Thoughts and Letters

Adding Virtual Hosts with MAMP on Leopard

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:03:49 +0000

Most of our audience can ignore this post, but for all those of you who are trying to setup named virtual hosts with MAMP on Leopard (and we know it’s alot of you), this might be helpful.

When you’re editing your /etc/hosts file, (sudo pico /etc/hosts), you would normally create an entry by saying…

127.0.0.1 mylocaldomain.dev

When you’re using MAMP, however, that won’t work correctly. It will connect you to your built in webserver (even if it’s not enabled, it seems), which really isn’t what you want. So instead of 127.0.0.1, you should use the odd looking address that is latest in the file,

fe9000::1%lo0 mylocaldomain.dev

The address will probably be different if you’re using a different. I’ve got no idea why they’re using such a strange address, but it seems to work nicely once you know to use it.

LiveScribe

admin — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:12:06 +0000

College Students: I don’t know how long this has been around, but it sounds amazing. It’s a pen that records audio and links it with what you were writing at the time. Now, pens that let you transfer what you wrote on paper to your computer aren’t that exciting - I’ve never seen much use for them. But being able to write notes in class, and then link that to the audio of the lecture you were hearing just strikes me as incredibly useful. The pens are around $150, and seem to require a special type of notepad.

I’d love to see something like this for people who take notes on the computer like myself, linking audio to typing.

Indiana Jones Review

admin — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:03:38 +0000

I never thought that I would be the type to like Indiana Jones. I’ve never seen any of the original movies, and the mental image of a guy who swung from a whip while being chased by a large boulder always struck me as a bit of a stretch. When I went to see the newest movie with Kierstyn last week, however, I was pleasantly surprised.

The visuals were stunning. The very first shot left my jaw hanging open in amazement, and they just kept coming. The effects were good, but it was the plain, “simple” film shots that really stole the show. Definitely worth going to see on the big screen. The story itself also good, although the end could have been more satisfying. There was plenty of humor, intensity, bad science, and large insectery. If you liked the originals, you’ll probably like this one alot. Even if you’ve never seen anything Indy however, I think there’s a good chance that you’ll find it worth the ticket. Overall, I’d definitely recommend going to see it.

Climate Clock

Alex — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:32:14 +0000

This might tick you off… a plan for a $5 to $15 million dollar clock in San Jose that would count down the time until global climate disaster. Mentioned positively on FlingLog, along with a series of complaints about there being no decisive data on when the world is going to end, how it’s going to end, or how fast it is actually ending, making it very hard to build such a clock. We’ve really got to work on getting that data.

Lowercase Tees and Other Things

admin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:19:55 +0000

Lowercase Tees

Predictably, lowercasetees attracted its share of negative feedback. “Some people, mostly Conservatives, have criticised us for putting a political message on a child, but my boy Spencer’s mommy does want a new President, and my daughter Isobel wouldn’t vote for Bush, so there’s no exploitation at all there.” (CA)

Darn conservatives. You’ve got to admit its a fun idea - I’m thinking of buying a few up for my sisters just in case Rush is right. I doubt they’ll have them for sale if their tiny “Obama” tshirt is effective in winning elections.

The Punishment Theory of Blog Reading

Pattern I’ve noticed with my own blog reading - if a blog is posting on a regular basis, you’ll start checking it on a daily basis, or whenever you think about it (which could be more or less often, depending on how interesting it is). Here’s the catch though - every time you visit a blog and there is no new content there, the blogger is effectively punishing you for visiting their site. Bad reader. Bad.

You’ve taken the effort to type in the address and get excited. They’ve disappointed you. If this happens several times, the you starts to realize that you really shouldn’t be visiting that blog so much. And the bloggers hits go down. So that’s the theory. I think it might explain a lot of the hit dynamics in the blog world. I think it also explains many geopolitical crises. Not that I’m necessarily suggesting that you do anything about it, considering that would be somewhat hypocritical. Haha.

Blender 2.46 RC1

That. It’s out now for playing with and testing. The new particle system is much happier, now allowing things like multiple systems on one object, boids (kinda like birds, except different), and (somewhat) advanced particle physics!

Speaking of particle systems, here’s something I made with the older system.

3D Dynamite Fuse Burning from Alex King on Vimeo.

Well, on that note, I’d probably ought to get back to writing my paper on theology and church government. It’s about how if protestant churches just had a pope, then there’d be lot less confusion in the authority structure. Yeaaaaah.

Processing BETA

admin — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:51:40 +0000

I came across an amazing tool this weekend called Processing. It allows you to generate images or video using programming methods and data. This is nothing new, but its simplicity and ease of setup makes it the digital equivalent of a sketchbook. Granted, you still need an understand of programming to use it (the script is similar to Javascript), it doesn’t have a drawing GUI, but its far more lightweight than building a program from scratch with C++ or putting something together in Houdini (which, as a sidenote, is finally releasing a mac version).

So far, people have been using it in a wide range of projects that go from visualizing bursts of Yahoo search queries to making flocking imagery for music videos (as show in the picture). Another very interesting aspect is the ease that you can access video, even directly from a webcam. This makes it ideal for testing out analysis techniques without a lot of overhead. Overall, it’s a very cool program, and you should definitely download it and try out the list of samples included at the very least.

The Volvo Ad Department Having Fun

admin — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 04:30:22 +0000

Thought this was a humorous parody of the genre. Watch it. Laugh. Buy a volvo. And feel free to skip that last part.

Seen any other cool ads lately?

A Unique Type of Evangelism

Alex — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:07:16 +0000

Sharing your faith on the House floor? That’d be Congressman Paul Broun (Republican from Georgia) - check out the video of it below. Very few of us can do that - this guy needs to be re-elected.

Coffee

Alex — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 18:32:16 +0000

Ever wondered what the different drinks you see at a your fine local coffee shop actually are? What’s the difference between a Cappuccino and a Cafe Breve? And what is a Cafe Breve? Well you could just ask that person behind the counter, but if you’re a visual learner who likes illustrations, you might to check out this post (via SimpleBits). It shows the ingredients and ratios for nine different coffee drinks (I believe they’re all types of espresso). They might wake you up just looking at them.

Theology + Technology = Godbit

Alex — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 04:25:29 +0000

If you’re interested in mixing Christianity and technology, Godbit is an awesome site to check out. They’re a group of Christians talking about excellence in web design and web standards, and they’re doing a really good job at it. Notable to check out are their featured sites, a growing collection beautifully designed Christian web pages, their interview with Jamis Buck (recognize him from 37signals?), their desktop wallpaper, and the entire site.