We All Have A Cause... I Have Several

Welcome Hackaday Curiosity Seekers...


Hit Ctrl + . It makes this page hella easier to read. Hit Ctrl - to go back to normal.
- Friday, February 25, 2005:
Wow. I come back to my dorm room at 4 in the morning and what do I find? My sorry ass name plastered on hackaday (!!!), decidedly one of the cooler/est pages on the internet. Now I feel guilty that I bitched a little about the huge wads of hack tips I had been sending in and not getting credit for - despite the fact that a) they had probably already been sent in by someone else beforehand and b) they weren't my hacks, I was only referring them (although I never took credit for any of them).

I guess now it is time to do something original and send it in... I already have two ideas: an environmentally friendly add-on to the USB battery (take a wild guess and add an interesting twist), and a useful mashup of spare, modular computer parts... stay tuned to see if they are actually good enough to receive post recognition. (...Check the teapot 'still lower down on the page. Does that count? :P )

UPDATE: Thurs. March 31st, 2:40 in the afternoon I slouch on over to hackaday and what do I find? Some more links my sorry ass found posted! And the honor (?) of being called a "link machine"! How freaking cool is that! Thanks hackaday guys!
Stick around and I might post a little javascript that takes advantage of Window's active desktop to make a background that changes color for each day of the week (?) and changes the shade of the color based on what time of day it is. Something along those lines, anyway - my friend created it late last night and I need his permission first. (Or I suppose you could do it yourself - it's pretty easy). I hope he won't decapitate me for mentioning it here...

In the meantime, I suggest you check out these excellent web pages in the spirit of Hackaday:

  • Amateur Science: www.amasci.com
    Not the best initial interface or impression, but don't be fooled. Bill Beaty's amateur science page has been around for a long time, has aged like a fine wine or cheese, and is one of the best pages on its subject that internet has had or still has to offer. If Hackaday had a science-ish Holy Grail, this would be it. Check it out. Give him money too; why the heck not?

  • Make Magazine: www.makezine.com
    I pray that this is being redundant - for if Hackaday and God were to have a child, it would likely be Make Magazine. A quarterly "mook" (huge magazine that could be classfied as a small book) that has just been released, it is available on Amazon for a very reasonable and undercut $10 - money more than well spent.

  • Distributed Computing: www.distributedcomputing.info
    distributedcomputing.info
    Ever heard of SETI@Home? That is just the tip of the iceberg...
    Formerly www.aspenleaf.com/distributed, this is the best page with regards to distributed computing. A veritable plethora of DC goodness, it has current, past, and upcoming projects indexed, a FAQ, a news section, and is the best way to find out what DC is and how to get started. It is also updated frequently (unlike this page) with news about various projects and DC in general. Created by the best - the only - Kirk Pearson. Give him money - he deserves it.

    Cheers, and thank you for making my page have more hits this past week than it has likely had in its entire existence. (Although signing the guestbook would also be unspeakably awesome =).

    How do you spell "work in progress"?
    Evolution and Computers

    (shameless referall linking:)

    SIGN UP AND GET A FREE LAPTOP OR $1000!


    Not your old "shoot the rustler and get a free ipod; this is the real deal - as shown by The New York Times, Wired magazine, and numerous other reputable institutions. It is a solid business model that has proven itself - and everybody wins. It is even easier now with websites that handle referalls automatically; just do your part, then sit back and wait. I recommend the Video Professor offer (for the offer you have to do); it is easy, gives very quick credit to your account, is easy to cancel (they were very nice over the phone), and even the measly $6 or $7 shipping is refunded. Give it a shot!

    Mp3MusicGuide
    Probably the best referral site currently out there, with a sister site mp3downloadguide.com for double the exposure.

    Fight for the Music

    "I believe that the music industry (RIAA) is a bloated and outdated corpse of a corporate model that is extremely expensive to maintain - kind of like caring for a dead whale. It brings to mind Rome, Greece, &c. - the rulers grow fat; the empire crumbles."
    - David, 10-24-02
    My mp3 subsection...
    ...I am looking toward establishing a shaky .mp3 news website, among other things. I will soon be contacting other .mp3 news site-runners to help them, and to give myself some experience in the writing of the genre...Being in school, this will not be a quick n' easy venture...but, I will persevere...

    Industrial Hemp

    You would not believe what can be made out of this miracle stuff... The smear campaign in the 1920s-30s is akin to the one that Edison 'did to' Tesla regarding A/C (Tesla) vs. D/C (Edison) power... Today, we use A/C... Why? More on that... Sorry for the tangent, but it is interesting history - those mistakes which we are doomed to repeat...
    My hemp subsection...
    UPDATE (5-10): For an increasingly comprehensive history of Edison vs. Tesla and their patent battles (i.e. the "War of the Currents"), read the first half of this post/article... ...and go to the hemp subsection, which has a fair-sized subset dedicated to these two; as of now, it is mostly links, but there is some text.

    (Mail-Drop) Address

    Note: As I do not wish to divulge my real address, you can send all your insults here, instead.

    Another Note: Due to current predicaments, if you do so you may find yourself suddenly incarcerated, most likely without due process. Thus, I would not recommend this as a sane/smart course of action. Don't say I didn't warn you.

    The White House
    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
    Washington, DC 20500

    My (Possibly Slightly Unrealistic) Goals For This Web Page

    ------UNDER CONSTRUCTION---PERPETUALLY---

    (5-10) If you want to visit the best page I have ever seen (and I have seen many) pertaining to distributed computing and all therefore related, please, without further ado, visit this wonderful resource of a website:
    [www.aspenleaf.com/distributed] distrib. comp. site - click here
    Also, if you happen to have a Paypal setup and are not poor (and if you are using a computer, you aren't), please donate a buck to the creator. He more than deserves it.


    For Sale


    The "For Sale" page is up and running. Take five seconds and see my mediocre offerings - that is, except one. It's no joke, I promise. Well, the soul one is, but not the mags. Anyway, just go here. ---11/23/02---

    The (Not-so) Lost Art of Casting

    Get out your coke cans... and go out and melt some aluminum!


    Oh yeah... ...the most personally profitable and noncriminal way to be subversive... Dumpster Diving!!!

    I am currently working on building a "still" - a piece of equipment that can be used to distill water, essential oils, alcohol, etc. etc. I will try to take some digital photos of the equipment needed, the building, etc., but in the meantime, feel free to visit this wonderful and informative site. Just scroll down the side bar a little and click on the link marked "Distillation." A private thanks to the guy who runs this site for informatively answering my questions... ...Damn; all the distillation stuff is expensive! That is, it adds up!
    The thermometer - ~$5 (non-digital!)
    The flare connecter piece thingies - ~$2-3
    The tubing - about 10ft for $8 and 15ft for $11
    The teakettle - ~$10-15; gonna be a little; you need a stainless...
    The hotplate - ~$13 for a simple one at Bed, Bath, and Beyond
    The rubber stopper - how the hell do I know? I don't have one yet...
    The milkjug - Come on...drink the milk already - ~$3-4?
    The wire - if you don't have some suitable wire in your garage, I suggest you abandon this project...:)
    TOTAL: so far ~$41 without the milk...
    My still subsection...

    Our President is a Moron

    ...And, quite apparently, proud of being one! As long as he's a Patriotic American one, right?
  • Some of THE best political cartoon flash animations I have ever seen... ...and they load fast, too.
  • Is Bush a complete and utter moron? Judge for yourself...
  • Can the idiot even chew? Find out here...
  • Gee... why are we attacking Iraq again?
  • Bush stole your privacy? These books can help...
  • Why, one day, I will disappear and never be heard from again...

    Misc. [Cool] Links

  • Rant here - and think freely - before it's outlawed... mindorgy.net
    ...Thanks to the contributors/runners of the mindorgy website for recognizing this webpage.
  • comic life - too close for comfort... Zits
  • Cool amateur science - good stuff
    (Guestbook disabled due to spamming assholes.)