http://blog.mischel.com Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:03:44 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It's rare that I'm stumped when I try to find something on Google, but this one beat me.  Somebody on the woodcarving forum asked about "dragonwood."  Always curious, I thought I'd look it up. Dragonwood appears to be very commonly used for the trunks and larger branches of artificial (silk) trees.  ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/03/09/what-is-dragonwood/ Update on my removable drive troubles. I tried drilling holes in the case (after opening it and removing the drive, of course) on one of those Seagate FreeAgent drives.  Getting the thing apart was quite a chore, and I had a fun time making a mess drilling holes in the case.  ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/03/09/new-removable-drives/ According to the Reuters article, Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say U.S. researchers estimate that an 18 percent tax on pizza and soda can push down U.S. adults' calorie intake enough to lower their average weight by 5 pounds (2 kg) per year. I'm not sure what "average" is supposed ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/03/08/big-brother-doesnt-want-you-eating-pizza/ I still have all 10 fingers, and no major cuts.  I've been carving a few things here and there, although other things take precedence.  I haven't had a lot of time to work on larger and more complex projects, but I'm sure getting an impressive kennel of little dogs. Cub in ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/03/08/catching-up-on-the-carvings/ I've mentioned before that we use USB external drives for transportation of data from our colocation facility to the office.  After struggling to find reliable devices, we finally settled on the Seagate FreeAgent 1TB drives.  They've served us quite well for over a year now.  But recently it's been taking ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/03/03/more-removable-drive-troubles/ Imagine that you have a web site that, among other things, allows your users to search for media (audio and video) using a simple query language.  So, if you want to find Britney Spears videos, you'd just type britney spears in the search box and click the Search button.  Simple, ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/02/19/its-harder-than-it-looks/ Updates and corrections (full story below): The pilot's name is Joseph (Joe) Stack.  He was a software engineer from Austin.  The airplane, a Piper Dakota tail number N2889D, was registered in his name.  He posted a suicide note on his web site at about 9:15, drove to the Georgetown airport and ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/02/18/plane-crash-in-austin/ I have other projects on my bench at the moment or I would have tried this one already.  A great beginner project, or a quick and fun little project for the more experienced carver, is Simple Simon the Penguin. Dave Brock presents a three-part video series that will walk you through ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/02/15/carving-simple-simon-the-penguin/ Spalting is discoloration of wood caused by fungus, most often during decay.  It can happen to diseased or stressed trees, and rarely in live, healthy trees.  Spalting can create some very beautiful colorations in the wood, as it did in the piece of maple where I found this little dog ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/02/03/spalted-maple-dog/ The President unveiled his new budget today: 3.83 trillion dollars. The numbers fairly boggle the mind. The total budget works out to just about $12,500 per person in the United States, or about $47,500 per family. Or $34,800 for each of the 110 million taxpayers in the country. Of course, ... http://blog.mischel.com/2010/02/01/out-of-control/