Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 130 of 153).

Robtex

When I noticed a store’s webserver was unreachable, I decided to find out why. With a little sleuthing I found that its nameservers were not resolving.

Normally when this happens there’s no trace of the company left on the Internet, but The Google took me to the robtex DNS tool. Thanks to this site, I was able to find the missing nameservers’ IP addresses and verify that these servers were indeed offline.

I consider it poor system administration to host your domain nameservers entirely in your own namespace for just this reason. If you make a mistake in a zone with your own nameserver, your whole foo.com site becomes invisible to the Internet.

I hope this major store gets itself back on the web soon!

A look at Google’s hardware

Google for the first time gave the public a look at its server hardware. It uses custom-made motherboards, 12-volt-only power supplies, and each server has its own built-in UPS battery. Also, Google datacenters consist of standard shipping containers – containing thousands of these custom-made servers. Very interesting!

HugeURL

I can’t help giggling whenever I send out a link using HugeURL. Why go tiny when you can go large?

Here’s a link to this post, for instance:

http://www.hugeurl.com/?M2YxY2E4MWNmYmI1ZmQ4MTA0ZTMwNTk2
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jFkc1RtcGlSVXBUVlVaUmQxQlJQVDA9

(h/t Greg. It’s all your fault!)

Roombas tend tomatoes

classbuildingthegarden_thumbpngI was running our Roomba vacuum around today for the first time in a while and noticing its battery is on its last legs. This has been the first real issue with our robotic friend since we’ve had it. I’m contemplating whether to buy a new battery or consider an upgrade to a newer model.

On a related note, a fellow Roomba fan alerted me to this interesting MIT project that uses souped-up Roombas to tend tomato plants. I thought it was an artificial intelligence milestone for the Roomba just to dock itself, but these Roombas not only do that but they also pick specific tomatoes on command. Amazing! Watch them in action here.

Now if I could just get mine to overwater my plants so that I don’t have to.

TV news van

tv-news-van
I don’t know exactly what I’d do with this but I’ve always wanted one and it looks cool.

From Craigslist:

We have a Will-Burt Pneumatic antenna mast to be sold. This is a working unit and is currently installed in a 1987 Ford van. This mast is one of the ‘heavy duty models’ designed to handle approximately 100 pounds and extends to about 55 feet. This unit includes the compressor that operates on vehicle or external power. This size unit currently sells by Will-Burt distributors for approximately $12,000.00 with the pump at an additional $1500.00. This is the link to their site showing the current models http://towermast.willburt.com/vmHDNLM.asp Continue reading →

Video of Chinese Navy – USNS Impeccable dustup

I was checking through some of my bookmarked websites when I came across some Youtube videos [NSFW: Contains salty sailor language] of the incident with the USNS Impeccable and elements of the Chinese Navy. Sure enough, it shows the Chinese ships harassing the Impeccable, even going so far as attempting to steal the towed-array sonar and blocking its way, causing an emergency all-stop to avoid a collision.

Pretty bold stuff. If they tried that on an armed ship they would’ve earned a shot across the bow (or worse).

After that dustup, the Navy sent an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer to accompany the Impeccable. The USS Chung-Hoon will take up station near the Impeccable and hopefully keep a war from breaking out before the two sides can hammer out an agreement on such activities.

Southwest Airlines tests in-flight WiFi

Sez here that Southwest is testing in-flight WiFi on some of its planes:

Southwest now has four aircraft up and running with Wi-Fi service—and so far, the testing is going really well. Southwest has operated the service on more than 500 flights and more than 9,000 Customers have logged on.

The four planes with WiFi installed have tail numbers N901WN, N902WN, N906WN, and N907WN.

Light-sport aircraft

300px-ctsw-g-clegThe N&O’s Josh Shaffer took a spin in a light-sport aircraft (LSA) and I’m itching to try one. An LSA is a lighter-weight aircraft that burns automotive gasoline, cruises at 115 MPH, doesn’t require the unbelievably expensive FAA-ordered overhauls, and can be flown with only 20 hours of training. While its true that a heavier aircraft like the Cessna 152 has the potential for IFR flight, it seems to me that most casual pilots would do well to consider a sport aircraft instead.

I’ve always wanted to become a pilot, and while I don’t have spare change to get certified right now, that goal is certainly closer with an LSA than it is with the more expensive planes.