About a year ago I bought an Acura TL. I’m very happy with the car, and I suspect I’ll be happy for a number of years. It has all sorts of high-tech gadgetry, and one of the features I have been really looking forward to using is its Bluetooth “Handsfree Link” phone interface.
I mentioned in one of my gallery photo entries that I sometimes take pictures of ships so I can research them later on. Actually, this is something I can’t really call a “passion” or a “hobby”: I’ve checked into ship backgrounds a couple of times, and found it kind of interesting.
The first time I did this, I didn’t have a photo to work from. My wife and I were staying downtown at the Fairmont Waterfront one night as a special treat. Right outside the front door of the hotel is the Canada Place cruise terminal, and docked next to it was an unusual looking ship with what looked to me to be some sort of robotic submarine on its deck. The ship also had a Christmas tree on its deck, and that also intrigued me. I tried to memorize its name…Maersk something. Maybe Maersk Defender?
How does a fragmented name turn into real information on the ship? Read on…
Technorati Tags: Googling, Internet, Maersk Defender, Ship chasing
Continue reading Vicarious world travelling: chasing ship registries for fun
I was reading Discover magazine today and found an article about the New Horizons project. Basically, its a robotic exploration craft being sent to Pluto to gather some close-in data on the 9th planet. If you want to see some insider photos of the New Horizons craft and its launch, you can check out this photo library on Flickr.
I was reading today about a new study that shows that rats infected with toxoplasma parasites are “controlled” by the parasite to perform acts beneficial to it. Some of these acts are decidedly suicidal for the poor rat, unfortunately, like being attracted to the smell of cat urine.
Continue reading Toxoplasma parasites a cause of schizophrenia?
Steve Fossett, a millionaire who likes to break records, has successfully completed a flight setting a new world record for solo non-stop distance. His plane, the GlobalFlyer, was designed and built by Scaled Composites, the same folks who designed and built the first privately funded “space ship”, SpaceShipOne.
Hello, my name is Kelly Adams….and I’m a searchaholic.
I like to Google. Google is my friend. Well, most of the time its my friend. Until, that is, I search for myself on the vast frontier land that is the Internet. Go ahead, try it yourself: search for “Kelly Adams” (use the quotes). You won’t find my presence on the web on page one…or page two…or even page five. In those first few pages, you’ll discover an actress named Kelly Adams and some fan sites for her, a couple of authors of pornography with the name “Kelly Adams”, and some other sites I just don’t have the time to look at. But my site is somewhere in the Google results: keep looking…on page 12 or so. Now try uber geek “Kelly Adams”. There I am, page one. Or “Kelly’s World”: there my site is again, page one.
Continue reading Fun with search engines…or why the title of this site changed today
I really do like my little Linksys storage link. But I’ve run into a problem with it that is perplexing.
Continue reading NSLU2 (Linksys networked storage) and Linux SMB/Samba
Voice over IP is so last year. Now companies are looking at delivering television and movies to your home over the Internet. And MatrixStream has hardware and software they hope will make it happen. This posting isn’t a review, really: I don’t have the hardware product, and the software product is still in beta and is rather lacking in available content. Consider this more of a “preview”…or maybe a “watch this space for future developments” type of posting.
Continue reading Will Matrixstream do for IPTV what Vonage did for VOIP?
There have been recent news stories about how some Internet service providers are going to put an end to the “free ride” all of us consumers are getting. Various news outlets have picked up on this phrase, as if its actually true or accurate.
Continue reading AT&T, Bell, Telus- Internet not a “free ride”
I’ve started on my 2006 computer upgrade process. The first thing I wanted to get done was to set up network storage for backup and file sharing on my home network. I’m forever rebuilding computers, so anything that looks like a full-blooded computer ends up disconnected or “changed” too often. So I decided some months ago that I’d get a dedicated “network storage” device.
Continue reading Network Storage almost in the palm of my hand…