Hardware

Went on a “fountain pen bender” this past weekend. Found tons of interesting things. Here is a bag of them: http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=8175 : index of pen reviews http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39354 : index of ink reviews http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=58316 : fade test of inks http://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=11808 : Fountain Pen Network FAQ http://www.richardspens.com/ : Richard Binder’s fountain pen site http://www.richardspens.com/?page=ref/anatomy-vac.htm : Anatomy of a Vac. Lamy Safari pics:

After playing around with my new Nikon D90, I noticed that some of my dark pictures have a red spot near upper right corner. It turns out this is a “hot pixel”. Further research led me to the following interesting pages:

Camera reviews at dpreview.com: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond80/ http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond90/ http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canoneos450d/ (Canon EOS Rebel XSi) Lens reviews: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-S-17-85mm-f-4-5.6-IS-USM-Lens-Review.aspx http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/181-canon-ef-s-18-55mm-f35-56-is-test-report--review http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/355/cat/all (Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 Di II …) http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/349/cat/31 (Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro) http://www.slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/136/cat/11 (Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM) http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Tamron-17-50mm-f-2.8-XR-Di-II-Lens-Review.aspx (Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8) Shopping links:

I found the following links interesting when I investigated my fever/flu: http://www.fluwikie.com/pmwiki.php?n=Consequences.Fever http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fever http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Apparently it is possible to reflash the firmware on some cameras, and replace it with improved, open-source alternatives. See this post for more.

Useful online calendar generator: here

http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?p=144994 As the above post indicates, the slow scrolling in Total Commander (and likely most other Windows’ listboxes) can be fixed by: Deactivate smooth scrolling for listboxes in control panel/system/advanced/bla.

Comparisons http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=176343 http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=117653 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_file_managers File Managers Total Commander Total Commander PowerPack Total Commande Ultima Prime xplorer2 xyplorer FreeCommander UltraExplorer PowerDesk Pro Magellan Explorer

http://www.somacon.com/p352.php

Java 6 JDK 6 Documentation Setting the class path Lesson: Common Problems (and Their Solutions) Java SE Application Design With MVC Trail: Graphical User Interfaces A Visual Guide to Layout Managers OpenGL in Java