History of the Amiga, part 4

Ars Technica has just released it's 4th chapter in the Amiga history, read it here

What to call a |

- pipe
~ - tilde
& - ampersand
# - number sign, hash or pound
^ - caret
` - grave accent
! - In programming - "bang"
... - ellipsis
{ } - braces
< > - chevrons, angled brackets
( ) - parenthesis
[ ] - brackets

Ever wanted to live in an underground missile base?

Yes? Well than this is your chance. For only $1.5 million, you can be the proud owner of a genuine Titan ICBM Missile Base in central Washington.

Location: former Larsen Air Force Base complex 1A Titan ICBM facility, central Washington between Moses Lake and Ritzville. The complex consists of 16 underground buildings and measures about 57 acres. It includes 3 - 160' tall missile silos, 3 (4 story) equipment terminal buildings, 2 antenna silos, a 100' diameter control dome building and a 125' diameter power dome buidling.

Take an aerial view via Flash Earth.

Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn't it? Here's a screenshot of the eBay page, in case bidding has ended, and an aerial view.

I made my first nickle!

Long live Google Adsense! I just made my first nickle. And I'm not going to tell you how long it took me :P

Storing passwords online

I have a lot of passwords laying around, and an equal number of usernames to match them. Keeping track of all this data is far from trivial. I used to have a text-editor with the option of saving files encrypted. I stored both the text-editor and my passwords on a USB-stick and carried it everywhere. This worked fine, untill I lost my stick. I ahve no idea where I lost it, but up to this moment, none of my accounts seem to be compromised. I am keeping my fingers crossed. Anyway, something had to be done.

I thought it would be handy to store my password online somewhere. That way, all I needed was a working internet connection to access them. And as I only needed the passwords to access stuff online, this was not a problem. I started looking for a suitable tool.

Not long thereafter I came across a PHP script called 'Online Key Manager', OKM for short. It seems to be made just for me. It uses PHP/MySQL, is easy to install, and is simple to use. No fancy bling-bling, just a password managing tool.

After reading the security warning the author left behind...

PLEASE NOTE Storing passwords online can be a security risk!
If you don't know how to protect your stuff, don't use Online Key Manager!
You have been warned.

...I plunged ahead and installed OKM. I made sure all the security features where in place and to this day, all seems well.

Cool stereo picture effect

How simple this is. I could have thought of it myself :)

Take to pictures at the same time, but slighty offset from each other. Put the 2 images together in an animated gif, and voila, great 3d effect!

More samples here

HP retro calculator

The Hewlett-Packard calculators of the 70's and 80's still have a reputation unsurpassed to this day. The legendary HP-55, introduced in 1974, was the first affordable scientific, programmable(!) pocket calculator in the world. The HP-12c is arguably the most succesful calculator in history. Introduced in 1981, it is still in production today. And offcourse the HP-48 series can not be left unmentioned. It is the mile-stone for engineering calculators.

But that was all history. At some point HP lost it completely, and started making horribly designed models like the HP-33. I can not imagine anyone wanting to be seen with that in public. Public outcries like these to bring back the legendary models long went unheard by Hewlett-Packard. Untill recently that is. Because now the retro designed HP-35 is available directly from HP, and for only $59.99.