Dispatches

Higgs-Bugson

A hypothetical error whose existence is suggested by log events and vague reports from the users that cannot be reproduced in development conditions. QA and user support teams point to the Higgs-bugson as an explanation for the results they see in the field. Software engineers, however, often deny the existence of the Higgs-Bugson and offer alternative theories that often blame the user. » about 200 words

Motion Control Timelapse Projects On Kickstarter

Some time ago I backed the Syrp Genie (estimated delivery July 2012), but today I learned of the Radian and Astro. Unlike the Radian and Astro, the Genie supports linear motion, but it’s also much more expensive, bigger, and appears to have more complex controls.

Here are the videos for all three projects:

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/syrp/genie-motion-control-time-lapse-device/widget/video.html]

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/207087339/radian-a-motion-time-lapse-device-for-everyone/widget/video.html]

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1530895202/astro-time-lapse-motion-control/widget/video.html]

Eduard Khil, Mr. Trololo, Dead At 77

Eduard Khil is dead. The man, whose work and career had earned high praise, including the Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1971), Lenin Komsomol Prize (1976), Order of Friendship of Peoples (1981), Meritorious Artist of the RSFSR (1968), People’s Artist of the RSFSR (1974), Order of Merit for the Fatherland (2009), and international fame with his performance of Trololo. The 1976 performance that made him famous: A 1984 […] » about 100 words

Composited Timelapse and Real-Time Skateboarding Video

Russel Houghten‘s Open Horizon is part skate film, part time lapse, and mostly awesome.

Then somebody pointed to this Jimmy Plmer/Z-Flex video that shares a number of features with Houghten’s work, but is less ambitious in scope. At least they did a behind the scenes video that shows the sweet Red camera and rails.

Predator Drones Used In Domestic Police Action

The LA Times on December 10 reported that Predator drones such as those now being used by the Air Force and CIA were used to support police in their investigation of cattle rustling. Theft of livestock has long been a serious matter, but regulations and procedures typically make it difficult to sell stolen cattle. According […] » about 300 words

Civic Comparators

It’s from early 2007, but Cameron Marlow’s comparison of SF to NYC neighborhoods and Jason Kottke’s comparison of the physical geography are amusing to me as a new San Franciscan. On the other hand, is it a sign of civic insecurity to make such comparisons? » about 100 words

Using Keynote As a Motion Graphics Tool

Bill Keaggy just posted on the XPLANE blog about using Apple’s Keynote presentation software to make motion graphics and movies. We’ve found that in some cases, a Keynote-authored video is what you might call the “good enough” solution. […] Keynote lets you create and edit presentations, make things move, is ridiculously easy to learn and exports […] » about 100 words

Nostalgic Joy: Apple 2 Emulators

You can emulate an Apple ][ or Apple IIgs in your browser with a plugin and 32,000 disk images, including Oregon Trail. Don’t want to run an Apple //e in your browser? Download Virtual ][ for the job (you’ll need disk images and a ROM file). Sweet 16 can answer your Apple ][gs emulation fix, […] » about 100 words

Listening Is Just The Start

Jeff Howe writes: idea jams “allow people to discover the fringe question (or idea, or solution), then tweak it, discuss it and bring the community’s attention to it.”

“Idea management is really a three-part process,” says Bob Pearson, who as Dell’s former chief of communities and conversation rode heard on IdeaStorm. “The first is listening. That’s obvious.” The second part, Pearson says, was integration, “actually disseminating the best ideas throughout our organization. We had engineers studying IdeaStorm posts and debating how they could be implemented.”

The last part is the trickiest and most important: “It involves not just enacting the ideas, but going back into your community and telling them what you’ve done.” Starbucks, which maintains its own version of IdeaStorm, employs 48 full-time moderators whose only job is to engage the online community. In other words, Starbucks is investing the vast share of its resources in the second and third parts of the idea management cycle.

Listen, evolve, report. Sounds like good advice to me.

Pearls Of Wisdom In Mail List Threads

David Cloutman on Code4Lib:

Don’t forget to look at trends outside of “Libraryland”. A lot of professional library discussion takes place in an echo chamber, and bad ideas often get repeated and gain credibility as a result. Librarians usually overstate the uniqueness of their organizations and professions. When the question, “What are other libraries doing?” arises in addressing a technical problem, don’t be afraid to generalize the question to other types of organizations. Too often, the answer to the question, “What are other libraries doing?” is “Failing.” Emulate for the sake of success, not conformity.

It’s a point I’m always trying to make: look outside your specialization.

Cleaning Up Category Relationships In A WordPress Scriblio Site

A few lines of SQL I used to clean up a Scriblio site. It’s probably useless to anybody but me. I’m not suggesting anybody else use this code, as it will result in changed or deleted data.

Update the post author for catalog records (identified because they have a specific post meta entry):

UPDATE wp_8_postmeta
JOIN wp_8_posts ON wp_8_posts.ID = wp_8_postmeta.post_id
SET post_author = 15
WHERE meta_key = 'scrib_meditor_content'

Get the categories attached to every catalog record (except the “catalog” category):

SELECT tr.object_id , tr.term_taxonomy_id
FROM wp_8_term_relationships tr
JOIN wp_8_posts p ON p.ID = tr.object_id
WHERE tr.term_taxonomy_id IN (
	SELECT term_taxonomy_id
	FROM wp_8_term_taxonomy
	WHERE taxonomy = "category"
	AND term_id != 30
)
AND post_author = 15
ORDER BY tr.object_id , tr.term_taxonomy_id

Using the above list of object ids and term taxonomy ids, build a series of queries like the following to delete them:

DELETE FROM wp_8_term_relationships WHERE object_id = 12275 AND term_taxonomy_id = 271872 ;

Insert a catalog category relationship for all catalog records:

INSERT INTO wp_8_term_relationships
SELECT p.ID , '271871' , '0'
FROM wp_8_posts p
LEFT JOIN wp_8_term_relationships tr ON p.ID = tr.object_id AND tr.term_taxonomy_id = 271871
WHERE post_author = 15
AND tr.term_taxonomy_id IS NULL