Dan on Firewire

Dan's Data - PC hardware and gadget reviews!

Dan emailed me with an answer to a Firewire/USB question. These numbers are a bit hard to find, so for reference:

... USB is, as mentioned above, 500mA at 5V; FireWire can theoretically deliver up to 40V at 1.5 amps, though I don't know whether any FireWire adapter that can actually do that has ever been made. PC FireWire adapters run from the regular PSU 12V rail, and so can't deliver more than 12V at (mumble) amps, but even that's beyond the capabilities of USB.

It's easy enough to make an iPod charger that runs from a plugpack, car cigarette lighter or what have you, though; these go to a FireWire plug with only the power and ground terminals connected. You don't have to hack one up yourself, either; many exist in the commercial market:

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=%22ipod+charger%22

Some are more practical than others, though:
http://www.engadget.com/entry/7288631317563720/

I love Dan's site -- I learn more there in a few minutes than any other site I visit.

The Psychology of Persuasion: often the classics are still best

Amazon.com: Books: Influence (rev) : The Psychology of Persuasion

I came to this book via a ciruitious route. I'd been interested in a recently published text on marketing, but reviewer comments favored this 1983 text (revised in the early 1990s). I've not read it all, but my sampling has been rewarding. I recognize much of the material from my cognitive science studies @ 1994, but it's very elegantly presented and placed into a corporate context. The author is a student of con artists and manipulators of every stripe, and he regales us with all the tricks of the trade.

I consider myself a hard case (of course everyone does), but I can see how I've fallen for a few of the tricks here. Of course one might say I was paying for entertainment rather than for nothing, but the line is subtle.

The scary thing is that this represents the state of marketing in the 1990s. Since then we've begun to deploy functional MRI scans in marketing research. What hope do we chumps have?

Blogger's GUI upgrade is a mess! Why?

Blogger: Dashboard

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Blogger redid their interface. They trashed Safari and Firefox immediately (who do they work for again?).

They've fixed the Safari bugs, albeit still with a very minimal and incomplete interface. It's no better than it was, but no worse.

The Firefox Blogger UI, however, is a complete mess -- comical really.

What does this say about Blogger's internal processes and Google's resources? Is Google running out of money?

Korean: Braised Short Ribs (Kalbi Jim)

New York Times Recipes: Kalbi Jim

Time: 2 hours, plus overnight marinating

6 pounds short ribs
10 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 cup soy sauce
4 tablespoons sesame seed oil
2 tablespoons minced ginger
12 scallions, trimmed and chopped
4 tablespoons toasted and ground sesame seeds
 1/2 cup sake
4 tablespoons mirin
2 tablespoons sugar
1 Asian pear or 2 crisp apples, peeled and chopped
1 or 2 fresh chilies (or to taste), preferably long and red, minced
2 large shallots, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon black pepper, or more to taste
4 tablespoons olive or corn oil
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 eggs, optional
Salt
Cooked white rice, for serving.

1. In a large bowl, combine the first 14 ingredients (through black pepper), and refrigerate overnight, covered. About 2 hours before serving, put half the oil in a broad, deep saucepan or casserole, and turn the heat to high. Remove the short ribs from the marinade, add them to the pan and brown them on all sides, 10 to 15 minutes.

Korean: Meat Pancakes (Gogi-Jun)

New York Times Recipe: Meat Pancakes (Gogi-Jun)

Time: 45 minutes

1 pound firm tofu
1 pound ground beef
10 scallions, trimmed and minced
2 long hot red chili peppers, or about 1 teaspoon crushed red chili flakes
1 teaspoon black pepper
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Large pinch salt
2 tablespoons minced chives
2 eggs
Corn oil or other neutral oil as needed
1 cup poo-chim karo (vegetable pancake mix, available at Korean markets) or Wondra or other fine flour.

1. Put the tofu in a fine kitchen towel, and wring as much water as possible out of it. Combine it in a bowl with the next 9 ingredients (through the chives). Squeeze the mixture with your hands for a minute or two, until it is very fine and well combined. Adjust seasoning as necessary; the mixture should be well seasoned but not very hot.

PublicRadioFan.com: Need to add this one to my news page

The Doc Searls Weblog : Sunday, July 11, 2004

PublicRadioFan.com is a cool discovery. It tells you what's playing, right now, on a hundred or more public radio stations, along with what format they're using and other helpful information. Way too few use MP3 (the only popular format that doesn't require its owner's proprietary player), but among them are a still-impressive list: WFUV, KKJZ, WEMU, KRVS, WUNC, KCRW, KPUB, WNYC-AM and FM, KUOW, KUSC (to which I'm listening right now), KXPR, KRWG and NRK. The majority of stations and networks (CBC, BBC and NPR itself) require a Real or a Windows Media player.

Even among the MP3 streamers, the situation is far from perfect. For example, neither of WNYC's MP3 streams is working right now.

And too many sources, such as the BBC and WBGO, use a browser with a RealAudio plugin as the required receiver — a pretty clunky approach.

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I think the BBC also uses windows audio codecs. I'll add this to my news page.

Niacin and Alzheimer's?

BBC NEWS | Health | Vitamin may ward off Alzheimer'sThey found that those with the lowest food intake of niacin - around 12.6mg a day - were 80% more likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's than those with the highest intake - around 22.4mg a day.

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An 80% risk reduction is worth something, but this study looked like a fishing expedition. They may well have come across a chance and erroneous correlation. 22.4 mg of Niacin is a lot, I think the average multivitamin only has 15 mg.