My father-in-law found an old Rubik's cube and a solution book when going through old boxes. When we were there last week, I sat down and, with the help of the solution book, solved the cube in about 20 minutes.

I don't think we even have a cube around our house, but here are a couple sites to keep around if/when I feel like "solving" it again...

Beginner Solution to the Rubik's Cube

Graphic solution - a bit different than the one in the book and the above link.

...and google will show you a whole lot more...

Posted 9:49 PM    |    1 comments    |    Permalink   

I went to high school in Huntington Beach (Edison High School) with a guy named Raymond Chen. I'm pretty sure he's living back east somewhere, but will have to find out.

Here is (presumably a different) Raymend Chen from Microsoft - worked on bug fixes in Windows OS for many many years. I sumbled on his MSDN blog tonight, and he offers some interesting angles on Windows programming.

The Old New Thing

Posted 9:25 PM    |    1 comments    |    Permalink   

Well, this caught my eye because it shows the Creative Zen Vision:M as the must have for portable audio/video -- instead of the iPod!

It's been my feeling all along that there are probably better players than the iPod, but nothing can beat it's popularity, and native iTunes compatibility.

Top 10 must-haves - CNET.com

Included in the list:

• Slingbox
• iRiver Clix
• Sony PSP
• Xbox 360
• Palm Treo 700w

Posted 7:51 AM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Hack Attack: Automatically download your favorite TV shows - Lifehacker

Posted 9:45 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Very cool - this site uses Yahoo Local maps, grabs the pics from all the turns along a Yahoo maps directions route, and zips them up, for transfer to your iPod video.

http://www.ipod-directions.com

iPod Directions : Use your iPod Video, Nano or Photo as a Yahoo! Maps directions viewer!

Posted 9:43 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

E3 is going on this week, and obviously the 360 is center stage. here's a blow-by-blow of what the MS keynote was about.

Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Microsoft's Xbox 360 E3 event - Engadget

Posted 9:41 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

Rip DVDs to small AVI or MPG files. Uses XviD codec and the SourceForge DVDx software.

How to Rip DVDs to Small AVI or MPG Formatted Files - WikiHow

• install xvid codec (search google)
• download DVDx software
• "open DVD root"
• output settings
  
• AVI format
  
• LAME MP3 audio codec
  
• XviD video codec (Enable Video, Enable 2nd unchecked)
  
• choose screen size
  
• max frame number = Whole

Posted 9:23 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink   

There is not an easy (documented) way to add a pushpin at a specific location in Google Maps. (sometimes this is useful to send a map to someone that says "look right HERE", and you don't necessarily know an address to map at that location). Here are a couple steps to achieve this (admitedly the brute force way).

• Fire up maps.google.com and navigate to the location of your choice.
• Double click the desired pushpin location, so that it gets centered in the map.
• Click the "link to this page" at the top right of the page. This will regenerate the map with the latitude / longitude coordinates in the URL.
• Copy the lat/long coordinates out of the URL (ex: "33.114477,-117.308235") - these should be part of the ll=... parameter in the URL (we're assuming that is the lat/long param)
  
• Paste those lat/long numbers into the address search box and hit SEARCH.
  

There is your map with the pushpin - you can get the link to that page, email it, get directions to/from that pushpin, etc.

Posted 10:36 PM    |    0 comments    |    Permalink