tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-217918392024-03-07T21:14:41.761-05:00Jim's BlogWhat's this about? Well, I have no idea how to classify it. I post stuff I find interesting. Somebody out there is bound to share my interests.Jim Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163316200973217698noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-59169696934707974352009-12-15T19:16:00.000-05:002009-12-15T19:16:30.185-05:00Announcing My Other BlogI recently started another blog for ontology and information management topics. Please check it out here.Jim Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163316200973217698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-70099468589614044822009-08-28T13:07:00.007-04:002009-08-28T13:56:51.094-04:00Thunderbird vs. Yahoo Groups
There are two styles for replying to an email message: respond-below and respond-above. Yahoo Groups makes the respond-below impossible without what I figured out today.
Since at least the 80's people have replied to emails by responding directly below every point they want to address. I'll call this the respond-below style. Thunderbird, the email client that I use, supports this well, as doesJim Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163316200973217698noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-67034306306811154682009-07-11T16:57:00.004-04:002009-07-11T17:13:06.828-04:00Painful IntegrationI'm not sure I like Simplaris. It doesn't post to my wall as I thought
it would. It does allow me to post to my wall manually, but it's a pain.
I have to manually "blogcast", then go to Facebook to click on an orange icon beneath the "What's on your mind?" sharing doodad. I think it's easier to use a "share on facebook" bookmarklet.
I'm disappointed...Does anyone know of something better?
Jim Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163316200973217698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-40107514189026268622009-07-11T15:39:00.005-04:002009-07-11T16:21:51.172-04:00Blog to Facebook IntegrationI just found a way to integrate my blog with Facebook. Now I can share links and thoughts with more than just my friends on Facebook!
The name of the application is Simplaris Blogcast. What it does is read an ATOM feed† from my blog and post entries from it to Facebook. Not only will it post to my Facebook wall, it will also post to a box on my info and / or profile pages. I can configure it so Jim Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163316200973217698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-29872983950871297802009-07-07T18:11:00.004-04:002009-07-07T18:28:49.495-04:00FirefoxOS ReduxWoohoo! What I predicted back in July 2006 may be coming true! My original blog entry says:
I think Firefox is well positioned to provide this functionality, and that it may very well become a next-generation operating system. Think about it. Firefox provides access to your keyboard, screen, files, network connections, and high-level Web content through an abstraction layer on top of Jim Loganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09163316200973217698noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1169011432628686462007-01-17T00:22:00.000-05:002007-01-17T00:23:52.713-05:00The Education CartelI was reflecting on my last blog entry when I realized that oligopoly isn't quite the right word to use. There are probably thousands of colleges and universities in the United States. So what is the word representing the concept in my mind? I did a search on "education cartel" and found a lot of web pages! That was kind of exhilarating. Other people in the world have had similar thoughts! I'm Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1169002870699157072007-01-16T21:51:00.000-05:002007-01-18T23:41:56.290-05:00Ejumication[I wrote this for another purpose and didn't want to lose it. I think this version is a little more readable.]
I have a theory that the desire of business (especially government-related business) and government (especially the military) to have an undifferentiated commodity of cheaper, plug-and-play people who do as they're told fuel much of the higher-education system.
Creating such a commodity Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1152766922791781142006-07-13T00:57:00.000-04:002006-07-13T01:04:04.570-04:006 Days of Routeful Bliss!As I explained in an earlier blog entry, I installed DD-WRT on Linksys wireless router hardware. I just wanted to say that I have not had a single problem with this setup in 6 days! I cannot recommend this setup enough. I think I will make a PayPal donation to the guy that keeps DD-WRT going, but the PayPal site he links to is in German. Does anyone know how to donate in US Dollars?
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1152465729161100122006-07-09T13:18:00.000-04:002006-07-09T13:22:40.770-04:002-Second TentI want one of these! One of the things I dislike about camping is setting up the tent. The largest version would fit my two sons and me. You just throw it into the air to set it up! technorati tags:tent, camping, coolBlogged with FlockUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1152232559667100642006-07-06T20:31:00.000-04:002006-07-06T20:35:59.803-04:00An Excellent Wireless RouterOver the weekend I read that Linksys still produces a Linux-based router, the WRT54GL. (The last letter is "L" for Linux.) I haven't seen it in stores, but I found it on my favorite online electronics store, buy.com.I got a great deal for several reasons. Buy.com had sent me a 10% off coupon for not using them for a month or so, there's a $10 rebate, and there's an option for free shipping. (I Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1151867882938532022006-07-02T15:14:00.000-04:002006-07-02T22:18:32.783-04:00FirefoxOSI think we need a new kind of operating system. Not one for accessing disks and keyboards, but one that provides a common platform for using The Web. We're almost there with Firefox and Seamonkey (a superset of Firefox functionality, including email), but they're not quite there yet. Here's a little background on how I've reached this conclusion. The wireless access point function in my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1151681745542608522006-06-30T11:31:00.000-04:002006-06-30T11:35:45.613-04:00Linksys DNS Timeout ProblemI figured out why the Linksys WRT56G, v5 802.11g wireless router is making DNS queries time out. I used my favorite packet sniffer, called WireShark, to watch what happens when I tell a DNS query program to use my router as the root server. I got very different results from DIG and nslookup. DIG tries to establish a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection with the router, and the router Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1151627447633564692006-06-29T20:30:00.000-04:002006-06-30T12:57:08.633-04:00Wireless Routers Suck! So, a couple of weeks ago I decided to upgrade my router and 802.11b access point. At the cable modem I was getting about 6mb/s, but behind my old router I was only getting about 2mb/s. Besides the slowness, my little SMC Barricade was perfect, and my SMC access point was perfect. I remembered reading about that wireless Linksys router that supports alternative firmware (which I discovered Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1145827651929534392006-04-23T17:27:00.000-04:002006-04-23T17:27:31.930-04:00How Transistors REALLY workFinally, an alternative explanation of the transistor I really understand! It straightens out some misconceptions I've had (from other reading I've done in an attempt to understand) about electricity being like water moving through empty pipes and batteries supplying the water.I also discovered that there's a name for my preferred learning style. It's Babylonian, where concepts are more importantUnknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1145237363241044632006-04-16T21:27:00.000-04:002006-04-16T21:29:23.270-04:00Firefox FunniesThis is the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. It's an ad for Firefox that I wish they'd play on TV!
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1144037028146410232006-04-02T23:46:00.000-04:002006-04-03T00:03:48.160-04:00Real-Life IllusionsThese are some of the coolest real-life illusions I've ever seen. There's the sidewalk-chalking guy, the wooden bridge, a Droste Effect, the original Droste Effect, and many more.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1143999649759814822006-04-02T13:40:00.000-04:002006-04-02T13:42:11.930-04:00Flock I found a new browser for people who like to interact socially on the Internet. It uses Firefox as its base, but it adds features like tagging, posting pictures to Flickr, and posting blog entries that make them first-class activities in the browser, itself. So far I'm enjoying the experience. I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate it into my old ways. The "shelf" is a cool Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1143477590833276092006-03-27T11:39:00.000-05:002006-03-27T22:54:12.893-05:00Check Your Brain SpeedHere's a cool little MacroMedia Shockwave program that supposedly tests your brain speed in about 10 minutes.
It juxtiposes two shorter and shorter sounds that either sweep up or sweep down. You have to think about what you hear and then click the up or down buttons in the pattern you think you heard. It's kind of like playing that old game of Simon, where you push the buttons in the order you Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1143223367386768022006-03-24T13:02:00.000-05:002006-03-24T13:05:11.840-05:00Is there a way to "Safely Remove Hardware" from a batch file? - Ask Leo!Here is a very useful page. There have been times when, for
whatever
reason, my "safely remove hardware" icon wasn't available in the task
bar.
One time I dug around for a good 15 minutes looking for an
alternative
way to safely remove my external disk drive, but there is no way in the Windows user
interface to get that icon back!
This web site not only gives you a link to a Microsoft utility
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1142808966776866682006-03-19T17:56:00.000-05:002006-03-19T17:56:06.776-05:00What Is Its Relative Value in US Dollars? | EH.NetThis calculator seems even more useful. It calculates based on GDP deflation, unskilled wage, GDP per capita, and relative share of GDP.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1142808412589355902006-03-19T17:46:00.000-05:002006-03-19T17:46:52.690-05:00CPI Inflation CalculatorI found a calculator, provided by the Federal Government, that calculates buying power for any two years using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data between those two years.It's limited to amounts under $10,000, but you can work around that limitation by moving the decimal left and right.Now, if I could just get my hands on some past price data for some things, I could verify my hypothesis about Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1142742172113002462006-03-18T23:21:00.000-05:002006-03-19T17:47:32.550-05:00The Decline of the Middle ClassA friend sent me a link to an article about "offshoring" and engineering careers. I think the logic in the article is amiss: Are we doomed? Of course not. There will always be a healthy demand for engineers in this country. If college enrollments really are declining then the demand will increase. Salaries will go up. I think our expensive people drive the offshoring. Companies can't afford to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1142473909029288312006-03-15T20:51:00.000-05:002006-03-15T20:51:49.086-05:00Capcaisin Cures Cancer!Awesome news! Not only can you enjoy the endorphins released from hot peppers, you can prevent prostate cancer!
The only problem is acclimating yourself to eating three to eight habañeras every week!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1141873202262753232006-03-08T22:00:00.000-05:002006-03-08T22:00:02.303-05:00Spectrographic ImageryEver heard a weird sound on a CD and wondered what it was? It may have been a picture!
My brother found a cool article on spectrographic imagery that shows some cool examples.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21791839.post-1141514795865763092006-03-04T18:23:00.000-05:002006-03-04T18:40:57.793-05:00Spore! The other day I came upon an awesome game that's coming out, called Spore. It's designed by Will Wright, the designer of SimCity and the Sims. You start the game as an amoeba in a drop of water, running away from brown blobs as you try to find something to eat. Each time you lay an egg, you can go into an editor and mutate your offspring a bit. If they survive, your progeny evolve into Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0