Drupal 5.0 migration
Most of the modules that I used in Drupal 4.6 have been upgraded at this moment. For the taxonomy_image module, I have to modify the Garland stylesheet yet. Has anyone done this already ? A patch would be nice.
However, the spam module doesn't seem 5.0 ready yet, which is quite annoying, as Drupal is quite easily spammable. As I don't feel like cleaning up the comment section every day, I have switched to captcha's. The captcha module offers a choice between text images and arithmetic questions which is kinda cool. There's seems to be some problems with text images, so I have to burden your arithmetic capabilities somehow ;)
However, the spam module doesn't seem 5.0 ready yet, which is quite annoying, as Drupal is quite easily spammable. As I don't feel like cleaning up the comment section every day, I have switched to captcha's. The captcha module offers a choice between text images and arithmetic questions which is kinda cool. There's seems to be some problems with text images, so I have to burden your arithmetic capabilities somehow ;)
The Book of Quake
Quake was the first true 3D game; therefore the game graphics engine was a revolutionary piece of software. In the online book Ramblings in Realtime, Michael Abrash describes the theory, techniques, and the generally working atmosphere at ID while programming on Quake.
If you're interested into graphics programming, do take time to read the Black Book of Graphic Programming, by the same author.
If you're interested into graphics programming, do take time to read the Black Book of Graphic Programming, by the same author.
Black Google
Google, who gets about 200 million queries a day, allways displays a white background with their famous colored logo. As an all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, switching to a black Google could save quite some energy, as someone calculated, up to 3000 MegaWatts per year.
However, though this might be true for CRT screens, for LCD screens the situation seems different : LCD crystals need an electrical field to turn them black (or rather, block the backlight).
OTOH, here's another idea. Turn off the computer. Or is that blasphemy ?
However, though this might be true for CRT screens, for LCD screens the situation seems different : LCD crystals need an electrical field to turn them black (or rather, block the backlight).
OTOH, here's another idea. Turn off the computer. Or is that blasphemy ?
Drupal 5.0
Drupal 5.0 has been released this week, so this was the ideal opportunity to upgrade from my old (and now officially unsupported) 4.6 version to 5.0. The upgrade went pretty smooth, though I took my precautions and performed the upgrade first on a local copy. Fine stuff is the Garland theme, which colors can be changed on-the-fly.
Next thing to do is to upgrade some old modules, like the taxonomy_image module.
Next thing to do is to upgrade some old modules, like the taxonomy_image module.
Things my boyfriend says
me: It's my birthday soon. You'd better get me something pretty.
e: I'll get ME something pretty, and you can play with it.
Girls, this is your site : Things my boyfriend says is a sobering, though funny view on the male ego.
e: I'll get ME something pretty, and you can play with it.
Girls, this is your site : Things my boyfriend says is a sobering, though funny view on the male ego.
Hardware sucks
Hardware still sucks : ik zag gisteravond dat de screensaver op mijn 15 maand jonge PC om één of andere reden vastgelopen was. Een power-cycle bracht enkel het Pentium logo op het scherm tevoorschijn, en verder niks. Waar is de tijd trouwens dat je bij aanschaf van een PC nog een diagram kreeg van het moederbord ? Machien is een Medion MD8800 (Aldi PC). Ik vrees een moederbord probleem; iemand een idee welke hardware gefaald is ?
Periodic table of visualization methods
Different kinds of visualization methods, neatly arranged in some sort of periodoc table.
Apple iPhone
"Sweet, glorious specs of the frickin' thin 11.6 millimeter device include a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the screen when it's close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth 2.0, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. Perhaps most amazingly, though, it somehow runs OS X."
Unix on my mobile ? I want one of those.
Update : more coverage here.
Unix on my mobile ? I want one of those.
Update : more coverage here.
Methane lakes finally found on Titan
Titan has long intrigued space scientists, as it is the only moon in the Solar System to have a dense atmosphere -- and its atmosphere, like Earth's, mainly comprises nitrogen. Titan's atmosphere is also rich in methane, although the source for this vast store of hydrocarbons is unclear. Given that Titan is billions of years old, the question is how this atmospheric methane gets to be renewed. Without replenishment, it should have disappeared long ago. A popular hypothesis is that it comes from a vast ocean of hydrocarbons.
But when the US spacecraft Cassini sent down a European lander, Huygens, to Titan in 2005, the images sent back were of a rugged landscape veiled in an orange haze. There were indeed signs of methane flows and methane precipitation, but nothing at all that pointed to any sea of the stuff. But a flyby by Cassini on July 22 last year has revealed, thanks to a radar scan, 75 large, smooth, dark patches between three and 70 kilometers across that appear to be lakes of liquid methane.
They believe the lakes prove that Titan has a "methane cycle" -- a system that is like the water cycle on Earth, in which the liquid evaporates, cools and condenses and then falls as rain, replenishing the surface liquid.
But when the US spacecraft Cassini sent down a European lander, Huygens, to Titan in 2005, the images sent back were of a rugged landscape veiled in an orange haze. There were indeed signs of methane flows and methane precipitation, but nothing at all that pointed to any sea of the stuff. But a flyby by Cassini on July 22 last year has revealed, thanks to a radar scan, 75 large, smooth, dark patches between three and 70 kilometers across that appear to be lakes of liquid methane.
They believe the lakes prove that Titan has a "methane cycle" -- a system that is like the water cycle on Earth, in which the liquid evaporates, cools and condenses and then falls as rain, replenishing the surface liquid.
The map of Happiness
Are you happy ? Then mark it on the map of Happiness !