Rubenerd

I'd never be caught making a misteak like that.

Links shared from del.icio.us today:

One of the cooler kits I brought from HLJ clearance sale abou… on Twitpic

Cute! "One of the cooler kits I brought from HLJ clearance sale about two years ago. (Featured in Megami magazine Vol.8)"

(categories: figures anime design)

Huffduffer

Don't quite understand what this is, something to do with creating podcasts.

(categories: podcast audio rss)

Register of Open Branded Products

"The top level summary of the Open Brand register of certified products by major product standard type follows below. See the links on the left panel for full details."

(categories: apple osx ibm oracle sun unix solaris)

Mule Design Studio’s Blog: Density and Difference

Comparing and contrasting Twitter and Google+. Well made point.

(categories: design twitter interface socialnetworking google+)

The problem with urban noise

All the more reason to build metro lines underground.

(categories: mrt singapore publictransport)

This post originally appeared on the Annexe.

This post originally appeared on the Annexe.

Seems legit.

I disagree with Robert Scoble's assessment that Twitter needs to be more like Google+. If anything, from using Google+ I've learned to appreciate Twitter's simplicity! Oh yeah, and pudding.

It’s not easy being green

In an entry on Google+ (makes sense) and on his blog, Robert goes into detail how Twitter now seems boring, and that the only way to change this would be for Twitter to broadly emulate Google+. MG Seigler posted a rebuttal, which I'd be able to take more seriously if it weren't quite as scathing, and hosted on a site that requires people to use a Facebook account to leave comments. Still, I found myself nodding my head in several places.

On the one hand, I can see Robert's point. With a [paltry!] 1200+ followers myself, I'm acutely aware of how frustrating it can be to receive comments from people on a regular basis without knowing which tweet they're commenting on! With tens of thousands of followers and commentators, there's no denying Google+ facilitates tracking theses threaded conversations more easily for people like him.

Claiming this can be fixed by making Twitter more like Google+ though makes absolutely no sense to me, just as John C. Dvorak's claim that Apple would only gain market value and share by licensing Mac OS X didn't. You're awesome John, but what were you smoking my friend?

Google+ is cool, but so is Twitter

Since Twitter's inception people have complained it's missing feature XYZ, but fortunately Twitter's managers have [largely] ignored such demands unless their users overwhelmingly form a consensus, such as with @replies and retweeting. The appeal of the platform is simple: 140 characters to do what you see fit. If you want more features, clients like Twitter's TweetDeck (that still sounds weird to say that) provide them.

The proof is in the pudding. Mmm, rice pudding. Services such as FriendFeed and Google Buzz have attempted to come along in this [relatively] free marketplace to introduce lacking features such as threaded comments, but they never really gained any significant mind share. It makes sense for Google+ because that's what the service started as, and because they're a clone of Facebook… who ironically bought FriendFeed and attempted to clone much of Twitter's features.

Now I have no qualm in hypocritically acknowledging that Twitter does need a few more features. The ability to automatically block obvious spammers (those who only send links to strangers and have no followers) and perhaps "associating" a URL with a tweet as I suggested in January would be fantastic, but the key is these features would arguably make the system simpler.

I love you Robert Scoble and am a huge fan, but I really believe copying Google+'s features would miss the point of Twitter entirely, and I sincerely hope nobody there takes your advice. The Google+ team should be taking it as a compliment though, they're obviously doing something right!

As a matter of disclosure, I know its not cool to admit but I've been a Twitter user since Q1 2007, and I have Google+ and like what I see.

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The Most Incredible Thing Fox News Has Ever Done – James Fallows – National – The Atlantic

A complete whitewash of the News of the World sh*tstorm. To be expected from Fox News, but still abhorrent.

(categories: media journalism foxnews fail)

For reasons that escape even me, starting with this post in 2009 whenever I reach a blog post milestone I write an entry about an industrial cleaning device. For blog post 3800, we have potentially the spiffyist device ever reviewed here!

Oh, do tell me more!

I typed the number 3800 into Google, and I landed on a page about The Gottschild-System CBS 3800:

The CBS 3800 of the Gottschild-System is a combined trimming and cleaning machine for foil laminated 3D furniture components. The proven overhead trimming system for removing the entire overlapping PVC foil from MDF furniture components is perfectly complemented by a brushing unit. The four-head or eight-head rotating brush system removes the glue overspray from the back of the furniture front components. Combining the trimming and cleaning units allows for trimming and cleaning in a single process.

I have to say, while I arrived at the page completely by chance, I’ve really stumbled upon something amazing here. As my old man pointed out, it may be my German side asserting itself, but I’ve always been a sucker for precision engineering and beautiful industrial design (it’s why I’m an Apple guy!). The photos they have of this machine are just amazing.

This is the general data from their site:

• Two-head trimming system
• Four or eight-head rotating disk brushing system
• front size minimal 180 x 89 x 12 mm up to maximal 3000 x 650 x 30 mm
• front shape retangular with automatic detection of size and thickness without set-up times
• Processing time CBS 3800-4 with four head cleaning unit approx. 1600 parts/8h with an average size of 300 x 400 mm
• Processing time CBS 3800-8 with eight head cleaning unit approx. 1600 parts/8h with an average size of 300 x 400 mm
• maximum weight of the panel 20 Kg
• easy handling
• Machine length 3800 mm, width 1500 mm, height 2000 mm
• Machine frame height 960 mm ± 25 mm
• Machine weight 1500 kg
• data connection 400V / 10 KW / 6 Bar

Computer science is where my heart is, but I have to say engineers get to play with some pretty amazing toys! They even have a YouTube video demonstrating its automated operation, it looks like something from a movie!

I was not paid for this post, though if they want to give me a factory tour and a ticket to Germany to get there, I’d be more than happy to disclose it here and accept such a gift ;).

This graphic by 夜宵 on Pixiv is what I assume listening to the SBS Radio PopAsia station I learned about at SMASH! (photos coming soon, I promise!) must be like, given Firefox blocked the site for me on the grounds it was an "attack page"!

A subtle dig at Asian music, perhaps?

Browsing the site this afternoon for a change of pace while we frantically get this house cleaned for our next inspection (fun times in rentland!), I was told:

This web page at sbs.com.au has been reported as an attack page and has been blocked based on your security preferences. Attack pages try to install programs that steal private information, use your computer to attack others, or damage your system. Some attack pages intentionally distribute harmful software, but many are compromised without the knowledge or permission of their owners.

This sure didn't sound (hah) like the site of my nation's "National Multicultural Broadcaster", so I clicked "Why was this page blocked?". Under the heading "What happened when Google visited this site?":

Of the 2 pages that we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 1 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time that Google visited this site was on 2011-07-16, and the last time that suspicious content was found on this site was on 2011-07-16.

Malicious software is hosted on 1 domain(s), including tecnoprosnc.cu.cc/.

1 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including tppkuban.ru/.

This site was hosted on 2 network(s) including AS9667 (HOSTWORKS), AS17477 (MCT).

Using "(s)" means the developer is lazy

So if I'm interpreting the Googlese properly, the site itself wasn't malicious, but it contained a link to a site that hosted malware.

The little but loud conspiracy nutjob in me thinks the timing is awfully convenient, at least for the perpetrators. Step one, get a site advertised at a convention to people with generally higher than average disposable incomes and/or younger people who may not be as serious about patching their systems. Step two, get their machines to download malicious content. Step three, profit! It's like convention social engineering!

In any case, it can't have been good publicity for the fledgling Asian pop music station to be targeted, 24 hours after they were advertised and played non-stop at SMASH. Here's hoping they can get their site off Google's blacklist before too many people are turned off the service.

The site could have had a code injection attack levelled against it, or I'm assuming more likely is someone left a comment pointing to a malicious site. This has happened to Rubenerd.com several times since 2004, its an honest enough mistake to make to let these kind of comments get through.

Blacklisting sites is but one of the examples of just how much power Google wields, and how much trust we put in them that they'll do the Right Thing™. As a publicly listed company they determine how much more than half of what the English speaking world ends up seeing.

Update, 20:00 AEST

The site seems to be back to normal again, as far as I can tell.

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What do I need to know when driving in Malaysia for the first time? | Men's Health Singapore

Funny that people in Singapore think Malaysia is big ;)

(categories: funny malaysia singapore)

Ravenclaw + sorting-hat.com +

I'm allegedly from this house, having done several quizzes. I gave up on Harry Potter after the Order of The Phoenix was such a watered down disappointment, but still.

(categories: harrypotter books)

How I currently feel… on Twitpic

Just… wow.

(categories: anime bakemonogatari twitpic twitter)

Alpine and Gmail

"After looking through several websites on configuring Alpine, here is how I got it to work with Gmail via IMAP"

(categories: alpine email howto guide osx)

Alpine Technical Notes: Building and Installation

Now just need to figure out how to import Thunderbird/Mozilla mail into it, or if it's even possible.

(categories: alpine linux bsd software terminal)

Student homes away from home with 'all the mod cons' | UTS News Room

Looks pretty fancy!

(categories: studies sydney australia uts)

TODAYonline | Sports | Thorpedo targets Singapore Sports School

It's an absolute non-story, just shared because I didn't realise anyone outside Australia knew who he was.

(categories: sport singapore news)

The NERD tree – A tree explorer plugin for navigating the filesystem : vim online

"The NERD tree allows you to explore your filesystem and to open files and directories. It presents the filesystem to you in the form of a tree which you manipulate with the keyboard and/or mouse. It also allows you to perform
simple filesystem operations."

(categories: programming vim linux bsd plugins editors)

BBC News – Austrian driver's religious headgear strains credulity

Nicely done! "An Austrian atheist has won the right to be shown on his driving-licence photo wearing a pasta strainer as religious headgear."

(categories: funny religion atheism austria europe news)

Having just come back exhausted from it, I decided to post my photos from SMASH! tomorrow, and to write a brief post of the day. To celebrate the fact my friends are off to see the last Harry Potter tonight, I did this quiz.

I gave up on Harry Potter after I found The Order of The Phoenix to be a long winded, watered down disappointment (in my opinion), but I can live with Ravenclaw!

One of the questions I had as a kid was whether I could be a renegade, or be in my own house. Why should I have to conform to one in particular? Needless to say, nobody thought it was a good idea.