Alexander B. L.

Q: I had always wondered what had happened to Perseus SurveySolutions (the actual survey software, not the people, most of whom are on LJ :)

A: http://www.vovici.com/

I'm not sure if I'm laughing or feeling my brain die.

http://www.lolcatbible.com/

http://cre.ations.net/creation/binarypov-custom-wristwatch

http://cre.ations.net/creation/jacket-cuff-lights

Both of these would be extremely fun and useful projects. Hmm...

http://cre.ations.net/creation/vinyl-overlay-for-tactile-feel-on-iphone-nes-emulator

Exactly what I've been missing for kickass iPhone gaming.

Anyone interested in seeing what I do for a living can check out:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/technet/spotlight/sessionh.aspx?videoid=998

Full 45-minute video of one of my presentations. Not sure when the second one will be available.


http://edge.technet.com/Media/Using-Powershell-to-managed-Hyper-V/

Shorter, punchier interview. There's a second interview that was funnier, but that's not out until October.

Hello,

 

Congratulations! DEFCON is pleased to accept you as a speaker at DEFCON 16. Please bear in mind the website is not fully updated yet. We will begin creating the schedule shortly and will be communicating with you often to give you updates and remind you of deadlines. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

 

Please note that we require your full materials (slides, whitepapers, etc) submitted to us for publication by June 30, 2008.

UPDATE: Damn, DefCon got cancelled...well, there's always next year.

Back in high school, after reading Space-Time and Beyond for the umpteenth time and drinking one too many zombies with my friend Henry, we came up with a theory:

In the infinite set of universes, there had to exist a particular universe in which the events in our lives were being watched as a TV show.

We then made a solemn vow to live the kind of life that got high ratings.

This is the continuation of that story.

...I've never had anyone sum up my philosophy on life so succinctly.

Both Trial of Flowers and Mainspring (by jaylake) arrived yesterday. I finally broke down and bought them after re-reading the lead-in stories to Trial of Flowers. (Also, after searching for an ebook version about once a week: funny how instant gratification works?)

Trial of Flowers is just gorgeous at 100 141 pages in. Reminds me in all sorts of happy ways about Nobilis. Thanks to kadath on this one :)

The engineers finally sent out prototypes, so I get to hack on Python all weekend. Hardware hacking is more fun than I remembered :)

Wiimote + N800 = Wiimote with effectively infinite storage, and a pretty decent screen.

Now, Wiimote + N800 + tape an IR LED to a whiteboard marker = portable, cheap, whiteboard saver system. Set the Wiimote up with a good vantage, have some audio feedback if you start to block the LED, and bam!

Alternatively, thinking about using two wiimotes along the edge of the board, and then interpolating. Less blockable, but possibly less awesome.

When installing my new ATI drivers, I had to install Steam. I created an account for the heck of it (first account I've lost to not having chaos@wpi.edu anymore...sigh) and in the ad blitz I saw that Introversion's released Uplink, Darwinia, and Defcon in one package.

Together, that's $55. Packaged, it's $30. This week, it's $20. VERY highly recommended.

Anyone have a way to dump a PS2 memory card?

Action Replay MAX, instead of backing up my card, seems to have corrupted it.

I really don't want to lose the hojillion hours on there, especially since I BOUGHT THE STUPID AR MAX TO BACK IT UP. Sigh.

(AR Max now shows no data on the card, but shows that it's mostly full.)

"What's wrong with the version you posted?"

"Well, uh, that version ate all of my breadcrumbs and punched a clown."

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0387.html

For various reasons, I now have to be a member of:

Twitter
Jaiku
Pownce

That's -three- microblogging services.

Gaaaaah.

Oh Internets,

Anyone know a sane-ish way to find a copy? Even an insane way?

http://www.theultimatesteal.com is in fact legitimate.

Note that for awhile it had no microsoft.com branding on it, so it was reported as a scam site internally several times. :)

$60 is also cheaper than the company store price for employees.

I get an official blog as a Microsoft employee: if you're interested in the work I'm doing, papers I'm presenting, etc, it'll get cross-posted there.

http://blogs.msdn.com/alexander

...is gorgeous.

Internet is extremely spotty and via random hotspots. Verizon data is simply not working: together, this means basically zero internet access.

We'll see if I survive until orientation.

http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=729

(also available in red)

This thing got a great review of The Register, and at $20 it's being sold cheaper here than I could find anywhere else. By a rather suspicious margin of $60.

The big, big thing here is the fact that it's reprogrammable and has USB client/host and a BT radio. All sorts of tinkerability, and the firmware is open source.

If nothing else, it'll pause and mute my iPod when I get a call in the car. That's pretty awesome.

Germany Declares Hacking Tools Illegal

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/31/1629259&from=rss

I'm not sure what to say. I'm kind of banking on thirdson having an opinion, tho.