Category: On The Net

Look Ma, no Windows!

So, I had to go buy a PC serial cable to hook up an external 56k modem salvaged from the bottom of my “obsolete” hardware box. (That would be all the crap from old computers I’ve never recycled or thrown out.)

A few clicks around in the network configuration tool, and I have established a dialup connection on the Linux side of my dual-boot system. I’m feeling quite proud of myself. 🙂

Now I just have to figure out what I want to do next…

-Hool

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Does anyone else see the irony in spam advertising a spam-stopping service? I guess the funniest thing is that this message would have triggered my SpamAssassin filters and been dumped had it been sent to my home account.

Culled from the bowels of…

Here are a couple of links I found while trolling my company’s internal message board.

Pencil Carving: http://www.infofreako.com/jad/enpitsu-e.html
This one is just cool – very intricate woodcarving using pencils as the medium.

Flash Mind Reader: http://www.cyberglass.co.uk/assets/Flash/psychic.swf
Try it out, its pretty cool. More information, (including how it’s done) can be found in the spoilers. Visit the site before reading them. If you want to know how it’s done, come back and click the spoilers link.

[Spoilers]
Okay, so this is a pretty slick trick, and involves some interesting numerical relationships.
(Spam, somehow I think you’ve got it figured out already. Being a math-geek and all…)

The instructions tell you to pick any 2-digit number, add the digits together and then subtract that result from your original number. Then, you find the symbol which matches your result, and click the crystal ball. Amazingly, the symbol in the ball matches the one you picked. Go ahead, pick a different number and try again. The crystal ball knows.

Not really, take a look at this:

99 – 18 = 81
98 – 17 = 81
97 – 16 = 81
96 – 15 = 81
95 – 14 = 81
94 – 13 = 81
93 – 12 = 81
92 – 11 = 81
91 – 10 = 81
90 – 09 = 81

“Okay, they all equal 81, so what?”

Well, when you take a 2-digit number, add the digits together and then subtract the result from your original number, you end up with a multiple of 9. What’s more, for each group of ten 2-digit numbers, you get the same multiple of 9:

00 –> 09: 00
10 –> 19: 09
20 –> 29: 18
30 –> 39: 27
40 –> 49: 36
50 –> 59: 45
60 –> 69: 54
70 –> 79: 63
80 –> 89: 72
90 –> 99: 81

So all you have to do when setting this trick up is make sure that the symbols for 0, 9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, and 81 are all the same, and you’ve got a “psychic” flash movie.

“But, but, the symbol wasn’t the same when I did the trick again.”

Well, no. But that’s because the table changed when you reloaded the movie. Do it a few more times and pay attention to the multiples of 9. They’re different each time you do the trick, but that group of symbols always matches. You don’t really notice it at first, because the symbols are repeated a few times on the chart, so swapping a couple (okay – 9) of the symbols around each time is probably going to go unnoticed.

In any case, it’s still a cool trick. I hope these spoilers didn’t, well, spoil it for you, or anything. 🙂
 [/Spoilers]

CNET Radio pulling the plug.

AM 910 and XM 130 will be going dark tonight. This makes me sad, as it is the station that I end up listening to the most during my commute. I haven’t signed up for thier new online only offering. I’ll probably check it out, but I doubt I’ll stick with it.

So, should I switch to a music station, the local traffic/news station, NPR? I haven’t really decided yet. I’ll proably be spending most of my commute time next week channel surfing.