Wed: Dec 31, 2014

Japan Tech Rope Rescue Competition. If I'm ever in an emergency situation I totally want these guys to rescue me. Watch the whole thing, it's amazing.

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The TV DB, like IMDB but for TV shows. Also has a The TVDB XML Fetcher that lets you download the XML data for use with WDTV set-top boxes (I have one, it's great.) I've been using WDTV Hub Gen and while it has it's quirks it's not bad.     #>

Vehicle Recall Look-up by VIN and GM Recall Information (which is weird, they show no recalls for my truck but I've gotten a couple of postcards in the mail over the years so that's not actually true.)     #>

Java client for the 23andMe Personal Genome API. An alternative to using their web UI, let you store your data locally.     #>

DIY Soylent Recipes (Soylent is the meal-replacement shake that's supposed to be so nutritionally complete you can live on it alone.) Here's a good sample one: People Chow 3.0.1 - "Tortilla Perfection!" You will need to hit the Internet to assemble the ingredients, there's no way you have a local shop with these in stock. For something kinda different: Monkey Chow Diaries: Day 1 (he didn't want to cook so for 30 days he ate actual monkey food.)     #>

Despite Racking Up Three Consecutive Unanimous Votes, FOIA Reform Bill Killed Off By Rep. John Boehner. It sucks one guy can screw the people out of something like that.     #>

Chef Gordon Ramsay on the one ingredient you should NOT have in your pantry. Hint: truffle oil.     #>

Betabook: The Portable Whiteboard for the Digital Age. I think that's pretty genius, but apparently they already make something like it, search Amazon for "wipebook" or "whiteboard notebook" and you'll see some that already exist.     #>

How to Make the Best Swedish Meatballs. I actually really enjoy the Ikea version and those you can just microwave...     #>

DIY sous-vide immersion cooker. Came out great, though you can buy the Anova Precision Cooker for under $200 these days.     #>

Been doing some SSL work recently and I needed a refresher:

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Hitlist Travel App, sends alerts when cheap travel deals show up for your destinations.     #>

Is Soda Pop A Fertilizer? Information About Pouring Soda On Plants. Apparently not but club soda might help.     #>

Fake2DB, generate fake but valid data filled databases for test purposes using most popular patterns(AFAIK).     #>

Having Lightroom Auto-Set Your White & Black Points. Interesting.     #>

Cloud backups with Duplicity and Amazon S3. Interesting.     #>

How to Play Civilization V - Beginner's Tutorial Guide w/ Commentary for New Players to Civ 5. Wow, that thing is an hour and a half long. I knew it wasn't a simple game but sheesh.     #>

Climbing Gyms - Top 6 Website Fails. No kidding, hiding the address and hours are something so many websites seem to want to do, that should be right on your front page (not just climbing gym sites, but anything where you have a storefront.)     #>

World History Atlas & Timelines since 3000 BC. That's pretty neat, I like the "1/10/100 year" buttons that let you see what changed quickly. I'm amazed at the size of the Mongol empire at around 1244...     #>

Steampunk Chess Set. Made from old shells (ammunition/bullets). I love how the pieces fit right into the side of the board too so it's all self-contained. The $800 price tag is steep but this is a pretty custom build.     #>

How to Build a V-Thread Anchor. Specifically for getting down from an ice climb without having to leave (much) gear.     #>

Cut and Seed a Bell Pepper with One Swift Motion. Not sure I spent a whole lot of time on cutting them in the first place but this does look simple.     #>

Sugar Season. It’s Everywhere, and Addictive.

One study has shown that if given the choice, rats will choose sugar over cocaine in lab settings because the reward is greater; the “high” is more pleasurable.
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The Calculus of Climbing at the Edge. Alex Honnold wrote an op-ed about being dropped as a sponsored climber by Clif Bar.     #>

JMAP — A better way to email. FastMail is releasing their own protocol, using JSON for mail updates (as opposed to IMAP). Wonder if anyone else will be supporting it?     #>

Three-minute microwave meringues. Hard to get easier than that...     #>

Stockflare. I don't do much with individual stocks but this is a great site for research.     #>

Microwave Hacks for Daily Life. Some meh and some very interesting (I had no idea you could peel garlic this way?)     #>

Farm Fresh? Natural? Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up To Be. Know your terms if you care about the eggs you buy.     #>

Virtual Lighting Studio. This is a fantastic resource for photographers, it lets you play with different light sources and figure out how they affect the shot.     #>

Making rice paper sheets. That is amazing.     #>

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