Derrick's Web Snacks

2010-11-08T22:31:00.000-08:00

Fake Name Generator When you need to create a bunch of fake but plausible and demographically correct names.

2010-11-07T16:09:00.001-08:00

Spring's Social Templates Mostly for myself: Spring offers various templates to manage OAuth sign ons.

2010-05-22T17:49:00.001-07:00

Links To Public Opinion Survey Sites A handy collection of links to organizations that perform and analyze public opinion polls.

2010-04-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

Google To Include Response Times In Search Ranking Google says it will start using site response time for determining the search rank of a page.

2010-03-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

Using Cloud Computing For Loadtesting How MySpace used cloud-based computing to loadtest its site.

2010-02-01T07:22:00.001-08:00

Tag Print With Smart Links A new technology from Microsoft lets you put a barcode in print that a smartphone can read in and use as a link.

2010-01-26T13:43:00.000-08:00

BART Launches API Wish you had an app to give you new BART info? Now you can write one.

2010-01-01T15:10:00.000-08:00

Blocks In iPhone 3.0 Put Snow Leopard's blocks support (akin to Ruby's blocks) into iPhone 3.0 or Mac OS X 10.5

2009-10-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

Save Usage Guides! Bryan Garner urges shoppers to ask about usage guides at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, two companies who consider them a "defunct category"

2009-09-16T09:40:00.003-07:00

2D Spore Creature Creator My company's awesome creature creator, done in 2D.

2009-08-04T11:14:00.000-07:00

Useful Copyediting Tips A list of tips to help ensure your copy doesn't embarrass you.

2009-07-24T17:01:00.000-07:00

Screen Jelly A really slick, no-muss, no-fuss way to do quick screen video captures.

2009-07-10T08:01:00.003-07:00

Reuters Handbook of Journalism Reuters has released its Handbook of Journalism for free online.

2009-05-22T16:31:00.001-07:00

Web-Friendly Federal Data The federal government is releasing tons of data in web-friendly formats.

2009-05-17T08:21:00.001-07:00

America's Oldest Restaurants BusinessWeek offers a slide show of America's oldest and still-running restaurants.

2009-05-07T10:06:00.001-07:00

Movie Stills In Game Environments See the results of a competition to recreate iconic movie scenes in game environment engines. Neat!

2009-04-29T21:26:00.001-07:00

Goodbye, Old School Coding Techniques Computerworld takes a look at old-school coding techniques that we're better off without.

2009-04-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

Make Your Own Moleskine Grab a sewing machine and a cereal box, and get ready to make your own moleskine.

2009-04-28T09:42:00.003-07:00

Regret The Error A blog devoted to newspaper corrections.

2009-04-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

My Brute A cute little web fighting game, where you compete against other players by simply watching them duke it out.

2009-04-16T07:57:00.001-07:00

How Not To Run A Forum: eBob eRobertparker.com moderator Mark Squires gets into a snipey, immature email conversation with Mike Steinberger. Tyler publishes the exchange.

2009-04-16T07:46:00.001-07:00

Totoro Cream Puffs How to make Totoro cream puffs.

2009-04-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

Strunk And White Is Wrong The Chronicle of Higher Education features an article about the many things wrong with Strunk & White's Elements of Style, which turns 50 this week.

2009-04-11T08:38:00.001-07:00

"Locavore" Bittman Likes Endangered Fish Eat Me Daily covers the controversy brewing over Mark Bittman's use of red snapper, despite its endangered status and his newly found zealotry as ethical food advocate.

2009-04-07T08:10:00.001-07:00

Twitter Meets Scala The twitter dev team discusses why they used Scala for certain back-end tasks.

2009-04-05T23:03:00.000-07:00

Nine Common Words From Sci-Fi The Oxford University Press blog offers a list of words that came not from science but from sci-fi.

2009-03-27T10:02:00.001-07:00

Really Bad Misprint See if you can spot the error before you see the zoomed-in version.

2009-03-23T19:56:00.001-07:00

Inside The Mapparium The headquarters of the Christian Science Monitor features a globe you can stand in to see the earth without distortion.

2009-03-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

Big Food = Big Tobacco [PDF] A paper by the Rudd instiute examines the similarities between the tactics of the food industry and the tobacco industry.

2009-03-22T10:18:00.001-07:00

Book Thieves Financial Times looks at the world of book theft.

2009-03-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

Piece-of-Cake iPhone Game Development A new program promises to make iPhone game programming a snap.

2009-03-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

Charlie Brown, a la Frank Miller What if Frank Miller drew the Peanuts comics strips?

2009-03-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

Congress Considers API Congress wants feedback on the best way to set up an API for access to the Thomas database, a notoriously clunky system.

2009-03-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

Gallery Of Old Tech IBM has an "online" exhibit of old technology on their site. Also be sure to go to the Exhibits link to see more.

2009-03-03T19:17:00.000-08:00

Reverse Dictionary Trying to figure out a word that means X? Try your luck with this reverse dictionary.

2009-03-03T07:51:00.000-08:00

C.A.R. Hoare Says Null Reference A Mistake Computer scientist C.A.R. Hoare will present at QCon 2009 a paper saying that maybe his null reference idea wasn't such a great idea in retrospect.

2009-03-02T14:54:00.000-08:00

Do Not Use This Many Puns What happens when a newspaper reporter decides that if one pun is okay, a zillion must be even better? Bad things.

2009-03-01T09:48:00.000-08:00

Apple Fans Froth About Wired Article A recent Wired article used two quotes out of context to make a point near the end of the piece. Apple fans respond to the not-quite-slight by going crazy, as Apple fans are wont to do.

2009-02-27T11:49:00.000-08:00

Octopus Vandalizes Aquarium An octopus climbed to the top of his tank at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and disassembled a valve assembly, flooding the room with 200 gallons of seawater.

2009-02-25T21:44:00.001-08:00

Photos of Libraries Curious Expeditions dishes out book-nerd porn in the form of library photos.

2009-02-22T13:19:00.001-08:00

Studying Broken Window Effect Do broken windows and other evidence of urban decay really foster crime? This study says yes it does. Actually, it says that when you clean up an area, crime goes down.

2009-02-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

Creative Uses For Creature Creator A list of creative techniques people have come up with in Spore Creature Creator

2008-11-07T11:20:00.000-08:00

Messages For Obama A Flickr group of people holding signs for President-Elect Barack Obama.

2008-11-03T11:49:00.000-08:00

Visualizing Tasting Notes What do 5000 tasting notes look like for different wines? This graph charts frequencies of terms for given grape types.

2008-11-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

Avoid Holiday Cliches John McIntyre, who writes the copyediting blog for The Baltimore Sun, offers a list (checked twice, one assumes) of holiday cliches to avoid.

2008-10-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

Copese -> Plain Text John McIntyre of The Baltimore Sun translates some favored newspaper cop-speak into simpler terms.

2008-10-06T11:15:00.001-07:00

Souvenirs In Situ A Flickr set of souvenirs photographed as superimpositions on the real objects.

2008-10-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

The Real Mavericks The descendants of the person for whom "maverick" is an eponym speak out against McCain.

2008-10-04T13:48:00.001-07:00

Penny Arcade Review Gamer Grub See how Tycho describes the kind of snack food that food bloggers receive PR about all the time.

2008-09-26T15:06:00.000-07:00

Pretty Spore Scenery Among my favorite threads in our forums: Users posting in-game screenshots of the things they've seen on their travels.

2008-09-26T11:42:00.002-07:00

What Does Well Done Mean? The Food Whore recounts a conversation with a customer confused about the meaning of well done. Or, you know, not.

2008-09-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

Why Do People Pirate? A game developer asks the community why people pirate games and then distills the results.

2008-09-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

The Origins of Arrr? Language Log investigates the source of the "pirates say arrr" cultural archetype.

2008-09-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

A Rule Of Thumb I Like A friend of mine once said, "The only thing that should be on page 2 of your resume is the Nobel Prize you won." I couldn't agree more.

2008-09-18T07:59:00.001-07:00

RIP Robert Steinberg David Lebovitz writes a moving eulogy for Robert Steinberg, co-founder of Scharffen Berger Chocolate.

2008-09-15T14:04:00.001-07:00

Ashley On Casasugar Our friend Ashley gets a shout-out from casasugar after she retools two found chairs into a new bench.

2008-09-03T20:22:00.001-07:00

Buffy MMO Coming Let the Buffyverse live on in an MMO!

2008-08-31T09:37:00.000-07:00

Garson Hampfield, Crossword Inker A YouTube documentary about the underappreciated members of "the box team."

2008-08-22T10:27:00.002-07:00

Oskar's 4-bit Mazes A series of increasingly complicated mazes made with just 4 bits. Designed by my friend Oskar, easily one of my favorite designers.

2008-08-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

Getting A Wine Spectator Award Of Excellence Researcher Robin Goldstein recently received a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. For a restaurant that doesn't exist and a fictitious wine list that included some of Wine Spectator's worst-rated rines.

2008-08-19T10:03:00.000-07:00

Enhancing Videos With Images A clever technique allows video filters to incorporate high-resolution images to create a sharper video.

2008-07-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Lunch With Regina The Amateur Gourmet has lunch with Internet skewer artist Regina Schrambling.

2008-07-18T11:35:00.001-07:00

Heritage Beef Tasting The ALBC and Slow Food, among others, recently hosted a tasting of heritage beef.

2008-07-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

Fighting Simulation Sickness In Mirror's Edge Some people get woozy when they play first-person shooters. The folks at DICE, who are making one of my most anticipated games this year, are working to help them.

2008-07-15T17:17:00.001-07:00

The Jedi Gym What happens when a bunch of geeks get together to emulate their favorite Star Wars characters in an effort to get fit? More to the point, what happens when a real Star Wars character shows up?

2008-07-15T15:38:00.000-07:00

Kurt Vonnegut On How To Write Kurt Vonnegut offers writing advice (via kottke.org)

2008-07-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

Flock Of Birds = Smoke A massive flock of birds swirls and spins like intelligent smoke.

2008-07-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

Crazy Creature Creator Creatures Will Wright shows off some of his favorite creatures made with Spore Creature Creator. Got to download some of those for my game.

2008-07-14T11:33:00.001-07:00

Portal Sequel Coming To XBLA A sequel to the critical smash Portal will arrive on XBox Live Arcade later this year.

2008-07-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

Alice Wang's Amusing Tech Artist Alice Wang creates amusing household objects that explore the subject of taboo. Her Tyrant alarm clock is one good example.

2008-07-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

Thsrs: The Shorter Thesaurus Trying to fit a long word into Twitter's 140-character constraint? Try Thsrs, which will give you a shorter synonym for your long term.

2008-07-08T11:22:00.000-07:00

Wine Holders For Al Fresco Dining Though these stands are a bit precious, I like the idea of a stake you can push into the ground and use to hold your wineglass.

2008-07-07T22:25:00.000-07:00

Soul Calibur IV's Star Destroyer Level The upcoming version of uber-fighter Soul Calibur will not only include Yoda (XBox 360), Darth Vader (PS3), and his apprentice, it will also include a Star Destroyer arena.

2008-07-07T22:21:00.001-07:00

11C Adds 100 Words Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition, has 100 new words, including prosecco, fanboy, air quotes, and mondegreen (really? they only now added that?)

2008-07-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Digit: Clever Flash Puzzle A fun and well-thought-out puzzle concept done in Flash

2008-07-06T07:39:00.001-07:00

Pop Music By Animatronics One of the original designers of the animatronic bands that appeared in Showbiz pizza restaurants now wires up his copy to perform pop songs.

2008-06-28T09:32:00.000-07:00

Web Dude vs. Sales Guy A hilarious video about life in the IT world.

2008-06-28T09:28:00.003-07:00

Design Of Mechanical Puzzles Ars Technica's Matt Ford summarizes a symposium on the design of mechanical puzzles, featuring some well-known puzzle designers.

2008-05-31T09:42:00.003-07:00

Strawberry Rhubarb Terrine Elise makes a pretty, red terrine of late spring's treats.

2008-05-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

PA Uses Troll To Sell Game With the release of their new game, the folks at Penny Arcade have decided to run banner ads featuring "this game is stupid" comments from a forum troll.

2008-05-14T13:00:00.001-07:00

Chicago Repeals Foie Gras Ban Chicago's lawmakers decided to repeal their longstanding ban on foie gras.

2008-05-09T18:40:00.000-07:00

XKCD Making Hash Browns Webcomic xkcd gives a masterful hash-brown-making technique.

2008-05-02T08:17:00.001-07:00

Survival Gadgets Wired looks at the practical state-of-the-art in survival gear.

2008-04-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

Donald Knuth Talks Modern Computer Science Algorithm god Donald Knuth talks open-source, literate programming, and the uselessness of unit tests.

2008-04-25T07:48:00.000-07:00

Spore Creature Creator Coming Early Spore doesn't ship until early September, but you can get a taste of the game in June.

2008-04-24T19:31:00.001-07:00

Spore Creatures From Fan Artwork Fans anticipating Spore's release created sketches of creatures. Designers at Maxis transformed them into real Spore models.

2008-04-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

The Blog Of Unnecessary Quote Marks Many reader-submitted photos of errant quotation marks. I'll have the "fish" with "chips," please.

2008-04-20T10:55:00.001-07:00

Guide To Jellies And Jams What makes something a jelly, a jam, a preserve, or whatever? The National Center for Home Food Preservation has the answers.

2008-04-18T18:59:00.001-07:00

Sort Through Trash Electronically The Ocean Conservancy claims to have found six million pounds of trash in one day on beaches. Wired has the data for your enjoyment.

2008-04-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

Chart Explains Stormtrooper Accuracy This amusing graph at GraphJam charts the likelihood that Imperial Stormtroopers will hit any given target.

2008-04-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

"Identify The Robots" T-Shirt How many of the robots in the picture can you identify? Okay, now give friends and strangers the chance by wearing the t-shirt version.

2008-04-18T06:03:00.001-07:00

Cover Your iPod In (Plastic) Meat A new exterior shell for iPods makes it look as if you've coated the device in raw meat.

2008-04-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

The Sims Hits 100 Million My new employer's runaway smash hit, The Sims, continues to … run away.

2008-04-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

Last Meal On The Titanic The menu for the last meal on the Titanic.

2008-04-16T10:32:00.001-07:00

The Typography Of Black Metal Bands Can you figure out the band's name by deciphering the letters in the logo? No Black Metal band knowledge necessary.

2008-04-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

Hotmail's CAPTCHA Cracked Yet another CAPTCHA technology bites the dust.

2008-04-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

Dan Savage's Thank-You Note To His Late Mother Dan Savage, sex-advice columnist extraordinaire, writes a touching thank-you note about his mom, who recently passed away. Grab a hankie before reading.

2008-04-15T10:02:00.000-07:00

Dietsch Watches A Pig Butchering Mike Dietsch attends a demo of breaking down a pig into cuts and documents the entire process.

2008-04-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

The Quake Family Tree Wonderland links to this family tree of Quake and its descendants.

2008-04-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

Are Popular Wines Better? Eric Asimov takes a recent "you don't need to be an expert to know good wine" book to task for its straw-man arguments and its conflation of popularity with quality.