I was thinking of getting an Nokia N80 as an upgrade but it seems that for once I have dodged a Mobile Phone bullet, as N80's are being recalled and discontinued by every major phone supplier.

I guess I now need to wait for the Nokia N95.

I found this image of Google’s First Production Server on Flickr, along with a number of decent photoso of amazing technology held at the Computer History Museum.

I love this image. The view of the Shuttle is asotounding and the F-15 in the foreground just makes it better.

Who would not want to build their own Climbing Wall?

This fellow employed the help of a friend but it seems to use treated lumber so the wall could stay outside, if you combine this with marine board you have a sturdy outside structure. I am sure the costs could be reduced if you built this inside.

A Better Method to Decent Coffee

A couple people in ScotLUG have been talking about making coffee.

I thought I would share my current method of Coffee Production.

Maybe I should preface this post with a couple admissions. I have spent a lot of time making and drinking coffee. I have used a variety of machines from large cafeteria coffee makers to smaller domestic models. They all had their faults. Large machines can generate a lot of coffee (usually too much for home consumption) and they teach you a lot about the problems of running hot water through plumbing and then trying to drink it.

Although Scottish kettles are free from scaling, this is a problem in other areas. When I travelled around Canada and the UK, I would come across coffee shop staff that had neglected the cleaning of their coffee machines. Calcium scale on the pipes of coffee makers produces horrible tasting coffee. So the first thing I did when I developed this system was eliminate the plumbing.

I hate two things about home coffee machines: the hot plate and the pause feature. The hot plate slowly produces coffee syrup. Heating coffee after you produce does not improve the taste. In fact, it is the worst thing you can do to this liquid. The volatile substances that produce that unique lovely coffee taste is driven off by heat. So, by heating your coffee you accelerate this process.

The pause feature is a nightmare for two reasons. First it ruins a decent pot of coffee by allowing people to grab a cup halfway through the brewing process. Secondly, it can turn a coffee machine into a flooding device by the coffee grounds plugging up the valve that stops the flow of coffee. The contact time of the water and the coffee grounds is part of the decent coffee equation. It is much more important, than the size of a valve designed to stop the flow of coffee. Coffee machine pause features are evil.

So, this system has eliminated the plumbing that would need to be cleaned, and it removes the hot plate and pause mechanism. It keeps the coffee hot and produces enough for a couple people, or one person all day. It uses readily available components:

One Thermos carafe

One Melita Coffee Cone

Some tools to alter the cone’s base

Coffee and Coffee Filters

This produces a pot of coffee in about 4 minutes, it stays hot all day (especially if you preheat the Thermos), and the clean up process is extremely easy.

There is supposedly a pre-altered Coffee Cone in the states that screws into the Thermos Carafe. Unfortunately if you cannot find one of those you will have to make your own. This involves either a sharp knife, a pair of metal snips, and a file. I just used an Olfa knife and a bastard mill file.

One consideration is the size of the threaded opening on the carafe. If there is not sufficient gap between the internal bottle and the plastic threads, you will never fit the cone base to the thermos.

DebConf in Edinburgh from June 17th to the 23rd of June and then Akademy in Glasgow from June 30th to the 7th of July. This summer is promising to be a full one with loads of Linux happening in Scotland.

Well, A New Year has begun. I have fairly big plans for this year. It may a tough one but I have defintie ideas on what I want to accomplish.

New Years has never been one of my favourite holidays. Late Night drinking preceded by 14 hours of cleaning has never been my idea of fun. It clashes with my morning person personality. I went to bed at 1am and woke up at 5:30 - my regular start time.

I have some time off for the next two weeks to make up for the lack of time off during Christmas.

A project for the new year - Carputer.

Take a Mac Mini and combine a car - you have the Carputer. Or in Paisley, it is known as a Smackhead Target.

I have had a bad case of the Lurgie over the last couple days. The worst aspect of it was the bad chills. Whn I would get out of bed or out from some covers, a shiver would over me nd I would be cold to the core my body. Unfortunately, this lurgie comes with some bad depressive aspects. Waves of depression seem to wash over me whn I have this illness.

Last night the chills broke and I soaked the bed in sweat. Three comforters, a mattress and pillows absolutely sopping wet this morning. But the depression has lifted and the chills are gone.

My password grid

J,V,w,W,C,c,k,a,n,u,x,2,S,I,6,y
Z,z,l,S,W,t,l,n,p,R,Y,T,4,X,e,8
N,G,t,K,K,B,O,S,F,S,w,p,N,7,A,a
S,k,X,g,K,3,w,H,q,i,F,c,z,Y,9,J
t,x,K,0,S,U,2,r,h,t,q,G,n,q,y,N
B,h,y,w,B,R,N,J,I,9,h,e,A,N,o,9
b,A,b,6,6,1,U,L,A,g,q,G,S,w,9,B
j,x,u,W,Y,Z,T,E,E,s,w,i,6,v,6,d
9,x,7,Y,C,a,C,f,A,J,9,O,A,t,R,D
7,V,g,v,G,V,8,2,N,Y,W,U,Y,s,Q,H
s,p,B,U,y,7,A,f,Y,B,o,U,p,P,l,K
1,U,W,f,7,V,z,P,g,0,f,0,y,D,u,P
B,U,n,X,i,G,s,3,K,K,k,q,G,3,s,3
I,o,Q,7,2,f,E,b,9,b,Q,M,i,V,k,1
Z,M,U,F,5,H,d,N,v,g,W,T,A,Q,Q,K
I,c,m,l,J,y,c,T,R,S,E,l,B,9,j,U

have fun

I have tried alot of reflective clothing to keep myself safe on a bike when riding at night and I have been astounded at the number of people cycling at night while wearing dark clothing with only a single reflector or blinking red light on the back. Often the excuse that motorists supply after hitting a cyclist is that they never saw them. Unfortunately while these cyclists continue to dressed like they are about carry out a secret raid for a government agency, I am inclined to believe the motorist.

So far, the best piece of clothing that I have seen on the roads in the dark wet Scottish nights has been these Yellow HiVis Trousers.

I believe that they were being worn by a guy leaving his job at Glasgow Airport but they were unmissable due to the reflective strips on the legs moving as he pedaled. He also had a HiVis jacket on but the first thing that caught my eye was the reflective strips on the legs.

I doubt they are very durable, but for £8.50, you are lit up like a police car.

If you know someone with an iPod or another device that recharges from USB, then this little project makes the perfect gift. The MintyBoost! is a small battery-powered USB charger that is fairly easy to make even for beginners. Just a soldering iron and a few tools and you can save that iPod user from the sad dead battery symbol.

My 2p.

Google Video failed because it created a bunch of users - I still regularly check out the engedu videos from the Google Lecture series.

But YouTube created a community; people could rate, talk about and respond to videos.

YouTube did not beat Google video on the quality of the video, rather it was the interaction between the creator and and viewer.

If we look at the future of entertainment, then television better beware. The most non-interactive medium ever is big trouble from a lot of different fronts. Television high-quality video presented a one-way experience. YouTube is a bad video with a lot of participation.

A new way to "stick" it to the man - the RFID Duct tape Wallet. I have always been a fan of all things duct tape, or my favourite, Gaffer Tape. More colours and easier to work with. Decent gaffer tape is always available where dj supplies are sold.

This is the "tinfoil hat" of the currency carriers, but if it stops people grabbing your RFID details, maybe a bit of paranoia is called for.

A Firefox hack

The first two search engines I add on a new Firefox install are Mycroft and Firefox addons.

No need to browse to Mycroft to add any more search engines and the firefox addon page simplifies adding all of your crucial extensions.

Feeling like crap today with a screaming head - maybe it was 12 hours of painting the pantry yesterday.

The kitchen is looking good - but it still has nothing in it. The painting of the pantry and such means that until that is done - nothing really can be brought out of boxes.

The Scottish Gas Engineer had a
TOUGHBOOK-19 which took two cups of coffee being spilled on it and a tumble from the top of the stove to the plywood floor, while running. failry impressive. Too bad they run like dogs and are twice the price of a more delicate portable.

Brilliant Movie transformed into a slaher film trailer.

Liz still does not understand why I like the original.

Office Space - Recut

Very cool idea.

Project Blackbox by Sun similar to what we heard Google was doing with their shipping containers. but now we get to tak ea virtual tour thorugh one.

Combine an international shipping standardised containers and a lot of racks filled with 250 Sun servers, and things get interesting.

What coders really think revealed by Google Codesearch.