http://www.rtfa.net read the fucking article Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:56:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en As an aspiring electronics geek, I am still collecting cool tools and techniques for my projects. While working on a weekend project, I stumbled upon a treasure trove containing meticulous (almost obsessively complete) advice regarding soldering and circuit board design. These videos were the perfect addition to my ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/12/10/tangent-tutorials This first video is "Hedgehog in the Fog". An award-winning animation feature by Yuri Norshtein. Winner of the following awards: - Outstanding Film of the Year (London UK 1977) - Winner of 2nd Prize (Sydney Australia 1978) - Winner of 3rd Prize (Chicago USA 1977) - Tokyo All time animation best 150 in Japan and ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/12/09/soyuzmultfilm Amid the hoopla over Virgin Galactic’s commercial space ship tourism, and considering proof of water on the Moon, the thing that’s on everyone’s mind is obviously the Moon Colony. I need to tell you something: Lunar Internet ping times are going to be very slow – possibly longer than ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/12/08/attention-lunar-colonists-expect-3000ms-ping-times-when-using-lunar-internet On the evening of August 4th 2009, some crazy, self-absorbed, adolescent-brained asshole (who happened to be 48 years old) walked into a fitness center in Pittsburgh, PA and started shooting randomly. All told, he killed at least three people beside himself. ...a moment of silence for those who were murdered... The ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/08/05/the-mad-mans-trivial-cipher Wow, it took me forever to find this freaking phone number! I figure other people are probably looking for it too, so here you go: 1-866-2-GOOGLE is the phone number for Google's adwords support. http://www.rtfa.net/2009/08/03/google-adwords-phone-number-1-866-2-google I was reading a finance blog today and came across this gem: Consider this fact, the first stimulus package has an interest rate of $100,000,000 per day The blog is run by Credit Bureau Experts, which is a company that does credit repair. http://www.rtfa.net/2009/07/08/100-million-per-day-for-interest Yes, dear reader: you did read the headline correctly. The woman who was nearly vice president has quit her elected position without using the word "resigned" or even acknowledging that she is walking out on the people who elected her. In fact, the entire "letter" is couched in ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/07/03/sarah-palin-quits-15-years-before-end-of-term-mocks-quitters-as-dead-fish Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you: "The next stop along the slippery slope." One of the first things to strike me when the United States began its terrorism craze was, "great - now that terrorism is double-super-illegal, we need to worry about what actions are defined as terrorism." ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/06/22/dod-training-manual-protests-are-low-level-terrorism Okay - this is totally hilarious: politician makes dumb remark on twitter, entire country responds (also on twitter). My contribution: @petehoekstra I got a little sunburned today. Now I know what Chernobyl must have been like. I think the term for this is "LMAO-schadenfreude." RTFA: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/twitter... Earlier today, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) put up ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/06/18/twitter-users-heckle-hoekstra-en-masse Haha! Jim Henson apparently made proto-muppet commercials for a coffee company, and they are AMAZINGLY violent. A young kermit (Wilkins) keeps threatening or murdering Wontkins, all because Wontkins is unwilling to try this brand of coffee. Yes murder, including gangland-style execution by a disembodied hand, by cannon, ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/06/17/jim-hensons-muppet-ultraviolence-the-wilkins-coffee-era RTFA: http://www.monsieurcok.com/film_monsieurcok.html I am amazed by this film; it has it all. The technique is out of this world, the humor is extremely dark, and the story is great. If you know what's good for you, you'll watch it at the source. If you are too lazy for ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/06/15/monsieur-cok-le-film This is a fun cat-and-mouse story about the evolution of the Conficker worm, and the people who are trying to understand it. The story ominously concludes that while Conficker hasn't done much that is publicly visible, there are possibly millions of zombie computers lying in wait. RTFA: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227121.500... If every Windows ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/06/13/the-inside-story-of-the-conficker-worm Ah ... everyone loves a statistical map, and this collection takes the cake! A Kansas State University geography PhD student, Tom Vought, created density maps of the seven deadly sins across the US. The operationalizations of some of these constructs are unquestionably up for debate, but this is a totally ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/05/30/sin-zen-frequency-of-7-deadly-sins-across-the-us I am by no means a physicist and would appreciate comments from more educated people. I was just reading an article in Discover Magazine about the kilogram standard. If you have not heard of the kilogram standard, it's a little piece of metal sitting in a vault, which ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/05/26/joule-standard-in-regards-to-mass I just noticed today that you can change your language settings in google to "hacker". It switches the language to 3L337 speak. For example: The word "results" now looks like R35|_|17z... is this an april fool's joke? http://www.rtfa.net/2009/04/30/googles-hacker-language-preference This is finally the "Bretton Woods III" talk, and it's interesting what sorts of things have developed, among them, the apparent "new world order" that people have been talking about for so long. It will probably take a little while to sort through everything that happened, but it's clear ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/04/09/gordon-brown-g20-new-world-order-is-emerging Google Chrome... I use OS X, so I can't say much for it, but there are a bunch of people out there who can, and the following entry is a really compelling explanation for how this fits with Google's overall strategy. I tend to agree with this. RTFA: http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2008/09/15/TheSi... even ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/03/23/the-significance-of-google-chrome Everyone loves a new dinosaur. Especially scary little ones that could hide under your bed and chomp off your digits one-by-one. Take that, boogy man! RTFA: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/03/16/tech... [caption id="attachment_1800" align="aligncenter" width="421" caption="Model of the Newly Discovered Hesperonychus Elizabethae"][/caption] It had razor sharp claws and its teeth may have been the terror ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/03/16/alberta-researchers-discover-mini-meat-eating-dinosaur Hmmm... I definitely remember hearing this "go to college and you will earn one million dollars more than if you don't" thing. Well, it shouldn't surprise anyone, but it looks like that's just a big lie. Looking at the median income data, it's more like $730k instead ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/03/13/student-loan-bubble-the-lifetime-earnings-myth-part-ii-college-grads-will-earn-under-732576-more-than-high-school-grads You see? Ahhhh yeah! RTFA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qPYb2lqi84 A video from the reunion show at Hampton Coliseum. This one is of First Tube in its entirety. What an amazing show. Unbelievable setlist from a well practiced band. For all of you who were not there, this is a taste of what went down ... http://www.rtfa.net/2009/03/09/phish-hampton-030609-first-tube-full-version