That is a pretty sweet name for an anti-constipation tea.
What is “warm” ginger, and how is it different from regular ginger?
You keep using that word…
Are these strawberries fresh, or are they frozen? Or were they fresh when they were frozen? Hint: “frozen” is not an attribute with positive connotations when applied to food, so maybe just don’t put that there, and buy fresh strawberries instead of… whatever it is you are doing now.
Homegroup encountered an error.
This error message has been kicking my ass today. It turns out I had two problems:
- The homegroup was created by a computer that is no longer on my network. Solution: Leave it form all machines, and create a new homegroup.
- IPv6 needs to be enabled. For some reason, homegroups only work over IPv6. Solution: Enable IPv6, and welcome to the future.
Edit: I spoke too soon. Still cannot make two computers talk to each other. I am going to have to revert to good old sneakernet and a USB drive.
How programmers multiply
This afternoon, a discussion about base64 strings prompted the question “How much is 64^2?”. I didn’t have a calculator in hand, and I figured I should be able to calculate 64*64 in my head. The thought process went something like this:
64 is 256/4, and I know by heart that 256 = 2^8, and 4 = 2^2, thus 64 = 2^(8-2) = 2^6.
By the same method, 2^6 * 2^6 = 2^(6+6) = 2^12.
I have memorized a few more powers of two besides 256, and the easiest to remember is 2^10 = 1024.
2^12 = 2^10 * 2^2, so the answer I’m looking for is 1024 * 4 = 4096.
64^2 = 4096. Easy to do in your head when you know arithmetic (or you’ve worked too much on CPUs that don’t have MUL or DIV operators).
This is my emergency travel kit.
Some days, you have to leave the house on short notice, and you’re going to stay somewhere overnight, because there is a game jam in the city, or you’re going to the ER, or an earthquake rocks your continental shelf. Other days, you have to take a flight to Europe that ends up taking 3 days, during which all you have is your carry-on luggage. For those days, I have this kit. It’s ready-packed in my bathroom, and I can grab it and just go, or drop it in my carry-on bag, and my worst-case experience just got so much better. An inventory, from left to right, top to bottom::
- Q-Tips (instructions say not to stick them in ears, but I’m a rebel)
- Small hotel bottle of shampoo
- Hand sanitizer, because other people are also at this convention.
- band-aids, especially compeed against blisters.
- medication against sore throats, headaches, allergies and colds.
- hotel-sized bottle of moisturizer, and a stick of lip balm.
- dentist-giftbag versions of toothbrush, toothpaste, floss pick and mouthwash.
- emery board, because I tear nails and the TSA are afraid of clippers.
- an IKEA pencil, for writing things down.
- contact lenses, because I always forget to pack them.
- A deodorant towelette for an emergency cat-wash.
- sleep mask, because I like to take naps at odd hours, especially on intercontinental flights.
- earplugs, because babies fly on planes, too, some people snore, and some co-working spaces are just too damn loud to get anything done.
- shaving kit, complete with tiny re-sealable tube of shaving cream
The key is size. The whole ensemble fits into a pocket of my hoodie, because every item in there is tiny, and is probably only good for one-time use. The idea isn’t to replace my usual toiletry kit, but to tide me over an unexpected day when I can’t get at it, because my luggage got lost, my bags are in the bowels of the plane, or I didn’t actually plan to stay a night. Many of the items are scrounged from hotels, or bought as a result of a specific inconvenience.
Do you have an emergency kit like this? Did I forget something? What are your essential travel items?
Target was all out of two-buck-chuck glasses, so we had to buy the all-purpose ones. They also didn’t stock any for Malbec or Chablis.
What is this even supposed to mean? Did some product strategist decide that 3D was a word that has no actual meaning, like ultra and organic and fresh? That it’s a feel-good term that you can put on anything, like TVs and sunglasses and toothpaste? No, Mr. Marketing Man. I am not buying this. I’m buying an arctic fresh toaster instead.
Android Wi-Fi problems
I set up a second Wi-Fi AP in our house, because the signal from the first one doesn’t reach my bedroom, and my Nexus S phone and the new Nexus 7 tablet need internet to make me happy. This was fraught with problems.
My AP is a disused 2wire HG27-1HG-B DSL router from the time I had AT&T internet at my old place. I plug it into the wall, disable DHCP and DNS to make it behave as a bridge and play nice with our existing network router. My netbook gets good quality internet from it. I toy with the idea of using the same SSID and password for both APs, and letting devices switch between them based on signal strength. That works for the netbook.
Alas, not so for the Android devices: They pair with the extremely weak signal of the first AP downstairs and refuse to talk to the 2wire AP at all. So for testing, I swap a letter to give it a slightly different name, and now I see that the phone and tablet are endlessly trying to connect, getting a connection for a fraction of a second, then starting over.
Now, this is very odd, because in my old home, the phone has been talking to this AP all the time, when it was still my DSL router for AT&T. I switch to WEP encryption, and suddenly, the androids can connect! We can’t have WEP encryption, though, so something is rotten and I need to find out what it is. I switch back to WPA2-PSK, and the old problem comes back. Then I decide to use the same SSID and password that I used at my old apartment, and voila, the androids connect with WPA2-PSK. What is this sorcery? Why is the name or passphrase of my SSID a factor in this at all?
Current situation is that we have two SSIDs in our house, and my mobile devices know both of them, but I have to manually switch to the strongest one based on which floor of the house I am on. This is by no means ideal, I tell you. I may have to convince my roommate that we must use a persian poem as the shared SSID for our network.