For years I've had an idea in my head about a way to hide some information in a bunch of numbers. I actually got around to coding an implementation and figured I'd run a competition. The first person who figures out what the famous landmark is described by the second set of numbers below and posts the correct answer in the comments wins $100. Read more
With some free time and a spare laptop on my hands, I figured I'd try out running a Linux desktop installation once more. Although I've used Linux on servers for more than a decade, all of my regular desktop machines have been Windows and Mac OS. Now, most people running Linux on the desktop seem to be using Ubuntu. I fully intend to give that a try later on, but for now I went with the distro I've been most familiar with for the past 12 years, which is openSUSE. Although I've been able to set things up to the point where it's viable as a proper workstation for me, I'm sorry to say the experience fluctuated between pleasant and dreadful. Here's some of the stuff I encountered and what I did to get things to a usable state. Read more
When indie developer Sos found his game being pirated on the infamous Pirate Bay he did something very unusual. Rather than complain, he actually posted in the torrent comments and gave out a couple of free registration codes for the game. Some may call it a clever marketing ploy, but from everything Sos wrote in the Reddit AMA shortly afterwards, it seems like he just really enjoys seeing others enjoy his game. I'm not going to write a post in praise of Sos' reponse (awesome though it was), but just a little bit about the game itself. How does one save the day, the McPixel way? Read more
I rather like Google Apps. Especially Google Mail and Google Docs can be of great use to small teams and could really be all you need. Unfortunately, though understandably (they are a business, after all), Google have been limiting the free offering a bit. Whereas it used to be free for 50 users, you now get at most 10 before you have to switch to a paid plan, like Google Apps for Business. Read more
Today, another story was posted about how a startup, which depended on Google AdSense for a large portion of its income, suddenly found their account blocked and funds in the account frozen. This isn't the first such story. Google, as PayPal tends to do can block accounts and freeze funds pretty much without warning or chance for appeal. That's a scary thing as it allows these large companies to cause huge financial troubles for smaller companies or even individuals. Read more
