Battery Charged or Not
The problem: It’s 3am and the wireless mouse has run out of juice. Scrounging through the battery drawer shows 13 double-A’s, but none of them have a charge. Maybe they were charged at some point, but rechargeable batteries don’t hold their charge if they aren’t being used.
All rechargeable battery manufacturers love to boast about their product’s current capacity (mAh). But there is a dirty little secret that they don’t want you to hear: self-discharge rate. Simply put: a fully charged NiCd of NiMH cell will gradually lose its stored energy over time. Technical papers I have researched typically put the self-discharge rate at 10-20% per month for NiCd cells, and 20-30% per month for NiMH cells. This kind of self-discharge rate is usually acceptable in applications such as digital cameras. via: Jeff
The solution: A social website for keeping track of:
- how many batteries you have charged
- which brands you use
- which devices used charged batteries
- when you last changed the batteries
- Collect stats will recommend the best batteries available in your area
- Monetized by referrer micropayments from all the battery sales
It can even have a local component for finding people who have the same interest in rechargeable batteries as you!
Delicious Links – 20 links – geek, twitter, sleephacks, design, programming
This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.
Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.
- [CODE] The Years of Experience Myth, codinghorror.com
- It’s more important to hire smart people who get things done than masters of the domain
- [COMMUNITY] 4 Reasons You Should Encourage, Foster and Harness Dissent on Your Blog, problogger.net
- Reasons against censoring dissenters
- [COPYRIGHT] The Pirates Can’t Be Stopped, portfolio.com, via:techcrunch.com
- An interview with the kid who hacked Media Defender copyright police.
- [GEEK] 10 Breeds of PC User Identified and Explained, anywired.com
- This was great. I’m a bit of 5, 7, and 9 with maybe a dash of 10.
- [GEEK] George Lucas Will Sell Your Dreams For Candy, io9.com
- Star Wars merchandising that never was. High quality artwork.
- [GOOGLE] How 404 pages work in Google Toolbar Beta 5, mattcutts.com
- The new Google Toolbar won’t display your custom 404 page if it’s less than 512 bytes long.
- [HIRING] The Naive Approach to Hiring People, weblog.raganwald.com
- Really excellent read by raganwald on why interviewing candidates is a Bayesian filtering problem instead of a if-then problem.
- [JAVASCRIPT] XPath Overnight, ejohn.org, via:lazycoder.com
- XPath is taking over DOM traversal in javascript libraries.
- [LIFEHACKS] I Was Programmed by Tetris to be a Better Person, io9.com
- The 7 habits of highly effective form tetris players
- [MOVIES] Netflix on the PS3 or Xbox 360 Could Be a Killer App, parislemon.com
- Much agreement that this is too good to be true. If this happened it would kill the movie industry overnight.
- [PIPES] Our one year anniversary, blog.pipes.yahoo.com
- Yahoo Pipes is one year old. They have a list of tutorials
- [PIRACY] Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads, technology.timesonline.co.uk, via:l33t.reddit.com
- The UK is setting up a “three strikes” rule where pirates could be banned from having internet access.
- [SLEEPHACKS] Ask YC : How many hours do you sleep in average ?, news.ycombinator.com
- Good discussion about sleeping
- [SLEEPHACKS] Relax Like A Pro: 5 Steps to Hacking Your Sleep, fourhourworkweek.com
- Some things I haven’t heard before
- [SOCIALSOFTWARE] The Complexity of the Web 2.0 World, hq.andrewshuttleworth.com, via:l33t.reddit.com
- A crazy look at what ubiquitous computing really means.
- [TWITTER] Dear LazyWeb, dearlazy.com, via:blog.twitter.com
- A questions and answers interface using Twitter as the backbone
- [TWITTER] Twitter-proxy: Any Interest?, assetbar.wordpress.com, via:l33t.reddit.com
- A look at why Twitter has such scaling issues.
- [URLS] I CAN HAZ dot COM, icanhaz.com, via:lifehacker.com
- new url shortner
- [WEBDESIGN] 10 Principles Of Effective Web Design, smashingmagazine.com
- Well researched look at what makes for effective web design
- [WEBDESIGN] Interface Screencast #1: The WordPress Dashboard, binarybonsai.com, via:wank.wordpress.com
- Screencast of the (old) WordPress dashboard, and why it sucks. A little on the long side at 30min
- Powered by Delicious Links Pro
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.
- Digest for December 2007 and January 2008
- Book Review: Halting State by Charles Stross
- If you’re a programmer/gamer geek and looking for a gripping book that you won’t be able to put down then look no further than Halting State.
- The Canary in the Coal Mine of Open Source Code Re-use
- Don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s one of those things that’s much easier to say then it is to do, particularly when it comes to programming. Programmers suffer from a horrible mental disease called Not Invented Here Syndrome (it’s in the DSM — check if you don’t believe me). We…
- Book Review: Everyware by Adam Greenfield
- Adam Greenfield is a designer and one of the guys behind Boxes and Arrows. He’s also the guy who coined the term “moblogging” for blogging from your cellphone. He’s got a knack for inventing terms because “everyware” is such a simpler name than unicomp or “ubiquitous…
- Delicious Links – 20 links – programming, community, development, twitter, lisp
- programming, community, development, twitter, lisp
This Week at IDT Labs
IDT Labs is where I announce new software I’m working on.
- [GREASEMONKEY] The Pirate Bay + Rotten Tomatoes = Crazy Delicious
This script will create links to Rotten Tomatoes while browsing the Pirate Bay.
Tags: career, design, filesharing, geek, lifehacks, piracy, programming, sleephacks, twitter, web2.0
Best of Feeds – 20 links – geek, movies, blogging, programming, xbox360
RSS feeds are like cookies (that are good enough for me). Best of Feeds is a weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet this week. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together on Saturdays. I don’t blog on the weekend so read these links instead.Subscribe to //engtech to see this every week (or get it by email).
- [CODE] DNA seen through the eyes of a coder
- High geek alert on this one. Not for non-programmers.
- (ds9a.nl 479 33 11)
- [XBOX360] TVersity
- Another program for streaming divx to xbox360
- (tversity.com 429 100 16)
- [BLOGGING] 7 Types of Blog Posts Which Always Seem to Get Links and Traffic
- might be a good idea to give one of these a try when the blog well is dry
- (problogger.net 289 8)
- [CODE] Choosing a Distributed Version Control System
- And here I am wishing we could move to subversion of cvs/rcs
- (dribin.org 226)
- [CODE] The Cults of Programming
- where do you fit in?
- (mikeash.com 57 3 2)
- [BROWSER] How to make an Internet Explorer voodoo doll
- so you can stick pins in it when IE drives you crazy
- (chigarden.com 47 1)
- [XBOX360] Stream video to Xbox 360 with Winamp Remote and Windows Media Player
- Streaming DivX to XBOX360
- (paininthetech.com 45 3 7)
- [PRESENTATIONS] HTML Slidy
- Framework for doing presentations in HTML instead of powerpoint.
- (w3.org 42 2)
- [FATBLOGGING] Weight Loss: New Year’s weight loss hacks
- A few tips from lifehacker
- (lifehacker.com 33 40 2)
- [MOVIES] Chart Shows Most Post-Apocalyptic Movie Of All Time
- The most post-apocalyptic movie award goes to…
- (io9.com 15)
- [WORDS] The trashing of zen: a rant
- On the dilution of the word Zen
- (scottberkun.com 7 5)
- [BLOG] How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Learned to Love the Blog: Goodbye Dead Trees!
- I’ve used that title before. Print reporter on switching to online publishing only.
- (kara.allthingsd.com 7 27)
- [MOVIES] 15 Movies To Watch (Or Avoid) This Year
- More geek movies to look forward to in 2008
- (io9.com 6 6 8)
- [RSS] New Year’s Resolution: Keeping Head Above Water With RSS Feeds
- Tips for managing too many RSS feeds
- (smoothspan.wordpress.com 4)
- [BLOGGING] Why It Is Better To Network With Non Probloggers
- You can build a bigger relationship with “smaller” bloggers
- (bloggingmix.com 2 3)
- [SOCIAL] Making Social Software for Real People
- quote: The reward must be in the using of the thing.
- (web1979.com 2)
- [RAILS] TechCrunch Comments About Zed Shaw
- Such a great followup to Zed Shaw’s rant
- (gilesbowkett.blogspot.com)
- [GAMERS] The first and last Portal craft of ’08: Custom Companion Cube tissue box cover
- Companion cube, I love you.
- (destructoid.com)
- [MOVIES] Ten Most Anticipated Geek Films of 2008
- To look forward to
- (bigtmac68.wordpress.com 7)
- [COPYRIGHT] The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality
- Anecdote by David Pogue on how the latest generation sees nothing wrong with copying
- (nytimes.com 41)
Legend
- saves – number of people who bookmarked on http://del.icio.us
- inbound links – number of blogs who linked to it (max 100)
- diggs – number of people who dugg on http://digg.com
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
- Book Review: Everything Bad is Good for You by Steven Johnson
- The thesis behind the book is simple: if you look at the popular media culture over time it is becoming more and more complex. There have always been avant garde examples that wove complex stories but over time the same techniques are used in mainstream pop culture. IE: It is becoming common place…
- Fat Blogging 101 – Weight Loss Tips
- 21 tips for losing weight in the New Year
- Best of Feeds – 14 links – security, gmail, google, testing, dns
- gmail, google, security
This Week at IDT Labs
- [WORDPRESS] Category Resizer v1.0
- WordPress Category Resizer 2008/01/02 – v1.0 – BUGFIX: newer versions of WordPress.com broke this script – BUGFIX: will run on any WordPress install, not just WordPress.com – BUGFIX: now works when you have less than three categories – added automatic update check – Tested with WordPress.com…
- [WORDPRESS] Comment Ninja v0.5
- Comment Ninja v0.5 2008/01/02 – 0.5 don’t display comment ninja in mass-edit mode, since it doesn’t work on that mode wordpress.com added avatars to the comment display and they were being sent in emails on multi-author blogs it grays out the comments you can’t edit IDT Labs is a…
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Best of Feeds – 7 links – geek, humor, funny, games, windows
RSS feeds are like cookies (that are good enough for me). Best of Feeds is a weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet this week. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together on Saturdays. I don’t blog on the weekend so read these links instead.Subscribe to //engtech to see this every week (or get it by email).
- [CODE] The Programmer Dress Code
- free as in beard
- (codethinked.com 214 35 1224)
- [CATS] Wake up Cat
- Honestly, this is how I start every day.
- (youtube.com 148 100 18)
- [GAMERS] Top 6 Bizarre Online Gaming Incidents
- virtual viruses, virtual attacks and real life attacks… the dark side of mpporgs
- (dailybits.com 31 14 185)
- [REDDIT] spreddit: help spread reddit
- All of the reddit logos! Thanks, http://webomatica.com
- (s3.amazonaws.com 7 8)
- [HUMOR] Stay At Home Servers
- Helping children understand Windows Home Server
- (stayathomeserver.com 5 25)
- [MUSIC] Playlist Shame
- The side effect of sharing what you’re listening to
- (stepto.com)
- [DESIGN] 77 Design Gifts Under $77
- The Core 77 xmas list from last year
- (core77.com)
Legend
- saves – number of people who bookmarked on http://del.icio.us
- inbound links – number of blogs who linked to it (max 100)
- diggs – number of people who dugg on http://digg.com
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
- Why Open Source Software Sucks – Software Simplicity Isn’t Simple
- There are a few “internet rockstars” in programming circles, and most programmers who read blogs will have heard of Joel Spolsky (one of the few people who writes entertaining tech books) and 37signals (the guys who made Ruby on Rails). The guys at 37signals recently wrote a post about how…
- Getting Started with Ruby on Rails – Week 3 – Testing
- I’ve fallen for the hype and started using Ruby on Rails for building database driven web applications. You can follow along with my weekly experience discovering gotchas with Ruby on Rails.
- Best of Feeds – 11 links – facebook, blogging, google, reader, stupidity
- facebook, blogging, google, reader, stupidity
Comments Off on Best of Feeds – 7 links – geek, humor, funny, games, windows
Best of Feeds – 13 links – geek, marketing, blogging, software
RSS feeds are like cookies (that are good enough for me). Best of Feeds is a weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet this week. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together on Saturdays. I don’t blog on the weekend so read these links instead.Subscribe to //engtech to see this every week (or get it by email).
- [COFFEE] Coffee Drinks Illustrated
- Infographic showing how fancy coffees are made.
- (lokeshdhakar.com 1449 100 1266)
- [GEEK] The Nerd Handbook
- Rands is so on point with this one.
- (randsinrepose.com 1385 100 2756)
- [GEEK] Real Geek Heart Beats in Xkcd’s Stick Figures
- Wired article on XKCD
- (wired.com 178 56 )
- [CODE] How to demo software
- Joel Spolsky gives tips he learned from the Fogbugz world demos.
- (joelonsoftware.com 177 26)
- [MYSPACE] Adults Impersonate Teen on MySpace and Leads to Tragedy
- Horrifying story.
- (stcharlesjournal.stltoday.com 120 100 )
- [INTERNET] How to become famous on the Internet
- (online.wsj.com 35 8 638)
- [FACEBOOK] Joyent: Facebook Developer Program
- Free web hosting for Facebook application development
- (joyent.com 19 28 4)
- [BLOGGING] 25 Headline Formulas That Have Plagued and Blessed Web 2.0
- The secret is in the titles, and this is a good cheatsheet to common title formulas.
- (skelliewag.org 11 5 17)
- [BLOGGING] What Causes Subscribers to Read Your Blog’s Feed?
- It’s one thing to get them to subscribe, an entirely different battle to get them to read.
- (dailyblogtips.com 9 8 37)
- [TSHIRTS] Lists: 65 T-shirt Blogs
- That’s a lot o’ blogs.
- (hideyourarms.com 6 4 7)
- [BLOGGING] Hit Scrapers Where It Hurts: Adsense
- People stealing your content? Get their AdSense account revoked.
- (dailyblogtips.com 4 9 8)
- [WEIGHTLOSS] 101 thoughts on losing 100 pounds
- some good advice in there
- (bripblap.com)
- [TECH] Cloud Computing in Someone Else’s Cloud: The Future
- The future of servers will be all web apps running on Amazon/IBM/Sun data centers.
- (smoothspan.wordpress.com)
Legend
- saves – number of people who bookmarked on http://del.icio.us
- inbound links – number of blogs who linked to it (max 100)
- diggs – number of people who dugg on http://digg.com
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
- People Are Computers Too – How Improving Applications Can Improve Your Life
- This week I’ve been talking about code profiling and how if you want to analyze the performance of your application you need to work with large sets of data. Application efficiency isn’t free, it requires measurement, analysis and change. Unsurprisingly, performance analysis for a software…
- Programming Best Practices: Profiling
- In programming, profiling means to measure your code and find out which parts are using the most time and the most memory. Profiling gives you performance analysis measurements so that you can optimize your program for speed and/or memory.
- How to Profile Greasemonkey Scripts with Firebug
- Running performance analysis on Greasemonkey scripts can be a pain in the butt. They aren’t part of a webpage so standard tools for analyzing web sites don’t work… or do they?
- Best of Feeds – 19 links – blogging, tips, google, opensocial, community
- Tags: blog, blogging, community, google, opensocial, tips
This Week at IDT Labs
- [AKISMET] Akismet Auntie Spam v2.09
- I’m done. I swear. Not going to touch it for a month. Promise. 2007/11/15 version 2.09 – bug fix: vanilla WordPress and WordPress.com return spam results a little differently 2007/11/15 version 2.08 – bug fix: fixed a stupid debug statement that was breaking 2.07 – added menu option for…
- [AKISMET] Akismet Auntie Spam v2.07
- Because why shouldn’t a new release happen within hours of the last one? 2007/11/15 version 2.07 – bug fix: improved slowness of displaying hidden comments – added menu option for checking for updates right now – added menu option for configuring how much spam to download at a time for modem…
- [AKISMET] Akismet Auntie Spam v2.06
- Our favorite Auntie has a new version. 2007/11/15 version 2.06 – optimized, optimized, optimized – only displays 5000 comments per page to avoid stressing slower computers – will work for any language (not just english anymore) – any additional slowness is because of a bug on the WordPress end that…
- [YAHOO PIPES] Yahoo Pipe Cleaner v1.1
- Yahoo Pipes changed their website on me and I’ve fixed Yahoo Pipe Cleaner so that it works with the new site. Now it also removes image thumbnails that were popping up. It might not run on all Yahoo Pipes because some pipes now have custom URLs — let me know if you are having any problems using…
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