Advogato blog for gregorrothfuss

the services economy has barely begun

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:07:06 GMT

There are over 2 billion literate, mobile phone subscribers in the developing world, many living on less than $5 a day. Corporations pay people to accomplish millions of simple text-based tasks.txteagle enables these tasks to be completed via text message by ordinary people around the globe.

between harnessing slacker energy and txteagle, we have not even scratched the surface of outsourcing. if you are an anti-outsourcing douchetard, it is time to dig in your heels. you won't like the future.

IC 5067

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 02:05:53 GMT

in may 2009, i spent a night at kitt peak national observatory, the largest on the planet, to take a picture of IC 5067. IC 5067, also known as the pelican nebula, is 2000 light years away on our spiral arm of the galaxy, the orion arm. it is approximately 15 light years across, and an active region of star formation.

the picture was taken on a 0.5m telescope with a SBIG STL 6303E CCD camera, cooled to -15C. exposure time was 40 minutes each for red, green, blue and 2 hours for luminance.

manhattan vs zurich

Sat, 4 Jul 2009 18:03:55 GMT

having recently come back from zurich, i was curious how manhattan and zurich compare, size-wize. it turns out manhattan is roughly the same size as zurich, but has 1.6M inhabitants, while zurich has 380k.

joost unmaintained

Sun, 1 Jun 2008 05:07:02 GMT

looks like a lot of people i know wasted a couple years of their life with the venice project. the app is unusable on a 30 inch screen for me. oh well.

where is sarah?

Mon, 12 May 2008 02:06:16 GMT

today i checked my deserted blog, feeling a bit guilty after a friend had told me that i have effectively vanished behind the google cone of silence. and what do i see in the logs?

5 days, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
5 days, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
5 days, 3 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
5 days ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 21 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 18 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 15 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 12 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days, 3 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
4 days ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 21 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 18 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 15 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 12 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 days ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 21 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 18 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 15 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 12 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days, 3 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
2 days ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 21 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 18 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 15 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 12 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 9 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 6 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day, 3 hours ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
1 day ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
21 hours, 46 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
18 hours, 46 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
15 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
12 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
9 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
6 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
3 hours, 45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'
45 minutes ago 	209.85.238.3 	Search: query for 'sarah m. byers'

someone* must be really interested in sarah's whereabouts! if you haven't heard, sarah is currently traveling in the stans for work. when internet connectivity allows, she is posting awesome pictures. here is a sampler:

* "someone" indeed. here's why.

OpenOffice / NeoOffice fail at life

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:05:31 GMT

if you ever tried to use OpenOffice or NeoOffice to create a presentation with images and timed animations (bare-bones, standard stuff, in other words), do yourself a favor and delete those useless applications from your machine. you'll thank me. how those clowns can ship software that randomly replaces your images with the dreaded 'broken image' image, or that forgets about the animations it is supposed to show, and gives you a blank slide instead, is beyond me. with desktop "productivity" applications this bad, no wonder people are defecting to online.

event of a lifetime

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 21:04:33 GMT

how sad a life you have to lead if some stupid SUV sale for an ailing car manufacturer that won't see the next decade is "the event of a lifetime"?

validating kml

Sat, 2 Jun 2007 05:05:15 GMT

i recently checked in KML support for the feedvalidator. with the number of KML files out there, it was time. let me know how it works for you.

escaping lock-in

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 01:05:58 GMT

about a decade ago, i set up a yahoo email account as a spam catcher, and have used it for all sorts of registrations over the years. the time had come to finally ditch that account, between the pathetic spam filtering and the annoying user interface, but how to get all the emails i still cared about out without having to pay ransom? freepops to the rescue.

i find it remarkable that yahoo is so insecure about their product that they feel the need to lock-in users. in contrast, the superior gmail offers free pop access, so there is no lock-in. it is about time the industry holds yahoo to task over this nonsense.

pork

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 01:05:58 GMT

in celebration of the new annotated google maps, i have created two maps that show your taxes at work:

the top recipient of EU CAP farm subsidies in the UK got $700 million, the top recipient of USDA farm subsidies in the US got $541 million.