brainwagon

Last weekend, I fought off my head cold and drug my body off to the Maker Faire to get inspired by the projects. I saw some good stuff this year, but didn’t really have a lot of time to talk to people and get in any deep discussions. One of the neater projects was courtesy […]

I was trying to hunt down Gordon Bell’s description of the PDP-8 architecture (don’t ask) which I heard was available in his 1971 book, Computer Structures: Readings and Examples. A bit of googling found that this book is available from his website at Microsoft, along with many other interesting papers and books. Bookmarked for future […]

K450 PVC Rocket Engine Design & Construction In just a few hours, anyone can build a powerful K450 engine that will send a rocket soaring over 5000 feet! Easy to follow step by step instructions and 137 color illustrations demonstrate the exceptionally simple construction process. Best of all, only common materials are used and no […]

While recovering from my brief outpatient procedure yesterday, I was surfing around, looking for the ChirpHell and ChirpPix programs that some people mentioned in the context of creating the Hellschreiber IDs that I saw yesterday. A bit of Googling revealed that they were written by DF6NM, so I did some more websearching, and as soon […]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw

This picture was circulating around the mailing lists at work. It made me smile.

A friend of mine from the Chabot Space and Science Center, Don Saito, was recently laid off from his IT job in Berkeley, and decided to celebrate by embarking on a circumnavigation of these continental United States on a recumbent tricycle. He’s got a blog called Cycle America, and seems to be equipped with all […]

Today I found out that Don Mitchell has a blog. While I’ve only briefly met Don a couple of times, I’ve been aware of his computer graphics work for quite some time, so it was good to see his writing on other interesting topics. I wish my blogroll had more crazy smart people writing about […]

Not real bunnies. Just chocolate bunnies. Happy Easter.

Recently it may be hard to believe that I’ve read anything except for ham radio crap. I still read other stuff, I just haven’t been paying too much attention lately. While my random surfing today, I was reminded of Dan Piponi’s awesome blog and webpages about some of the really cool projects he’s done. Dan […]

Well, I am still on vacation, but took time out this morning to skim the problem description for the 2007 ICFP programming contest. It involves finding modifications to the DNA of a crashlanded alien named Endo, who will surely perish without our help. Wish I had brought my laptop: looks like fun, and I need […]

Keith Devens has a nice collection of  Programming Fonts with links on his website.  I must admit to liking the new Microsoft Consolas font, but I mostly use Bistream Vera Mono, since it’s free and widely available on the systems I use.  Dina looks okay to me.   When I used Windows more, I used Andale […]

This week I’m busy at work trying to complete dozens of SIGGRAPH sketch reviews, so it seems like an opportune time to present the usual link to  online copies of the SIGGRAPH 2006 Papers that have been accepted.  I haven’t had a chance to review these yet, but there is usually something good in this […]

Check out the cool video of a pair of tufted titmouses who are building a nest in a birdhouse that has been equipped with a webcam.  Courtesy of the Make blog. [tags]Birdhouse,Webcam,Science Project[/tags]

Via archive.org, you can download a Divx copy of George Meiles Le voyage dans la lune. This classic 1902 silent film may qualify as he earliest science fiction movie.   The image to the right is probably the most famous from the film.  Cool stuff! [tags]Le Voyage Dans La Lune,Silent Movie,Archive.org[/tags]