MaisonBisson

This, from Chris Anderson: The Codex is a 20 episode series of machinimas made on Xboxes running Halo 2. The result caught the attention of his six- and eight-year-old children, and then him. Machinimas are computer animated in real-time, using video games to create the environment, and human “puppeteers” to drive the action. The action […] » about 200 words

This is probably the perfect bumper sticker for your neighbor’s SUV, at least until your neighbor comes over with the perfect chainsaw for your front door (yeah, try to run from that in Birkenstocks). But seriously, shouldn’t somebody tell these people that the world is running out of oil? bumper sticker, declining oil reserves, energy, […] » about 100 words

I don’t remember exactly why I found myself looking up Moscow‘s Ostankino Tower, a 1772 ft (540 m) tall radio-television tower. Compared to the world’s tallest buildings, it’s taller than all the greats: the Taipei 101, the Sears Tower, Empire State Building, though some people keep towers — even those with observation platforms — in […] » about 300 words

Scott Berkun, the author of The Art of Project Management just blogged about the data death spiral: Whenever data is misused as the only means for making decisions, a death spiral begins. The lust for data overwhelms all sensibilities. Cowardly decision makers howl in glee at reams of unnecessary data, while bright people sit handcuffed […] » about 400 words

Treehugger alerted me to the rather surprising story of this light bulb, burning continuously since 1901. Yeah, at least that’s the story here, at the Centennial Light Bulb Committee’s website (a partnership of the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, Livermore Heritage Guild, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, and Sandia National Laboratories). The bulb is said to have been […] » about 200 words

Via the ProgrammableWeb: Seattle911.com. It’s another mashup with Google Maps, but who knew anybody could get 911 data in real time? Sure, it’s only for Seattle, and only their fire/EMS servers (no police), but technology wise, it’s cool. Kudos to Seattle, I guess. What’s my reticence? I don’t know if I should have this data…and […] » about 200 words

Putting together 50 30″ Apple Cinema HD Displays with 25 Power Mac G5s gets you 200 million pixels of screen real estate spread over 23 x 9 feet. Call it UC Irvine’s HIPerWall. monitors, monitor, lcd, display » about 100 words

A visit to The Paper House will run $1.50 and takes you out to a beautiful corner of the Massachusetts coast, 52 Pigeon Hill Street Rockport, MA 01966, just up the hill from Pigeon Cove. Call (978) 546-2629 if you’ve got questions. More info at Odd New England. Pictures tell quite a story, so take […] » about 300 words

I live quite a distance from any Apple Stores, so it’s only now that I’ve been able to see the new stuff. The Photo Booth application bundled with the new iMacs is actually more fun than I expected. That’s me above with the “comic book” effect applied. But Front Row is every bit as sweet […] » about 200 words

Or, er, my server will be crushed. I guess I should admit that my stuff could do with some optimization, maybe. Perhaps what I really need is something faster than Celeron with 512MB RAM. Maybe. tags: 512mb ram, apache, break point, breaking point, celeron, crushed, load average, mysql, php, server, top, web server » about 100 words

Way back in April 1997, Jakob Nielsen tried to educate us on Zipf Distributions and the power law, and their relationship to the web. This is where discussions of the Chris Anderson’s Long Tail start, but the emphasis is on the whole picture, not just the many economic opportunities at the end of the tail. […] » about 400 words

Via Brad Neuberg: RSnake’s XSS (Cross Site Scripting) Cheatsheet: Esp: for filter evasion. Limitations on cross site scripting (XSS hereafter) have been troubling me as I try to write enhancements to our library catalog, but the reasons for the prohibition are sound. Without them I could snort your browser cookies (RSnake lists: “cookie/credential stealing/replay/session riding” […] » about 200 words

Online reaction to the Forbes cover story Attack of the Blogs has been quick and strong, and given the doom and gloom language, it’s not surprising: Blogs started a few years ago as a simple way for people to keep online diaries. Suddenly they are the ultimate vehicle for brand-bashing, personal attacks, political extremism and […] » about 400 words

Via Information Nation, I found SwarmSketch. Here’s the description: SwarmSketch: Collective sketching of the collective consciousness. SwarmSketch is an ongoing online canvas that explores the possibilities of distributed design by the masses. Each week it randomly chooses a popular search term which becomes the sketch subject for the week. In this way, the collective is […] » about 300 words

I do a lot of flying in and out of Boston’s Logan Airport, so I’ve been following the controversy about WiFi there with some interest. The story is that Massport, the government agency that runs the airport, is trying to tell tennents — like the airlines — that they can’t operate their own WiFi networks. […] » about 300 words

It’s nearing the end of 2005 and we still don’t have any flying cars like we were promised, but the GEN H-4 personal helicopter looks promising (and dangerous). Here it is in the air, and I might be crazy, but it looks to be controlled by weight-shift (even more photos). OhGizmo says it sells for […] » about 100 words