University of Wisconsin, Madison

From their CS graduate application page:

Is the GRE Computer-Based Test acceptable, or must I take the Paper-Based Test version?

You may take the Computer-Based Test though, because of a recent security breach in the computer-based General Test, the paper-based test is strongly advised.

Security breach? Hmmm.

Simple Apple Mail Bug

Open Mail.
Minimize the header (press the button on the upper right).
Close the Mail window (press the red button on the upper left).
Open the Mail window (press the Mail icon in the Dock).
Maximize the header (press the button on the upper right).

A mysterious box appears to the left of the search field.

Microsoft's Marketing Acumen

I think Microsoft could use some help in the marketing department.



Hmm, there's something wrong here. Typically, advertisers on tech website are gender neutral. Why does Microsoft want to tell people their pregnant?



In case your HTML is a bit rusty, I'll give you a hint. There's a syntax error near the end.

And, why don't the lines line up with the line numbers in the left gutter? Check out line 30. Smells like a Photoshop.

Samsung

For years, notebook technology has been advancing at an incredible pace. Processors grew in speed exponentially, along with hard drive capacities, and mobile multicore computing made a huge splash with the Core Duo. In contrast, the biggest headline for batteries this year was that the current generation has a tendency to explode.

Samsung is going to give laggard consumer notebook battery technology and needed boost next year with, get this, a battery that will last an entire month!



They also have one that doesn't look like a cordless docking station, but it only lasts a week.

article

Day 6

This is the 6th day my home has been without hot water, heat, food, and electricity.

Living in the labs isn't so bad, actually.

Installing Ruby on Rails the Easy Way

I created this script to install Ruby on Rails on OS X 10.4. It should also work on Ubuntu or other types of Linux as long as you have Bash.

First, have MySQL and gcc installed.

Then, open the Terminal and use this command:

sudo curl http://students.washington.edu/kgc/ror.sh|bash

After a few minutes you should see something like this:

Select which gem to install for your platform
1. mysql 2.7.1 (mswin32)
2. mysql 2.7 (ruby)
3. mysql 2.6 (ruby)
4. mysql 2.5.1 (ruby)
5. Cancel installation

Select the option highest on the list that has (ruby) in the description. In this case it's 2.

Here's what the script installs:

readline 5.2
ruby 1.8.5
rubygems 0.9.0
rails
fastcgi 2.4.0
ruby-fcgi 0.8.7
pcre 6.7
lighttpd 1.4.11
mysql native bindings

If you have any problems, leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

If this helped you, please Digg it. That way it's more likely to help others as well.

The script is an updated version of the process found here.

MacHeist Review: Week 3

When you join the Heist, you are briefed on your role as a special agent working for the Directorate.

The first thing that you may notice is that the whole Mac "spy" community is in on this. Your first mission involves submitting a actual tip to MacRumors.com. You find clues for various side quests scattered throughout sites like MacZot!. And you realize the Directorate is composed of Big-Name Mac people like Philip Ryu.



Your goal in MacHeist is to complete the missions assigned to you. Unfortunately, if you're joining right now, you can't go back and play missions that the community has already completed.

Your mission assignments run on a roughly one-per-week schedule, with mini-heists filling the gaps in between. Heists are announced in your mission briefings, but mini-heists must be discovered.



Here's a look at the lead clue for a previous mini heist, Heist 1.5, which was discovered in some strange bits of RSS that would appear if you looked at MacHeist's RSS feed.



As I write this, the second mini-heist, or Heist 2.5 as the community calls it, is in full swing.

Here's the last puzzle for the currently running Mini-Heist. You can drag to words around for some reason.



The fun in this game comes from solving missions and debating possible solutions to mission and mini-heist puzzles with your fellow spies in the perpetually active forums.



Another aspect of MacHeist that motivates participation is the Heist rewards. There's nothing like entering my hard-earned secret code and opening the safe to discover what new loot awaits me inside.

I need to go soon, so here's a quick briefing on the state of things.

Join us, time is running out...



The reward so far:




If you're a student, I highly advise you to avoid checking MacHeist more than once a day. Like any interesting problem, solving these heists is addictive.