Other: Fax Re-dux

I had to fax another form today. This one had some vital information which was in smaller-than-average print and as I was previewing it before sending, I noticed that a lot of the print was practically illegible. I decided to try converting the BMP to a B&W PBM using the Gimp, then using pnmtotiff. Much better.

Other: Faxy Lady

Well, it's official! I am soon to be gainfully employed! I just faxed in my signed offer letter! So, of course, I got to practice and refine my FreeBSD faxing skills. Here's an update:

• I decided to see if my crappy scanner would work with SANE. The docs said the model was supported and worked reasonably well, and in fact the program did recognize the scanner and got it to make scary noises, but it would just hang after the physical scan stopped, so I gave up because I didn't much care and just scanned under Windows. This time I decided to save it in BMP, just because NetPBM supports it and it's not a lossy format.
• Now, here's the sweet part. The fax was four pages, named p#.bmp. I got this conversion thing down now:
  > bmptoppm p1.bmp | ppmtopgm | pamditherbw | pamtopnm | pnmtotiff -g3 -rowsperstrip 2500 > p1.tif
> bmptoppm p2.bmp | ppmtopgm | pamditherbw | pamtopnm | pnmtotiff -g3 -rowsperstrip 2500 > p2.tif
> bmptoppm p3.bmp | ppmtopgm | pamditherbw | pamtopnm | pnmtotiff -g3 -rowsperstrip 2500 > p3.tif
> bmptoppm p4.bmp | ppmtopgm | pamditherbw | pamtopnm | pnmtotiff -g3 -rowsperstrip 2500 > p4.tif
> tiffcp -c g3 p[1-4].tif fax.g3
• Then I copied it over to the old machine with the hardware modem and boom! (Well, actually, I wondered why the modem couldn't dial and eventually realized I had accidentally unplugged the phone line when I was messing around with stuff last week. But once I plugged it in again, boom!)

News: It's That Time Again

Today is Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's! Run!

Transpo-stuff:

• A disgruntled former auto dealership employee hacked into the company's computers and used their built-in remote kill-switch to disable 100 cars the dealership had sold. Nice. I'd be suing a lot of people, and I'm not a litigious person.
• I wish this list of techno-dos & don'ts for public transportation riders was required reading.
• Apparently the Los Angeles Times just figured out that public transportation here sucks.

Dumbass techno-stuff:

• If The Godfather had been written in the Internet age, Michael Corleone would have gotten busted while in hiding because he had a compulsion to update his Facebook page, just like this real-life Mafia boss. Dumbass.
• However, the Dumbass of the Week Award is split between two complete morons who decided they needed to tweet death threats against the President. Um, threatening to kill the PotUS is a Federal offense, and unless you enjoy receiving visits from pissed-off Secret Service agents, I wouldn't recommend it. But then again, taking my sage advice and being a dumbass are antithetical.

Misc-o-stuff:

• The title of this book may be Fifty Dangerous Things (you should let your children do), but let's face it, there are probably some lessons in there some adults still need to learn.
• This woman bought a McDonald's Happy Meal, put it on a shelf behind her computer for a year, and then found that a year later, it shows no signs of decay. Not only that, but even vermin didn't to try to get at it. Um, gross.
• Boing Boing posted about an artist who dresses her baby up as famous dictators and snaps her picture. Nina Maria Kleivan claims that she wants to remind people that we are born neither good nor evil. I think the underlying reality she is really tapping is that babies are amoral dictators who will take over your lives.
• Boing Boing also posted some Victorian slang terms, one of which I will now use in a sentence: "I spent 30 minutes on hold with the DMV yesterday listening to the tune the old cow died of." And, you know, Muzak isn't free. My tax dollars pay for that crap which serves no purpose other than to induce physical pain.
• Artist Diem Chau carved these amazing Chinese zodiac animals from her Crayola crayons. Wow.
  

News: The ZOMG It's So Cuuuute! Special Edition

FAIL: Amigurumi + laptop + scotch tape != Korilakkuma netbook

I know I just posted some news not two days ago, but I just saw this and could not keep it to myself: a Korilakkuma touch-screen netbook! Awwwwwwwwwwwwesome! (They incorrectly call it Rilakkuma, but you can tell it's actually Rilakkuma's little sidekick by the cream color and particularly by the red button.)

A few other things:

• Graphic showing how many hours on average commuters waste in traffic around the U.S. Los Angeles wins not only overall, but because we also remained constant between 1997-2007! (And this image also graphically displays one of the reasons why I take the bus and also turned down a job which meant surviving the lugubrious traffic into Santa Monica.)
• Making a two-minute video showing smart Internet safety practices could be worth $10,000. I picture one made with... finger puppets!
• Ok, the graphic in this story totally makes me think of a super-hero reaching out for this trusty weapon: knitting needles. Crap, he has a project on them! Woe to the super-villain who makes him drop a stitch!

News: Week Whatever

Roads and rails:

• The Infrastructurist had a piece on beautiful old American train stations that met the wrecking ball.
• Scientific American columnist Steve Mirsky's piece on stupid things people do while driving starts out with a (somewhat apocryphal) knitting-related story, then moves on to a personal experience in Florida...
• ... which just can't hold a candle to these dumbass Floridians: "Cops: Woman Crashes While Shaving Bikini Line"
• Pretty graphics (ok, the colors are kind of '70s blah) showing the not-so-pretty rates of car-related deaths around the world. I hadn't ever really thought about it, but I guess it certainly makes sense that it can be much more dangerous to drive in poorer countries.

Whiteboard Jungle:

• As a systems engineer, I apparently have the best job in America. Well, if I were employed.
• This is just balloonacy awesomeness:
  

Miscellany:

• A study shows women who drink are less likely to gain weight. Note that the findings apply only to moderate drinkers before you become a total lush. Unless, of course, you didn't start drinking because of the weight thing in the first place.
• German researchers are making advances in voiceless speech pick-up. While it won't be showing up in cell phones anytime soon, we can dream...
• My favorite musician is doing something different for the release of her next album, Crooked. It will come with a 60-page book with photos and essays, and with access codes for on-line multimedia files.