Month: March 2006

How Do You Like Your Bookmarks?

People are very familiar with the idea of bookmarking websites – perhaps they don’t have time to read them now, or they think the site will be frequently visited or helpful in the future. Whatever the reason, bookmarks are part of surfing the web for most people.

The way bookmarks are handled by the web browser hasn’t really changed in, well, over a decade. You create a bookmark, possibly specifying where in your bookmark hierarchy you want to store the bookmark. This hierarchy allows us to categorize and manage large numbers of bookmarks. Everyone who first starts using a web browser inevitably ends up with a bookmark list with hundreds of entries in it, making finding what you want difficult. Eventually we start to create folders and sub-folders, placing and categorizing our bookmarks as we make them.

Well, what if things were done a little differently?
Continue reading How Do You Like Your Bookmarks?

Gamers Unite – as Surgeons?

I knew my super-honed skills as a gamer lead me into a great career in computers (no, seriously, it did) but I think this article takes it to a whole nuther level. Their research (?) shows that gamers make better surgeons. Yup, there’s the proof – that Nintendo I bought decades ago wasn’t just a game console and a waste of time. No! It was a training tool, making me a better, stronger, more responsive … surgeon.

Now why didn’t I want to be a surgeon again?

X-Rays Help Get The Best Shoe Fit Possible

It’s interesting to see how people used to view radiation and how they tried to use it in innovative ways – perhaps even at the expense of people’s safety. Take for example the Shoe-Fitting Fluoroscope. Back in the day this device was used by shoe stores to take X-Rays of people’s feet to ensure that their bone structure was best fit by their potential shoe purchases. Useful? Perhaps. Dangerous? You bet.

The article doesn’t mention all the health concerns these machines brought up – a co-worker relates her own knowledge of the situation thusly:

While the articles mentions the concern over radiation exposure to the feet and to the hands of the machine operator, what it fails to mention is the greatest side affect from these machines were the cataracts it produced. As the people looked down into the machine at their feet the radiation exposure was hitting them directly in the eyes. (The eyes are one of the most susceptible body parts we have to radiation).

Another common use of the early x-ray machines was in beauty salons to remove female facial hair. The operating instructions on those machines stated “Expose the desired skin area until the skins turns pink”. Little did they know that when the skin turned pink it was already a radiation burn. Again with the eyes being so close to the radiated field, cataracts were a common side affect.

Thanks Joan!

Now isn’t science grande?

I’m A Published Author Now!

Here in Vancouver we have a local newspaper called The Georgia Straight – your basic local motion type stuff and left-leaning editorials. Most importantly, there’s a Music section that includes reviews of music releases, local concerts and local artists. It also includes a section called “Payback” where people write in and generally complain about how pathetic the Music section is.

Well, several weeks ago I read an article that, quite simply, made me want to complain to someone – so I did. They decided to publish my (edited) complaint in this week’s issue. Since it is an edited version, I’ll let you read their version and then you can continue here to read my original complaint if you’re curious to see how they can cut 4 paragraphs down to a single one without losing any meaning.

*cough* Continue reading I’m A Published Author Now!

Open Source is So Fricken’ Cool

I just went through a software experience that quite simply defines why I want to support and participate in Open Source Software projects rather than closed and proprietary ones.

I have an iPod for those that didn’t know. I run Ubuntu Linux for my desktop, for those who didn’t know. This means that I cannot run iTunes for getting my songs onto the iPod – it is Windows only. So I have been using gtkpod for this – an Open Source application designed to allow adding songs and things to the iPod. Essentially it replaces iTunes.

Now things get a little technical, so if you’re not interested please don’t feel bad.

gtkpod can only attempt to provide the same features as iTunes. Apple doesn’t share every little detail about how to interface with an iPod, and it certainly has more development dollars and time invested in iTunes. So the feature set of gtkpod lags behind iTunes. Up until now there is one feature I’ve really missed – album art. The ability to display an album’s cover on the iPod while its songs are being played – it’s the whole point of having a colour screen in my mind.

So I looked into the details and found out that the developers of gtkpod have actually got this working, but not in the version of gtkpod and its libraries that I am running. Enter the wonders of Open Source Projects.

Continue reading Open Source is So Fricken’ Cool

Happy Anniversay, theBside

I missed it by a few days, but it’s theBside’s first anniversary!

It’s a year ago that I started this silly ‘blog’, and I think it has turned out somewhat how I hoped. Not quite, but somewhat.

Still so many plans for improvements – I’m sure that once the baby is born I’ll have a lot more free time to get things done. That’s how it works, right?