Category Archives: Tech

Tech

Internetting Tidbits

Like my Linkblog post from Monday, this post incorporates several small items that I’ve been meaning to write about, but that don’t really warrant their own posts.

  • Update on my e-mail diet: I’m definitely suffering from fewer interruptions due to my abandonment of automatic email checking and notifications. However, I still check my manually too often. Need to work on it.
  • Everything2: is pretty cool. It’s like a free-form Wikipedia, and includes all manner of fiction and non-fiction. In addition, rather than one coherent article on a given topic, there may be any number of entries from different perspectives. I believe it has also been around for much longer than Wikipedia. (I have contributed to E2 in the past, but not recently). There’s also a search plugin for Firefox et al. It’s handy for Search Brainstorming.
  • Tab Mix Plus: is another great Firefox add-on. Key features that I use from it (though many more are available) are double-clicking to close tabs and opening bookmarks, searches, and typed-in addresses in new tabs.
  • Using Firefox bookmark keywords: You can set keywords for your Firefox bookmarks. For example, my keyword for this blog is “vs”. If I type “vs” in the address bar, it takes me here. “Shortcuts” would be a better name, or “aliases”. Anyway, it’s great to set a bunch of aliases, but not always easy to remember. I took a hint from various operating system menu systems and started putting the keywords in the bookmark titles so that they show up in the bookmark bar menu for the internet. For instance, my bookmark for this blog is listed as “Virtually Shocking (vs)”. Thus, I am reminded when looking at the menu that the keyword is “vs”, and hopefully this will help me remember to use it next time.
  • VirtualBox: is a neat and (mostly) free virtualization package to let you run various guest operating systems on top of others. Similar to Parallels, QEMU, and VMWare. It should be sufficient for most people’s virtualization needs.
  • Rules for adopting a scientific arch-nemesis: Rules include things like “Your archnemesis cannot be your junior, You cannot have more than one archnemesis,” etc, with explanations. I have yet to pick one.

That’s it for now.

Comcast is in the doghouse

This is being posted via the data uplink on my Treo, because we’ve had no cable internet service (nor TV service, my roommates tell me) all day. Several calls to Comcast, in which they said it would be fixed at progressively later times, have not yielded a working connection.

I’ll just have to do my internetting at work tomorrow.

MareNostrum

Via Adventures in Applied Math, on Gizmodo, the world’s most gorgeous (possibly) supercomputer. It’s #9 in the world and #1 in Europe, and belongs to the Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

Actually, the computer’s nice and all, but it’s really the “server room” that’s gorgeous. It’s installed in a glass enclosure, inside a former chapel.

See the photos at Gizmodo here.

XKCD’s Rule #34

I was trying to make this blog / site more professional. You know what, I’m starting to think that’s a synonym for boring. It doesn’t reflect who and what I am, which is somewhat less boring (but not much, sometimes).

Thus, I shall share with you the latest XKCD, which contains at least two Nuggets of Wisdom about the internet:

Please don’t ask me what slash is. If you don’t know, well, it’s too unprofessional for this blog.

Also, you should go check out WetRiffs.com. It does exist! Submit your pictures now!