Quick Drying Random Things

Ever need something dried quickly, but can't microwave it, stick it in the oven, or put it in the clothes dryer? Try this!

Just tape a hair dryer into the opening of a PAPER grocery bag, put the thing to dry inside, and partially tape it shut. Turn on the hair dryer, and wait a couple of minutes. Whala!!

Zooming in GNU Octave under Ubuntu

Yay, I finally solved my problem! I can now zoom in Octave plots using the mouse (currently on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS).

I found the solution here

...but here it is so you don't have to scroll through all of that:

Build gnuplot with:
./configure --enable-volatile-data
make
sudo make install

and if necessary change the gnuplot's path in octave with:
gnuplot_binary ("/usr/local/bin/gnuplot") 

Just use the right mouse button to select the first point, then click a second time to select the other corner. Whala! Press "a" to go back to the original zoom level, and press "h" to dump some help out to the Octave terminal window.

Enjoy!

Pastebin Python Test

This is just a test of code-embedding from pastebin.com:



Did it work?

Mini Home Theater

Check out my sweet new mini home-entertainment system! I used to be into the whole "11-channel surround, 10,000W subwoofer" etc... thing, but in my old age, have decided most of that stuff is a gimmick. All you need are some decent speakers, well shielded cables, and a high-res (1080p) screen up close, so you can actually see the pixels. This system uses a PC (hidden under the end-table) hooked in through an HDMI input, running Ubuntu so I can surf the web. My keyboard is wireless, and has a built-in track-pad to minimize device juggling. The speakers are M-Audio powered monitors, which do a good job down to about 80 Hz... chosen to maximize audio quality while minimizing space consumption and neighbor-annoyance.

NASA Myths

http://www.fas.org/spp/eprint/jp_950525.htm

The Linux Prayer

Our Torvalds, who art in Finland
Hallowed be thy code
Thy kernel come
thou art half done
on AMD as it is in X86
And give us this release our bug fixes
And forgive us our half-assed bug reports
As we forgive those whose patches aren't fixes.
And insmod us not into kernel taint
But deliver us from Microsoft.
For mine is the license
And the source
Forever GPL'd
Ramen




  from Reddit/Linux, composed by multiple authors

Science

And now, for a very short rant on what science isn't, and what it is....

Science is not a set of beliefs, it is a system for finding out about the world.

What you think of as science, the body of knowlege, are all the things other people found out about the world by using the scientific method.

The beauty of science is that you don't have to take anyone's word for it. If you doubt something that someone else came up with, you can apply the scientific method to find out for your self whether or not it is true.

Nature is there, ready to answer our questions. We just have to phrase them correctly.

Update: I recently read a Reddit post by HeroicLife with a similar take on it. I like the brevity of their initial statement:

"Science is knowledge that can be verified by anyone."

They went on to say:

"Science is free from dependence on emotional states, hearsay, divine revelations, cult secrets, holy books, or cultural knowledge. Anyone with the right tools and an active mind can establish and verify scientific claims."