Geek Drivel

“Firefox can block ads, so we’re blocking anyone using Firefox from seeing our pages at all.” Priceless. Nevermind the fact that the User Agent Switcher extension means that Firefox can appear to be any other browser, easily bypassing this kind of block. I can understand why people would want to do this, but they’ll need to come up with something a lot better than that if they want to force-feed people ads.

(I don’t use the ad-blocking extension. I’ve never had a need for it, because I don’t care about text ads, or still-picture ads; the only type I can’t stand is the animated ad, which the Flashblock extension mostly takes care of.)

The explanation has been posted: it was all Microsoft’s fault.

This will not affect my use of Skype. It’s a great money-saving tool, but I always have a backup.

[Correction, it wasn't Microsoft's fault, they just caused it. ]

Greenspun’s Tenth Rule of Programming: any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp.
–Philip Greenspun

Including Common Lisp.
– Robert Morris

I’ve been working on a top-secret, ultra-hush-hush project for my company for several years now — so secret that I can say nothing else about it at this point, not even the working name, so don’t ask. I was discussing it with a security-cleared associate last week, and mentioned a feature that (so far as I know) exists only in the LISP programming language. He had never used the language, so I pointed him at a few ‘net resources on it (including Paul Graham’s Lisp pages) to get him started with it.
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Those of you who know GoddessJ and myself personally, also know that GoddessJ has a hereditary eye problem. That’s why I’m so interested in vision technology stories, like this one.

Of course, I’d be interested in this one regardless, because this kind of enhancement technology is also used in many science fiction stories, and even made it to television and the big screen in the form of Star Trek’s Geordi LaForge character.

Interesting times.

Yet more memory tricks, courtesy of your local mad scientist.

Now if only they could help me remember things, as well as forgetting them…

From the Lifehacker site, a virtual smörgåsbord of interesting how-to guides: how to turn a flashlight into a hand-held burning laser (and excellent match-replacement); how to get rid of sweat stains; how to pick locks; how to use a wristwatch as a compass; and how to disable the annoying Windows “restart now or we’ll do it for you” reminder.

Maybe I just don’t see the humor, but this just strikes me as sad. This guy is obviously a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

In an exciting technology announcement, Professor Robert Linhardt of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute says that his team has created a battery out of nothing but paper, carbon nanotubes, and an electrolyte fluid!

Even if it were perfect, it wouldn’t be available for years yet. But this is just the kind of battery technology that we need for high-tech systems.

Too much of a good thing.

See this page for more info, and set your computer, PDA, or phone to remind you.