Author Archives: Egg Syntax

Survival Library

Survival Library:


Tomorrow, the end of the world won’t happen. Even world economic collapse, or the total failure of the US government won’t happen without preliminary disruptions. Prepping now for that vague doomsday scenario is plain nuts. But regional natural disasters are almost a certainty. Prepping for survival of a large-scale hurricane, tornado, earthquake with a few days backup at home is a good idea. How do you prep? Most die-hard survivalists take the the “stockpile and defend” strategy, constructing doomsteads, which may or may not work in a natural disaster. Usually going with a “mobile and agile” strategy, with a ready “bug-out bag,” is better — but this is mostly a matter of temperament because we don’t have a lot of data of what actually worked in actual past disasters. (If you know of real data examining the value of home preparation please leave a link. Most of the evidence used in the survivalist prep world is Hollywood movies.)
But at the very least you should know what your survivalist options are. There are a zillion “prepper” books each one with more elaborate schemes and crazier than the one before it. Underground bunkers are only the tip. Selling doomsday (vs wilderness) survivalist advice is big cottage industry. I refuse to pay for this nonsense. The Survival Library is an open online archive of self-sufficiency, self-reliance instructions, PDFs, and videos that appear on other sites for free. It is easy to weed through. Some of the information, like welding instruction, or raising rabbits, or how to start a fire with no matches is useful whether or not you believe that the UN is sending black helicopters to take away your machine gun in the basement. The free downloadable PDF of the 500-page LDS (Mormon) Prep Manual is particularly interesting and for most normal people, all the prep literature you’ll ever need.
— KK
Survival Library
http://www.survivallibrary.me/
Sample Excerpts:

SpotLoss – bluetooth object tracker

SpotLoss – bluetooth object tracker:

Thanks to Bluetooth Low Energy, we are going to be seeing a lot more of these kinds of proximity beacons (Previous example: StickNFind). One interesting application of the $29 SpotLoss keychain fob is that you can create a computer log that shows when your son or daughter comes home at night.

The range of the device is 50 meters (164 feet) and works through walls and other solids

— Runs for a year on replaceable watch battery without recharging

— Uses a free app that allows users to easily customize settings

— Get texts or emails about proximity events

— Works with iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPad 3, iPad 4, and iPad Mini

— Will work with Android Bluetooth 4.0 devices shortly

— Uses Bluetooth Low Energy (a.k.a. BlueSmart) protocol so the battery use is minimal

— 5.6 x 3.0 x 1.5 cm carabiner style easily attaches to almost anything

— Connect up to ten devices to one phone or computer at the same time

— Connects with cell phones and computers in a many-to-many relationship

— Fob supports vibrating and variable pitch alerts

— Printed circuit boards and their enclosures will be assembled in Upstate New York

Spotloss


Pre-Holiday dinner mission: install LazyTruth

Sent to you via Google Reader

Pre-Holiday dinner mission: install LazyTruth

Matt Stempeck of the MIT Media Lab created LazyTruth, a “Gmail gadget that surfaces verified debunks when you receive a chain email.” He says:

Each year, we gather around the table with large branches of our family tree. As the night wears on, family updates give way to dramatic retellings of the bizarre email chains you’ve been forwarded all year. This year, as part of your IT duties, consider inoculating the family machines with LazyTruth. The Chrome extension works right within Gmail to provide summarized debunks of common viral emails. You get fewer forwarded emails, and MIT researchers get to learn how this stuff spreads in the first place.


Autechre’s Oversteps 2012 album was fundamentally…

Sent to you via Google Reader

Autechre’s Oversteps 2012 album was fundamentally…

Autechre’s Oversteps 2012 album was fundamentally algorithmic. I’ve aggregated extracts from interviews that mention this. I love how one extract hints at a system of multiple algorithms tracking and responding to each other. 

Source: How much do algorithms figure into your compositions as of late? : “Quite a lot. Algorithms are a great way of compressing your style… It has always been important to us to be able to reduce something that happened manually into something that is contained in an algorithm. Then the algorithm allows us to add a bit more flair or a bit more deviation that we would also do ourselves in a little script. Just a few slight tweaks can spin it out into all sorts of recreations. It’s a great way to spawn yourself if you like (laughs), and spawn your actions. It’s an addictive way to work. Programs like Max allow you to reduce these ideas to collections of numbers and scenarios that are recallable, cascade-able, even nest-able.”

Other source: “You’ve got a system. And you are listening to what the output from that system is. Much of the system involves talking to each other and listening to each other to see where they are and they say, ‘If you are doing THAT then I’ll do THIS, and if THIS happens then THIS action will happen.’ We’ve been programming stuff like this for twelve years.”

…we made our own midi-sync algorithm this year which worked perfectly and it’s way tighter than the one you’re supposed to use. And it’s unique to our system. It was a major major thing. We made it using trial and error, it took about two weeks but most of it we did in one day.”

“Then,” Rob adds, “there were a few hours of disbelief – ‘Is this actually working as we see it?'”

Carving the Moon: A New Woodcut Print by Tugboat Printshop

Carving the Moon: A New Woodcut Print by Tugboat Printshop:
Carving the Moon: A New Woodcut Print by Tugboat Printshop wood prints wood posters and prints moon illustration
Carving the Moon: A New Woodcut Print by Tugboat Printshop wood prints wood posters and prints moon illustration
Carving the Moon: A New Woodcut Print by Tugboat Printshop wood prints wood posters and prints moon illustration
Carving the Moon: A New Woodcut Print by Tugboat Printshop wood prints wood posters and prints moon illustration
Carving the Moon: A New Woodcut Print by Tugboat Printshop wood prints wood posters and prints moon illustration
Since 2006 Pittsburgh-based husband and wife Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth have run the Tugboat Printshop, a traditional printmaking studio where everything is made by hand, starting with the giant slabs of wood into which each of their images are carved. The Moon is their largest hand-carved relief print ever coming in at 36″ x 32″ (91 x 82 cm) and will printed using two colors. If you’re interested they documented the process of carving the beautiful illustration which is now available for pre-order, and I also recommend checking out their other prints. (via cloud junky)

"For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London, audio specialists…"

[tl;dr – Audio recordings can be timestamped against fluctuation in electrical hum. O_O -egg]
“For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London, audio specialists…”: “
For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London, audio specialists have been continuously recording the sound of mains electricity.

It is an all pervasive hum that we normally cannot hear. But boost it a little, and a metallic and not very pleasant buzz fills the air.

“The power is sent out over the national grid to factories, shops and of course our homes. Normally this frequency, known as the mains frequency, is about 50Hz,” explains Dr Alan Cooper, a senior digital forensic practitioner at the Met Police.

Any digital recording made anywhere near an electrical power source, be it plug socket, light or pylon, will pick up this noise and it will be embedded throughout the audio.

This buzz is an annoyance for sound engineers trying to make the highest quality recordings. But for forensic experts, it has turned out to be an invaluable tool in the fight against crime.
”

– BBC News – The hum that helps to fight crime