!

Spencer spent 5.3 hours on TechCrunch. That’s a good hour a day, every day. Take this as a “recommended dosage” and increase as necessary. Also, don’t be a Spencer. Also, hire this young lady. She seems to know her stuff, especially if she was thoughtful enough to spy on her own spiteful boss.

UPDATE – The last word on the HOPA/HPOA debate comes from here and it can be spelled either way. Either way, incidentally, it’s also a horrible thing to say.

via TheChive

By chris.foresman@arstechnica.com (Chris Foresman), Ars Technica » Infinite Loop – August 10, 2010 at 12:30AM

One interesting characteristic of Star Trek: The Next Generation—one that separated it from the original series and most of the early films—was its widespread use of smooth, flat, touch-based control panels throughout the Enterprise-D. This touch interface was also used for numerous portable devices known as PADDs, or Personal Access Display Devices. These mobile computing terminals bear a striking resemblance to Apple’s iPad—a mobile computing device largely defined by its smooth, flat touchscreen interface.

To understand the thinking that led to the design of the Star Trek PADD, we spoke to some of the people involved in production of ST:TNG (as well as other Star Trek TV series and films), including Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, and Doug Drexler. All three were involved in various aspects of production art for Star Trek properties, including graphic design, set design, prop design, visual effects, art direction, and more. We also discussed their impressions of the iPad and how eerily similar it is to their vision of 24th century technology, how science fiction often influences technology, and what they believe is the future of human-machine interaction.

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By udijw, DIYPhotography.net -DIY Photography and Studio Lighting – August 09, 2010 at 05:38PM

Tilt Shift Lenses are cool. They are those lenses that allow you to take those miniature looking photographs.

I dare you to get a real one; Both Nikon and Canon models are so pricey that you have to give a kidney to afford them. (OK, maybe just a pinky). But we have some good news. Bhautik Joshi (the inventor of the weirdly named plunger cam) and John Swierzbin (who is a DIY lens master) came up with an extensive tutorial about building your own tilt shift lenses.

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By (author unknown), Core77 – August 09, 2010 at 01:52PM

I found these doodads kind of interesting: They’re an engineering solution to the industrial problem of how to securely mount something heavy and vibration-prone, like a generator, to something else in such a way that the former doesn’t shake the bejeezus out of the latter and rip free of its moorings.

Called Rope Isolators or Cable Isolators, they come in circular and linear variants and are designed to be corrosion-free, no-maintenance, no-lubricant-required devices.

Admittedly these are more of an engineered object than a designed object, but I’m digging their industrial-octopus aesthetic and am posting them here in the hopes one of you will incorporate them into some type of furniture design.

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By Kyle VanHemert, Gizmodo – August 09, 2010 at 10:20AM

If there’s a name I trust when it comes to writing implements, it’s Sharpie. Their newest creation is the Liquid Pencil, a smooth-writer that gives you a few days to erase your work before it becomes set in stone. More »

By udijw, DIYPhotography.net -DIY Photography and Studio Lighting – August 09, 2010 at 07:20AM

Not a long while ago the net was exploding with Corrie White’s Fun with Water set on Flickr. Her control over those drops, their color and their timing was remarkable indeed.

This is why I am very exited to share Corrie’s very extensive guide for water drops photography.

The guide is for all levels going explaining the setup, lights, optional use of a drip mechanism and post.

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By Kyle VanHemert, Gizmodo – August 07, 2010 at 06:47PM

That 12-hour geomagnetic storm the other night that made the sky look all funky for some Northerners? Here it is in breathtaking HD. And NASA says that this just marks the start of a long, crazy solar storm season. More »

By (author unknown), Dilbert Daily Strip – August 07, 2010 at 03:00AM

By Robin, ForeverGeek – August 06, 2010 at 10:50AM

In 2.5 minutes, here is every single time a lightsaber is ignited and retracted in all six Star Wars movies. The video’s maker says that he only included visual, on-screen actions, and not the times when you merely hear a lightsaber being turned on or off, off-screen.

I’m not sure what the point of the video is, other than to satisfy a certain geeky curiosity.

You may be surprised to find that only a handful of these lightsaber actions come from the original trilogy. The vast majority of them, in fact, seem to come from Episodes II and III.