Able and Baker by Jim Burgess
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Mac people listen up, dump Firefox already [SafariStand's got your back]
Let's pretend a bright, new MacBook recently showed up at your doorstep. What's your first install? Firefox. It's the most popular web browser, it has a ton of useful plug-ins, it's open-source - so what's not to love? Plenty! Firefox is a beast of web browser, eating up your processor and memory bit by bit. It's slow, bulky, and doesn't play well with OSX (no Keychain access among other things).
Dump Firefox. You have options people:
Camino - a light, fast, web browser from Mozilla (makers of Firefox) built for and only for OSX. It starts fast, it loads fast, and it pulls saved passwords safely and swiftly right from your Keychain. For add-ons see: PimpMyCamino
Safari - now in it's 3.x stage, it's claimed to be even faster than Camino (I find it to be quicker). And of course, it works perfectly with OSX, has Keychain access and has other goodies like Dashboard integration. For add-ons see: PimpMySafari
(There are plenty more browsers for Mac OSX, but none are as frequently updated and compatible as Camino and Safari.)
Firefox has plugins though. Lots and lots of plugins.
The solution: SafariStand
This Japanese add-on will turn the docile Safari web browser into a full-fledged replacement for Firefox. How many Firefox extensions does it take to make one SafariStand? A crap-ton, that's how many. Here's a list of just a few of it's features at macoshints.com. The top 3 features are definitely its OmniWeb-like thumbnail tabs, its many bookmarking features, and a brand-spankin-new feature, CoverFlow history. Check this out:
The bottom-line: Safari + SafariStand = one awesome, fast, sleek, Firefox-killin' browser. Beware.
Related Links:
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Magazine Internship Application
Essence Magazine Video Application from Adrian Chen on Vimeo.
Originally seen on the fantastic Nigga Know Technology blog, which is incredible non-pc and very funny.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Google Sky
GoogleMaps, GoogleEarth...GoogleSky? Awesome. Google has been aggregating all of the available astronomy pictures into one place, for our viewing pleasure, for free. That's nifty. Be sure to check out the "Historical" tab in the top right corner - the ancients weren't that far off after all. And also check out the best stuff on GoogleSky.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Some great online comics
So there's a lot of comics on the web, some good and some not good. We'll avoid the latter and just skip to the good stuff. Here's a few of my favorites:
Xkcd.com is a super-geeky and very funny stick-man comic by Randall Munroe. To give you a taste, here's the warning at the bottom of the page:
Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics(which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
Some of the jokes contain somewhat obscure math and programming references, but most are easily understood. The very witty and simple xkcd is updated three times a week.
Dinosaur Comics is great online comic that also appears in a number of newspapers. Although the panels never change, the dialog between the different dinosaurs, who tend to talk about anything, are updated almost daily. The topics are scattered, one day they're dealing with a moral conundrum, the next day they're talking about skateboard treadmills. The creator, Ryan North, has won a number of awards for this comic. For a full history and character break-down, check out the comic's wiki page.
This is easily my favorite comic/blog in this list. Overcompensating often deals with current events, such as the recently released study of anti-depressants - which, to no surprise, are proven to be largely ineffective. The characters are great, especially Weedmaster P.
Xkcd.com is a super-geeky and very funny stick-man comic by Randall Munroe. To give you a taste, here's the warning at the bottom of the page:Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics(which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
Some of the jokes contain somewhat obscure math and programming references, but most are easily understood. The very witty and simple xkcd is updated three times a week.
Dinosaur Comics is great online comic that also appears in a number of newspapers. Although the panels never change, the dialog between the different dinosaurs, who tend to talk about anything, are updated almost daily. The topics are scattered, one day they're dealing with a moral conundrum, the next day they're talking about skateboard treadmills. The creator, Ryan North, has won a number of awards for this comic. For a full history and character break-down, check out the comic's wiki page.This is easily my favorite comic/blog in this list. Overcompensating often deals with current events, such as the recently released study of anti-depressants - which, to no surprise, are proven to be largely ineffective. The characters are great, especially Weedmaster P.Sunday, February 24, 2008
Another catswin website?
So, apparently there is a real "Cats Win" website out there, pictured below. And it's awful. I can only pray that my faithful readers (/sarcasm) will forgive me if they accidently end up there.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Make That 5 Undersea Cables Out
So now there are a total of 5 undersea cables that have been broken in the past few days. Here's the full article:
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Khaleej Times Online >> News >> THE U.A.E
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Khaleej Times Online >> News >> THE U.A.E
Cable damage hits 1.7m Internet users in UAE
By Asma Ali Zain (Our staff reporter)
5 February 2008
DUBAI — An estimated 1.7 million Internet users in the UAE have been affected by the recent undersea cable damage, an expert said yesterday, quoting recent figures published by TeleGeography, an international research Web site.
Internet data was majorly affected as it is the biggest capacity carried by the undersea cables.
However, all voice calls, corporate data and video traffic were also affected.
Two du experts yesterday briefed the media on the current methods being undertaken by the telecom provider to re-route the Internet traffic to provide normalcy to the users.
Quoting TeleGeography and describing the effect the cuts had on the Internet world, Mahesh Jaishanker, executive director, Business Development and Marketing, du, said, “The submarine cable cuts in FLAG Europe-Asia cable 8.3km away from Alexandria, Egypt and SeaMeWe-4 affected at least 60 million users in India, 12 million in Pakistan, six million in Egypt and 4.7 million in Saudi Arabia.”
A total of five cables being operated by two submarine cable operators have been damaged with a fault in each.
These are SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4) near Penang, Malaysia, the FLAG Europe-Asia near Alexandria, FLAG near the Dubai coast, FALCON near Bandar Abbas in Iran and SeaMeWe-4, also near Alexandria.
The first cut in the undersea Internet cable occurred on January 23, in the Flag Telcoms FALCON submarine cable which was not reported. This has not been repaired yet and the cause remains unknown, explained Jaishanker.
A major cut affecting the UAE occurred on January 30 in the SeaMeWe-4 (South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe-4). “This was followed by another cut on February 1 which was on the same cable (FALCON). This affected the du network majorly as connections from the Gulf were severed while there was limited connectivity within the region,” said Khaled Tabbara, executive director, Carrier Relations, du.
He explained that the network was re-routed through Al Khobar in Saudi Arabia and was near normal now.
Almost 90 per cent of Internet traffic is routed through undersea cables and only 10 per cent is done through the satellite.
The experts also suggested that the cause of damage could have been a ship’s anchor that was dragging due to inclement weather conditions in the region during that particular period. “About 60-80 per cent of damages to undersea cable are due to external factors and only 10 per cent on an average can be classified as component failure,” said Tabbara.
Friday, February 1, 2008
Undersea Optical Fiber is Awesome
What's cooler than accessing an site hosted in the UK than knowing how it got from there to your screen with around 7 trillion bps to spare (equivalent to 150,000 T3 lines)? The map below shows where many of the undersea optical cables travel and where many new ones are planned.
Although satellites carry plenty of data these days (think cellphones), a vast majority of data is carried via cables, probably because of their enormous bandwidth that satellites simply can't match. And considering the growth of voice and data traffic, 12% and 90% respectively, the extra bandwidth is definitely needed. And when something goes wrong, like a ship's anchor taking out a line, the whole world knows - 75% of all of Asia's internet capacity was cut-off just this week for that exact reason. Cool, huh?
Here's a movie (old) about laying fiber optics, short and sweet:
Update: Apparently a ship's anchor did not do the damage, since the area is actually a no-sail zone and no ships were in the area at the time. Let the conspiracy theories rage!
Thursday, January 31, 2008
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