xeyes in real life

Hardware hacker Hunz has built a real life version of xeyes. You can download the video from here (2 meg avi)- its insanely cool.

Linux Action Show

Episode 43 of the Linux Action Show is out.
A leaked Microsoft Memo gets Chris worked up, a version of Debian is out, the new release of Cedega is covered, Microsoft trying to kill ODF in California is mentioned plus they review some of the best open source first person shooters, answer listener questions and so much more.

Google Earth imagery update

Via Google Earth community



New high resolution:
Canada: Downtown Vancouver, BC
England: Northamptonshire, Nottingshire, Berkeshire, Peakdistrict,
Birmingham, Greater Manchester, Avon Gloucestershire, Linconshire
France: Rennes, Poitiers
US: Omaha, NE; Missoula, MT; Amherst, MA; Keowee, SC;
Catawba Wateree, NC/SC; Rolla, MO; Nashville ("Burbia"), TN; US Gaston
County, NC; Anne Arundel County, Metro Water District of Southern
California; State of Arkansas

Updated Imagery:
Spain: Gran Canaria, Fuertaventura, El Hierro, La Gomera, Tenerife, and Las
Palmas (Canary Islands) Spain
US: Austin, TX; San Bernardino, CA; State of Connecticut

Fixes:
Danish plane replicants removed
Andes, Maccu Picchu terrain repaired

Found on Google Books

A Journey through Ireland in 1834
Handbook for travellers in Ireland, 1854
History of Cork , 1861
Annals of the Famine in Ireland - first hand account of the Irish famine, published in 1850.
Letters on the condition of the people of Ireland

Linkdump

Austria's 5 star prisons
Why are burglary rates so high in Austria?
Find an old Unix command = $$$ Profit
an interesting observation. Yahoo Pipes = bash. Gmail = pine. Twitter = wall. Google = grep.
Waxy on the explosion of Twitter
nice graphs.

Toy Robot heads

These toy robot head pics make for some nice avatars.
Via Flickr

Invisible Octopus

Most programming candidates can't actually program?

Over at CodingHorror Jeff Atwood is astonished at the sheer number of programming candidates who cannot do the simplest , basic , programming tasks - like a for loop or fizzbuzz.

"I am disturbed and appalled that any so-called programmer would apply for a job without being able to write the simplest of programs."
Why can't programmers ... program?
Using fizzbuzz to find developers who grok coding
Don't overthink Fizzbuzz

post altered because of dmca

this post has been edited because of a DMCA take down notice.

For further reference here is the take down notice posted on ChillingEffects.

Snap Preview Hatred

Is Snap Preview the most hated Web 2.0 function ever?
Wordpress.com - please stop using Snap preview
Say no to Snap preview

Google building an AI system?

Via Google blogoscoped

Larry Page talked about AI (video) at a conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where he said

My prediction is that when AI happens, it’s going to be a lot of computation, and not so much clever blackboard/ whiteboard kind of stuff, clever algorithms. But just a lot of computation.

My theory is that, if you look in your own programming, your DNA, it’s about 600 Megabytes compressed... so it’s smaller than any modern operating system. Smaller than Linux, or Windows, or anything like that, your whole operating system. That includes booting up your brain, right, by definition. And so, your program algorithms probably aren’t that complicated, it’s probably more about the overall computation. That’s my guess.

We have some people at Google who really try to build artificial intelligence, and to do it in a large scale. (...) You know, to do a perfect job of search, you can ask any query, and we’d give you the perfect answer, and that would be artificial intelligence, right. Based on everything being on the web, which is a pretty close approximation. (...)

Interstellar Ark

Interstellar Ark

Quote:
The concept of star travel, from planetary system to planetary system, is at the same time completely familiar and completely uncharted. Familiar, as we have certainly all heard of science fiction stories set on a far galaxy, where planets are nations or provinces of an empire. The characters usually move from one planet to another during intervals of time consistent with the story. The actual travel appears just like a formality, which the future advancements of a Triumphant Physics will put within reach. Read it all here

Wikipedia and NoFollow

Wikipedia and NoFollow

Google Research favourite videos

Google Research video picks

Performance tunning best practices for MySQL

The Microsoft iPod

Since the DRM infested Vista is being launched today, this is well worth reposting.

Google introduces "Testing on the Toilet"

Via here

I guess that gives a whole new meaning to the word Googlebomb.

Beryl eye candy

Microsoft admits that Vista has "high impact issues"

via Slashdot

linkdump

Timbaland caught ripping off a chiptune
Youtube video evidence that producer Timbaland ripped off a chiptune for the Nelly Furtado song "Do It"
Why hasnt ET found us yet?
Because the universe is so vast
Social whitelisting with OpenID
Get A First Life
spoof on Second Life

Geni

Geni dot com - awesome web 2.0 genealogy site with a viral-as-hell flash interface.