Earth: Mostly Harmless

del.icio.us will eat itself

I’ve been doing a bit of work using del.icio.us as a data provider so this post by Jason Kottke made me chuckle.

Besides, recursion is just cool.

del.icio.us will eat itself:

del.icio.us.

People who have bookmarked del.icio.us on del.icio.us.

People who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked del.icio.us on del.icio.us.

People who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked del.icio.us on del.icio.us.

People who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked del.icio.us on del.icio.us.

People who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked del.icio.us on del.icio.us.

People who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked del.icio.us on del.icio.us.

People who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked the people who have bookmarked del.icio.us on del.icio.us.

Ed. note: At this point, the del.icio.us web server started singing “Daisy, Daisy” and soon after, Skynet achieved consciousness.

(Via kottke.org).

Initial thoughts on the MacBook

I received my new MacBook on Friday, so I’ve been swiftly copying everything I can onto it in the hope of moving lock-stock to it from my iMac G5 in the next few days. Some initial thoughts:

It’s built like a tank.

I managed to drop it this morning but despite a nasty deflection off a wooden desk it survived unscathed (the desk came off worse somehow - a big slice taken out of it).

The AirPort connection is erratic

This could be none of the MacBook’s fault, since my AirPort Express is very flaky, but it does tend to drop connections quite a lot. I haven’t had enough time yet to evaluate it on the office or university WiFi to verify this though.

The power system is extremely well designed

The battery itself is really very capacious - and the MagSafe adaptor is a decided improvement on the old Apple adaptor. Power management is also very good - including the very cool safe sleep (watch video demo) function.

The screen is a fingerprint magnet

I should also say that it looks fantastic in all conditions despite this - but I’m definitely going to have to get a proper cleaning cloth…

The iSight is streets ahead of the FireWire version

Perhaps because it’s so small - but having it built-in is so much more natural during conference use than an external camera. The resolution also seems better, though it’s probably just the same in fact.

It gets hot

Really quite hot! Not enough to burn you, but certainly a little uncomfortable for long periods on your lap. The obvious solution is to put it on a desk, but clearly this isn’t always possible. This isn’t really a design fault - I’d rather have a hot but quiet notebook than the noise of a small aircraft engine taking off every time I run something demanding. Interestingly, the battery doesn’t heat up at all, unlike our 12″ PowerBook G4.

It’s fast

Really very fast! Rosetta apps (ones written for PowerPC chips and so which run in a transparent emulation layer) aren’t noticeably slower, though I’ve been sticking to Universal Binaries wherever possible out of consistency.

The graphics chip could be better

It relies on Intel’s integrated graphics system, and so doesn’t have a dedicated graphics chip in the normal sense of the word. This is a bit of a shame, as my quick high definition video tests show. Playing 1080p24 clips from Apple’s HD movie trailers site (an activity which pushes my iMac G5 2Ghz over the edge) hardly even taxes the processor cores (about 20% CPU usage on each). But actually displaying twenty-four frames of 1920×1080 seems to cause the graphics system a bit of a problem. QuickTime Player reports that the full frame rate is being attained, but there’s a noticeable flicker. This could be a player/codec issue, so I’ll persist and see what I can find out.

However, 720p24 plays great. EyeTV footage looks fantastic in progressive scan mode too.

Overall, I’m really happy with the machine. I think it’s one of the best-value machines that Apple have ever made, and it will serve me well.

to-to-to-to-toppings-zu

More TV In Japan madness. What does one pizza slice say to the other pizza slice? Why…

“Sun, hi! Pi pi pi pi pizza recun do, to to to to toppingts-zu”.

…of course!

There seems to be some romantic dialogue going on here between the boy pizza slice and the girl pizza slice. If anyone can explain this, please let me know, for pizza’s sake…

Animated Pizza Toppings Dance. Crust Goes Crazy.:

This is how you personify the feeling of those that are asked to take part in pizza. Through animation. Dancing, singing animation. And a twisty, yeasty ending. On TV. In Japan.

Thanks to TViJ reader Hamed for the tip!

(Via TV in Japan).

What I’m up to at work

Work:
A run-down of what I’m currently coding for Spoken Word. I have had limited time to put toward Spoken Word stuff recently, but I hope this will change in the next few weeks.

• A citations system: Based on Chris Putnam’s excellent bibutils will allow download of RIS, EndNote and BibTex versions of the appropriate reference for a Padova item.
• A feature for Padova called Zeitgeist: this will embed the contents of del.icio.us URI info rss feeds (which essentially contain the posting history for that URI) reformatted and put into a nice AJAX drop-down box. This allows one so see how previous del.icio.us users have tagged and commented the item you’re looking at. Adding a callback to our database will allow us to maintain an informal zeitgeist of which items are most often bookmarked. Technorati support will eventually be forthcoming.
• Much more robust and useful XML output in Padova. It will output pure Dublin Core; Fedora FoxML or Library of Congress MODS. FoXML support is pretty much done - I just need to test that records exported in Fedora actually then import successfully into Fedora. DC is a copy-and-paste job, but MODS will require a few mapping decisions.

The price of education?

Laura brought this to my attention: worrying stuff in the current difficult civil rights climate. The video included below appears to show Mostafa Tabatabainejad, a UCLA student, being violently restrained and shocked with a taser gun after refusing to show staff his I.D. card in the UCLA library. Tabatabainejad is arrested, and refuses to stand up. He is tasered again. The cycle is repeated several times until a final confrontation in the library lobby results in cops (now in greater numbers) dragging Tabatabainejad away.

Several students admirably take up Tabatabainejad’s cause, repudiating the officers’ advances, and (as the video proves) recording the events so that ample evidence now exists for a high-profile lawsuit.

Laura writes:

The questions I would ponder are:

1) Would the reaction on the part of the security staff had been as fierce if the student was white and/or female?

2) Were the actions of the student and the police influenced by the large number of students gathering to see what was going on?

I’d be interested to know what you think.

It’s a shocking video, and a brutal indictment of the police involved and the climate of hysteria which exists in some circles in the U.S. regarding Arab-Americans.

More: Detailed coverage from Andy Sternberg; BoingBoing’s first and second post on this; Pictures of Friday’s student protests at UCLA over this incident; UCLA chancellor’s response

I have included Laura’s post below, along with the video of the arrest. Don’t watch if you’re squeamish.

I originally saw this video posted on kensei’s journal. It shows a student being tasered by security staff at a university library. Apparently it is policy for people to be IDed in the library after 11pm for the safety of the students.

Personally I’m wondering if this incident would have happened if the student was white. Or female for that matter.