[rehab.is.for.retards]

After seeing:

http://lifehacker.com/5376442/crack-a-master-combination-padlock-redux

which has a link to a graphic art representation of how to pick a master padlock:

http://www.markedwardcampos.com/index.php?/design/master-lock/

a coworker and I set about to figure out the pattern in the tables that help you reduce the possible combinations from 64,000 to only 100 (to open the lock without knowing the combination).

Seeing the pattern, I wrote a quick piece of shoddy php to generate the combinations needed based on the number you divine from the mechanical part of the process.

<?

$num = $argv[1];
$mod = $num % 4;
$secondRow[] = $mod % 2;
if($mod > 1)
	$secondRow[] = $mod;
$secondRow[] = $primer = 6 + $mod;
$i = $mod;
while($i < 40)
{
	$firstRow[] = $i;
	$i += 4;
}
$i = $primer + 4;
while($i < 40)
{
	$secondRow[] = $i;
	$i += 4;
}
echo "\nStart with the first number of the top row, in combination with the first
number of the second row\nThen use the same number of the top row with second
number of the bottom row\nThis way you reduce the possibilities from 64,000 to
only 100\n";

foreach($firstRow as $row){
	echo $row . "\t";
}
echo "\n|\\\t/|\\\t/|\\...\n";
foreach ($secondRow as $row){
	echo $row . "\t";
}
echo "\n\nLast number is: {$num}\n\n";
?>

Sloppy but accurate.

Cheers

I finally tried out one of these energy saving bulbs at home. Despite the higher entry cost (about four times the price tag of a standard incandescent bulb) and the uncertainty regarding the quality of the light, I picked out a 20w, “Cold Light” bulb and put it in the home office.

My first impressions are very favorable. The cold light is apt for the office space, and the 20w light is actually much brighter than the old bulb I had been using (the box informs me that 20w is equivalent to a 100w incandescent, in terms of light production). Additionally, the packaging indicates that this bulb will last 6,000 hours, roughly equal to six standard incandescents, and will save me 80% in energy and associated costs.

The only (minor) downside was a little wait in time-to-full-light. It’s not so important, and maybe easier for the eyes anyways.

Next I’ll try a “Warm Light” bulb in the living room. I’m anxious to see if these lights can live up to their marketing claim of 6x the normal life span.

I recently bought a decent knife. And a little more recently, the same knife started to lose it’s magic.

I tend to cook a bit, since I now live in a place with fresh veg and fruit on every corner, as well as, arguably, the best beef in the world. After suffering with a cheap-o knife for some time, I picked up a standard, sharpen-able piece and the standard striated steel sharpening utensil, but still found myself at a loss on how to do it.

A quick search turned up a great video, link below.

http://www.videojug.com/film/sharpening-a-knife-with-a-steel

(note: the only method to embed video from this site seems to be in beta here at WordPress, so the link will suffice for now)

The fellow in the video kindly informed me that my knife is probably a bit beyond help, since I waited too long to begin sharpening it. It seems that normal use doubles over the edge of the steel, and in order to correct this, a quick sharpen is called for directly before each use. There is a sterner method of sharpening, using stones, which is actually a normal part of overall knife maintenance, but I don’t yet have that equipment at home.

The same author presents advice on choosing a steel to purchase and use here:

http://www.videojug.com/film/choosing-a-steel-for-sharpening-a-knife

Update July 28, 2008:
Since my the above post, I’ve manged to create some muscle memory regarding the technique described in the video, and have surprised myself with how well I can sharpen a knife using my striated steel.  The ability to sharpen a knife with steel has eluded me my whole life, until now.  Also, I understand more, now, about the need for a stone for occasional, deeper sharpening.  The smaller knife I own is a bit older and I purchased long before I understood anything about maintenance.  This one has some nicks in the blade, which have cause the steel to double over, and the striated steel can never get this out.  In fact, the knife, at this point, damages the steel.  I will have to find a purchase a grinding stone!

http://www.musimundovideoclub.com

I recently tried a home delivery DVD service available in Buenos Aires, similar to Netflix in the states. The service is provided by Musimundo, a popular corporate chain of stores which sell music, movies and consumer electronics. My initial impressions have been positive.

I was first struck with a concern over having DVDs sent by mail. Mail in Buenos Aires tends to be less than 100% reliable and I regularly receive final notices for bills well past the expiration date. On top of that I’ve never tried to send a letter to be mailed out and was racking my brain on where I would drop the dvds.

All of these concerns were answered when the first DVDs arrived. Following the well accepted tradition of home delivery here, Musimundo actually sends uniformed agents to deliver your movies. On second thought, this is not surprising, considering that Blockbuster will let you order by phone for home delivery. For that matter, you can order ice cream, vegetables and fruits, anything in a grocery store and even Macdonald’s here in Buenos Aires (although, to be clear, not with Musimundo’s delivery service).

Considering that someone has to come to your house to deliver, I was concerned about returning the DVDs. It turns out that they handle this summarily with the delivery. When you are done watching your DVDs you just visit the website and look at your list of currently rented videos. Nearby, on the same screen, there is a button which allows you to “Devolver DVDs” or return the flicks and the uniformed army dispatches a fellow with your next selections and picks up your current picks.

Admittedly, this is an advance review, and I haven´t tried to return the DVDs yet. We were lucky with the first delivery as my girlfriend was working from home when they delivered the movies at 4pm. Normally, no one will be here at this time. I hope that they have some system for revisiting homes where no one answers the door the first time, otherwise a plan where you pay more for unlimited rentals will lose it’s appeal.

The plans advertised offer the following levels:

Abono Standard – $19.90
2 DVDs at a time / 4 total DVDs in one month

Abono Classic – $29.90
2 DVDs at a time / 8 total DVDs in one month

Abono Plus – $39.90
2 DVDs at a time / Unlimited DVDs

Abono Premium – $69.90
4 DVDs at a time / Unlimited DVDs

(all prices in pesos)

For all plans, there is currently a 15 day free trial period. You will have to enter credit card information, and they will do a test charge of one peso (standard system to check if the card is valid). You also have to choose one of the plans for your 15 day trial. After the 15 days, they will presumably charge the amount corresponding to the plan you select, but they claim you can cancel any time up to the end of the trial period.

I chose the Abono Plus, 2 DVDs at a time, as many as I can watch and return in the month period. I started my account on March 31st and my first movies arrived on April the first. They do warn you that you must select around 30 DVDs to place in your queue before they will send the first delivery.

For those not familiar with the Netflix model, which Musimundovideoclub.com uses, you create a list of movies that you want to rent. This becomes your queue of movies and when it is time to send you the next selection they will take the first movie on the list, if it is available. If not, they try for the second, and so on. If one was skipped, they will try again next time. You can modify your queue anytime, as long as the movies aren’t currently in transit.

(click image for larger view of screen shot)

They have a rating system built into their site. Pretty much anytime they display a movie, you can rate it quickly with a simple click which does not change your current page. They use these ratings to offer you some suggestions the next time you log in. This system of rating to get suggestions takes a bit of flak from people who don’t take the time to use it, as generally the suggestions improve as your rate more and more. For sure, there will be a few weeks where they are trying to offer you Care Bears cartoons when all you are looking for is an action and explosion flick, or vice versa.

The site provides some handy lists, such as the top 50 highest voted, top 50 most rented, newly added and also a link of upcoming movies, however the list of upcoming selections has not yet actually showed me anything. If you look at the detail of any video, they will give you useful information, such as rating, movie length and languages available for both the subtitles and the audio.

I’m not sure how old the service is, but it seems like they are still working out some kinks with their site. The pages have consistently loaded slowly, which may mean they have some database issues, or just some pokey servers hosting the service.

Time will tell if we chose a good plan. Specifically I want to see if their delivery service will keep up with an unlimited plan. If I can only manage to get 8 or 10 movies per month because of a delivery bottleneck, then there is no point paying an extra 10 pesos for an unlimited plan.

A couple minor criticisms include the awkwardly long web address ( www.musimundovideoclub.com ) and that their search and browse system was a bit difficult to use, although this can probably be attributed to the slow speed of the site in general.

This mesmerizing sculpture called “Cloud”, which was recently added to Heathrow Airport’s terminal 5, combines the flash of Vegas with the slickness of a cobra and the mechanization of an old flipping bus schedule board.

It’s five meter long surface is covered with 4,638 flip-dots controlled by a computer.  On one side they are black, on the other is a shiny silver.  The variety in the “show” surprised me, although in retrospect the programming of this object is fairly straightforward, once the difficult part of building it soundly has been done

A short video clip of the piece can be viewed here:

The piece was commissioned from Troika ( http://troika.uk.com/ ), who has the reputation of creating some rather unconventional art, including a piece that takes electro-radiation and produces sound based on the pattern.

Click on the image or here for a review of the book at http://www.mostlyfiction.com/

“We think we know what we are doing. We have always thought so. We never seem to acknowledge that we have been wrong in the past, and so might be wrong in the future. Instead, each generation writes off earlier errors as the result of bad thinking by less able minds–and then confidently embarks on fresh errors of its own. We are one of the only three species on our planet that can aim to be self-aware, yet self-delusion may be a more significant characteristic of our kind.”

-Quoted from Prey by Michael Crichton – Purchase this book at Amazon

The link below details the account of thieves robbing Francis Ford Coppola’s latest movie script. It was stolen on location in Buenos Aires when a production office was forcibly entered by 5 thieving thieves!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7017433.stm