Defend Our Freedom to Share ⧁


This is the best description of what SOPA and PIPA mean, where they came from, and what is going to happen next. Watch it.

Harrison Fords Watches Indy for the Frist Time ⧁


(via: SourJayne)

Update a Github Fork From the Original Repository


While it is easy to create forks of other projects through Github, it isn’t as easy to update your fork from the parent repository. The following steps are what I do to update my fork. These steps assume that you have a local copy of the repository and that everything is up to date and committed.

First you need to add a remote to the repository you forked.

$ git remote add --track <branchname> <projectname> git://github.com/<gitmember>/<project>.git

Where,

  • branchname: is the name of the branch on the parent repository you want to update from. Usually this will be master
  • projectname: is the name you want to reference this remote by. I typically use the project’s actual name or a shortened version of it. You’ll already have a remote called origin for your forked instance of the project, so call it something other than origin.
  • gitmember: is the name of the parent repository’s owner
  • project: is the name of the repository containing the branch you want to update from

To see that the remote was successfully added you can run

$ git remote -v

which will show all the remotes your local repository currently has.

Next you want to fetch all the changes from the newly added remote.

$ git fetch <projectname>

Where projectname is the name you assigned to the remote above.

This fetch operation will create a new branch in your repository called projectname/branchname. With that in place you are ready to merge.

$ git merge projectname/branchname

That’s all there is to updating your fork from the parent repository.

Amazing Chinese Swan Lake Ballet ⧁


Just. Wow.

(via Kottke.org)

Oh the Places You'll Go ⧁


Enthralling. (Mildly NSFW)

The Return of the King


{{ “B001AX11LI” | amazon_mediumleft_image }} The ending of the story in book form is far different than the movie version. Both are good, but the original is darker and more poignant. I’m glad to have reread the entire Lord of the Rings again, especially right after watching the movies. It is still one of my all-time favorite books and one of my all-time favorite movies.

SOPAOpera ⧁


Not that anyone should be surprised by this, but the amounts of money some of the SOPA/Protect-IP supports have received from the movie/television/music industry is staggering.

Best Buy Is Gradually Going Out of Business ⧁


Well worth the time to read. I rarely go to Best Buy any more. They are loud, uncomfortable places filled with annoying help, or no help at all.

Not So Free Parking ⧁


Fascinating read about the true costs of “free parking”. This ties into some possible unintended effects of Driverless Cars .

The Two Towers


{{ “B003BS18PY” | amazon_mediumleft_image }} The Two Towers has always been the hardest of the three Lord of the Rings series to read. It’s darker, and with the split story line and new characters, harder to follow. As with The Fellowship of the Ring the movie version of this book is dramatically different. Several of the characters are wholly different between the two tellings. In the movies Frodo is a victum, and Strider is unwilling to accept his fate. In the books Frodo is stronger and wiser and Strider is almost eager for his fate. I am not one to analyze what I read, but it has been fun to see the vast differences between the movie version and the printed version of this tale.

I’ve linked to the edition I own even though it is currently unavailable for sale. If you want a copy you’ll have to select a different edition.