Category: Cool

Haven’t done any Christmas shopping yet? Here’s a good guide for you lazy slugs out there who love to procrastinate. Thanks Will for the link.

With only 15-lines of Python code, TinyP2P was created “to illustrate the difficulty of regulating peer-to-peer applications. Peer-to-peer apps can be very simple, and any moderately skilled programmer can write one, so attempts to ban their creation would be fruitless.” Link via BB.

Like Jon, I love watching Good Eats on the Food Network. Alton Brown, who really needs to update his blog more, is hilarious, and a great cook to boot. That, and he rides one sweet motorcycle.

You’ll get a one week grace period on Blockbuster rentals. That’s the good news. The bad news is that if you go past one week past the due date, you’re now buying the movie, and will be charged a small “restocking fee” if you do finally bring it back (no word on what that fee will actually be). Good commentary at Ars and SEB.

Considering the amount of money Blockbuster makes from late fees ($300-million or so) every year, this is quite the gamble, but if they’re assuming that Blockbuster renters are lazy folks, then this could be quite lucrative for them.

That’s one way to fight back. Thanks Cheryl for the link.

As you’re typing in your search term, this new Google toy will give you real-time autocompletion of popular search terms. Besure to check out the one-letter suggestions (“P” gives you “Paris Hilton” for example). Links via Waxy and the Google Blog.

Why is my former stomping grounds not covering this story? I had to read it over on Boing Boing.

Hello, Jason Scott here (historian guy). I saw that the 250,000 fanzines up for sale on ebay were taken down. I took the step of looking up and contacting Mike, the guy who put them up, and spoke for a while.

Apparently he had gone to the ebay sale as a last resort after contacting a number of universities to donate his collection. And, as luck would have it, his auction was spotted by a worker at the University of Oregon, who have contacted him and offered to take the collection whole.

So, the collection has found a home, and a sale to the highest bidder (not always the greatest way to divest decades of collecting and collating) is no longer necessary. Great news.

Of course, the Knight Library news site nor does the University’s news site have anything.

It’s obviously not a huge story, but still print-worthy (as it’s quite a collection).

Update on 2/13/05: The collection is actually going to the University of Iowa.

I’ve been a reader of nixlog for quite a while, but mostly via the RSS feed because I haven’t had time to always check out his site. I went back to his front page recently to find one of the most original designs that a blog could have. Be sure to check it out. I’m blogging it here myself just so I can have a permanent record of it here.

I’m putting my obscure computer parts shopping list over here. Thanks Waxy for the link.