Danny O’Brien wrote a wonderful Greasemonkey script, as mentioned in our Issue #02 column. It pings you every few minutes to see if you still really need to be surfing the web, and it’s wonderful.The idea, of course, is not to make you insane and interrupt your real work, but to ensure that you’re always aware of the task that brought you where you are—that you not allow a legitimate work search to turn into a 4-hour wikipedia party. Link.
I need to dust off my Pocket PC and try this out (blog companies could sell refurb’ed PDAs just for blogging)- Pocket Blog extends your weblog to any Pocket PC device. Weblog entries are maintained offline. When Internet connectivity becomes available, such as when your Pocket PC is placed in it’s docking cradle or a WiFi card is inserted, changes are automatically posted to your weblog. Pocket Blog also downloads recent weblog entries, enabling you to edit entries that were originally posted from your desktop. [via] Link.
Wow, scary. As the article asks- how can the MPAA tell if people are selling their own used DVDs or other things? The Motion Picture Association of America said Tuesday that it will fund the installation of 10 new surveillance cameras in downtown Los Angeles–ostensibly to help catch ne’er-do-wells who are selling counterfeit DVDs on the streets. [via] Link.
PHRACK FINAL (#63) scheduled for July 2005. Since 1985, PHRACK MAGAZINE has been providing the hacker community with information on operating systems, network technologies and telephony, as well as relaying features of interest for the international computer underground. PHRACK MAGAZINE is made available to the public, as often as possible, free of charge. Link.
A couple interesting thing on my fav DIY news channel, RocketBoom. On today’s show they previewed a clip for a new video blog with John Edwards. Looks like anyone will be able to video in questions too. I think we’re about to see vlogs hit like podcasting late last year. . RocketBoom also launched a new site called Apollo Pony that has a lot of video clips from around the web.
Neat projects, using Macromedia Flash. InstantSOUP is a path into electronics using an approach of “learning by making”, introducing electronic prototyping in a playful, non-technical way. It was developed following the experience gained in teaching physical interaction design at Interaction-Ivrea. Link.
Here’s a periodic table of Perl operators. You can download the PDF for free or order one through Cafe press at cost. The sources are primarily Michael Lazzaro’s “Perl Operator List, TAKE 6”, Larry Wall’s Apocalypse 3: Operators and Luke Palmer’s Synopsis 3: Summary of Perl 6 Operators. [