Tara: 'Your One-Stop Spot to Shop for Lots of New-Age and Occult Items.' Catchy. Giles: Think so? Tara: Uh huh. In a... hard to say sorta way.

'Sleeper'


Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


Consuela - Dec 21, 2007 6:54:39 am PST #3949 of 25497
We are Buffistas. This isn't our first apocalypse. -- Pix

Thank you, Tommyrot! I was trying to avoid consolidating my library, but clearly that is not possible.

Off to make the fix.


Sophia Brooks - Dec 21, 2007 7:56:05 am PST #3950 of 25497
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here

When I moved my stuff, it has somehow given three copies of each thing, and I am having to manually delete the dupes. My library was not very organized to begin with and was all over my computer. It has been very confusing.


Gudanov - Dec 21, 2007 9:32:19 am PST #3951 of 25497
Coding and Sleeping

If I had a bit more time, I'd write you a program to do that Wolfram. If you don't have one by Wednesday next week, I could probably write one in my dead time. Just a polling thread to check the directory, a UI to set up emails, email server, the directory to check etc.., a little save and load code, and a thread synchronization class.


Dana - Dec 21, 2007 11:06:30 am PST #3952 of 25497
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.

If I have an index page that includes another page with a server-side include, will a link on the index page point to a named anchor on the included page?


Jon B. - Dec 21, 2007 11:17:04 am PST #3953 of 25497
A turkey in every toilet -- only in America!

I think so, Dana. From the browser's point of view, there is no separate included file -- it's all on the index page -- so the anchored link will also appear to be on the index page.


Dana - Dec 21, 2007 11:23:59 am PST #3954 of 25497
I'm terrifically busy with my ennui.

Awesome. I'll give it a try.


tommyrot - Dec 22, 2007 6:07:37 am PST #3955 of 25497
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Stephen Fry on his new tech toy:

On a happier note, I have added to my collection of unnecessary but pleasing technological doo-dads. I have not spent any time in the bathroom with you yet, so I am very happy to report that Oral-B has come up with a mad new electric toothbrush. It is so over-engineered as almost to defy description. A base station, where sits and charges the toothbrush itself, transmits by radio to a receiving element. The receiver substation is a plastic cartouche complete with obligatory LCD screen called a SmartGuide (phrases compressed with UpperCaseLetters such as this are DeRigueur for today’s sad MarketingPerson), which gives a reading of how long you’ve brushed, and how long you’ve got to go in each of the quadrants of the mouth, according to “professional” brushing standards recommended by dentists. It also tells you the time and rewards you with a smiley face when you’re done. Sigh. I think I’m in love.

It is basically, of course, an electric toothbrush, a class of good that appeared to be in the doldrums a few years ago. They would sit mournfully gathering dust in locked cabinets in Boots, along with Philishaves and weird objects made by BaByliss - foot spas and ceramic hair rollers, that kind of thing. Recently, thanks to cheap, battery-operated models and the low cost of charging units and components, they have enjoyed something of a revival. With this model - the Oral-B®, Professional Care™ Triumph™ (with Wireless SmartGuide) Oral-B (”powered by Braun”) enters the luxury end of the market. I suppose, given the low cost of a basic model, the margins are so tight that it has to consider every possible way to “add value”. It is the same with shaver and razor manufacturers. The core technology has not changed for 50 years, so they have to find a way to dress up new products. Although all this wireless tosh is senseless and functionally meaningless, I love it. Brushing my teeth bores me to tears and anything - anything - that relieves the tedium of the procedure is good.

[link]

eta: I find it impossible to read this without hearing it in Stephen Fry's voice....


Gris - Dec 22, 2007 8:32:07 pm PST #3956 of 25497
Hey. New board.

I got my Kindle.

So far, it is pretty great, except that Sprint coverage in my house is basically nonexistant, so I haven't been able to play with the wireless features much. It is ridiculously easy to put books on there using USB, though it's not super-intuitive how to get the Amazon purchased files to your computer (by default, they get sent wirelessly, and the only way to download the actual files is through your Amazon Media Library, rather than just choosing "download" as an option at purchase). Once I figured that out, though, it's a simple copy-to-USB-drive to put them on the Kindle. Besides the books available from Amazon, manybooks.net has put their books in Kindle format, so there are lots of out-of-copyright books available for free. Neat!

Also tested the conversion feature on a long word document (a draft for a book a friend wrote) and all of AJ Hall's Lopiverse HP fics (which were compressed HTML files). Both conversions seemed to work perfectly, and it's free if you transfer by USB. The only annoying thing is that it puts my e-mail as the Author, instead of asking me the real author's name.

In terms of reading, I haven't had time to really sit and read it for long periods of time, so I can't comment on ergonomics yet. But the screen is beautiful. Really looks almost exactly like paper, with the ability to change font sizes and look up words on demand. It's pretty light - lighter than most hardcover books - but not as light as a paperback, so we'll see if that annoys me. Of course, the fact that it doesn't close if you put it down on a lap, etc, means I can read in ways outside of the norm, and I'm sure I'll be experimenting with that on my long car ride tomorrow.

ETA: I really can't get over this e-ink screen. Except for the fact that I SEE IT CHANGING, I would assume that every screen was a printed sticker on top of the screen. It's exactly like reading printed material. Just astonishing.


meara - Dec 22, 2007 9:48:52 pm PST #3957 of 25497

I saw a woman reading one in the Seattle airport this afternoon--she said she was loving it.


Kevin - Dec 22, 2007 11:46:01 pm PST #3958 of 25497
Never fall in love with somebody you actually love.

tommyrot, I just read that entire thing in Stephen Fry voice, then saw the end of your post. Hee!