Why the IIT bookstore should sell Ubuntu CDs

Here's a place to buy them https://shipit.ubuntu.com/

• They're cheap for the campus bookstore to buy (like $0.05 each if you buy in bulk), and their maximum-profit (i.e. number sold * price is the maximum possible) sale price is like $3 (my guess) so that's a nice markup profit
• Many IIT students use Ubuntu therefore there is a possible market (personal experience speaking, here)
• Downloading the .iso and making your own boot disc takes like two hours and is boring
• IIT students might buy them, use them, and gain actual skills (important, no?)
• It looks good when the parents tour
• Expand into different versions of Linux, like BSD, OpenSuse, RedHat, etc for optimum possible value to IIT students
• Would make IIT-ACM's job easier (local supply and proof of demand- also increases demand via exposure, i.e. if they're $3 and ACM gives them away for $0, students gain value from ACM)

There are probably other reasons. And some of my reasons might be crap. But I do think that it would be a good idea.

3D printer: V for Vendetta mask

The spirit of V for Vendetta demands that a file which allows a Guy Fawkes mask to be printed on a 3D printer to be created. I will try to attain the skills needed to accomplish this, but I won't be sore if someone beats me to it.

EDIT: Someone beat me to it. Neat! http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/guy-fawkes-mask-3d-max/437441

In a continuation of the previous... I would really really like to be able to play with a 3D printer. The Chicago hackerspace PumpingStationOne has a Thing-O-Matic and I can use it if i pay materials (much cheaper than buying one myself, no?) so all I have to do is 1. learn how to make stuff that will print and 2. Get up there, print stuff, watch it fail, edit my files, repeat...

In that spirit, http://blog.makerbot.com/2010/12/17/design-and-print-a-cookie-cutter-in-minutes/

MTurk

https://www.mturk.com

Man, there is so much data experimentation that could be done with this thing.

Ruby 1.8 multithreading: fail

Ruby 1.8 "multithreading" is not real multithreading. It ends up that the entire VM blocks on any I/O. Well, hell.

Discovered (and probably soon solved) by rancorbeast.

Other guy's ideas: http://timetobleed.com/fixing-threads-in-ruby-18-a-2-10x-performance-boost/
(Just fixes the performance issue, not the fact that they don't provide useful concurrency.)

IRC yay

http://webchat.freenode.net/

Oh, irc. Thank you for solving my technical difficulties.

ALso: dammit cr48 stop crashing.

Virtual Machine

Dammit, I forgot my 10.04 cd. Guess I'll have to finish this later.

Using VirtualBox to put a 10.04 in my W7 because right now Firefox in Windows is what is needed to make my stuffs work.

Anonymous image hosting

http://bayimg.com is unquestionably the best.

Things I use bayimg for:

• posting to reddit (I don't want reddit-sposure on my Picasa account... that might mean comments, which then I would have to look at, and waste time. bayimg is faster than disabling comments... and besides, I like it when my college friends comment on things.)
• ...that's about it so far.

Brainsplosion

Posts that I have not/will not post:

• My running bug list for Cr-48
• My running bug list for the online class I'm taking
• Mplayer chrome ubuntu and how I'm banging my head on it
• Why fonts annoy me

Charlie Miller (big name)

I was reading for TWU (again more always) and ran into the name "Charlie Miller" which was discussed as if of course the reader would know who it was, so I looked him up. I can't believe I didn't know who this guy was.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/questions-for-pwn2own-hacker-charlie-miller/2941

http://www.dailytech.com/Charlie+Miller+to+Unveil+20+Zeroday+OS+X+Exploits+at+CanSecWest/article17934.htm

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/security/pwn2own-2009-safarimacbook-falls-in-seconds/2917

http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/charlie-miller-mac-os-x-pwn2own-and-writing-exploits-031810

I find it interesting that he can hold the whole thing in his head at once.

Plumbing break

Took a minute off from reading up for TWU to take apart my bathroom sink popper-up drain stopper thing, clean the yuck out of it, and put it back. Now my roommate is trying to figure out where her receipt for her brand-new $16 drain snake went so she can return it.

I would have taken pics, but it was fast and gross and I didn't think of it until I'd put it back together. The guide here was useful because I didn't know a damn thing before I started.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4910160_remove-bathroom-sink-stopper-cleaning.html