WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?

Talk Like Jack Bauer Day, January 15.

Tired of XML?

If, like me, you're tired of trying to use XML as a one-size-fits-all RPC mechanism, you might want to take a look at this article from Simon Willison about JSON.

Holiday Log is Rated TV-G

The Eastern Syndicate

OK, I will finally mention why this blog has this name, since it's seasonally appropriate.

"Look Charlie, let's face it. We all know that Christmas is a big commercial racket. It's run by a big eastern syndicate, you know."

-Lucy to Charlie Brown, A Charlie Brown Christmas

Of course that's not the end of the story. Merry Christmas.

Mark's 2006 Year in Review, part II

I think I'm going to send him my mountain bike as a get-well gift.

Schwarzenegger breaks leg while skiing

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger broke his leg while skiing with his family Saturday morning in Sun Valley, Idaho, a spokesman said.

Schwarzenegger, 59, was taken to a hospital for X-rays and was discharged with a fracture to his right femur, said Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications.

(more at Yahoo)

So do we

We Practice the Old Religion of Egypt, Sir

White mom calling seven-year-old girl: Isis, come back over here! Don't wander off - stay where I can see you!
Black man: Woman, you name me 'Isis,' and I wander as far away from you as I can get. I don't blame that girl. Isis! What kind of name is that for a little white girl? Damn! Now I know white people crazy.

--Central Park

via Overheard in New York, Dec 22, 2006

Mark's 2006 Year in Review, part I

marriedtothesea.com

Christmas Greetings from...

... Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran.

This is great. Now if I could just get him to support Safari on his web site :-)

Merry Christmas to everyone! 2006/12/21

In the Name of Almighty God, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate


Merry Christmas to everyone!
My sincere congratulations to everyone for the Glorious and Auspicious Birthday of Divine Prophet - confirmed and authenticated by Gabriel, the angel of Divine revelation - the Obedient of Almighty God,
Jesus Christ, the Messiah (peace be upon Him)

He was a messenger of peace, devotion and love based upon monotheism and justice. He was raised in His Mother’s hand – Virgin Mary (peace be upon her) – that Almighty God stood her as impeccable and exalted her above the women of the world. The Mother and the Son that in the Divine Sight are reputable and prestigious. And they are positioned by God – The All Wise- at a sublime level.

There’s no doubt, after God – the Peerless Creator, the Beneficent, the Merciful – created the human beings, did not forsake them on their own. By sending and assigning the emissaries – prophets and messengers - along with the righteous individuals, and on top of that, by providing and utilizing the mankind with the gifts of intellect and human nature, they are guided in the right path – in order to achieve the complete perfection. The human generations – one after another – were not created to live in anguish, intimidation, skirmish, aggression, oppression, and misery. And without enjoying an amity and fraternity atmosphere - replete of love and justice – depart this life and leave it for the next generations.

The philosophy of human creation is: reaching the pinnacle of bliss, construction of immaculate life, efflorescence of all potentialities and talents, implementation of justice and devotion across the world amongst all human beings. This is one of the definite Divine promises that when the world is filled with oppression and enmity by the tyrants and oppressors, it will become full of justice by the reappearance of the promised Savior. All the Divine Prophets have clearly anounced this fact.

Unfortunately during the history, some egoistic and tyrant individuals have existed that stood against the convocations and the sermons of the Divine Prophets. And these tyrants and oppressors were the causation of all the adversities and the originator of all wars and animosities.

Today’s status quo of the world is obvious of everyone. In occupied Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, and South America and even in Europe and North America, due to the interests of despotic dominant rulers’ parties and clans and also for filling up their pockets, the dignity, benevolence, peace and tranquility of the human beings have been taken to abattoir and slaughtered. And then, lie and deception are positioned for honesty and truth.

Many peoples are exasperated from the present situation of the world. And they have come to the conclusion that the existed procedure, method and technique can not provide tranquilly and peace to the mankind.

Frankly, if Jesus Christ – the Messiah (peace be upon Him) was present today, how would He react? And whom would He stand with and against?

If Jesus Christ (peace be upon Him) was present today, he would order an encounter against those who would propagate corruption, obscenity and perversion, and try to nullify and exterminate the merits and the rights of women and diminish their position – a position that virgin Mary (peace be upon Her) – is their role model and sample.

If Jesus Christ (peace be upon Him) was present today, He would order a contention against those who try to discharge the world from morality, spirituality, intellectuality, justice, and peace. And accordingly, the true followers of the Divine Prophets would follow their steps in regard to strengthening the morality, intellectuality, spirituality, peace and justice in the world.

Although last year was accompanied with many injustices, aggressions, and many violation of rights, but the calls and outcries of begging and imploring from God and demanding justice were louder. Day by day, nations would realize the power of faith and godliness. They would go for peace and justice more than before and give a positive answer to the Divine prophets’ sermons and would tell to their Creator – Almighty God “Here am I!” Praise the Lord!

The same way that Jesus Christ (peace be upon Him) invited the people to goodness and perfection, and also avoid them from evil, atrocity and aggression, His true followers do the same. With the belief in God and the Hereafter, they are frontiers in righteousness.

Certainly, the implementation of the Divine Prophets’ commands and directions would reform and improve our lives in this world and would safeguard a satisfying afterlife conjunctionally.

We believe that the beloved Jesus Christ – the Messiah (peace be upon Him and His Mother) would also reappear for the fulfillment of the promises of all the Divine prophets. And together – accompanying the invited of the nations – would bring all the beauties and goodness for humanity of the world. And we are getting close to that date.

While commemorating the birthday of the Prophet of amity, love and devotion – Jesus Christ, the Messiah (peace be upon Him and His beloved Mother) and congratulating the new year, I beg God – the Merciful, the All-Wise – a year of bliss, and health and a year replete of blessing, abundance, success, and affection for everyone, specially the Christian of Iran and the world.

What have the Hittites done for us lately?

Built us a dam that's back in use after 3246 years, that's what. (Yahoo)

Shortest post ever

Christmas green.

Always a good idea

Microsoft suggests that users "do not open or save Word files," even those that arrive unexpectedly from trusted sources. "As a best practice, users should always exercise extreme caution when opening unsolicited attachments from both known and unknown sources," the company said.

(eWeek, via Daring Fireball)

Egyptian exhibit

Exhibit shows Egypt's sunken treasures

The great port of Alexandria was a bustling trade hub, a transit point for merchandise from throughout the ancient world — until much of it vanished into the Mediterranean Sea.

Treasure hunters have long scoured the Egyptian coast for vestiges of the port, thought to have disappeared about 13 centuries ago. Now an exhibit at Paris' Grand Palais brings together 500 ancient artifacts recovered from the area by underwater archeologists using sophisticated nuclear technology.

"Egypt's Sunken Treasures" features colossuses of pink granite, a 17.6-ton slab inscribed with hieroglyphics, a phalanx of crouching sphinx, pottery, amulets and gold coins and jewelry — all painstakingly fished out of the Mediterranean. Some of the oldest artifacts are estimated to have spent 2,000 years underwater.

The show, which runs through mid-March, spans more than 1,500 years of Egyptian history and traces the decline of the Pharaohs and occupations by Greeks, Romans and Byzantines.

(Yahoo)

Nox Rays

So I went to the doctor, and he gave me a clean bill of health, which is nice. I even brought the camera, thinking that I would get a snapshot of the X-rays. But I decided against it.

I did find out that I had also broken my scapula (one of the new X-rays showed it pretty clearly) but it's all healed up now. Funny that I would go for five and a half months without knowing it.

Not worth it

I'm reading Plutarch's Life of Marius.

There is testimony both to the temperance of Marius, and also to his fortitude, of which his behaviour under a surgical operation is a proof. He was afflicted in both legs, as it would appear, with varicose veins, and as he disliked the deformity, he resolved to put himself into the physician's hands. Refusing to be bound, he presented to him one leg, and then, without a motion or a groan, but with a steadfast countenance and in silence, endured incredible pain under the knife. When, however, the physician was proceeding to treat the other leg, Marius should suffer him no further, declaring that he saw the cure to be not worth the pain.

Little Foot

Ancient ape ruled out of man's ancestral line

Ancient remains, once thought to be a key link in the evolution of mankind, have now been shown to be 400,000 years too young to be a part of man’s family tree.

The remains of the apeman, dubbed Little Foot, were discovered in a cave complex at Sterkfontein by a local South African team in 1997. Its bones preserved in sediment layers, it is the most complete hominid fossil skeleton ever found.

Little Foot is of the genus Australopithecus, thought by some to be part of the ancestral line which led directly to man. But research by Dr Jo Walker and Dr Bob Cliff of the University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment, with Dr Alf Latham of Liverpool University's School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, shows the remains are more than a million years younger than earlier estimates.

The team used uranium lead chronology to date the remains. Working on extracts of stalagmite deposits from immediately above and below the body, they dated the skeleton at around 2.2 million years old.

Their findings, published in the American journal Science, are controversial. Earlier estimates had put the age of Little Foot at three to four million years old placing it potentially on a direct line to humans.

The first recognisable stone tools appeared in Africa around 2.6 million years ago, but they were not made by Australopiths. Rather it is thought the first tool maker was Homo habilis, whose evolution is believed to have led directly to man. Rather than being older than Homo habilis – and a possible direct ancestor – Little Foot is more likely a distant cousin.

His remains are cemented in hard mineral deposits in the Sterkfontein cave complex which has yielded a number of other ancient finds. It is thought he either fell down a shaft or somehow got trapped in the cave and died there to be covered by the sediment layers from which he is now being slowly extracted. These sediments are themselves sandwiched between stalagmite layers which provided the materials for the dating process.

Australopithecus walked on two legs, but stood just 130cm tall and had a brain comparable in size with a modern chimpanzee. As Dr Walker explained: “In many of these finds, the smallest bones have disintegrated, but here the feet and hands are well preserved - and these could enable researchers to show how well adapted this early primate was to walking on two feet.”

But the sediment encasing Little Foot is harder than the bone – making extracting him a painstaking process for the South African team.

And Drs Latham and Cliff have now turned their own attention to further Australopith findings at Makapansgat, also in South Africa, where other specimens of Australopithecus have been found.

I need one of those appliances

But It Did Kill That Spam

Spam is heavy at this mortgage company, so a consultant is brought in. He reviews six months of accumulated spam, designs a filter and sets up an antispam appliance that should kill 98% of the junk. Everyone’s happy. Then it goes live. (Continued at Computerworld Shark Tank)

redchilimerchandise Sale Time!

Please take a look at my items for sale here at redchilimerchandise -- it's end of year sale time for me and everything must go! These are books which I ended up with and either didn't use them or they got very light usage -- they're all in great shape, but they are taking up space in my office that they really shouldn't be, and they'd like a home where they're more likely to be read. Thanks for listening to my little sales pitch.

(P.S. - if you have any other questions about the items, or would like to see photos of the ones that Amazon doesn't have on file, please contact me here (or at my email address if you know it) and I'll be glad to help.)

we Pod

I have had an iPod shuffle for a couple of years, and it's been great for playing music (particularly randomly arranged music), which is its strong point and what it was designed for. But I listen to a lot of audiobooks and recorded lectures too, where it's important to play the files in order, and more importantly, to be able to look at the user interface to see where you are if you screw up and accidentally skip a section or whatever. Not so great, using the Shuffle that way.

I have a couple of days of driving ahead of me and decided that yes, I'll want to listen to some lectures as well as music, and no, it will probably be too painful to contemplate using the Shuffle for that. So I stopped by Valley Fair and picked up a 30 gig white iPod. Was originally thinking about the 4 or 8 gig Nano, but the price was right on the full size one -- and I got the color, white, that I wanted. Not that I typically buy products based on color, but... anyway.



Also picked up another kludge to hook the iPod up to the radio in my car (I have one of these for the Shuffle -- it works reasonably well, but has a USB connector instead of the new proprietary connector.)



I paid list price at the Apple Store because I was in a hurry (traveling this Friday) -- the links I've provided above, at Amazon, are pretty damn good prices if I do say so myself, and significantly less than what I paid. And Amazon ships pretty fast.

Probably a while longer

I haven't been posting a lot of my own content here, have I? There are a number of things going on, none of which I'm going to talk about right now, but that day's coming soon enough.

In the meantime I can post more gross X-rays of myself! Actually that reminds me, I am getting some X-rays taken in a couple of weeks. The doctor recommended that I should just take my digital camera to the appointment if I want a copy. I'll do that, if I actually remember the camera, that is.

Also I will be in San Diego this weekend and somewhat into next week. Don't know if I'll post from there yet, we'll see...

Insignia of Emperor Maxentius unearthed

Archaeologists have unearthed what they say are the only existing imperial insignia belonging to Emperor Maxentius — precious objects that were buried to preserve them and keep them from enemies when he was defeated by his rival Constantine.

Excavation under Rome's Palatine Hill near the Colosseum turned up items including three lances and four javelins that experts said are striking for their completeness — digs usually turn up only fragments — and the fact that they are the only known artifacts of their kind.

Some of the objects, which accompanied the emperor during his public appearances, are believed to be the base for the emperor's standards — rectangular or triangular flags, officials said.

An imperial scepter with a carved flower and a globe, and a number of glass spheres, believed to be a symbolic representation of the earth, also were discovered.

The discovery was announced Wednesday by Italy's Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli during a visit to New York.

(more at Yahoo)

Do I know this kid?

Look Who's Talking, Mr. Wets-the-Bed

Seven-year-old boy to his three-month-old sister: You have no intellect!

--Uptown F train

Overheard by: Sam

via Overheard in New York, Dec 2, 2006

Should have happened in my high school Part II

toothpastefordinner.com

I wish I'd done this in high school

Of course I wish they'd had YouTube in high school too.

(from Dean Esmay)

Don't cross this one

Tropical storm Durian continues to move out of our region, traveling west northwest at 14 mph according to the National Weather Service Office in Tiyan. (Guam Pacific Daily News)

It's the Great Pumpkin from Hell

(from Robot Chicken)

Not exactly from the Great Lakes, but close

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North   You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

The Inmates Are in Charge of the Asylum

Clayton Cramer gives us an interesting case where this may have been literally true.

I am not having a lot of great thoughts

And I am not normally one to be quoting Nietzsche, mind you.

"All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Those Oracle lawyers are really scary

"You will not use the Programs for, and will not allow the Programs to be used for, any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, for the development, design, manufacture or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons of mass destruction."
-- Oracle Technology Network Developer License Terms

My ex-cell phone company doesn't understand this either

4PM This Dramatization of the Importance of Negative Numbers Is the Grittiest Schoolhouse Rock Yet

CSR: Customer Service, this is Sheri*. May I have your account number please?
Customer: Why is my account negative?!
CSR: Well, if you give me your account number I can look it up and go over your transactions with you.

Customer gives information, CSR verifies, and the conversation continues.

CSR: Well, Ma'am, looks like your opening deposit on Tuesday was 25 dollars... And then you withdrew 40 dollars from the ATM on Friday.
Customer: And...?
CSR: Well, 25 dollars minus 40 dollars is negative 15 dollars.
Customer: I don't understand what you are trying to tell me.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

via Overheard in the Office, Nov 22, 2006

Do you have any memory

"It is not a simple life to be a single cell, although I have no right to say so, having been a single cell so long ago myself that I have no memory at all of that stage of my life."
—Lewis Thomas (1913–1993) author, biologist, physician

Atia vs. Servilia

Which team do you support?

Wigu is back!

Wigu is back!

I am, just slightly, excited about this.

WIGU IS BACK!!!

Matilda

'Matilda Who Told Lies, And Was Burned to Death'
by Hillaire Belloc

Matilda told such Dreadful Lies,
It made one Gasp and Stretch one's Eyes;
Her Aunt, who, from her Earliest Youth,
Had kept a Strict Regard for Truth,
Attempted to Believe Matilda:
The effort very nearly killed her,
And would have done so, had not She
Discovered this Infirmity.

For once, towards the Close of Day,
Matilda, growing tired of play,
And finding she was left alone,
Went tiptoe to the Telephone
And summoned the Immediate Aid
Of London's Noble Fire-Brigade.

Within an hour the Gallant Band
Were pouring in on every hand,
From Putney, Hackney Downs, and Bow
With Courage high and Hearts aglow
They galloped, roaring through the Town,
'Matilda's House is Burning Down!'

Inspired by British Cheers and Loud
Proceeding from the Frenzied Crowd,
They ran their ladders through a score
Of windows on the Ball Room Floor;
And took Peculiar Pains to Souse
The Pictures up and down the House,

Until Matilda's Aunt succeeded
In showing them they were not needed;
And even then she had to pay
To get the Men to go away! . . . .

It happened that a few Weeks later
Her Aunt was off to the Theatre
To see that Interesting Play
The Second Mrs Tanqueray.
She had refused to take her
Niece To hear this entertaining Piece:
A Deprivation Just and Wise
To Punish her for Telling Lies.

That Night a Fire did break out -
You should have heard Matilda Shout!
You should have heard her Scream and Bawl,
And throw the window up and call
To People passing in the Street -

(The rapidly increasing Heat
Encouraging her to obtain
Their confidence) - but all in vain!
For every time She shouted 'Fire!'
They only answered 'Little Liar'!
And therefore when her Aunt returned,
Matilda, and the House, were Burned.

The Great Traffic Inflation

Moscow streets are a nightmarish clog of some 3 million cars, a 12-fold increase since the end of Communism. (via Kibo)

The Great Inflation

A few months ago I recommended Supply-Side University as a good read about economics. It's now defunct, with the passing of Jude Wanniski, but a new site supplysideforum.com has picked up publishing articles from this point of view.

Here is a November 1 article entitled The Learning Curve of the Federal Reserve which is enlightening about where inflation comes from and the tenets of supply side economics. As I said last time, read this -- you may learn something since this theory is almost certainly not what you think it is.

Fingers

marriedtothesea.com

We entrust the homeland to these people

'Good-Enough Parenting' Is a Fairly Elastic Concept

Coworker #1: So, your daughter's learning to walk yet?
Coworker #2: Nah, not yet, but she can stand up and she falls down the stairs real good.
Coworker #1: What?
Coworker #2: Yeah, she did that last night. Scared me real good.
Coworker #1: Eh, don't worry. Once I dropped mine from a good height. About three or four feet. I didn't worry cause she started laughing.

Department of Homeland Security

Overheard by: scared of having children

via Overheard in the Office, Nov 9, 2006

Down

OK this is strange, it looks like everyone's site on Blogger is down right now except for mine.

I'm special.

My bizarre house

Mark: What is this, there's something on the knife.
Bryan: Maybe it's a crumb or something.
Mark: Oh yeah, ok, it just looks like a crumb.
Cow: Really?
Mark: Yes Cow, it's really a crumb.

The 70's (more)

Except of course that the Carter guy running for office (this time in Nevada) lost pretty badly, it appears.

Speaking of the 70's

After tonight's election results I feel like I'm living through the 70's again.

November 3rd's test

The movie quote came from Top Secret. I thought it was the best quote in the film, but then again I lived through the 70's.

It's sad that I have to ask a web site

You Are 84% Gentleman

No doubt about it, you are a total gentleman. You please the pickiest ladies, and you make everyone in a room feel comfortable.

Are You A Gentleman?

I don't know anyone like this

Lottery Board: Eeexcellent!

Customer: These ice cream cones and $100 in lotto tickets.
Store clerk: Ok, $106.39
Customer: What? These ice creams cost $6! What a waste of money! No, I dont want them. What a waste. Seriously! No, no just the lotto tickets.

Eastlake Mart,
Seattle, Washington

Overheard by: kallisti

via Overheard in the Office, Nov 6, 2006

Here too

Varifrank is on the receiving end of a lot of political phone calls.

In this household there is one independent (me) and one member of a third party. We are getting hit up continuously with political phone calls, the vast majority of which are from Republicans (although there is a local school referendum on the ballot that is precipitating some phone calls from the teachers' union.)

Another one

Hillary Flammond: My uncle was born in America.
Nick Rivers: Oh, really?
Hillary Flammond: But he was one of the lucky ones. He managed to escape in a balloon during the Jimmy Carter presidency.

I forgot

Did you guess the movie on October 15? Murder By Death. Too obvious?

OK perhaps it's quote season

A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can let alone.

-- Henry David Thoreau

A problem I wouldn't mind having

(from Citizen Kane)

THATCHER
Tell me honestly, my boy. Don't you think it's rather unwise to continue this philanthropic enterprise, this Inquirer, that's costing you a million dollars a year?

KANE
You are right, Mr. Thatcher. I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year! You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in -- sixty years.

Malus

De duobus malis minus est semper eligendum.

The false idol of extended warranties

John Gruber says:

I once told a sales guy at Best Buy that extended warranties were against my religion, on the grounds that they’re like placing a wager that whatever it is you’re buying is going to break, and that my religious forbids gambling. That shut him up.

Oh, I do so plan on using that one.

(Daring Fireball)

Mighty?

Best review of the Apple Mighty Mouse yet (at mezzoblue.com)

I have had this one since I upgraded to my new machine thoth about a month ago. So far I have disabled the side squeeze buttons (because they kept getting in the way) and the right button (because the auto-detection of which button I'm trying to click requires a level of physical coordination from me that's never going to happen -- after decades of using mice, my brain is hard coded not to worry about whether I'm resting the wrong finger on the mouse while trying to click with the other one. Didn't anyone test this?)

So I'm down to a classic one button mouse, with a scroll button. The scroll button's working fine for me. I guess that's some consolation. But in general, if I have to disable almost all of the product's features before I can make it acceptable, I would call that product a flop.

This might just work

Name that movie

Dick Charleston: [hanging up telephone] Sounded as though somebody snipped the wire.
Dora Charleston: Really? What did it sound like?
Dick Charleston: Snip.

Sidney Wang: Very interesting theory, Mr. Charleston. However, leave out one important point.
Dick Charleston: What's that?
Sidney Wang: Is stupid. Is stupidest theory I ever heard.

It is hard to title this post...

... without being trite and calling it "Smell-o-vision". Oh well. "Smell-o-vision" it is then. (from Cronaca).

Why Steve Jobs is a success

He "gets it" in an intuitive way that committees of other people cannot.

I normally don't like to do such a direct ripoff of someone else's post, but in this case I can't add anything. From Newsweek, via Daring Fireball: Steve Jobs is asked if he's worried about the Zune.

“In a word, no. I’ve seen the demonstrations on the Internet about how you can find another person using a Zune and give them a song they can play three times. It takes forever. By the time you’ve gone through all that, the girl’s got up and left! You’re much better off to take one of your earbuds out and put it in her ear. Then you’re connected with about two feet of headphone cable.”

Peddling books for Stalin

From time to time I'll be peddling books here (either books that I'm selling through Red Chili Merchandise, my book-selling enterprise, or from some other source if it's a book I'm really interested in.) In the interests of full disclosure, I have a financial interest in this. So if you're not interested in having me get money from any books you buy through this site, don't buy them through this site :-)

I grew up in the world where we were still worried about Communism and the Cold War, and had heard vague condemnations of Stalin as the most evil communist leader anyone had ever heard of, but I never knew a lot of detail. "Stalin" by Edvard Radzinsky changed all that for me. I couldn't put it down. It really filled in a relatively blank spot in my historical knowledge. It is, I should warn, Mr. Radzinsky's interpretation, but it was pretty convincing to me. He was there. I wasn't.

Aha

This graphic indicates very clearly what happened when Cory Lidle's plane crashed in New York.

Disaster

This site shows disasters and emergencies throughout the world. I am just mesmerized by this.

A tree rat

I know this is from the Cute Overload site, but

This is not cute.

That is target practice.

RSS support

I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but the Western Syndicate still has RSS support even after it moved over to Blogger. The new link is: http://beta.blogger.com/feeds/5378030372268226397/posts/full?alt=rss . To get an Atom feed, use the link at the bottom of the page.

What you might hear if you call my house

SorryWeAreNotInterestedInTakingPoliticalCallsGoodbye*CLICK*

This can't be good

Am I supposed to feel guilty if I go for several days without updating this site?

Coming to Safari

Safari remains my favorite web browser. Here is some new information about the new features that are coming in Safari 3.0, in Mac OS X Leopard early next year. (AppleInsider)

BIND help

I just did an upgrade from FreeBSD 5.3 to FreeBSD 6.1 on one of the machines here which happens to be my secondary DNS server. Lo and behold, BIND stopped working (it had been upgraded to 9.3.2). Well, it's not the first time that an upgrade introduced configuration issues that didn't used to be there previously.

I found these tips useful to get things back in order: Permission Denied error on secondary DNS server (from revsys.com). I also used the opportunity to tighten up security some more, it's always a good idea to do that anyway while I'm in there digging around.

Class struggle

Marx Predicted This

Little girl, to employee making a purchase: You can't shop here! You're supposed to work! You're not people!

801 North Congress Avenue
Boynton Beach, Florida

via Overheard in the Office, Sep 28, 2006

Buy It Now for a car???

Three-year-old buys pink convertible on Internet (Reuters)

I'm glad to hear that the seller had a good sense of humor about it. I wonder if eBay had a good sense of humor about the fees.

I didn't need another reason to take a nap

Snooze your way to high test scores

If you are trying to commit something to memory, take a nap. Even a short daytime snooze could help you learn. (more)

(NewScientist.com)

You big dummy

I have to admire this. But think of the money that was spent on lawyers.... ack!

Siebel's No Dummy

Why pay tax if you don't have to? Thomas Siebel used a corporate beast with the colorful name "horizontal double dummy" to avoid a big tax hit when he sold his Siebel Systems to Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ) this year. Worth $1.5 billion and No. 242 on our rich list, Siebel sidestepped a capital gains tax bill of at least $58 million by employing the perfectly legal device. His Siebel stock was valued at $488 million at the time of the $5.8 billion merger.

Follow the link to see how they did it.

(Forbes.com)

Woo Hoo

That song on the Vonage commercials? It's "Woo Hoo", by the 5678's. As a public service, here are the complete lyrics.

Intelligence agent

Bin Laden an Intelligence Agent: Naif
Raid Qusti, Arab News

RIYADH, 21 September 2006 — Interior Minister Prince Naif yesterday called Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden a silly intelligence agent. He also refuted Western allegations that Saudi Arabia was supporting Bin Laden and his terrorist organization.

(Arab News)

Nobody gets it?

I have been frustrated that, in all the news stories about the Pope's recent lecture addressing the relationship between faith and reason, in which he cited a very pointed quotation about Islam, the reporters covering the story have not gotten the point. The Muslims complaining about the quotation have not gotten the point. The people preaching a Crusade against Islam because of the reaction of some Muslims have not gotten the point. None of them have read the lecture and taken it to heart first. Maybe it is just too difficult for them to read and comprehend.

The Anchoress gets the point. Read her posting.

Left justified

Times Draws Ragged Line Between Fact and Opinion

The New York Times has a rule about presenting opinions in its news columns: Henceforth, they must all conform to the left.

The Times has instituted a sweeping but subtle redesign, to emphasize the difference between objective and subjective journalism. Straight news will remain, well, straight: laid out in justified columns, with even margins on the left and right. Stories that have been colored by analysis, commentary or authorial whimsy will all receive the layout previously reserved for columns: a straight left margin and a ragged right one.

(New York Observer)

Let's see where this goes

Door to Iranian dialogue creaks open

By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - While his handlers worked assiduously on Tuesday to ensure that US President George W Bush did not run into his Iranian nemesis, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, in the corridors of the United Nations, a legendary fixer for the Bush family announced that the White House had cleared him to meet with a "high representative" of Tehran's government.

Former secretary of state James Baker, who co-chairs a bipartisan, congressionally appointed task force called the Iraq Study Group (ISG), said that the timing of the meeting with that representative, whom he declined to name, had yet to be
arranged, but that permission for such a meeting to take place had been granted.

(AsiaTimes Online)

Thoth

The new machine is named Thoth.

Having a good experience with the Mac Pro so far -- I will post in more detail about it later.

Oops

Well the new workstation is here but I don't have the right video cable...

Coffee is good for you

Cuppa java: scientists take new look at coffee's bad rap

Not only are some health fears misguided but coffee can actually reduce the chances of developing illnesses such as Parkinson's or diabetes, the International Association on Coffee Science heard here.

Up to six mugs of the beloved beverage a day will not lead to heart or digestive damage in a healthy person. But misunderstandings stem from the fact that for nearly two centuries medical studies on coffee have been confined to caffeine, a stimulant.

"For a long time research has been too simplistic, by largely being centred on just caffeine, while coffee is an extremely complex drink," said Astrid Nehlig, a leading French specialist on the relationship between coffee and health.

I hope so

Can hearing voices in your head be a good thing?

Psychologists have launched a study to find out why some people who hear voices in their head consider it a positive experience while others find it distressing.

Nifty new things from Apple

Click here to buy a new one of the new iPods! If you purchase from Amazon through this link, the Western Syndicate receives a referral bonus that helps fund the operation of our network. And I thought I'd never be in sales. Hah.

And these are really cool iPods. As a fan of the iPod shuffle, I'm just ... well, speechless over the new Shuffle. But really, if they make it any smaller than that I won't be able to see it...

The product I'm really looking forward to is the wireless Apple set-top box (I was just wishing last night that I could have a device that worked that way, before I knew that Apple was going to announce it.) Unfortunately you can't buy one at that Amazon link (yet) -- the product won't be available till next year, apparently.

Lots of information up at the Apple web site.

Reborn

We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state - doctors can only make a sufferer's last days as painless as possible. But is that really the truth? (The Guardian)

I thought it was a telephone wire

I knew a guy like this in high school.

Vietnam's Electric Man electrocuted

HANOI (Reuters) - A Vietnamese man who once appeared on national television to demonstrate his ability to resist electric shocks has been electrocuted while repairing a generator, an official said on Tuesday.

(Yahoo!)

Not a contest

I will not do a contest about this.

HOWEVER. My new desktop computer is arriving tomorrow afternoon. It is replacing a trusty dual 1Ghz PowerMac G4 with mirrored drive doors (and the loudest fan ever to ship from Apple, I think.)

The old machine is named Quaoar, and a particularly nifty name it has been indeed. I am kicking around a couple of new machine name ideas but haven't decided yet. What should I call the new one?

More information about Quaoar here.

Rogue Amoeba shirts

Rogue Amoeba T-shirts are now available here. In case you're interested in that sort of thing.

Good thing he never met my parrot

"The only animals I'm not comfortable with are parrots, but I'm learning as I go. I'm getting better and better at 'em. I really am. "

-- Steve Irwin

"Yeah, for some reason parrots have to bite me. That's their job. I don't know why that is. They've nearly torn my nose off. I've had some really bad parrot bites."

-- Steve Irwin

How do I get on this list?

John da Fiesole reviews a book that sounds really interesting to me: Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints. Not that I'm necessarily any of those things. I'm also definitely sure I'm not a saint, so there you are.

Anyway check out his review for a full list of the saints, to give you some idea of why I don't expect to be able to resist picking up a copy.

Impossible

There is no legal obligation to perform impossibilities.

-- Publius Celsus

Current Boom

A dramatic graph showing the scale of the current real estate bubble. (The Galvin Opinion).

How appropriate

Which OS are You?

The Rules of the Game

The Official Rules of Baseball

The universe is a giant quantum computer

In Markopoulou and Kribs's version of loop quantum gravity, they considered the universe as a giant quantum computer, where each quantum of space is replaced by a bit of quantum information.

You are made of space-time

The 9/11 Report as a Graphic Novel

is being excerpted by Slate this week (one chapter per day apparently -- there are two chapters up right now.) This looks very ambitious and an interesting use of the graphic novel format.

The excerpts are available here.

You can purchase a copy from Amazon here (hardcover) or (paperback).

(From Brian.)

An interesting bit of Civil War history

Lots of information in here I wasn't familiar with.

The Catholic Church and the Confederate States of America (two pages)

I'll be drawing the attention of airport security

This is almost exactly what my x-ray looks like for the most significant of the injuries I had in my bike accident back in the beginning of July. Wheeless' Textbook of Orthopaedics contains much more information about what an intertrochanteric fracture is and how it's treated.

As for me, I still can't walk on it, until August 28, but am otherwise feeling fine now, and getting good at hopping around on crutches.

All done?

OK I think everything has been uploaded. Well except for a couple of small references to the operation of the old site that wouldn't have made sense over here.

The move is on

I'm moving this over to Blogger... I think. Now to try importing several months of posts from the old site.

New US Airport Screening Policies

Here is the US Government's description of what the actual rules are (rather than the rumors we have all been hearing.)

TSA Corrects Media on New Airport Screening Policies

The Transportation Security Agency (TSA) has corrected early media reports on two requirements of the new airport screening polices implemented Thursday:

Laptop computers, cell phones and other small electronic devices can still be carried on board.

Passengers at U.S. airports are NOT being required to sample baby formula, milk or beverages during the screening process. This process is being required only at foreign airports. However, baby formula must be submitted for inspection to a TSA security officer by passengers traveling with a baby.
Also still allowed to be carried on are prescription medicines that match the passenger’s name and essential non-prescription medicines such as insulin.

TSA is also maintaining an updated set of Questions and Answers on the new screening requirements.

(from about.com)

There is a lesson here

But the resistance of the garrison informed the Barbarians, that in the attack of regular fortifications, the efforts of unskillful courage are seldom effectual. Their general acknowledged his error, raised the siege, declared that "he was at peace with stone walls," and revenged his disappointment on the adjacent country.

-- History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 2, Chapter XXVI, Edward Gibbon

This has to be real

OK, I don't really want to make a habit of posting articles from The Onion, but I couldn't resist.

Bush Grants Self Permission To Grant More Power To Self

(via Mark Shea)

Respect

"I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect."
--Edward Gibbon

The importance of, punctuation

Rogers Communications loses $2 million because of a misplaced comma in a contract.  (via Mirabilis)

Too much going on

all of it not good.  Check out this map of recent planned terrorist attacks, related arrests and other suspicious activities (Sticky Notes).

Music

Want some free sheet music?  Check out the Mutopia project.  There are sample MIDI files too (so you can hear what you're getting the sheet music for.)

OK this had better be a joke

A few weeks ago I was pointing out that you can print your own Monopoly money.

Turns out that the folks at Parker Brothers are keeping one step ahead of us.

Parker Brothers is phasing out the cash-based version's funmoney and replacing it with an "Electronic Banking" flavor that could leave Mr. Moneybags turning his pockets inside out as his stash is replaced by a magnetic strip. New kits are completely devoid of the famous multi-colored bills; instead, you'll find phoney Visa debit cards and a calculator / reader which keeps a running tabulation of your riches -- or lack thereof.

That ain't right.

(via The Cranky Professor)

It's a hot summer everywhere

I can think of a couple of parrots living here who would like this.

In the Swiss city of Zurich, zookeepers said they had been serving the animals ice creams made of berries, meat and bones to cool them down.

(BBC, via Cronaca)

See

The reason that's "funny" is that on July 2 I crashed my bike. So I've been at home recuperating since then, and haven't been typing a lot in here.

But starting to feel a lot better now. It's just going to take weeks for things to mend. This is the first day I've gotten to sit at my real desk where I can feel a little bit more comfortable doing some typing.

Sooo...

Anything exciting going on?

Our Everglades holdings

CHAPTER XVII—FRANCES ESTABLISHES A SCHOOL. SEA-SICKNESS NEARING HAVANA

Upon landing at the Everglades, we went afoot over a plank walk to the observatory. This we climbed, and had a fine view of the country for miles around. We were informed that a western syndicate had made a deal of a million and a half dollars in those Everglades lands.

The full work is here.
Fifty Years on the Rail

And be sure to read the Suggestions to Beginners.  There is an entire art of steam locomotives, much of which you can imagine was captured only in oral history, and is almost entirely lost now.  We will be saying the same of much of today's technology in 100 years -- even though we think that we have enormous amounts of written documentation on the Internet sufficient to explain to some future observer every detail of what we do, the fact is that often the most interesting parts are the ones that aren't written down anywhere.

I blame the internets for these lies!

The Episcopal Information Ministry

Wireless tricks

I went through another one of those experiences trying to configure something (in this case an Atheros-based wireless ethernet card on a FreeBSD laptop) and couldn't really locate the information I needed in any detail on the Internet. Anyway, I got it working and wrote up a quick article about it. This isn't comprehensive but may provide some additional hints to people who are having trouble figuring it out (and these steps did work for me.)

I'm rich!

Print your own Monopoly money. Legally.

Land O Links

Gathered a lot of links today and thought I would do them all at once.

Kibo sends along this latest "research" project from Microsoft.  I can't figure out what they're thinking, but maybe you can.  Ask it about something popular, say, http://www.google.com.

JCP sends along why flag burning is fun.  When I read this, I originally went off on a tangent about Bram's reply, and starting thinking about whether we should reestablish the Federalist party.  Then I thought a bit harder and realized that a) I'm actually a bit more of an anti-Federalist myself, and b) I'm not sure that he thinks Federalist means what it actually means.

Neighbors discover 4-foot shark while on daily desert walk.

Here is something for you to think about if you believe as I do that education in America is beyond saving.  John Taylor Gatto is an advocate of radical education reform and a former New York "teacher of the year".  Here is a collection of his articles include a link to his web site.

Here is the latest bit of saber rattling from Israel.  As saber rattling goes, I have to admit this one is pretty good.

Household savings tip of the week

1. Buy deep freezer. Stick it in the garage.
2. Wait for local supermarket to shut down in supermarket wars. Purchase as much inventory as you want at 30-50% off. Store in freezer.
3. Wait for next supermarket to shut down and repeat.

Getting ahead

Ben Stein's words of wisdom about how to get ahead at work.

• Stay in the Game
• Don't Work for Insane People
• Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
• Don't Talk Endlessly About Yourself
• Get a Rabbi
• Look the Part, and Look Good
• Stand Out for the Excellence of Your Work

The full article is here. (Yahoo).

The bike is back in service

Flies in school lunch debate

Ah, when I see "flies in school lunch debate" in a headline, it just reminds me of my school days.

"Fluff" flies in school lunch debate
Thu Jun 22, 2006 5:16pm ET

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - When it comes to food, Boston is best known for baked beans and clam chowder. But this week, state legislators have engaged in robust debate on Marshmallow Fluff -- a locally made, sugary spread.

State Sen. Jarrett Barrios started the tempest in a lunch box when he learned that his son's Cambridge grammar school cafeteria offered Fluff-and-peanut butter sandwiches daily.

Supply-Side University

Supply-Side University gives the best exposition of supply-side economics anywhere. Don't knock it until you try it. This week's article is about the Laffer Curve -- what it really is, and what it isn't. You might be surprised.

A memory, or something

Favorite blog quote of the day.:

I looooove carbon taxes. I think I've even said so in print, somewhere. It's just that I have a memory like a . . . like a . . . like one of those things, you know, with the holes in it that you use to drain pasta? I have a memory like a whaddayacallit.

Hmm, am I supposed to add my two cents worth? I don't think I have an opinion about carbon taxes...

Airplane... or missile?

I am inclined to agree with the sentiment of this post, being an opponent of the war in Serbia back in the 90's. However, that being said, I don't think it makes the point it's trying to make.

So, against that country, the US gov't unleashed a campaign of savage bombing,
including bombing the private residence of that country's leader. And, one
faithful day, some remote-controlled little planes, carrying thousands of
pounds of high explosives, flew through the windows of the local TV station and
exploded inside killing lots of totally innocent civilians, including men,
women and children too.

Every reference I can find to the attack on the TV station (which has been questioned internationally as to whether it was a war crime) says that the building was hit with missiles, not airplanes.

Now if there is new evidence that I haven't seen before that the attack was actually carried out with airplanes, then a link would be nice, because that's truly news.

If the claim is that "missiles are just little airplanes, after all, and attacking people is evil no matter how you do it", then the claim that this was "the first experiment of airplanes flying into buildings" is nonsensical. Clearly missiles have been used to attack buildings before.

I feel so lame now

Just got this in a spam.

You've probably heard of the term "blog" or "weblog". It's a page that displays (in chronological order) a series of writings on whatever the author wants to write about. While a normal blog also allows others to add their comments to yours, you don't have to offer that functionality.

Set up a page where you regularly add your thoughts on all sorts of issues - or just one issue - with the most recent post at the top of the page. Include these items in an RSS feed, and you've got a whole new audience for your pearls of wisdom.

I stand out in a crowd

Men Are Better Than Women at Ferreting Out That Angry Face in a Crowd

Trying to get someone's attention? Looking angry may be the key. The face most likely to stand out in a crowd is an irate one, according to a new study, and men are better than women at picking up the anger that a face conveys.

On the other hand, women are more adept at detecting more socially relevant expressions that communicate happiness, sadness, surprise and disgust.

What's interesting to me is that anger is not a socially relevant emotion. Could have fooled me. Jerk.

Obviously it's not working

It would be trite to say I've gotta try this, but I've gotta try this.

The Department of Homeland Security allowed a man to enter its headquarters last week using a fake Matricula Consular card as identification, despite federal rules that say the Mexican-issued card is not valid ID at government buildings.

Bruce DeCell, a retired New York City police officer, used his phony card -- which lists his place of birth as "Tijuana, B.C." and his address as "123 Fraud Blvd." on an incorrectly spelled "Staton Island, N.Y." -- to enter the building Wednesday for a meeting with DHS officials.

Mr. DeCell said he has had the card for four years and has used it again and again to board airliners and enter government buildings, without being turned down once. But he said he was surprised that DHS, the agency in charge of determining secure IDs, accepted it.

"Obviously, it's not working," Mr. DeCell said.

(Thanks Kibo.)

Better than Godzilla vs. Frontrow

Kitten vs Frontrow

Everyone go back to school and relearn history

Minoan civilization was more important than you thought. 

The new results suggest that the sophisticated and powerful Minoan civilization (featured in the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur) and several other pre-Homeric civilizations arose about a century earlier and lasted for longer than previously thought.

The new timeframe also downplays Egypt’s role in the region, suggesting that the cultures of the Levant, the stretch of land that includes Syria, Israel and Palestine, may have been a more important outside influence.

Attention readers who are running VoIP servers

Hacker Said to Resell Internet Phone Service

Instead of buying access to other networks to connect his clients' calls, Mr. Pena paid about $20,000 to Robert Moore, the man arrested in Spokane, to create "what amounted to 'free' routes by surreptitiously hacking into the computer networks" of unwitting Internet phone providers, and then routing his customers' calls over those providers' systems, according to the federal complaint.

...

Mr. Pena, however, appears to have used the money he received from his customers to go on a spending spree, buying real estate in south Florida, a 40-foot Sea Ray Mercruiser motor boat, and luxury cars including a BMW and a Cadillac Escalade.

That's OK I wasn't thinking of flying any time soon

Pictures: GE investigates cause of American Airlines Boeing 767-200 uncontained CF6-80A engine failure that led to aircraft fire

Save us from the Mexicans

PRESIDENT DUNE BUGGY, SAVE US FROM THE MEXICANS

I really don't hate the guy, but you have to admit this is pretty funny.

Will he... or won't he?

Geronimo's family call on Bush to help return his skeleton

The great grandson of the Apache leader Geronimo has appealed to the big chief in the White House to help recover the remains of his famous relative - purportedly stolen more than 90 years ago by a group of students - including the President's grandfather.

A new record!

'X-Men' storms to record opening weekend

"X-Men: The Last Stand" stormed to an estimated $107 million three-day opening, the largest ever for Memorial Day weekend and the fourth-biggest in box office history.

I don't think "largest opening ever for Memorial Day weekend" is much of a record. It's also the largest opening ever for a movie whose title starts with X!

Hope springs eternal

I know that in the last couple of weeks, I haven't been contributing a lot of my own ideas here -- mainly just pasting in occasional clippings that I find interesting. Things have been a little bit more hectic than usual. I'm chasing down the last few weeks of a death march software development project at work, and also making plans to attend a conference in Las Vegas later in June (perhaps I'll talk more about that here in a few weeks.) In other words, the situation is about normal for someone in my line of work, but I am hoping for things to let up soon.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be Blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home,
Rest and expatiates in a life to come.
Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutor'd mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way;
Yet simple Nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, an humbler heav'n.

- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

Not a moment too soon

A pesky, century-old tax on your phone bill is finally being put to rest.

The Treasury Department said Thursday that it will no longer collect a 3% federal excise tax on long-distance calls and would refund about $15 billion to taxpayers.

The tax was imposed in 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War. It was designed as a tax on wealthy Americans, back when phone service was considered a luxury.

"It's not often you get to kill a tax, particularly one that goes back so far in history," Treasury Secretary John Snow said.

Headline of the Day

Some Mexican migrants turning to bicycles

And here I've never heard of a Ford Ghia

The latest in the long series of eBay auctions where it looks like the seller's about to lose it. (from The Register)

Gigantic Undertaking

LIBBY PRISON Has Been Purchased by a Western Syndicate. TO CHICAGO IT GOES. It Will be Pulled Down and Re-erected in the Lake City. GIGANTIC UNDERTAKING. To Carry It Out $200,000 to be Subscribed. A FAMOUS BUILDING. Interesting Historical Incidents in Connection With It. ESCAPE OF COLONEL STREIGHT’S PARTY. Removal of the Prisoners at the Time of the Evacuation, &c., &c., &c.

Tasty

From Palo Alto Weekly:

It's well-known that goats will eat just about anything, but they do have preferences. Charlotte Lewis of Living Systems said the goats will go for many of the invasive species — such [as] star thistle and poison oak — before they will eat native grasses. The reason? Invasive species taste better.

Deeply mysterious

Google is indeed deeply mysterious to deal with (I have personally experienced this.)  Opinions from Don Dodge on this subject here.

Start your own version of Google

If you're trying to use AJAX to start your own version of Google, you might find this of interest.  This is the coolest way I have seen to do this so far, since I don't like rolling my own xmlHttpRequests and hacking around in JavaScript code.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/making-ajax-development-easier.html

The software can be downloaded from:

http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/

Which one is real?

It is I

I can agree with Tertullian, at least partially

"In their censures of luxury the fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial; and among the various articles which excite their pious indignation, we may enumerate false hair, garments of any colour except white, instruments of music, vases of gold or silver, downy pillows (as Jacob reposed his head on a stone), white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, the use of warm baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, according to Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and an impious attempt to improve the works of the Creator."

Chapter 15, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon

Trouble

"If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you."

Calvin Coolidge

His values, maybe

"There's probably no post more important in preserving our security and our values as people than the CIA," Hayden said.

Bush Turns to Gen. Hayden to Lead CIA

FCC Adopts Order

This is of interest to the members of the Western Syndicate community who are getting into the VoIP business:

FCC ADOPTS ORDER TO ENABLE LAW ENFORCEMENT TO ACCESS CERTAIN BROADBAND AND VoIP PROVIDERS

http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-265221A1.pdf

I don't understand

... why they're sending him to the supermarket?

Moussaoui sent to 'supermax' for six life terms

Zacarias Moussaoui was sentenced yesterday to spend the rest of his life in near-solitary confinement as the judge in his case cut short the final diatribe he delivered to a Virginia courtroom, and told him he would never be able to speak out publicly again.

This is how I died

King Amenemhat's instructions to his son Senwosret I. Well OK, he didn't actually write it himself. He describes that you can't trust anyone, and then goes on to describe how he was killed by someone that he knew. Check out the cool hieroglyphs. They are particularly clear on this image (well, I wish the photos were posted with higher resolution, but if I want to see it more clearly I suppose I will have to visit the British Museum.)

Rotating snakes on a blog

I like this optical illusion.

Right lane closed ahead

If you are interested in traffic cones you probably should visit the Cone Epicentre.

It's about time

Got the first bike ride of the spring in today. I needed that -- didn't ride too hard, since I haven't had any exercise in, oh, seven or eight months.

My bike has been out of commission in a comedy of errors that started last September, when I brought it to the bike shop to have it "tuned up", the shop owner broke it, then we couldn't find the replacement part, then after months of looking I bought a spare used bike frame for $140 + $35 shipping containing the replacement part, and finally last weekend brought it to a different shop to have the part installed. (Which they did for only $30, and exactly when they said it would be done, so they're probably going to get all my repair business from now on.)

So if you, umm, need a spare Giant NRS bike frame, minus the rocker arms, let me know. I have one. Real cheap.

Oh, and I never did get the bike tuned up. It's working great now.

I take that back

I am no longer complaining that it's rainy. Today was a beautiful 80 degree sunny day. That only took until what, the middle of April? Looks like clear sailing for at least the next week. The real test of my weather forecasting skills is whether I decide to wash the car this weekend.

For those of you who aren't in America, I realize that an 80 degree day probably sounds like hell on Earth, so my choice of "beautiful" there might lead you to question whether I am some kind of devil.

Dog bites man

Malibu resident to convert 747 jet into a house

That's not news.  News would look like:

Malibu resident to convert house into a 747.

Foam For Independence

When foam tests go wrong.

Trees

My photo on the blog was taken at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, near Angels Camp, CA, back in 2003. You too can sit on huge trees.

Calaveras Big Trees State Park web site

Web 2.0

I got an article from InfoWorld today (they spam my inbox pretty thoroughly with several notes per day) discussing Web 2.0, what Web 2.0, how there is disagreement among experts about what Web 2.0 is...

So who invented this term? And how many cycles are being wasted in the industry as a result of someone inventing that term, and lots of management types running around having meetings discussing the meaning of it?

And why does it matter? No sooner will we all think we've agreed on a definition of "Web 2.0" than they'll just come up with another term.

Rain Rain Rainrainrainrainranranrnarnrnrnrnnn

Is it ever going to stop raining?

Linux RAID on a Marvell SATA controller?

What will they think of next?

Here is an only somewhat dated article describing how to install Fedora Core 3 with RAID on a Supermicro SuperServer 5013C-MT. I wrote this up a while back when I was having difficulty getting it to work -- the vendor, apparently, had assumed that everyone either ran Windows 2000, or shelled out money for Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions.

I'm sure you can use the principles I've described to get it working with other variants of Linux too -- I just gave the blow by blow description of my particular situation.

It works just great, by the way.

Speaking of gold...

I have just finished putting together my income taxes and writing out a few checks. Off to copy the forms and stand in line at the post office tomorrow morning and waste some time.

On the side this evening I have been putting together some thoughts about the price of gold. But more research required here. If I find out anything interesting I may post it here.

What has Apple been up to?

In the previous article I referenced, I can't be the only person who read that as "QuickTime pit".

If you didn't notice it, you're going to be wondering what to search for in the article to find what I'm talking about.

It's light outside

I love Daylight Savings Time too. I'm one of those people who wouldn't mind too much if we had it all year round, but I realize that makes me some kind of freak. I liked Lileks' comments.

There are those who do not like Daylight Savings Time – it’s false time, a patent lie; why not say the sun sets at midnight? You can believe these things if you like, but do not bring them up in my presence. By my lights, setting the clocks back is the unnatural part. As a night owl, I treasure the longer evenings, and few things put a lilt in this grey hard lump of anthracite I call a heart than stepping outside at eight and seeing the world has not been cast back in the black pit. I love Daylight Savings Time. For that matter I’m used to its conclusion; it’s actually become part of the rhythm of the year for me. When the clocks go back the day seems to contract; when they leap ahead – in a single bound, as though they’ve been straining at the leash – the day expands and exhales. It’s a wonderful thing. People who oppose it are ugly and stupid and un-American and wrong and evil and anti-life.

Vroom

Here is the car I ended up selecting. Picked it up on Sunday afternoon. This is a replacement for an old Jeep Grand Cherokee that's served me well for ten years, but it was time to move on.

I have been extremely pleased with the Lexus so far and the entire purchase experience.

US talking to Iran?

Thought this was an interesting article about the possibility that the US has unofficial contacts with the government of Iran about the future of Iraq. I tend to believe that people who are talking usually aren't shooting each other.

Talking to the enemy

Change

Quo magis mutantur, eo magis eaedem manent res.

I am not actually concealing anything

Heh. Cayman Islands. I suppose I ought to fix that or the tax authorities will start coming down on me.

Weekend

Looks like it's going to be a weekend of hammering out business deals, and perhaps doing some car shopping if I get a chance. We'll see what happens.

I am providing no rhyme or reason for this blog. As time goes on, it will become apparent what its purpose is. But for now, I have to have some secrets, don't I?