Courtesy of the Make Blog, here is a construction article on how to construct your own 1/4 scale Dalek. I’ve podcasted about creating your own Dalek voice simulator before, so you can see that I’m crazy about Dr. Who already. I should build one of these and fit it with a voice synthesizer.
Daily Archives: 1/2/2006
Upgraded to WordPress 2.0
Well, I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.0. Like all previous upgrades that I’ve performed, this one seems to have gone without a hitch, and all things that I expected to work seems to work just fine.
The biggest change that is immediately visible is the new posting interface, which uses a WYSIWG type interface. It seems pretty nice, and has the added advantage that it should be difficult to actually create HTML which doesn’t validate.
There is a new anti-comment spam gadget called Akismet that unfortunately requires a wordpress.com API key to function (I really don’t mind signing up for a key, but it seems silly to create a blog for me just to get a plugin key). There are also some changes to the permissions system which seem to mean that I can’t create a link in this post. I’ll submit it anyway, and then come back and try to figure out what the deal is.
Still, seems pretty nice!
Addendum: Hmmm. I suppose that I could just enter a link by hand. That seemed to work okay. If you just type the html, it seems to actually do the right thing.
Cat Calls 911 to Help Owner, Police Say
I don’t know if I buy this story, but it’s pretty cool if it is true, a cat hit the speed dial for 911 when his pet fell out of his wheelchair.
Another reason that I like cats more than I like most people. 🙂
Dangerous Ideas
Via metamerist, some new thinking to jumpstart the new year: The World Question Center asked lots of smart folks “What is your most dangerous idea?” The answers are wide ranging and thought provoking. Check ’em out.
Further Storm Updates
Well, not just one, but three four separate segments of the fence which borders the back property line are down. It’s now a job that has transitioned between “Mark should do that in an hour or two” to “we should call somebody and let them do it”. I will be hiking up the hill to check the condition of our drainage ditches with a shovel and a rake and make sure they are flowing easily.
I’ll be glad when we bid adieu to this rain.
Addendum: Finished cleaning them out, some silt had accumulated in the top culvert, which I cleared with a shovel and rake. Bottom one flowing nicely.
Leap Seconds
Unnoticed amidst last night’s revelry was the passage of a scheduled leap second. If you ever wanted to know more about them, you could review the U.S. Naval Observatory page on Leap Seconds. After reading this page, you should be able to understand why the insertion of a leap second does not mean that the earth’s rotation has slowed down by a second out of the year, the source of many misguided extrapolation arguments given against the age of the Earth.