tracy's blog
With fake dogs and everything...
tracy — Tue, 09/12/2006 - 12:25
Local News Updates - MIT 'hacks' mark Sept. 11 with a fake fire truck -The Boston Globe MIT 'hacks' mark Sept. 11 with a fake fire truck
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Correspondent
In what may be an only-at-MIT Sept.11 tribute, a fake fire truck appeared this morning on top school's Great Dome, the site of storied student pranks since at least the 1960s.
From the ground, the vehicle appeared to be the old fashioned cab of a truck that has been painted red. The cab is attached to a rectangular box, which is also red, and has the words "MIT Fire Department" painted on the side in bold white letters. A coiled roped dangled from the side of the "truck," completing the emergency vehicle look.
The End Of The World As We Know It?
tracy — Mon, 09/11/2006 - 14:49
Lifeboat Foundation ParticleAcceleratorShield: Particle Accelerator Shield Some people are worrying about the world's next-generation particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider, which is due to open for business next year at CERN's facility on the Franco-Swiss border. For instance, Ran Livneh who works on improving the ATLAS Muon Spectrometer's software and performance said:
"The LHC will soon be activated, creating physical environment very similar to that which prevailed soon after the Big Bang. This physical realm is unknown, and dangerous phenomena might arise. From the LHC site:
Belcher Family History at the New England Historic Genealogical Society
tracy — Mon, 09/11/2006 - 12:09
I spent my Saturday researching Belcher family history at the New England Historic Genealogical Society Research Library in Boston, Massachusetts. The morning went pretty well as I found a number of probate and other records referring to the Belcher family. However, I decided to do something on Saturday that was a first, I looked over the manuscript collection and found this:
Hey, I've heard of those guys...
tracy — Thu, 09/07/2006 - 08:30
Wired News: The Ultimate Blog Post As a handy guide for crafting your horrible lies, here's a list of some of the already popular blogs out there. (I'm omitting the blogs at Wired, because, hey, I have to work with these people.) Along with each blog's name, I've provided what would be the ultimate perfect blog entry for that particular blog. I'm tired of the word "blog" now.
Blogs and their ultimate perfect entry:
Put comments in your Gmail Email Address
tracy — Thu, 09/07/2006 - 08:24
Use Gmail Generate Unlimited E-mail Addresses - Modern Day Alchemist Gmail has an interesting quirk where you can add a plus sign (+) after your Gmail address, and it'll still get to your inbox. It's called plus-addressing, and it essentially gives you an unlimited number of e-mail addresses to play with. Here's how it works: say your address is pinkyrocks@gmail.com, and you want to automatically label all work e-mails. Add a plus sign and a phrase to make it pinkyrocks+work@gmail.com and set up a filter to label it work (to access your filters go to Settings->Filters and create a filter for messages addressed to pinkyrocks+work@gmail.com.
To Russia with love
tracy — Wed, 09/06/2006 - 08:05
BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Write back in the USSR In the depths of the Cold War, the daughter of an imprisoned Soviet dissident received a message from across the Iron Curtain that changed her family's life.
Just charge it to my finger
tracy — Tue, 09/05/2006 - 08:14
Newsvine - Kids Buy Lunches With Scans of Fingers The never-ending march of technology now means school children here can pay for their cafeteria sloppy joes with their fingers.
Rome City Schools is switching to a scanning system that lets students use their fingerprints to access their accounts. In the past, students had to punch in their pin numbers.
Last Will and Testament of Aaron Foster
tracy — Sun, 09/03/2006 - 18:38
In the name of God amen. The thirteenth day of September one thousand eight hundred and three, I, Aaron Foster, of Ipswich in the county of Essex and commonwealth of Massachusetts, yeoman, of sound mind and memory, do make this my last will and testament, as follows: First, I give and commend my soul into the hand of God, who gave it, and my body I commit to the earth, to be buried, in hope of a joyful resurrection thereof at the last day. And, touching such worldly estate, as God has blessed me with in this life, I give and dispose of in the following manner. 1st I give to my beloved wife, Ruth Foster, the improvement of all the house, which I now live in, so long as she shall remain my widow, one quarter part of the produce of all my lands and the quick stock, which I leave or shall hereafter be kept on my estate, to be yielded and delivered to her, as the same shall rise yearly, without any expense for her for labor or taxes. And I hereby enjoin it to my son Zebulon Foster to carry on my estate for her, rendering to her one quarter part of the produce thereof yearly, as it shall rise, free from all expense and charges as aforesaid. And I do further enjoin on my son Zebulon to cut and hale from my woodland wood for her, and to cut it up at the door, sufficient to maintain one good fire; one half of said wood to be cut on the wood land, which I shall give to my son Moses Foster, and the other half on the wood land, which I shall give to my son Zebulon, to be and continue to her, so long as she shall remain my widow.-- I also give her one quarter part of all the provisions, which I shall leave in the house at my discease. I further give her the improvement on one seat in my pew in the meeting house, so long as she shall remain my widow.-- And it is my will, that my sons Moses and Zebulon should, after her death, give her decent buriel, in case she dies my widow. 2nd I give and bequeath to my son Moses Foster, and to his heirs and assigns, all that part of my estate, both of land and buildings, which is standing and laying to the west and northwest of the road leading from Chebacco to Hamilton, it being the buildings and homestead, which my father gave me in his last will; excepting so much of it, as I shall give to my son Thomas Foster. I give and bequeath to my said son, Moses, and his heirs and assigns, one piece of woodland part of which is lying in Ipswich, and the other part in Manchester, it being two thirds of an old lot number four hundred and thirty nine, and called the parsonage lot. I give him also one piece of marsh, lying near Dean's island, so called and one thatch lot on the great bank. But my son Moses is not to come into possession and improvement of the same, until after my wife's decease. My son Zebulon is to cut one half of the wood for one fire for himself, and one half of the wood for my wife's fire, as before mentioned; also one half of so much as shall be necessary for repairing or making fences and buildings from off the wood land I have given my son Moses, so long as my wife shall remain my widow and no longer.
Google Revealed: The IT Strategy That Makes It Work
tracy — Fri, 09/01/2006 - 08:26
Google Revealed: The IT Strategy That Makes It Work - Management News by InformationWeek A unique mix of internally developed software, open source, made-to-order hardware, and people management is the secret behind the search engine.
An interesting article on just what makes Google tick.
Perl doesn't scale?
tracy — Fri, 09/01/2006 - 08:02
Please Stop Using Perl 3 - O'Reilly ONLamp Blog
It still surprises me when people say Perl doesn