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Quorten Blog 1

First blog for all Quorten's blog-like writings

Northern African white rhinoceros

2018-05-24

Categories: random  
Tags: random  

Interesting and unfortunate. The Northern African white rhinoceros is practically extinct, with only two living rhinos in captivity. Political instability leading to illegal poaching was the cause of this demise. Whereas, the Southern African white rhinoceros fares much better as it lives in a… well, slightly more politically stable area.

20180524/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_white_rhinoceros 20180524/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_extinction 20180524/https://web.archive.org/web/20110629113419/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4152951.ece

Amusement park height limits

2018-05-24

Categories: misc  
Tags: misc  

Ever wonder why amusement parks use height limits? Why measure height if what they want to get at is age? Well, in some cases height limits are appropriate, when they relate to the restraint system and seating used in the ride. If the rider is too small or too big, they might not securely fit in the restraints. Otherwise, it is merely a proxy for what they really want to measure, psychological traits. Why do they still use it? Because height is very easy for a ride operator to measure. Psychology, not so much.

20180524/DuckDuckGo amusement partk minimum height
20180524/https://saferparks.org/safety-tips/minimum-height-restrictions
20180524/https://web.archive.org/web/20171105130220/http://www.heightrequirements.com:80/rides/cedarpoint

Search indexing on GitHub pages

2018-05-23

Categories: blogging  
Tags: blogging  

Okay, so now I’m wondering why my GitHub pages don’t get indexed by search engines by Google. Why? Well, let’s see. Now this is interesting. The project pages are getting indexed okay, but the direct domains, no.

So, that’s just the thing. Solve the annoyance I was experiencing! Put a link to the site domain from within the project page, and that should solve my indexing problems. Although, it would be nice if GitHub could do this for us. Well, I guess it’s more general and works better for larger sites that require more customization.

20180524/DuckDuckGo quorten blog 1
20180524/DuckDuckGo quorten blog 1 site:quorten.github.io
20180524/Google quorten blog 1
20180524/Google quorten blog 1 site:quorten.github.io
20180524/DuckDuckGo github pages indexed google
20180524/https://www.quora.com/Are-GitHub-pages-domains-listed-on-Google
20180524/https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-make-my-blog-hosted-by-Github-Pages-searchable-from-Google-Search
20180524/DuckDuckGo how often does google scan for new domains
20180524/https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34439?hl=en
20180524/https://hdwebpros.com/blog/how-often-does-google-update-its-search-results.html
20180524/https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183669?hl=en&ref_topic=6080538

Intersting news for GitHub pages, HTTPS for custom domains. The thing is that that *.github.io domains supported HTTPS for a long time, but not custom ones. Now custom ones support this too.

20180524/https://blog.github.com/2018-05-01-github-pages-custom-domains-https/

Porcelain

2018-05-23

Categories: random  
Tags: random  

Porcelain? It’s used on bathroom fixtures, often times as a top coating, or enamel.

20180522/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcelain
20180522/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_porcelain_enamel
20180522/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitreous_enamel

Interesting. Glass-enameled steel can be used for “graffiti-proof” public infrastructure.

So, you’re wondering about the historic timeline of credit cards and UPC barcodes? Here it is.

  • Earlier: Checking account bank numbers, checks, wire transfers.
  • 1973: Magnetic strip credit card
  • 1973/1974: UPC barcode

In the earlier days, there were no standardized credit cards. However, there were some merchants with their own card systems that could only be used with those merchants.

Potato cleaning on electric contacts

2018-05-22

Categories: misc  
Tags: misc  

So, about potato cleaning. Cook or no cook before clean? It must be no cooking before using it to clean. Sprinkle generously with baking soda, then rub away. Actually, sweet potatoes are more effective because they have a higher concentration of oxalic acid. Also, carrots have an even higher concentration, but they may be more difficult to work with.

Potato 0.05 g/100 g
Sweet potato 0.24 g/100 g
Carrot 0.50 g/100 g

20180522/DuckDuckGo potato oxalic acid
20180522/https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/7079/how-to-test-oxalic-acid-in-potatoes
20180522/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxalic_acid
20180522/DuckDuckGo potato clean corrosion electronic battery
20180522/https://www.wikihow.com/Remove-Rust-and-Corrosion

Now, some of my contacts could just as well be iron, but others are almost surely nickel. Is there a separate cleaning method for that?

Also, some are for sure brass/copper. Purportedly you would use similar cleaning methods for that.

Ah, the famed method is to use electrolysis to remove corrosion.

20180522/DuckDuckGo cleaning corrosion off of nickel
20180522/https://www.cointalk.com/threads/how-to-get-corrosion-off-nickel.50305/ 20180522/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis
20180522/http://www.instructables.com/id/High-Quality-and-safe-Nickel-Plating/

Great Slack Outage T-shirts

2018-05-22

Categories: random  
Tags: random  

Wow, now we’re seeing T-shirt designs about people surviving the great Slack outage yesterday?

20180522/DuckDuckGo i survived the great slack outage

Now this is really interesting, this Snapchat and its outage.

20180522/http://nymag.com/selectall/2017/11/did-your-teen-survive-the-great-snapchat-outage-of-2017.html

20180522/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapchat

But this is even more interesting, the article on ephemera. Ephemera are “not meant to be preserved,” but they end up getting preserved anyways, and that’s what the whole article is about.

  • Footnote: But, come on, seriously! Why does something need to be designed to be preserved? Humans will always be foolish when it comes to making such decisions, so it is best that the whole process be totally automated and everything be preserved, regardless of intent.

    • Plus, historians are most interested in the largest volumes of information. Yes, that means the collective sum of all such information that was never meant to be preserved.

20180522/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemera

Important! According to the DNA data storage article in the May 2018 issue of IEEE Spectrum, 1 TB per square inch is the practical storage density limit on hard disk drives due to thermal sensitivity affecting the stored magnetic data.

Important! Ricoh released their DSLR camera development SDK! Yep, it includes support for the Pentax K-1. It’s under a proprietary license, though.

20180521/https://www.pentaxforums.com/articles/pentax-news/ricoh-releases-sdk-for-pentax-cameras.html 20180521/https://api.ricoh 20180521/https://api.ricoh/products/camera-sdk/ 20180521/https://api.ricoh/docs/ 20180521/https://api.ricoh/docs/camera-usb-sdk-cpp/ 20180521/https://api.ricoh/docs/camera-usb-sdk-cpp/quick-start-linux/ 20180521/https://api.ricoh/docs/camera-usb-sdk-cpp/open-source-software/ 20180521/https://api.ricoh/downloads/ 20180521/https://console.api.ricoh 20180521/https://api.ricoh/terms/ 20180521/https://api.ricoh/terms/camera-sdk/ 20180521/https://api.ricoh/products/camera-sdk/ 20180521/https://api.ricoh/getstarted/ 20180521/https://api.ricoh/faq/ 20180521/https://github.com/ricohapi?utf8=✓&q=&type=source&language=

Oh, very interesting review.

20180521/https://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/smc-pentax-fa-77mm-f18-limited/introduction.html

WannaCry still out and about?

2018-05-21

Categories: security  
Tags: security  

Why? People are still taking measures to try to stop this, like setting up firewall rules to block SMB to the Internet.

20180521/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WannaCry_ransomware_attack
20180521/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wana_Decrypt0r_screenshot.png
20180521/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EternalBlue
20180521/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metasploit_Project