Flying Spaghetti Monster and Intelligent Design
Looks like teachers in Kansas may have to don full pirate regalia while teaching about how the Flying Spaghetti Monster was involved in the creation of the universe. This "open letter to the Kansas School Board":http://www.venganza.org/ threatens legal action if additional "Intelligent Design":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligent_design theories are not included in the school curriculum.
The Onion – 2056
"The Onion":http://www.theonion.com/ has a great future issue on their web site, "The Onion 2056":":http://www.theonion.com/2056-06-22/index_b.php. Pretty funny. My favorites:
"Your browser does not support ambient alpha-wave memestreams. Concentrate here to upgrade."
"Vatican Condemns 'Radical' Teachings of The Newly Resurrected Christ."
"For a less accurate but more reassuring version of these events, press here."
Post Secret
This is one of the cooler things I've run across on the web in a while. ""PostSecret":http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ is an ongoing community art project where people mail-in their secrets anonymously on one side of a homemade postcard."
Good Comparison of Linux Distributions
My server is spending another day chugging away at compiling 156 different software packages today (it's on #46 now). My friend Will talked me into installing "Gentoo":http://www.gentoo.org/ on it. I like it so far, I'm learning a whole lot about how the operating system is put together. I ran across "a good comparison of linux distributions":http://www.tipmonkies.com/2005/06/16/linux-distros/ on slashdot this morning. I'm curious about Ubuntu, and there were a few mentioned in the comments that sounded interesting too. But I think I might give "OpenSolaris":http://opensolaris.org/ a whirl next. It may be way overkill for a home server, but I'm curious to see how it works.
Complete Web Server on a tiny USB keychain thing
This is kinda cool. A "complete server on a USB memory stick keychain thingy":http://webservusb.com/. "HTML, PERL, CGI, PHP, SSI, MySQL, FTP, HTTP, POP3, SMTP, IP security, Port security, Aliasing, Logging, MIME, User authentication, custom errors, multi threading, and even Remote Administration via web browser."
!http://webservusb.com/images/wsusb-blue.png!
It for some reason only works on Windows. Really cool idea though. I wonder what it would take to set up a more cross-platform, open source version with cools stuff like "Ruby":http://ruby-lang.org/, "lighttpd":http://www.lighttpd.org/, "SQLite":http://www.sqlite.org/, and of course "Rails":http://www.rubyonrails.org/.
Instiki featured on IT Conversations program
"IT Conversations":http://www.itconversations.com/ has "a program":http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail467.html about using "Ruby":http://www.ruby-lang.org/ and my favorite wiki, "Instiki":http://www.instiki.org/ in schools. Initially the students write their papers using Instiki, the teachers use it to provide feedback. The developers have taken it a bit farther with "SchoolTool":http://www.schooltool.org/ which uses some semantic web ideas and the "Zope 3":http://www.zope.org/DevHome/Zope3 web application environment. It's a centralized student administration program that they've meshed with Instiki in an interesting web-services salad kinda way.
10x’s Bandwidth Increase in Wi-Fi Networks
I love the "IT Conversations":http://www.itconversations.com/ site. I try to download a few and listen to them while I'm working. You really do get a different experience listening to people speaking on these topics as opposed to reading them. "Ontology is Overrated":http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail470.html with Clay Shirky and "Virtual Money":http://itconversations.com/shows/detail380.html with Peter Thiel, founder of "PayPal":http://www.paypal.com/, are a couple of my favorites.
Yesterday I listened to "an interview":http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail558.html with Dr. Greg Raleigh about a "new wireless technology":http://www.networkworld.com/news/tech/2004/072604techupdate.html he developed. It takes advantage of _multi-path fading_, caused by the reflection of radio signals off walls and other objects, to increase the range of wireless signals. Effectively every reflection becomes an opportunity to send a new signal. This will lead to a 10x increase in bandwidth with no change in spectrum or power requirements in the upcoming wi-fi standard, 802.11n.
Sensenbrenner Wants to Jail Your Mom If You Smoke Pot
I had never heard of "Rep. Sensenbrenner":http://www.house.gov/sensenbrenner/ from Wisconson until last night when I saw this "movie of how Sensenbrenner conducts the democratic process":http://www.dembloggers.com/story/2005/6/10/54149/5115 (Funny and embarrassing for America). Then today I ran across "this bill":http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR01528:@@@L&summ2=m he's introduced to impose 2 years mandatory imprisionment for people who know about someone that smokes pot around a child or in a college campus and doesn't report it. Hello? There'd be nobody left to go to college. Idiot. Stalin did the same type of thing, requiring people to spy on their neighbors.
Spreading the Hate of God?
The Bible it tells stories of how Jesus treated those that the society of that time hated and looked down upon; tax collectors, prostitutes, etc. He had dinner with them. He washed their feet with the most expensive perfume he could find. He showed them love and acceptance and ministered to them.
Christian Youth
I saw a cool bumber sticker, "Who Would Jesus Bomb?"
Somehow that led to me typing in "wwjd.com":wwjd.com (what would jesus do) just to see where it went and I ended up with this.