News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
Did your metal screw strip out the wooden hole? There are many ways to fix it, but a quick and easy method is to line the hole with toothpicks. Depending on the size of the hole, a golf tee may also do the job.
Link: http://lifehacker.com/…
One of the advertised benefits of cloud computing is high availability and redundancy. Back in April, however, some of Amazon’s cloud storage services suffered an outage that lasted for about three days, bringing down websites of several high-profile customers.
The initial problem was quickly fixed, but oddly enough, the extended outage was caused by the cloud management software attempting to prevent the loss of data. Amazon essentially performed a denial-of-service attack on its own storage servers which took three days to fix.
This event brings up an inherent problem with cloud computing: complexity. As a programmer, I know that error-handling code tends to go untested (or has minimal testing), just because it can be difficult to create the errors necessary to exercise the code, or because it takes too much time and money in a competitive business environment. It’s obvious that Amazon did not test for the type of situation that occurred on April 21st. The linked article makes the argument that cloud computing systems have much more complexity than would the individual systems in a non-cloud environment. So cloud providers, to prevent these types of outages from happening in the future, will have to learn how to better deal with complexity.
Thanks to Josh for this topic.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
Russian scientist Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski has the distinction of being the only person to ever stick his head into a running particle accelerator. The linked article explains all.
Link: http://www.todayifoundout.com/…
(via mental_floss)
It’s been my experience that most lists of Word tips aren’t all that useful. The linked article, however, is an exception. It explains, for example, how to perform a vertical text selection, undo automatic changes, and move table text up or down.
The linked article has pictures of a very good crocheted model of Discworld, including Great A’Tuin and the four elephants. For those Chad’s News readers who aren’t familiar with the Discworld series of novels by Terry Pratchett, I highly recommend it. Start with The Colour of Magic. My introduction to the series, and still my favorite story, was The Last Hero.
Link: http://www.planetjune.com/…
(via Neatorama)
Comic strip writers David Waisglass and Gordon Coulthart have hit upon the true limiting factor of computer technology: PEBCAK. This ranks up there with placing USER=ID-10-T in the config.sys file. See the linked article for the actual comic strip.
Link: http://comics.com/…
Web developer Mike Cardwell has created a web page that determines if you’re logged in to various sites. It does this by trying to load something (an image, script, etc.) from those sites—something that you must be logged in to access. A script is executed depending upon whether the load succeeds or fails. Quite tricky, and another reminder that online privacy doesn’t exist.
Link: https://grepular.com/…
(via Slashdot)
For those who missed it, Mozilla released Firefox 4 on March 22nd. Major features include a more streamlined and minimalist user interface (a la Google Chrome), tab groups, WebGL support, better HTML5 support, faster JavaScript processing, graphics hardware acceleration, and browser synchronization. This will be the last major release of Firefox—Mozilla is switching to the incremental update model that has worked so well for Chrome.
It’s interesting to see the significant impact Google Chrome has had on both Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 4, particularly in regards to the user interface and JavaScript performance. Google’s stated goal when it first released Chrome was to force the other browser vendors to improve their products in an effort to keep up. Google has been wildly successful in this respect.
Link #1: http://arstechnica.com/…
Link #2: http://blog.mozilla.com/…
(via Slashdot)
To help quell any fears of radiation from Japan, the folks at xkcd have created a picture showing relative amounts of radiation exposure. The bottom line is that we in the United States have little to fear.
Link: http://xkcd.com//…
I went to amazon.com the other day and noticed a front-page announcement about two new services. The first is the Amazon Cloud Drive, an online storage system with 5GB of free storage and the ability to pay for additional space. There are lots of online storage sites, however, and what makes this one different is how Amazon has integrated it with their MP3 store. In addition to the Cloud Drive, there’s also the Amazon Cloud Player, an online music player that works on any Mac, PC, or Android device. It’s tightly integrated with the Cloud Drive—music files stored in your Cloud Drive are available to the Cloud Player. Music purchases from the Amazon MP3 Store can be automatically uploaded to the Cloud Drive, and they don’t count against the 5GB limit.
I like the Cloud Drive because, unlike other free file storage sites, this one probably won’t go out of business. And Amazon has hit on a good concept, allowing you to store your music in a central location that’s accessible from anywhere on the internet. I make a habit of purchasing music from the Amazon MP3 Store whenever possible, so this is pretty useful. No longer is there the possibility of losing my entire music collection because a hard drive fails.
There are, however, a couple downsides. First, the only mobile devices that are truly supported are Android devices. The Cloud player is not “optimized” for iPhones, iPads, Blackberries, and Windows 7 phones. I guess that means you could play the music via a supported browser on those devices, but that it wouldn’t work very well. Second, only MP3 and non-copy protected AAC (iTunes Store) formats are supported by the music player. For those with an older, extensive library from the iTunes Store, this may not be the best way to go (or at least consider upgrading your library to iTunes Plus).
I’m using the Cloud Player right now, and it’s working quite well. No skips or stutters. One final note, I manually uploaded my music library which was a lengthy process. Turns out there’s an MP3 uploader program that makes the initial upload much easier.
I’ve read horror stories of elderly people who’ve paid thousands of dollars to rent their phones from the phone company (dating from the breakup of AT&T back in the 1980s). Well, it appears that AOL is making money from a similar situation. According to an article in The New Yorker (subscription required) by Ken Auletta, 75 percent of AOL subscribers are paying a $25/month dial-up fee despite the fact that they have DSL or cable internet. If correct, these overpayments add up to $1 billion each year. And as with the phone rentals mentioned above, these customers tend to be elderly.
Link: http://www.pcmag.com/…
(topic via Slashdot)
The US Navy is attempting to develop a superlaser for use on its ships, and the latest prototype can burn through 20 feet of steel per second at 14 kilowatts. The power level needs to reach 100 kilowatts to be useful in the field, and the Navy’s ultimate goal is to reach a megawatt and be able to pierce 2000 feet of steel per second. Expect this technology to be deployed sometime in the next 10-20 years.
Link: http://www.wired.com/…
(via Engadget)
