Man Briefing #2

cc photo credit Augapfel on flickr

Not to say that the ladies aren’t welcome as well…just didn’t fit with the photo quite as nicely.

Work has been quite busy at the moment. I’ve had a few pretty intense “special projects” I’ve been working on these past weeks.

Today it’s serious “couch-time” watching Notre Dame’s college football opener.  I enjoy (but am not rabid) about college football, preferring it much more over pro-ball games.  I follow ND for sentimental reasons.  I would often spend summers with my mom’s parents in their Airstream trailer touring the country as a child. On Saturdays, without fail, Grandma would be found tuning in to the small color TV in the trailer, Grandpa cranking up the roof-mounted antenna and twisting the tuning dial on the ceiling so she could watch her Fighting Irish.  I will also watch the occasional UH Cougar game (when found) along with Army, Navy and UT-Austin games.  Other than than, I really don’t care so much and any college game will do Saturday night when nothing else is to be found on TV.

Good news on the requisition front.  I had been looking at getting a Rosewill RCW-608 USB2.0 Adapter For IDE/SATA or a VANTEC CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 device adapter for work.  Finally able to justify it and (though we had to go through an approved vendor) ended up with a pair of Tripp Lite U238-000 - USB 2.0 to SATA / IDE Combo adapters.  I don’t care for one thing however.  The dongle end has an embedded 2.5” IDE connector.  To attach to a 3.5” IDE connection there is a loose adapter with the 2.5” connector mating pins (exposed) on one end and the 3.5” female end on the other.  I worry about damage to the exposed pins.  Other than that the kit seems pretty sturdy.

On to the Briefs:

• The Art of Manliness – Great site with fun (and informative) posts on “being a man”.  Runs the range of practical “man-tips” like How to Unclog a Toilet Like a Plumber to the critical and sensitive Dealing with Male Depression to the sublime Motivational Posters: Ernest Hemingway Edition.  I really like the writing tone.  Added to my RSS feed. (other recommended sites: BoingBoing & zen habits)

• BLDGBLOG: Fire Lookout Towers – BLDGBLOG is great in that the writer provides great analysis on the topic of focus.  When I was growing up and we were on those annual family vacation car trips, we usually passed by a few of these towers.  There is something magical about a tower in the woods. Nice trip down memory lane.

• Steampunk Art @ Oxford. Information on a Steampunk exhibit at Oxford.  Too bad it isn’t closer.

• Preview audio from Scott Westerfeld’s steampunk YA novel Leviathan –via Boing Boing – Sounds like an interesting story.  I’m going to have to see if the local library can find me a copy.

• XKCD Comic Solves Real World Tech Support Issue – Via Wired’s Geek Dad – So true.  So true.

• Hulu video- Saturday Night Live skit: Giraffes!   OK. Some background first.  I grew up sneaking down the hall as a kid to watch/listen to those classic SNL skits (Belushi, Radner, Curtain, Chase, etc.). Don’t care for the new-stuff so much, but I do still drop in from time to time.  So Alvis has a large collection (and love) for Giraffes as well.  So when I saw this skit the other night it was pretty funny.  Showed Alvis the “skit” and she thought it funny, slightly disturbing, but funny also.  YMMV.

 

• Enchanted - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – OK This is a guilty-pleasures confession.  For reasons I don’t fully understand, I’ve been jonesing on “Enchanted” for the past few months.  I don’t know if it is the flavor of Amy Adams and her characterization or just the romantic in me.  Regardless nothing seems to relax me more than firing this up on the DVR.

• Drive Jumper .com - drive hard jumper information.  Great site (one of many) that has a lot of great info on how to set the jumpers on a HDD.  Sometimes when I pull one of our spares off the shelf, the model doesn’t have the  jumper info noted on the label or the case or the circuit board.  Good reference site.

• WinToFlash - (freeware) – Yet one more DIY utility to convert a Windows CD/DVD setup disk over onto a (will make bootable) USB device.  Tipped off via TinyApps.Org Blog

• Scott Hanselman's 2009 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List for Windows -- Scott Hanselman’s Computer Zen – Amazing list of power-utilities for Windows.  Most are free.  I’ll be taking notes and exploring this list for some time.  Going to guilt me into updating a post with my own list of USB power-tools I carry about.  Will have to take a week off for that one! 

• How To Find Unknown Device Drivers By Their Vendor & Device ID  -- MakeUseOf blog – nice collection of tips and websites/tools to help sort out mysterious devices and (maybe) be able to track down their driver. 

• Stoned-Bootkit v2 & PE integration – Peter Kleissner is hard at work on his boot-kit.  v2 is in works and in  recent update to his site, he provides information how it can be integrated in a Win PE boot-disk build. Related: Stoned Bootkit blog & Security Database Tools Watch - Stoned Bootkit upgraded to v2.0

• Oscar’s Multi-Monitor taskBar -- (free/$) – Nice tool that allows you to extend your Task Bar to multiple monitors.  On my home desktop system I had purchased (and still highly recommend) Realtime Soft UltraMon.  It makes multi-monitor desktop wallpaper/taskbar management a joy.  Then for my laptop systems I just rely on Display Fusion (free/$) for the remaining multi-monitor wallpapering control. However it does not have the ability to extend the taskbar like UltraMon.  I’m thinking that a combo of Oscar’s Multi-Monitor taskBar and Display Fusion will make a powerful one-two punch! (see also: Microsoft Sysinternals Desktops (free) tool to create up to four virtual desktops on your Windows system like many Linux builds support natively.)

• The Guide - (freeware) – Outliner tool to create outline-based notes or other documentation.  I’ve looked into (and occasionally use) this class of writing tools from time to time.  Sometimes you can save a bunch of planning time by doing some rough-drafting first in an outlining application before moving over into a full-featured office-type word processor.  I’ve traditionally been hooked on using SEO Note (freeware) for its fine feature set and portability.  Recent changes to Evernote design have turned me off that product quite a bit where the earlier build designs I found very liberating to use. For incident-response work I’m turning to the excellent (and free) QCC Information Security UK – Casenotes tool.  Portable on USB with minimal effort. For this application I often use another text-editor (Q10 or Dark Room or Jarte) to make (and spell-check!) my initial notes in, then copy/paste them into Casenotes for the final save

• PNotes Portable – (freeware) – While I am a heavy-user of sticky-notes, they generally are corralled on the whiteboard in my cubicle or on hard-copy documents. However sometimes I do need to leave a digital sticky-note on my desktop.  I find this is a stable and easy-to use solution.
• Notepad++ Portable -- (freeware) – I’ve gone through more than a few Notepad Replacements but for day-in/day-out usage, this remains my go-to notepad of choice.  I particularly like the syntax highlighting/formatting support.

You’ve been briefed.  Now it’s your duty to keep ‘em clean!

--Claus V.

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Inspiring Designs #2

Some more really brilliant and inspiring home designs from architectural blog Arch Daily.

Because everyone has to dream and imagine…

I’m leaving these for the girls to look through together.

• Nelson House / TWS & Partners – ArchDaily
• L House / moomoo Architects – ArchDaily
• Camouflage House / Johnsen Schmaling Architects – ArchDaily
• Tehama Grasshopper / Fougeron Architecture – ArchDaily
• Studio 2 in 1 / TWS & Partners – ArchDaily
• Emu Bay House / Max Pritchard Architect – ArchDaily
• Livraria da Vila / Isay Weinfeld – ArchDaily
• NG House / Arquitectos Anonimos – ArchDaily
• Sage Residence / Arbor South Architecture – ArchDaily
• House B2 / Vaillo + Irigaray – ArchDaily
• Villa Room / Paul de Ruiter – ArchDaily
• House in the Woods / archimania – ArchDaily
• House + / Anne Menke – ArchDaily
• Villa Hesthagen / RRA – ArchDaily

So, which one do you like best Alvis?  How ‘bout you Lavie?

Which room would be your Alvis?

Where would Brambles hang out?

--Claus V.

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Inspiring Designs

Digressing from tech again for a moment.

Somewhere in the Valca home, I have a house-plans magazine that contains a small cottage-style lake house design that totally would be a dream-home.

It is small and compact, has wood-shingle style exterior cladding. It is two-story with two under-roof bedrooms and a shared bath upstairs.  Downstairs is a wide galley-style kitchen spilling into an informal country dining area.  To the opposite side is a cozy craftsman-style casual living room anchored by two half-height built-in bookcases with windows above and a river-stone fireplace in-between.

It just seems the type of place I could sink into to escape.  Nothing techy or modern about it.

In contrast to the lake-side cottage style that seems warm and inviting, the Germanic blood in me still gets excited and inspired by these efficient and modern designs.  I think the theme in them all that appeals to me is the logical lines and the blending of the outdoors and indoors.  Living on the Gulf-Coast, I love air-conditioning.  Couldn’t imagine living without it.  That said, most of the normal designs down here are enclosed and isolate the occupant from the natural outdoors.

These recently posted designs--as caught on my favorite architectural blog Arch Daily--seem to successfully bring the outdoors in; boldly.

• Big Dig House / Single Speed Design – ArchDaily
• Six Ramsgate / Wallflower Architecture + Design – ArchDaily
• Cabin Nordmarka / JVA – ArchDaily
• Anglesea House / Andrew Maynard Architects – ArchDaily
• House K / Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter – ArchDaily
• House C - Prax Architects – ArchDaily
• Kübler House / 57 STUDIO – ArchDaily
• Open-air sculpture / MRA – ArchDaily

Bonus find: MUJI USA.  Wonderfully simple designed products for practical living.

--Claus V.

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Feeding the Curious Mind…

Been busy around here for the past couple of weeks.

Trying to dig out from the crush of work as well as staying inspired mentally. Been a bit challenging.

Here are some links—past and present—that I’ve been grooving on to keep things fresh in my brain.

The Forgotten Underground

I had seen a CNN video on some dudes who had (re)discovered a hidden train tunnel under the streets of New York.

The video piece was completely uninspiring, but I figured more information was to be found online.

It was.

A Diamond Below - Curious Expeditions blog

New York Observed - In Brooklyn, an Explorer Wants to Dig Again ... – The New York Times

BHRA: Atlantic Avenue Tunnel – The Brooklyn Historic Railway Association

It’s an amazing story inspired by tales of pages of John Wilkes Booth’s journal in a forgotten tunnel, and is layered with the rich and powerful, metro rail systems, a scam, and rediscovered plans buried in a non-descript locked box in a borough president’s office.  And then there still remains an additional length of tunnel that may contain the abandoned train!

Reminded me of Clive Cussler’s novel Night Probe!

For more fun and adventures, check out the Curious Expeditions for more interesting places and things.

Coincidentally, BLDBLOG posted this article The Rentable Basement Maze which eerily seemed to tie into the above story.

Then there was the Sexy Archaeology Blog I dug up this weekend.  It’s a tongue in cheek look at archaeological stories both mainstream and not.

Fresh Scientific Perspectives

With all the news saturation on the guinea-pig flew it’s been hard to hold a meaningful conversation on the topic.  Even the watered-down news reports taste like cool-aid without the sugar.  Bleah!

While over at Kent Newsome's Blog I read his post on the subject with interest as well as his link to a great centralized source of scientific story blogs.  It’s been hard finding good science blogs that strike a balance between readability, reliability, and application.  Chron.com’s Eric Berger has his SciGuy blog and that is one of the few sources of daily science story material I take the time to RSS feed.

Anyway, Kent linked to the ScienceBlogs site which immediately was added to my RSS feed reader.

Despite an apparent and public distain for the Huffington Post, coverage and writing is spot-on and offers looks into Life Science, Physical Science, Environment, Humanities and Social Sciences, Education and Careers, Politics, Medicine and Health, Brain and Behavior, and finally, Technology.  Select the whole mess or any particular topic to RSS feed.

Anyway, per Kent’s recommendation, I’m now feeding Tara C. Smith’s Aetiology posts for the latest fair-and-balanced epidemiological news on the guinea-pig flew outbreak and response.

Good stuff.  [and yes, I’m referring to H1N1 as ‘guinea-pig flew’ for a reason…I don’t want to add GSD blog to the growing pile of material via search-engines by referring to to the other common and panic-inducing name it bears.]

Crime and Punishment

CYB3RCRIM3 – Law Professor Susan Brenner brings entertaining and informative analysis on intersections between technology and law.  While I will watch Law & Order on cable with Lavie, generally discussions on case-law tend to make my eyes glaze over (despite recognition on how important it is to our society).

Susan posts frequently and provides thoughtful reviews on real-world technology and how law is having to actively change to keep up with it.

WIRED is another source of technology news.  However, I usually spend most of my time on the Wired blogs. In particular I follow Danger Room, GeekDad, Monkey Bites, and Threat Level.

Threat Level in particular is quite good as it also documents the sometimes uncomfortable dance between society, law, and technology.

One ultra-fun read this week was Ryan Single’s post How Anonymous Hackers Triumphed Over Time.  The post itself is a great read but Ryan goes one better and includes lots of embedded linkage for folks who want to dive deeper into the story and find our just how the hack was technically pulled off.  That is the real richness that I find with on-line media sources of news.  Unlike a static newspaper where you are trapped in the content provided, with (good) on-line media, if the reader wants to get more details or has unanswered questions, you can dive as deep as time and your web-searching skills will allow.

So what began for me as a light and entraining story of “punking” a Time poll became a deeper study of the cat-n-mouse game between “hackers” gaming a poll and the web-masters trying to prevent it.  Great inside look on both accounts.

Sociology Fun in Contexts

As a few folks know, my BS degree is in Sociology and though my career has taken me far from those subjects, I still find the field deeply interesting.

While looking for techno-related graphic images for a wallpaper at work I stumbled upon this awesome website:

Graphic Sociology » Seeing Social Data

When I’m on the road and working out of a hotel room, one of the small pleasures I take is getting up early enough to hit the continental breakfast bar in quiet and snag a print-copy of USA Today newspaper.

While I don’t read the on-line version at all, nor do I (usually) pick up a print-copy at home, nothing delights me more than the bright colors, quickly digested news stories, and, best of all, the awesome charts and graphics USA Today is famous for.

So finding a blogger who appears to live for finding and picking apart charts and graphs from technical, design, and sociological perspectives was a major find for me.

Graphic Sociology » Internet Traffic post was the one that led me to the really, really cool Internet data charts provided by Akamai: Visualizing Global Web Performance with Akamai.  If you are into interactive maps with (almost) real-time data on the Web-Tubes this is a lot of fun.

Other great sociological-subject related blogs from Contexts.org’s stable are:

Sociological Images » Seeing is Believing – Great and frequently updated posts on how images in media reflect underlying issues and thoughts in society.

Public Criminology » Sociological Criminology – Exploring the nexus between criminology and society

Contech » Social Media in Social Contexts – Hasn’t been updated quite as recently with new material but there is enough there to keep me busy for a while.  Focus is on technology and society.

Severs were down while I was composing this post, so if they don’t load now, please don’t be discourage.  Make a note to check back later as they are all (particularly the Graphic Sociology blog) are worth checking out.

Cheers!

--Claus V.

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