Geeks Wasting Time

2011-01-29T13:28:00.000-08:00

I just got an old Dell Latitude C600 (P-III 750 512mb, 60GB, DVD-RW) -with a good battery for the total sum of $30! Yeah! - The only downside is that it had a european keyboard or something so a few keys are in different spots.

Here is what I did w/it.

Put in cardbus wifi and usb 2.0 cards I had sitting around.
Install XP to a 28 GB partition. (for starcraft, office and the occasional windows program) i user Virtual Sheep to auto mount my starcraft/broodwar iso's.
Install Crunchbang Linux (a really nice, fast Ubuntu derivative) on the rest of the drive - had to fix sound as detailed here .. http://wiki.debian.org/snd-maestro3 , set the video up for 1024x768 as per here..http://www.ubuntugeek.com/fix-for-video-problem-on-the-dell-latitude-c600c500.html added the Debian menu as detailed here.. http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/topic/19/auto-update-menu/

Not really sure what I am going to do w/it, but I will probably use is as a document display in conjunction w/synergy most of the time.

Using apt-fast to speed up Ubuntu installs

2010-12-15T17:35:00.000-08:00

When setting up your Ubuntu system and installing lots of programs, you might want to consider using this really neat utility called apt-fast. It gets your download from multiple sources to increase your download speed and therefore speed up the install process, best of all it supports the upgrade and dist-upgrade options!

Here is the homepage : http://www.mattparnell.com/projects/apt-fast-and-axel-roughly-26x-faster-apt-get-installations-and-upgrades.html

Using Ubuntu, just drop to a command line and do the following...

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tldm217/tahutek.net

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install apt-fast

Now when you install just use apt-fast instead of apt-get and you should see a big improvement.

Scott

2010-12-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

I just set up my netbook with 10.10 server edition, LXDE and cairo-dock, all I had to do to make it just right for me was remove lxpanel and pcmanfm. Now I have a nice clean desktop without all the extra crap installed I will never need. The only thing missing was a wallpaper changer, so I threw together a little script to display a random one. Be sure you have FEH installed and are not using pcmanfm to manage your desktop. Just save it somewhere, chmod +x it, and add it to ~/.bashrc (I start a terminal at login) with a & at the end of the line and you are good to go.

#change wallpaper randomly

#by scott goodgame 2010

#! /bin/bash

WALLPAPER_DIRECTORY=~/DesktopStuff/wallpaper

INTERVAL=300 # number of seconds to keep each wallpaper

FILES=($WALLPAPER_DIRECTORY/*)

while true; do

feh --bg-fill ${FILES[RANDOM%${#FILES[@]} ]}

sleep $INTERVAL

done

Irvverter in Ubuntu 10.10 Meerkat

2010-12-10T15:39:00.000-08:00

My favorite conversion software for my ematic mp3/video player, iriverter, dosent work when installed from the repository. Here is how to install it..

Go to http://iriverter.thestaticvoid.com/ and download the latest version.

Drop to a command prompt and change to the directory you downloaded it to, then type sudo /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/bin/javaws iriverter.jnlp

Enjoy

Scott

Adding a Bearpaw 1200 CU Plus scanner to Ubuntu Lucid Lynx Netbook Remix

2010-10-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

I sometimes take my old scanner with me on the road and needed to add it to my Ubuntu installation so here is a quick rundown of what I did, as much for me as for you.

First head over to http://www.meier-geinitz.de/sane/gt68xx-backend/ and get a file called PS1Dfw.usb.

Drop to a shell, cd to the directory you downloaded it to and issue the following commands...

sudo cp PS1Dfw.usb /usr/share/sane/gt68xx/

sudo chown root /usr/share/sane/gt68xx/PS1Dfw.usb

sudo chmod 755 /usr/share/sane/gt68xx/PS1Dfw.usb

Now the scanner should be just fine.

Still adding to the server... Using Mimms to Record MMS Audio Streams in Ubuntu Lucid 10.04

2010-08-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

I like to listen to a couple radio shows that stream on the internet, so I am putting all that unused power in my little'ol server to use. I tried to use Mplayer and VLC to record streams, but they seemed too sensitive to connection issues for my taste, so I decided on something made just for the purpose. Mimms. After recording and converting the file to mp3, I save it to a couple of places, like my Dropbox... Now I don't have to remember to sync the player before work.

Mimms is in the repos, but it needs python 2.5 and that isn't, so you need to drop to the command line and do the following

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
add the following to the end of the file

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/fkrull/deadsnakes/ubuntu lucid main

deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/fkrull/deadsnakes/ubuntu lucid main

press O to save (thats the letter)
press X to exit
Now get the packages with the following

sudo apt-get mimms python25

Now here is an example of my script I use to record a radio show:

#record an audio mms stream and convert it to mp3

#then copy them to a network share, then move them to my Dropbox

#Scott Goodgame 2010

#!/bin/sh

TIMESTAMP=$(date +”%b-%d-%y”)

#(use mimms to record the show for 243 minutes)

mimms -t 243 "mms://AStreamNameGoesHere" /home/jack/radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP

#convert asf to wav and then from wav to mp3 (if anybody has a better way to do this, let me know!)

mplayer /home/jack/radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP -ao pcm:file=/home/jack/radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP.wav

lame /home/jack/radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP.wav /home/jack/radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP.mp3

#copy the file to the network share, move it to a daily directory and move it to my dropbox, then clean up the mess

cp radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP.mp3 /home/jack/Dropbox

cp radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP.mp3 /media/other/Audio/Today

mv radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP.mp3 /media/other/Audio/Podcasts/radio

rm /home/jack/radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP

rm /home/jack/radio-to-radio-$TIMESTAMP.wav

Now, just paste that into a file, put a stream in the mimms line and edit the time on the same line.

My particular show plays every night, so I made it a cron job to run every night- here is the relevant line from my crontab:

# m h dom mon dow command

57 00 * * * /home/jack/bin/record-raido-show

My show starts at 1am, but I start the job early because sometimes it takes a few seconds for mimms to connect and I don't like to miss anything.

I was going to tell you about editing the crontab file, but why reinvent the wheel? Here is a really nice link to get you started....

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=102626

Happy recording!

Scott

A Scanner Server for the, uhm, Server...

2010-08-13T16:47:00.000-07:00

I went to http://scannerserver.online02.com/node/12 to find out how to add a scanner server to my setup, and the directions worked perfectly (almost) I had to add two steps to the setup for it to work on my Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 Server setup, so I am going to mirror his steps and just add my little bit. I have no idea if this situation was caused by an Ubuntu thing, my dumb mistake or some minor oversight in the directions, but either way here we go...

First of all I am installing two scanners to the machine, why you ask? Well because I have two within reach and too much time on my hands at the moment.

First you need to make sure you are ready for the scanner so drop to a command line and do the following.

sudo apt-get install libsane sane-utils

First is a Mustek BearPaw 1200CU Plus like so.

Go ahead and get a file called PS1Dfw.usb from http://meier-geinitz.de/sane/gt68xx-backend/ and move it to /usr/share/sane/gt68xx/ then sudo chmod a+w it.

Type sudo scanimage -L and you should see something like this...

device `gt68xx:libusb:001:003' is a Mustek Bearpaw 1200 CU Plus flatbed scanner

What you need to know the numbers immediately following gt68xx:libusb:, in my case 000:003 and try to scan the image from the command line.

sudo chmod a+w /dev/bus/usb/001/003

sudo scanimage gt68xx:libusb:001:003 --resolution 300 --format png > ~/test.png

Of course you want to replace the 001:003 with the numbers you got.

The scanner should work now, so if you happen to be have X installed, simply try to scan with your favorite software. If you happen to be at the command line, then you can test it with this the following.

One scanner down, one to go.. If you are just setting up this scanner, read the little bit after I set up the next scanner. It might apply to you.

Next is a HP Photosmart 2610 all-in one. (the printer installs just fine with cups and is probably auto-detected and set up for you if using the desktop version.

Install the HP software.

sudo apt-get install hplip

Now to find out where on the USB bus it is...

lsusb

You'll get something like this.

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 03f0:4511 Hewlett-Packard PhotoSmart 2600

You'll need to know the first two numbers 001 and 002 in this case and substitute them into the following command.

sudo hp-makeuri 001:002

Now is time for the actual Scanner Server. The steps I added are in a different font.

sudo su

apt-get install netpbm sane-utils tesseract-ocr-eng apache2

groupadd scanner

adduser www-data scanner

echo 'AddHandler cgi-script .cgi' >> /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

cat /etc/apache2/sites-available/default | sed

's/FollowSymLinksMultiViews/FollowSymLinks MultiViews ExecCGI/g' > /tmp/default

mv /tmp/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/default

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

cd /var/www

wget http://scannerserver.online02.com/download/scan_1.1.9.tar

tar -xvvf scan_*.tar

rm scan_*.tar

chmod a+w /dev/bus/usb/001:002

exit

Now that the Server is up, just open a page to the machine running the server like this..

http://SomeWhereOnMyLAN/scan

If all went well you are almost done, just one more thing...

Now that the scanner is installed and working, you will need (at least I did) to make the chmod a+w /dev/bus/..... permanent. To do this I modified /etc/rc.local to include the two chmod lines I issued to make them work.

chmod a+w /dev/bus/usb/001/003

chmod a+w /dev/bus/usb/001/002

Speeding up Lucid Server Setup with Webmin

2010-07-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

I don't mind setting everything up by hand, but this can be error prone and slow. Webmin is a neat program with a web based interface that makes it quick and easy to set up mounts and shares, among other things. These are the the directions for Ubuntu Server Lucid.

Lets just cut to the chase....

sudo aptitude -y install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl apt-show-versions libapt-pkg-perl

(it'll give you an error about libmd5-perl, don't worry about it)

wget http://ftp.debian.org/pool/main/libm/libmd5-perl/libmd5-perl_2.03-1_all.deb

sudo dpkg -i libmd5-perl_2.03-1_all.deb

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/webadmin/webmin/1.510/webmin_1.510-2_all.deb?use_mirror=cdnetworks-us-1

sudo dpkg -i webmin_1.510-2_all.deb

Now you should be able to point a browser over to http://ipaddress and begin configuring.

There's a new (Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid) server in town.

2010-07-24T19:52:00.001-07:00

I recently acquired an old, but mostly functional laptop (broken screen, missing keys, etc....) that I thought would make a nice home server, after all I like to make use of the tech I have on hand and this frees up my desktop & netbook for other stuff.. like Starcraft and XBMC. Here are some of the functions I have in mind.

File Server
Media Server for my Netgear MP-101 and possibly web-clients.
Print Server
Scanner Server
Torrent machine
Radio Stream recorder
Radio Shark Recorder
Bashpodder Client

The Machine itself isn't so bad, it's a Compaq Presario with 512MB, 80GB and an Athlon XP Processor 2000+ (1.67GhzsoI don't foresee anything really taxing on the machine, especially without a GUI running. Once it is installed, I'll be configuring it through SSH and Web Clients. I chose Ubuntu Server 10.04 Lucid Lynx for the project because I am familiar with the Ubuntu line, is Debian based, has great repositories and support, and it is a LTS release.

The install was uneventful, I just was sure I selected Lamp Server, OpenSSH Server, Print Server and Samba File Server from the list and let it do it's thing.

The first thing I did after the install was to change the IP address from dynamic to static like so.

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

put a # in front of the line that says iface eth0 inet dhcp and add the following lines after it

iface eth0 inet static

address 192.168.0.2

netmask 255.255.0.0

network 192.168.0.0

broadcast 192.168.0.255

gateway 192.168.0.1

You are of course going to have to fiddle with the numbers to reflect your own network.

hit ctl-o and ctl-x to save and exit. (if you used nano)

now you can restart networking by

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

You can check your settings by issuing ifconfig eth0

Next it's time to update all those packages that have changed since the cd was finialized.

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Finally I install a couple of packages that are really useful to have, but don't really need a whole blog post.

sudo apt-get install sendemail curl weather figlet links2

Thats it for now.. next post I'll be installing Webmin to speed up the setup process.

2010-07-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

Along with sending my phone SMS messages I find it useful to have my server twitter me when something noteworthy happens. If you want to do this from the command line easily, just do this.

sudo apt-get install curl

nano ~/bin/filename

curl --basic --user "yourusername:yourpasswd" --data-ascii "status=`echo $@|tr ' ' '+'`" "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json" -o /dev/null
echo Message Sent!

save it with -o

exit with -x

give it execute permission chmod +x ~/bin/filename

use it like so filename "message"

That was easy!

Acer Revo+XBMC+Remote Control = Warm Squishy Goodness

2010-07-20T06:06:00.000-07:00

The Acer Revo was just made for XBMC, it is small, compact easily hidden and can play HD content with ease. Assuming you already are running Ubuntu Lucid Lynx it dosen't take much to get XBMC up and running.

Drop to a terminal Applications->Accesories->Terminal (in Gnome)

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

(in case you haven't done it already)

sudo apt-get install libvdpau1

(in case you haven't done it already)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:team-xbmc

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install xbmc xbmc-standalone

sudo apt-get update

If you want to play DVD's

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

If you have an IR remote...

sudo apt-get install gnome-lirc-properties

I really can't tell you much about configuring it because I bought this cheap one from amazon.com, went to System->Preferences->Infrared Remote Control and let it autodetect and it 'just worked' here is a link in case you are interested...

http://www.amazon.com/Wireless-USB-Remote-Control-Mouse/dp/B001M56DI0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1279606854&sr=8-2

Ubuntu Lucid+Acer Revo+ All the 'fixins

2010-07-20T05:48:00.000-07:00

I Love my Acer Revo 1610! (the 3600 is dual core) The Nvidia ION makes video playback smooth as can be. Since Lucid recently came out, I decided to just do a clean install and actually document it this time. This little guide is by no means meant to be all comprehensive, just a little guide of some of the stuff I did when installing.I hope this is of use to someone.

Download the .iso from www.ubuntu.com and burn it if you have an external drive, if not just dig up a 1GB flash drive and head over to www.pendrivelinux.com to make a bootable flash drive.

boot and install Ubuntu.

After installation and booting, an icon should appear on the upper panel to the right of the screen, then it asks you if you want to use the proprietary drivers. Yes you do. If you are using HDMI cable, you might not hear anything - to fix it go to System->Preferences->Sound->Hardware tab and select Digital Stereo (HDMI) Output + Analog Stereo Input from the drop down, then click close.

If you have an LCD monitor, be sure sub-pixel smoothing is turned on by going to System->Preferences->Appearance-> and the Fonts tab.

Click System -> Administration -> Software Sources (password required) -> Other Software -> put a check mark next to http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu lucid partner.This lets you get everything from the repository.

Since I am behind a router and use occasionally need it, I changed my IP configuration from DHCP to static. (note: you don't wan't to do this if you are on dial up or are directly connected to a cable modem) If you don't need it, don't do it.

sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

If you are using DHCP you will see the following...

auto eth0

iface eth0 inet dhcp

Just put a # in front of the 'iface eth0 inet dhcp' line and add the following lines, adjusting for your individual situation

iface eth0 inet static

address 192.168.1.100

netmask 255.255.255.0

network 192.168.1.0

broadcast 192.168.1.255

gateway 192.168.1.1

Now we can install a bunch patches that have been issued since the cd was finialized and a library to help with video playback. ION specific. If you don't have an ION, you prpbably don't need it.

Go to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal and enter the following commands (or just cut and paste)

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo apt-get install libvdpau1

Update your video drivers...

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nvidia-195-modaliases nvidia-glx-195

Install the restricted extras to get for audio/video codecs media playback

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

Add the Medibuntu repository.

Now we can download a library to decode encrypted DVD's for playback. (you want this)

sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2

Now you are ready to install the other applications you want from the Ubuntu Software Center. I recommend Skype, Alien Arena, Wine (so you can run some windows programs) VirtualBox (you can install an entire OS 'inside' Ubuntu), Samba (for filesharing on the network), Foomatic (to ease printer installs) look around, you'll find all kinds of goodies. (don't install VLC just yet.. read on)

There are also many apps not in the repositories you might want to have....

VLC is my favorite all around media player (I'll do XBMC soon...) but the version in the repository is outdated, do the following to get the latest version. (if you already installed it from the Ubuntu Sortware Center, remove it first)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:c-korn/vlc && sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc

Google Chrome is my favorite browser, fast and you can set up bookmark sync across other computers if you have a gmail account. The following command will install it and add it to the update list so it will stay current.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install google-chrome-beta

Google earth is a favorite time-waster of mine and if you have added the Medibuntu repository (see above) it's a snap to get.

sudo apt-get install googleearth googleearth-data

Dropbox is just cool to have, you set it up and you have a folder that you can save stuff to and it syncs to other computers you have it installed on. Very useful for work and school, you'll never be without that document again. Don't have dropbox on the computer you are sitting at? Just head over to dropbox.com, login and you can download your files through the browser. Slick.

Get it at www.dropbox.com

Ubuntu Tweak lets you change all kinds of settings easily, I highly recommend it.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

The repository has some pretty good games, but if you yearn for more download this and run it

http://archive.getdeb.net/install_deb/playdeb_0.3-1~getdeb1_all.deb

then go to http://www.playdeb.net/updates/#how_to_install, find a game and click to install.

There is a great guide put out by the Ubuntu people themselves, give it a look

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Lucid

I'm Back after a long hiatus

2010-07-19T18:24:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy lately and haven't kept up, but I have a whole list of stuff that will be in the comming weeks.

Nice Bash Prompts

2009-09-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

http://maketecheasier.com/8-useful-and-interesting-bash-prompts/2009/09/04

Saw this on HackADay.com. This post has a bunch of nice bash prompts.

2009-07-31T00:18:00.000-07:00

Here is just a quick one liner I use to mount my Linksys Nslu2 from Ubuntu when I need to....

sudo mount -t cifs -0 username=scott,uid=scott "//192.168.1.77/DISK 1" /media/nslu

or you can add the following line to /etc/fstab to mount it upon boot...

//192.168.1.77/DISK\0401 /media/nslu cifs username\scott,password=scott,uid=scott 0 0

I hope someone finds it useful.

List of SMS email gateways

2009-07-30T22:38:00.000-07:00

The following was taken directly from http://www.livejournal.com/tools/textmessage.bml?mode=details, and was just included here to give more info as to why I might want to send a gmail from the command line.

Aliant (NBTel, MTT, NewTel, and Island Tel) (from: 11, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your phone number. Message is sent to number@chat.wirefree.ca

Alltel (from: 50, msg: 116, total: 116)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@message.alltel.com.

Ameritech (ACSWireless) (from: 120, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@paging.acswireless.com

Arch Wireless (from: 15, msg: 240, total: 240)
Enter your phone number. Sent via http://www.arch.com/message/ (assumes blank PIN)

AT&T (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@txt.att.net

AU by KDDI (from: 20, msg: 10000, total: 10000)
Enter your phone number. Goes to username@ezweb.ne.jp

BeeLine GSM (from: 50, msg: 255, total: 255)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.beemail.ru

Bell Mobility Canada (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number, including the 1 prefix. Goes to number@txt.bellmobility.ca

Bellsouth (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@bellsouth.cl

BellSouth Mobility (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@blsdcs.net

Blue Sky Frog (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@blueskyfrog.com

Boost (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@myboostmobile.com

Cellular South (from: 50, msg: 155, total: 155)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@csouth1.com

CellularOne (Dobson) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@mobile.celloneusa.com

CellularOne West (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@mycellone.com

Centennial Wireless (from: 10, msg: 110, total: 110)
Enter your phone number. Sent via http://www.centennialwireless.com

Cincinnati Bell (from: 20, msg: 50, total: 50)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@gocbw.com

Claro (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@clarotorpedo.com.br

Comviq (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.comviq.se

Dutchtone/Orange-NL (from: 15, msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@sms.orange.nl

Edge Wireless (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@sms.edgewireless.com

EinsteinPCS / Airadigm Communications (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@einsteinsms.com

EPlus (from: 20, msg: 480, total: 480)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@smsmail.eplus.de.

Estonia Mobile Telefon (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Sent via webform.

Fido Canada (from: 15, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@fido.ca.

Golden Telecom (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number or nickname. Messages are sent to number@sms.goldentele.com

Idea Cellular (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@ideacellular.net

Kyivstar (from: 30, msg: 160, total: 160)
Sent by addressing the message to number@sms.kyivstar.net

LMT (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your username. Goes to username@sms.lmt.lv

Manitoba Telecom Systems (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to @text.mtsmobility.com

Meteor (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.mymeteor.ie

Metro PCS (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@mymetropcs.com

Metrocall Pager (from: 120, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@page.metrocall.com

MobileOne (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@m1.com.sg

Mobilfone (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@page.mobilfone.com

Mobility Bermuda (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@ml.bm

MTS Primtel (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Sent via web gateway.

Netcom (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.netcom.no

Nextel (from: 50, msg: 126, total: 126)
10-digit phone number. Goes to 10digits@messaging.nextel.com. Note: do not use dashes in your phone number.

NPI Wireless (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@npiwireless.com.

NTC (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Sent via web gateway.

O2 (formerly BTCellnet) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter O2 username - must be enabled first at http://www.o2.co.uk. Goes to username@o2.co.uk.

O2 M-mail (formerly BTCellnet) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter phone number, omitting initial zero - must be enabled first by sending an SMS saying "ON" to phone number "212". Goes to +44[number]@mmail.co.uk.

Optus (from: 20, msg: 114, total: 114)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @optusmobile.com.au

Orange (UK) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @orange.net. You will need to create a user account at orange.net first.

Oskar (from: 20, msg: 320, total: 320)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @mujoskar.cz

Other (from: 15, msg: 100, total: 100)
If your provider isn't supported directly, enter the email address that sends you a text message in phone number field. To be safe, the entire message is sent in the body of the message, and the length limit is really short. We'd prefer you give us information about your provider so we can support it directly.

Pagenet (from: 20, msg: 220, total: 240)
10-digit phone number (or gateway and pager number separated by a period). Goes to number@pagenet.net.

PCS Rogers (from: 20, msg: 125, total: 125)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@pcs.rogers.com. Requires prior registration with PCS Rogers.

Personal Communication (Sonet) (from: 20, msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter your phone number. Goes to sms@pcom.ru with your number in the subject line.

Plus GSM Poland (from: 20, msg: 620, total: 620)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@text.plusgsm.pl.

Powertel (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@ptel.net

Primtel (from: 20, msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.primtel.ru

PSC Wireless (from: 20, msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter your phone number. Goes to number@sms.pscel.com

Qualcomm (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your username. Goes to username@pager.qualcomm.com

Qwest (from: 14, msg: 100, total: 100)
10-digit phone number. Goes to @qwestmp.com

Safaricom (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Goes to @safaricomsms.com

Satelindo GSM (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Goes to @satelindogsm.com

SCS-900 (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Goes to @scs-900.ru

Simple Freedom (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Goes to @text.simplefreedom.net

Skytel - Alphanumeric (from: 15, msg: 240, total: 240)
Enter your 7-digit pin number as your number and your message will be mailed to pin@skytel.com

Smart Telecom (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @mysmart.mymobile.ph

Smarts GSM (from: 11, msg: 70, total: 70)
Enter your phone number. Sent via http://www.samara-gsm.ru/scripts/smsgate.exe

Southern Linc (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your 10-digit phone number. Goes to @page.southernlinc.com

Sprint PCS (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your 10-digit phone number. Goes to @messaging.sprintpcs.com

Sprint PCS - Short Mail (from: 15, msg: 1000, total: 1000)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @sprintpcs.com

SunCom (from: 18, msg: 110, total: 110)
Enter your number. Email will be sent to number@tms.suncom.com.

SureWest Communications (from: 20, msg: 200, total: 200)
Enter your phone number. Message will be sent to number@mobile.surewest.com

SwissCom Mobile (from: 20, msg: 10000, total: 10000)
Enter your phone number. Message will be sent to number@bluewin.ch

T-Mobile Germany (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your number. Email will be sent to number@T-D1-SMS.de

T-Mobile Netherlands (from: 15, msg: 160, total: 160)
Send "EMAIL ON" to 555 from your phone, then enter your number starting with 316. Email will be sent to number@gin.nl

T-Mobile UK (from: 30, msg: 160, total: 160)
Messages are sent to number@t-mobile.uk.net

T-Mobile USA (from: 30, msg: 160, total: 160)
Messages are sent to number@tmomail.net

T-Mobile USA (Sidekick) (from: 30, msg: 10000, total: 10000)
Messages are sent to username@tmail.com

Tele2 Latvia (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@sms.tele2.lv.

Telefonica Movistar (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@movistar.net

Telenor (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@mobilpost.no.

Telia Denmark (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
8-digit phone number. Goes to number@gsm1800.telia.dk.

Telus Mobility (from: 30, msg: 120, total: 120)
10-digit phone number. Goes to 10digits@msg.telus.com.

The Phone House (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@sms.phonehouse.de.

TIM (from: 30, msg: 350, total: 350)
10-digit phone number. Goes to number@timnet.com.

UMC (from: 10, msg: 120, total: 120)
Sent by addressing the message to number@sms.umc.com.ua

Unicel (from: 10, msg: 120, total: 120)
Sent by addressing the message to number@utext.com

US Cellular (from: , msg: 150, total: 150)
Enter a 10 digit USCC Phone Number. Messages are sent to number@email.uscc.net

Verizon Wireless (from: 34, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your 10-digit phone number. Messages are sent via email to number@vtext.com.

Verizon Wireless (formerly Airtouch) (from: 20, msg: 120, total: 120)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@airtouchpaging.com. This is ONLY for former AirTouch customers. Verizon Wireless customers should use Verizon Wireless instead.

Verizon Wireless (myairmail.com) (from: 34, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent via to number@myairmail.com.

Vessotel (from: 20, msg: 800, total: 800)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to roumer@pager.irkutsk.ru.

Virgin Mobile Canada (from: 20, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@vmobile.ca.

Virgin Mobile USA (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@vmobl.com.

Vodafone Italy (from: 20, msg: 132, total: 132)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@sms.vodafone.it

Vodafone Japan (Chuugoku/Western) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@n.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Hokkaido) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@d.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Hokuriko/Central North) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@r.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Kansai/West -- including Osaka) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@k.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Kanto/Koushin/East -- including Tokyo) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@t.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Kyuushu/Okinawa) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@q.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Shikoku) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@s.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Touhoku/Niigata/North) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@h.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Japan (Toukai/Central) (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Messages are sent to number@c.vodafone.ne.jp

Vodafone Spain (from: 20, msg: 90, total: 90)
Enter your username. Messages are sent to username@vodafone.es

Vodafone UK (from: 20, msg: 70, total: 90)
Enter your username. Messages are sent to username@vodafone.net

Voicestream (from: 15, msg: 140, total: 140)
Enter your 10-digit phone number. Message is sent via the email gateway, since they changed their web gateway and we have not gotten it working with the new one yet.

Weblink Wireless (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @airmessage.net

WellCom (from: 20, msg: 160, total: 160)
Enter your phone number. Goes to @sms.welcome2well.com

WyndTell (from: 20, msg: 480, total: 500)
Enter username/phone number. Goes to @wyndtell.com

Sending a gmail from the command line (ubuntu)

2009-07-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

I found out about this on the net and thought you might find it useful. I use it to have one of my boxes email my phone whenever it needs to.
apt-get install sendemail

Now to send a message using your gmail account ( this is entered on one line)

sendEmail -f my.account@gmail.com -t myself@domain.tld -u this is the test tile -m “this is a test message” -s smtp.gmail.com -o tls=yes -xu usernameonly -xp mypasswd

*note that the above is all on one line and that the -xu username only is just the username, not the username@gmail.com

The stuff for this post was taken from http://www.debianadmin.com/how-to-sendemail-from-the-command-line-using-a-gmail-account-and-others.html and they have many more examples, I just made it more newbie friendly

Reason to never drink

2009-07-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

Weird Sewer Creature

2009-07-14T04:25:00.000-07:00

Once again from Boing Boing.. LHC Explanation

2009-06-02T11:04:00.001-07:00

Khaan! -From boing boing

2009-06-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

I just thought my family might like this... It is a clip from a 15 minute movie featuring this bit of the movie.

Jesse Ventura on The View- Waterboarding

2009-05-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

Interesting...

Snake attacking Tiger - for Tayloni

2009-05-07T09:17:00.001-07:00

SSH Video

2009-02-04T05:15:00.000-08:00

History Of Linux Video... Very Nice.

2009-01-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

New Star Trek Trailer....

2008-12-04T06:12:00.000-08:00

Gear driven business card...

2008-12-04T05:49:00.000-08:00

Straight from HackADay.com (boy I love that site)

Here is the link to download the patterns.. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:211

Things - Adam Mayer Digitally Designed Geared Business Cards from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

Mini-Review: Visual Land V-Bop 4gb model VL-867

2008-10-25T11:43:00.000-07:00

I just bought the 4gb model without the micro-sd slot for only $39.99 U.S. and have to say I am very happy with it. It is seen just like a flash drive (very important to me), has an FM tuner, displays text files and pictures and has voice record that really seems to kick butt. The only 2 things I would change would be to add shuffle for the .mp3's and the ability to play the radio through the built-in speaker... the mp3's play just swimmingly through it, but for some reason, the radio won't... not a deal breaker by any means anyhow. If you are in the market for a player that won't set you back a whole lot and won't tie you to itunes, this is a well made player for a pretty great price.

.8" Color TFT Screen
Display Resolution
208 x 176
Digital Audio Formats Supported (Playback)
MP3, WMA
Digital Video Formats Supported (Playback)
AMV
Photo Formats Supported
JPEG, GIF, BMP
Memory Type
Flash Memory
Memory Installed
4GB (up to 1,000 Songs, or 12,000 Images, or 12 Hours of Video)
Frequency Response
20Hz - 20KHz
Signal-To-Noise Ratio
85 db
Built-In FM Tuner
FM Stereo Radio
Audio Amplifier (EQ)
Integrated Audio Amplifier
DSP (EQ) Modes
Normal, Classic, Rock, Pop, Jazz
Voice Recorder
Voice Recording up to 1500 Hours
Audio Input
Built-in Microphone
Ports and Connectors
(1) USB Connector Port; (1) Headphone Port
Interface Type
USB 1.1/2.0 Interface
Included Software
Drivers & Utilities
Included Accessories
Headphones, Protective Skin, Wall Charger
Included Cables
USB cable
Battery
Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery
Battery Life
Up to 12 Hours of Audio Playback; Up to 3 Hours of Video Playback
Dimensions
55mm x 70mm x 7mm
Weight
2.1 oz.

2008-10-22T05:32:00.000-07:00

I just ran across this really disturbing article on Hack-a-Day.com (great site) about listening to the rf interference generated by keyboards as far away as 20 meters, even through walls.

Tin-foil hat time....

Compromising Electromagnetic Emanations of Keyboards Experiment 1/2 from Martin Vuagnoux on Vimeo.

Compromising Electromagnetic Emanations of Keyboards Experiment 2/2 from Martin Vuagnoux on Vimeo.

Star Trek in HD on CBS.com!!

2008-10-22T05:03:00.000-07:00

Only a few episodes so far, but lets hope more will follow.

Here is the link.... http://www.cbs.com/hd/?show=star_trek_remastered

Linux Games and resources

2008-10-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick list of games/game sites avaliable for linux.

http://whdb.com/2008/top-25-linux-games-for-2008/ A list of the 25 top linux games for 2008.
http://www.linux-gamers.net/ linuX-gamers.net is one of the biggest linux-gaming communities with an integrated multi-gaming-clan. On this page you will find latest Linux gaming related news, a big moderated forum, a huge HOWTO collection and other information about the community and the clan.
http://www.happypenguin.org/ An online database of many games around.
Straight from Linux Reality site.... Quake 2, Quake 3, OpenArena, Unreal Tournament, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, FreeCiv, LinCity, LinCity-NG, Micropolis, OpenTTD, Frozen-Bubble, Enigma, Fillets-NG, Pingus, Neverball, Neverputt, Supertux, Abe’s Amazing Adventure, Secret Maryo Chronicles, Trip on the Funnyboat, TuxKart, SuperTuxKart, Armagetron, GLTron, Tuxracer, PlanetPenguin Racer, Extreme Tux Racer, Battle for Wesnoth.

Ubuntu Linux related stuff..

2008-10-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

The main Ubuntu page.
http://www.ubuntugeek.com/ Has lots of tutorials, tips and articles.
While not strictly ubuntu relates, I find the following useful... http://www.linuxhq.com/ http://www.linuxguruz.com/ http://www.linuxforums.org/ http://www.linuxquestions.org/ http://www.linuxclues.com/ http://www.howtoforge.com/

Ubuntu Cheat Sheet - Upload a Document to Scribd

Apress Beginning Ubuntu Linux 3rd Edition Jun 2008 - Upload a Document to Scribd

How to Make a Double Dovetail Puzzle

2008-10-08T06:14:00.000-07:00

I once saw this puzzle and linke it so much I had to make one for myself.... Here are the directions. How to Make a Double Dovetail Puzzle

Lockpicking Resources

2008-10-08T05:55:00.000-07:00

Many people that are interested in puzzles are also interested in lock-picking. Although no expert, I am no execption. The following is a small collection of links I've found around the web that might be of interest.

Scott

http://www.wikihow.com/Pick-a-Lock Has nice graphics and a video showing how it is done.
http://www.lockpicking101.com/ Has FAQS, VIdeo and lots of links.
Hacking BMW locks
Here is how to make shims out of soda cans.

Lock Picking (THIS IS INSANE!!) - Click here for more amazing videos

If all movies had cell phones...

2008-10-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Obfuscated TCP

2008-10-08T05:31:00.000-07:00

Obfuscated TCP is a transport layer protocol that adds opportunistic encryption. It's designed to hamper and detect large-scale wiretapping and corruption of TCP traffic on the Internet.

World's dumbest criminal...

2008-09-30T05:56:00.000-07:00

This Dallas News Story is funny as hell, some dope tried to cash a check for 360 BILLION dollars! Gotta love the education system in America....

Sarah Palin Disney Trailer

2008-09-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Africa is big!!

2008-09-29T11:13:00.001-07:00

I ran across this picture some time ago somewhere online and it just blew my mind.

Alternative operating systems.

2008-09-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

"10 amazingly alternative operating systems and what they could mean for the future"

http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/09/26/10-amazingly-alternative-operating-systems-and-what-they-could-mean-for-the-future/

I just ran across this article and it gives a good summary for those of you who don't follow osnews.com I've used most of these and wish the article had made the list 20 or so long.
Scott

Michael Palin for President!

2008-09-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Python Resources and Video

2008-09-26T07:52:00.000-07:00

These are just posted for a friend who wanted an intro. http://www.python.org/ is the official website for python and has everything you need to download as well as forums to get help on.

http://pytut.infogami.com/ Has a nice python wiki
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Non-Programmer
http://www.sthurlow.com/python/ Broken down into lessons.
http://rholbert.colug.net/pdf/easytut_s4.pdf A nice booklet style tutorial.

Bypass IPhone 3G passcode video

2008-09-26T05:50:00.001-07:00

Just something I found on Hackaday.com... a nice one hour webcast for a iphone book where, among other things the passcode of an iphone 3g is bypasssed.

Collective names for groups of animals (list)

2008-09-24T06:22:00.000-07:00

Groups of animals
ANIMAL GROUP (Collective Names)

Antelope: A herd of antelope
Ant: A colony or An army of ants
Ape: A shrewdness of apes
Baboons: A troop of baboons
Bacteria: A culture of bacteria
Badger: A cete of badgers
Bass: A shoal of bass
Bear: A sleuth or sloth of bears
Beaver: A colony of beavers
Bee: A swarm, grist or hive of bees
Bird: A flock, flight, congregation or volery of birds
Boar: A sounder of boars
Buffalo: A herd of buffalo
Buck: A brace or clash of bucks
Caterpillar: An army of caterpillars
Cat: A clowder or clutter of cats
Cattle: A herd or drove of cattle
Chicken: A brood or peep of chickens
Chicks: A clutch or chattering of chicks
Clam: A bed of clams
Cobra: A quiver of cobras
Cockroach: An intrusion of cockroaches
Colt: A rag of colts
Cow: A kine of cows (twelve cows are A flink)
Coyote: A band of coyote
Crane: A sedge or siege of cranes
Crocodile: A float of crocodiles
Crow: A murder of crows
Cub: A litter of cubs
Curlew: A herd of curlews
Cur: A cowardice of curs
Deer: A herd of deer
Dog: A pack of dogs
Donkey: A herd or pace of asses
Dove: A dule of doves
Duck: A brace, paddling or team of ducks
Elephant: A herd of elephants
Seal: A pod of elephant seals
Elk: A gang of elks
Emus: A mob of emus
Ferret: A business or flensing of ferrets
Finches: A charm of finches
Fish: A school, shoal, run, haul, catch of fish
Fly: A swarm or business of flies
Fox: A skulk or leash of foxes
Frog: An army or colony of frogs
Geese: A flock, gaggle or skein (in flight) of geese
Giraffe: A tower of giraffes/giraffe
Gnat: A cloud or horde of gnats
Goat: A herd, tribe or trip goats
Goldfince: A charm of goldfinches
Gorilla: A band of gorillas
Goldfish: A troubling of goldfish/goldfishes
Greyhound: A leash of greyhounds
Hare: A down or husk of hares
Hawk: A cast or kettle of hawks
Hen: A brood of hens
Heron: A hedge of herons
Hippopotamus: A bloat of hippopotamuses /hippopotami
Hog: A drift, or parcel of hogs
Horse: A team, pair or harras of horses
Hound: A pack, mute or cry of hounds
Jellyfish: A smack of jellyfish
Kangaroo: A troop or mob of kangaroos
Kitten: A kindle or litter of kittens
Lark: An ascension or exaultation of larks
Leopard: A leap (leep) of leopards
Lion: A pride of lions
Locust: A plague of locusts
Magpie: A tiding of magpies
Mallard: A sord of mallards
Mare: A stud of mares
Marten: A richness of martens
Mole: A labour of moles
Monkey: A troop of monkeys
Moose: A herd of moose
Mouse: A mischief of mice
Mule: A barren or span of mules
Owls: A parliament of owls
Otter: A romp of otters
Oxen: A yoke, drove, team or herd of oxen
Oyster: A bed of oysters
Parrot: A company of parrots
Partridge: A covey of partridges
Peacock: A muster, pride or ostentation of peacocks
Peep: A litter of peeps
Penguin: A colony,parcel or huddle of penguins
Pheasant: A nest, nide (nye) or bouquet of pheasants
Pigeon: A flock or flight of pigeons
Pig: A litter of pigs
Plover: A wing or congregation of plovers
Pony: A string of ponies
Porpoise: A pod of porpoises
Quail: A covey or bevy of quail
Rabbit: A nest of rabbits
Rat: A pack or swarm of rats
Rattlesnake: A rhumba of rattlesnakes
Raven: An unkindness of ravens
Rhino: A crash or herd of rhinos
Roebuck: A bevy of roebucks
Rook: A building or clamour of rooks
Seal: A herd or pod of seals
Sheep: A drove or flock of sheep
Snake: A nest of snakes
Snipe: A walk or wisp of snipe
Sparrow: A host of sparrows
Squirrel: A dray or scurry of squirrels
Starling: A murmuration of starlings
Stork: A mustering of storks
Swallow: A flight of swallows
Swan: A bevy, herd, lamentation or wedge of swans
Swift: A flock of swifts
Swine: A sounder or drift of swine
Teal: A spring of teal
Tiger: A swift or ambush of tigers
Toad: A knot of toads
Trout: A hover of trout
Turkey: A rafter of turkeys
Turtledove: A pitying or dule of turtledoves
Turtle: A bale of turtles
Walrus: A pod of walrus
Whale: A school, gam or pod of whales
Viper: A nest of vipers
Wolf: A pack or route of wolves
Woodcock: A fall of woodcocks
Woodpecker: A descent of woodpeckers
Zebra: A herd,zeal or dazzle of zebras

Tutorial: Low-Latency Audio w/Real Time Kernal

2008-09-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Worlds Deepest Hole!

2008-09-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

The Mir diamond mine in Siberia (closed in 2004) is so big helicopters can get "sucked into" it when flying over it! 525m deep and 1.25km in diameter is nothing to sneeze at.

History of Communications & the Cell Phone --Links

2008-09-16T08:06:00.000-07:00

I know the links go off topic, but I ran into so much neat stuff that I just had to put it up.

The Wikipedia article on the history of cell phones (short)
PC World History of cell phones in pictures.
User uploaded pictures at http://www.ebaumsworld.com/
Antique-Cell-Phones-Pictures at http://www.freakingnews.com/
http://www.tech-faq.com/history-of-cell-phones.shtml is available in multiple languages.
About.com article about Martin Cooper, the inventor of the cell phone.
http://www.fas.org/irp/nsa/safford.pdf Not really on topic, but a declassified report on the history of communications intelligence in the US.
A timeline of the history of communications (35,000 BC - 1998 AD)
Another timeline with good general tech info.
Yet another timeline.
History of the Atlantic Cable & Undersea Communications from the first submarine cable of 1850 to the worldwide fiber optic network.
This timeline (pdf) puts it into perspective with other inventions; who knew that the cell phone was invented around the same time as post-its.
A really nice large jpeg (3000 pixels across!!) timeline of analog cell phone history.

Comment with more links!!!

UFO's in Ancient Art

2008-09-12T11:15:00.001-07:00

I've always been interested in the UFO phenomenon, but I only found out a few years ago that there is a decent sized body of artwork that has been illustrating it for some time now.

"Ancient UFO Art" By WillEase - For more funny videos, click here

Links:

http://sprezzatura.it/Arte/Arte_UFO_eng.htm Many, many pictures and text (italian)
http://www.bibleufo.com/index.htm The Bible - UFO Connections has many of these pictures along with many theories about the Bible and UFO's.
http://www.ufoartwork.com/ Has a really nice slideshow with blowups of portions of some of the pictures.
http://www.crystalinks.com/ufohistory.html more pictures

French Military History in a Nutshell

2008-09-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

This an old google joke about those poor french....
Try typing "french military victories" into google and hit "I'm feeling lucky"

Gallic Wars: Lost. In a war whose ending foreshadows the next 2000 years of French history, France is conquered by of all things, an Italian.

Hundred Years War: Mostly lost, saved at last by a female schizophrenic who inadvertently creates The First Rule of French Warfare - "France's armies are victorious only when not led by a Frenchmen."

Italian Wars: Lost. France becomes the first and only country ever to lose two wars when fighting Italians.

Wars of Religion: France goes 0-5-4 against the Huguenots.

Thirty Years' War: France is technically not a participant, but manages to get invaded anyway. Claims a tie on the basis that eventually the other participants started ignoring her.

War of Devolution: Tied; Frenchmen take to wearing red flowerpots as chapeaux.

The Dutch War: Tied.

War of the Augsburg League/King William's War/French and Indian War: Lost, but claimed as a tie. Deluded Frogophiles the world over label the period as the height of French Military Power.

War of the Spanish Succession: Lost. The War also gave the French their first taste of a Marlborough, which they have loved ever since.

American Revolution: In a move that will become quite familiar to future Americans, France claims a win even though the English colonists saw far more action. This is later known as "de Gaulle Syndrome", and leads to the Second Rule of French Warfare: "France only wins when America does most of the fighting".

French Revolution: Won, primarily due to the fact that the opponent was also French.

The Napoleonic Wars: Lost. Temporary victories (remember the First Rule!) due to leadership of a Corsican, who ended up being no match for a British footwear designer.

The Franco-Prussian War: Lost. Germany first plays the role of drunk Frat boy to France's ugly girl home alone on a Saturday night.

WWI: Tied and on the way to losing, France is saved by the United States. Thousands of French women find out what it's like not only to sleep with a winner, but one who doesn't call her "Fraulein." Sadly, widespread use of condoms by American forces forestalls any improvement in the French bloodline.

WWII: Lost. Conquered French liberated by the United States and Britain just as they finish learning the Horst Wessel Song.

War in Indochina: Lost. French forces plead sickness, take to bed with Dien Bien Flu.

Algerian Rebellion: Lost. Loss marks the first defeat of a Western army by a Non-Turkic Muslim force since the Crusades, and produces the First Rule of Muslim Warfare -"We can always beat the French." This rule is identical to the First Rules of the Italians, Russians, Germans, English, Dutch, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Eskimos.

War on Terrorism: France, keeping in mind its recent history, surrenders to Germans and Muslims just to be safe.

Man I want one of these cars!!!

2008-09-11T10:32:00.000-07:00

The people over at a company called Aptera have developed a "motorcycle" that gets killer mileage and will go from New Youk to Los Angeles on 1 tank of gas. Pricing is going to be about $27,000 all electric version and the plug-in hybrid $30,000. No Solid word on when it goes into production, so don't hold your breath.

Large Hadron Collider - Search For The Higgs Boson

2008-09-10T11:38:00.000-07:00

A really nice overview of the new LHC getting ready to come online.. Gotta love YouTube!

1/3

2/3

3/3

Sony Playstation Linux and Emulators

2008-09-10T05:23:00.000-07:00

I am getting a playstation 3 soon, not for games, but just for the cell procesor on it.. Can't wait to play with linux on it. Anyway, I found a bunch of videos of emulators including Super Nintendo, Genesis, TG-16, nes, Xmame - people are running XP on their ps3 linux box!! Does anyone have any suggestions as to what distro to run? I've seen Yellow Dog, Ubuntu and Fedora but don't know enough about that aspect of the linux scene to pick the best distro...

PS3 Running Windows XP

Super NES (SNES)

Xmame

Crazy Rainbow Lady does science

2008-09-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know what to make of this lady, she thinks that the rainbow caused by her lawn sprinkler is in fact connected to HAARP!? Worth the two minute run time....

Hack that IPhone

2008-09-07T08:22:00.001-07:00

straight from gizmodo.com

First, password protect your phone and lock it. Then slide to unlock and do this:
1. Tap emergency call.
2. Double tap the home button.

Done. You are now in your favorites. This seems like a feature, because you may want to have emergency number in your favorites for quick dial. The security problem here is double. The first: anyone picking up your phone can make a call to anyone in your favorites. On top of that, this also opens access to your full Address Book, the dial keypad, and your voice mail.
If that wasn't bad enough, the second one is even worse: if you tap on the blue arrows next to the names, it will give you full access to the private information in a favorite entry. And it goes downhill from there:
• If you click in a mail address, it will give you full access to the Mail application. All your mail will be exposed.• If there's a URL in your contact (or in a mail message) you can click on it and have full access to Safari.• If you click on send text message in a contact, it will give you full access to all your SMS.

Hopefully, this major security break that fully exposes your most private information will be solved as soon as possible. Until then, you can avoid any potential breach doing the following:
1. In the iPhone home, go to Settings.
2. Click on General.
3. Click on Home Button.
4. Click on either "Home" or "iPod".

This way, the double-click on the home button will take the user back to the unlock screen (if you use "Home") or the iPod screen. I recommend using Home. You will lose the ability to quickly access your favorites for a quick call—which is one of my favorite features—but that's better than having all your private mails, contacts, and SMS database compromised. UPDATE: Evidently Apple has a fix coming in their next firmware update, but we've got no word on when that release is planned

GP2X WIZ is almost here--- portable Linux Gaming

2008-09-06T10:37:00.000-07:00

This is the awesome linux based handheld that will make Nintendo DS and PSP owners cry, imagine tons of free games as well as Nintendo 8 bit, SNES, Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, NeoGeo, TurboGrafx/16, Atari Lynx, Atari 2600, Atari 400/800/5200, Sega Genesis / MegaDrive and MAME emulation , toss in movie and mp3 playback and you have one awesome device.

Here are the specs from the Wikipedia article...

Chipset: MagicEyes Pollux System-on-a-Chip
CPU: 533MHz ARM9 3D Accelerator
NAND Flash ROM: 1 GB
RAM: SDRAM 64 MB
Operating System: GNU/Linux-based OS
Storage: SD Card
Connection to PC: USB 2.0 High Speed
USB Host: USB 2.0
Power: Internal 2000mAh Lithium Polymer Battery
Display: 320×240 2.8 inch OLED Touch Screen
Microphone Input
Physical size: 121 mm wide, 61 mm high, 18 mm deep
Weight: 98 g (without battery), 136 g (with battery)

W54RTGL Router fun

2008-08-28T10:22:00.000-07:00

Holy crap! this guy( http://www.jbprojects.net/projects/wifirobot/ ) took a linksys router and turned it into a WiFi robot! Check it out!!

2008-08-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie.. over at archive.org they have some great Tenacious D (Jack Black) stuff to watch.. And I might as well throw in the MTV music awards Lord of The Rings Spoof.... Makes me laugh every time.

Video: I will Derive

2008-05-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

I didn't find this one, Commander Taco over at Slashdot did but it is so funny (in a math-ey kinda way) I had to put it here.

Geek Flowchart From NY Times.... Very funny...

2008-05-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Flash Gordon OTR 1935 available for download .mp3

2008-05-21T10:41:00.000-07:00

In addition to downloading the .mp3 edisodes of Flash Gordon, I've also posted a few other links to fans. The following site has 26 episodes available for download in .mp3 format for your listening pleasure. http://hollowaypages.com/OTR.htm Quailty is pretty good on most of them and they are quite small files. (quick downloads) You can also get complete scripts for four episodes of flash http://www.genericradio.com/library.php (scroll down). Here is a list of various appearences of flash in print, radio, tv and movies http://www.keefestudios.com/flashfile/story.html. A nice history of flash gordon can be found at http://www.sflare.com/archives/flash-gordon-a-history/ and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Gordon I might as well post a link to the 1980 movie script for those diehard Flash Gordon fans http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/f/flash-gordon-script-transcript.html

191 mpg car video

2008-05-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

Jim Plilippi gets 191mpg in his plug-in hybrid car... Short Video
Check out http://www.hybridplugs.com/ for more information on plug in hybrids .

UFO video from Dateline NBC

2008-05-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

Dateline NBC recently did a story on UFO's and they posted a bunch of video at the following link... Judge for yourself.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24695796/?pg=1#DTL_10UFO

Video: History of the Internet from Scott MacLeod

2008-05-17T12:28:00.000-07:00

http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/ A really nice timeline

Great Google TechTalk on Nereus: Massively Parallel Computation in Java

2008-05-17T12:14:00.000-07:00

Really interesting 30 minute lecture.

Short Video on the Tunguska Blast in 1908

2008-05-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

For those who don't know what the Tunguska Blast was, check out Wikipedia for a very through introduction to this mysterious event.

Lenord Nimoy Star Trek Memories

2008-05-15T13:45:00.000-07:00

2008-05-12T09:51:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note, I was looking for some resources for surface mounted soldering and ran across this great video tutor Here Here is a PDF from Make... http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2007/01/soldering_tutor.html
Here is also a video from google that has a nice soldering tutor

Flash based StarCraft Fangame

2008-05-06T13:13:00.000-07:00

I was just looking around for more info on StarCraft 2 and found this neat fangame based on starcraft, downloadable too... Sure to waste a little of your bosses time.
http://uploads.ungrounded.net/350000/350461_scfa5_final.swf

Movie: Monster From a Prehistoric Planet

2008-05-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

Classic bad monster movie....

Starcraft II Developer Walkthrough

2008-05-06T08:18:00.000-07:00

Man this game looks good... You can check out the new units at http://starcraft2fans.com/

Solving a Rubiks Cube

2008-05-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

There are so many tutorials out there for solving the cube, I'll just list several and let you pick the best one for you.

http://jeays.net/rubiks.htm Detailed solution for solving the cube
http://lar5.com/cube/ Solving for speed
http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html Easy to follow graphical solution
http://www.wrongway.org/cube/solve.html An online solver
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_solve_the_Rubik Another good tutor
http://webplaza.pt.lu/public/geohelm/myweb/cubeold.htm Has online cube, solutions and pictures of his collection.
http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/ Jaap's Puzzle page.. Great page for all kinds of puzzles
http://www.alchemistmatt.com/cube/rubik.html another good solution
http://forpetsandkidsake.com/mcart/index.cgi?code=3&cat=6 Get 6 photos on a custom cube!
http://www.rubikssolver.com/ Another nice graphical solution.

Another Tutorial 1/2

Another Turorial 2/2

Kevin Smith on The Flying Car

2008-05-05T10:06:00.001-07:00

Funny: Thumbtanic

2008-05-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Not Quite as good as Thumb Wars, but still very funny.

Old Time Radio (OTR) Science Fiction: Dimension X

2008-05-02T11:16:00.001-07:00

Stories in time and space ... told in future tense!

Thanks to the Old Time Radio Researchers at yahoo groups, we now have the complete series available for download. The following descriptions are from the CD documentation.

Dimension X was first heard on NBC April 8, 1950, and ran until September 29, 1951.
Strange that so little good science fiction came out of radio; they seem ideally compatible, both relying heavily on imagination. Some fine isolated science fiction stories were developed on the great anthology shows, Suspense and Escape. But until the premiere of Dimension X - a full two decades after network radio was established - there were no major science fiction series of broad appeal to adults. This show dramatized the work of such young writers as Ray Bradbury, Robert (Psycho) Bloch, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Kurt Vonnegut. In-house script writer was Ernest Kinoy, who adapted the master works and contributed occasional storied of his own.
Dimension X was a very effective demonstration of what could be done with science fiction on the air. It came so late that nobody cared, but some of the stories stand as classics of the medium. Bradbury's "Mars Is Heaven" is as gripping today as when first heard. His "Martian Chronicles" was one of the series' most impressive offerings.
Dimension X played heavily on an "adventures in time and space, told in future tense" theme. Actors who worked regularly on the show included Joe Di Santis, Wendell Holmes, Santos Ortega, Joseph Julian, Jan Miner, Roger De Koven, John Gibson, Ralph Bell, John Larkin, Les Damon, and Mason Adams. It was directed by Fred Weihe and Edward King. The deep-voiced narrator was Norman Rose.
The series played heavily on the "X" factor in the title, as did X-Minus One a few years later. The signature was boomed out of and echo chamber as "DIMENSION X X X X X x x x x x . . . "

Download Links:

MP3 CD 1 686.2 MB
MP3 CD 2 654,4 MB
Single Episodes from archive.org
http://www.otr.net/?p=dimx 32 episodes for RealMedia

Episode guide

Series: "DIMENSION X"
NBC SUSTAINING FIRST SERIOUS SCIENCE FICTION RADIO SERIES
NARRATOR: Norman Rose
DIRECTORS: Fred Wiehe and Edward King
WRITERS: Ernest Kinoy (Adaptor and in-house Writer), Ray Bradbury,
Robert Bloch, Robert Heinlein, Issac Asimov, Kurt Vonnegut

1. THE OUTER LIMIT (1950-04-08) (PREMIER PROGRAM)
Story of an
experimental rocket plane which
disappears for ten hours when it only
had fuel for ten minutes. The pilot
tells an incredible story of an alien
contact. Graham Doar wrote the
original and Ernest Kinoy adapted it
to radio. Stars Joseph Julian, Wendell
Holmes and Joe DeSantis. 30 min.

2. WITH FOLDED HANDS (1950-04-15) The story is about the robots made to
serve man, but which were inefficient
and bungling until a new brand appears
on the market, and then.. John Dossell
of the NBC staff wrote the script and
it stars Alexander Scourby. 30 min.

3. REPORT ON THE BARNHOUSE (1950-04-22) A professor's assistant makes this
EFFECT report of his association with the the
man who developed the ability to alter
physical objects and events by the
power of his mind alone. Script by
Claris Ross and the show starred Bill
Quin, Ed Jerome and Karl Webber. 30 min.

4. NO CONTACT (1950-04-29) Tale by George Lefferts involves a
frustrating barrier of some kind which
the Earth ships have crashed against
... or that's what Earth thinks!
Starring Luis van Rooten, Donald Buka
and Cameron Prud Homme. 30 min.

5. KNOCK (1950-05-06) The last man on Earth sat in a room.
there was a knock on the door."
Ernest Kinoy adapted, stars are Arnold
Moss, Luis Van Rooten and Joan
Alexander. 30 min.

6. ALMOST HUMAN (1950-05-13) This story is about an android who is
taken over by a criminal for "proper"
training. The hood has the tables
turned on him by the creature which is
"Almost Human". Script is by George
Lefferts and featured in the cast are
Santos Ortega and Jack Grimes among
others. 30 min.

7. THE LOST RACE (1950-05-20) A great race is discovered to have
spread at one time across the
universe, hundreds of thousands of
years ago, but as Earth men explore
the galaxies they find only rubble
until a disabled ship lands near some
perfectly preserved ruins and solves
the mystery. Adapted by Ernest Kinoy
and featuring Matt Crowley, Roger De
Koven and Joseph Julian. 30 min.

8. TO THE FUTURE (1950-05-27) (Ray Bradbury's, "The Fox In The
Forest") A couple touring Mexico are
approached by a strange man who is
convinced they have escaped back into
the past from a totalitarian state of
the future. Adapted by Ernest Kinoy
and stars John Larkin and Jan Minor. 30 min.

9. THE EMBASSY (1950-06-03) A man goes to a private investigator
with a plea for help to find a group
of Martians that he says are on Earth.
Adapted by George Lefferts and starred
Joseph Julian and Barry Kroger. 30 min.

10. THE GREEN HILLS OF EARTH (1950-06-10) Account of blind singer of the space
ways that wants to return to Earth.
Tom Glazer put the words to tunes and
was backed by a trio in this
production. 30 min.

11. THERE WILL COME SOFT (1950-06-17) The first tale is a story of an
RAINS/ZERO HOUR automated house after a war. The
second tale is about children playing
a strange game all over the country, a
game they call "Invasion". Script by
George Lefferts. Cast included Denise
Alexander, Rita Lynne and Roger De
Koven. (Today was the beginning of
the Korean War!) 30 min.

12. DESTINATION MOON (1950-06-24) Under threat of governmental ban a
team of rocket men rush to get off to
the moon. The cast included Joe de
Santis and Wendell Holmes. (War
Bulletin From Korea About 3/4 Through) 30 min.

13. A LOGIC NAMED JOE (1950-07-01) Tale of computers that tend to most of
the needs of man. Suddenly they
overcome their electronic censors and
start attending to all of their needs.
Script by Claris Ross, NBC staff
writer. (War Bulletin at Start) 30 min.

14. MARS IS HEAVEN (1950-07-07) An expedition to Mars from Earth
discovers that the houses look like
Earth houses in the 1920's. Ernest
Kinoy adapted and featured in the cast
were Peter Kapell and Wendell Holmes. 30 min.

15. THE MAN IN THE MOON (1950-07-14) Story begins with a broadcast by the
Federal Missing Persons Bureau which
is interrupted by a sos. Triangulating
to locate the offender, they discover
that the message came from the Moon.
As of yet, no one has been to the
Moon. Script by George Lefferts and
featured in the cast were Luis Van
Rooten and Santos Ortega. 30 min.

16. BEYOND INFINITY (1950-07-21) A scientist in Europe has invented a
machine that will shrink objects to
the size of atoms and beyond. Original
script by Villiers Gersen and featured
in the cast were Les Damon, Lada
Staviski, E. A. Krumschmidt and Joe De
Santos. 30 min.

17. POTTERS OF FIRSK (1950-07-28) Story about natives of a remote world
who are mysterious about the beautiful
pottery they make, and for a good
reason. Script by Ernest Kinoy and
Karl Weber, Wendell Holmes and Raymond
Edward Johnson were in the cast. 30 min.

18. PERIGI'S WONDERFUL (1950-08-04) Tale about a government official whose
DOLLS daughter finds a doll maker in
Washington capable of producing dolls
that talk. Original script by George
Lefferts. The cast included Les
Tremaine, Joan Alexander and Joe De
Santis. 30 min.

19. THE CASTAWAYS (1950-08-11) Story begins with a test of a new bomb
on a Pacific Isle. The military is
having trouble with the natives who
will not leave because their ancestors
were "Castaways" from the "Bird
Canoe". Original script by Ernest
Kinoy and in the cast were Santos
Ortega, Greg Morton & many more. 30 min.

20.THE MARTIAN CHRONICALS (1950-08-18) Stories about the colonization of Mars.
This adaptation of Ray Bradbury's book
of related tales so titled is
skillfully brought to radio by Ernest
Kinoy and starred Inga Adams, Roger De
Koven and Donald Buka. 30 min.

21. THE PARADE (1950-08-25) Story involves the Martians hiring an
ad agency to stage a parade which will
herald their arrival. Original script
by George Lefferts and the cast
members were Joe Curten, Barry Kroger
and Alexander Scourby. 30 min.

22. THE ROADS MUST ROLL (1950-09-01) Drama about future when cars and
trucks are replaced by giant rolling
roads and the engineers who maintain
them. Script by Ernest Kinoy. In the
cast were Wendell Holmes, Ralph Bell
and many more. 30 min.

23. THE OUTER LIMIT (1950-09-08) Story of an experimental rocket plane
which disappears for ten hours when it
only had fuel for ten minutes. The
pilot tells an incredible story of an
alien contact. Graham Doar wrote the
original and Ernest Kinoy adapted it
to radio. Stars Joseph Julian, Wendell
Holmes and Joe DeSahtis.
Rebroadcast of 04/08/1950 program. 30min.

24. HELLO TOMORROW (1950-09-15) The tale takes place in the fourth
millennium, long after the atomic wars
have ravaged the surface back in the
second millennium. In the subterranean
society, the atomic mutants are
outcasts and the genetically pure
human strains mate scientifically.
Original story by George Lefferts. The
show starred Nancy Olson. (War
Bulletin at Start) 30 min.

25. DR. GRIMSHAW'S (1950-09-22)The narrator describes what follows as
SANATORIUM an account found in a fountain pen
cover. Then a detective tells the
story of how he discovered a phony
burial of an inmate of the titled
Sanitorium and got admitted as a
patient to find out the true story.
Script by George Lefferts and in the
cast were Karl Weber and Roger De
Koven. 30 min.

26. AND THE MOON BE STILL (1950-09-29) An expedition to Mars finds all the
AS BRIGHT Martians dead from chickenpox, brought
to Mars by earlier expeditions by the
Earth men. The Earth men enjoy
themselves in callous disregard of the
beautiful artifacts left behind,
except for one man who acts
differently. Script by Ernest Kinoy
and in the cast were Alexander Scourby
and Wendell Holmes. 30 min.

27. NO CONTACT (1950-10-28) Tale by George Lefferts involves a
frustrating barrier of some kind which
the Earth ships have crashed against
... or that's what Earth thinks!
Starring Luis van Rooten, Donald Buka
and Cameron Prud Homme. Rebroadcast
of 04/29/1950 program. 30 min.

28. THE PROFESSOR WAS A (1950-11-05) The story begins when a newspaper gets
THIEF a call saying Grant's Tomb has
disappeared, but came back. It happens
again and a reporter and salty
city-desk-man like in the old movies
goes for the story. Script by George
Lefferts and in the cast were Arthur
Maitland, John Larkin, and John Gibson
as the professor. 30min.

29. SHANGHIED (1950-11-12) Tale about a man who is kidnapped on
the evening before he is to be
married. The star ship he is put on is
one of the fleet he owns. Ernest Kinoy
scripted this tale. Stars John
Sylvester and Bill Griffis. 30 min.

30. COMPETITION (1950-11-19) The story about colonists that are
going to various worlds. Then they get
an announcement that they must choose
one world that they all will be put
on. Script by Ernest Kinoy and it
stars Les Tremaine and Elaine Ross. 30 min.

31. UNIVERSE (1950-11-26) Drama about inhabitants of a giant
spaceship that have been traveling so
many generations that they think the
ship is the universe. George Lefferts
scripted the tale and the large cast
included Mason Adams & Peter Kapeell. 30 min.

32. THE GREEN HILLS (1950-12-24) Account of blind singer of the space
OF EARTH ways that wants to return to Earth.
Tom Glazer put the words to tunes and
was backed by a trio in this
production. Although not a Christmas
Program, there is a Christmas message
by President Harry Truman at the
start. rebroadcast of 06/10/50. 30 min.

33. MARS IS HEAVEN (1951-01-07) An expedition to Mars from Earth
discovers that the houses look like
Earth houses in the 1920's. Ernest
Kinoy adapted and featured in the cast
were Peter Kapell and Wendell Holmes.
Rebroadcast of 07/07/1950 program. 30 min.

34. THE MARTIAN DEATH (1951-01-14) A Martian colonist's recollection of
MARCH an incident in his youth when he
accompanied the spider-like Martians
on their last trek from the
Earth-imposed reservations, back to
their mountain homes. Original story
by Ernest Kinoy. 30 min.

35. THE LAST OBJECTIVE (1951-06-03) The story about an underground
war-ship. Script by Ernest Kinoy and
in the cast were Lawson Zerbe, Ralph
Bell, Wendell Holmes and Jack Grimes. 30 min.

36. NIGHTMARE (1951-06-10) Tale of a computer operator's
discovery of an alarmingly increasing
rate of accidents. Original story by
George Lefferts with John Gibson and
Rita Lynne in the broadcast. 30 min.

37. A PEBBLE IN THE SKY (1951-06-17) Future when Earth is a backward
radioactive planet peopled by
inferiors while it's former colonies
rule the universe unaware of their
origins. Script by Ernest Kinoy. The
cast includes Santos Ortega & Susan
Douglas. 30 min.

38. CHILD'S PLAY (1951-06-24) Humorous tale of a man who
accidentally receives delivery of a
toy from the future, a " build-a-man
kit." George Lefferts adapted the
story and Leon Janney, Karl Weber and
Patsy Cambell were cast members. 30 min.

39. TIME AND TIME AGAIN (1951-07-12) Story takes place in the near future.
A soldier fighting on American soil is
wounded and transported back to 1945
where he is a thirteen year-old again
with his memory of the future intact.
Script adapted by Ernest Kinoy and the
cast included David Anderson and
Joseph Cotten. 30 min.

40. DWELLERS IN SILENCE (1951-07-19) Tale of Earth men returning to Earth
from colonies on Mars after nuclear
war wasted Earth. They come upon an
old scientist that has a young family.
George Lefferts did the script and
the cast members included Peter
Kapell, Bill Griffis and Gertrude
Warner. 30 min.

41. COURTESY (1951-07-26) Story about Earth explorers on the
planet Landro. They need a plague
serum they don't have and must get it
from the natives. 30 min.

42. UNIVERSE (1951-08-02) Drama about inhabitants of a giant
spaceship that have been traveling so
many generations that they think the
ship is the universe. George Lefferts
scripted the tale and the large cast
included Mason Adams & Peter Kapeell.
Rebroadcast of 11/26/1950 program. 30 min.

43. THE VELDT (1951-08-09) Futuristic house has a nursery and the
walls can be changed by the children
to any locale or give the illusion of
it. Script by Ernest Kinoy and the
cast included Leslie Wood, Bill Quinn,
Joan Alexander and Byat Alexander. 30 min.

44. THE VITAL FACTOR (1951-08-16) A ruthless tycoon desires space travel
at all costs. Lastly he finds a
scientist that has an anti-gravity
device. Cast members include Raymond
Edward Johnson, Luis Van Rooten and
John McGovern. 30 min.

45. UNTITLED STORY (1951-08-23) A politician who purchased an elixir
of life hires a detective to
investigate the seller. George
Lefferts did the script and it
included George Petrie, Ann Sargeant
and Bernard Lenrawl in the cast. 30 min.

46. MARIONETTES, INC. (1951-08-30) Husbands that want the night out have
androids that can replace them when
they are away. Scripted by George
Lefferts. The cast included Kermit
Murdock, Martin Rudy and Ross Martin. 30 min.

47. FIRST CONTACT (1951-09-08) Two ships meet in a remote galaxy
which is the home of neither. Both
want to follow each other home to see
where the other lives, but don't want
the other to know where they live.
Script by Howard Rodman. 30 min.

48. KALEIDOSCOPE (1951-09-15) Story of two men floating in space and
the woman on Earth awaiting the return
of one of them. George Lefferts
adapted the script. The cast included
Joan Alexander, Joe DeSantis and Leon
Janney. 30 min.

49. REQUIEM (1951-09-22) Tale of a millionaire that wants to
die on the Moon. Script by Ernest
Kinoy. The cast included Bill Quinn,
Rod Hendrickson and Own Jordan. 30 min.

50. NIGHTFALL (1951-09-29)
Story of a world where night only
takes place once in 2500 years due to
multiple suns. Night is approaching
and scientists are worried about what
takes place as records of the last
night don't exist. Script by Ernest
Kinoy. The cast included Cameron Prud
Homme and John McGovern. Last show
of the series. 30 min.

Brief History Of Computer Chess

2008-04-30T09:22:00.000-07:00

History of Computer Chess Video

Playing chess by computer began in the early 1950s, nearly as soon as computers became available. As a human activity, chess is believed to require thinking, yet in 1997 a massively-parallel supercomputer, drawing on over four decades of continual advances in both hardware and software, defeated the best human player in the world.Does playing chess require thinking? Or is human thinking perhaps a form of calculation, parts of which a computer can mimic? What is the tradeoff between knowledge and search? Was Claude Shannon's 1950 prediction that studying computer chess might lead to applications in other areas fulfilled? This panel, comprising seminal contributors to the solution of this challenge including two of AI's leading pioneerswill discuss these and other questions as well as the origin and development of computer chess and what it tells us about ourselves and the machines we build."

Computer Chess History Timeline by Bill Wall Link reproduced here 'cause geocities is flaky.

In 1945 Alan Turing (1912-1954) used chess-playing as an example of what a computer could do. Turing himself was a weak chess player.
In 1946 Alan Turing made his first reference to machine intelligence in connection with chess-playing.
In 1947, Alan Turing specified the first chess program for chess.
In 1948 the UNIVAC computer was advertised as the strongest computer in the world. So strong, that it could play chess and gin rummy so perfectly that no human opponent could beat it.
In 1948 Turing challenged Donald Michie to see who could first write a simple chess-playing algorithm.
In March, 1949 Claude Shannon (1916-2001) described how to program a computer and a Ferranti digital machine was programmed to solve mates in two moves. He proposed basic strategies for restricting the number of possibilities to be considered in a game of chess. Shannon was an avid chess player. He first proposed his idea of programming a computer for chess at the National Institute for Radio Engineers (IRE) Convention in New York.
In 1950, Alan Turing wrote the first computer chess program. The same year he proposed the Turing Test that in time, a computer could be programmed (such as playing chess) to acquire abilities rivalling human intelligence. If a human did not see the other human or computer during an imitation game such as chess, he/she would not know the difference between the human and the computer.
In 1950 Shannon devised a chess playing program that appeared in the paper "Programming a computer for playing chess" published in Philosophical Magazine, Series 7, Vol. 41 (No. 314, March 1950). This was the first article on computer chess.
In November 1951, Dr. Dietrich Prinz wrote the original chess playing program for the Manchester Ferranti computer. The program could solve simple mates in two moves.
In 1952 Alick Glennie, who wrote the first computer compiler, defeated Alan Turing's chess program, TurboChamp. He was the first person to beat a computer program at chess. Turing never finished his chess-playing program.
In 1953 Turing included an example of his chess program in action in chapter 25 (Digital Computers Applied to Games) of the book Faster than Thought by B. Bowden.
By 1956 experiments on a Univac MANIAC I computer (11,000 operations a second) at Los Alamos, using a 6x6 chessboard, was playing chess. This was the first documented account of a running chess program. It used a chess set without bishops. It took 12 minutes to search 4 moves deep. Adding the two bishops would have taken 3 hours to search 4 moves deep. MANIAC I had a memory of 600 words, storage of 80K, 11KHz speed, and had 2,400 vacuum tubes. The team that programmed MANIAC was led by Stan Ulam.
In 1957 a chess program was written by Alex Bernstein at MIT for an IBM 704. It could do 42,000 instructions per second and had a memory of 70 K. This was the first full-fledged game of chess by a computer. It did a 4-ply search in 8 minutes.
In 1957 Herbert Simon said that within 10 years, a digital computer would be the world's chess champion.
In 1958 the alpha-beta pruning algorithm for chess was discovered by three scientists at Carnegie-Mellon (Allen Newell, John Shaw, and Herbert Simon). Here is how it works. A computer evaluates a move and starts working on its second move. As soon a a single line shows that it will return a lower value than the first move, it can terminate the search. You could now chop off large parts of the search tree without affecting the final results.
In 1958, a chess program (NSS) beat a human player for the first time. The human player was a secretary who was taught how to play chess one hour before her game with the computer. The computer program was played on an IBM 704. The computer displayed a level of chess-playing expertise greater than an adult human could gain from one hour of chess instruction.
In 1959 some of the first chess computer programmers predicted that a chess computer would be world chess champion before 1970.
In 1962 the first MIT chess program was written. It was the first chess program that played regular chess credibly. It was written by Alan Kotok for his B.S. thesis project, assisted by John McCarthy of Stanford. The program ran on an IBM 7090, looking at 1100 positions per second.
In 1963 world chess champion Botvinnik predicted that a Russian chess playing program would eventually defeat the World Champion.
In 1965 the Soviets designed a chess program developed at the Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics (ITEP) in Moscow. ITEP's programming team was led by Georgi Adelson-Velskiy.
On November 22, 1966 a USSR chess program began a correspondence match with the Kotok-McCarthy MIT chess program. The match lasted 9 months and was won by the Soviet computer, with 3 wins and 1 loss.
The first chess computer to play in a tournament was MAC HACK VI (DEC PDP-6) written at MIT in assembly language (MIDAS) by Richard Greenblatt. The computer entered the 1966 Massachussets Amateur championship, scoring 1 draw and 4 losses for a USCF rating of 1243.
In the spring of 1967, MacHACK VI became the first program to beat a human (1510 USCF rating), at the Massachussets State Championship. By the end of the year, it had played in four chess tournaments. It won 3 games, lost 12, and drew 3. In 1967 MacHACK VI was made an honorary member of the US Chess Federation. The MAC HACK program was the first widely distributed chess program, running on many of the PDP machines. It was also the first to have an opening chess book programmed with it.
In 1968 International Master David Levy made a $3,000 bet that no chess computer would beat him in 10 years. He won his bet. The original bet was with John McCarthy, a distinguished researcher in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford. The bet was made at the 1968 Machine Intelligence Workshop in Edinburgh University.
In 1970 the first all-computer championship was held in New York and won by CHESS 3.0 (CDC 6400), a program written by Slate, Atkin and Gorlen at Northwestern University. Six programs had entered the first Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) North American Computer Championships. The event was organized by Monty Newborn. The other programs were DALY CP, J Brit, COKO III, SCHACH, and the Marsland CP.
In 1971 the Institute of Control Science, Moscow, created KAISSA using a British computer to play chess.
In 1971 Ken Thompson wrote his first chess-playing program.
In 1971 CHESS 3.5 wins the 2nd ACM computer championship, held in Chicago.
In 1972 CHESS 3.6 wins the 3rd ACM computer championship, held in Boston.
In 1973 CHESS 4.0 wins the 4th ACM computer championship, held in Atlanta.
In 1974 World Correspondence Champion Hans Berliner wrote his PhD dissertation on "Chess Computers as Problem Solving."
In 1974 KAISSA (ICL 4/70) won the first world computer chess championship, held in Stockholm with a perfect 4-0 score. It was programmed by Donskoy and Arlazarov. 2nd place went to CHESS 4.0
In 1974 RIBBIT wins the 5th ACM computer championship, held in San Diego.
In 1975 Grandmaster David Bronstein used the endgame database in KAISSA to win an adjourned game in a tournament in Vilnius.
In 1975 CHESS 4.4 wins the 6th ACM computer championship, held in Minneapolis.
In 1976 CHESS 4.5 won the Class B section of the Paul Masson tournament in Northern California. The performance rating was 1950.
In 1976 a computer program was used to make the chess pairings at the chess olympiad in Haifa.
In 1976 CHESS 4.5 wins the 7th ACM computer championship, held in Houston.
By 1976 all legal moves of castling were established by a chess computer.
In 1977 the first microcomputer chess playing machine, CHESS CHALLENGER, was created. The International Computer Chess Association (ICCA) was founded by computer chess programmers. It has about 400 members.
In 1977 CHESS 4.5 won the Minnesota Open winning 5 games and losing one. It had a performance rating of 2271. Stenberg (1969) became the first Class A player to lose to a computer.
In 1977 SNEAKY PETE was the first chess computer to play in a U.S. Open, held in Columbus, Ohio.
In 1977 Michael Stean became the first grandmaster to lose to a computer; it was a blitz game.
In 1977, BELLE was the first computer system to use custom design chips to increase its playing strength. It increased its search speed from 200 positions per second to 160,000 positions per second (8 ply). Over 1,700 integrated ciruits were used to construct BELLE. The chess computer was built by Ken Thompson. The program was later used to solve endgame problems. The cost of BELLE was $20,000.
In 1977 CHESS 4.6 wins the 8th ACM computer championship, held in Seattle.
In 1977 CHESS 4.6 won the 2nd world computer championship, held in Toronto.
In 1977 the International Computer Chess Association was founded.
In 1977 David Levy played his first computer, KAISSA, as part of his bet. He won.
In 1978 SARGON won the first tournament for microcomputers, held in San Jose. David Levy collected his 10 year bet by defeating CHESS 4.7 in Toronto with the score of 3 wins and one draw. The drawn game was the first time a computer drew an international master. Computer chess experts predicted that a computer would be world chess champion in 10 years.
In 1978 BELLE wins the 9th ACM computer champonship, held in Washington, DC.
In 1978 David Levy defeated MacHack in 2 games.
In 1979 CHESS 4.9 wins the 10th ACM computer championship, held in Detroit.
In 1980 CHAMPION SENSORY CHALLENGER won the first world microcomputer championship, held in London.
In 1980, Edward Fredkin created the Fredkin Prize for Computer Chess. The award came with $100,000 for the first program to beat a reigning world chess champion.
In 1980 BELLE wins the 11th ACM computer championship, held in Nashville.
In 1980 BELLE won the 3rd world computer championship, held in Linz.
In 1981 CRAY BLITZ won the Mississipi State Championship with a perfect 5-0 score and a performance rating of 2258. In round 4 it defeated Joe Sentef (2262) to become the first computer to beat a master in tournament play and the first computer to gain a master rating (2258).
In 1981 BELLE wins the 12th ACM computer championship, held in Los Angeles.
In 1982 BELLE was confiscated by the State Department as it was heading to the Soviet Union to participate in a computer chess tournament. The State Department claimed it was a violation of a technology transfer law to ship a high technology computer to a foreign country. BELLE later played in the U.S. Open speed championship and took 2nd place.
By 1982 computer chess companies were topping $100 million in sales.
In 1982 BELLE wins the 13th ACM computer championship, held in Dallas.
In 1983, the first chess microcomputer beat a master in tournament play. BELLE became the first chess computer to attain a master's rating when, in October, 1983, its USCF rating was 2203.
In 1983 CRAY BLITZ won the 4th world computer championship, held in New York.
In 1984 a microcomputer won a tournament for the first time against mainframes, held in Canada.
In 1984 CRAY BLITZ won the ACM computer championship in San Francisco.
In 1985 HITECH achieved a performace rating of 2530. It was the first computer to have a rating over 2400.
In 1985 Kasparov played 15 of the top chess computers in Hamburg, Germany and won every game, with the score of 32-0.
In 1985 HITECH won the ACM computer championship in Denver.
In 1986 BELLE won the ACM computer championship in Dallas.
In 1986 CRAY BLITZ won the 5th world computer championship, held in Cologne.
In 1987 the U.S. Amateur Championship became the first national championship to be directed by a computer program.
In 1987 CHIPTEST-M won the ACM computer championship in Dallas.
In 1988 DEEP THOUGHT and Grandmaster Tony Miles shared first place in the U.S. Open championship. DEEP THOUGHT had a 2745 performance rating.
In 1988 HITECH won the Pennsylvania State Chess Championship after defeating International Master Ed Formanek (2485). HITECH defeated Grandmaster Arnold Denker in a match. HITECH became the first chess computer to rated Grandmaster strength.
In 1988 Grandmaster Bent Larsen became the first GM to lose to a computer in a major tournament - the American Open.
In 1988 DEEP THOUGHT won the ACM championship in Orlando.
In November 1988, DEEP THOUGHT had a rating of 2550.
In 1989 DEEP THOUGHT won the 6th world computer championship in Edmonton, with a 5-0 score. DEEP THOUGHT defeated Grandmaster Robert Byrne in a match game. DEEP THOUGHT can analyze 2 million positions a second. In March 1989, Garry Kasparov defeated Deep Thought in a match by winning 2 games. Deep Thought easily beat International Master David Levy in a match with 4 wins. Deep Thought Developers claimed a computer would be world chess champion in three years.
In 1989 the first Computer Chess Olympiad was held in London.
In 1989 IBM started working on 'Big Blue' and later Deep Blue.
In 1989 HITECH won the ACM championship in Reno.
In 1990 World Champion Anatoly Karpov lost to MEPHISTO in a simultaneous exhibition in Munich. MEPHISTO also beat grandmasters Robert Huebner and David Bronstein. MEPHISTO won the German blitz championship and earned an International Master norm by scoring 7-4 in the Dortmund Open.
In 1992 Kasparov played Fritz 2 in a 5 minute game match in Cologne, Germany. Kasparov won the match with 6 wins, 1 draw, and 4 losses. This was the first time a program defeated a world champion at speed chess.
In March, 1993 GM Judit Polgar lost to Deep Thought in a 30 minute game.
In 1994 WCHESS became the first computer to outperform grandmasters at the Harvard Cup in Boston.
In 1994 Kasparov lost to Fritz 3 in Munich in a blitz tournament. The program also defeated Anand, Short, Gelfand, and Kramnik. Grandmaster Robert Huebner refused to play it and lost on forfeit, the first time a GM has forfeited to a computer. Kasparov played a second match with Fritz 3, and won with 4 wins, 2 draws, and no losses.
At the 1994 Intel Speed Chess Grand Priz in London, Kasparov lost to Chess Genius 2.95 in a 25 minute game. This eliminated Kasparov from the tournament.
The 13th World Micro Computer Chess Championship (WMCCC) was held in Paderborn, Germany in October, 1995. It was won by MChess Pro 5.0 (by Marty Hirsch) after a playoff with Chess Genius (by Richard Lang).
The 8th World Computer Chess Championships were held in May, 1995 in Hong Kong. The event was won by Fritz, after it won a playoff game against StarSocrates.
In November 1995, Kasparov beat Fritz 4 in London with a win and a draw. He then played Genius 3.0 in Cologne and won the match with one win and one draw.
The 6th Harvard Cup Human Versus Computer chess challenge was held in New York in December, 1995. The Grandmasters won with a score of 23.5 to the computers 12.5 score. The computers scored 35%, a slight decrease in performance from 1994. Joel Benjamin and Michael Rohde had the best human scores with 4.5 out of 6. The best machine was Virtual Chess (I-Motion Interactive) with 3.5 out of 6.
In February 1996, Garry Kasparov beat IBM's DEEP BLUE chess computer 4-2 in Philadelphia. Deep Blue won the first game, becoming the first computer ever to beat a world chess champion at tournament level under serious tournament conditions. Deep Blue was calculating 50 billion positions every 3 minutes. Kasparov was calculating 10 positions every 3 minutes. DEEP BLUE had 200 processors.
The 11th AEGON Computer Chess Tournament (Mankind vs Machine) was held on April 10-17, 1996 in The Hague, Netherlands. There were 50 masters, International Masters, and Grandmasters and 50 computers (most playing on HP Pentium-166 machines with 16MB of RAM). Yasser Seirawan won the event with 6 straight wins and no losses. The best computer was QUEST, with 4.5/6 and a 2652 performance rating. The machines won with 162.5 points versus the humans with 137.5 points.
The 14th World Microcomputer chess championship was held in Jakarta in October, 1996. It was won by SHREDDER, followed by FERRET.
On May 11 1997, DEEP BLUE defeated Garry Kasparov in a 6 game match held in New York. This was the first time a computer defeated a reigning world champion in a classical chess match. DEEP BLUE had 30 IBM RS-6000 SP processors coupled to 480 chess chips. It could evaluate 200 million moves per second.
In November, 1997 Junior won the 15th World Micro Computer Championship. The event was held in Paris.
In 1997, the Allen Newell Medal for Research Excellence went to several people involved in computer chess. Ken Thompson and Joe Condon won for their pioneering work on Belle, the first master in 1983. Richard Greenblatt won for having developed MacHack VI in 1967, the first Class C chess computer. Lawrence Atkin and David Slate won for developing CHESS 4.7, the first Class B and first Expert chess computer from 1970 to 1978. Murray Campbell, Carl Ebeling, and Gordon Goetsch won for developing Hitech, the first Senior Master computer in 1988. Hans Berliner won for all his work in computer chess. Feng Hsu won for developing Deep Thought, the first chess computer that performed at a Grandmaster level in 1988. Thomas Anantharaman, Michael Browne, Murray Campbell, and Andreas Nowatzyk won for their work on Deep Thought in 1997. Murray Campbell, A. Joseph Hoane, Jr, and Feng Hsu won for their work on Deep Blue which defeated Garry Kasaparov in 1997.
In 1997 the $100,000 Fredkin Award went to the inventors of Deep Blue - Feng Hsu, Murray Campbell, and Joseph Hoane, of IBM. Their program defeat Kasparov.
The 9th World Computer Championship was held in Paderborn, Germany from June 14, 1999 to June 19, 1999. The winner was Shredder. This was also the 16th World Microcomputer Chess Championship, won by Shredder.
In 1999 the highest rated chess computer is Hiarcs 7.0, followed by Fritz 5.32, Fritz 5.0, Junior 5.0, Nimzo 98, Hiarcs 6.0, Rebel 9.0, MChess Pro 7.1, Rebel 8.0, and MChess Pro 6.0 (based on SSDF ratings as of Jan 28, 1999).
In August 2000, Deep Junior took part in the Super-Grandmaster tournament in Dortmund. It scored 50 percent and a performance rating of 2703.
In 2000 the 17th World Microcomputer Chess Championship was held in London. It was won by Shredder.
In August, 2001, Deep Junior won the World Micro Computer Championship. The event was held in the Netherlands.
From May 13 to May 18, 2002, a match between Grandmaster Mikhail Gurevich and Junior 7 was held in Greece. Junior won with 3 wins and 1 draw.
On July 6-11, 2002, the 10th World Computer Championship was held in Maastricht, Netherlands. The winner was Deep Junior after a playoff with Shredder.
In October, 2002, Kramnik drew a match with Deep Fritz in Bahrain with a 4-4 score. Kramnik won games 2 and 3. Deep Fritz won games 5 and 6. The rest of the games (1, 7, and 8) were drawn.
From January 26 to February 7, 2003, Kasparov played Deep Junior 7 in New York. The match ended in a draw. Kasparov won game 1. Deep Junior won game 3. The rest of the games (games 2, 4, 5, and 6) were drawn. This was the first time that a man/machine competition was sanctioned by FIDE, the World Chess Federation. Deep Junior took 10 years to program by Tel Aviv programmers Amir Ban and Shay Bushinksy. It can evaluate 3 million moves a second, and positions 15 moves deep.
On November 11-18, 2003, Kasparov played X3dFritz in New York. The match was tied 2-2. Fritz won the 2nd game. Kasparov won the 3rd game. Games 1 and 4 were drawn. It was the first official world chess championship in total virtual reality, played in 3-D.
The 11th World Computer Chess Championship was held in Graz from November 22 to November 30, 2003. It was won by Shredder after a play-off with Deep Fritz. 3rd place went to Brutus, which evolved into Hydra.
In 2003 the top chess computers were Shredder 7.04 (2810), Shredder 7.0 (2770), Fritz 8.0 (2762), Deep Fritz 7.0 (2761), Fritz 7.0 (2742), Shredder 6.0 (2724), and Chess Tiger 15.0 (2720).
The 12th World Computer Chess Championship was held at Bar-llan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel from July 4 to July 12, 2004. It was won by Deep Junior (programmed by Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky). Shredder took 2nd place, followed by Diep. Shredder won the 12th World Computer Speed Chess Championship. Crafty took 2nd place.
In 2004, Hydra defeated GM Evgeny Vladimirov with 3 wins and 1 draw. It then defeated former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov (rated 2710) in a 2-game match, winning both games.
In June, 2005, Hydra beat Michael Adams, the 7th ranked chess player in the world. Hydra won 5 games and drew one game.
The 13th World Computer Chess Championship was held at Reykjavik University in Iceland from August 13 to August 21, 2005. It was won by Zappa (programmed by Athony Cozzie). 2nd place went to Fruit. Shredder won the speed championship, followed by Zappa.
In 2005, a team of computers (Hydra, Deep Junior, and Fritz) beat Vesilin Topalov, Ruslan Ponomariov, and Sergey Karjakin (average rating 2681) in a match by the score of 8.5 to 3.5.
The 14th World Computer Chess Championship was be held in Turin, Italy from May 24 through June 1, 2006. It was won by Junior, rated at 2800, with a score of 9 out of 11. 2nd place went to Shredder (2810), followed by Rajlich (2820).
In December, 2006, world champion Vladimir Kramnik was defeated by Deep Fritz, which won with a 4-2 score (2 wins and 4 draws).
The 15th World Computer Chess Championship was held in June, 2007, in Amsterdam and sponsored by the International Computer Games Association (ICGA). The winner was the USA program Rybka ("little fish"), programmed by Internatonal Master Vasik Rajlich, with a score of 10 out of 11 (defeating Shredder in the last round). 2nd place went to the USA program Zappa, programmed by Anthony Cozziem with 9 points. 3rd place went to Loop, with 7.5 points. Defending champion Junior, nor Fritz, did not participate. The German program Shredder won the blitz world championship.
In June, 2007, the "Ultimate Computer Challenge" was held in Elista. Deep Junior defeated Depp Fritz with the score of 4-2 (2 wins, 4 draws).
In August, 2007, Grandmaster Joel Benjamin played a match with Rybka in which Rybka played without one of its pawns (pawn odds). Rybka won the match 4.5 - 3.5 (2 wins, 1 loss, 5 draws for Rybka).
In December, 2007, Hiarcs won over tiebreaks against Rybka, with a score of 5.5 out of 7 at the 17th International Paderborn Computer Chess Championship.
In January, 2008, Rybka defeated GM Joel Benjamin with a 6-2 score. Joel had White in every game. Also, every draw was scored as a win for Benjamin.
In March, 2008, Rybka and Dzindzichashvili drew 4-4 in their match. Rybka won 2, lost 2, with 4 draws. Dzindzichashvili had White every game and Rybka played without one of its pawns in every game.
The 16th World Computer Chess Championship will be held in Beijing, China in September, 2008.

Other Resources:

The Computer History Museum has a nice Exhibit.

Yes, another Wikipedia article.

A short bur nice history over at Chessbase.com

http://www.cs.uwaterloo.ca/~alopez-o/divulge/chimp.html has a nice history with descriptions of basic algorithms used by chess programs.

http://www.lokasoft.nl/jchess/chessgame.htm Nice java applet to play chess and you can even put it on your own site.

http://www.java-chess.de/ gpl java based chess game to practice on.

Computer History Video Edsac, Ordvac, Illiac, Edsac2, Titan... Very long. (126 minutes)

2008-04-29T12:32:00.001-07:00

From Google:

David Wheeler will describe some of his early experiences from 1947 onward after having been inspired by a lecture about the ENIAC by Douglas Hartree. In the early years, he was involved in the software and hardware design of Edsac (1949), Ordvac (1951), Illiac (1952), Edsac2 (1953), Titan (1959), and other early machines. At Berkeley in 1965, he designed the multiplexer for connecting on-line terminals to the CDC 6500 Supercomputer. This was his first use of integrated circuits which, at the time, had only two NAND gates per chip! David was trained as a mathematician, but always had the aim of getting things practically right rather than theoretically correct. Join us for a unique, revealing look at the early events that influenced him."

Flatland and Geometry

2008-04-29T08:44:00.000-07:00

"[The universe} is written in the language of mathematics , and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures..."
--Galileo Galilei

This is a really neat book I read years ago that is not only a funny book of victorian satire, but also a really short easy read primer on geometry of higher dimensions.

Check out the flatland book at Google Books
Contemporary Reviews
Wikipedia article on Flatland

From Wikipedia:
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 novella by Edwin A. Abbott, still popular among mathematics and computer science students, and considered useful reading for people studying topics such as the concept of other dimensions. As a piece of literature, Flatland is respected for its satire on the social hierarchy of Victorian society. Isaac Asimov, in a foreword to one of the many publications of the novella, wrote that it is "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions."

There are a couple of movie versions floating around, I caw a preview for a good looking one on you tube but haven't seen the movie as it is $29 and is not exactly blockbuster video kind of fare. Check out the movie site at http://www.flatlandthemovie.com/

Flatland Movie Preview.

Tangram History, Templates and Online Versions

2008-04-25T08:21:00.000-07:00

The following text is from http://www.tangrams.ca/, Sorry I forgot to credit them when I posted......

The invention of the tangram puzzle is unrecorded in history. The earliest known Chinese book is dated 1813 but the puzzle was very old by then. One reason for this could be that in China, it's country of origin, at the time it was considered a game for women and children. This would have made it unworthy of "serious" study and unlikely to be written about. Different times, different ways of thinking. Glad that's changing.
The roots of the word Tangram are also shrouded in time, with a number of possible explanations. The one I like best involves the Tanka people. These river people of China were great traders who were involved in the opium trade. The western sailors they traded opium to likely played with the puzzle when they visited their Tanka girlfriends. The story I believe is that it comes from the obsolete English word "tramgram" meaning puzzle or trinket.
Tangrams enjoyed a surge of interest during the 19th century in Europe and America.This, no doubt, was due to the opening up of trade with China and the aforementioned sailors bringing home new found amusements. "The Chinese Puzzle" spawned a flood of books and picture card sets. Some quite elaborate Chinese examples exist with pieces carved from and/or inlaid with ivory, jade and other fine materials. Others were cheap, locally made copies in wood or fired clay. Some books blindly reproduced previous mistakes in the patterns. Some things never change.
In 1903, Sam Loyd wrote his great spoof of tangram history, The Eighth Book Of Tan. He had many people convinced that the game was invented 4000 years ago by the god Tan. According to Loyd, the first 7 Books Of Tan were linked with many famous people and historical events. All very convincing and it made Sam a lot of money. Later examination showed it to be a colossal joke. The book did catalog over 600 patterns, many by Loyd himself. He also introduced (along with H. F. Dudeney) the idea of paradoxes.
Fu Tsiang Wang and Chuan-chin Hsiung mathematically proved in 1942 the existance of a finite set of patterns refered to as "convex." In this context, it means that there are no indentations along the outside edge. There are only 13 silhouettes that qualify. Other finite sets may exist.
Tangrams continue to entertain and frustrate now days. The puzzle attracts people on a number of levels. It gets the math inclined with the geometry and ratios of the pieces. The figures spark visually inclined people though their form, liveliness and striking simplicity. It is one of the classic puzzles, appealing to young and old, the serious and the carefree. Go make one and enjoy it.
Tangrams is an ancient art. The story goes that this form of recreation has never been improved upon since the legendary Chinaman Tan first conceived of it. In Chinese this puzzle is called ch'i ch'iao t'u. This translates to 'ingenious-puzzle figure of seven pieces'. Lewis Carroll was reputed to have been a great fan of tangrams. He is said to have had in his possession a Chinese book made of tissue paper which had 323 tangram designs in it. Whatever the origins, this excellent puzzle game is still widely used today. To play you simply need to rearrange the seven forms to exactly reproduce the given image. These images are either geometric in nature or patterned after a familiar object. It is not as easy as it first appears. This is an excellent exercise in spatial coordination and being able to discern the whole from its randomly scattered parts. This develops spatial pattern recognition.
From Enchanted Mind (see their web site).

Cool Links:

http://w ww.tangrams.ca/download/tangrams.pdf Nice .pdf with a few dozen tangram puzzles to solve.

http://www.funorama.com/files/tangram.pdf Just a large colored tangram pattern to print and cut out.

http://enchantedmind.com/puzzles/tangram/tangram.html has a nice Java applet with puzzles to solve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram the wikipedia article on tangram

http://www.tangrams.ca/ History, template and 100 puzzles for you to try.

http://games.ztor.com/tang/ A flash based tangram game with many puzzles.

http://cs.bmcc.cc.or.us/mth213/Labs/online%20tangrams.htm another java tangram

Try the One Billion Silhouettes site for many patterns.

Star Trek TAS: The Slaver Weapon

2008-04-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

Most people don't seem to know that there even was an Animated Star Trek series, well there was from 1973-1974 on NBC. Although the entire series ran for only 22 episodes, some were really pretty good because you weren't confined by the limited special effects of the time. The episode presented here is my absolute favorite because it combined both Trek and the Known Space mythos of Larry Niven. If you haven't read any of his work, start with some short stories and then read the Ringworld series. (Inferno, although not known space is also very good and is a sort of retelling of Dante's Inferno)

Useful Background Information:

http://www.larryniven.org/knownspace.shtml Has THE overview of Known Space and all it entails, from the man himself.
http://66.113.217.85/AnimatedSeries/Main.html A very complete guide to TAS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Animated_Series Wikipedia article on TAS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Known_Space Wikipedia article on Known Space

Episode Synopsis:

The Following synopsis is from the text from the Curt Danhauser's fansite at http://66.113.217.85/AnimatedSeries/Main.html

This episode was a landmark in that it crossed over into Larry Niven's Known Space universe.
As related by Larry Niven in his 1991 book Playgrounds of the Mind, in 1973, Dorothy C. Fontana asked Niven to write an episode of the animated STAR TREK series. His first story treatment involved quantum black holes and the Outsiders - a very alien species which were built like a black cat-o'-nine-tails using photoelectric metabolism. Fontana advised him that the story wouldn't work. His second attempt proved to be "too bloody." While at Gene Roddenberry's house one afternoon, Gene suggested that Larry Niven rewrite his short story "The Soft Weapon" which had been reprinted in 1968 in Neutron Star a collection of Larry Niven's stories. This third attempt became the finished episode "The Slaver Weapon." Interestingly, Niven's first idea which involved quantum black holes, formed the basis for his story "The Borderland of Sol" which was first published in the January 1975 issue of Analog magazine (see left). "The Borderland of Sol" was such an excellent story, that it won the 1976 Hugo award (pictured right) for best novelette.

This was the only episode of the original and animated series in which neither the Enterprise nor Captain Kirk appeared. Only series regulars Spock, Sulu and Uhura appeared in this episode.

Rarely, if ever, in a Saturday morning cartoon show are people or even animals seriously harmed or killed. However, in this episode, when the Slaver weapon self destructs, the explosion kills four of the Kzinti. Once again, this was not just another kids' show.

The Kzinti police cruiser ship seen in this episode was pink in color. When asked why the fearsome Kzinti warriors would be flying around in a pink ship, series director Hal Sutherland (pictured) replied that he hadn't realized that the production department had made the ship pink since he was color blind.

The Slaver device was an espionage agent's weapon which could change shape to become several different tools such as a laser, a computer, a telescope and an immensely powerful total-conversion beam.

Life-support belts played an important part in this episode. Spock, Sulu and Uhura used the belts to allow them to venture onto a small icy, airless planetoid. The life-support belts were used on the animated series as a cost cutting device. In order to be able to produce an animated half-hour series in the 1970's with a very limited budget, the production company had to take as many short cuts as possible. These include limiting action to a minimum and recycling sequences of drawings. So, rather than draw a new sequence of Kirk and Spock walking with spacesuits on, they would reuse a sequence of the two walking and would just draw on the belts and add a glowing outline around their bodies.

Kzin hand phasers were shown in this episode, and they looked just like Federation phasers, but were red in color.

The Slavers and their empire, which were mentioned in this episode and in the original short story, first appeared in the 1965 novella "World of Ptavvs" by Larry Niven which was published in the March 1965 issue of Worlds of Tomorrow magazine. The actual name of the Slaver species, which was not mentioned in the animated episode, was the Thrint.
There was a visual error in this episode: when the back doors of the Copernicus were shown openning from behind, they disappeared impossibly on each side of the ship. (Picture showing this error, 36KB jpeg).

In another visual error in this episode: Spock's life-support belt spontaneously vanished in one scene.

"The Slaver Weapon" was novelized by Alan Dean Foster in Star Trek Log Ten published by Ballantine Books in January 1978, bringing Larry Niven's short story full circle. The entire book was devoted to this one episode.

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Stargate Continuum Interview and Trailer

2008-04-23T08:22:00.000-07:00

The interview teaser..

And The Trailer..

Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars (Episode IV)

2008-04-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

You read it correctly, episode IV as in 4.... yes, the original movie from 1977.

youtube.com — From 1977. "The computer graphics for the first Star Wars film was created by Larry Cuba in the 1970s at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) (at the time known as the Circle Graphics Habitat) at the University of Illinois at Chicago."

The Linux Magic Sysrq - Help with a locked Linux Box

2008-04-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

If you have ever had your Linux box lock up hard on you, you may find the following key sequence helpful, if you remembered to enable it in the kernal (CONFIG_MAGIC_SYSRQ). Don't enable this on a public box because anybody will have the power to just reboot the machine from the keyboard!

Be sure to hold down ALL the keys at once!!

Alt+SysRq+s - sync the disk

Alt+SysRq+e - try to nicely kill processes (be patient)

Alt+SysRq+i - kill all processes, execpt for init

Alt+SysRq+u - unmount disks (be patient again)

Alt+SysRq+b - reboot

'r' - Turns off keyboard raw mode and sets it to XLATE.

'k' - Secure Access Key (SAK) Kills all programs on the current virtual
console. NOTE: See important comments below in SAK section.

'b' - Will immediately reboot the system without syncing or unmounting
your disks.

'o' - Will shut your system off (if configured and supported).

's' - Will attempt to sync all mounted filesystems.

'u' - Will attempt to remount all mounted filesystems read-only.

'p' - Will dump the current registers and flags to your console.

't' - Will dump a list of current tasks and their information to your
console.

'm' - Will dump current memory info to your console.

'0'-'9' - Sets the console log level, controlling which kernel messages
will be printed to your console. ('0', for example would make
it so that only emergency messages like PANICs or OOPSes would
make it to your console.)

'e' - Send a SIGTERM to all processes, except for init.

'i' - Send a SIGKILL to all processes, except for init.

'l' - Send a SIGKILL to all processes, INCLUDING init. (Your system
will be non-functional after this.)

'h' - Will display help (any other key than those listed
above will display help)

The Star Wars Holiday Special- Really Really Bad...

2008-04-21T08:41:00.000-07:00

This special came out in 1978 and the only saving grace in the whole damm thing is a cartoon in which Bobba Fett makes his screen debut. I mean this thing is even worse than the Ewok Adventure. What was george thinking anyways... "Ya know- I like how Star Wars turned out and all, but I really think we need someone like Bea Arthur to take it to the next level." You can just tell that Harrison Ford was under contractual obligation and Mark Hammil looks like he has a drag queen's wig on... just watch, but be warned - you can never get that hour back.

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Part 5

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Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

New Pictures of Space junk available from ESA

2008-04-11T10:12:00.000-07:00

From the European Space Agency-

Between the launch of Sputnik on 4 October 1957 and 1 January 2008, approximately 4600 launches have placed some 6000 satellites into orbit, of which about 400 are travelling beyond geostationary orbit or on interplanetary trajectories.Today, it is estimated that only 800 satellites are operational - roughly 45 percent of these are both in LEO and GEO. Space debris comprise the ever-increasing amount of inactive space hardware in orbit around the Earth as well as fragments of spacecraft that have broken up, exploded or otherwise become abandoned. About 50 percent of all trackable objects are due to in-orbit explosion events (about 200) or collision events (less than 10).

The picture above isn't one of the actual ones from ESA and dosen't do this growing problem justice. Check out the Pictures Here

Thumb wars.. Funniest Star Wars Parody Ever.

2008-04-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

"It is a time of great unrest in the Universe. Using the nail side of the power of the Thumb, the Evil Thumbpire has taken a stronghold in the Sacul region of the Egroeg sector."

Star Wars parodies are almost as popular as the actual movies, and this is one of the best, originally aired on UPN in late 1999, the under thirty minute film features fully costumed thumbs with eyes and mouths superimposed (i.e. thumbation) to a slightly disturbing and hilarious effect. I won't give away the jokes, but as you can imagine many revolve around thumbs and such. Very Funny and worth 30 minutes of the time your boss is paying you for anyway.

Buy It Now from Amazon.

Make the African String Puzzle!

2008-04-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Folks over at WoodPuzzles.com Here usually craft fine puzzles for the dedicated solver, well they have posted some pdf's with directions to make your own copies of some of the simpler, classic ones. These are puzzles you have more than likely run into at one time or another and they are all pretty easy to build with a wide range of materials from kid friendly to rather professional looking.
The puzzle shown is often known as the 'African String Puzzle' and all you have to do is move the rings to the same side, not too hard, but more difficult than you would at first think.

Really Simple Computer Desk to Build.....

2008-04-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

I found this neat desk to build Here I'm Gonna be building it myself soon, looks really easy and functional.

Materials:

one sheet of 3/4" plywood, (best quality you can afford, ask them to cut it for you)
one 2X4, 8ft. long
two 15" 1x6 pieces
three 14 1/4" 1X6 pieces (see note #1below)
one 46 1/2" 1X6
drywall screws, 1 5/8" and 2", (my hardware guy said to use drywall screws for plywood)
sandpaper
construction glue, (I prefer liquid nails, see note #2 below)
wood filler

The Missing Dollar....

2008-04-07T08:12:00.000-07:00

A friend just told me this old riddle you run into every now and again so I thought I'd post a description and solution for those of you who get snagged by it.

Three men go to stay at a motel, and the man at the desk charges them $30.00 for a room. They split the cost ten dollars each. Later the manager tells the desk man that he overcharged the men, that the actual cost should have been $25.00. The manager gives the bellboy $5.00 and tells him to give it to the men.
The bellboy, however, decides to cheat the men and pockets $2.00, giving each of the men only one dollar.
Now each man has paid $9.00 to stay in the room and 3 x $9.00 = $27.00. The bellboy has pocketed $2.00. $27.00 + $2.00 = $29.00 - so where is the missing $1.00?

Solution:

"...three nines are $27, plus the $2 which the bellboy got is $29. Where did the extra dollar go?"
Be careful about accepting what you are told! The flaw is in the phrase "plus the $2 which the bellboy got." This should not be added; it should be subtracted, since the $2 the bellboy got is part of the $27 dollars the three men spent altogether. If you subtract the $2 from the $27 you get the $25 that goes into the till.

Thanks to http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.missing.dollar.html for the info.

Here are a few links related to the "problem"

Star Wars Auditions from YouTube

2008-04-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

These have been floating around for awhile, but they are still worth a watch.....

Mark Hamill

Harrison Ford

Carrie Fisher

Kurt Russell

Cindy Williams

Andrew Stevens

ESA's ATV docks with ISS

2008-04-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

On April 3rd, the European Space Agency successfully docked their Automated Transfer Vehicle to the International Space Station!

TOULOUSE, France, April 3 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency's Jules Verne automated transfer vehicle spacecraft was successfully docked Thursday with the International Space Station.
The incremental docking procedure was completed at 10: 45 a.m. EDT, the first for an ESA spacecraft and the most demanding of seven planned ATV missions to resupply the space station, the ESA said.
The spacecraft's automated movements were ordered by controllers at the ESA's ATV control center in Toulouse, France, with assistance from National Aeronautics and Space Administration ISS controllers in Houston and Russian space agency controllers near Moscow.
Source: upi.com

ISS/ESA/ATV Links

https://aerospacescholars.jsc.nasa.gov/HAS/cirr/ss/4/5.cfm Good overview of various systems used aboard ISS
New York Times article about the docking
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/content/?cid=5395 Good overview of the docking and ATV

Oldie but Goodie Jack Black Lord of the Rings

2008-04-05T12:04:00.000-07:00

Microsoft Surface Parody.....

2008-04-05T11:54:00.000-07:00

Just too Funny to leave out today... (I still want one)

Papercraft resources

2008-04-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

I like to make models of stuff, and the following is a bunch o' links I've collected over time for crafting everything from spacecraft to the iphone to animals using your printer, some scissors and a little time.. Pretty fun and a good rainy day craft for kids too.

http://i.webring.com/hub?ring=papermodelwebrin Paper model web ring

NASA/ESA stuff
http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/papermodel.html james webb space telescope
http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/ed/model.html Paper Model of the Kepler Satellite
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/mpf/education/cutouts.html Mars Pathfinder
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/kids/activities-model-simple.cfm Cassini-Huygens
http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/sso/cool/pioneer10/education/paper/ pioneer 10
http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/classroom/model/ Stardust
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/kids/models/SOHO_Model.pdf SOHO
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/X1.Paper.Glider.Kit.htm X-1 paper glider
http://terra.nasa.gov/Events/Competition/Terra.pdf terra
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/venusexpress/Venus_Express_Model_Instruction.pdf Very nice model of the ESA Venus Express

MISC
http://www.josephwu.com/Files/PDF/chess.pdf a chess set
http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/01/iphone_r2.pdf iPhone pdf- I knew it had to happen sooner or later.
http://cow.mooh.org/paper/ Quake and Half-Life soilder models.
http://www.groeg.de/puzzles/rocket.html Paper rocket you can really launch
http://www.thegriddle.net/ Puzzle mazes
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fpm/archive DnD castles and such
http://www.zurqui.co.cr/crinfocus/paper/airplane.html Really nice paper airplane
http://www.georgehart.com/virtual-polyhedra/paper-models.html Polyhedra
http://www.korthalsaltes.com/ More polyhedra
http://isotropic.org/polyhedra/ Still more polyhedra
http://www.yesmag.ca/projects/geodesic.html Geodesic dome from newspaper big enough for kids to sit inside.
http://ravensblight.com/Hidcem.htm Cemetary, complete with graves and trees
http://mckoss.com/Crypto/Enigma.htm paper enigma machine
http://www.nissan.co.jp/EVENT/PAPERCRAFT/ Nissan paper car models (Japanese)
http://www.digitalnavy.com/html/downloads.html ship models from digital navy
http://www.icebergbouwplaten.nl/indexe.html many models and links to more
http://www.rain.org/~philfear/download-a-dinosaur.html dinasours for kids
http://www.thetoymaker.com/2Toys.html all sorts of paper toys
http://cp.c-ij.com/english/3D-papercraft/ 3D paper models on a range of topics including animals, toys and science
http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global/entertainment/papercraft/animal-global/index.html Rare animals of the world
http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global/entertainment/papercraft/animal-japan/index.html Rare animals of Japan
http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global/entertainment/papercraft/seasons/07/index.html Insects
http://www.itow.com/amago/papercraft/papercraft2.html Fish and a stand for them
http://papertoys.com/ Many models to choose from, buildings automobiles,aircraft and more.

Stop the SciFi Original Movie Insanity!!!!

2008-04-05T09:48:00.000-07:00

The following is just a partial list from wikipedia,luckily I haven't seen them all as I managed to find the remote before they came on so I was just subjected to the commercials. DO THEY EVEN TRY? I can't believe somebody in some office somewhere just sits on his ass and approves this stuff, I mean there is some guy (or gal) somewhere that one day made the decision to fund something like Mansquito, so they were just sitting around and said, "Ya know- we don't have enough movies about giant insects... lets make one about a man crossed with a ant, man ant... no wait mosquito-man. Mansquito... I am a fucking genius"

If you have seen more than about 5 of these movies, you need to get out more.

Abominable, Absolon, Antibody, Attack of the Sabretooth, Bats: Human Harvest, Beyond Loch Ness, Basilisk: The Serpent King, Bugs, Chupacabra: Dark Seas, Deadly Swarm, Dragon Storm
Dragon Sword, Earthstorm, Fire Serpent, Frankenfish, Grendel, Gryphon, Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy, Ice Spiders, KAW, Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep, Larva, Locusts: The 8th Plague, Magma: Volcanic Disaster, Mammoth, Mansquito, Manticore, MegaSnake, Minotaur, Ogre
Path of Destruction, Pterodactyl, Puppet Master vs. Demonic Toys, Raptor Island, Rock Monster, Sabretooth, Sasquatch Mountain, Showdown at Area 51, The Snake King, Snakehead Terror, Stan Lee's Harpies, Supergator, Threshold, Webs, Wraiths of Roanoke

Brokeback to the Future.....

2008-04-05T09:43:00.001-07:00

Just plain funny... In a wrong kinda way.

Perpetual Motion Stuff

2008-04-05T09:12:00.001-07:00

What is the First Law of Thermodynamics:The increase in the internal energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the amount of heat energy added to the system minus the work done by the system on the surroundings.
Principle of Conservation of Energy:Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change from one form to another form.

Just a few links and stuff for perpetual motion, man I love it when we can violate the laws of thermodynamics at will. It is hard to believe, but there are still people around who try to fleece money from others with the promise of "free energy" with their "over unity" devices. Check out the "new" machine over at http://www.steorn.com/, it is interesting that they are happy to take your money, but not let you examine the machine.

Strange Horizons article on this nonsense.
Wikipedia article on the same. Here is another wikipedia about the history of perpetual motion machines.
The Museum of unworkable devices has gotta have one of the best overall summaries around, as well as a great set of links.
Don't quite know what to make of this guy

Hacking Wpa Resources

2008-03-31T08:03:00.000-07:00

Today I have a few of resources for hacking WPA for a wireless network uning tools like Aircrack... Enjoy. Remember though that most networks still use WEP and that is MUCH easier to crack!

This article at ITToolBox Blogs has a nice
http://wifinetnews.com/archives/004428.html Has a background on the Proof-Of-Concept for cracking short passphrases.
http://mediakey.dk/~cc/hack-wireless-wpa-network/ Tutorital on cracking WPA with pre-shared keys.

Check out the tutorial video...

History of Pong

2008-03-25T08:22:00.000-07:00

http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm Really neat site with the history of MANY early pong systems, not just the first Atari one.
http://www.designboom.com/eng/education/pong.html A History of video games from Pong to Pac-Man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pong The Wikipedia article on pong is pretty good.
Classic Gaming Has a nice history also.

YouTube History of Pong (short)

A rare history of Science Fiction from Google Video

2008-03-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

This is a really nice video about early SciFi from TV. The following description is lifted straight from Google Video......

A rare documentary of science fiction on American television. During half an hour you will watch a synthesis of what was the first forty ... years of the science fiction production for television. From precursors as "Rocky Jones, Space Ranger", "Space Patrol" and "Flash Gordon", to cult series of Irwin Allen ("The Time Tunnel", "Lost in Space", "Journey to the Botton of the Sea" and "Land of Giants"). The documentary will glimpse at the best of the genre and bring a surprise that will please very much the fans of "Star Trek". The phenomenon is remembered through a 14 minutes special tribute with a collection of hilarious out-takes of funny goofs made by the actors that was wonderfully edited and given to the cast members as souvenirs. The scenes had been selected from all the three seasons. And the emotions do not stop there. You will remember scenes of "Tom Corbett's Space Cadet", "Captain Video", "Kolchak, The Night Stalker", "One Step Beyond", "The Twilight Zone", "The Invaders", "Superman", "Outer Limits", "Night Gallery", "The Prisoner", "Battlestar Gallactica", "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century", "Logan's Run", "Six Million Dollar Man", "The Bionic Woman", "Hulk", and some episodes of fantasy series such as "Batman", "Captain America" and "Wonder Woman". These classics inspire the current productions still on tv today. An essential document for fans and researchers of

Battlestar Galactica and Mormonism

2008-03-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to give a few links to sites with interesting similarities between Battlestar and the Mormons.