Mac Software | MacHeist 3 Bundle Available Now

MacHeist 3 Bundle referral link

This year for $39 you get the following apps (yes all of them). I’m guessing that I’ll on use a few, but it will be fun trying them out.

• iSale (eBay mgr)
• Picturesque (Photo Editor)
• SousChef
• World of Goo (Game)
• PhoneView (iPhone/iTouch )
• LittleSnapper (Photo Organizer)
• Acorn (Photo Editor)
• Kinemac (Animation)
• WireTap Studio (Audio Recording)
• BoinxTV (TV Studio)
• The Hit List (GTD ToDo Mgr)
• Espresso (web dev tool suite)
• Big Bang Board Games ( for first 25k buyers )

Testing Puppy Linux on aged Portege 3110CT

I’m hoping that Puppy Linux lives up to the performance claims I’ve read about to make my old Portege relatively useful.

So far I’m finding that it boots much much faster than the Xubuntu I had on it previously

There seems to be a a fair amount of software available for it as well on dokupuppy. For my usage I’m just looking for web access and a text editor, like vim. So far I’m set to give it a good try.

Installation Issues. Just like with Xubuntu. A tricky thing is that I had to hold down “Shift-C” to get the 3110CT to boot from an external CD Drive.

more

• Puppy Linux 4.00 is barking up the right tree » linux.com
• Integrating Linux into the SME » desktoplinux.com – this is very lengthy. the last paragraph is an an endorsement for puppy on “weak” hardware.
• Taking Puppy Linux for a Walk » Lifehacker.au – this is where I first heard about puppy. Gina does a thorough review. (as usual)

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Programs

I’ve been meaning to provide some detailed commentary on the following CFS articles wrt/ to my personal experience. After a few weeks of procrastinating I’m going to kick start myself by posting the links. I’ve never done the Phil Parker process mentioned here. It does seem like a “hard sell” and the skepdic article sums up my initial thoughts. But I did take similar courses at the now defunct Tzu Chi clinic and they made a huge difference for me.

• Into the light: A new therapy rescues a bedridden girl from the dark » Zoe Cormier
• Lightning Process: Controversial training program comes to Canada » Zoe Cormier
• Phil Parker Lightning Process™ » http://skepdic.com

How to Start!

Seth’s recent post

Nothing The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.

is so simple and yet I just shook my head at the number of times I’ve needed that to be said to me.

I find that Carol Dweck’s Mindset ideas and strategies are a great way to ensure that we start projects and learn from them instead of starting projects and failing. Or worse “doing nothing”. Give her a read. It will make a difference.

Fizzers Get Smashed

A big congratulations to the Fizz Project Lab Director, Jon Nakane, for hosting another successful project fair. Excellent stuff Jon, Bernhard, and Jeff! The students, projects, speakers, and food were great

Congratulations to award winners and all the students who displayed their projects. I liked this years confined display area because it forced us all to mingle faster. It was great to see some working demos this year – the iPod Touch video, eye-gaze, and servo-motor demos all worked. The eye-gave was a bit un-nerving. When it locked onto my eyes it felt like it wasn’t gonna let go. Strange.

“Speed it up and Smash it!” — This years theme was “The Science and Engineering in Accelerators and Detectors”. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a talk on accelerators. It was fascinating ( and mind-numbing).

I appreciated that the first speaker Dr. Lia Merminga , Chief of Accelerator Physics, TRIUMF, gave a talk that my daughter and I could understand ( ok almost understand ). She focussed on “How to Build an Accelerator”. It was fascinating to learn about the history of accelerators and then hear about today’s Large Hadron Colider (LHC). The LHC is massive with ~1,200 x 15 meter long super-conducting magnets @ 2 deg-K and that the alignment of the smash-zone has nano-meter tolerance It was great to hear that our local Triumf is contributing on a world stage.

The second speaker Dr. Colin Gay, UBC Physics and Astronomy ( ATLAS experiment at LHC) focussed his talk on what the LHC will help Physicists find out and why. It was a much tougher talk to digest, but it was worth it. My favorite quote was “This is an interesting audience ’cause all of you have taken Quantum Mechanics” … I’d restate that as “survived a QM class”

One item that makes the speaker section of this fair work has been that the speaker’s are given license to give recruiting style talks. This was in evidence again this year. It definitely helps create a good energy between audience and the speaker.

Great Stuff. I’ll be back next year.

update Mar 17 – Presentations

• Challenges of
  Modern Accelerators - Fizz Mar 2009.pdf (4MB) Lia Merminga, Chief of Accelerator Physics, TRIUMF

• Particle Physics at a Crossroads:
  The Start of the LHC era – Fizz Mar 2009.pdf (6MB) Colin Gay, UBC Physics and Astronomy (ATLAS experiment at LHC)

An Escape from the Gloom – Ender in Exile

So cool another Ender book. I’m really enjoying this new one. Beware though — I have scanned the reviews on the audible site — this is a love it or hate it experience. Some people expected more. I can see that since the Bean books were much “thinner” in ideas than the original “Enders Game” and “Speaker for the Dead”. I don’t care, this is such good escapism. Bring on the Formics.

The Ender in Exile — Audible The narration team is excellent, as usual, on the Ender and Bean series’.

Thanks again to Andrew S. for pointing me in Ender’s direction.

Link | BRK 2008 Annual Letter » Fred Wilson

Fred assembles 11 bullet points from the BRK annual letter in this post The Berkshire Hathaway 2008 Annual Letter » A VC. I like number 7 – “Quants – “Beware of geeks bearing formulas.” It’s that γ (gamma) from this month’s wired again

I’m still trying to synthesize the Snowball. The biggest thing for me are the many descriptions of how Buffet works thru disasters like the Buffalo newspaper, Salomon, etc. It is amazing how many ugly situations are described. A big reminder that Buffet earned the wins. Investing and managing in “value-land” is very difficult.