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Monthly Archives August 2004

Car redux

An update on the car situation: Late last week the engine started misfiring, so I made an appointment to take it in today. One cylinder was having problems even when its spark plug was swapped with a good cylinder’s, which meant replacing the ignition cassette, which is what a Saab uses instead of a coil […]

Posted 31 August 2004 † Rich § LiveJournal ‡ Comments (4) °

Separated at birth?

So Apple introduced the new form factor of the new iMac. They describe it as futuristic, but I think they’ve confused the future with a 1999 dot-com: I don’t get it. Apple’s designs have been clunky before, but they’re usually appropriately derivative — “It’s shaped like a TV”! “It recalls a desk lamp!”. But “It […]

Posted 31 August 2004 † Rich § LiveJournal ‡ Comments (7) °

Flying!

So I’m thinking about starting flying lessons again. I’ve set up a separate blog for my flying stuff, partly to play with WordPress and partly because it’ll be sufficiently topical to need its own space. The blog is here, and you can add it to your friends page as Mendel_flies. I’ll be posting about how […]

Posted 27 August 2004 † Rich § LiveJournal ‡ Comments (3) °

lobster and found

Anyone seen the lobsters? I can’t find them anywhere.

Posted 22 August 2004 † Rich § LiveJournal ‡ Comments Off °

Amazing raytracing

I remember playing with the POVray 3d graphics tool a few years ago, but I never managed to get past teapots on checkerboards. Others have done better.

Posted 20 August 2004 † Rich § LiveJournal ‡ Comments (1) °

SHA-0 and MD5 collision implications

This writeup from Eric Rescorla (which he also posted to the NANOG mailing list) is a great summary of the implications of the recent discoveries of collisions or weaknesses in the SHA-0 and MD5 cryptographic hash algorithms.

Posted 20 August 2004 † Rich § LiveJournal ‡ Comments (1) °

Car financing dilemma

I am annoyed with my car (a 1999 Saab 9-3, for those just tuning in). For a long time it’s had a wobble in the steering wheel and in the seat, even through multiple balancings and road-force balancings and lining up runout with the low spot on the wheel and all that. Could’ve been being […]

Posted 18 August 2004 † Rich § LiveJournal ‡ Comments (8) °

Poetry Hour

Earlier today a friend of mine and I were reciting bits of what might someday be known as one of the finest and most profound bits of poetry reading recorded (provided that the rest of the recordings were destroyed and forgotten), and were disappointed that the work didn’t appear to be transcribed anywhere on the […]

Posted 13 August 2004 † Rich § LiveJournal ‡ Comments (1) °