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Gotta watch that supply chain.
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Otaku-level obsessive site covering Alpha Flight characters’ appearances in other comics.
Month: October 2010
Grab bag: the “My Stomach Hurts” election
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Other reasons to feel angstful about next week’s election: the level of thuggery is rapidly escalating in advance of the putative putsch.
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Reasons that I have a stomachache going into this election, #1. Tea Partiers, why not just admit that you hate poor people and nonwhites and stop hiding behind false rationales?
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Tips and tricks for an app that lets you use your iOS device as a mouse/remote control.
Missing a critical point
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A lengthy article about “cyber security” that fails to mention the risk posed by lack of controls on the application supply chain.
Master of obscure audio formats
Not satisfied with my vinyl adventures, I expanded my repertoire of obscure audio formats yesterday with the acquisition of a … cassette deck. I haven’t had one since my nonfunctional bookshelf stereo from college went to the curb, some time before I started to transfer all my media to digital, and I was worried that my cassette tapes would crumble to dust before I found something to transfer them.
Who cares? Well, I had a lot of audio that isn’t available in any other format, including Virginia Glee Club concert recordings (the 50th annual Christmas concert and A Dove in the Hall among them), a few rare Shannon Worrell and Monsoon EPs, and others. The Shannon Worrell stuff is just for me (though I missed the ability to hear her song with the late Haines Fullerton, “Lighthouse”), but the Glee Club stuff was for posterity.
And then someone posted on the local Arlington email list that they had a cassette deck that they were giving away–literally leaving on the curb. It turned out to be a very nice Teac W-520R dual deck unit that had no issues in playback. Twenty minutes later it was hooked up in the basement, audio out going into my trusty Griffin iMic and then into the MacBook, recording the 1992 concert recording that the Glee Club did at Smith–complete with the Benjamin Broening “When David Heard”, the James Erb “Shenandoah” arrangement, and … “Time Piece.”
Now I have to figure out what the right way is to make the Glee Club recordings available to other alumni and friends. But this should be a fun challenge.
Remembering Lorraine
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A loving tribute to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. I count myself lucky to have been on the same stage with her in 2006, singing the Gurrelieder.
Successful friends: The Parking Lot Movie
This week, the documentary The Parking Lot Movie hit the iTunes store for download or rent. A movie about the Corner Parking Lot in Charlottesville and the philospher-kings who work there, it features an appearance by Our Very Own D.R. Tyler Magill (that’s him above), with music by another friend, Sam Retzer.
I have rarely laughed so hard when listening to a soundtrack as I did when the first cut came on, Rikka Rikka’s “Life in a Nutshell.” To paraphrase does it no justice; you simply have to hear it.
There’s also a set of outtakes on YouTube: check this one that Tyler leads off:
I am going to have to start a whole new Glee Club history chapter about this thing; both Sam and Tyler sang with me, back in the day.
Grab bag: Ask and tell
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Civil rights history in the making.
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Nice that there is occasionally some sanity.
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Nicely balanced take on the difference between white hat hacking and other kinds. Interviews Chris Wysopal of Veracode.
Grab Bag: 2010 election sideshow
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“You’re telling me that (the establishment clause) is in the First Amendment?” –Christine O’Donnell, dumbfounded that the principle of separation of church and state is enshrined in the Constitution. Delaware, your candidate for Senator.
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The Rent is 2 Damn High! If you want to marry a shoe, I’ll marry you! And I thought the sideshow was bad in Massachusetts.
Houses in Motion
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Nice performance from a Manu Katché and guests show.
RIP Benoit Mandelbrot
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An incredibly detailed and visual reminiscence of Mandelbrot the man and the math.
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So long, grand old man of fractals. You’ve made the world an infinitely more fascinating place.
But does it cook sausages?
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Awesome: Automatic hefeweizen pouring robot! Prost!
Toward automating CSRF detection
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Discussion of possible approaches for detecting CSRF through static analysis.
Grab bag: Lost data centers, new Wangs and more
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Raiders of the Lost Data Center, anyone?
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“Microsoft is the new Wang.”
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Risotto + pesto FTW. Think this might be a Thanksgiving option with the pesto I froze in September.
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The inevitable “based on a true story” movie just got its angle.
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A little Mac automation with an iPhone control panel sounds good to me, provided he explains how to lock it down to keep it from being accessed by other users.
Grab bag: Technical and copyright debt
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More technical debt discussion. Translation for startups: laser like focus on small feature sets may be a better bet than developing a comprehensive offering.
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Copyright killed the audio star.
Grab bag: Obama and hacking online voting
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This is the president I voted for.
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The Map of Online Communities has been updated. Incredible work.
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A failure to adequately threat monitor or test means that DC will not be doing electronic ballot return. On the plus side, they were smart enough to ask people to try to hack the system before they rolled it to production.