06.06.08
Posted in Not just a theorist, Turtles all the way down at 2:50 am by CMonster
I like Flickr. It’s a wonderful photo hosting service, and a few of the semi-pro photographers that I know use it to show off their latest work.
One of the features that the site offers, unfortunately, is a way to prevent people from saving a picture (for example, if you’re planning to sell your photos, and want to keep people from stealing).
That sounds like a good thing, but it’s really pretty awful, because it lulls people into a false sense of security. Just as Flickr warns their users, the web was designed to be open: you can download any “protected” flickr photo in less than ten seconds. Here’s how: (Directions are for people using the Firefox web browser)
First, you should know that the web was designed so that any time you look at a web site, it’s easy to find all the parts that make it up. That’s not a good start for locking something down, especially when you’re dangling the item in question in front of someone!
So to get at that protected photo:
1. Click the “view” menu, and select the option near the bottom (”Page source”)
2. A new window full of gibberish comes up. Search for the word “reflect“- this will come at the end of a chunk of text enclosed in < > symbols. In that same block is a bit labeled “src=http://site.flickr.com/URLofthephoto”- copy the part starting with http into your browser address bar.
3. There’s the photo! Save it as you normally would.
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06.05.08
Posted in Looking Snazzy, Not just a theorist, technology at 10:40 pm by CMonster
I’ve always had fun with sites like the CIA world factbook, which has all sorts of interesting tidbits about different countries.
(For example, did you know that Aruba has no military? Someday, I’m going to conquer the world- and it’s places like that where I’ll look to start. Thanks, CIA!)
On the other hand, collections of statistics aren’t the best way to visualize complex things at one go. While looking at the new “firefox download campaign” (a bid to set a world record for the most downloads of a program in one day), I noticed the map of pledges by region. It’s early in the campaign, but already really instructive: if you assume that more pledges = more tech-savvy users with computers and free time, it’s pretty clear which countries are better off financially. Africa was particularly stunning- more people from South Africa have pledged to download than in their closest dozen neighbors combined.
It’s one thing to hear about the difference in wealth in abstract terms, but I work in a place that’s saturated with information technology- sometimes it helps to be reminded of the things I take for granted.
For even more fun with graphics, the NY Times ran a fantastic graphic last month on where our money goes. I eyeballed the little slices on the chart, and found some unexpected differences:
- Gasoline makes up more of consumer spending than car purchases
- So does eating out
- More money is spent on phone service or cable television than on water, sewage, and garbage collection combined- this is especially relevant, given that water treatment and recycling are often vetoed for reasons of cost. Instead, we prefer to tear through dwindling supplies of scarce resources.
- More money is spent on carbonated drinks than on fresh fruit and vegetables
The common link for all these discrepancies? The items that surprised me were all things that came in small increments, but they add up fast. It says something about the power of instant gratification (chocolate- now!), and also explains why so many charities and organizations pitch their pleas in terms of a daily amount… if we looked at the cost of something like recycling the same way we treated cable, it might be a very different world.
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06.04.08
Posted in Looking Snazzy at 7:50 pm by CMonster
I’m having trouble deciding which is more brilliant:
Freudian slippers, or Tickle Me Freud?
It’s coming into birthday season, and as you can probably tell, most of my friends are nerds.
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05.27.08
Posted in entertainment at 12:24 am by CMonster
I had to work on Memorial Day- necessary, though I at least managed to have some time outside over the weekend.
To keep myself occupied while in lab, I’ve taken advantage of Google Reader’s “most obscure” blogs feature, to present a smattering of lesser-known goodness from my own list of blogs.
Imponderables- Random links from around the web. I miss the books, but it’s nice to see the author keeping busy with his pop-culture roots.
Advances in the History of Psychology- Or, “fun things to try on your siblings”. Includes gems like a subject’s account of the Milgram obedience experiment- sometimes I think that man is the reason IRBs were invented.
Peer-to-peer- Discussions on the peer review process. If you’re actively on the receiving end right now, I recommend this site instead- because it’s time we put a stop to reviewer C.
Electoral Vote Predictor- I read political news like some people read celebrity gossip. The only real difference is that most senators go without breast implants.
EDIT: Milgram, not Milligram. Alas- another loss for the metric system.
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05.26.08
Posted in Hug a tree, Turtles all the way down, behind the curtain at 6:47 pm by CMonster
Gas prices have gone up by something like 40 cents in the past few weeks here, so perhaps it’s appropriate that the station down the road from me has installed a new digital sign, capable of updating prices in real-time.
I’m very fortunate to live in a city with mass transit, during a season when any sort of outdoor travel is a joy- not just a way to save money. By contrast, my mother lives in a town that wasn’t even on the map until recently (here’s a photo of the downtown area), and even the simplest of errands requires some fifty miles of driving at best. She also drives an SUV.
This made for an interesting phone conversation, because to tell the truth, my feelings on gas prices are very mixed. For those living on fixed incomes, trapped in an economy where selling one’s house and moving isn’t an option- well, this is indeed tragic and wretched.
But at the same time, far rural housing developments like my mother’s were constructed as Arizona’s sprawl peaked a few years ago, and the mere existence of such subdivisions was based on the assumption that fuel was cheap and limitless. Hence the positive aspects (peace, quiet, and cleaner air) outweighed the negative traits (like the requirement for a commute that verges on the masochistic, even by Phoenix standards).
I’ll be curious to see how this plays out, and whether continued high fuel prices in the coming years force us to re-focus and live closer together- to become more accepting of apartments, and to live in a concentration that makes mass transit feasible for the shuttling of office workers to their desks every day. The stereotypical American dream of a house, lawn, and 2.1 children isn’t that old, but it certainly is ingrained.
…Which may explain my (deeply apolitical) mother’s response when I pointed out that high fuel costs were the downside of living so far in the middle of nowhere. Would this economic pressure finally make people put a premium on efficiency?, I asked.
“Don’t go all republican on me”, she said.
And I didn’t have the heart to mention the Kyoto protocol.
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05.19.08
Posted in Politics, Screechy monkeys, Such People, behind the curtain, technology at 1:54 pm by CMonster
A random assortment of links:
Student arrested over e-mail: Upset over receiving a B-, a business student threatened to put his professor in a wheelchair. This did not improve his grade.
Things younger than John McCain: Although slightly amusing in itself, the real entertainment value comes from the fact that the blog was started by a senior democratic strategist. (A tidbit which has since been removed) The major political parties are getting increasingly savvy about using the internet, and this is an excellent example of using blogs to test a possible campaign strategy for November.
FakeRecycle: A friend found this virus on her USB drive last week. Unlike a lot of the internet-based threats out there, this one propagates by copying itself onto removable media (like USB drives or floppy disks). This strategy was once common, and it might be ripe for a return- as my friend discovered, there’s more to computer security than staying off the internet.
Also: don’t do this. I’m not quite sure where things went wrong, but the oil rapidly caught fire in the pan. And I didn’t get popcorn.
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05.09.08
Posted in Politics, Screechy monkeys, Such People, Turtles all the way down at 9:18 pm by CMonster
Here’s an interesting way to sideline a law you don’t care for: refuse to nominate leaders for the agency in charge of implementing it.
Yesterday, I learned that the Consumer Product Safety Commission had too few members on the panel to call a quorum: while it should have five members, it actually only clocks in at two right now. Apparently, agency rules require that at least three commissioners (a quorum) vote in favor of certain enforcement actions- like demanding a recall or issuing fines.
In the absence of a quorum, their power becomes pretty effectively (knee)capped- and of course, Bush gets to complain that Congress caused the problem by rejecting his last nominee for commissioner, a lobbyist for the manufacturing industry.
Today, I pulled up the NY Times for some light entertainment while working late, and found that the same stunt is being pulled over at the F.E.C. Has anyone done a study to find out how widespread this is?
—
And in other news, Congress will have some explaining to do come Mother’s day. Next up: a vote on Apple Pie!
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05.07.08
Posted in Turtles all the way down, technology at 1:51 pm by CMonster
When I first came to grad school and began to use our libraries, they still stamped the due date on a card inside every book.
I laughed at the time, but I also appreciated the wonderfully quaint tradition- a reminder of the days when a trip to the library was the highlight of my week (or month), and when mass-renewing meant talking to a person first.
They didn’t stamp my books today, and I find myself rather missing it. On my way out the door, I rifled through the old (index) card catalog- just in case.
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05.02.08
Posted in Cooking, im in ur fridge at 2:15 pm by CMonster
It’s been a busy week with friends, so I’ve been using an old standby recipe of mine as a dessert contribution- chocolate cupcakes with a cheesecake filling. They always go over well, so here’s the recipe!
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05.01.08
Posted in Looking Snazzy, Not just a theorist, Such People, Turtles all the way down at 4:39 pm by CMonster
Today is May Day, a holiday sometimes celebrated with marches and speeches in communist countries. (It’s also known as international worker’s day or labor day in some places)
There’s plenty of other things to celebrate. Some examples of sharing and caring today include:
- Our local bus line is offering free rides to anyone in town.
- The first program written in BASIC was run on this day in 1964- a time when computers were large, expensive mainframes staffed by experts. It was designed to make computing more accessible, and variants of the language are still in use even today.
- I’m told that Britain is holding elections today. (England? The U.K? Beats me.)
- Lab cleanup day (a strictly private celebration, of course!)
I’ve mostly been slaving away at the last one- my desk is once again visible, thanks in part to 50+ person hours of cleaning today. Whoo!
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