[03-21-2012]
Mississippi Headwaters: Early Season no one around
Yesterday I took the day off and took a trip to the Mississippi Headwaters, in five hours I saw six people, here's a video of the Headwaters with no one around.
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
[03-16-2012]
The Problem Solving Brain
We as a species do not possess many special talents, we are not fast or strong, we do not have superior senses, or the ability to survive extreme climates. What we do have is a brain that is wired for problem solving and opposable thumbs. These two skills are what brought us to the being on of the most dominate species on the planet, from living in caves to building skyscrapers. Our ability to problem solve can only vaguely be replicated by computers and while many species possess such a skill it is usually relegated to survival. What circumstances gave us an evolved problem solving ability? Why do some people forgo their evolved problem solving for a lesser for of survival problem solving? Are we at the peak of our problem solving ability or is there more to discover?
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
[03-09-2012]
Person Dressed as Darth Vader wearing a Kilt plays Star Wars on a Bagpipe
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
[02-17-2012]
A thought on Troubleshooting
Recently I've had some issues with my furnace. Now normally I call my brother immediately because frankly he knows more about furnaces than I do and that's our arrangement (I fix his electronic/computer related issues he fixes my mechanical ones). However he is currently out of the area for work. I still called him to see if he had anything immediate but since he was not some place he could look he had to wait to research it. So I figured I would screw around with my furnace. Now I'm very comfortable with electricity so I was pretty safe shutting down the furnace breaker and poking around in there. Also I had the manual for the furnace so I was looking at it's wiring schematic and found there was a relay that turned the system on and off. Also the thermostat was wired to the wrong spots in the furnace. I fixed the thermostat and called off my brother until I could determine if that was the issue. It wasn't.
So back to texting my brother. However in the meantime the furnace turned on and wouldn't turn off. So I disconnected one of the relay terminals and that seemed to turn off the furnace leading me to believe it was bad relay. My brother called me shortly after to tell me the things that could cause the issue, including the relay. So my suspicions confirmed I bought a new one. All is good so far.
However the reason for this story which is irrelevant to most people is that given the courage to do so, someone with a little bit of knowledge about how things work can troubleshoot what is wrong with them. You just need to have the courage to try. If I had the confidence in fixing my furnace before I started this adventure I would have certainly have spent more time trying to debug it and figured it out eventually. Mind you my brother confirmed it and I'm a lot more happy having a knowledgable and skilled person telling me what's wrong with something, but I can troubleshoot things I don't completely understand which is pretty awesome.
So unless it's dangerous or you're not comfortable troubleshooting something. The next time something quits working trying working your way backward, maybe you'll figure it out and get the rewarding feeling about having fixed it yourself. However if you can't figure it out or it's dangerous call someone who knows what they're doing. We can't know everything.
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
A thought on LED lighting
Recently I've been designing a new light for my kitchen, my current one is old and I want to make something unique. However I've wanted to use wine bottles in it's construction and while they are strong as hell I don't know they would handle the heat from even fluorescent bulbs over the course of time. Then I remembered that LED lights last for nearly ever and generate almost no heat. This no heat issue is at the core of why LEDs are so efficient at generating light. Incandescent and Fluorescent light waste a lot of energy in heat, this is why they use so much power to produce the same amount of light. Now I know this isn't a new concept, but really even though I do know the science behind it I don't think about it very much. I think it's interesting when you remember something you should be thinking about.
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
[02-09-2012]
Flowchart: Fus Ro Da
This is a flow chart I made on Lucid Charts
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
A Thought on Credit Card Security
I've been tossing around an idea that would in theory improve credit card security.
For each customer there are three account numbers. 1. A Keyed in Point of Sale Account Number, this account number would be rejected if scanned in or entered online. 2. A Scanned in Account number on the magnetic strip, this account number would be rejected if keyed in to a point of sale or entered online. 3. An account number used for online purchases, this account would be rejected for everything except online transactions.
How this would look to a consumer. They would have two cards.
The first card would have account number 1 printed on it, but account number 2 on the magnetic strip.
The second card would have account number 3 printed on it, but no magnetic strip.
What this would do from a security standpoint Card 1 could only be used for day to day purchases, not online purchases. If someone got a hold of the card but not the magnetic strip they would only enter it into POS perhaps making fraud easier to track because it's being keyed in. If someone got a hold of the magnetic strip number and imprinted it could be swiped but would fail if entered in via pos or the internet.
I'm making the assumption that a credit card thief is using one of two methods to aquire credit card data.
1. Recording the number printed on the card, probably the most basic for of credit card fraud it doesn't require any equipment.
2. Scanning the card with a magnetic strip reader, requires equipment. If someone used both methods and had a way to imprint the card this would counter the whole system, but it does make it harder for fraud.
This does however always prevent either account number from being used online.
Card 2 could only be used for online purchases. This would prevent an account number acquired online to be used for anything other than online transactions. I don't know if they already do this, but the IP of all online purchases should be recorded. In this case the card is kind of irrelevant it's only there for the customer.
Now one way to do this is to only use one credit card for in the world purchases and use another card only for internet transaction (or paypal) that way at least as a consumer you would know if fraudulent charges were occurring.
Anyhow I that's my train of thought on the matter.
One thing that could be added are emergency and travel cards.
Emergency cards would have an account number that worked no matter what. However there is the danger of people started using it as their primary card. If someone started making regular transactions on an emergency card their account could be flagged and the customer called.
Travel cards are only issued when traveling and deactivated after that so that a customer could use his card but not worry about his actual account being stolen. And it would be none if fraud was a result of the account being compromised during vacation or otherwise.
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
[01-05-2012]
Bureau of Communication
Wronged or offended someone? Don't have the right words to congratulate someone on their new tie? Check out the Bureau of Communication.
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
[12-23-2012]
Star Wars the Old Republic: Initial Thoughts
I just started playing Stars Wars the Old Republic like many of my nerd brethren and while there are probably several hundred if not several thousand reviews of SWTOR I'm going to add my two cents. First of this is not actually a review, SWTOR has way too much content for me to do a review this soon, this is just some of my initial thoughts about the game.
Like many people I've played a lot of MMOs, spent hours of my light killing ten of these, collecting 5 of this other thing. I'm not going to lie to you under everything that is part of SWTOR it's the framework for MMOs. However unlike most MMOs SWTOR is not popping up boxes of text which you blankly read or skip over and go on your merry way killing goblins. No quests are fully voice acted, and not with shitty voice acting, good honest voice acting. The dialogues are interesting, compelling, and sometimes hilarious. The NPCs don't feel like a backdrop to the world they feel like they are part of the world. I realized this when I found myself walking around an NPC instead of through them like I usually do. NPCs are important to the story.
That's the other thing you have choices you can be a nice person, a giant ass, or some place in between. You are writing your character's story. You aren't just getting levels you an involved in an interactive story. Your character can have a personality. It's much like a choose your own adventure story in a video game with lightsabers.
It's not just the story that's fun however, playing it is fun too. Your character doesn't just stand there swinging away, they move, they dodge, they strike as you command them. Abilities do what they are supposed to do when they are supposed to do them. Two characters are not likely to be identical unless they are the same class, and once you specialize the chances of that decrease. For example my friend Stacia and I both made Sith Inquisitors, but while grouping I felt like I was playing a different character, we fight differently, which implies that given the setup of the game two players can play the same class but be different.
Speaking of grouping, you get an NPC called a companion to follow you around. My inquisitor's in an big ugly brute. I saw people running around with him and my first thought is "can I get something else", then I did to quest to get him. They took an ugly brutish NPC and gave him a personality that matches, he went from the ugly brute, to the big guy that follows me around, has my back (between comments about destroying me), likes it when I'm an arrogant prick to other NPCs. Like all the NPCs in the game they have life.
That kind of leads me to crafting. I was rather dubious when they said that your companion would do the crafting for you, really? Crafting is one of my favorite things to do in an MMO so I figured separating me from crafting would suck, it doesn't. Sending your companion to do crafting just gives you free time to play the game, he runs off and comes back a couple minutes later with a stimpack, or with some random item that you sent him to get. Crafting is almost addicting, which is bad because sending your companion out to get supplies costs money and you can run yourself out of it right quick.
So are there things that I don't like? Sure. The main thing is the lack of races to pick that don't like like humans with different skin colors or horns. I don't understand why there are not rodians, mon calamari, and wookies, when they already had to make the models for them any how. I hope they will add that in the future, because I'd like to get my wookie on. Character creation wise I wish there were more body types. Otherwise I am having a hard time thinking of anything I've been disappointed with other than the race thing, even that kind of disappears when you have made your character, but I hold out hope for wookie-dom in the future.
The only other problem I have right now is not directly connected to the game. My desktop is four years old and in need of an upgrade (which I have been neglecting), so I've been running the game in boot camp on my macbook just to play it decently. Part of the reason that I haven't upgraded my computer is four years is a lack of interest in most PC games and I have been thinking of switching to just console gaming, but SWTOR is pulling me back in. I just wish I could control my computer with a lightsaber (I'm talking to you Kinect developers).
So if you like Star Wars, want to be a power hungry sith, or clever smuggler, and like role-playing games (not just MMOs), then I recommend this game. The rest of you, well I am saddened by your loss (although my sith inquisitor delights in it).
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
[12-14-2012]
Stair Porn
StairPorn is a fantastic site about stairs. But mainly the site's name made me laugh. Check it out should you be in the mood for ogling some stairs.
Original Article On PunchaKitten.com
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