How to make a camping stove from an aluminium drink can.

PCTHiker.com: Scott's Stoves: Overview

If you want a full collection (including the Pepsi Can stove) Check here.

Who would not want a replica scientific instrument from the Middle Ages?

I especially like the ones that show the Ptolemiac model of the universe.

ESI_RepInstIndex

Bush lied

So Americans need to sign.

The Downing Street Memo :: What is it?

These people want to have the largest HowTo Wiki on the web.

So here is my contribution.

How to Make Canadian Pancakes - wikiHow

The guys at MAKE do some very cool things (that is why I subscribed to the magazine).

This a great piece on reading text files on your iPod.

MAKE ebooks for your iPod guide!

From someone who is trying to implement GTD into his planning and now carries a Hipster instead of a the several electronic versions of this tool, here is an article which provides some nice additions for that very useful bulge in your back pocket.

I will blog more on GTD later. I have been completely rethinking the way in which I organise my time and actions.

D*I*Y Planner Hipster PDA Edition

I am eagerly awaiting the moment when Sunderland are moved from the Championship to the Premiership page on the BBC.

DIY Cat5 Speaker Cables are supposedly much better than high end speaker cables. Only problem is that they rip hands as you try to make them.

Cat5 cables are the best thing for everything.

I am waiting for the Network Cable Car to come out.

Geobloggers

Early use of Google maps to tie web elements to the real world.

Are these photos improved by knowing where they were taken?

I can see some uses for this.

Archaeological sites and their associated site photos is my first thought.

But a photo of someone's ugly kid in front of a tree does not improve with geotagging so that you know where the tree is.

The place to get all of your Air America Podcasts.

I will get a list of the podcasts I subscribe to up here soon. But right now I am subscribing to a load of crap shows and I need to trim it down before I post it here.

One crap show I have on my iPod is the Richard Vobes Show. I tried to listen to it a couple days ago and it made me ill.

So, Google Local UK and Google Maps UK are released.

Now to see what people do with this. Real estate, renting, cab availability etc.

All we need are the Satellite photos to start Google sightseeing UK (here are three to start, Edinburgh Castle, All of the Premiership grounds and Stonehenge).

Out in the main bar 

The Foreign Beer Bar 

Some of the Breweries in the Scottish Bar 

With the Beer Menu in the other pocket 

Essential #1 - The Pint Pocket  

Mace gets his Matrix face on  

Thinker showed up first 

MrBen enjoys his bratwurst 

Neil brought signage for the BeerCam 

Thinker and Big Kev 

Sandy and ScottMac enjoying pints 

So what happens when you combine craiglist and google maps?

This!

When is someone going to do this for Prostitutes?

But seriously, I am looking forward to Google Maps coming to the UK. This integration with other web services is not going to stop.

The talk at ScotLUG went well. I did a short slide show on Social Engineering and then did a live demonstration.

Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

A Coder in Courierland

A true tale of guy who gave up the cubicle for the world of the bicycle messenger.

I would love to do this.

What is better than Shufflephones?

Shufflephones 2.0

2-sided pov toy

This sure beats the playing card in the spokes.

Geek Pimpin'

Pimp My Shuffle - Retro Cordless Edition

What is cooler than a very nice motorcycle?

A bike that runs Unix!

How do you make the RAZR V3 better?

Pull out the crap VGA camera and put a 1 Megapixel version in it.

Motorola are doing some good thinigs - I am waiting for Nokia to heads out of their fashion asses and start producing the phones we need now.

A Nokia 6230 with a better OS and better camera would get me to upgrade. But there is nothing else out there. Unless Nokia want only the Schoolbus SoapBar market, they need to wake up and get the better phones out.

A handy guide on how to shred your old hard drives.

I normally use Darik's Boot and Nuke but I may try this next time.

I would love a bluetooth adaptor for the iPod.

No more wires sounds good to me.

Cycling Diary 17/03/2005

Cycling has been off for the past week.

This head cold has floored me since Saturday. Trips outside have consisted of going to the shops and then getting back to the flat to try and warm up. The weather has not been cold but the sickness has brought some bad chills with it.

I hope to be back on the bike soon.

Well, this makes Christmas giving pretty easy.

The perfect gift for the man in your life.

I would love to go to work in this. Just need to get it bigger.

Big enough to be in The Incredibles.

Beatles and Beastie Boys mashups by dj BC

Right, so this is something I need to try out.

Monday is going to be devoted to downloading and installing ZenWorks for Linux

Cool Flickr Tag collection

So - whatsinyourbag?

Cycled in today and the weather was clear and chilly. I needed the leather gloves to keep the fingers warm.

The mist was rising and the sun was a bit blinding but I am not complaining. It is a lot better situation than ice and darkness.

The tops of thighs were burning but the ankles and achilles tendon got a massage from Liz last night, so no problems there. Stretched the thighs out did some calf stretches. Everything seems better now.

I will do some riding this weekend and I hope to be riding everyday next week.

Well, I am back on the bicycle.

The cycle computer is hooked up and working.

I found out that I am running 80% of my max heart rate for roughly 30 minutes in the morning. Not sure if this is a good thing.

Also the distance is not as long as I thought it was, but I will stick with my original estimate since it sounds better.

Average speed was 23 Km/h
Top speed was 37 Km/h

Traffic was fine. I started a little earlier jusat in case I needed to slow down due to the ankle. The ankle feels fine and the ride was quite enjoyable.

Hey, let's watch it shred.

Not much on the cycling - since I have not been cycling much.

I blew out my ankle on Wednesday and had to take two days off work. By 'blow out' I mean, ankle took too much abuse and the calf went into spasm. The anklle itself swelled up and the back tendon was really sore.

Liz did some massage on it and I rested for the two days and it seems much better now.

I really pushed it on Wednesday. I cycled in and out of work and went to the gym at noon for an hour workout.

Too much, too soon. I want to start including the gym in the weekly routine but this is a strong suggestion that I need to build up the body a bit more before that happens.

Google Calendar?

Yes, Please.

Hey honey, Can I build a 135 foot high Ice Wall in the back yard?

I would love to do this.

But I doubt it will happen.

More snow - almost a blizzard.

If I was not wanting to get out cycling, I may almost enjoy the white stuff.

But for now it is filling the skies and turning the streets into ice rinks.

The light is good and I would be fine riding at 7am, in terms of visibility.

Ice and freezing temperatures have stopped the cycling temporarily.

ScotLUG is coming up on Thursday and the LPI course is tonight. So it is doubtful I would be able to ride this week.

Cycle Diary - 20050216

The mornings are still cold – near freezing, but thankfully there is no ice on the roads.

I know this stage of cycling. I still have some energy in the legs. Soon there will be a time when the energy is gone, that is when the building of the legs and the cycling begins. You attack the hills that almost stopped you a couple months earlier.

The traffic is pretty light and I am leaving a bit later than I did when I was in full swing last year. I will heading out earlier as the days get longer.

Did not cycle back due to a late day and haze, which made visibility an issue.

Cycle Dairy - 20050215

Inspired by Sparkes tales of avocational agriculture, I decide that it may be interesting to blog the daily cycle to work, if I can manage it daily (that refers to both the blog and the cycling).

Weather - Cold this morning - 0C, warmed up in the afternoon, possible tailwind inthe morning, no wind on the return. The cold really froze the ears though, might try to see if I can wear a toque under the helmet.

Traffic - nothing major. dodged between a trinity of buses this morning, which made the middlle portion interesting. We travelled at roughly the same speed, so I was passing them (and being passed) for about half the journey.
The StrathClyde Police Station Roundabout is still a mess with large barricades blocking the left hand lane. Means I have to start my run earlier when approaching that roundabout to get myself in the right hand lane. Not a big deal but it really burns the legs.
Messed up the Mario Pizza corner (I will find the street name later). Thought I could run up the middle line and get myself in position to avoid the left hand turners. Mistimed it and got caught out on the wrong side. Dived on the pavement and used the pedestrian crossing to get out of that mess.

Other Stuff - pedalled behind a kid who has been cycling over the winter. He had good pace and I struggled to keep up. Hopefully that situation will change as I continue to cycle to work. It took me about a month to get my legs and fitness back last autumn. I have started to cycle in a lot earlier this year and I hope it pays off.

I remember visiting a friend’s cousin’s place when I was growing up. He was a record distributor for the music publishers. He would drive to the small towns of Manitoba and drop off records to be sold in the hardware stores and specialty shops. We went to his basement and the place was typical of prairie suburbs, with that 1970’s orangey brown carpet and lined with crates. They were turn on their sides so that you could see the edges of the vinyl records.

There were hundreds, possibly thousands of records in that basement. It was time when you bought a record to be able to hear that song whenever. Cheap re-issues were not prevalent and “Best Of Albums” were only put out by bands that had a solid career not only a single LP.

I think back on that time and it seems both magical and other-worldly. To be in a time where music is heard only by those who own a particular piece of plastic seems very strange. The music held a greater significance, but that position came at a cost.

It amazes me that music seems almost disposable in this current age. That people will purchase music online then delete it when the next single comes along seems strange to me.

If the cost of this new access to media is to diminish it to a recycle bin, then maybe it is too high a price to pay. I still think back to that time when each album was held by the edges and in esteem. Hearing something from a rare recording was like vintage wine. Only to be enjoyed by a few.

Maybe the new access to music has opened up a world that was unobtainable before, but it has come at a cost. These will have to be tallied before we know if it is too high a price to pay.

Novell: Public Service Announcement

I have come across every single one of these disorders in Microsoft people.

Favicons have never been so easy.

FavIcon from Pics

Stupid, annoying, life-wasting java games.

Is that what you expect from this Blog?

Well, then

Here you go - HIGH WHEELS

I started back riding into work this week.

The mornings are a bit dark, but I have some lights on the back of the bike. I may need to look into getting some more reflectors and some lights for the helmet.

The early morning ride has reinforced how my easy life over winter has softened me up. So, I am getting myself back into my previous shape.

The construction on Paisley Road West has definitely added some edge to the trip.

OK, here is the post stating all of the cool stuff that everyone else has been using for months.

Flickr
delicious
bloglines
blogdigger

And live bookmarks in the Firefox toolbar

The best thing performance tip for Windows XP is here.

But if you have to run it, check out this.

Google Tools

Great Resource?

Or a way to waste your life away in front of a Glowing Screen?

Tools You Might Have Missed

New piece from Sparkes.

Allotment Day 1

I like his description of hacking the earth.

So you want to start a blog?

Read this first.

Things to say when you are losing a tech argument

Two ways to use this article -

See who has used these statements (+1) or had them used against them (-1) the most - Highest Score Wins!

Take this sheet into a project meeting and play Geek Bingo.

So you want to be a consultant...?

Read this article first.

Well, the Episode Three parodies have started.

I really like the guy playing the Anakin character. He has perfected the really bad acting.

Sometime you come across a cool thing that just sounds really great. This clock-radio is one of those things.

I like the wireless snooze function is brilliant but I am unsure if many blokes sleep with teddybears.

Hey, let's laugh at idiot businessmen!

101 Dumbest Moments in Business gives us a good opportunity to laugh at the people who own the US presidency.

This what happens when a submarine runs aground.

Take a great publisher and a great browser, put them together and what do you get?

A brilliant book on the Best Browser available.

Software and electronic mediaVending Machines, You have got to love the japanese.

Although, I would say that internet downloading is a perfectly fine delivery system.

What are you going to do with yourself for four years?

How about building your own Apollo Guidance Computer in your basement?

Plans and project files are available on the site - for anybody who wants their own AGC.

I love the guys at engadget. Torrone does a brilliant podcast and they have the newest information on latest stuff, I will blow my pay cheque on.

But their latest howto on turning a Mac mini into a media center is something that I will use.

- After reviewing the comments, maybe I will continue to look at building a MythTV or Freevo PVR with a Shuttle-esque box.

Google Video Search appears to be a great service, but I wonder how this will develop?

It seems that whatever google does is amplified by the others, who use the search power of this group and present it in a new form.

This could be another Google news.

My camera is in the shop.

So, there is a dearth of photographs on the blog. This happened just as I signed up for Flickr, which seems to be a great service and much better way of getting photos into this blog.

So, I chucked a couple Christmas photos up.

My camera is in the shop.

So, there is a dearth of photographs on the blog. This happened just as I signed up for Flickr, which seems to be a great service and much better way of getting photos into this blog.

So, I chucked a couple Christmas photos up.

Unusual articles in Wikipedia is always a good source of entertainment. From the Largest photograph to the smallest park, there is something well researched for everyone.

Guinness - eat your heart out.

Get your GMail tips here.

Great site for the Missing Gmail Manual.

Time to get the new January wallpaper from Ordnance Survey.

I kept November on through last month since I thought December's offering was crap. But with a New Year it is time for a change.

A good start for the New Year.

A New Year rant.

This is just a quick one for the folks at Novell. They have taken some brave decisions in the past year and it they have started a process which is going to completely change their business.

However, despite the fact that several parts of the company have changed not all of the departments have adopted this new attitude, mainly the folks who send out the disks.

Novell are currently the large player in an environment dominated by small startups invigorated by the open source marketplace. Novell need to step-up to the challenge and undergo a change in attitude if they are going to compete in this arena.

Basic to this is getting your product out to those who will use it. That is not happening.

I defended Novell before when people were commenting on their failure to deliver disks for the Novell Nterprise Linux Services Evaluation Kit.

But now it is becoming increasingly difficult to get the Novell Linux Desktop. We went to the trouble of ordering two disks from a supplier to be told that these disks had to be sold in batches of twelve. Getting the media has also been a troublesome task, and finally the downloads seem to constantly fail and deliver bad images. The last I would blame on my connection or download agent except that this seems consistent with several organistaions I have talked to.

So Novell, get your act together. Figure out what you want to be.

If you are going to be an Open Source Company – then start acting like one.

Is it comedy or tragedy when items marked DO NOT CIRCULATE are visible to the world.

Well, another year has rolled by very quickly and now we are halfway through this decade.

Let's hope the next five years are not like the first five of this millenium.

So, a Happy Hogmanay to everyone out there.

So, I got The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition) for Christmas and Liz and I decided to do the whole trilogy in one day.

We started at 10 am and did not finish until 12:30 in the morning.

That was followed up by 6 hours of Return of the King documentaries today on the other two disks.

Well, I would have posted a picture of Paisley under the snow but the photo posting app has died.

It always was buggy and now it thinks that multiple copies of itself are running.

Not good.

So, I will gaze upon the snow and the ensuing traffic collisions as I wish you all :

Merry Christmas folks

A good review of the items that would drive our parents absolutely nuts at this time of the year is found at TV Cream's Top 100 Toys.

So relax and peruse the top 100 pieces of plastic crap that kept kids up at night and drove adults to participate in mob violence. Back in the good old days.

Nothing says the Last Christmas like a good does of Cthulhu. It is on page three right now. Enjoy all of the pages.

OK I have found my christmas gift. Anyone who wants to get me a D-BOX Motion Simulators will be making a MrLithic very happy on Christmas Day.

I love this Sandbag Shelter. How long till we see these popping up in areas hit by disasters or in need of International Aid?

I have been thinking on this topic for a while but I think that Mark Pesce says it best.

Abridged Comment

Hey, Hollywood! Can you feel the future slipping through your fingers? Do you understand how badly you've screwed up? You took a perfectly serviceable situation - a nice, centralized system for the distribution of media, and, through your own greed and shortsightedness, are giving birth to a system of digital distribution that you'll never, ever be able to defeat. In your avarice and arrogance you ignored the obvious: you should have cut a deal with SuprNova.org.
In partnership you could have found a way to manage the disruptive change that's already well underway. Instead, you have repeated the mistakes made by the recording industry, chapter and verse. And thus you have spelled your own doom.

It's said that the best sequels are just like the original, only bigger and louder. Ladies and gentlemen, prepare yourselves for one hell of a crash. This baby is now fully out of control.

Mark Pesce
Sydney/Hobart
20 December 2004
Released under the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0
www.creativecommons.org

The complete article can be found here.

Take Scared Kids and a Maniacal Grinning Bearded man and you have a photo opportunity for Scared by Santa.

A new mashup to check out.

dj BC presents The Beastles

If you want to see the beauty of industrial environments, then check this out.

I thought I was the only one who thought that the light and shapes of some industrial scenes were gorgeous. Obviously Kevin Scanlon thinks the same thing.

My new Handknitted iPod Sock - to avoid copyright infringements, I may call it an iPod Toque 

Wondering where to take the family this year?
The World's Largest Cheese or the most depressing town on earth.

No! Take them to a place where dogma becomes reality.

The Creation Museum!

Nothing says komfort like a Komfort Travel Trailers

Weren't the 70's wonderful?

The lights around GOMA have been expanded to Buchanan Street and up to Borders. Looks better than last year (which was stunning) 

The streets of Glasgow lit up 

Nelson's Column with an absent Nelson and lots of lights 

The trees in George Square all lit up  

Some pictures from the Celtic vs. Hibs match.

Good game and very nice of these guys to provide me with tickets.

Hartson scored two very good goals with Camara driving one in that should have scored. Second half was a stunner with Hibs looking better than they should with the 2-1 final score in favour of Celtic.

Big Kev keeps his eyes peeled for the steward who wants to kick us back to our old seats 

10 minutes into the first half - very nice man invites us up to the posh end  

Hoops is out harassing small children 

Pre-game warmup 

Ars Technica have released their annual holiday gift guide which is filled to the brim with technogoodness for the well-deserving geek this Christmas.

Remember the well known rule - every time a sysadmin saves your butt by salvaging a file or sorting out your file rights, it equals a tenner in material gratitude.

We give of ourselves every day - now it is time to give something back.

I have not blogged very much in the last couple weeks.

I have a new plan for getting some certs. I have studied for several but never written the exams.

So the current list includes the Novell CNA, Cisco CCNA, and Microsoft MCSE.

Some others I am looking to include the CWNP, CISSP, and the LPI.

I have studied for all of these to varying degrees, but never written the final exam. So, I plan to make a change and start on a plan for getting the certifications.