The coldest winter I ever spent
Archive for the ‘General’ Category.
I got this calculator in high school back in 19something… a long time ago. I used it in calculus, college physics, statistics, last semester’s chemistry class… it was the calculator I grew up on.
A few weeks ago, some of the buttons on the fold-out section stopped working. It’s very sad but calculator microsurgery isn’t a priority.
(UPDATE 7-1-23: Find nostalgic conversations and the manual in the comments below!)
There’s like a gazillion classes going on at this mega-learning/hacking/building event!
Join me at Workshop Weekend!
I’m teaching “BeetleBots Zooming Everywhere!” on Sunday, July 1st at 10:00am.
Workshop Weekend is a weekend-long event of short, 1 to 3 hour long workshops in subjects from exploring 3D modeling and printing, building a mini robot, and creating your own jewelry to making ricotta cheese and discovering DNA modeling! It’s a festival of learning with more than 40 hands-on workshops to choose from, all taking place June 30 and July 1 in downtown Oakland — pay $30 and take as many workshops as you like! The weekend is a family-friendly gathering for kids and adults alike, bringing together arts, crafts and engineering workshops, all taught by the bay area’s best makers.
Aaaand, use my coupon code to get 10% off admission: BEETLEBOTS2012
Here’s a partial list of the workshops being offered:
Check out them all at http://workshopweekend.net/catalog
See you there!
I’ve seen comments online and and did a little research on laser nail fungus treatments. I think a reasonable assessment would be:
* expensive ($1-2k+) (though a friend told me their friend had both feet done for $275)
* safe
* 25% success rate, a bit lower success rate than prescription oral drugs. Many report a clearing in the first year and then a return after 2 years or so.
* easy treatment. visit the foot doctor 1-4 times for short treatments over the course of a few months.
Does that sound correct? Please write in the comments below!
Some comments on my blog from folks suggest what I say is about right.
This is a followup to all the fungus talk on my blog.
I met Matt in Oakland last year. We danced with the entire world. It was magic.
local version:
You can’t see me in it but Oakland’s 3 seconds of fame is at 4:20. (dude!)
A photo from the original shoot. Matt is in blue behind the camera. He showed up alone with his trusty camera.
I’ve been fiddling with my Google Chrome startup screen. The Speed Dial extension for Chrome is good. It looks similar to the standard Google New Tab screen but it lets you customize it. (It drives me crazy that you don’t know with certainty what links will be on the New Tab page).
But I got the sense that Speed Dial was slowing my computer down just a tiny bit. So I switched to a more streamlined startup screen.
I open 4 tabs:
Blank Chrome page
Gmail
Gmail Calendar
Gmail Contacts
There are 3 ways I know of to create a blank tab in Chrome. I’m still not sure which I like the most:
Here is how to set the Chrome startup page
California just changed the election process so that the primary election (being held June 4th) is now more important than the election election (held this coming November).
“Huh?” I hear you say.
Here’s a good description from the California Secretary of State Debra Bowen
What is a voter-nominated office?
The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act, which took effect January 1, 2011, created “voter-nominated” offices. The Top Two Candidates Open Primary Act does not apply to candidates running for U.S. President, county central committees, or local offices.
Most of the offices that were previously known as “partisan” are now known as “voter-nominated” offices. Voter-nominated offices are state constitutional offices, state legislative offices, and U.S. congressional offices. The only “partisan offices” now are the offices of U.S. President and county central committee.
How are primary elections conducted in California?
All candidates for voter-nominated offices are listed on one ballot and only the top two vote-getters in the primary election — regardless of party preference – move on to the general election. A write-in candidate will only move on to the general election if the candidate is one of the top two vote-getters in the primary election.
(read more)
That’s weird. We’ll see how that goes. Maybe it’ll work out fine.
In case you were thinking of trying Funginix, I would suggest that you not give those scamming scammers any money. Their website looks pretty but if you read it closely at all, you can see that they sound more like snake oil salesmen than sellers of a medical product.
Their website is ridiculous. Let me count the crock of shit ways these scammers are trying to scam you:
“FUNGINIX is the most sophisticated and complete topical treatment created to fight and eliminate the fungal infections” — Umm, no. It’s some guy in a basement. “Sophisticated”? To claim that means you spent millions on developing it. And if you spent millions developing it, you wouldn’t use the word “sophisticated”.
“Only FUNGINIX has been thoroughly tested to guarantee that it kills fungus and will promote the restoration of healthy nails in a fungus-free environment” — What bullshit ad copy. There are a hundred products out there, some put out by big pharmaceutical companies. And Funginix (which is only available on some website) is the ONLY product that works? And I’ve got a bridge to sell you.
The first “testimonial” starts out “This product is ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!” First, what consumer ever uses the word “product”? Next, her mug shot is from iStockphoto.com.
I could go on. For a long time.
But let’s cover some facts. Here are the claimed ingredients from their website:
Ingredients
Active Ingredient:
Undecylenic Acid, USP 10%Other Ingredients:
Water
Prunus Amygdalus Dulcis (Sweet Almond) Oil
Oleth-10 Phosphate
Triethanolamine
Polysorbate 20
Acrylates Copolymer
Glycerin
Propylene Glycol
Uva Ursi (Bearberry) Extract
Beta-Glucan
Propolis Extract
Aloe Barbadensis Juice
Tocopheryl Acetate (Vitamin E)
Camphor
Menthol
Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil
Lavandula Angustifolia (Lavender) Oil
Jasminum Officinale (Jasmine) Oil
Eugenia Caryophyllus (Clove) Flower Oil
Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) Seed Butter
Rosa Canina (Rose Hip) Flower Oil
Cetyl Hydroxyethylcellulose
Ethylhexylglycerin
Phenoxyethanol
The first ingredient, Undecylenic Acid, USP 10% is a common antifungal. It does not cost $40 per 1/2 ounce! All the other ingredients, meh.
Short form: scam.
I don’t have any easy answers but you might want to check out all the other (real) posts and comments on my site about my battle with nail fungus.
I’ve built up a huge list of Fun Things to do in the Bay Area. When I want to find something fun, I go to my bookmarks and just open up ALL of these links and scroll through them looking for a muse. It often works out well.
The Dark Room: Theater, Comedy, Music, Bad Movie Night and more
18 Reasons | Engaging Our Community Through Food and Art
BACDS — The Bay Area Country Dance Society Website
Bawdy Storytelling – Adventurous adults telling their true stories
Nerd Nite SF: Welcome to Nerd Nite SF — Every 3rd Wednesday!
HappyCortex – Event Listings – Home
San Francisco Walking Tours | City Guides
San Francisco Social Meals, Meet New Friends, Group Dining | Grubwithus – Never Eat Alone
Friends of the Urban Forest – Other Projects – Tree Tours
ReidAboutSex | Reid’s Calendar
NightLife: California Academy of Sciences
After Dark: Evening Hours for Adults | Exploratorium
Friday Nights at the de Young | de Young Museum
The Independent :: San Francisco, California :: Live Music Live
Broke-Ass Stuart’s Goddamn Website
Down to a Science – A San Francisco Science Cafe and Science Blog
Events | Books Inc. – The West’s Oldest Independent Bookseller
The Starry Plough Pub and Nightclub
BayAreaScience.org – The Best of Science by the Bay.
BayAreaScience.org | The Best of Science in the Bay Area
Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center
San Francisco Salsa Dance Club Bay Area Salsa Dancing Lessons
RIP Squidlist 2013 :-(
I have been wanting this email feature for oh my god, like 20 years. Thank you internets!
Boomerang for Gmail is awesome! (that is a referral link, if you use it, we both get some free prizes like these.
Here’s a video showing Boomerang in action
You know when you send an important email and a timely response is important but you aren’t sure the person is going to respond quickly? How do you keep track of this important tidbit? What I used to do was copy-and-paste the email into a Calendar item… which is cumbersome and a PITA to do on a regular basis!
From their website:
Boomerang allows you to schedule messages to be sent or returned at a later date. Write a message now, send it whenever, even if you’re not online. Track messages to make sure you hear back, and schedule reminders right inside Gmail
I’ve been using it for a week and it works as advertised! I’m in!
There is Boomerang for Gmail on Chrome, Firefox, and Safari (Hahah, no Internet Explorer!), and Outlook too.
These are all Android apps I heartily use and recommend for my AT&T Galaxy S phone.
Find all these apps on Google Play for your Android phone.
RealCalc Scientific Calculator – a great calculator. The stock calculator suuuuucks but RealCalc is great (and costs like a buck or something!)
NoLED – It turns on the screen and tells you when you’ve missed a call or text. Essential (I can’t believe Samsung forgot this functionality!)
Google Goggles – great for scanning QR codes (those fancy new computer bar codes). It holds promise for doing a lot more, but not much more yet.
Fish Bowl – photo gallery
Clock – The built in Clock app with the wake-me-ever-so-gently “Smart Alarm” is my daily alarm clock and I love it.
Lord Of Magic – fun shoot’em up
Gmail – of course
Google Maps – of course
Silent Time – Works great to keep my phone quiet for my weekly appointments.
SwiFTP FTP Server – I use this and an FTP client on my home computer to move files from my computer to my phone
Hi-Q MP3 Recorder – Rock solid
I use this every day to record lectures and people giving me information. It is indispensable.
Chase Mobile – it’s pretty convenient depositing checks remotely!
Google Voice – works great. Once every couple months it doesn’t let me listen to voicemails but generally works great.
Andmade Share – makes sending attachments and such way easier
Astro Player – Music playback. Love it for the equalizer and playback speed adjuster. I record lectures in school. I use the equalizer to make the recordings listenable and I use the playback speed changer to scroll through the lectures quickly. Win!
BART Usher – It’s my go-to schedule travelling through BART
Data Traffic Monitor– Helped me diagnose a bandwidth hog program
Screen Filter – Indispensable brightness control for my AT&T Galaxy S phone.
Tasker – It is supposed to be super-duper powerful but the best use I found was that I created 6 (pretty useful) buttons with it that have obvious purposes: Sound On/Off, Wifi On/Off, 3G On/Off.
Wifi Manager – Lets me see the wifi networks around me at a glance. Nice.
Google Authenticator – If you use Gmail, you should use 2-Step Verification to protect your account! How to enable it. And a friendly video that walks you through it.
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Here are the maybe/maybe-nots
Groupme – I WANT to love it but 2 of my friends don’t receive the messages reliably :-(
SomaFM Radio Player – I WANT to love it but It uses a bit (30kb/min… 43 megabytes/day) of bandwidth and a lot of battery even when paused. I don’t have unlimited monthly 3G bandwidth so I’m wary to use the app.
Prey – It is supposed to track my phone in case I lose it. So far I haven’t gotten it to work right. But I’m on it.