How effective are red light cameras?

By Jim, on March 31st, 2008%

MSNBC posted an article about red light cameras, describing how many cities are taking them down. Why? Because the cameras are too effective: people learn where the cameras are and stop running the red lights. According to the article, the city of Dallas recently turned off a quarter of its red light cameras because it . . . → Read More: How effective are red light cameras?

One comment - (Comments are closed)   Idiocy

Comment Spam

By Jim, on March 22nd, 2008%

I get a moderate amount of comment spam here on the blog. Fortunately, WordPress lets me moderate comments before they’re posted, and it’s pretty easy to separate the signal from the noise. Most of the comment spam is pointers to pharmacy web sites or links to porn sites. Some, though, are really random. Like the . . . → Read More: Comment Spam

3 comments - (Comments are closed)   Odds 'n Ends

Fried Lamp

By Jim, on March 19th, 2008%

The lamp that sits behind my desk and that provides the majority of the illumination when I’m working here started blinking infrequently the other night. At first I thought it was the normal power fluctuations we get here from time to time, but then I began hearing what sounded like something shorting out. I reached . . . → Read More: Fried Lamp

2 comments - (Comments are closed)   Odds 'n Ends

The bike doesn’t make the cyclist

By Jim, on March 15th, 2008%

In How to succeed at astrophotography – or at anything else, Michael Covington points out that the key to success in almost anything is knowledge, not stuff:

All too often, people buy gadgets, string them together, and assume that the machinery ought to know how to take the pictures. It doesn’t!

And they respond by . . . → Read More: The bike doesn’t make the cyclist

Comments are closed   Cycling

More Windows Vista bits

By Jim, on March 15th, 2008%

Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008) have formalized the idea of a “public” directory–a directory on your computer where you can share files with other users. In previous versions, you had to create a folder yourself (often called “Public”) and share it. Vista has a special folder called “Public”, and subfolders named “Public Documents,” “Public . . . → Read More: More Windows Vista bits

Comments are closed   Computers, Windows Vista

I gotta see this!

By Jim, on March 14th, 2008%

I noticed this sign as I was walking by Wendy’s yesterday at lunch, so I went in to have a look. They told me that the fish only works the breakfast shift. I’ll have to stop by some morning, ’cause I just gotta see this.

One comment - (Comments are closed)   Odds 'n Ends