Anton Olsen.com

Bookmarks for January 30th

These are my links for January 28th through January 30th:

• American Civil Liberties Union : ACLU of Oklahoma Files Federal Lawsuit on Behalf of Student Accused of "Hexing" a Teacher
  TULSA, OK–In a case reminiscent of the Salem Witch trials, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma today filed a federal lawsuit charging that school officials violated 15-year-old Brandi Blackbear's rights when they accused her of casting a hex that resulted in a teacher's illness.
• The Ultimate Alternative Energy
  Today, even green leaders are admitting the folly of rejecting this cheap, clean and safe (when compared rationally with other energy sources) technology. If there were justice, Beckmann would have statues erected in his honor.
• Open-source uIP – TCP/IP stack uIP
  A promising looking tcp stack for microcontrollers.
• CO2, Temperatures, and Ice Ages
• Man imitates guitar sound using just voice – Telegraph
• Black Unicorn on MySpace Music
• uWatch – A DIY Programmable Scientific Calculator Watch
  Some cool ideas on making a diy electronic watch.
• Antarctic Images by Anthony Powell Antarctica photos videos and timelapse- powered by SmugMug
  Some stunning photography from the harshest continent on the planet.
• You Will Not Believe The Blog: Star Wars Yoga
• Teensy USB Development Board
  A nice little dev board for the AT90USB processor.
• 10 Steps To Protect The Admin Area In WordPress | Developer's Toolbox | Smashing Magazine
• Google begins effort to find Internet blockers | U.S. | Reuters
• Why Nothing's New in Windows – Forbes.com
  Might it be the case that the inside of Windows hasn't changed very much because there is nothing left to invent in operating systems?
• Focus Designs Inc – HOME
  Self balancing unicycle.
• MAKE: Blog: How-to Tuesday: Getting started with the 3pi
• Update on status of mod_wombat
  It looks like mod_wombat (provides Lua scripting for Apache web server) will be released as a core module (i.e. if you download the web server, you will get mod_wombat—no need to download it separately).
• YouTube – MontyPython's Channel
  The guys behind Monty Python have stuck another thorn in the MPAA and RIAA arguments. They got tired of all the crappy dubs of their skits on youtube and decided to do it right. They are uploading high quality videos of their material that everyone can watch for FREE and sales have never been better.
• YouTube – Bob Dole Pepsi Commercial
  Nice spoof.

Bookmarks for January 28th

These are my links for January 24th through January 28th:

• Amazing Mexican Wrestlers – CollegeHumor video
• The Pioneer Woman Cooks – Ree Drummond
  A good article on the whys and hows of making sushi rice.
• Marian Call Music – MarianCall.com
• Arcipello – Daniel Conway Art
• Nerd Merit Badges
  1.5", fully-embroidered, Velcro-backed.
  Badge: Open Source
  Requirements: Make an accepted commit to any open source project.
• Free Monty Python Videos on Youtube Lead to 23,000% DVD Sale Increase | /Film
  Some more proof that giving it away can help sales.
• BSI118 IC-2000 Rubber-Toughened 1oz CA Adhesive Glue
  A flexible CA glue that is very tough.
• BSI120 Insta-Flex+ 1oz Clear Rubber Toughened CA Adhesive Glue
  A clear rubber toughened CA glue. Flexible and strong.
• Remember The Milk: Online to do list and task management
  A list application with web and twitter support.
• : My Rancher, Beef the way it was meant to be!
  Some awesome grass fed beef, dry aged at least 21 days and vacuum packed.

T-Shirt Hell Shuts Doors After One Too Many Hate Emails

I’m done. I’m finished. I can’t take the stupidity anymore, so I’m leaving and I’m taking my website with me. As of Tuesday, Feb 10, 2009, T-Shirt Hell will be no more.

No, I’m not selling out to some douchebag corporate entity. No, we’re not being sued by any of the over 40 companies that have sent us cease and desists over the years. No, I’m not going to jail (yet) and no, it’s not because of the economy. Although, the recent dip in sales certainly does make the idea easier to accept, even though we still sell over 3000 shirts a week.

T-Shirt Hell Shuts Doors After One Too Many Hate Emails.

While I don’t think I’d ever wear one of their shirts, I have found a number of them insanely funny and inappropriate.  So long T-Shirt Hell, the interwebs will miss you.  Well, at least some of them will.

Goodbye 1&1, it's been fun, kinda.

I’ve been a 1&1 customer for a long time, in fact for as long as they have offered service in the US.  I started out with their “free for 3 years” shared host.  Since then I’ve upgraded through two dedicated servers, the last of which is a Rootserver III for $125/mo.

While I don’t really have any problems with 1and1, I am concerned with the aging server, and a bit upset that they won’t lower my monthly cost without migrating to a new cheaper and faster server.  Their cheapest linux box is a dual Opteron with mirrored 250G disks, 2TB of bandwidth, and a $100 pricetag.

So farewell 1&1, if I have to upgrade to get a lower price I’m going to upgrade right out of the dedicated server space and look at moving to single or limited purpose slice type hosts.  This way each project has it’s own server, a measurable cost, is easy to backup, and gains some reliability.  Then if I need more power, bandwidth, or processor I can just pay for more.

I do still have one dedicated server, at Server Beach, and I will hang onto it for a while.  I’ve only had one problem with them (disk failure about week 2) and their tech support was quick, professional and even returned my calls when they said they would.  They appear to suffer from the same upgrade issue as 1&1, but at least what I have meets my needs and I’m not paying more than the cheapest offering.  If you happen to buy a server at the beach, be sure to include my affiliate code: RESKKTY3QB.  It will save you $100!

Farewell 475 days of uptime.

Bookmarks for January 24th

These are my links for January 21st through January 24th:

• DC Motors
  Some more surplus motors, some might work with the Nerf Vulcan.
• Peter Reinhart on bread | Video on TED.com
  Baking bread for Geeks.
• The world's lightest rechargeable battery, 450mg
  Another source of small lipo batteries.
• Gears/Gearboxes – BSD Micro RC, LLC
  Some Didel pinion and spur gears.
• Full River 50 mah Cell – BSD Micro RC, LLC
  A tiny 60mah battery, just .68x.55 inches and 1.6 grams
• YouTube – Microcube – first test
  A 1"cube bot.
• Nikon D3 Cut In Half « Tokyobling’s Blog
• Instant Search is not finding items – Outlook – Microsoft Office Online
  Troubleshooting the instant search index in outlook.
• Did Abraham Lincoln Invent the Emoticon (Smiley) ?
• Allison L. recommends… « BookPeople’s Blog
  If you’ve never read Sarah Vowell, you have to go read Assassination Vacation right now. Now! Why are you still reading this? Go!
• How to Build with Grid Beam
  Grid beam is a modular, reusable building system that is fast, easy, affordable, and virtually goof-proof. Ordinary people with few skills and even fewer tools (all you need is a wrench!) can tackle projects ranging from furniture and shop benches to more ambitious projects like wind turbines, truck racks, small buildings-even electric vehicles.
• http://www.drunkrepublic.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97:when-your-credit-card-signature-fun-backfires&catid=34:humor&Itemid=60
  So I have a plan now. I'm going to get a new credit card and sign the back with my cock and balls drawing. Then I will consistently use that as the signature. That way, if I ever get caught in the same situation, the signatures will match. That will really fuck with them.
• Playatech: Bare Necessities / Simple Seat
  Plans for a cheap flat pack chair. Add a couple cushions and it'll be cheap and comfy.

Bookmarks for January 21st

These are my links for January 19th through January 21st:

• “Save the Sea Kittens”: PETA’s Lamest Campaign Yet
  Best quote yet about this ad campaign is from the Accordian Guy: “I have bad news for you: I’m Asian, and I think of cats as egg rolls waiting to happen.”
• Making an IR object tracking system | Let’s Make Robots!
  Object tracking with these sensors is more complicated than object detection so I’m going to try and explain it in more detail here including problems I’ve had as this is still a work in progress.
• Beetlejuice meets the Joker.
  Cool art, wish I could find some context.
• Barack Obama is a Ninja with a Lightsaber – Boing Boing
  A funny photoset of Obama, the Ninja.
• louisgray.com: TweetDeck: New Twitter AIR App With Summize Integration, Groups
  One of the better twitter apps out there.
• ROBOTmaker Products
  A UK shop with a lot of cool parts and kits.
• Men’s Health – Eat This, Not That! – Best & Worst – What’s are the worst foods?
  20 of the worst foods in America. Some of them are even supposed to be “healthy”.
• PolitiFact | Obama’s birth certificate: Final chapter
  Obama’s birth certificate: Final chapter
• US Presidential Election 2008
  It’s interesting to see how the candidates stack up on the political compass.
• Coraline: Behind the Scenery
  This is the set of Coraline, an animated feature film, out next month, based on the fantasy author Neil Gaiman’s beautifully creepy children’s novel about an adventurous girl who unlocks a secret passageway and enters the parallel Other World
• CNN.com – Special Reports – The 44th President
  Satellite photo of the inauguration. That’s a lot of people.
• World of Goo at Nintendo :: Games
  World of Goo is a multiple award winning physics based puzzle / construction game made entirely by two guys. Drag and drop living, squirming, talking, globs of goo to build structures, bridges, cannonballs, zeppelins, and giant tongues.
• Comparing robots.txt Files From Obama’s New Site and Bush’s Old Site
  Comparing the robots.txt file from Bush’s whitehouse.gov to Obama’s whitehouse.gov. To be fair, the excluded docs are just the text versions of the html pages. Google even recommends doing that with duplicate content.
• Maple-Bacon Lollipops!
  And not just any bacon, either- we use sustainable, organic, cured bacon- we kinda felt that it went well with the pure Vermont maple syrup we were using as a base
• www.zwheelz.com
  Need to check this out later.
• The Lunacy of a FIRST Robotics Competion | Geekdad from Wired.com
• “Wax On!” Geek History | Geekdad from Wired.com
• Princess Bride Ambigram | Geekdad from Wired.com
• Q4 Technologies – Control Technology for Education
  Programming the WowWee robots.
• DIY R-Strap attachment on Flickr – Photo Sharing!
  A handy mount for a DIY r-strap.
• Cylon Helmet Project
  An example of a cylon helmet made with a multi part mold.
• TechCrunch Tablet Update: Prototype B
  The idea is to get a new type of device into people’s hands for as cheap as possible (we were aiming for $200, it looks like $299 is more realistic). It fits perfectly on your lap while you are sitting in front of the TV, so you can look up stuff on Wikipedia or IMDB as you channel surf.
• Lunch Bag Art
  A new bag each day for my kids.I’m the dad. I make these during my lunch break.
• 12VDC Heavy Duty Robot Motor-The Electronic Goldmine
  12VDC Heavy Duty Robot Motor. Has a 1 1/2”L x 1 1/8” Dia. body, and a 1/2”L x 3/32” Dia. shaft. G7851
• Small Powerful 12VDC Motor-The Electronic Goldmine
  Shaft 0.37″ Long, 2.2mm diameter. Motor body is about 1. 6″L x 1.07″Dia. Voltage 6VDC up to 18VDC.
• 18V 10400 RPM DC Motor-The Electronic Goldmine
  Voltage: 18V, Current: 140mA, RPM: 10400, Body: 1.08″ diameter x 1.5″ long, Shaft: 0.09″ diameter x 0.48″ long.

Skepchick: Critical Thinking at its Finest

Turns out, Headset Vince is actually one of the good guys, a hero. We need to stop mocking him and start celebrating him. And we need to buy his towels and nut choppers and his DVDs.

Skepchick: Critical Thinking at its Finest.

George Washington was a Genius

However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Farewell Address, Sep. 17, 1796

George Washington Quotes.

I think ol’ George was a genius.

YouTube – 'Air and Simple Gifts' John Williams at Obama Inauguration

YouTube – ‘Air and Simple Gifts’ John Williams at Obama Inauguration.

Absolutely amazing.

Eat Some Sea Bacon!

Eat Some Sea Bacon!.

We hope to change that by encouraging people to refer to fish by a different name: “Sea Bacon.” Everyone loves bacon, and by calling fish sea bacon we can help the world see these misunderstood creatures for what they really are: enchanting, delicious treats.