Recent submissions

Comment · 6 months ago
The technique I've used to fill a balloon with rice:

- Take a small plastic drinks bottle.

- Cut the bottom half off to make it like a funnel.

- Remove the lid, and stretch a balloon over the neck.

- Invert the half bottle so the balloon over the bottle-neck is hanging underneath.

- When you tip some rice into the funnel, only a few grains will fall into the uninflated balloon.

- Now put your mouth/cheeks against the open end of the bottle/funnel and blow. This will partially inflate the balloon, and all the rice will fall in. Done!

Comment · 6 months ago
If a balloon is made of a thin neck and a round body, you're chopping the neck off near the bottom of the neck. You're then left with a round rubber pouch for the contents (rice). Use two balloons in opposite directions so the closed end of the outer layer covers the opening of the inner layer.

Great for juggling balls - nice weight and very grippy.

Comment · 7 months ago
I helped administer the CheckPoint commercial version of this before 2010 in a large enterprise (Checkpoint Integrity it was badged as). Really good product though we did have some bugs with it - I do remember the developers from Israel got involved and were very capable.

It mostly worked exactly as you would want a desktop firewall to, and integrated nicely with Cisco VPN tech, so you could ensure Integrity was operating correctly before fully opening up the tunnel for access to corporate assets.

Comment · 7 months ago
Depends what you mean by Dark side!

In traditional definitions, Far side = Dark side

If, when you say Dark side, you mean the side not receiving sunlight, then you're using a less informed, though more literal, definition of 'dark'.

Comment · 7 months ago
I think we call it "dark" because the term was coined when the English language was used in a more poetic sense - at least it seems like that to 21st century-me. "Dark" = "it has not been made visible to us".

I've just been reading Narnia stories to my son and lots of the language seems dated and initially confusing but very descriptive and more poetic. Even though that was just in the mid-20th century.

Comment · 7 months ago
"Dark side" is used to describe the part we never see from earth's vantage point, not a part that gets no light from the sun. Definitely confusing for the uninitiated though.
Comment · 8 months ago
Oh yes - run Frigate on a mini PC or home server. It runs best in Docker. And it should work with any cameras that support RTSP and provide H.264 video.

I'm not affiliated btw, but I found the instructions really useful - they walk you through an install of Debian 13 (small version of the OS with minimal components), set up low maintenance options (auto updates etc.), install Docker & Frigate, and set up your cameras for best performance depending on your needs.

Keep everything local (if you want). I also integrate with HomeAssistant and expose that through a free CloudFlare Tunnel for access when away from home.

CloudFlare tunnels by the way - these are a great solution to accessing home-network resources without punching holes / port-forwarding etc. because all the access is outward from the home network, then an authentication layer added by CloudFlare.

Comment · 8 months ago
You can also stream Reolink video to a Frigate box (free software) and access that from wherever.

No cloud involved if you run your own VPN.

Or even better, _just a little_ cloud involved if you expose through Cloudflare tunnel for just you and whoever else needs to access it.

Comment · 1 year ago
If you're plotting primes, all the coordinates where you're not plotting are non-prime - so every 2nd coordinate will be blank. As will every 3rd and every 4th, 5th, 10th, 11th. etc etc.

Surely that's where the pattern comes from.

Comment · 7 years ago
I think relying on the internet to have a trust mechanism built in is a bit like relying on our road-builders to ensure our vehicles are safe.

While the average internet user will just trust the sites and apps they use, there's nothing stopping those who are able from designing/building/using/sharing technology which they can reasonably trust. The building blocks are there (crypto / networking libraries etc.).

When open source software gets outlawed, I'll be worried.

Comment · 7 years ago
I drop photos (from whatever device) into a folder on my NAS and they get automatically sanitized of EXIF data, and resized/bordered ready for posting to the internet.

It's simply a cron & bash script on a server that monitors one NAS folder, then drops the output into a second folder where I can pick them up and use them.

It uses ImageMagick & Exiftool.

Comment · 7 years ago
Using kdenlive for video editing on Linux has served has a good reminder many times to save often.

Cloud and mobile apps are often very good at taking this task away from a user, but it's worth remembering to take responsibility for saving/backing up files that have value.

Even clouds can get blown away some times.

Comment · 7 years ago
The interactive guide on that page is an effective way to visualise the components in relation to the attacks.

Does anyone know what this would have been built with?

Comment · 7 years ago
Exactly what I was thinking.

I'd expect it to be quite high (deaths per TWh) while the technology is new or advancing fast, both because the energy production will be low, and because there must be more risk in newer industrial-scale technologies.

Deaths per TWh in Offshore wind vs Onshore wind production would be interesting to see too.

Comment · 7 years ago
Wow, this comment just got me thinking. If I've got good at taking well composed photos, according to common photography techniques, might they have less of that time-machine, memory-jogging quality? I'd like to have both - maybe I need two sets for photos!

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