Links for 28 September 208 through 01 October 2008

Here are the web links I’ve found for 28 September 2008 through 01 October 2008, posted automatically and covered in badger fat.

• How to be Creative | gapingvoid: Hugh MacLeod’s classic article on how to be creative, starting off with Tip #1: “Ignore everybody.”
• Pigeon-powered Internet takes flight | CNET News: A news report on the 2001 experiment to implement Internet protocol RFC1149, which allows Internet data to be sent by carrier pigeon. It’s not fast, it’s not particularly reliable.
• Welcome to my world, the “online community” that prefers to keep out of site | theage.com.au: A strangely misinformed article about online communities, which commits what I think is the great sin of assuming a social relationship becomes less valid when mediated online.
• Height | xkcd: xkcd is “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language”, but this episode is a wonderful diagram of the universe drawn to a logarithmic scale, from the height of a giraffe to 46 billion light years out. It’s also available as a poster print (hint hint).
• How to change the product key for Office XP, for Office 2003, and for the 2007 Office system: I’ve had to roll out a lot of computers this weekend. Rather than spend 4.5 hours on each one, I set up one and then cloned them (at least where the hardware was identical). That meant they all had the same product key for Microsoft Office. This article explains how to reset it and change it back.
• Change the Windows Vista Key | About.com: I’ve had to roll out a lot of computers this weekend. Rather than spend 4.5 hours on each one, I set up one and then cloned them (at least where the hardware was identical). That meant they all had the same product key for Windows. This article explains how to reset it and change it back in Vista.
• How to change the Volume Licensing product key on a computer that is running Windows XP SP1 and later versions of Windows XP: I’ve had to roll out a lot of computers this weekend. Rather than spend 4.5 hours on each one, I set up one and then cloned them (at least where the hardware was identical). That meant they all had the same product key for Windows. This article explains how to reset it and change it back in Windows XP.