nocto

loads of neat ideas for making cards using all kinds of different crafty techniques. and some more handmade decorative ideas

oooh, more ways to measure temporal evolution, fun. this one is about showing how far from earth the news of an event has travelled if it set off at the speed of light the moment the event happened. so from the moment of my birth, how big is my light cone?

matt webb’s script shows that:

Kirsty’s light cone contains 49 stars. 12 Ophiuchi will be reached in in 2 months.

my light cone’s bigger than matt’s

some good stuff about learning to play chess because i’m trying to figure out how to actually play chess. for values of play that stretch to ‘don’t get stomped off the board by every opponent in three moves or less’ rather than ‘here’s how a knight moves’ which is all half the beginner guides to chess want you to know.

• turn. turn. turn over again.
• turn. turn.
• turn. turn.
• rearrange pillows.
• turn.
• lie on front.
• lie on side.
• lie on back.
• turn. lie on arms. arms go to sleep. shake hands to wake them up.
• turn.
• turn.
• turn. turn.
• throw out pillows.
• turn.
• turn.
• grab pillows back.
• turn. turn.
• wrap duvet round more tightly.
• turn.
• turn.
• kick duvet off.
• turn.
• turn.
• grab duvet back.
• lie on front.
• lie on side.
• lie on back.
• lie on side again.
• arm has gone to sleep again. shake to wake up arm.
• turn.
• turn.
• turn. turn.
• rearrange pillows yet again.
• turn.
• beep beep beep.
• BEEP BEEP BEEP.
• BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP.
• click.
• sleep.

should i just set the alarm clock for 3am?

project gutenberg, “the first and largest single collection of free electronic books”, have reached 10 000 books! the 10 000th book was the magna carta. i [heart] project gutenberg. (i think the by author index is the easiest way to navigate around the collection.)

[found via whole lotta nothing]

what happens when you have:

1) nothing to do (other than knitting)

2) a sharp knife

3) a large lime

4) a patient cat

5) and too much tequila?

see for yourself!

a couple of neato links found at the web standards project. find out what your site looks like in

• safari (this is me)
• konqueror (and me again)

what i’d really like is a similar utility that shows me sites in various flavours of internet explorer to save me from having to fire up windows machines to see what something that looks perfect in mozilla looks like.

now we’re just being pedantic.

[found via erik benson]

this strikes me as an interesting development in services offered by online stores. if you’re late sending a present there’s no need to apologise personally any more if other shops follow the examples of figleaves and take the blame for the delay upon themselves:

Choose your gift and then select ‘blame it on us’ in Gift Wrapping. We will enclose a card in your shipment taking full responsibility for any lateness.

i think if i received something like that i’d not think much of a shop that couldn’t ship on time, and if i was sending something late myself i’d just stick with the traditional apology message. they must think there’s a market for it though.