Sand Hill Crane

some people have deer in their backyard . . .

Hack Attack: Turn Your Windows PC into a Media Center Powerhouse On the Cheap from Lifehacker

from Lifehacker:

If you've purchased a new Windows computer in the past few years that's running Windows Media Center Edition or Vista Home Premium or Ultimate and you aren't taking advantage of its baked-in DVR Media Center software, it's time we change that. Why? Because after installing a $70 capture card in your computer and a bit of freeware third-party software, you've got all the tools you need to record television shows on your PC's built-in Media Center, extend that Media Center to your Xbox 360, schedule recordings and stream TV over the internet.

Install a Capture Card
In order to record television on your media center PC, you need to be able to plug your coax cable into your computer. For this purpose, God invented tuner cards—hardware you plug into your computer that handles all the heavy lifting of recording video. If you don't already have a capture card of some sort installed in your PC, this is the only monetary obstacle you'll need to overcome.

It's not really much of a hurdle, though, once you realize that capture cards are pretty cheap (especially least compared with the cost of a TiVo) and installing a PCI card inside your PC is an extremely simple process. There are a lot of cards on the market, but I've always had good luck with the Hauppauge cards, and you can score the Hauppauge PVR-150 for just $70.

---------for more info on this article, go to [the rest of the story] . . .

My Golden Compass Daemon

This is from a movie that's coming out 12/7. I looked at the preview, and it seems like it is Lord of the Rings meets Harry Potter meets The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Seems like it will be good on the big screen.

How To: Teach a child to program

from LifeHacker

Wired magazine's How To Wiki has an interesting article on how to teach your kid to program. Since I have a budding twelve year old hackerino, I was intrigued by this information.

Among the answers given were Logo, a kid-specific programming language (who knew?), Lego Mindstorms (robots!), and GameMaker, a free programming interface. If you are teaching your child to program, please share in the comments how you're going about it.

Teach a Kid to Program [Wired How To's]

Ethical Traveler

from Yahoo!Picks:

Ethical Traveler
It is not down in any map; true places never are. - Herman Melville

Too often, travel consists of running around with your head in a guide book. But focusing on the list of things to see keeps us from getting to know the people and culture of the places where we spend our precious few vacation days—and the richest experiences in other lands often begin with a surprisingly simple gesture. This site aims to bring together informed travelers as "freelance ambassadors" to serve the world community. Stops on the itinerary:

• Learn about the places you visit and your impact on the society and environment.
• Get involved and help address time-sensitive issues.
• Step beyond the map and immerse yourself in a culture by following the guidelines for ethical travel.

Global voyagers acting together can make the world a better place. It's a small world, after all.

(in Travel)

Tiny Animals on Fingers

from Yahoo!Picks:

Tiny Animals on Fingers Page through the hundreds of photos in this remarkableFlickr pool, and you start to get the feeling that many of the Earth's smallest beasties just want to get a good look at their human neighbors. Image after image reveals insect, mammal, reptile, and bird in an inquisitive position, griping some person's index finger and gazing intently at the enormous creature that has hoisted it upwards. Big-eyed hamsters, bigger-eyed moths, and five (count 'em, five) red eyed tree frogs all appear to say, "Just let me take you in!" In some cases, though, the wee ones are too new or too busy to peek at their many-fingered photographer. And, of course, not everyone likes being handled in such a manner. We wouldn't want to meet this guy in a dark alley. Many of the insect portraits are worth special notice for their amazing Technicolor dream coats. These moths, ladybugs, and worms come dressed to the nines.

The Bathroom Diaries

from Yahoo!Picks:

The Bathroom
Diaries A pox on eco-tourism. Death to luxury travel. The only frontier left for truly experienced travellers (like us) is a tour of the world's most inspiring toilet facilities. Thankfully, this was a tour guide we didn't have to write. The Bathroom Diaries—touted as "the world's largest database of restroom locations"—took care of that business for us. When you gotta go, you gotta go, and it's so much better to know which way the toilet flows. If you have to tinkle in Tehran or doodie in downtown Detroit The Bathroom Diaries will have every journey covered. And if you find yourself out on the go, and want to relieve yourself in the richest environs, check your wireless or your GPS device for one of the award-winning commodes. Sometimes a weary traveller just needs to be pampered. (in Travel)

new Roman Empire?

from Arts & Letters Daily:

Is America the new Roman Empire? Sure. It dominates the planet with its armies, economy, language, and culture as much as Rome ever did... more

Church Shopping

	Cocoa	Melbourne
Episcopal	St. Mark’s 19 min Main Sunday service: 10am	Holy Trinity 30 min Main Sunday service: 9am
Unitarian	Unitarian Congregation 23 min Main Sunday service: 11am	Unitarian Universalist Church of Brevard 24 min Main Sunday service: 11am
Unity	Unity Center for Spiritual Living 35 min Main Sunday service: 10am	Unity of Melbourne 23 min Main Sunday service: 11am

Strange Maps

Strange Maps

It all began with a charting of Pennsylvania's lunatic asylum districts. That might be an inauspicious start elsewhere, but not here. Welcome to the world of strange maps. Since that initial posting in September of last year, the blogger-collector behind this site has rolled out post after post of eccentric and imaginative maps—"the kind you won't find in a regular atlas." From ancient history to alternate history, from the world according to some two-term presidents to the U.S. according to its politics, the maps displayed here are historic, fake, funny, and marvelous. And sometimes all of the above. We paused over the image of Flash Gordon's native Mongo, ate up the charting of North America's "totem food" regions (oh, to live in Corn Bread and BBQ Nation!), and then located ourselves on both the atlas of the country of Houyhnhnms (where Yahoos, those "deformed, debased humans" reside) and the record of the online communities map. Brrr! (in Science & Geography)