Javascript-based PC emulator

Fabrice Bellard, the author of the open source, VMware-like QEMU emulator I use every day, has written a virtual PC that runs entirely in Javascript called JSLinux. Geeky? Yes. Practical? No, but give the man points for being a world-class hacker!

Fabrice Bellard has written a 32 bit x86 emulator in Javascript — in plain English, he’s created a virtual PC that runs inside your browser, using Javascript. And then of course, he created a GNU/Linux variant that can run inside it — so you can run a full-featured PC inside your browser.

via Javascript-based PC emulator, running GNU/Linux – Boing Boing.

Playing in the dirt


I’ve been spending the past several weekends finally constructing some raised garden beds in the backyard. I’ve had a vegetable garden since we moved in but the ground wasn’t level and I got tired of the water I put on it draining into the yard (and the weeds moving from the yard to the garden). So back in March, I bought several landscape timbers and some spikes and engineered two nice, level beds for this year’s garden.

It took 3 cubic yards of topsoil, 2 cubic yards of compost, and 4 cubic yards of mulch to fill the area but it’s now full. We’ve got several plants in the ground now, courtesy of the N.C. State farmer’s market. I’ve fenced the garden off (mostly) and spent the past two days putting down soaker hoses for watering. My 330-gallon “Lake Turner” rain tank is now hooked to a sprinkler timer, which feeds the soaker hoses every three days. And, because it’s now level, the water in the hoses doesn’t all drain out the lower end. Sweet!
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Speeding motorcycles continue

My exasperation with speeding motorcycles near my home caught the attention of N&O reporter Chelsea Kellner, who wrote a story on the problem and quoted me.

And just in case you thought these morons would stop once word got out, you’d be wrong. They were speeding again as early as Sunday afternoon, the day of the article. Seems the motorcyclists don’t read the paper.

They were also going at it again this evening, so I called the po-po. It’s quiet for now, but I don’t expect it to last. I will continue to call 911 for the next several weeks if that’s what it takes to reign in these reckless idiots.

Speeding motorcyclist killed

Many nights I’ve heard motorcycles racing down nearby State Street at insane speeds. Calls to 911 have produced mixed results, so much so that I stopped bothering to call when the motorcycles start up.

Previously, the racing had been confined to an area a mile away from my home but this week I’d been hearing the cycles racing down Glascock and turning south on to N. State Street. When more than one passed by Tuesday evening, I made two 911 calls to complain about them (the dispatcher on the second call actually asked me “what the crime was”).

Looks like Darwin claimed one of these idiots last night, when
Richard Jerrod McNeil was thrown from his bike after speeding over 100 MPH in a 35 MPH zone on S. State Street. I feel for his family but I have a hard time feeling sympathetic to McNeil. He knew what he was doing was dangerous, not only to himself but to the many neighbors who live along State Street. He was very lucky his recklessness didn’t kill someone else.

I’ve asked police to step up traffic enforcement along State Street because McNeil wasn’t the only one who loves to race in the area. It’s only a matter of time before another poor idiot on a crotch rocket meets his maker (or flattens an innocent kid).

Blind spots

Ghost Bike by Salim Virji


This weekend we visited a bicycle store on a quest to find a bike to fit our rapidly-growing daughter. While there, I remarked to the guy behind the counter about Raleigh being named as a bicycle-friendly city.

It was news to him, apparently. I know I’m tuned in to what happens with Raleigh but I figured someone working at a bike store would know about the bike-friendly thing.

“Well, someone should tell the drivers,” he responded. “So many drivers in Raleigh don’t respect cyclists.”
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That old neighborhood feeling

The neighborhood near mine (which I sometimes claim), Belevidere Park, was mentioned in today’s paper as being a friendly one. It’s great to see stories like these!

When author Peter Lovenheim came through town two weeks ago, he informed a rapt audience of 200 that interactions between neighbors are down 50 percent since the 1950s. But in a city with an entire department that devotes much of its resources to neighborhood connection, some in Lovenheim’s audience felt that Raleigh largely bucks that trend. After all, last month’s tornado gave evidence that Raleigh’s neighborhoods are plenty strong as neighbor turned out to support neighbor.

via That old neighborhood feeling – News – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

Kegbot

I was talking to another geek in the neighborhood last night who was telling me about this interesting idea that appeals to geek beer fans: the Kegbot. He had been at a friend’s party where the Kegbot was used to track who had been drinking what, with charts generated on the web for bragging rights purposes.

According to the project website:

Kegbot is a free, open-source project to turn your beer kegerator into a computerized drink tracker. With Kegbot and our Arduino firmware, you can:

* Monitor exactly how much beer is left in your kegs and track the temperature;
* Record the volume of each and every pour;
* Set up user accounts to track who is drinking, how much, and all sorts of other nutty statistics;
* Use special keys (tokens, RFID tags, barcodes) to authenticate your kegerator users;
* Control access to your taps (with special valve hardware) to prevent unauthorized pours;

Many of my computer-geek friends are also beer geeks, so this scratches two itches for them. I look forward to encountering my first Kegbot and trying this for myself!

Roomba’s “other shoe” drops

I’d been enjoying our Roomba robot vacuum again now that it has a fresh battery and its automatic schedule has been set. That all changed yesterday when the Roomba did it’s “wiggle walk” again, indicating that the only remaining wheel sensor has busted.

It has been over a year since the first wheel sensor failed and was hard-wired into place to extend Roomba’s life. Now it looks like I’ll be doing more soldering to patch Roomba up yet again. At least this time I know what to do, though!