Category: Computing (Page 4 of 5)

In the Beginning: WiFi at the Smithsonian

November 27, 2006 / boz

I spent a relaxing afternoon yesterday at the Sackler Museum’s “In the Beginning: Bibles before the Year 1000” exhibit. As I was walking through the gates behind the Smithsonian Castle, I noticed the sign on the fence: WiFi @ SI. Nice! Turns out there are a few free wireless hotspots on the Mall now, this area (Haupt Garden behind the Smithsonian Castle) being one of them.

The exhibit at the Sackler was very interesting- they even have some fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls (from ~60AD) on display. My favorites were the illuminated manuscripts from the 10th century – especially the purple-stained vellum with real gold/silver lettering. The exhibit goes through Jan 7, so stop by if you get a chance – it’s free.

Disabling Wake on Open (Mac Powerbook)

October 10, 2006 / boz

If you are having issues with your Powerbook waking up at the wrong time (in your backpack for instance) because the lid latch is weak, then run the following command from a concole window:

sudo pmset lidwake 0

Petaflop PlayStation and Ancient Nanotech

October 6, 2006 / boz

IBM just got a contract to build the first petaflops supercomputer (that’s 1000 trillion computations per second). The machine will be used at Los Alamos to simulate nuclear explosions. What is really interesting is that some of the specialized processors that will be used were originally designed for the PlayStation 3.

An ancient hair dye formula, used by both the Romans and Greeks 2000 years ago (and still marketed as Grecian Formula) is based on nanoparticles, researchers say. The dye contains lead, which when applied to hair reacts with the sulfur in keratin protein to precipitate dark lead sulfide crystals. Using X-ray diffraction and other techniques they imaged the crystals. They appear to be like today’s lead sulfide quantum dots created via techniques from materials science, and are just 5 nanometers wide. Ancient Nanotech!

Getting a books database on a PalmOS PDA

July 18, 2006 / boz

Ok, so this might sound like a bit much, but the following are the steps I have to take to get my book collection database onto my Palm T|X:

Export from Booxster (on my Mac) to an XML file
Prepend a dummy record that has all fields to top of XML file (see end of this entry for xml)
Import XML into online (MySQL) version of DB (for use on this blog, for instance), using Navicat software
Delete the dummy record via [delete from books where keyword = ‘deleteme’]
Export the db again, this time from the newly created online version, to XML again via Navicat

This is because the FMP import (see next step) barfs on the XML file created in the Booxster export (step 1). But this is not so bad, because I want to update the online version anyway…

Import this second XML file into a FileMaker Pro (FMP) database
Sync the Palm T|X, using FMSync software to sync FMP with JFile on the Palm.

Seems like a lot of work, but the whole process takes about 5 minutes, with about 30 seconds of user interaction (biggest wait is the import of Booxster XML into online version via Navicat). At the end, I have my 3 database versions synced up. The PalmOS version is especially useful when I go into a bookstore – no more duplicate purchases, or the converse of passing up a purchase because I thought I had a copy.
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Windows Tips and Tricks for Mac Users

April 18, 2006 / boz

Windows Tips and Tricks for Mac Users
————————————-
by Kevin van Haaren kevin @ vanhaaren.net

FROM:
TidBITS#826/17-Apr-06

http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-826.html
ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2006/TidBITS#826_17-Apr-06.etx

—–
It has been possible to run Windows in virtual machines on Macs
for many years. However, with the recent switch to Intel chips
and the beta releases of Apple’s Boot Camp and Parallels
Workstation for Mac OS X, interest among Mac users in running
Windows has expanded significantly. This article is intended
to help new – and perhaps even long-time – users of Windows with
a few tips I’ve learned over the years of suffering at the help
desk of a Windows-using corporation.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08494
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08495
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/

In the Beginning: WiFi at the Smithsonian

Disabling Wake on Open (Mac Powerbook)

Petaflop PlayStation and Ancient Nanotech

Getting a books database on a PalmOS PDA

Windows Tips and Tricks for Mac Users

Word of the Day