Stefan Lasiewski

The Alameda County Computer Resource Center is an innovative computer recycler in Berkeley, CA. They are an environmentalists dream– all waste is reused when possible, the rest is recycled. No waste is shipped to questionable trash dumps overseas. Locally, the ACCRC provides computers to local schools and nonprofits.

During the Makers Faire in San Mateo, California, the ACCRC brought in tons of computer and electronic parts which were salvaged and reused for various projects.

Sadly, the State of California is threatening to shut down the ACCRC, mostly for failing to maintain an inventory of all of their computer equipment, and for keeping interesting/historical equipment onsite (a Computer Museum), instead of destroying the equipment.

I’ve been using ACCRC (and their predecessors) for years, and I’ve volunteered for several Linux installfest events using their hardware. I sincerely hope that State is able to work with the ACCRC and reach a compromise.

The City of Berkeley is thinking about offering free Wireless internet throughout the City of Berkeley.

Read about it, read comments by other people, add your own comments, and vote on the issue at KitchenDemocracy.org.

At long last, Google has finally entered the Beta Phase for the Google Calendar. I haven't played with it yet.

I've been looking for a good calendar app for a while. I've been using Yahoo Calendar for years, and it's too darn buggy with a cluttered interfaace. and I'm excited about this one.

http://www.google.com/calendar

Check out my screenshot

I’m working on a couple projects for Halloween. I like the spooky, ambient effects best, and I’m really not into anything gory — gore is totally overrated and overused during Halloween.

Here are some of my ideas:

Fireflies:

I really like the effect of the Fireflies in Pirates of the Caribbean. They may not seem Halloweeny, but they can add a nice ambient atmosphere. The Fireflies are probably best when viewed at a distance.

I haven’t actually tried this, but I’ve read of similar setups elsewhere. It will require some experimentation.

Partlist:
- 12v worth of batteries & battery holder
- 12v transformer
- Low voltage LEDs (White or Ultraviolet!!!)
- Plastic or paper for the blinders/wings, matte-black
- Thin gauge magnet wire (lightly insulated and painted matte-black)
- Springs
- A board to attach it too
- A fan

Solder the transformer, wire & LEDs together. Arrange the wires in a spring-like shape or attach them to the board with springs.

Put a blinder on the LEDs so the light is blocked from some angles and visible from other angles. This will make the fireflies appear to blink.

Put the setup in front of a fan. The blinders will act as wings and catch the draft provided by the fan. The spring on the wire will make the fireflies appear bob up and down.

Now you have wiggling, bobbing, blinking fireflies!

There are some other instructions here:
www.hiddenmickeys.org/Imagine…g/Imagineering.html
www.geocities.com/oooketchup/POTC_ff.htm

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Ghosts:

This project is pretty simple & low-cost, but it’s not well known. You can do a bunch of different stuff with ths idea.

Partlist:
- Thin fabric like gauze or muslin
- Blacklight
- some spray-on laundry detergent that contains “whiteners” (Phosphorous, etc).

Cut the fabric; spray the laundry detergent onto the fabric. Hold the fabric under the blacklight. The whiteners in the laundry detergent are actually chemicals like phosphorous or zinc sulfide that glow brilliantly under blacklight.

Use springs, string to hang them. A fan can make them bounce. Helium balloons can make them float around very well.

I’m studying the Subversion Version Control System and ran across this humorous quote in Chapter 3:

Merging conflicts by hand can be quite intimidating the first time you attempt it, but with a little practice, it can become as easy as falling off a bike.

You would think they actually meant “as easy as riding a bike”, but no … I think they really did mean falling. Merging conflicts in files is tradionally the bane of all version control systems. I’ve seen developers throw their hands up in the air, give up, and run to the bar for a good beer when resolving conflicts in Clearcase & CVS.

We’ll see if SVN is any better at handling conflicts.

The only truly secure computer is one which is switched off and disconnected from the network.

… and smashed with a sledgehammer, to ensure that the computer is never turned on again.

… and set on fire, to the temperature of 600F, which should be sufficient to destroy the magnetic bits in the hard drive.

… and then nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.

I’ve been listening to the music on StaticBeats.com for the last several months. Their choice of music is quite excellent and varied– mostly IDM, but the station delves into Hip-hop, Ambient, & industrial tunes, convering a very wide range of sounds.

Their playlist is extensive— 90% of the music is totally new to me, and I rarely hear any song repeats after listening for weeks on end.

Each song includes a convenient link to the Artist’s or Label’s webpage, as well as a link to the album on Amazon.

Check ‘em out!

MusicForHackers.com was one of the greatest IDM music streaming sites that ever lived. Hundreds of hours of IDM, ambient, experimental and other electronic music, all provided commercial-free.

MfH used live365.com as their main broadcast source, and had a large listenership. Sadly, they shut down in late 2003. I’m not sure of the details, but it involved the live365 fees. live365 themselves were reqired to pay the music labels and the RIAA for each song broadcast. Ironically, most of the labels represented on MusicForHackers were not members of the RIAA.

But don’t dispair! The spirit of MusicForHackers.com lives again at IntelligentDanceMusic.com. Similar feel, HUGE music list (30 days worth of music!), streaming titles and auto-refreshing playlists so you know what song is being broadcast.

I’m very happy to find that the spirit of MfH lives on. Please check it out.

Many of you have a Yahoo account. Over the last couple years, Yahoo has been gradually changing it’s Privacy Policy to allow Yahoo to sell your name, email address, and postal address to other marketing companies.

This means you will receive more Spam in your email box and more Junk Mail and telemarketing calls at home. We all hate Spam, Junk Mail and telemarketing calls, right?

To counter this, I took a look the Yahoo Marketing Preferences page, and spliced a URL together which should turn off all of your Yahoo Marketing Communications at once. To turn off all of your Yahoo Marketing Communications, click this link, doublecheck the results, and then hit “Save Changes” for these changes to take effect.

Yahoo modifies this page a couple times a year, so I’ll need to update this URL from time to time. Please let me know if this URL fails to work for you.