Ron Avitzur of Pacific Tech has posted the story of how PT’s Graphing Calculator application came to be part of the Mac standard software distribution. The idea of an inventor so seized by an idea that he realizes through sheer force of will is a fairly common one, but this is the first time that I’ve heard of someone sneaking into the company that let him go to make it happen.
Vectored from comp.risks, though Slashdot evidently covered the story last week.
Blog spam with a sense of humor
Here’s a spam message I recently cleaned from another blog entry:
Help stop evil word of mouth marketers like BzzAgent.com by supporting the Blog Publishers Association founded by legendary blogger Jason Calacanis
Obviously somebody’s trying to discredit Jason Calacanis… the Google search results for blogethics show some of the commentary. Whatever. Just stop spamming my blog, OK?
How could they miss “Right Rev?”
Those of us who have done web registration forms know that the name always presents a challenge…especially the honorific. Take a look at British Airways’ solution.
Vectored from The Daily WTF?
Am I a comment whore or not?
In a blog entry today, Raymond Chen points out the existence of www.sorryeverybody.com, then goes on to describe the need for www.amisorryornot.com (surprised it’s not registered yet), in the fine tradition of “am I x or not” sites. The real gem in the entry, though, is amibiosornot.com <snicker>. I want a t-shirt.
L’hiver est arrivee
We received slightly more than the predicted three inches of snow last night, so after we finished shoveling we went out to Milton Academy’s Observatory Hill to enjoy it. Andrew could hardly wait to go play. Later on I pulled out my cross-country skis for the first time in nearly ten years and hit the trails around Houghton’s Pond. By the time I got out the snow was pretty rotten, but I still had fun. I’ve never had good technique so the rolling terrain around the pond frequently challenged my balance, but it beat the heck out of another hour on the bike trainer. |
Elmo da bomb!
Tonight, while reading his Elmo book, Andrew flipped straight past one of the pages, saying “That’s borin’!” I can hardly keep up.
RDP on SSH (doo dah, doo dah)
A colleague of mine recently showed me how to get Windows Remote Desktop working over an SSH tunnel. The instructions below assume that you have a target machine set up to accept remote desktop connections and a working SSH tunnel such as stunnel.
- On the client Windows XP machine, copy
mstsc.exe
andmstcax.dll
from theWINDOWS\system32
directory to a new directory (likec:\rdp-ssh
). - Right-click the new copy of mstc.exe and chose Properties from the context menu. Click the Compatibility tab and check the Compatibility mode checkbox. Choose Windows 98/Windows Me from the Compatibility mode dropdown.
- Add port 3389 to your SSH tunnel, mapped to the remote desktop host on the destination side. (Re)start your SSH tunnel.
- Start
c:\rdp-ssh\mstsc.exe
and enter localhost as the hostname.
Windows requires the compatibility-mode change because the remote desktop client normally objects to connecting to localhost, thinking that there’s already a desktop session there.
There goes the neighborhood
I’ve followed Jeff’s lead (see JeffJournal: [beep][kerchunk] <server disconnects>) and added all .info domains to my blacklist. That should keep the spam out for good, right? I mean, the spammers never change tactics to defeat filters…
God showed Eve to Adam, and asked him to choose a bride
This quote from a Time Europe column on the Russian presidential election applies equally well to my voting experience today. Of the 14 positions on the ballot, only the presidential election offered more than a single candidate. Here in Massachusetts, we can’t even complain about the evils of a two-party system. In fact, that would be a step up from the current situation.
This state does have open primaries, or at least if you’re registered independent you can select which primary ballot you wish to vote. However, that’s hardly real choice. In a state with a Republican governor and where it looks like Bush is going to poll about 40% of the vote, why can’t that party field more candidates in the state legislature and congressional contests?
Not that I’d vote for them necessarily, but I like to see incumbents earn it every once in a while.
Pumpkin guts: icky. Wiping snot on Mom: fun
Andrew has definitely progressed since last Halloween, though he still didn’t want to touch the pumpkin innards. This year he was able to grasp the concept of walking around the neighborhood and getting candy, at least enough to bug us about having dinner starting at about 9am. He has been pretty rowdy this weekend, testing both of us to see if we’re really serious when we tell him not to bash the refrigerator with his toy hammer (we are). Still, he enjoyed his Bob the Builder costume quite a bit – he’s cute, don’t you think? |
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