2010.03.20

March 19th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

Expiration dates mean very little. - By Nadia Arumugam - Slate Magazine

http://www.slate.com/id/2244249/
Tagged : articles food ideas law safety security slate

I know I think about the strange safety and security policies our society concocts, but I'll admit that I had not given much though to why and how producers stamp thir packages with "sell by" and "use by" stamps. While I'm not very supprised at it's legal requirements, it makes me think about how I as the consumer (and user) regards the (now questionable) logic behind the "warnings". [via BoingBoing]

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2010.03.18

Inking

20.34.11 - Mark

A few years ago, one of my brothers bought a screen printing kit, the two of us figured out how to print some t-shirts, and planned on doing more with screen printing. Didn't quite happen. The parts have been reused to projects, but screen printing fell off to the side. The cloth prints since then were either one-off with freezer paper stencils and spray paint (similar to this project), experiments for other techniques, to simply being large enough that a professional lab felt more practical than an attempt at DIY printing on a short time table. However, about two weeks ago a friend asked me about printing some flags.

He'd used professional printers before, but the low number and small size meant it would have been pretty pricy, and while at first I figured stencils and spray paint would work (and it would) the numbers are enough that DIY screen printing would be easier. So I started working on the kit.

Unfortunately parts of it didn't age well. The screen, ink, and tools are in good enough shape, although quite probably not enough, and the photo sensitive emulsion chemicals were either missing, or used. I was also missing the manual. I know, oft ignored, but if you're playing with chemicals its wise to do your research. In this case I turned to Instructables, and landed on the true DIYers screen printing project. While it isn't the most precise article, it's a great guideline, both for people doing it themselves and those who want to save money.

So while I was waiting for the Potassium Dichromate / Elmer's glue photo emulsion to dry onto the screen, I started working on the art. In the past I'd dig up a piece of transparency sheet and use that for the mask, but finding any, and not liking the price I deiced to try vellum paper (in large part due to the DIY screen printer instructable). Which gets me to this video.

Since I'm working off a vector art piece, I wanted to print it on to the vellum. However my printers don't run on cheap ink, so I only printed out the outline, and would fill it in by hand. Right before I started filling it in I pulled out my old point and shoot and set it up for time-lapse.

Nice short and simple video, in many ways very similar to the Pennies video I. [wow, over 4 years ago!] The slight difference is I had the camera set on time lapse, in one shot a minute factory issued mode, so this ends up being choppier than I'd prefer. I'm not sure if I want to blame my lack of (good) camcorder, better knowledge of the CHDK hack for my point and shoots, or the extended lack of a intervalometer controller for my DSLR (be it commercial product, graphing calculator, arduino based project, or a crude but simple 555 electronic circuit)

In any case

Inking (4.4MB 320 x 240 H.264 Quicktime)

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License.

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2010.03.17

March 16th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

Inverse Graphing Calculator

http://www.xamuel.com/inverse-graphing-calculator.php?phrase=geek+font
Tagged : fonts geek math technology

When we were kids you'd write try and write words on your basic calculator by entering numbers and look at it upside down. Didn't get the whole alphabet, but we got that when we got graphing calculators (which were oft abused as game systems). However using mathematical expressions as graphed out words is pretty freaking cool. [via nerdcore]

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2010.03.13

March 12th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.03 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

Are Google Maps’ Bicycling Directions a Game Changer? | Utility Cycling

http://www.utilitycycling.org/2010/03/google-bike-there-directions/
Tagged : articles bicycling cycling google google maps maps technology utilitycycling

While this probably should be a link to Google Maps in it's new Bicycling mode, it's easier to link to the Utility Cycling article I learned about it in. While right off the bat I wasn't expecting it to be that applicable for smaller towns, I was supprised to be wrong. Missing a couple walking / bike trails, but even in the small town it manages to avoid some of the hilly and/or bike unfriendly routes.

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2010.03.10

March 9th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.03 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

YouTube - REGEN

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCuXylfYXCI
Tagged : action animation cgi scifi video youtube

Cool little action / scifi short film. Particularly the animation work, CGI has some great detail and the shots are pretty creative for the story. [via Nerdcore]

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2010.03.09

March 8th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.04 - Mark

Eye Candy [list of other movies]

The Hurt Locker Rated 4.0 stars for The Hurt Locker
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) Rated 4.5 stars for The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

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2010.03.08

March 7th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

Strobeshnik HDD Clock

http://sensi.org/~svo/strobeshnik/
Tagged : clock DIY electronics hacks hard drive howto MAKE todo

I've seen old hard drives converted into standard 12 and 24 hour analog clock, as well as a nonmoving binary clocks, but this piece looks great, and comes with complete directions for making it yourself (at least if you can make PCBs, read schematics and load the programing onto a microcontroller) [via Hacked Gadgets]

The Minimalist - Yakisoba Is a Very Versatile Dish - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/03/dining/03mini.html?ref=dining
Tagged : food Mark Bittman New York Times nytimes recipies videos yakisoba

I first learned about Yakisoba dishes in this article last week, finally had a chance to make it today, and it's a pretty good meal (mostly following this version of it). Serves about 4 people.

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2010.03.04

Grepping though things

02.01.09 - Mark

I've been aware of GREP for years. I sort of remember it as a feature in BBEdit Lite, the great program I really learned HTML with, but always made do with the regular, plain english search and replace commands to fix problems. That stayed true when I finally moved to TextWrangler (after it was released as freeware to fully replace BBEdit Lite).

I also knew GREP or sometimes referred to as Regular Expressions, was in Perl and PHP, saw it on XKCD, both as a comic and as a t-shirt. Probably knew it was available at the command line of OS X and Linux. Those references and bits of knowledge made me aware of it, but it wasn't until earlier this year that I was given a task that I probably could have hacked though it with traditional search and replace, but needed enough changes made that I felt it would probably take less time to learn how to use a bit of regular expressions.


Regular-Expressions.info helped me a lot, but it still took a little longer to figure out than I had guessed. However, it was well worth the effort, over and over the GREP has proven to be very helpful, and while I'm not a master of the syntax, I can do a bit of damage with it in Textwrangler without a cheat sheet.

About two weeks ago, I stepped up to using some grep in a PHP script.

I've been off and on reading Rockwood Comic for years, but it's lack of an RSS feed sort of pushed it back further. The odd thing is I remembered a bit about scraping websites to create RSS feeds. While there are plenty of tools out there that will do the same thing, part of me figured it would be simpler, more precise and up to date, and a fun little challenge to create it myself - at least for that comic site. Plus once it was kicking around in my head, I knew I'd be using GREP in PHP to dig out some of the content. Once I think it's working a bit better I'll think about writing another post on the hack, especially since this post is mostly rambling on about how wonderful a tool GREP is for geeks, and that I created an RSS feed for Rockwood Comic using PHP, GREP, and cron to write the RSS file it, all wrapped up in Feedburner to give it a prettier URL than the sandbox address my code resides at.

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March 3rd, 2010 Metapost

00.00.03 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

La Bolleur Mini Golf | Design Milk

http://design-milk.com/la-bolleur-mini-golf/
Tagged : art engineering games minigolf

While I'm not a die hard mini-golf kinda person, I'd love to try this course. It's an intriguing combination of art and engineering. [ via Dude Craft]

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2010.02.27

February 26th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.04 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

It begins with a house. « Picture Book Report

http://picturebookreport.com/2010/02/12/it-begins-with-a-house/
Tagged : art dont panic Douglas Adams geek hhgttg scifi

While I've loved Hitchhikers Guide To the Galaxy books, the book covers have never really thrilled me so this little art piece of a HHGttG scene warms me up a little. [via Dude Craft]

CGPortfolio - Raoni Nery - Buzz Lightyear

http://raoninery.cgsociety.org/gallery/853975/
Tagged : animation art Buzz Lightyear photoshop Toy Story untooned

Untooned art have been floating around for a while, worth1000 even did a contest with the style, but there's a ton of skill in this untooned Buzz Lightyear. [via io9]

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2010.02.25

February 24th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.03 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

Lamp With The Bulb Hanging Upside Down - Hometone

http://www.hometone.org/entry/lamp-with-the-bulb-hanging-upside-down/
Tagged : furniture ideas lights MAKE photos todo

Cool idea for a desk lamp, with some images showing you how to make one (minus instructions)[via Hometone]

Crawler Town - a set on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29844928@N07/sets/72157623336807855/
Tagged : art engineering flickr lego photos scifi steampunk

An amazing LEGO creataion. Lovely steampunk, brilliant construction, mindblowing size and detail. [via io9]

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2010.02.19

February 18th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Eye Candy [list of other movies]

Yes Man (2008) Rated 3.5 stars for Yes Man (2008)

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2010.02.17

February 16th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

Is blogging a slog? Some young people think so - Yahoo! News

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100203/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_blogging_matures
Tagged : articles blogging changes culture ideas internet news pew yahoo

An article on some Interesting statistics from Pew about how my generation treats blogging these days. Not supprising, but I'll be thinking about my online habbits a bit more... [via Daily Dish, via Whatever]

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2010.02.16

February 15th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

Snow Tracking - xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe

http://xkcd.com/702/
Tagged : comics funny humor snow weather xkcd

Just delightful. Plus we're about to see another round of snow...

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2010.02.14

February 13th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

Cool Tools: No-Knead Bread

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/004156.php
Tagged : bread cooltools food ideas kk recipies todo

Saw this a while ago, but I'm actually trying it now, and hoping it's worth linking to.

Eye Candy [list of other movies]

Get Smart (2008) Rated 4.0 stars for Get Smart (2008)

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2010.02.11

February 10th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Eye Candy [list of other movies]

9 (2009) Rated 4.0 stars for 9 (2009)

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2010.02.10

Not Breaking Broken Glass

01.19.54 - Mark

Results of engraving part of an glass bottle
While I still need to improve on cutting panes of glass in less random lines, and cutting glass bottles that don't resemble a bar fight, I've been keeping some of the scraps for tests or side projects. Today I was playing with engraving them with a dremel tool and some diamond tip engraver bits I acquired last week. Nothing special, but a fun little project. However if I do more of it, a dremel flex shaft would be a wise investment.

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2010.02.08

February 7th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

Robotic Arm Prototype... on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zomie/4277781825/in/set-72157611259811533/
Tagged : art flickr hackaday hacks hardware metal robotics todo

Interesting attempt at making a robotic hand of sorts using copper pipes and some brass hardware, and may be automated. Another one of those projects I'd almost attempt... [via hack a day]

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2010.02.07

February 6th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

xkcd - Tensile vs. Shear Strength

http://xkcd.com/697/
Tagged : engineer geek scifi space space elevator xkcd

The scifi geek portion of me that learned about the dream of space elevators thinks this is impossible, they'll be massive columns into the stars. The engineer in me thinks that this could be a true story at one of the current space elevator development contents. The xkcd fan in me loves the comic.

Install Apache/PHP/MySQL on Snow Leopard

http://maestric.com/doc/mac/apache_php_mysql_snow_leopard
Tagged : apache apple code instructions OS X php programming server web

Didn't want to bother with setting up a snadbox area on a server box, or fuss with MAMP on my laptop, so I finally decided to activate the already installed copies of Apache / PHP on my MacBook. Mostly needed it to fix a date bug under 10.6's setup

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2010.02.06

February 5th, 2010 Metapost

00.00.02 - Mark

Elsewhere Online [collection of past links]

create and send an email with applescript - AppleScript - Snipplr

http://snipplr.com/view/18200/create-and-send-an-email-with-applescript/
Tagged : applescript automation email geek programming

Did want applescript to create and send an email, couldn't get it to record it meyself, and didn't want to spend the time to figure out how to write it manually. (Which isn't a good thing to admit as a geek who does program some things)

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