Computing:
On 26 March 1874, the great poet Robert Frost was born. Perhaps it is not so notable, but 26 March 2008 is the first Document Freedom Day. Early in the development of computer technology, the world decided to...
Posted on March 26, 2008 7:10 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It amused me today to see two blog posts, both about users switching from Gentoo to *buntu. Why I Am Making The Switch From Gentoo To Kubuntu Bye Gentoo... Welcome Ubuntu Gentoo is the most complicated version of Linux,...
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Posted on March 11, 2008 8:05 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Usually when we think of electronic medical records (EMR) as being three-dimensional, we think of the relational aspect of databases. Researchers at IBM, however, are testing a different concept. The idea is to have a rendered 3D representation of the...
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Posted on January 20, 2008 10:26 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I know I've been a bit lax with this blog lately, but just in case anyone still cares, and has a mobile device (such as a Palm Pilot, smart phone, etc.) you now can get the RSS feed for Corpus...
Posted on January 6, 2008 9:07 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In the book, The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins makes a statement that led one reader to feel the need to check up on him: I've been reading through Richard Dawkins' books and am currently half way through The Blind Watchmaker...
Posted on December 1, 2007 6:37 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
According to Google, we are heading into a bad season for Science: This is from Google Trends. Every December, there is a steep drop in the number of searches conducted for "science." Plus, there has been a year-to-year decline. What...
Posted on November 17, 2007 7:04 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In his article about what is wrong with Windows Vista, PC Mag's John Dvorak unintentionally disrespects northern Michigan: Until now, Microsoft could sell code better than anyone, but it seems the company would rather sell services: software as a service,...
Posted on November 13, 2007 8:27 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Neil Bush's "COW" is probably the closest the Bush family ever has come to real ranching. Now the COW may be going the way of the Dodo This may turn out to be one of the best things that could...
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Posted on November 8, 2007 7:40 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
11/11 is to be the new 9/11, according to the jihad-watchers at DEBKAfile. DEBKAfile Exclusive: Al Qaeda declares Cyber Jihad on the West October 30, 2007, 9:23 AM (GMT+02:00)...
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Posted on November 2, 2007 7:27 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is a pico-projector from Texas Instruments. The idea is to have a device that can project an image onto a screen, using a very small device such as a PDA. Right now the usable image size is about 15...
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Posted on October 31, 2007 12:33 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of the occasional problems with commercial software is the need for "activation." One problem with any software is the potential for inevitability of bugs. Both problems are illustrated in the screenshot. So I only have 12,209 years to act....
Posted on October 25, 2007 1:21 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Most people expect a wait when they call tech support. Knowledgeable users arrange to have something to do to kill some time: a book, magazine, something like that. This is the story of Timothy Scott Short, who is going to...
Posted on October 24, 2007 7:27 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Steve Ballmer tells reporters that Microsoft will buy 20 companies a year for the next 5 years, paying "between 50 or 100 million to a couple hundred million each." He also gave his email address, for anyone to use...
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Posted on October 20, 2007 2:04 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is not a traditional review, in that I am not going to discuss the distro in any systematic or comprehensive fashion. There already are several reviews out there in the usual places. Rather, I am going to outline my...
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Posted on October 14, 2007 6:20 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
We all had some laughs when the two-bladed razor was improved with the addition of a third blade. Late-night comedians joked about razors coming with four or even five blades. Then, we all had a few more chuckles when the...
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Posted on October 2, 2007 9:15 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
One of their flagship products, Excel , has been caught making errors doing simple multiplication. According to a Microsoft Developer blog: Yesterday evening we were alerted to an issue in Excel 2007 (and Excel Services 2007) involving calculation of numbers...
Posted on September 29, 2007 1:28 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The government is finally moving the legal system into the 21st century, with wiki-based laws. The idea is that the people are the customer, and the customer should have a say in the rules. This is, oddly, a government-sponsored revolution....
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Posted on September 28, 2007 2:03 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In response to customer demand, computer manufacturers pressured Microsoft into offering an easier way for users to "downgrade" their new machines. Business customers who feel that Vista is too bloated and slow, or who find it doesn't run...
Posted on September 25, 2007 5:26 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Some people are amazingly creative...or thirsty. (Source)...
Posted on September 22, 2007 2:42 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
If you are willing to settle for a two-dimensional desktop experience, and you love The Matrix, this might be fun. The image is an animated GIF, so it is big. (Sorry to the dial-up users.) The real thing works much...
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Posted on September 15, 2007 7:20 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This is good. Firefox now has an extension that makes it simple to store all your bibliographic information from online research. It is at release candidate 3 stage now, well-developed and fully functional. It is called Zotero. It is...
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Posted on September 3, 2007 10:00 AM • 9 Comments •
Wikipedia Picture of the day An animated cubic Bézier curve (see other types), a parametric curve important in computer graphics. Modern computer fonts use Bézier splines composed of quadratic or cubic Bézier curves to create typefaces. Image credit: Phil...
Posted on August 21, 2007 7:24 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
That is the conclusion of the most review review of the security of the Dielbold voting machines in California. Most damning is the finding that many of the previously-reported vulnerabilities have not been fixed....
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Posted on August 3, 2007 1:52 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Microsoft (the company, not the cat) is planning to introduce a free, adware version of Microsoft Works. Works is their stripped-down version of Microsoft Office. Works already comes bundled with many newly-purchased Windows machines. Most people are not aware of...
Posted on August 2, 2007 9:44 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
HR 2102 IH -- Free Flow of Information Act of 2007 US Reps Rick Boucher, Mike Pence, John Conyers, Howard Coble, John Yarmuth, and Greg Walden have introduced a bill that would provide some protections to blogger-journalists. HR 2102...
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Posted on August 2, 2007 8:16 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Firefox 3 (Gran Paradiso) should be available in beta form in late July 2007. There is no firm release schedule for the gold version. The most anticipated feature will be a new way to store bookmarks. Both the interface and...
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Posted on June 17, 2007 9:48 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Problem: Flat tire, wheel won't come off. Backgound: This problem came my way today. A friend had a flat tire, but was not able to get the wheel off. The solution......
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Posted on June 16, 2007 7:21 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I am not skilled enough to do this, but maybe someone out there is. What I want is a utility that will take a bit of html, such as for the sidebar in a blog, generate a image file that...
Posted on June 10, 2007 6:57 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I am working on my next post, the one about amoxapine. But sssshhhh, I'm using Kubuntu. Heresy, I know, but what do you expect? It's Sunday....
Posted on June 3, 2007 5:31 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Speaking of open-source software, I recall posting a while back when the percentage of visits to Corpus Callosum, by users of Internet Explorer, dropped below 50%. Now, it is 24%. Roughly parallels President Bush's approval rating. I wonder what those...
Posted on May 14, 2007 10:32 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
From CNN Money: Microsoft takes on the free world Microsoft claims that free software like Linux, which runs a big chunk of corporate America, violates 235 of its patents. It wants royalties from distributors and users. Users like you,...
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Posted on May 14, 2007 9:29 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
This was at Barnes and Noble, in Linux User & Developer. I learned that Peugot (the second-largest auto maker in Europe) plans to install Linux for their 2,500 servers. That is not particularly surprising. What is more, they plan to...
Posted on April 8, 2007 7:20 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Obviously a follow-up to my last post, Why Blog? Like the Why Blog? post, this is partly a repetition of something I posted before, at least once. But some of these points bear repeating, if only to remind myself....
Posted on April 7, 2007 1:58 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I was just reading about Firefox 3.0, which is supposed to have features that would simplify building and using web-based applications. I'll be curious to see how this plays out. Will it make things leaner and more efficient, or...
Posted on April 4, 2007 8:39 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
What would happen if Tux went to a famous portrait artist to get a makeover? Modigliani Botticelli This was done using the method described previously....
Posted on March 10, 2007 9:07 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I've heard of case modding, but this is just going too far: What is this? It is a full-featured web server in a compact case. How is this possible? ...(below the fold)...
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Posted on March 7, 2007 6:57 PM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I know that the SB site can be overwhelming; there is a lot here, and it can take a lot of time to go through it all. Now, for those of you who like to use feeds, e.g. Google Reader,...
Posted on February 25, 2007 2:57 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I am still trying to figure out what this means: "Available under the GPL Licence and in exclusivity for Mandriva Linux, Metisse differs from a classic 3D desktop ..." Usually you don't see the terms "GPL" and "exclusivity" in the...
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Posted on February 18, 2007 11:18 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
If this makes no sense to you, never mind....
Posted on February 11, 2007 12:32 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
You might think that developing a system for EMR would be fairly straightforward. After all, some of the things that computers are really good for, are the storing, retrieval, and display of information. But somehow, developing a system that actually...
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Posted on January 8, 2007 10:12 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
It's kind of technical, but interesting if you care about the inner workings of the machine you are using to read this post. Microsoft Vista has built in an elaborate system to prevent copying of protected digital content. In so...
Posted on December 26, 2006 11:32 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Our system, who art on raised tile, Hallowed be thy OS. Thy portage come, thy emerge be done, On servers, as it is on workstations. Give us this day, our daily sync, And forgive us our broken ebuilds, As we...
Posted on December 17, 2006 9:26 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
In June, I put up a post noting that open-source browsers accounted for more than 50% of the hits at ScienceBlogs. At that time, Firefox was 48.17%. Since then, Microsoft released IE7, which includes a tabbed interface, and other enhancements...
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Posted on December 9, 2006 12:22 PM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I have not posted as much recently, compared to my usual. That's because I've been messing with my computers, setting them up to use Sabayon instead of Suse. Those of you who can about such things can guess why that...
Posted on November 29, 2006 10:59 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I've been holding back on this one, but it is time to speak out. On November 2, 2006, Microsoft and Novell announced a deal. The deal involves Microsoft paying Novell, and the two companies working together to ensure a certain...
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Posted on November 19, 2006 9:44 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Another product that makes me go "hmmm." Once or twice in my life I've paid extra for high-performance random-access memory, but I've never paid extra for the paint job. This is the PC2-6400 Special Ops Urban Edition from OCZ. I...
Posted on November 17, 2006 9:03 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Casual users might not notice much difference between Firefox 2.0 and IE 7.0. But with continued use, the advantages of Firefox become increasingly evident. This is especially true for people who take the initiative to install a lot of extensions....
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Posted on November 17, 2006 6:34 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Finally, a product to bring much-deserved recognition to an out-of-the-way place: Intel has announced their "enthusiast" motherboard for high-performance computing: the D975XBX, nicknamed the "Bad Axe." Just get a load a'the heat sinks on that baby! Granted, it's not the...
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Posted on November 5, 2006 11:29 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The latest issue of Fast Company has an article about Gordon Bell, who is running a project to digitize and record all of the information he generates and encounters in the course of his life. He calls the project MyLifeBits....
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Posted on October 30, 2006 9:17 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Just for kicks, in case anyone cares, and is not already familiar with these sites, here are a few that I use: Merck Medicus is a great site. I had to provide some medical license information, so I don't think...
Posted on October 27, 2006 10:40 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
KDE 3.5.5 released. On 11 October 2006, the KDE Project released KDE 3.5.5. For packages, please visit the KDE 3.5.5 Info Page and browse the KDE 3.5 Requirements list. KDE is going to celebrate its 10th anniversary. On 14th October...
Posted on October 12, 2006 11:48 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Linux has long been the champion of cute names. For example, right now I am downloading (via bittorrent) Sabayon Linux, which is named after an Italian dessert (Zabaglione). I must say, though, that the best name for a Linux distribution...
Posted on October 8, 2006 1:29 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Facetime Communications has announced that they have seen evidence of a new Internet worm that spreads via AOL Instant Messenger. It comes in the guise of a picture, that is astually an executable file. The user first sees an...
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Posted on September 18, 2006 8:58 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
What Congress set out to do, was to come up with ethics reform legislation that would show that they are addressing the concerns of the public, in the wake of numerous scandals. Reportedly, though, both parties were reluctant to put...
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Posted on September 15, 2006 8:57 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
The August issue of Linux Format has an article showing how all the the most-anticipated features of Windows Vista are available today, on Linux. Although Microsoft touts these as "innovations," they are not new, or at least won't be new...
Posted on August 21, 2006 8:00 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Long-time readers have noticed that I tend to hype free software and resources from time to time. After SB redesigned the skin for our blogs, I decided that I should redo the banner. The old one was done in...
Posted on July 23, 2006 1:12 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
I am having a bit of trouble publishing posts. So it may be a couple of days before substantive posting resumes....
Posted on July 8, 2006 11:20 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
For various reasons, I am now mostly using a computer in the living room, rather than the study. That is fine, but it is far from the cable modem. That would be no problem, having a wireless card installed. But...
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Posted on July 1, 2006 9:55 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
