Ministry of Intrigue

Quick Post: Tweaking Feeds

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:53:47 -0000

Blog Entry

Just a short post to say that I’m altering the Everything feed for this site. Previously, it contained all the blog posts, links and photos that appear here. However, as I am piping this feed into several external sites, notably Google Buzz, and until services like Buzz allow me to specify particular feeds for import, as opposed to using auto-discovery, I risk flooding my activity stream every time I do a mass upload to my Flickr account. I’d rather not annoy anyone, so I’m temporarily removing photo posts from the Everything feed. If you still wish to see my photos as I post them, feel free to subscribe to my Flickr feed.

Hopefully, this will just be temporary, and I’ll be able to specify my customized Google Buzz feed later without interfering with the primary feed, at which point I will return photos to this subscription feed. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Also, because I haven’t repeated the word often enough: feed.

Tagged with announcements google google buzz

Django Debug Toolbar

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 21:43:48 -0000

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Django Debug Toolbar is an insanely useful Django app that you can drop into any Django project and get tons of useful information while developing and testing your work, all in a pretty sexy looking toolbar.

DjDT displays information such as:

Execution time
Settings
HTTP Headers
Request Variables
SQL
Template Debug Console
Signals
Logging (from the standard Python logging module)

There is a great video on the landing page that does an admirable job showing off what DjDT is capable of doing for you. I can’t imagine why anyone would not use this when developing with Django, unless it’s just plain ignorance of it.

Seriously, save yourself some headache when you are testing your work and use DjDT.

Tagged with development django programming python

MikroKopter - HexaKopter

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:56:59 -0000

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Love this demo video of the MikroKopter. The GPS integration in the device is slick, and I love that it’s an open source, DIY device. The parts aren’t even all that expensive considering what they are, but as a project it’s still a little too pricey and time consuming for me to tak on right now.

Take a look at the video through the link, and I guarantee you will be impressed. I also wouldn’t be surprised to find you browsing the MikroKopter wiki afterwards, scheming and planning on how you will build your own.

Tagged with diy gps hardware open source

CrunchGate - 1938 Media

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:52:22 -0000

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Loren Feldman of 1938 Media does a great job summarizing many of things going wrong at Techcrunch these days, and it’s an excellent overview of the issues at hand. In particular, Feldman points out a number of important unanswered questions still lingering in the wake of Michael Arrington’s supposed transparency regarding the MacBook Air scandal.

From the post:

At this point it’s obvious that the TechCrunch site is incapable of doing the right thing. There is simply no moral compass over there to guide them so I am once again forced to stop producing puppet shows for a few dozen people and spell it out.

[snip]

[It’s] still not clear is Daniel’s relationship with TechCrunch. Mike Arrington, Editor-In-Chief of TechCrunch, said that Daniel is merely an intern and that “the frequency of [his] posts was light.” If by “light” he means “over a hundred stories” then okay. Daniel states no, he was not an unpaid intern but a part-time employee. The TechCrunch site lists him with a fancy title. Intern, employee, dog sitter, no one is too sure what this kid does. Which is it? It’s February. Did he just get a 1099 or not?

Go give it a read, I think it summarizes many of the reasons that I stopped regularly reading Techcrunch about a year ago, although it leaves out an important one: their policy of posting stories based on rumors from anonymous sources without getting confirmation or performing anything that could pass as journalistic due diligence. I still think it’s disgraceful that the tech community at large gives so much influence to a site that is just one small step above being a gossip rag.

Tagged with journalism scandal tech

Youth and Young Manhood - On Cumulative Effects

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:21:39 -0000

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I love this short essay from Tim Hackbarth (who also happens to be my step-brother) evaluating how daily habits add up to both negative as well as positive cumulative effects in his life, and pointing out the overall value of taking the time each day to do just one little thing.

Definitely worth a read, and some consideration. Tim is a smart guy, and also happens to be the creator of my favorite productivity website, which is worth a look any time that you are struggling with improving your personal task management system.

So, with that in mind, how many things are you working on right now? How much are you getting done, and are you giving yourself a heart attack trying to do it? Just think how much better off and farther along you would be if you stopped trying to get everything done today, instead focusing on getting any of it done, no matter how small?

Tagged with life productivity

Google says “Think big with a gig: Our experimental fiber network”

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:14:54 -0000

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This is huge. This is bigger than Buzz, bigger than the Nexus One and bigger than Wave. If Google’s trials are successful, they could seriously reshape the standard for the speeds at which Americans access the Internet, specifically around 1 gigabit per second over fiber connections.

From the post:

Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone. Here are some specific things that we have in mind:

Next generation apps: We want to see what developers and users can do with ultra high-speeds, whether it’s creating new bandwidth-intensive “killer apps” and services, or other uses we can’t yet imagine.

New deployment techniques: We’ll test new ways to build fiber networks, and to help inform and support deployments elsewhere, we’ll share key lessons learned with the world.

Openness and choice: We’ll operate an “open access” network, giving users the choice of multiple service providers. And consistent with our past advocacy, we’ll manage our network in an open, non-discriminatory and transparent way.

Guess this settles the question of why Google has been buying up all that dark fiber over the last few years. OK, tech pundits, in the wake of this announcement, do any of you seriously care if Buzz is a flop or not?¹ Stop opining about social networking sites and “power of social media” (a phrase guaranteed to earn you a punch in the groin from me) and start thinking big.

For the record, I hope Buzz does well, because it’s promoting some very interesting open standards that could revolutionize they way publishers and subscribers interact with each other.↩

Tagged with google tech

This is the title of a typical incendiary blog post - Coyote Crossing

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:36:15 -0000

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Love this breakdown of the typical incendiary blog post, and the comments are the icing on the cake. Worth a look if you’re in need of a few chuckles.

Tagged with blogs funny humor

Jilion - SublimeVideo

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 21:33:06 -0000

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Outstanding example of what an HTML5 based video player can be. I look forward to the day when all web video is consumed like this: with no browser plugins, seamless buffering, and without hogging my computer’s resources.

Tagged with html html5 tech video

Earth’s atmosphere came from outer space, scientists find

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:43:38 -0000

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Research conducted by scientists from the University of Manchester and the University of Houston suggests that contrary to the current view that our atmosphere and oceans came from the release of volcanic gases may be incorrect. Instead they suggest that the the source of our early atmosphere came from space itself.

From the article:

“We found a clear meteorite signature in volcanic gases,” said Dr Greg Holland the project’s lead scientist.

“From that we now know that the volcanic gases could not have contributed in any significant way to the Earth’s atmosphere.

“Therefore the atmosphere and oceans must have come from somewhere else, possibly from a late bombardment of gas and water rich materials similar to comets.

What I’m curious about is if this makes the particular life sustaining qualities of our atmosphere more or unless likely to be present on other planets.

Tagged with geology space

Ancient Amazon civilisation laid bare by felled forest

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:37:15 -0000

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Research indicates the existence of a complex ancient civilization in the Amazon. It does not appear to be of Inca origin and predates the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese. I’ll be curious to see how this develops.

From the article:

Signs of what could be a previously unknown ancient civilisation are emerging from beneath the felled trees of the Amazon. Some 260 giant avenues, ditches and enclosures have been spotted from the air in a region straddling Brazil’s border with Bolivia.

The traditional view is that before the arrival of the Spanish and Portuguese in the 15th century there were no complex societies in the Amazon basin – in contrast to the Andes further west where the Incas built their cities.

[…]

While some Inca sites lie just 200 kilometres west of the geoglyphs, no Inca objects have been found at the new sites. Neither do they seem to have anything in common with Peru’s Nasca geoglyphs.

Tagged with anthropology history

Contact lenses to get built-in virtual graphics - tech - 12 November 2009 - New Scientist

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:57:24 -0000

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This is the kind of breakthrough we need in order to make AR a practical technology for day to day use.

One of the limitations of current head-up displays is their limited field of view. A contact lens display can have a much wider field of view. “Our hope is to create images that effectively float in front of the user perhaps 50 cm to 1 m away,” says Parviz.

Just as exciting is proposed power source for the device:

Parviz says that future versions will be able to harvest power from a user’s cell phone, perhaps as it beams information to the lens. They will also have more pixels and an array of microlenses to focus the image so that it appears suspended in front of the wearer’s eyes.

WANT

Tagged with augmented reality future tech

The Go Programming Language

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:55:17 -0000

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Google has released their own programming language, appropriately named Go.

I haven’t had time to dig deeply into this yet, but I’m seeing some interesting stuff that I like such as fast compilation, garbage collection, easy to read syntax, built in support for multicore machines and of course an open source BSD-style license. I’m looking forward to playing around with this when I can free up some time to do so.

Tagged with development go language google open source programming

Haystack - Search for Django

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:02:25 -0000

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This is a sweet search application for Django.

When I first wrote my site, I had to patch the model code to have it utilize the native full text search available in PostgreSQL, and then some truly ugly search code for searching all the models in my applications. Haystack, combined with a true search backend like Solr or Xapian is a much better approach. Looks like a great way to implement robust search on your Django site.

Tagged with development django programming python search

October Braindump

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:34:46 -0000

Blog Entry

I have not been posting here much of late, which is partly due to the amount of stuff I’m working on, and partly due to the fact that I’ve been writing and posting stuff in other places around the web, since it is easier. Some of this will get fixed with the next revision of this site, but honestly, it has less to do with those other things I’m working on and a lot more to do with general laziness. Either way, it is high time for an update.

What have I been doing?

Among other things, I’ve been working on the next version of the custom CMS that powers this site. I initially started this process to fix the comment issue I was having, and it quickly turned into a complete rewrite of the Django applications I use to power Andrlik.org. It’s a lot of work, mostly because I started off with way too large of feature list. I would trim some of those features, but at this point the actual code for the new stuff is already written. Ironically, it is the new comment application (among a few other things like actual template design) that are not completed yet.

The new site is being rewritten from the ground up to take advantage of all the new features and capabilities available in Django trunk, and it will incorporate pulling detailed activity data from virtually every social network I participate in that provides an API. I have not decided to what extent this information will play a role in the actual layout of this site, the primary purpose of these features is to provide me with an automated backup of all of that data. In addition to pulling data from social networks, I’m adding more discrete media types to the site which should allow me to do more interesting things such as podcasts if it ever strikes my fancy to do so. There is some basic podcast support baked into the blog application for the current site, but it’s inelegant and a pain to use.

In addition to new features for me, I’m incorporating the ability for readers to authenticate using OpenID, Facebook, or Google, the latter two options being new, while improving compatibility of my OpenID solution. I’m doing this because I’m planning to allow comments from authenticated users only, which allows me to utilize different privacy settings for any posts.

So, yeah, that should be cool. At least, whenever I get around to finishing it and deploying the new version to the server.

I’ve also been busy with work, and doing a lot of traveling, which means by the time I get back to the hotel room I am ready to pass out. When at home, I’ve been reading, spending quality time with my girlfriend, and working on yet another project that I can’t talk about yet.

Splattered Content

While I have not been posting or bookmarking here, I have been posting to various other sites online. Of course, there is always my Twitter feed, where I post random bits of questionable wit, as well as links to stories I find interesting. In addition, as I’ve been reading, I’ve been posting quite a few book reviews to my Goodreads account, which I try to also mirror on my Readernaut profile, when possible. In general, I don’t include rereading books in my activity streams but there has certainly been a lot of that going on as well.

Every time I post a review to either service, I feel like I should expand it out into a real post for this site, but I rarely take the time to, which is a habit I hope to change in the upcoming months. In the meantime, I thought I would include some of my Goodreads reviews for books I’ve recently read that are particularly notable.

Memories of the Future, Part 1 by Wil Wheaton: 4 out of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. I laughed so much while reading Memories of the Future, more than I have for any other book in recent memory.

The episode recaps are the real stars of the book, and I would often stop to read a particularly hilarious passage out loud to my girlfriend. However, this isn’t just a book of condensed snark; Wheaton’s love of Star Trek TNG comes through on every page. His profound respect for his fellow actors, and his affection for what the show will become gives the recaps a humane quality. As a result, the snarky episode recaps, feel less like a nasty internet posting (the natural habitat of undiluted snark), and more like the playful ribbing of a friend at the dinner table, while reminiscing about that embarrassing event that everyone had to go through back in high school.

It’s a great book, but I do have a tiny niggling complaint. There’s a lot of references in the recaps to later episodes by their title, which I wouldn’t mind if the recaps of those episodes were in the same volume, however a few of them are slated for volume two, and since I don’t have the 1st season of TNG around the house to figure out what Wheaton’s referring to, I felt left out of a joke that probably won’t make sense to me until the second volume comes out (soon, I hope).

There were also a couple episodes where Wheaton didn’t actually recall anything from behind the scenes, so for those entries the “Behind the Scenes Memory” section would be a little weak.

To sum up: I loved this book and can’t wait for volume two. However, I knock off one star for the two small complaints I mention because I am a bit of a prick despite Wil Wheaton’s sage advice: “Don’t be a dick!”

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi: 3 out of 5 stars.

I enjoyed this book, which actually surprised me a bit. Typically with sci-fi I tend to prefer heavier fare, but Scalzi’s light touch with his prose worked for me quite well. It’s central idea is spectacular story-fodder, and I’m interested in seeing what he does with it in the later books of the series.

Unfortunately, there is a little bit of a strange disconnect in the story, which might have a lot to do with the fact that the protagonist seems to excel at everything, and never seems to face a real challenges, so the central conflict of the story feels almost superficial. Also, the alien species are painted in very broad strokes, and it gave me the impression (rightly or wrongly) that the universe was not fully realized by the author beyond the limited conflicts that are depicted. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I like to feel a bit more depth to the world, and I might have been able to ignore it had the protagonist faced more challenges.

Don’t ge me wrong, I enjoyed the book, and will try out the next book in the series, but the disconnection I felt means I can only give it three stars.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest: 4 out of 5 stars

This was my first experience with Priest’s work, and it was a pleasure. I found it to be a brilliantly imagined steampunk novel set during an extended Civil War, and in Seattle, a catastrophic event has brought the Blight upon the city, which causes the dead to walk. The story focuses on a mother seeking to save her son, whom has charged off into the city to find out about his father. Along the way she encounters air pirates, zombie rotters, and the other people who choose to brave the Blight, living beneath the ground and in sealed vaults for protection. However, it’s also a mystery, for the son’s quest will lead them both on a journey to answer the questions raised by the Blight, and to learn once and for all the real history of the experiment that brought the plague.

The book is well written, the action is tight, and it’s just a hell of a lot of fun to read. The only complaint I have is that the last chapter seemed a little flat to me, almost an unnecessary epilogue, that answers none of the questions that still remain, but without actually building any sort of wonderment or cliffhanger. This is the reason that I’m only giving it four stars.

The Child Thief: A Novel by Brom: 4 out of 5 stars

I admit that I approached this book with trepidation. In the past, I have encountered a number of attempts to retell the Peter Pan story, most of them spectacularly bad. Add in the fact that the author only goes by a single name, and alarm bells begin to ring.

I was pleasantly surprised. What I found was a dark, tense and well written piece of fiction that successfully reinvents Peter Pan, while still holding true to the core elements of the original. Brom doesn’t cheat. Peter is an unpredictable and violent figure, who is clearly borderline insane. However, Brom also demonstrates quite clearly that Peter is a pawn of greater forces, and the enemy that he is being pitted against is truly horrifying. With this in mind, you might almost forgive him for stealing the abused children of the world in order to serve as infantry in the battle, but the author rightly refuses to let Peter off that easy. You are confronted with the terror the children feel, and that is what makes this novel work.

And if that wasn’t enough, it comes in a beautiful hardcover edition with artwork from the artist himself. It’s definitely worth a read, so if you hear the same alarm bells I did, cover you ears. This book is worth it.

I’d also add in that you should read all of the Joe Abercrombie books in First Law trilogy, including the one-shot follow-up novel Best Served Cold. However, I recommend you start with the trilogy, and I am including my review of the first book. It is worth noting that the first book of the trilogy is the only one that I awarded less than five stars.

The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie: 4 out of 5 stars

An outstanding debut novel and start to a trilogy. Abercrombie does a wonderful job of introducing all of the complex characters and manages to make them all fascinating in their own right, although every reader may favor some more than others. In my case, I am particularly captivated by both Logan, the practical barbarian that is haunted with regret, and Glotka, the crippled torturer and inquisitor.

Abercrombie is also very effective at introducing the reader to his world, without much tedious exposition, which is a welcome change from a lot of other epic-fantasy. He also clearly illustrates what is at stake and carefully sets the events in motion that one assumes will drive the course of the story in the next two books.

I do have one complaint, and that is that occasionally Abercrombie starts a chapter without clearly telling you which character’s point of view the narrative is being told through, which can be a bit confusing. Usually, you can tell just from the voice of text, which is quite an accomplishment on the author’s part, but occasionally I would encounter a chapter and it would take me half a page to orient myself, which is the only reason I’m knocking off one star.

I can easily seeing this book joining the likes of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles as one of my favorite epic fantasy series produced recently, and I can’t wait to start on the next book in The First Law series.

Needless, to say I loved the rest of that series.

Get Back To Work

I’m serious, I’m sure we all have shit to do. I’m sure the various things I am working on will keep me busy over the next few months, but I will try to post here more often so that I don’t have to do such a gigantic braindump next time.

Tagged with braindump development django personal reviews

Scientists find path to fountain of youth

daniel@andrlik.org (Daniel Andrlik) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:06:04 -0000

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Scientists have found a way to prolong the youth of mice in a laboratory setting by genetically manipulating them to block production of the S6 Kinase protein, which mimics a reduction of calorie intake without actually having to limit the amount of food consumed.

From the article:

“The mice lived longer and were leaner, more active and generally healthier than the control group. We added ‘life to their years’ as well as ‘years to their lives.’”

The genetically altered female mice lived 20 percent longer — living a total of 950 days — or over 160 days more than their normal counterparts.

At age 600 days, the equivalent of middle age in humans, the altered female mice were leaner, had stronger bones, were protected from type 2 diabetes, performed better at motor tasks and demonstrated better senses and cognition, according to the study.

Their T-cells, a key component of the immune system also seemed more “youthful,” the researchers said, which points to a slowing of the declining immunity that usually accompanies aging.

Male mice showed little difference in lifespan although they also demonstrated some of the health benefits, including less resistance to insulin and healthier T-cells. Researchers said reasons for the differences between the two sexes were unclear.

Very interesting research, I’m curious if the ratios for extended youth would also hold true in humans. If so, extended youth: check. Now where’s that brain/internet hookup I’ve been waiting for?

Tagged with aging biology future