nerdheard

Join the KIVA Nerd_Heard Team

The BKK Nerd_Heard now has a presence in the micro-finance world! Join the team today and free yourself of all that guilt!

WriteMonkey - Home

I love this word processor, why you might ask? It removes everything from the user interface execpt your words. It sounds simple but why can't the big boys at microsoft add this as a feature that simplifies the interface to nothing. They are too proud of their design to hide it. WriteMonkey - Home: "Zenware for full screen distraction free creative writing. No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times."

100 of the best data visualizations

There is a magazine that is devoted to Visualisation of data. They did a 100 of the best data visualizations that is worth looking at if you want to move beyond the pie and bar chart. Here is the link to the 100 best. And if you want to read more take a look at the magazine.

Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds

Say you have some text and you want to turn it into a picture. I know we've all wanted to see this before. Well along comes wordle give it some text and it will create a "word cloud". The image to the left was done using this site as the content. Horray now we can summarize powerpoint slides into one picture and skip the mindless reading of the slides. Wordle - Beautiful Word Clouds

Smaller housing

We all know in technology smaller is better, but is it also better in a house? This page has lots of examples of small houses/cottages that people have put together. Small high quality housing that will not cost you a fortune is something worth considering. Small Compact Prefab Home Design — www.shedandshelter.com

A Nerdly puzzle game.

In need of a break from crunching numbers and computing in general? Here is the perfect cure. Its a complex puzzle game designed by the game puzzle master himself Cliff Johnson. Cliff designed David Blaine $100,000 challange in 2002 and the computer game "A fools errand" in 1987. The new game is called "A fool and his money". I pre ordered the game.....hold on! The Fool's and his money.

Best Science Visualization Videos of 2009

This is what high end computing is all about. Turing numbers in to visualization. For those about to crunch we salute you SCIdac keep it up..... Best Science Visualization Videos of 2009 Some of the most impressive images in science are produced when researchers take numerical data and represent it visually through modeling and computer graphics. The Department of Energy honored 10 of this year’s best scientific visualizations with its annual SciDAC Vis Night awards, at the Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing conference (SciDAC) in June. Researchers submitted visualizations to the contest, and program participants voted on the best of the best. From earthquakes to jet flames, this gallery of videos and images show how beautiful (and descriptive) visual data can be.

A must read

This is required reading for membership in the nerd heard.

From Publishers WeeklyA 75-cent discrepancy in billing for computer time led Stoll, an astrophysicist working as a systems manager at a California laboratory, on a quest that reads with the tension and excitement of a fictional thriller. Painstakingly he tracked down a hacker who was attempting to access American computer networks, in particular those involved with national security, and actually reached into an estimated 30 of the 450 systems he attacked. Initially Stroll waged a lone battle, his employers begrudging him the time spent on his search and several government agencies refused to cooperate. But his diligence paid off and in due course it was learned that the hacker, 25-year-old Markus Hess of Hanover, Germany, was involved with a spy ring. Eight members were arrested by the West German authorities but all but one were eventually released. Although the book will be best appreciated by the computer literate, even illiterates should be able to follow the technical complexities with little difficulty. Literary Guild selection. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416507787/ref=kinw_rke_tl_1

Windows 7

Yes, a moment of silence was observed around the world as we paid respect to the release of another OS from Microsoft. I was at a bar in Karabi, Thailand with live music and I managed to get the musician to toast the release. No all the patrons knew what we were toasting, and some jeered us. But that is the price you pay at times for belonging to the nerd_heard. We believe all OS are inherently good because they are part of the computing story. Ommmmmmmmm Shanti Ommmmmmmmmmm

John has installed Win 7 already and we gave it the once over. We are impressed. I am ordering 3 copies. It runs like water on the Nova p22 (official computer of the heard). Office 2003 opens is less than a second.