MarcJStuff Stuff from the web….

May 5, 2012 – Cinco de Mayo Links

• BMW R100 RS custom
• Kawasaki KZ400 by Analog
• Minimalist Disney Movie Posters

April 28, 2012 – Way behind in links

Wow, it has been a busy few weeks. I have helped throw two different fundraisers, had a business trip to California, yard work and tree limb removal (spring came really early this year), and Egon has had a visit to the doggy dentist.

• coreboot @ Intel Developer Form, Beijing
• Video: Who Writes Linux Kernel?
• xkcd: reviews - so true
• BrowserQuest - retro gaming in all in HTML5. awesome!
• Magrette Chronograph Watches- nice watch, good value
• DIY turntable - well done!
• Rough Crafts x Zero Engineering
• Homemade Automatic Floppy Disk Archiver - crazy
• The Secret History of OpenStack, the Free Cloud Software That’s Changing Everything
• Send WoL packet
• How to Make an All-Purpose Work Bench

Against Intelectual Monopoly

I have been reading an interesting book , called Against Intellectual Monopoly (available free in pdf form) that argues against patents and copyright. It is very interesting and makes some strong points about the anti-competitive nature of patents and copyright, and l how they stagnate economic and technological progress. The most recent patent and copyright issues discussed are the laws extending the length of which monopolistic advantages have been extended. It raises good points and we need to have a serious, thoughtful discussion about how long and idea can be "owned". The business of idea hording is not good for the economy. The threat of lawsuit is not good for small business or technological innovation. As for the book, it has lots of good examples, historical data, and citations of economic papers and studies. It can be a little repetitive and pretty dense, but otherwise, a very good and educational read.

On a side note, Mark Cuban has a great blog and has interesting things to say about business, technology, and patents. Also, Shark Tank is a pretty good show. It is interesting to see investors size up a small businesses; how they think, what they ask, and the creative ways they put deals together (mostly to the disadvantage of the person pitching the idea). (Does it matter if they take advantage of the small business if they make the person lots off money too? I'm not sure, but sometimes it feels a little slimy.... yeah, that's business....)

...now if I could only find my kindle... I lost it somewhere in the house... it has been missing for two days... argh (first world problem...)!

March 14, 2012

Doing a bit of catchup. There is some good stuff on the intertubes this week...

• How Anonymous plans to use DNS as a weapon
• Blasting the photoelectric effect out of the quantum realm with a very intense light source
• How to Get a Positive Expected Rate of Return on a Lottery Ticket

March 11, 2012 – Links

• CRD Triumph “Silver Eyes” - I like the exhaust on the blacked-out one on the CDR site.
• Custom Yamaha XS650
• Vintage Sunbeam motorcycle
• Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest: 50 Finalists
• 5 Ridiculous Cold War Myths You Learned in History Class
• Old Maps Online lets you find your way around 17th century Holy Roman Empire
• Why Companies Fail
• Obama admin wants warrantless access to cell phone location data
• How the US can stop the largest wealth transfer in history by building a bridge

March 08, 2012 – Links

• Nature Editorial: If you want reproducible science, the software needs to be open source
• How Red Hat killed its core product—and became a billion-dollar business
• Why wait? Six ways that Congress could fix copyright, now
• BIOS Disassembly Ninjutsu Uncovered (1st Edition) [Unedited] PDF released
• The Lazy Bureaucrat Problem
• Does being wealthy make you unethical? New research suggests it does
• Shaw Speed & Custom XL1200R
• Dime City Honda Shadow
• Linux Memory Management – Swapping, Caches and Shared VM

February 25, 2012 – Links

• The Coffee Cycle
• The Big Picture: Skating
• Mule “Stealth” Street-Tracker
• Beautiful Conversion Kit Transforms Harley-Davidson Sportster to Café Racer
• Triumph TR6 custom
• Photo Essay: George Daniels' Personal 1929 Bentley Blower In NYC
• 8 Personal Finance Lessons from Benjamin Franklin - advice that should be internalized by everyone...
• From encryption to darknets: As governments snoop, activists fight back
• DIY Solid State Tesla Coil Build
• Mapping Stereotypes
• Planes Taking Off From Hannover Airport by Ho-Yeol Ryu
• How Companies Learn Your Secrets
• Crypto shocker: four of every 1,000 public (SSL) keys provide no security - it is bad, but don't panic
• Linux Memory Management – Virtual Memory and Demand Paging