I’ve been really focused on the paying work (which is all NDA), so I haven’t much to post lately.
However, this is kinda cool, my Makerbeam kit finally showed up:
..and I’m already using it to make temporary brackets for stepper motors:
In the middle of dealing with the permit process to build a deck off of our house, I read about the little oopsie Google had with collecting network data while running Street View.
It took me less than one minute to come up with some great ways to “monetize” Google Street View data by selling it to:
You now have one minute to come up with other ideas, GO!
I pretty much agree with the entire daring fireball writeup except for one bit:
Admittedly, it would be very hard to get someone on the phone at Apple who would know what a device such as this one is. Apple, like most large companies, deliberately makes it difficult for consumers to reach (non-retail) employees. There is no lost prototype hotline.
True, there’s no “lost prototype hotline”, but it’s pretty easy to get ahold of Apple. I bet any one of these would have worked just fine:
It’s not rocket surgery, people.
Frostburn is a “regional burn”, where local Burning Man types get together for a Burning Man style event. Frostburn is one of the few, if only, regional burns where survival is as much of an issue as it is in Black Rock City. Last year, temperatures were in the teens to the 20s and keeping warm was as important as keeping hydrated is on the playa.
We’ll be there again this year, with another Iced Tea event featuring the newly resurrected Colordome.
Join us, won’t you? I promise it will be more fun than being stuck in a lift line in some random crappy sky resort.
Technorati Tags: burning man, frostburn, geodesic domes
…just working on other, not-so-geeky things and posting about them in my design journal.
However, I got my hands on a Hitatchi HM55B, so maybe I can play with that over the weekend when nobody’s looking.
Ask yourself — what’s the point of your company’s security mechanisms and processes? Which ones are about security, and which ones are about legal coverage or shifting blame to another entity in the event of a breach?
The other day I wanted to wire some money to pay for a motorcycle I was buying from an individual. I went into the local branch of my brokerage and initiated the wire transfer paperwork. I showed them my Driver’s License and my US Passport as secondary ID, I knew the answers to the various secret questions about my account and past activity, but there was a problem.
Because the amount was over a certain threshold (quite small, in my opinion) my signature on the form had to be notarized. Never mind that I signed it in front of them, that my signature matched my ID, and that they’d photocopied my ID, I had to have a notary public stamp and sign the signature form.
What did the notary public do? They looked at my ID, pulled out a different form that I didn’t have to sign, stamped that form, and took my $10 payment. They couldn’t stamp the original form because there was no space for a notary stamp and they are only allowed to use that space on an original form.
What benefit does the brokerage gain from this little LARP quest to meet someone and go through a simple ritual? After I returned with the notarized second sheet of paper, we even changed information on the original form — I’d written down the wrong bank name for the payee and forgotten to fill in the date. They didn’t verify the notary name and signature before accepting my form, they just clipped it all together and started the wire transfer.
My guess is this had little to do with proving that I was who I said I was — it was pretty clear from both of my IDs and my knowledge of random facts about the account that I was the account holder. It’s my opinion that it was about covering their legal ass if there was ever a charge of fraud down the road (“My twin brother did it, it wasn’t me!”). The agents didn’t validate my ID, they relied upon a (supposedly) trustworthy third party, so if there’s fraud, it’s not their fault.
I wonder if the person who thought up this protocol realizes how easy it is to fake something like a notary stamp and signature — they’re trivial compared to a US Passport or state Driver’s License. If the fraud is going to involve more than a few grand, why would I let one more forgery stop me? Think about it — if I know enough about the person I’m ripping off to answer all the secret questions and fake a US Passport and Driver’s License, I can probably manage faking the notary stamp as well.
Do I feel better about my account security thanks to this little waste of time? Nope. I just feel $10 poorer and a bit guilty that I paid the seller a day later than I said I would.
Technorati Tags: security theater
It looks like Pittsburgh is going to take $2.6 million in federal funds (aka “taxpayer money”) to deploy surveillance cameras around the city.
Meanwhile, London has discovered after spending 200 million pounds (US $300 million) of taxpayer money that surveillance cameras aren’t that useful:
“A comparison of the number of cameras in each London borough with the proportion of crimes solved there found that police are no more likely to catch offenders in areas with hundreds of cameras than in those with hardly any.”
So, why is city government so ready to waste taxpayer money to spy on law abiding citizens? Is it because it’s “someone else’s money”, aka federal tax dollars? Is it so they look like they’re doing something to solve local crimes in the future rather than deal with the current crime probem?
Technorati Tags: crime, Pittsburgh, suveillance
I’m trying to decide between a Rong Fu RF-45 clone and a Sieg X3. I’m leaning towards a Industrial Hobbies clone, but I thought I’d make up a comparison chart for the Sieg clones for comparison’s sake:
Sieg X3 Clones Comparison Chart in Excel .xls format
Sieg X3 Clones Comparison Chart in CSV
Let me know if you have any corrections/updates.
Technorati Tags: metalwork, mill drill, Sieg X3
Over on the Yahoo mill_dill group I found an outdated spreadsheet comparing features of the Rong Fu RF-45 square column mill/drill and its various clones.
I’ve been thinking about getting one of these for awhile now for my next art project, so I decided to update the chart. You can find it over on the Yahoo group or download it here:
RF-45 Comparison Chart in Excel .xls format
RF-45 Comparison Chart in CSV
Let me know if you have any corrections/updates.
Technorati Tags: metalwork, mill drill, RF-45
(Follows is a test of Google Ads.)
(Update, 2 Feb 2007. Karma on 8th appears to have gone out of business. Really a shame, it was an excellent restaurant.)
I’ve been to Karma on 8th three times now and thought I should write a few words about it as I liked their food and want to see them thrive.
Karma on 8th is not in the nicest looking neighborhood of Homestead, but the owners have put a lot of effort into fixing up both the inside and outside of the building. They’ve put even more effort into assembling a talented kitchen and wait staff and creating a good environment for having a great dinner.
My favorite dishes are the Boursin Crusted Chicken and the Chicken Marsala. Both have the right balances of seasonings and sides and are reason enough to visit on their own. The pasta specials are creative and equal to the regular dishes if you’re looking for something out of the ordinary. The Caesar Salad and Hummus Platter are both excellent and could easily be a meal on their own if you’re looking for something light. The only let-down has been the Cajun Salmon. It was a bit bland and underwhelming — when I see “Cajun” as an adjective for fish I expect spicy and hot. Given that it’s damned near impossible to get anything other than wings “spicy and hot” in this town, including at Thai restaurants, I can’t really hold this against them.
The service at Karma on 8th is excellent. The wait staff manages to be present when needed without fawning or constantly interrupting with pointless questions. Unlike the bartenders at some of the other restaurants in town, the folks here know that a Martini is made with gin and served up by default and not with vodka and served on the rocks.
If you’re looking for a late evening, there is music and drinks after 10 in the upstairs loft where one can kick back in an overstuffed chair and have a conversation without having to shout or jockey for a bar stool.
One other thing to like about Karma on 8th — the restaurant is completely non-smoking. None of this “we allow smoking at the bar which happens to be right next to the non-smoking tables”, either, there is no smoking allowed inside the building. There are now two places in Pittsburgh (the other being Eleven) where one can go for a drink and not come home smelling like an ashtray.
Technorati Tags: Karma on 8th, Pittsburgh, restaurant, review
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