Win a live lobster!

If you're in Osaka and in the mood for fresh lobster, try this game out.

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Roomba Blogging!

Somewhat related to cat blogging (well, not really) is Roomba blogging. Here's Robie (pronounced row-bee -- named by the kids) cleaning the living room while I blog and do other school-related stuff:

Computer of the Future!

This is how the RAND Corporation, about 50 years ago, envisioned a home computer would look in the year 2004:



...or is it? Actually, it's a fake. It's an entry in a Photoshop contest from a website called Fark (some parts of the website may be considered mildly not work-safe (the occasional woman in a bikini) -- so just a warning if/before you click). Here's a link to the original thread containing the entry and the entries of others. (Reading Nicholson Baker's book made me think of digital manipulation.) To be clear, it was never intended as a hoax, but it has fooled people into thinking it was legitimate. Caveat spectator!

ABC's Second Life Island Nuked

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Second Life island was
nuked. This site has "before" and "after" pictures.

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Firefox Extensions

I've been using Firefox for quite a while now, and since we're all required to use it this term, I thought I'd share some of the other useful extensions that I've been using. As I recall more (I'm at work at the moment) I'll add them.

NoScript - This one blocks scripts from running on sites you haven't marked as trusted. It's a good extension to help with computer security (it prevents Java, JavaScript, popups and other scripts from running). You do have to be sure to mark sites you use and trust as trusted or they won't have complete functionality (and you'll be banging your head wondering why Amazon isn't working right when you're trying to buy your books -- until you mark it as trusted).

Forecastfox - Allows you to add weather forecasts to your tool bar so you can see what the weather's going to be like today and tomorrow.

Tabs Open Relative - This is a simple one that makes new tabs in Firefox open to the right of the current tab rather than as the far right last tab.

Update: Now that I'm home...some more extensions.

IE Tab - Allows you to view a website in a tab as if you were viewing it in Internet Explorer. Some websites just don't work right in Firefox, unfortunately.

Plain Text to Link - Allows you to highlight text for a website that is not a clickable link and open it in a new tab without having to copy and paste the text into the address bar.

Clear Private Data - Allows you to add a button to your toolbar so you can clear all private data with one click.

Download Status Bar - Will indicate downloads in a small status bar at the bottom of your browser instead of the popup download manager. With multiple concurrent downloads you'll get multiple status bars.

Blogroll

I've added a blogroll on the side for all the MLIS blogs. It needs some updating, so if you don't see yours there, it will be soon. I may also add a list of other sites I visit frequently, but for now here's one: Boing Boing.

Computer Cooled by Mineral Oil

In LIS 2600 one of the things we're discussing is computer construction. Here's an interesting link to an article and video about a computer built submerged in mineral oil. It's based on the older project by Tom's Hardware of building a computer submerged in vegetable oil.

Cat Blogging

Inspired by a longstanding practice by Kevin Drum, here is my first cat blogging post.

This fine gentleman is known as Little (though his given name is Percy, no one calls him that):



I guess he was caught in mid-yawn.

Here is Tasha, though she is better known around the house as Katty:



Although they both seem to have spooky glowing eyes, I assure you they're not evil (well, maybe sometimes they are...but not too much).

First Post

Though this is the inaugural post of this blog it is not my first attempt at blogging. Many years ago, when the blogging craze first started, I made one that I think was read by two people -- me and my wife. All trace of it seems to be gone, as I couldn't find anything about it on the Internet Archive.

So, here's to blogging fun. And let's get those internet tubes good and clogged.