Techie Manager

About

webmaster — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Kevin Jarnot is a 35 36 37 38 39 40 year old technologist who lives just South of Boston, MA in a small town named Scituate. He shares his house with his wife Heather, sons Thomas and Peter, daughter Isabelle, and Bart the English Setter. He was born and raised in Lancaster, NY, a suburb of Buffalo. Kevin is currently employed as CTO at DebtX, the largest online marketplace of buyers and sellers of commercial debt.

Other interesting facts about our webmaster:

Early obsessions included Star Wars, making Super8 stop-motion movies, computers, listening to and performing music, American history, science fiction and fantasy books, video games. Yeah, he was (is) a bit of a geek.
Spent two years (1985-86) playing keyboards in a band called Facade which played the Western New York club circuit. Highlights included opening for Run-DMC (the year they hit big with "Walk This Way"), Orchestral Manouevers in the Dark (OMD), and the Bodeans.
Nominated Best Rock Keyboardist in the 1986 Western New York Music Awards. Facade was also nominated Best New Group.
Was questioned by the Secret Service while in college, ultimately "released" and told by an agent that he was a credit to his country. It's a long, funny story...and no, he did not make threats to any politicians...

Kevin likes...

Most classical liberal (libertarian) politics. Not all, but definitely most. That being said, he doesn't own a gun, he thinks Ayn Rand was a bit wacky and he doesn't run around calling Liberals "Socialists".
Books: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Politics. P.J. O'Rourke, Neal Stephenson ("Zodiak" through "Cryptonomicom" - "Quicksilver" sucked), Bill Bryson, Cory Doctorow, Terry Pratchett, China Mieville, John Varley, Tom Wolfe, Stephen King, Christopher Moore, Matt Ruff.
Computers: Linux, certain aspects of Windows. Secretly wants a high-end Mac with OS X. Perl, PHP, Java, C#. Wants to like XSLT much more, but is still coming to terms with the syntax. SpamAssassin rocks, as does Movable Type and TWiki.
Music: Progressive, psyche, and generally well written rock music; Electronic and ambient music written and performed by groups that have some semblance of talent; Complex classical (mostly baroque); Jazz that's not overly pretentious; good classic R&B and Funk; strangely enough, the album "The Fragile" by Nine Inch Nails - one of the best albums ever. King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Tangerine Dream, Jean-Michel Jarre, Yes, Pre-1980 Genesis, Djam Karet, middle-period Rush, Max Webster, Pink Floyd from 1973-1985, Crystal Method, Marillion, Allan Holdsworth.
Chinese, Thai, Indian, Cambodian, French cuisine.
Playing with his kids.
Movies: Godfather I and II, The Right Stuff, Goodfellas (as well as most Scorsese films), Brazil, Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Blade Runner, Tarantino's movies, Moonstruck, This is Spinal Tap, the collected works of John Hughes, the Coen Brothers, just about anything with De Niro.
Weightlifting and working out. He's addicted and works out weekly with a trainer. He just wishes he could lose the protective layer of fat that covers his rippling muscles. Damn genetic traits...
Dunkin Donuts coffee.

Why this site exists...

This site is a place for Kevin to post interesting (or not so interesting) stuff -- mostly computer related. All content posted on this site is copyrighted by Kevin unless otherwise stated, and you may not redistribute anypart of it without prior permission.

webmaster — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

The Programmer Hierarchy

Kevin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

So true. Original link.

qwdqwd

Kevin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

few

Kevin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

efwef

qwdqwd

Kevin — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

qwdqwdqwd

Forced vacation... :-)

Kevin — Mon, 08 Jan 2001 17:00:00 +0000

So much for my job. Got laid off from TimeØ today. Time to do some consulting and find a new job before the severance runs out.

Another one bites the dust

Kevin — Wed, 31 Jan 2001 17:00:00 +0000

It was announced today that TimeØ is officially closing Friday, February 2nd.

Stuff that I'll never finish

Kevin — Wed, 31 Jan 2001 17:00:00 +0000

Now have two projects over at SourceForge. Check out http://sourceforge.net/projects/sparkletext/ and http://sourceforge.net/projects/java-jukebox/. The latter is still in the early stages of development.

Great book

Kevin — Sat, 01 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

I've just re-read "The Pragmatic Programmer" by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas again. What an incredible book! These guys have collected in one book many of the software development processes and ideas that I've discovered (the hard way) over the last 10 years, and many ideas I've never considered. Great stuff. Buy it if you're a software engineer or software manager! It will be a must read for anyone that works on my development team.

For your reading pleasure

Kevin — Sat, 01 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

I've been saving all sorts of interesting articles, papers, and web pages for a few years now, and have recently placed many of them online for everyone to enjoy.

Haven't added anything here in awhile.

Kevin — Sat, 01 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

I've been playing Chief Technology Officer for a start-up named BD-X since January. Well, the problem is that even though 1) BD-X has a very good business plan, and 2) we have met with many potential customers (most of them are very large financial institutions), the venture capital wells have run dry. Soooooo... I have recently accepted an offer from Paytronix Systems in Watertown, MA. as their V.P. of Engineering. I'll most likely be starting with them mid-September.
More to come soon...

One stop geek news

Kevin — Wed, 05 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

Found a great web site the other day that's perfect for us "need to read every tech site" folks. Check out Freshnews. The site displays the headlines from ~30 major tech news sites like Slashdot, cnet, Ars Technica, etc.

The Joy of TeX (get it?)

Kevin — Wed, 05 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

I've now sworn off word processors. LaTeX is the cat's ass. It reminds me of the good old days of writing college papers in troff (actually ditroff, which was Kernighan's rewrite of Ossanna's original troff code), but it's 10000000000x more powerful. I've noticed that I now spend much more of my writing time actually writing and not messing around with fonts, spacing, etc. Now if I could only easily convert my MS Word docs to LaTeX (and vice versa)...

Fun in the mountains

Kevin — Mon, 10 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

Just got back from a quick vacation to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. We stayed at the Red Jacket Mountain View hotel (highly recommended!). Tommy and Petey really enjoyed our visit to Story Land, and Tommy especially loved his first ride on a train. My favorite part of the trip was our visit to Mt. Washington.

Sigh

Kevin — Tue, 11 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

FDR said it best - A date which will live in infamy.

None

Kevin — Thu, 13 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

Just dug this out -- my World Trade Center ID from when I worked for Investment Dealers' Digest back in 1993.

I had spent quite a bit of time in the WTC at IDD's offices, as well as Cantor Fitzgerald's. It's hard to believe that not only is the office space no longer there, but some of the people I worked/met with may be dead.

Quote of the Week

Kevin — Mon, 17 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

"Are you guys ready? Let's roll." Todd Beamer, to fellow passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93, moments before they stormed hijackers on their plane. Beamer leaves behind a pregnant wife and two sons, ages 3 and 1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41095-2001Sep16.html

A good Bush quote

Kevin — Thu, 20 Sep 2001 17:00:00 +0000

"What's the use of sending a $2 million missile into a $10 tent to hit a camel in the butt?"

Yo ho ho

Kevin — Thu, 04 Oct 2001 17:00:00 +0000

Shiver me timbers...it's the Taliban's ambassadors!

A guy can change his mind, right?

Kevin — Fri, 05 Oct 2001 17:00:00 +0000

So much for going to work for Paytronix. I had to make a very difficult decision last week: do I leave BD-X (which is still moving along!) to work for Paytronix, or do I continue to work on what I now consider my "baby" and have the opportunity to work from home and therefore spend much more time with my family? Well, the final decision was to stay with BD-X and work from home. Besides, how can I not work with Brent and Bill any more? They're my Unreal Tournament team mates! (hi, guys :-)
If you're looking for a great opportunity to work for a startup with some very talented individuals (plus they're FUNDED!), drop me a note and I'll introduce you.

Bert is Evil!

Kevin — Sat, 13 Oct 2001 17:00:00 +0000

Now this is funny. Over the past week, pictures of anti-U.S. protesters in Bangladesh have been seen online that feature a poster with a collage of Bin Laden images. If you look carefully, an image of Bert from Sesame Street can be seen to the right of the central Bin Laden image. Originally many people thought the pictures (from Reuters) were doctored, but it turns out that the posters really do have Bert's image. Why is he there?!? Well, I'm sure many of you are familiar with the classic Bert is Evil page (archived as a PDF here), which features the sordid life of the cranky Muppet. One of the site's mirrors features a doctored picture of Bin Laden with Bert. A print shop in Bangladesh needed pictures of Bin Laden for a poster they were creating for a protest, and simply grabbed various photos from the Internet. Since they had no idea of who the weird looking yellow puppet was, they used the doctored photo and Bert remained in the image. Little did the protesters know how stupid they looked... :-)

Tourist of Death

Kevin — Sat, 13 Oct 2001 17:05:00 +0000

Speaking of doctored photos, I'm sure by now just about everyone that has access to the Internet has seen the picture of the guy on the WTC observation deck with the plane coming right at him.

It's obviously a fake - a winter coat in September in NY? I don't think so...

Over the past few weeks, the craze of doctoring this photo in new and exciting ways has started on the Internet. My favorite:

It was only a matter of time until a web site popped up to host all of these pics. Check out Tourist of Death.

Blowing a wad of cash

Kevin — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 16:30:00 +0000

We've been having some masonry work done in our front yard over the past two weeks. Our front lawn is very steep, and there wasn't much to it - just grass and a pathetic attempt at growing a magnolia. So, seeing how the economy is in a downward spiral and I'm working for a start-up company that has yet to make any money, we decided to blow a wad of cash on landscaping. The work was done by Stearns Stone Works, and they did an amazing job. The masons were a great group of guys, who, it turns out, are all also actors. Derek Stearns, the owner of the company, is an accomplished actor and acting teacher. If anyone is looking for a masonry company and/or acting company, they come highly recommended!


Before	After

Tommy turns 3

Kevin — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 17:00:00 +0000

My son Tommy turned 3 today. Wow, three years old. Time really flies. I asked him how old he was, and he replied, "Hmmmm...3...months!".

I think he knows exactly how old he is and he's just pulling Daddy's leg. :-)

Some Music Suggestions

Kevin — Thu, 18 Oct 2001 21:14:23 +0000

For those of you looking for some great music by bands you've (most likely) never heard of before, check out:

Djam Karet - think Pink Floyd mixed with Tangerine Dream and King Crimson.
Porcupine Tree - these guys have been my favorite band for a few years now.
Ozric Tentacles - great psyche/prog jam rock. Actually, they sound similar to Djam Karet now that I think about it...
Spock's Beard - excellent musicians, excellent vocalists, excellent song writers. They've taken pop-oriented prog to new levels.

Giant Bug Revenge?

Kevin — Sat, 20 Oct 2001 17:00:00 +0000

Here's a very funny, cruel game you can play online.

Emacs 21 released

Kevin — Tue, 23 Oct 2001 17:00:00 +0000

Rejoice. Emacs 21.1 has been released.

Wow, Kevin likes strange music...

Kevin — Thu, 25 Oct 2001 17:00:00 +0000

I've added a new feature to the web site -- you can now see what I'm currently listening to via WinAmp on my Windows 2000 box.

So now you know...

Almost done

Kevin — Thu, 25 Oct 2001 21:11:32 +0000

The landscapers were here yesterday to finish the job on our front yard. Excellent work...

Liberty is slipping away...

Kevin — Fri, 26 Oct 2001 17:00:00 +0000

Now that the Anti-terrorism Bill has been signed into law, I think we all need to remember the words of Ben Franklin: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Happy Birthday, Petey!

Kevin — Sun, 28 Oct 2001 15:00:00 +0000

Today's my youngest son's birthday. Peter turns 1 today!

Dilbert hits close to home.

Kevin — Fri, 02 Nov 2001 20:12:00 +0000

As you most likely know, the tech job market, after ~5 years of incredible growth with very high pay and perks, is now in a bit of a slump (to put it nicely). I think this Dilbert says it all for how many of us feel:

Frag Brent!

Kevin — Thu, 15 Nov 2001 17:30:00 +0000

L-Tryptophan

Kevin — Sat, 24 Nov 2001 21:31:00 +0000

Ooooohhh, turkey make me sleepy.

Too much time on his hands

Kevin — Fri, 30 Nov 2001 04:34:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to spend 16 hours in a Home Depot on a bet? Yeah, me neither. If you're paranoid and living in NYC (wait - just about everyone in NYC is paranoid), you'll like this web site. It's a project to track down and catalog every public surveillance camera in the Manhattan. 2397 and counting...

Next year's holiday cards

Kevin — Mon, 31 Dec 2001 14:00:00 +0000

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all; and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2002, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures, and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishees.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

No, I didn't write that - I just thought it was apropos...

Gotta Go See LotR

Kevin — Mon, 31 Dec 2001 18:31:38 +0000

Having two small children around the house means Heather and I do not get many chances to see movies in movie theaters. Which stinks, as I'm dying to see The Lord of the Rings. Since I knew I wouldn't be seeing it right away, I've started to re-read the book (that's one book in three volumes). Even though this is like the 3rd or 4th time I read the book, it still amazes me. Man, Tolkien could write. Like a mutha. Damn.

I need to get a babysitter. But, hell, where there's a whip, there's a way...

Lord of the Rings - A Study of Two Cinematic Visions

Kevin — Wed, 09 Jan 2002 16:45:00 +0000

Peter Jackson

Ralph Bakshi

(If you don't get this, go rent the 1978 Ralph Bakshi "animated" version of LotR...)

Watch where you point that thing...

Kevin — Thu, 10 Jan 2002 21:09:53 +0000

Some toy ideas are just plain bad...

Steve Jobs' Worlds Collide!

Kevin — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 19:30:00 +0000

Pixar meets Apple

Quote of the week

Kevin — Thu, 24 Jan 2002 15:13:00 +0000

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for ants." --R. A. Heinlein

It's new car time!

Kevin — Mon, 28 Jan 2002 17:31:00 +0000

My lease is about to run out, so I've been doing some thinking about what to get next. At first I thought about going the SUV route, until I remember how much fun it was for Heather (all 5'0" of her) to get into a Ford Explorer that we test drove a few years back. Then I thought, well, the economy is still in bad shape - maybe you should go for an inexpensive midsize. Then I saw the Volvo S60. I currently drive a Volvo S70, which is a great car, but is a bit on the "boxy" side. They're safe as all hell (which is important when you commute into Boston along with a few hundred thousand insane drivers) and to tell you the truth, it was the most comfortable car I've ever driven. Well, after being available for only three years, Volvo is dropping that line in favor of the S60. The car is very stylish. While the S70 was a four door sedan, the S60 is a sports sedan in every way. And it's fast - 200 HP. I also opted for AWD, CD player, power sun roof, leather interior... ...and most importantly cup holders... I get to pick it up tomorrow afternoon. Tommy's as excited as I am.

New site software

Kevin — Sun, 10 Feb 2002 19:36:50 +0000

At the recommendation of several people, I've decided to throw out my home-grown content management system for this site and switch over to Movable Type. The transition was very easy, and I've managed to get the Perl-based Movable Type package integrated into my PHP-based web site. I had to hack a bit of code, but most of the necessary changes were in MT's templates, which is just enhanced HTML. So, you can now view archives of the entries on this site, and also add your own comments (this should be interesting...).

Free RealOne download

Kevin — Wed, 06 Mar 2002 14:48:56 +0000

Even though I'm finding fewer reasons to actually need a RealMedia player these days, there's always the odd file/URL that requires it. My new PC did not have a copy of RealPlayer installed, so I headed over to Real's site to grab a copy. The latest version of the player is now called RealOne, and at first glance, it looked like Real started charging for the player, or at least required a valid credit card number before they would allow the download. Well, sorry, no way. I didn't need it that badly. After poking around the site for awhile, I found that they had buried the free download page deep in the bowels of the site. So, if you want to download RealOne and not have to give them your credit card number, head over to their free download page.

MP3 ripping support for Windows Media Player 8.0

Kevin — Wed, 06 Mar 2002 15:11:40 +0000

I love ripping CDs. I really don't actually even use CDs in the house any more - I play MP3s off of my hard drive with WinAmp (Windows) or XMMS (Linux). So far I've ripped the majority of my CD collection, and have roughly 5500 MP3s stored on my Linux server. My tool of choice for ripping has always been MediaMatch, but for some reason I just cannot get it to run under Windows XP Professional. It simply crashes at startup. So, I needed a new tool to do the ripping for me. I had read that Windows Media Player 8.0 finally supported ripping to formats other than WMA. Well, you can, but it's not an option available by default (of course). After poking around the web for a few minutes, I found the answer. It requires making a change to the registry, so don't attempt this unless you know what you're doing. Copy this block of text into a file named mp3.reg: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Settings\MP3Encoding] "LowRate"=dword:0000dac0 "MediumRate"=dword:00017700 "HighRate"=dword:0002ee00 "MediumHighRate"=dword:0001f400 Now, in Windows Explorer, right click on mp3.reg and select merge. Reboot. Start up Windows Media Player and select Tools->Options and click on the "Copy Music" tab. Look for "File Format" and select MP3. If for some reason MP3 ripping does not work, you may need an MP3 codec. I'll leave it up to you to search Google.

MediaMatch fix

Kevin — Fri, 08 Mar 2002 14:53:40 +0000

Well, finally got MediaMatch to work again. If you should run into the same problem, where MediaMatch crashes at startup, try searching for WNASPI32.DLL in your windows (or winnt) directory and it's subdirectories. Move the file somewhere else (like your desktop) and reboot. Looks like MediaMatch does not like other vendor's ASPI drivers.

Beware Dell Movie Studio package!

Kevin — Fri, 08 Mar 2002 15:22:26 +0000

Just a heads-up for anyone that is considering getting Dell's Movie Studio package. Don't do it. I purchased it as an add-on to my new Dell Dimension 8200 because I wanted to convert many of my old VHS tapes to digital movies. For $250, you get an OEM Dazzle DV2 capture station and an OEM version of MGI's VideoWave 4. What Dell failed to tell us is that the OEM Dazzle is not compatible with any other software. Plus every posting I've read about the Movie Studio package makes it very clear that Dell does not want to support it. Their tech support group has been pushing irate customers off onto Dazzle and MGI, who in turn state that they do not support these OEM products. Argh, a real waste of money. Now I need to spend another $250 to replace it with an almost identical Dazzle DV2 system! I should have known better. I usually never ever ever buy this sort of accessory if it's OEM'd. You're better off spending a few dollars more and buy it separately. Live and learn...

Fun with Children's Books and Photoshop

Kevin — Tue, 12 Mar 2002 18:05:33 +0000

Something Awful has outdone themselves - Fun with Children's Books and Photoshop.

Kevin speaks!

Kevin — Tue, 02 Apr 2002 20:43:05 +0000

I was the guest speaker on Prudential Securities' "What Do They Do?" conference call, hosted by analyst John McPeake. The topic was "Open Source Technology", so I had the opportunity to talk about the joys of Open Source while trying not to bash Microsoft too much... I'll make an MP3 file of the conference replay and post it here ASAP (with John's permission, of course). Let's hope I didn't ramble. :-)

Kevin Speaks (part deux)

Kevin — Wed, 03 Apr 2002 04:37:16 +0000

If you really want to hear the conference call, you can listen to the replay at (800) 642-1687 - conf id #3495683.

A free *NIX environment in Windows

Kevin — Tue, 09 Apr 2002 04:47:08 +0000

I've been having a few problems with my Linux development box lately. First, networking is messed up, probably due to poor support for my Netgear Ethernet card. Second, the fan has stopped working on the box's GeForce2 vdeo card. So I decided to try doing some programming on my brand new Windows XP box. Well, needless to say the DOS (err...sorry, CMD) window is terrible and Microsoft's command-line utilities have never progressed beyond the terrible stage. Time for Plan B - UNIX in Windows. I used to be a big fan of the MKS toolkit back in the days when I was a PC device driver programmer (wow - 11 years ago). The toolkit gave you just about every UNIX tool you'd need. It was slow, incomplete, but for the most part did its job. It was also expensive. And still is. I just checked and it's almost $500. Yikes. Microsoft, believe it or not, also sells a product called Windows Services for UNIX that gives you many UNIX tools. At $150, it's better priced, but not half as good as MKS. So, on to the freebies. :-) RedHat had purchased a company named Cygnus awhile back. Cygnus started off as one of the first companies to provide technical support for free software. So, for example, if you were an IT shop that used GNU gcc for your C compiler, you could pay Cygnus to provide support. Cygnus also sponsored a software project where they were writing a DLL for Windows that would provide many of the standard UNIX library calls. They also created a set of UNIX tools that used this DLL. RedHat bought them out, and spun off the Cygwin project. For a cost of - well, nothing - you get a very complete UNIX-like environment for Windows. This includes the Bash shell, compilers, X11, CVS, grep, sort, ssh, rsync, and the list goes on and on. I installed Cygwin the other day and have been blown away by it. Very complete, very solid, and I don't have to type "DIR". :-) Grab it from http://www.cygwin.com/ and see for yourself. [Added 4/12/2002] Tim Daneliuk has reminded me about djgpp, which has been around for quite some time. Its web site states: DJGPP is a complete 32-bit C/C++ development system for Intel 80386 (and higher) PCs running DOS. It includes ports of many GNU development utilities. The development tools require a 80386 or newer computer to run, as do the programs they produce. In most cases, the programs it produces can be sold commercially without license or royalties. Check it out at http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/

New Open Source project - PBJ

Kevin — Tue, 09 Apr 2002 04:51:52 +0000

David Walend and myself have started a new Open Source project named Presentation Builder for Java (PBJ for short). To quote Dave: PBJ is a presentation tool. First, it's a knock-off of PowerPoint and the like. It lets a user create slide presentations by assembling JavaBeans. Using JavaBeans lets the user create a compelling, interactive presentation that can pull information and media from beyond a static document. Additional tools let a user show the presentation (along with an outline on a multihead system), and record audio and video for playback later. We're still in the planning stage, but code is being hacked and the project's web site is up if you want to check it out.

What sell outs...

Kevin — Thu, 18 Apr 2002 19:28:22 +0000

Success! BD-X was acquired by CCBN today. Press release. Our letter to BD-X subscribers. Mass High Tech article. Boston.Internet.Com article. Now I need to find a new job.

Want to play a game?

Kevin — Wed, 01 May 2002 06:18:56 +0000

I used to love my Intellivision. Now you can love it too. CPU: 16-bit GI 1600 running at 10-bit data transfer MEMORY: 7K internal ROM, RAM, and I/O, 64K for programs RESOLUTION: 160 x 92 pixels COLOR OUTPUT: 16 SPRITES: 8, each at 16x16 pixels in size SOUND: 3 channel mono provided by an AY-3-8914 chip 16 colors. That's enough for anyone, eh?

Unemployed no more!

Kevin — Mon, 20 May 2002 20:45:48 +0000

The post BD-X unemployment period has thankfully come to an end. Yours truly is now the Managing Director of Technology for The Debt Exchange. DebtX is a "business-to-business marketplace for the auction of commercial real estate and business loans. It is an open, market-driven exchange that reduces transaction costs, compresses transaction cycles, and enables buyer and seller participation in the secondary commercial debt market." Notice any patterns here?

Time0 focused on B2B, as does DebtX.
Business Data eXchange to Debt Exchange.

Coincidence? Synchronicity? Government plot? All of the above?

Star Wars - Episode II

Kevin — Wed, 22 May 2002 04:01:48 +0000

Heather and I actually got the chance to slip out of the house today to see Star Wars Episode II with my bro-in-law Bill (thanks to my parents for babysitting). Wow, I was actually very happy with the movie! I went expecting the worst - Lucas really royally f'd up Episode I, and Return of the Jedi wasn't much better. This latest film is MUCH better than the last and I'd rank it as the third best of the series behind The Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope. Good Points:

The plot: the story was much more in line with the original trilogy and Lucas obviously had a lot of help on the screenplay from Jonathan Hales.
Visuals: ILM has outdone themselves once again. These are most certainly the most amazing visuals I've ever seen. The climactic battle is a sight to behold. The completely CGI Yoda is almost perfect - especially when he has his action scene.
Production design and costumes:

Bad Points:

Dialogue: OK, so I said the plot was better, but much of the dialogue was - well - silly, contrived, overly simple, etc. Bill's favorite line: "I hate sand." (spoken by Anakin).
Acting:

Music You Should Check Out

Kevin — Wed, 29 May 2002 23:07:41 +0000

Here's some band/album recommendations: Niacin, Time Crunch These guys have just become one of my favorite bands. Jazz/rock (not really fusion) featuring Billy Sheehan on bass, John Novello on keyboards, and Dennis Chambers on drums. I remember seeing Billy play with Talas quite a few times when I was a teenager in Buffalo, NY. He really is the world's best rock bass player, and the Guitar Player magazine reader's poll has agreed with that statement no less that 5 times (tying him with Jimi Hendrix, Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee and Eddie Van Halen). Novello is a session player that co-owns LunaTek studios with Alan Howarth (the great movie soundtrack composer of "Escapefrom New York" fame). Chambers is ex-Parliament, which leads us to... Parliament, The Best of Parliament Excellent compilation of Parliament's music. Truly the funkiest band ever (this coming from the whitest man alive. ;-) Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Broadcasting from Home Very eclectic Celtic/folk/New Age/whatever music. I find it very hard to categorize their music. Check out their web site for samples. Tony Levin, Pieces of the Sun King Crimson and Peter Gabriel's bass/Chapman Stick player reunites with Larry "Synergy" Fast and Jerry Marotta of Gabriel's orginal band. Excellent prog and jazzy rock. Features an unreleased Gabriel song, "Dog One" and a remake of the Synergy song "Phobos" (and I'm still not sure how they pulled that one off so well).

Solution to "Windows cannot connect to the domain..." problem when XP connects to WinNT or Win2K Server

Kevin — Fri, 21 Jun 2002 20:44:54 +0000

Ran into a strange problem today. A week-old XP box that could log in to a domain yesterday suddenly couldn't today. We were getting an error box that said: Windows cannot connect to the domain either because the domain controller is down or otherwise unavailable or because your computer account was not found. It winds up that that XP tries to cryptographically sign Netlogon sessions, which the servers do not like. The work around according to JSI FAQ is: 1. Use Control Panel to open Local Security Policy in the Administrative Tools. 2. Navigate to Local Policies / Security Options. 3. Double-click Domain Member:Digitally encrypt or sign secure channel data (always). 4. Press Disabled. 5. Press Apply and OK. I had to also do the old "change to 'login to workgroup' and then back to 'login to domain'" trick. After a reboot it worked fine. Just FYI...

Random Links

Kevin — Tue, 25 Jun 2002 14:50:22 +0000

DNS Bajaj - a DNS query and display tool. Want a baby but also want to avoid missing the Super Bowl? Check out the Birth and Labor Conflict Catcher. I've always been fascinated by symbols, especially hobo marks. From this we now have "wibo marks" which mark areas with free wireless Internet access.

Top 10 Best Flash Movies Ever

Kevin — Sun, 30 Jun 2002 04:55:25 +0000

B3TA has picked the Top 10 Best Flash movies ever. I pretty much agree with every selection, except for #10.

Kevin Speaks (part trois)

Kevin — Wed, 03 Jul 2002 00:27:54 +0000

A recap: a few months ago, I was a guest on an investor conference call hosted by Prudential Financial analyst John McPeake. The subject for the hour long call was Open Source software in the enterprise. I just received a transcript of the call the other day, and it's available for your enjoyment (PDF). OK, so I say "sure" a lot. Big deal. :-)

How to configure Windows Installer logging

Kevin — Tue, 16 Jul 2002 14:34:57 +0000

Just saw this on Lockergnome. If you want to configure Windows Installer logging: Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows \ Installer. Add a new String value, double-click it, and enter the following Value data: "voicewarmup" (sans quotes). These letters can be entered in any order:

v = Verbose output
o = Out- of-disk-space messages
i = Status messages
c = Initial UI parameters
e = All error messages
w = Non-fatal warnings
a = Start up of actions
r = Action-specific records
m = Out-of- memory or fatal exit information
u = User requests
p = Terminal properties.

If you add a plus, the existing file will be appended. If you add an exclamation mark, each line is flushed. Now, when something fails, I just have to check in the "Temp" directory and look for my log files. They'll vary in name, but will always start with "Msi" and end with the .LOG extension. As always, make sure to backup your registry before making any modifications.

Porcupine Tree at the Middle East

Kevin — Tue, 23 Jul 2002 15:11:21 +0000

My brother Jamie and I went to see Porcupine Tree play last night at the Middle East in Cambridge. Wow, what an excellent show. The opening band, Event was technically strong (Berklee grads), but IMNSHO pretty awful in the song writing department. To (mis)quote Jamie, "that was the worst act I've ever seen". Every song started off with the bass going THUD THUD....THUD THUD....THUD THUD....followed by 5 minutes of guitar shredding (d00d! he shr3ds!). I guess I'll never appreciate prog-metal. Oh well. Jamie also pointed out the large number of pudgy, pony-tailed, middle-aged balding men. These guys were obviously the "keepers of the prog flame". Guys who grew up in the 70's who still wear their Nektar, Gentle Giant, and King Crimson t-shirts. Myself in 10 years? Definately no pony tail, hopefully not as pudgy. Porcupine Tree came on around 10:30 (past the usual bedtime of this suburban dad). Every song was dead on perfect. The sound was great (after I put in my earplugs, that is), the light show was good, and best of all the band pulled off every song perfectly. Steven Wilson, the band's leader, apologized that this was their first show in quite some time and that things were going wrong, but I couldn't tell. They played 3-4 new songs from their upcoming album "In Absentia", and each was better than the next. Half way through the set, Wilson brought up the subject of P.T.'s reputation of being a "drug band" (news to me), mostly due to their psychedelic roots and songs like "Pure Narcotic": "I've written songs about serial killers, committing suicide, and the Earth being destroyed by nuclear blasts...it IS possible to write lyrics from an objective perspective". Amen.

My earliest Usenet post

Kevin — Sun, 28 Jul 2002 06:44:26 +0000

Thanks to Google: From: Kevin Jarnot (jarnot@canisius.UUCP) Subject: Re: Hard disks Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc View: Complete Thread (3 articles) | Original Format Date: 1989-05-08 01:09:36 PST In article , grinberg@bimacs.BITNET (Dennis Grinberg) writes: > I have a clone (Taiwanese)_ that a bought a couple of years ago from a store > that has since seen red. (I told you so...) My hard disk (Microscience > 100341-001) has recently been giving problems. I can't even test it with > Nortons DT because when trying to read one of the clusters (marked as bad) > it gives a "Disk C: not ready" and quits. > > I'd like to do a low level format (I do not have spinrite), the gc800:0005 > doesn't do anything and the INT 13 interrupts documented in the _old_ > IBM XT technical reference don't seem to work for me. My controller > is an Adaptec, the only other identification on it is the BIOS which says > 405702-00A 1986 and another chip with 405701-00 1986. > > Anybody have any ideas?
Dennis, I recommend a great program called Disk Manager. It will allow you to install many different non-compatible drives on a PC/XT/AT. Works very well, but be fore-warned, it uses device drivers for partitioning, and they MAY get lossed (therefore, losing your data). Probably won't happen, though (knock on wood).
> Last question: Can anyone list the different types of AT drives?
By the way, a VERY complete listing of drives comes with Disk Manager (with many specs on said drives, also). Kevin -- UUCP ...!(decvax|watmath|allegra|rocksvax)!sunybcs!canisius!jarnot BITNET JARNOT@CANISIUS WWIVnet 3@7650 "Damn, these chancres hurt!" | All ideas expressed are mine.. -Friedrich Nietzsche | GOD, what great ideas they are!

I said that?

Kevin — Mon, 29 Jul 2002 16:17:00 +0000

I love being quoted in press releases - my quotes are much better than anything I could (and would) ever say in reality. I wish I had my own PR person for daily life. "That was a fine sandwich", stated a satisfied Mr. Jarnot. "I find Wendy's Grilled Chicken Sandwiches (tm) to be of a quality quite unlike that of any competitor". :-) http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-29-2002/0001773316&EDATE= BTW, I had signed off on the quote - Rackspace is a fantastic hosting provider.

Quote of the Day

Kevin — Wed, 31 Jul 2002 13:59:42 +0000

"The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you." -- Max DePree (thanks to Steve Wright)

The ultimate sound library

Kevin — Wed, 31 Jul 2002 14:11:23 +0000

Bruce Campbell quotes galore! Groovy! http://www.tvwavs.com/bcwavs/

Kevin on LAMP

Kevin — Mon, 26 Aug 2002 14:19:37 +0000

I was interviewed for OpenEnterprise Trends a few weeks back about my experiences using Open Source software in a startup company. Specifically, they wanted to know about our use of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP). Pretty good interview.

Jarnot 3.0

Kevin — Wed, 28 Aug 2002 17:25:35 +0000

Roughly a month after Heather and I had decided no more kids, guess what happened... Yep, Jarnot 3.0 is on his/her way with a release date of April, 2003! Gantt chart to follow. Surprise surprise surprise...

Sound support in DOS boxes

Kevin — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 20:15:25 +0000

I love old DOS games, but they're a pain to use under NT/2K/XP due to the lack of DOS support. These older games want direct access to the sound card hardware, which is a big no-no these days (for good reason). Anyways, there's a free tool called VDMSound that can help. From the web site: VDMSound is a program that overcomes what has probably been the most exasperating limitation of DOS boxes since Windows NT -- sound support. VDMSound is an open, plug-in oriented platform that emulates an MPU-401 interface (for outputting high-quality MIDI music), a SoundBlaster compatible (SB16, SBPro 2, SB2, SBPro, etc.) implementation (for digital sound effects and FM/AdLib music), as well as a standard game-port interface (for playing games with joystick support). In development are improvements to the existing joystick emulation, and possibly VESA support. Unlike all the Win9x SoundBlaster ISA 'legacy' drivers available from a variety of PCI soundcard manufacturers, VDMSound is not a mere 'wrapper' or 'bridge' to existing audio hardware. It is a self-contained, 100% software emulation program that is completely independent of your audio hardware type and settings. VDMSound works with any soundcard, and will even work on computers that have no audio hardware at all (for instance, instead of outputting sounds through your soundcard using the standard Windows drivers, VDMSound can easily output them to disk). VDMSound works on Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It does not work on Windows 95, 98 or Me.

Hex String of the Day

Kevin — Tue, 10 Sep 2002 15:38:56 +0000

0xDECAFBAD

Slogans on Government

Kevin — Wed, 11 Sep 2002 16:42:24 +0000

Many thanks to James Besemer for this list. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. --George Bernard Shaw The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. --Winston Churchill There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences. --P.J. O'Rourke (1993) Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. -- Ronald Reagan (1986) Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. --Douglas Casey (1992) If you want government to intervene domestically, you're a liberal. If you want government to intervene overseas, you're a conservative. If you want government to intervene everywhere, you're a moderate. If you don't want government to intervene anywhere, you're an extremist. --Joseph Sobran (1995) In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. --Voltaire (1764) I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. --Will Rogers Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. --P.J. O'Rourke When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. --P.J. O'Rourke Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. --Pericles (430 B.C.) The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. --Herbert Spencer (1891) No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session. --Mark Twain (1866) Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. --Frederic Bastiat We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. --Winston Churchill Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. --James Bovard (1994) A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. --G. Gordon Liddy The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. --Mark Twain If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free. --P.J. O'Rourke What this country needs are more unemployed politicians. --Edward Langley The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. --Ronald Reagan Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. --Mark Twain There is no distinctly native American criminal class save Congress. --Mark Twain Talk is cheap-except when Congress does it. --Cullen Hightower Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.-- Groucho Marx

Favorite Quotes

Kevin — Mon, 14 Oct 2002 17:22:20 +0000

"Macs for productivity, Linux for stability, Windows for solitaire"

-- Unknown

"If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin."

-- Ivan Turgenev

"Whenever a programmer thinks, 'Hey, skins, what a cool idea', their computer's speakers should create some sort of cock-shaped soundwave and plunge it repeatedly through their skulls."

-- Matt Robinson, in Jamie Zawinski's LiveJournal blog

"I fully support your proposed audio-cock technology."

-- Jamie Zawinski, in reply to Matt Robinson's post

"It's odd. People understand instinctively that the best way for computer programs to communicate with each other is for each of the them to be strict in what they emit, and liberal in what they accept. The odd thing is that people themselves are not willing to be strict in how they speak, and liberal in how they listen. You'd think that would also be obvious."

-- Larry Wall, "2nd State of the Onion"

"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God."

-- Albert Einstein

"I hold (without appeal to revelation) that when we take a view of the universe, in its parts, general or particular, it is impossible for the human mind not to perceive and feel a conviction of design, consummate skill, and indefinite power in every atom of its composition. The movements of the heavenly bodies, so exactly held in their course by the balance of centrifugal and centripetal forces; the structure of the Earth itself, with its distribution of lands, waters and atmosphere; animal and vegetable bodies, examined in all their minutest particles; insects, mere atoms of life, yet as perfectly organized as man or mammoth; the mineral substances, their generation and uses, it is impossible, I say, for the human mind not to believe, that there is in all this, design, cause and effect, up to an ultimate cause, a Fabricator of all things from matter and motion, their Preserver and Regulator, while permitted to exist in their present forms, and their regeneration into new and other forms. We see, too, evident proofs of the necessity of a superintending power, to maintain the universe in its course and order."

-- Thomas Jefferson

As several of my colleagues, and others of my fellow-citizens of France, have given me the example of making their voluntary and individual profession of faith, I also will make mine; and I do this with all that sincerity and frankness with which the mind of man communicates with itself. I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy. But, lest it should be supposed that I believe many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them. I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.

-- Thomas Paine, "The Age of Reason"

"Real" symbolic links for Windows???

Kevin — Tue, 15 Oct 2002 14:55:48 +0000

One of the major shortcomings of Windows is that it never had support for symbolic links (a la UNIX/Linux). Sure, Windows has shortcuts, but they're not the same thing as a symbolic link and the shell does not treat shortcuts to files like the files themselves. This makes things messy when you want to organize files. Perhaps this is a solution to the problem: CHLExt v1.01 From today's LockerGnome Windows Daily: I don't know about you, but I have run into a few programs that don't like shortcuts. It seems to be a diminishing characteristic in newer programs, but there is still the occasional application that won't work unless you access the program file directly. With CHLExt you can get around this problem by making a "hard link" to the file. A hard link is like a shortcut, but it's NTFS-based, so as far as the troublesome program is concerned, it thinks that this hard-linked file is the same as the original. Hard links don't take up any room on your hard drive; however, when you right-click the hard link and choose Properties, it will give you a file size. This happens because it is getting the information directly from the original file; the hard link itself isn't taking up that space. CHLExt is easy to use because it is a shell extension. That means that all you have to do to har-link a file is to right-click it and choose "Create Hard Link." Now you can rename that hard link and move it anywhere you want on your NTFS hard drive... it's that simple! (Please note that this application will only work on Windows 2000/XP machines running NTFS.)

Another hard link solution

Kevin — Tue, 15 Oct 2002 16:48:00 +0000

Just found another hard link utility - Hard Link Magic.

Java port of MAME - "CottAGE"

Kevin — Wed, 16 Oct 2002 17:35:00 +0000

Looks like a group named the Java-Emu Team has been working on a port of the Multi Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) that they're calling CottAGE. You can even try it online, as the code supports applets!

Evil Clown Generator

Kevin — Thu, 17 Oct 2002 15:42:21 +0000

Lord help us... http://www.scottsmind.com/evil_clown.html BTW, I really hate clowns.

Happy Birthday, Tommy!!!

Kevin — Fri, 18 Oct 2002 15:11:39 +0000

My oldest son, Tommy, turns 4 today. Happy Birthday!

Dance, Petey, Dance!

Kevin — Sun, 20 Oct 2002 22:00:55 +0000

Yeah, my boys have rhythm. (1.4 MB Windows Media 9 file) Just in case, here's a slightly larger (but more compatible) Windows Media 8 file

Bill of NO Rights

Kevin — Tue, 22 Oct 2002 18:30:41 +0000

Just came across this again and felt like posting it. The Bill of NO Rights The following was written by State Representative Mitchell Kaye from Cobb County, GA. We, the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior and secure the blessings of debt-free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-ridden, delusional and other liberal, bed wetters. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that a whole lot of people were confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim that they require a Bill of No Rights. ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything. ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone - not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be. ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy. ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes. ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care. ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair. ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big-screen color TV or a life of leisure. ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to demand that our children risk their lives in foreign wars to soothe your aching conscience. We hate oppressive governments and won't lift a finger to stop you from going to fight if you'd like. However, we do not enjoy parenting the entire world and do not want to spend so much of our time battling each and every little tyrant with a military uniform and a funny hat. ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want all of you to have one, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful. ARTICLE X: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to pursue happiness - which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an overabundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.

Albert Speaks

Kevin — Mon, 28 Oct 2002 20:40:17 +0000

Interesting Einstein quotes: On Knowledge: - "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." - "Imagination is more important than knowledge." - "The only real valuable thing is intuition." - "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." - "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." - "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources." - "The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." - "The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing." His Understanding of the World: - "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details." - "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." - "I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice." - "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility." - "Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character." - "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind." - "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding." - "The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible." - "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods." - "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - "In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep." - "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton) On People and Life: - "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - "A person starts to live when he can live outside himself." - "I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." - "Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing." - "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new." - "Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds." - "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love." - "No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?" - "My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind." - "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker." - "Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence." - "The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." - "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion." - "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." - "A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." On Math and Science and Education: - "Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at it." - "God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically." - "The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking." - "Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal." - "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." - "Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school." - "Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater." - "Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity." - "If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut." - "As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality." - "Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever." - "...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought." - "Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. THAT'S relativity."

Happy Birthday, Petey!

Kevin — Tue, 29 Oct 2002 14:27:42 +0000

My son Peter turned 2 the other day. Happy birthday!

New Version of Movable Type

Kevin — Wed, 20 Nov 2002 03:54:56 +0000

I just switched my site over to the latest rev of Movable Type. Let's see how well it was imported... Please email me if you notice anything not working.

Messing Around with the Web Cam

Kevin — Sat, 30 Nov 2002 22:31:35 +0000

Tommy and I were messing around with the web cam today.

Star Wars in 5 Minutes or Less

Kevin — Sun, 08 Dec 2002 19:45:15 +0000

The Cliff Notes version of Star Wars (in Flash) -- Star Dudes. Also check out Dude Studios for other episodes.

saslpasswd Hang Solution

Kevin — Wed, 18 Dec 2002 21:51:12 +0000

Here's an obscure problem with an even more obscure solution. This drove me crazy all day today. In trying to set up SMTP AUTH on DebtX's new mail server, I decided to use SASL for authentication. When I tried to create a new user in sasldb using saslpasswd, the app just hung there, never writing any data to /etc/sasldb. After hours of searching for a solution, I found this on The FAQChest: Subject: Solution: saslpasswd hangs ( cyrus-sasl-1.5.24-17 ) From: "Greg Waehner" Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 16:21:31 -0500 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to a whole host of people, I've find the problem and answer. saslpasswd uses /dev/random even if "auto_transition=yes" is NOT in your config files. /dev/random uses audio, keyboard, and mouse input from the host. In my case, there is no keyboard, no mouse, and no audio. I access the server via SSH, and as such, /dev/random never returned info. to saslpasswd. Thus, the hang. Solution: make /dev/random a symlink /dev/urandom Implementation: ( as root ) cd /dev rm random ln -s /dev/urandom random Thanks again to everyone who helped out. Greg Waehner

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

Kevin — Wed, 08 Jan 2003 19:39:16 +0000

For Paul Marquis: Hello, boys and girls. This is your old pal, Stinky Wizzleteats. This is a song about a whale. No! This is a song about being happy! That's right! It's the Happy Happy Joy Joy song! Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy! I don't think you're happy enough! That's right! I'll teach you to be happy! I'll teach your grandmother to suck eggs! Now, boys and girls, let's try it again! Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy! If'n you aint the grandaddy of all liars! The little critters of nature... They don't know that they're ugly! That's very funny, a fly marrying a bumblebee! I told you I'd shoot! But you didn't believe me! Why didn't you believe me?! Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Joy Joy Joy!

Bravery or Stupidity? You Decide...

Kevin — Sat, 11 Jan 2003 04:58:17 +0000

It takes a brave man to praise M$ in an interview with a Java magazine. :-) I'm waiting for the hate mail to start...

Switch

Kevin — Fri, 17 Jan 2003 14:44:25 +0000

Ellen is old news. Now Anakin says..."Switch"

I Hump Things

Kevin — Wed, 22 Jan 2003 21:08:52 +0000

Yes...yes, he does hump things...

Adventures in Commuting

Kevin — Fri, 24 Jan 2003 15:34:56 +0000

One of the great joys of living on Boston's South Shore and working in downtown Boston is that you can commute in by boat. The MBTA not only runs the subway, the commuter rail and bus lines, but also several boat commuter services. The boat service I use starts in Hingham and ends at Rowes Wharf in Boston. Normally this is a 30-45 minute trip, and is very enjoyable -- relaxed, efficient, and it even has coffee and snacks in the AM and a full bar in the PM. It's especially nice in the summer, because you can sit up on deck in the open air and enjoy the sun (or the sunset if you work late like me) with a Corona. Things have been a bit different over the past week. Boston is having one of the worst cold spells in history, and it really really sucks to walk around downtown. It's so cold that the harbor has started to freeze over (salt water starts to freeze at roughly 28 degress Farenheit), which is making the daily commute -- well -- interesting. The Boston Globe had a great picture of the commuter boats in today's edition:

Eddie Jobson/Zinc Newsletters from Mid-1980s

Kevin — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 20:00:52 +0000

I was lucky enough to win (let along find out about) an auction of Eddie Jobson/Zinc fan newsletters from the mid-1980s, just after Eddie released his Green Album. I've scanned the first newsletter and have made it available for your reading pleasure. This first newsletter is especially interesting, as it discusses Eddie joining and then subsequently leaving Yes during the recording of 90125, their hugely popular album from 1983. Eddie even appears in the video for "Owner of a Lonely Heart" (albeit mostly edited out). BTW, if you've never heard of Eddie, he was the keyboardist/violinist for UK, Curved Air, Frank Zappa, Roxy Music, Jethro Tull, as well as other progressive rock bands in the 70's and 80's.

Snow!

Kevin — Fri, 07 Feb 2003 21:38:45 +0000

Wow, it's really snowing outside...I feel like I'm back in Buffalo again.

Citizens Against Celebrity "Pundits"

Kevin — Thu, 13 Feb 2003 16:18:51 +0000

As a Libertarian, I'm in a unique position where I can really hate both Conservatives and Liberals alike. And many times I do, believe me. :-) But the ones I hate the most of all, and I literally do mean *hate*, are the celebrity MORONS that take up the far-left Liberal banner. I mean, c'mon, they're ACTORS AND MUSICIANS...not exactly the brightest bulbs on the Xmas tree. Hell, these are the people that think it's just fine and dandy to get married and divorced every 6 months. Or believe in Scientology (yikes!). So, when I hear the likes of Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Woody Harrelson (and many others) going off on their Liberal tirades, I cringe and quickly change the channel before I throw something at the TV. Mind you, I'm also against a possible war in Iraq, but for very very different reasons that they are. It has yet to be proven to me that there is a direct threat to the US by Iraq. If there is a threat, then we need to remove that threat, killing Iraqi forces if necessary. I'm also no big fan of the Bush regime, but I'll give the man and his staff the benefit of the doubt. I for one do not believe that the US government and military would go through the expense (and eventual bad press) of dollars and lives lost for oil alone. And I believe it's ignorant to believe that oil is the primary purpose of any military engagement in Iraq. Let's not forget that Mr. Hussein has already killed thousands of Iraqi civilians. Shades of Stalin, eh? So, anyways, imagine my joy in finding Civilians Against Celebrity "Pundits". I love it... :-) BTW, John McCain said it best in his sketch on Saturday Night Live: The skit was a take-off on a TV commercial for a CD titled McCain Sings Streisand. It opened with McCain singing people who need people. McCain then observed: Ive been in politics for over 20 years. And for over 20 years Ive had Barbra Streisand trying to do my job. So I decided to try my hand at her job.

Dell Inspiron 8200 Crashing and Freezing

Kevin — Thu, 13 Feb 2003 22:03:36 +0000

My work laptop, a Dell Inspiron 8200, has had continuous problems since I first bought it in July. A few weeks ago I rebuilt it from scratch and it's started exhibiting a new problem - seemingly random freezing and sometimes crashing during the night. I would then be forced to reboot and then it would be fine for 15-20 minutes and then yet another freeze up. I think I've found the solution to this problem. I started to notice that the crashes/freezes occur while the CPU was fairly heavily loaded (ex. virus scanning, movie playing, etc.) After reading several other posts on the Dell user forums and elsewhere on the web, it started to make sense that the CPU was overheating. I downloaded the Dell Inspiron 8x00 fan control utility and set it to be fairly aggressive as to when it increased the fan speed from low to high. Sure enough, while running a virus scan the CPU hit 45, 50, then 55 degrees Celsius. It then switched the fan from low to high. And then I also realized that I've never heard the fan run that loud before!!! I don't think the fan has ever run at high speed without this 3rd-party utility! Anyways, I've now gone 7 hours with no crashes and/or freezes. That's a record for the week. Note that this utility is NOT supported by Dell. Then again, Dell tech support sucks, so this is a good thing. :-)

Blizzard of '03

Kevin — Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:37:09 +0000

When I was 11, I had experienced the Blizzard of '77 in Buffalo, NY. By the time the storm was over, I could walk up the snowbank in the front yard and look into the 2nd story windows. 29 people died, $300 Million in damages. As an example of how bad it was, here's a car being dug out from above: A year later, my wife Heather experienced the Blizzard of '78 here in the Boston area. 54 deaths, $1 Billion in damages, 27 inches of snow. Here's a picture of the damage done to homes here in Scituate: Over the past two days, we've had the Blizzard of '03 here in the Boston area. The total amount of snowfall actually beat the the '78 record by half an inch, but there was much less wind and the coast was spared from flooding. Kind of anti-climactic, eh?

I hope this isn't the typical peace protester...

Kevin — Tue, 18 Feb 2003 18:36:20 +0000

Oy, this guy gives the doves a bad name... Speaking of which, Peter Bagge had a fantastic cartoon in last month's Reason magazine about the peace protests from a Libertarian's perspective. Check out "Observations from a Reluctant Anti-Warrior".

The New Universal Theory

Kevin — Tue, 18 Feb 2003 21:19:15 +0000

From Mark Steyn's latest column in the National Post: Got that? It's not Saddam who's the thug, it's Tony. It's not the Baathist killers from Tikrit who are the bunch of criminals, it's the Republican Party. It's not the million-man murderer of Baghdad who's the new Hitler, it's George W. Bush. It's not the Iraqi one-party state with its government-controlled media that "crushes dissent," it's the White House. It's not the Wahhabis who are the fundamentalists, it's Bush, Blair and the other Christians. It's not Osama bin Laden who's the terrorist, it's American foreign policy. Supporting the continued enslavement of the Iraqi people is "pacifist," but it's "racist" for America to disagree with the UN, even though it's Colin Powell and Condi Rice doing the disagreeing and the fellows they're disagreeing with are a bunch of white guys from Europe.

More Left Wing Idiocy

Kevin — Thu, 20 Feb 2003 20:52:08 +0000

Just saw this in the VERY Conservative OptionJournal from WSJ:

Writing in the Jerusalem Post, Amir Taheri reports on his experience with the pro-Saddam mob this weekend: I spent part of last Saturday with the so-called "antiwar" marchers in London in the company of some Iraqi friends. Our aim had been to persuade the organizers to let at least one Iraqi voice to be heard. Soon, however, it became clear that the organizers were as anxious to stifle the voice of the Iraqis in exile as was Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The Iraqis had come with placards reading "Freedom for Iraq" and "American rule, a hundred thousand times better than Takriti tyranny!" But the tough guys who supervised the march would have none of that. Only official placards, manufactured in thousands and distributed among the "spontaneous" marchers, were allowed. These read "Bush and Blair, baby-killers," "Not in my name," "Freedom for Palestine" and "Indict Bush and Sharon." Not one placard demanded that Saddam should disarm to avoid war. The goons also confiscated photographs showing the tragedy of Halabja, the Kurdish town where Saddam's forces gassed 5,000 people to death in 1988. A 78-year-old Iraqi grandmother managed to reach featured speaker Jesse Jackson and asked if she could "have the microphone for one minute to tell the people about my life." Jackson's response: "Today is not about Saddam Hussein. Today is about Bush and Blair and the massacre they plan in Iraq." [my emphasis]

Argh - the more I read about the anti-war protests the more Conservative I feel. I need Jerry Fallwell or Pat Robertson to piss me off and soon! :-)

On a Different Note

Kevin — Fri, 21 Feb 2003 20:36:11 +0000

If You're Happy And You Know It Bomb Iraq by John Robbins If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq. If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq. If the terrorists are frisky, Pakistan is looking shifty, North Korea is too risky, Bomb Iraq. If we have no allies with us, bomb Iraq. If we think that someone's dissed us, bomb Iraq. So to hell with the inspections, Let's look tough for the elections, Close your mind and take directions, Bomb Iraq. It's pre-emptive non-aggression, bomb Iraq. To prevent this mass destruction, bomb Iraq. They've got weapons we can't see, And that's all the proof we need, If they're not there, they must be there, Bomb Iraq. If you never were elected, bomb Iraq. If your mood is quite dejected, bomb Iraq. If you think Saddam's gone mad, With the weapons that he had, And he tried to kill your dad, Bomb Iraq. If corporate fraud is growin', bomb Iraq. If your ties to it are showin', bomb Iraq. If your politics are sleazy, And hiding that ain't easy, And your manhood's getting queasy, Bomb Iraq. Fall in line and follow orders, bomb Iraq. For our might knows not our borders, bomb Iraq. Disagree? We'll call it treason, Let's make war not love this season, Even if we have no reason, Bomb Iraq.

Quote of the Week

Kevin — Sat, 22 Feb 2003 16:32:01 +0000

". . . you know frankly, going to war without France is like going deer hunting without an accordion. You just leave a lot of useless noisy baggage behind." - Jed Babbin, a former deputy undersecretary of defense in the first Bush administration, on Hardball I had mistakenly attributed this to my former boss, Ross Perot. As always, Snopes knows better. :-)

Pioneer 10 Has Sent Its Last Signal

Kevin — Wed, 26 Feb 2003 18:54:34 +0000

"Originally designed for a 21-month mission, Pioneer 10 lasted more than 30 years. It was a workhorse that far exceeded its warranty, and I guess you could say we got our money's worth," said Pioneer 10 Project Manager, Dr. Larry Lasher. I'll say... Here's the Space.Com article

Refuting The Top Ten Most Annoying Anti-War Cliches

Kevin — Thu, 27 Feb 2003 19:06:38 +0000

An interesting analysis of the now standard list of dove cliches by John Hawkins (get it? Hawkins?) http://www.rightwingnews.com/john/slogans.php (mind you, I'm still pretty much against going to war against Iraq, but I really really hate the anti-war protesters...really! :-)

Janeane Garofalo: 'It Wasn't Hip' to Protest Clinton's Wars

Kevin — Thu, 27 Feb 2003 20:03:52 +0000

Politics + fashion = morons. Comedienne-turned-peace-activist Janeane Garofalo offered a stunning admission on Sunday, explaining that she and her fellow anti-war protesters didn't stage huge demonstrations when President Clinton launched attacks on Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan and the Sudan because "it wasn't very hip" to protest the former president. Asked by "Fox News Sunday's" Tony Snow why peace protesters like herself didn't object to Clinton's wars, Garofalo explained: "I absolutely did. I did not support Operation Desert Fox. It's just that you didn't know me very well back then. Nobody really was interested in listening to me back then." Then she added, by way of explaining why the anti-Clinton protests never gelled, "It wasn't very hip." Garofalo went on to claim that Hollywood actors Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins led protests against Clinton's 1998 Iraq attack, saying that "there was a lot of protest, just as there was against the first Gulf War." A Lexis-Nexis search for December 1998, the month Clinton bombed the daylights out of Baghdad, failed to turn up a single report that mentioned either Sarandon or Robbins protesting the attacks. A similar search for the month of February 2003 turned up 124 reports on Sarandon protesting President Bush's Iraq policy.

Logical Fallacies and The Rush To War

Kevin — Mon, 03 Mar 2003 16:19:06 +0000

[via KuroShin] Dave Koehler of PhillyBurbs.com has written an outstanding summary of the logical fallacies used by the Bush administration to try to convince the world at large of the necessity of invading Iraq in the absence of any sort of compelling evidence.

Once every hundred years...

Kevin — Mon, 03 Mar 2003 17:55:41 +0000

Happy 03/03/03!

Cows

Kevin — Fri, 07 Mar 2003 20:46:24 +0000

DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office that put a tax on your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money, buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous. Barbara Streisand sings for you. SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow. REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So? COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour. CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows. DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government. BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain. AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one. You force the 2 cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses. Your stock goes up. FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows. You go to lunch. Life is good. JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains. Most are at the top of their class at cow school. GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour. Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year. ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows but you don't know where they are. While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman. You break for lunch. Life is good. RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You have some more vodka. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka. You produce your 10th, 5-year plan in the last 3 months. The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have. TALIBAN CORPORATION: You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two. You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts. POLISH CORPORATION: You have two bulls. Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them. FLORIDA CORPORATION: You have a black cow and a brown cow. Everyone votes for the best looking one. Some of the people who like the brown one best, vote for the black one. Some people vote for both. Some people vote for neither. Some people can't figure out how to vote at all. Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best-looking one. NEW YORK CORPORATION: You have fifteen million cows. You have to choose which one will be the leader of the herd, so you pick some dumb cow from Arkansas named Hillary.

"A" is for Amy...

Kevin — Sun, 09 Mar 2003 17:15:16 +0000

...who fell down the stairs. Edward Gorey's "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" are now online.

US Propaganda Leaflets

Kevin — Mon, 10 Mar 2003 22:26:09 +0000

The US military has been dropping propaganda leaflets in Iraq.

SETI@home finds 150 possible alien signals

Kevin — Tue, 11 Mar 2003 14:56:02 +0000

Three members of the SETI@home team will head to Puerto Rico this month to point the Arecibo radio telescope at up to 150 spots identified as the source of possible signals from intelligent civilizations. Read the press release, help out and install the software.

The Dell Inspiron 8200 Saga cont.

Kevin — Wed, 12 Mar 2003 15:38:49 +0000

I have a real love/hate relationship with my Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop. On the plus side, it's powerful, convenient, and solid (ie. not cheap plastic). On the negative side, a motherboard problem was causing it to overheat (it ultimately needed a new mobo) and the video drivers provided by Dell and NVIDIA *suck*. The drivers are old and lack many of the added features that more recent NVIDIA drivers provide. They also cause the laptop to crash 3-4 times per day. At first, the driver would go into an infinite loop. causing a BSOD. At Dell's suggestion, I formatted the hard drive and reinstalled the OS (oh joy of joys) and also flashed the latest version of their BIOS. The crashes changed from BSODs to sudden slowdowns, where the icons on my explorer bar would start to turn black and the system would become unresponsive. 75% of the time I could hit Fn-ESC and go into standby mode. Bringing it back from standby would "fix" the crash. But 25% of the time the system would be dead. The screen would just lock up and I would need to cold boot, which is a real pleasure when you're in the middle of coding. So, since Dell's tech support was useless and could provide no further help in the matter, I went to Dell's Community Support forum and found a suggestion that seems to have "fixed" the problem. It's been three days and the laptop has not crashed. I was directed to a web site that provided "hacked" INF files for NVIDIA's drivers for the GeForce2Go and GeFore4Go cards. All I had to do is download a standard driver package from NVIDIA's web site, unpack it, replace the INF with the hacked version, and then install. At first I tried version 41.09 of their drivers, but it still locked up (albeit slightly differently - this time with the red line/blob that many people complained about on the forums). I then uninstalled 41.09 and tried an older set, 40.72. Sure enough, no crashes at 1600x1200x32. Next I'll try 1920x1440x32 on an external monitor and see if it's still stable. ---- [Additional info] Sure enough, after running at 1920x1440x32 for 15 minutes, it crashed. Looks like I'll stick with 1600x1200x32 for now...

.Huh?

Kevin — Wed, 19 Mar 2003 21:25:13 +0000

"One question might be, and I'll be as direct as I can be about this, what is .Net? Unlike Windows, where you could say it's a product, it sits in one place, it's got a nice little box. In some senses, it's a very good question." - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, at a Microsoft .Net briefing day in July "We don't have the user-centricity. Until we understand context, which is way beyond presence -- presence is the most trivial notion of context." - Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, on the same topic at the same briefing "Our biggest problem was policing the use of .Net. Things like .Net Enterprise Servers. That's a great example of where the confusion came from, because it looked like we were slapping .Net on a bunch of random products." - Charles Fitzgerald, general manager of Microsoft's platform strategy group, in August on ZDNet News "It's about connecting people to people, people to information, businesses to businesses, businesses to information, and so on. That is the benefit." - Steve Ballmer, trying again, in an October interview with News.com

I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam

Kevin — Sun, 23 Mar 2003 05:53:11 +0000

Reprinted without permission, but I had to pass this one on... From the Daily Telegraph in the UK: I was a naive fool to be a human shield for Saddam By Daniel Pepper (Filed: 23/03/2003) I wanted to join the human shields in Baghdad because it was direct action which had a chance of bringing the anti-war movement to the forefront of world attention. It was inspiring: the human shield volunteers were making a sacrifice for their political views - much more of a personal investment than going to a demonstration in Washington or London. It was simple - you get on the bus and you represent yourself. So that is exactly what I did on the morning of Saturday, January 25. I am a 23-year-old Jewish-American photographer living in Islington, north London. I had travelled in the Middle East before: as a student, I went to the Palestinian West Bank during the intifada. I also went to Afghanistan as a photographer for Newsweek. The human shields appealed to my anti-war stance, but by the time I had left Baghdad five weeks later my views had changed drastically. I wouldn't say that I was exactly pro-war - no, I am ambivalent - but I have a strong desire to see Saddam removed. We on the bus felt that we were sympathetic to the views of the Iraqi civilians, even though we didn't actually know any. The group was less interested in standing up for their rights than protesting against the US and UK governments. I was shocked when I first met a pro-war Iraqi in Baghdad - a taxi driver taking me back to my hotel late at night. I explained that I was American and said, as we shields always did, "Bush bad, war bad, Iraq good". He looked at me with an expression of incredulity. As he realised I was serious, he slowed down and started to speak in broken English about the evils of Saddam's regime. Until then I had only heard the President spoken of with respect, but now this guy was telling me how all of Iraq's oil money went into Saddam's pocket and that if you opposed him politically he would kill your whole family. It scared the hell out of me. First I was thinking that maybe it was the secret police trying to trick me but later I got the impression that he wanted me to help him escape. I felt so bad. I told him: "Listen, I am just a schmuck from the United States, I am not with the UN, I'm not with the CIA - I just can't help you." Of course I had read reports that Iraqis hated Saddam Hussein, but this was the real thing. Someone had explained it to me face to face. I told a few journalists who I knew. They said that this sort of thing often happened - spontaneous, emotional, and secretive outbursts imploring visitors to free them from Saddam's tyrannical Iraq. I became increasingly concerned about the way the Iraqi regime was restricting the movement of the shields, so a few days later I left Baghdad for Jordan by taxi with five others. Once over the border we felt comfortable enough to ask our driver what he felt about the regime and the threat of an aerial bombardment. "Don't you listen to Powell on Voice of America radio?" he said. "Of course the Americans don't want to bomb civilians. They want to bomb government and Saddam's palaces. We want America to bomb Saddam." We just sat, listening, our mouths open wide. Jake, one of the others, just kept saying, "Oh my God" as the driver described the horrors of the regime. Jake was so shocked at how naive he had been. We all were. It hadn't occurred to anyone that the Iraqis might actually be pro-war. The driver's most emphatic statement was: "All Iraqi people want this war." He seemed convinced that civilian casualties would be small; he had such enormous faith in the American war machine to follow through on its promises. Certainly more faith than any of us had. Perhaps the most crushing thing we learned was that most ordinary Iraqis thought Saddam Hussein had paid us to come to protest in Iraq. Although we explained that this was categorically not the case, I don't think he believed us. Later he asked me: "Really, how much did Saddam pay you to come?" It hit me on visceral and emotional levels: this was a real portrayal of Iraq life. After the first conversation, I completely rethought my view of the Iraqi situation. My understanding changed on intellectual, emotional, psychological levels. I remembered the experience of seeing Saddam's egomaniacal portraits everywhere for the past two weeks and tried to place myself in the shoes of someone who had been subjected to seeing them every day for the last 20 or so years. Last Thursday night I went to photograph the anti-war rally in Parliament Square. Thousands of people were shouting "No war" but without thinking about the implications for Iraqis. Some of them were drinking, dancing to Samba music and sparring with the police. It was as if the protesters were talking about a different country where the ruling government is perfectly acceptable. It really upset me. Anyone with half a brain must see that Saddam has to be taken out. It is extraordinarily ironic that the anti-war protesters are marching to defend a government which stops its people exercising that freedom.

And the asshole award goes to...

Kevin — Mon, 24 Mar 2003 15:16:21 +0000

Striking yet another blow for Marxism... Cartoon care of http://www.coxandforkum.com

Ashcroft is at it again

Kevin — Mon, 24 Mar 2003 15:40:21 +0000

While leftist morons like Michael Moore piss me off, the right wingers in power generally scare the pants off me. IMHO, the guy to be the most scared of is Attorney General John Ashcroft, who seems hell bent on restricting our civil liberties. The guy scared me enough to get me to send a donation to the ACLU. Salon has an interesting article on Ashcroft's continuing attempts to turn the US into a police state. Check out Climate of Intimdation.

A World Gone Mad

Kevin — Tue, 25 Mar 2003 12:00:32 +0000

"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy, The Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the US of arrogance, and Germany doesn't want to go to war." -Author Unknown

Live Video from the War Zone

Kevin — Tue, 25 Mar 2003 20:24:53 +0000

VIDEO Al-JAZEERA LIVE Al-JAZEERA LIVE BACK-UP FEED 2 REUTERS LIVE RAW VIDEO LIVE CBS RAW FEED STREAM FROM BAGHDAD , REAL VIDEO LIVE RAW FEED STREAM FROM BAGHDAD 1, REAL VIDEO LIVE RAW FEED STREAM FROM BAGHDAD 2 REAL VIDEO LIVE NEWS TV STREAM FROM IRAN IN WINDOWS MEDIA LIVE IRAN TV CH.1, REAL MEDIA LIVE IRANIAN NATIONAL TV, HIGH SPEED WINDOWS MEDIA LIVE BAGHDAD TV IN WINDOWS MEDIA LIVE TV STREAM FROM PAKISTAN IN REAL MEDIA LIVE SAUDI TV HIGH SPEED, WINDOWS MEDIA LIVE KURDISTAN TV FROM KURIDSTAN IRAQ, HIGH SPEED WINDOWS MEDIA LIVE MSNBC BATTLEFIELD CAM, This is a live camera attached to tanks and army vehicles in the field in Iraq. Sometimes image will be black when camera is not in use. LIVE NEWS FROM TURKEY, WINDOWS MEDIA BBC NEWS: LIVE STREAM, REAL VIDEO, LOW SPEED BBC NEWS: LIVE STREAM, WINDOWS MEDIA, HIGH SPEED AUDIO Live Military Radio Middle East: You may hear a secret coded message here. MAY BE OVERLOADED AT TIMES. BBC World Service

Dennis Miller - My New Hero

Kevin — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 05:30:36 +0000

[From the Media Research Center's web site] From the April 3 Tonight Show on NBC, most of Miller's cutting observations about the present situation: -- Pride in conduct of the war: I cannot tell you how proud watching that war coverage makes me. I know a lot of people are saying that they think that it's, that you know what we're doing is imperialistic. I watch the way we handle ourselves over there and I've never felt more patriotic in my life. -- Denouncing anti-war protesters, Miller described how he puts them into four categories, the second one made up of those who call everyone but Hussein a Hitler: The second type you have at these parades seems to be the people who want to mislabel Hitler. Everybody in the world is Hitler. Bush is Hitler, Ashcroft is Hitler, Rumsfeld is Hitler. The only guy who isn't Hitler is the foreign guy with a mustache dropping people who disagree with him into the wood chipper. He's not Hitler. -- On the up side of war protesters: I'll say this about the war protesters: At least most of them are only putting duct tape across their mouths so I can still tell the rest of them to blow it out their ass. -- On the Dixie Chicks: Surprisingly, making fun of the President on foreign land in a time of war doesn't seem to play with the NASCAR crowd! -- On Peter Arnett: How am I supposed to trust the honesty of a reporter that has that bad of a comb-over on top of his head? He's got four hairs left and he's swirling them around...This guy is dangerously close to pulling hair over from another guy's head. Hey guess what Pete? We know you're bald, okay? The outside of your skull is as empty as the inside. -- On Michael Moore: He's going to wake up every day for the rest of his life, and he's going to tell us how he hates everything about this country except his right to hate it. And then we say that we love it and he's going to tell us what naive sheep we are and that he's the true patriot because he hates it and he sees all the problems in it. Yeah, right, Mike. You know something, if my yawn got any bigger they'd have to assign it a hurricane name, okay? Michael Moore simultaneously represents everything I detest in a human being and everything I feel obligated to defend in an American. Quite simply, it is that stupid moron's right to be that utterly, completely wrong. [I love that quote!!! - KJ] -- On justification for the war: It is stupid for anybody in the world to say they're for war. But I am for this war because, you know, we've got to protect ourselves now. And we've got to remind the world that there is a point that we will not be pushed past before the [bleep]hammer comes down. Now, the simple fact is, do I think Saddam Hussein can bury the nuclear jumper from the top of the key? No, I don't. He's a putz. But I do think he can distribute the ball going down the lane and I think we've got to smack him around. It's time to circle the SUVs! The simple fact is, you've got to view this war like we've been on a long family car ride. Bush is the father and he's been screaming [gestures with arm as if a driver scolding kids in back seat] 'don't make me come back there!' for around 200 miles now and it just reached the point where we had to pull the car over and the bad kid is going to get the spanking of his life. -- On those whining about the length of the war: And now we've got people whining about how long the war is taking. For God's sakes it's been two weeks. You know, it took Joe Millionaire eight weeks to pick Zora (sp?). -- On global warming: There's a lot of differing data, but as far as I can gather, over the last hundred years the temperature on this planet has gone up 1.8 degrees. Am I the only one who finds that amazingly stable? I could go back to my hotel room tonight and futz with the thermostat for three to four hours. I could not detect that difference. -- Advice to soldiers in Iraq: I would encourage the boys though not to rip down all those big wall portraits of Hussein because you got to remember, pretty soon we're going to need a headstone for my main man's grave and you might want to save one for him. -- Praising the troops: God knows that we've got things we've got to perfect in this country. But there's enough people downplaying it right now. I want to go so far against that. I want to thank the President. I want to thank the troops and say God bless you for doing the tough job which allows us to sit here and do the easy jobs, like be on the Tonight Show.

Iraqi Personality Playing Cards

Kevin — Sat, 12 Apr 2003 21:39:58 +0000

If you wanted to know what's on those playing cards that are being handed out in Iraq, here they are.

Looks like I'm getting some new neighbors...

Kevin — Sun, 13 Apr 2003 05:32:47 +0000

From the Boston Globe: A huge Scituate home for Ben and J. Lo By Carol Beggy & Al Young, Globe Staff, 4/9/2003 JUST JENNY FROM THE SCITUATE BLOCK We heard they were moving to Cambridge. Then it was Southie. But it's Scituate. Or so Us magazine is reporting in its next edition, which hits newsstands Friday. Here's the news: Former Cantabrigian Ben Affleck and his main squeeze, Jennifer Lopez, have ''picked out a $3 million estate.'' Lovely. The couple were spotted recently on the South Shore, including house hunting in Cohasset. But it's the secluded Scituate property that caught their attention, we're told. The spot they've settled on, the mag reported, is a 5,200-plus-square-foot, 11-room house on 6.1 acres. A rep for the Grand Gables Realty Group, which is selling the property, would not comment to Us. And they were mum when called by us yesterday. But here are a few more details of the house the glam couple may one day call home: It has a reception hall, grand dining room, breakfast room, two kitchens (including a chef's kitchen), four bedrooms (including a master suite with views of the ocean), and, yes, a large walk-in closet. (Silent scream.) The dynamic duo is hardly in need of places to stay. Affleck has a New York City loft and a house in Beverly Hills. Lopez has a house in Los Angeles and a place in Miami that is regularly described as a mansion.

Revoke the Oscar

Kevin — Wed, 16 Apr 2003 15:45:34 +0000

"Revoke the Oscar". Nuff said.

Announcing Isabelle Davenport Jarnot!

Kevin — Sat, 19 Apr 2003 20:23:07 +0000

Isabelle Davenport Jarnot was born at 4:45 AM on April 17th, 2003. She was 7 lbs 13oz and 19 1/4" long. Pictures to follow after we get some sleep. :-)

Isabelle's First Picture

Kevin — Mon, 21 Apr 2003 00:29:58 +0000

Here's Isabelle at 2 days:

Boss Talk: Why celebrities should never shut up�but stop complaining

Kevin — Fri, 25 Apr 2003 19:01:26 +0000

There's an excellent article on Reason Online on one of my recent fave topics - "Boss Talk: Why celebrities should never shut upbut stop complaining". I agree completely - *everyone* in the US has the right to speak their point of view, but don't expect everyone to agree with you. And remember that the people that disagree with you *also* have the right to voice their opinions, and their choice of expression may be the boycott of your album/movie/tv show. It's a two-way street. I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. -- Evelyn Beatrice Hall (as S.G. Tallentyre), The Friends of Voltaire

Chewbacca in Star Wars Episode III

Kevin — Tue, 29 Apr 2003 04:25:10 +0000

Let's hope Lucas doesn't have Chewie rooming with Jar Jar... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2981081.stm

Isabelle's hospital picture

Kevin — Fri, 02 May 2003 04:28:10 +0000

Just got Isabelle's hospital picture - she's 2 days old in this one.

A few more pics

Kevin — Sat, 03 May 2003 04:46:15 +0000

A Very Tired Dad Isabelle with her Papa Enjoying her chair

Prevent Windows Messenger from Running

Kevin — Thu, 29 May 2003 16:14:03 +0000

I'm a big fan of instant messaging, but choose to use a multi-protocol client instead of single protocol clients like Yahoo! Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger. Since I run Windows as my desktop on most of my PCs, Microsoft wants me to use their Windows Messenger client, so much, in fact, that it automagically starts all by itself - even though I've told it *not* to repeatedly. So, here's how to disable it for good. Bye bye...

13 Zero Tolerance Horror Stories

Kevin — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 16:13:00 +0000

The Heartland Institute has an interesting article by George Clowes that briefly describes 13 sad tales of educators not using common sense. Excerpts: Horror Story #7: Drug Sweep. Last spring, a drug search at the Wagner Community School in South Dakota led to students being confined to their classrooms for several hours while a police dog sniffed around classrooms and students, some as young as six years old. According to court papers, the police dog became unleashed in a kindergarten class and chased students, causing some to cry and at least one to wet his pants. Horror Story #10: Sexual Harassment. When a girl refused Sal Santana IIs request to be his girl-friend, the 12-year-old stuck out his tongue at her. When school district officials learned of the incident, Santana was suspended for sexual harassment. Horror Story #13: No Splashing. A sixth-grader in Inverness, Florida didnt stop when his teachers told him not to jump in rain puddles. He did stop when a police officer at the school took him into custody, charged him with a misdemeanor, and held him in a jail cell for more than two hours.

Say again?

Kevin — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 17:38:19 +0000

Those crazy Italians and their mighty naughty-bits: http://www.powergenitalia.com/ (c/o NTK)

BLAAARGHAAAGGGHHHHH!

Kevin — Fri, 13 Jun 2003 20:02:17 +0000

The (Lengthy) List of Baghdad Bob Quotes

Kevin — Wed, 18 Jun 2003 14:22:34 +0000

c/o http://www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com/ "There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!" "My feelings - as usual - we will slaughter them all" "Our initial assessment is that they will all die" "I blame Al-Jazeera - they are marketing for the Americans!" "God will roast their stomachs in hell at the hands of Iraqis." "They're coming to surrender or be burned in their tanks." "No I am not scared, and neither should you be!" "Be assured. Baghdad is safe, protected" "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" "We are not afraid of the Americans. Allah has condemned them. They are stupid. They are stupid" (dramatic pause) "and they are condemned." "The Americans, they always depend on a method what I call ... stupid, silly. All I ask is check yourself. Do not in fact repeat their lies." "I can say, and I am responsible for what I am saying, that they have started to commit suicide under the walls of Baghdad. We will encourage them to commit more suicides quickly." "I can assure you that those villains will recognize, will discover in appropriate time in the future how stupid they are and how they are pretending things which have never taken place." "We have destroyed 2 tanks, fighter planes, 2 helicopters and their shovels - We have driven them back." "The authority of the civil defense ... issued a warning to the civilian population not to pick up any of those pencils because they are booby traps," he said, adding that the British and American forces were "immoral mercenaries" and "war criminals" for such behavior. "I am not talking about the American people and the British people," he said. "I am talking about those mercenaries. ... They have started throwing those pencils, but they are not pencils, they are booby traps to kill the children." "We have them surrounded in their tanks" "The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies!" "I have detailed information about the situation...which completely proves that what they allege are illusions . . . They lie every day." "Lying is forbidden in Iraq. President Saddam Hussein will tolerate nothing but truthfulness as he is a man of great honor and integrity. Everyone is encouraged to speak freely of the truths evidenced in their eyes and hearts." "Now even the American command is under siege. We are hitting it from the north, east, south and west. We chase them here and they chase us there. But at the end we are the people who are laying siege to them. And it is not them who are besieging us." "because we will behead you all" "Let the American infidels bask in their illusion" "I triple guarantee you, there are no American soldiers in Baghdad." Britain "is not worth an old shoe" "we have given them a sour taste" "blood-sucking bastards" Of US troops: "They are most welcome. We will butcher them." "We will welcome them with bullets and shoes." "We are in control. They are in a state of hysteria. Losers, they think that by killing civilians and trying to distort the feelings of the people they will win. I think they will not win, those bastards." "The British forces which were dropped there have been eliminated mostly on the (battle)field, except for those who fled ... It is a complete defeat ... Amazingly the Americans have pushed the British to do that. They pushed them ahead as if it is an experiment. The result was very tragic for the British." We have placed them in a quagmire from which they can never emerge except dead "Washington has thrown their soldiers on the fire" "I speak better English than this villain Bush" "These cowards have no morals. They have no shame about lying" "They're not even [within] 100 miles [of Baghdad]. They are not in any place. They hold no place in Iraq. This is an illusion ... they are trying to sell to the others an illusion." "Their failure in this regard is abysmal. They want to tell the world changes thought - as a matter of fact, they do not respect the world, they want to tell taxpayers and the domestic public to keep them deceived. We will embroil them, confuse them and keep them in the quagmire. They have begun to tell more lies so that they might continue with the perpetration of their crimes. May they be accursed." "We will kill them all........most of them." "They are like a snake and we are going to cut it in pieces." "They do not even have control over themselves! Do not believe them!" "I would like to clarify a simple fact here: How can you lay siege to a whole country? Who is really under siege now? Baghdad cannot be besieged. Al-Nasiriyah cannot be besieged. Basra cannot be besieged." "That bastard the American Minister of Defense Rumsfeld, and I won't say shamelessly, because they don't know what shame means. These are criminals. The whole word can hear the warning sirens. This criminal sitting in the White House is a pathetic criminal and his Defense Minister deserves to be beaten. These criminals lie to the world because they are criminals by nature and conditioning. They consider this a military site! Shame on you! You will forever be shamed! You have ruined the reputation of the American people in the most terrible way! Shame on you! And we will destroy you!" "They are trapped in Umm Qasr. They are trapped near Basra. They are trapped near Nasiriyah. They are trapped near Najaf. They are trapped everywhere." Called Americans and Brits "Tarateer" In Iraqi slang, Tartoor means a guy full of farts (i.e. hot air) "they are nowhere near the airport ..they are lost in the desert...they can not read a compass...they are retarded." "They are not in Baghdad. They are not in control of any airport. I tell you this. It is all a lie. They lie. It is a hollywood movie. You do not believe them." "Faltering forces of infidels cannot just enter a country of 26 million people and lay besiege to them! They are the ones who will find themselves under siege. Therefore, in reality whatever this miserable Rumsfeld has been saying, he was talking about his own forces. Now even the American command is under siege." "They tried to bring a small number of tanks and personnel carriers in through al-Durah but they were surrounded and most of their infidels had their throats cut." "Our estimates are that none of them will come out alive unless they surrender to us quickly." "We made them drink poison last night and Saddam Hussein's soldiers and his great forces gave the Americans a lesson which will not be forgotten by history. Truly." "On this occasion, I am not going to mention the number of the infidels who were killed and the number of destroyed vehicles. The operation continues" "Today we slaughtered them in the airport. They are out of Saddam International Airport." "The force that was in the airport, this force was destroyed." "We're giving them a real lesson today. Heavy doesn't accurately describe the level of casualties we have inflicted." "Their infidels are committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad. Be assured, Baghdad is safe, protected." "Today I have visited whole Baghdad city, no invaders found. You go and see how we have ousted them from this city. They are cying outside and waiting to receive bullets. They will be killed shortly." "These images are not the suburbs of Baghdad. From what I glimpsed, these gardens with rows of palm trees on the side, which you saw in the images, are located in the south of Abu Ghreib, where we have surrounded the Americans and British." When told coalition troops occupied Baghdad airport - "...at Saddam Airport? Now that's just silly!" "The situation is excellent, they are going to try to approach Baghdad...and I believe their grave will be there." "NO", snapped Mr al-Sahaf, "We have retaken the airport. There are NO Americans there. I will take you there and show you. IN ONE HOUR!" "We defeated them yesterday. God willing, I will provide you with more information. I swear by God, I swear by God, those who are staying in Washington and London have thrown these mercenaries in a crematorium." "Please, please! The Americans are relying on what I called yesterday a desperate and stupid method." "They will be burnt. We are going to tackle them" "We blocked them inside the city. Their rear is blocked" "Desperate Americans" "Today we slaughtered them in the airport. They are out of Saddam International Airport. The force that was in the airport, this force was destroyed." "They are trying to fool you. They are showing any old pictures of buildings. They even went into the VIP section of the airport, just because Saddam Hussein may have sat in such and such a chair or slept in such and such a bed" "We went into the airport and crushed them, we cleaned the WHOOOLE place out, they were slaughtered" "Yes, the american troops have advanced further. This will only make it easier for us to defeat them" "Their casualties and bodies are many." [On surrenders] "Those are not Iraqi soldiers at all. Where did they bring them from?" "Just look carefully, I only want you to look carefully. Do not repeat the lies of liars. Do not become like them. Once again, I blame al-Jazeera before it ascertains what takes place. Please, make sure of what you say and do not play such a role." "This is unbased" "Search for the truth. I tell you things and I always ask you to verify what I say. I told you yesterday that there was an attack and a retreat at Saddam's airport." "I have detailed information about the situation . . . which completely proves that what they allege are illusions . . . They lie every day." "You can go and visit those places. Nothing there, nothing at all. There are Iraqi checkpoints. Everything is okay." "This boa, the American columns, are being besieged between Basra and other towns north, west, south and west of Basra....Now even the American command is under siege. We are hitting it from the north, east, south and west. We chase them here and they chase us there." "By God, I think this is rather very unlikely. This is merely a prattle. The fact is that as soon as they reach Baghdad gates, we will besiege them and slaughter them....Wherever they go they will find themselves encircled." "They (the U.S.) are deceiving their soldiers and their officers that aggressing against Iraq and invading Iraq will be like a picnic. This is a very stupid lie they are telling their soldiers, what they are facing is a definite death." "Listen, this explosion does not frighten us any langer. The cruise missiles do not frighten anyone. We are catching them like fish in a river. I mean here that over the past two days we managed to shoot down 196 missiles before they hit their target." "Blair...is accusing us of executing British soldiers. We want to tell him that we have not executed anybody. They are either killed in battle, most of them get killed because they are cowards anyway, the rest they just get captured." "They fled. The American louts fled. Indeed, concerning the fighting waged by the heroes of the Arab Socialist Baath Party yesterday, one amazing thing really is the cowardice of the American soldiers. we had not anticipated this." "We will slaughter them, Bush Jr. and his international gang of bastards!" "the louts of colonialism." "The forces of American colonialism began to drop containers that produce a sound explosion, a very huge sound. I remind you that they said that their strategy is based on shock and awe. Those failed ones manufactured a type of container that has an explosive substance, which they drop. They cause a very huge explosion in terms of sound, as if the universe was shaken. After a while, you go out and you don't find anything. You find some nails, screws, pieces of metal, but the important thing here is the sound. Those failed ones think that through the huge sound explosion, people would be shocked and consequently would collapse and be defeated. What happened? The contrary. The fighters..., the masses..., and the heroic sons of the Iraqi tribes discovered this game. They will turn it against the American louts so as to shock them. Wait for surprises, God willing, to see how the US game will fail." "The shock has backfired on them. They are shocked because of what they have seen. No one received them with roses. They were received with bombs, shoes and bullets. Now, the game has been exposed. Awe will backfire on them. This is the boa snake. We will extend it further and cut it the appropriate way." "It has been rumored that we have fired scud missiles into Kuwait. I am here now to tell you, we do not have any scud missiles and I don't know why they were fired into Kuwait." "As for the mercenaries who advanced to the perimeters of Saddam International Airport, I would like to remind you of something. I will mention something that will make the picture clear for you and help you to understand what took place at Saddam International Airport. Most of you probably saw the American movie "Wag the Dog". I hope you remember it. Some of their acts that took place at dawn yesterday and today are similar to what happened in "Wag the Dog". If we succeed in keeping them isolated on that island, and we are determined to do so, we might let them taste a second mini Dien Bien Phu tonight. The European journalists remember it well. Our estimates are that none of them will come out alive unless they surrender to us quickly. They are completely surrounded now. This morning, the number of armoured personnel carriers that were destroyed, along with their occupants, is eight. The number of the tanks destroyed is 11." "Tonight, we will do something unconventional against them. This means: not by the military. We will do something that I believe will become a pretty example for those mercenaries. I would not be giving out a secret when I say that action in the dark against such mercenaries is effective, not through the action of armies. I say that dropping down those mercenaries in a surprise fashion at Saddam Airport without accurate calculations is largely meant for showing things. It's a showy operation. It is a kind of surprise muscle flexing to the world to show it that the shock and awe operation is indeed successful. May they be accursed. Through this operation [shock and awe], they sent a number of their villains and mercenaries to be butchered. Again, and according to my early estimates, unless the remaining part of their soldiers surrender, the chance for their survival is very slim. The surprising thing is that after they threw their soldiers into a place where they are not aware of the real results, the villainous Americans, like Powell and the others, sat in Europe to discuss how to divide Iraq as spoils after the war [laughing]. This means what's post-war. The post-war [Iraq] will be the same current Iraq under the leadership of President Saddam Husayn." "We will pursue them as war criminals. We will work with all the free people in the world, and they are many, who want someone to bell the cat [i.e.; to do a daring deed], and now we are belling the cat, according to the famous [Arabic] saying so as to rid the UN of those villains. After Iraq aborts the invasion that is being carried out by the American and British villains, the USA will no longer be a superpower. Its deterioration will be rapid. I say to those villains who are meeting in Europe, thinking of launching psychological war and brainwashing: wait. Do not be hasty because your disappointment will be huge. You will reap nothing from this aggressive war, which you launched on Iraq, except for disgrace and defeat. Iraq will continue to exist. Its civilization is 10,000 years old. It will not be changed by villains like the US and British villains." "W. Bush, this man is a war criminal, and we will see that he is brought to trial" "I think the British nation has never been faced with a tragedy like this fellow [Blair]." "The United Nations....[is] a place for prostitution under the feet of Americans." "They are sick in their minds. They say they brought 65 tanks into center of city. I say to you this talk is not true. This is part of their sick mind." "We have destroyed 50 tanks today. That 5-ohhh tanks" [while holding up his fingers] "They are superpower of villains. They are superpower of Al Capone." Americans are "wild donkeys" ('ALOG' in Arabic . Other possible translations offered by M.S.S. - 'The children of pigs', 'Those who have dramatically ugly faces', or 'leeches') Americans and Brits are "Sick dogs". "There are no Iraqis disguising themselves" "They are retreating on all fronts. Their military effort is a subject of laughter throughout the world." "...they are nowhere (pause)...they are nowhere, really" "I can assure you that those villains will recognize, will discover in appropriate time in the future how stupid they are and how they are pretending things which have never taken place" "Iraqi fighters in Umm Qasr are giving the hordes of American and Brtish mercenaries the taste of definite death. We have drawn them into a quagmire and they will never get out of it." "What they say about a breakthrough [in Najaf] is completely an illusion. They are sending their warplanes to fly very low in order to have vibrations on these sacred places . . . they are trying to crack the buildings by flying low over them." "We have crushed the whole force which dared to venture there. Now they're outside the wall and the heroic Republican Guard is now in control of the whole area. . . . So where are those villainous louts, those mercenaries?'' "Their forces committed suicide by the hundreds.... The battle is very fierce and God made us victorious. The fighting continues." "Yesterday, we slaughtered them and we will continue to slaughter them." "They think we are retarded - they are retarded." (leaflet drops) "I think this is very laughable for a Superpower to be so cheap to drop inside Iraq such poor things and they are printed in Kuwait'' "...crocodile tears [shed in] .. The gangster Bush's lair..." (refers to Bush and Blair at Camp David calling for the Geneva Conventions to be applied to all POWs) "We're going to drag the drunken junkie nose of Bush through Iraq's desert, him and his follower dog Blair...There are 26 million Saddams in Iraq" "We will push those crooks, those mercenaries back into the swamp" "When we were making the law, when we were writing the literature and the mathematics the grandfathers of Blair and little Bush were scratching around in caves" "Those Iraqi fighters are slapping those gangsters on the face, and then when they flee, they will kick their backsides." About Bush: "the leader of the international criminal gang of bastards." "the insane little dwarf Bush" "The midget Bush and that Rumsfield deserve only to be beaten with shoes by freedom loving people everywhere." "Rumsfeld, he needs to be hit on the head" "Yesterday we heard this villain called Rumsfeld. He, of course, is a war criminal, and he is one of the worst of the American rulers. He said the American mercenaries and the British mercenaries, they are defending themselves inside Iraq. They are in a defensive position. They are engaged in self-defense. They are fighting a self-defense war inside Iraq. Well, congratulations, Mr. Villain, you are defending yourself inside our country. We will show you what defense means." "Bush is a very stupid man. The American people are not stupid, they are very clever. I can't understand how such clever people came to elect such a stupid president." "Who is this dog Franks in Qatar?" "Bush doesn't even know if Spain is a republic or a kingdom, how can they follow this man?" "Whenever we attack, they retreat. When we pound them with missiles and heavy artillery, they retreat even deeper. But when we stopped pounding, they pushed to the airport for propaganda purposes.'' Any apparent American gains, he said, were a cunning ploy by the Iraqis to lure the enemy into a trap. "Our armed forces, according to their tactics, are leaving the way open" "The capital, especially the commandos, are getting ready to wipe them out" "We are surrounding them and pounding them. The whole trend has changed and we are going to finalize this very soon.'' "After we finish defeating all of those animals we will disclose that with facts and figures." "Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld. They are the funny trio" "We have shot down 2 Apache helicopters. Have the Americans said yet that they were shot down by their - what do they call it - friendly fire? No? Well... [dramatic pause, then smiles] ...not yet!" Question: Is Saddam Hussein still alive: "I will only answer reasonable questions" "Don't believe anything! We will chase the rascals back to London!" "We're now trying to exhaust them, until our leadership decides the time and method to clean our territory of their desecration." "Those are mercenaries. Most probably they will be treated as mercenaries, hirelings and as war criminals. ... For sure, international law does not apply to those" Bush "knows that he is standing in quicksand when it comes to his baseless talk on Iraq" "This criminal (Bush) in the White House is a stupid criminal" "They are not in Najaf. They are nowhere. They are on the moon. They are snakes in the desert..." Iraqi opposition leaders are "bats ... and a bad American product." "Even those who live on another planet, if there are such people, would have condemned this action before it started" "We expect the aggressors to use anything, we don't rule out that in their depression at being vanquished, those losers will become hysterical and commit even more folly." "They are becoming hysterical. This is the result of frustration." On U.S. General Richard Myers: "He must be crazy" His reports are "basic propaganda". Rumsfeld is a "crook" and "the most despicable creature." Rumsfeld is "the worst kind of bastard" "Our farmers, they are targeting accurately the enemy." (shooting at helicopters) "The imperialist invading U.S. and British forces are like a snake that slithers all over the place but that doesn't control anything." "We feed them death and hell!" "We besieged them and killed most of them, and I think we will finish them soon." "They are nowhere near Baghdad. Their allegations are a cover-up for their failure" "They want to deceive their people first because now they are in a very shabby situation." "It's a small town [Umm Qasar], it has only a few docks... now they are in a trap" "Iraqi forces are still in control of the city, and they are engaging in an attrition war with the enemy" "Americans are now in disarray" "They are again in the dirt in the desert." "They will try to enter Baghdad, and I think this is where their graveyard will be." "Their objective is to get to the outskirts of Baghdad. So be it." "We will see how the issue will turn out when they come to Baghdad." "We are determined to defeat them and destroy them on the walls of our capital, as we are determined to destroy their miserable armies in every Muslim spot." "Iraq will spread them even more and chop them up." "The Iraqi troops and the Iraqi fighters are in control of all the places, as we have witnessed. No big change in that. We are fighting against them." "They are achieving nothing; they are suffering from casualties. Those casualties are increasing, not decreasing." "Fight them everywhere. Don't give them a chance to breathe until they withdraw and retreat." "The criminals will be humiliated... To hurt the enemy more, raise the level of your attacks." "They are lying every day. They are lying always, and mainly they are lying to their public opinion." "You think their tanks are in an endless line coming towards us, wrong they are only a few of them and they turn around and then return as if to make a long snake" "I can assure you that those villains will recognize, will discover in appropriate time in the future, how stupid they are and how they are pretending things which have never taken place" "In a few days, you will all witness something that can only be considered very beautiful against the Coalition forces. That, I assure you." "we managed to chop off their rotten heads" "There are only two American tanks in the city." "We are winning!"

The (Lengthy) List of WMD Quotes

Kevin — Wed, 18 Jun 2003 14:46:38 +0000

c/o http://lunaville.org/WMD/billmon.aspx OK, you can forgive Baghdad Bob for towing the party line since he 1) was under pressure of torture/death and 2) not exactly clued in by the Hussein regime's military commanders. I *cannot* forgive our administration if they lied and deceived about the existance of WMD. Here's their list of quotes, and I really hope they're not as misguided as Baghdad Bob's...

How the United States should react if Iraq acquired WMD. "The first line of defense...should be a clear and classical statement of deterrence-if they do acquire WMD, their weapons will be unusable because any attempt to use them will bring national obliteration." --Condoleeza Rice US National Security Advisor January/February 2000 issue of Foreign Affairs 2/1/2000 We are greatly concerned about any possible linkup between terrorists and regimes that have or seek weapons of mass destruction...In the case of Saddam Hussein, we've got a dictator who is clearly pursuing and already possesses some of these weapons.. A regime that hates America and everything we stand for must never be permitted to threaten America with weapons of mass destruction. --Dick Cheney Vice President Detroit, Fund-Raiser 6/20/2002 Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. --Dick Cheney Vice President Speech to VFW National Convention 8/26/2002 Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons. --George W. Bush Speech to UN General Assembly 9/12/2002 Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons. We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have --George W. Bush Radio Address 10/5/2002 The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas. --George W. Bush Cincinnati, Ohio Speech 10/7/2002 Iraq could decide on any given day to provide biological or chemical weapons to a terrorist group or to individual terrorists,...The war on terror will not be won until Iraq is completely and verifiably deprived of weapons of mass destruction. --Dick Cheney Vice President Denver, Address To Air National Guard 12/1/2002 If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world. --Ari Fleischer Press Secretary Press Briefing 12/2/2002 We know for a fact that there are weapons there. --Ari Fleischer Press Secretary Press Briefing 1/9/2003 Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. --George W. Bush State of the Union Address 1/28/2003 We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more. --Colin Powell, Secretary of State Remarks to UN Security Council 2/5/2003 We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have. --George W. Bush Radio Address 2/8/2003 In Iraq, a dictator is building and hiding weapons that could enable him to dominate the Middle East and intimidate the civilized world -- and we will not allow it. --George W. Bush Speech to the American Enterprise Institute 2/26/2003 If Iraq had disarmed itself, gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several months since (UN Resolution) 1441 was enacted, we would not be facing the crisis that we now have before us . . . But the suggestion that we are doing this because we want to go to every country in the Middle East and rearrange all of its pieces is not correct. --Colin Powell Secretary of State Interview with Radio France International 2/28/2003 So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? . . . I think our judgment has to be clearly not. --Colin Powell Secretary of State Remarks to UN Security Council 3/7/2003 Let's talk about the nuclear proposition for a minute. We know that based on intelligence, that [Saddam] has been very, very good at hiding these kinds of efforts. He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. --Dick Cheney Vice President Meet The Press 3/16/2003 Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. --George W. Bush Address to the Nation 3/17/2003 Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes. --Ari Fleischer Press Secretary Press Briefing 3/21/2003 There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them. --General Tommy Franks Commander in Chief Central Command Press Conference 3/22/2003 One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites. --Victoria Clark Pentagon Spokeswoman Press Briefing 3/22/2003 I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction. Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board member --Washington Post, p. A27 3/23/2003 We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat. --Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense ABC Interview 3/30/2003 Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty. --Robert Kagan Neocon scholar Washington Post op-ed 4/9/2003 I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials, a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass destruction will be found. --Ari Fleischer Press Secretary Press Briefing 4/10/2003 But make no mistake -- as I said earlier -- we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found. --Ari Fleischer Press Secretary Press Briefing 4/10/2003 Were not going to find anything until we find people who tell us where the things are. And we have that very high on our priority list, to find the people who know. And when we do, then well learn precisely where things were and what was done. --Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense Meet the Press 4/13/2003 I have absolute confidence that there are weapons of mass destruction inside this country. Whether we will turn out, at the end of the day, to find them in one of the 2,000 or 3,000 sites we already know about or whether contact with one of these officials who we may come in contact with will tell us, ``Oh, well, there's actually another site,'' and we'll find it there, I'm not sure. --General Tommy Franks Commander in Chief Central Command Fox New 4/13/2003 We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them. --George W. Bush NBC Interview 4/24/2003 There are people who in large measure have information that we need . . . so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country. --Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense Press Briefing 4/25/2003 We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so. --George W. Bush Remarks to Reporters 5/3/2003 I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now. --Colin Powell Secretary of State Remarks to Reporters 5/4/2003 We never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country. --Donald Rumsfeld Secretary of Defense Fox News Interview 5/4/2003 I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program. --George W. Bush Remarks to Reporters 5/6/2003 U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction. --Condoleeza Rice US National Security Advisor Reuters Interview 5/12/2003 I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago -- whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden. --Maj. Gen. David Petraeus Commander 101st Airborne Press Briefing 5/13/2003 We said all along that we will never get to the bottom of the Iraqi WMD program simply by going and searching specific sites, that you'd have to be able to get people who know about the programs to talk to you. --Paul Wolfowitz Deputy Secretary of Defense Interview with Australian Broadcasting 5/13/2003 Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found. --Gen. Michael Hagee Commandant of the Marine Corps Interview with Reporters 5/21/2003 Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction. --Gen. Richard Myers Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff NBC Today Show interview 5/26/2003 They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer. --Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations 5/27/2003 For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on. --Paul Wolfowitz Deputy Secretary of Defense Vanity Fair interview 5/28/2003 But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them. --George W. Bush Interview with TVP Poland 5/30/2003 You remember when [Secretary of State] Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons ...They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two...And we'll find more weapons as time goes on And we'll find more weapons as time goes on --George W. Bush Press Briefing 5/30/2003 It was a surprise to me then - it remains a surprise to me now - that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there. Lt. Gen. --James Conway 1st Marine Expeditionary Force Press Interview 5/30/2003 Do I think we're going to find something? Yeah, I kind of do, because I think there's a lot of information out there. --Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton Defense Intelligence Agency Press Conference 5/30/2003 This wasn't material I was making up, it came from the intelligence community --Colin Powell Secretary of State --Press Briefing 6/2/2003 We know that some of them, especially the biological weapons, were being destroyed," Hastert said, adding that it would "take a little while to find weapons of mass destruction... and we're going to continue to do it. --Dennis Hastert House Speaker R-IL --Press Briefing 6/4/2003 We recently found two mobile biological weapons facilities which were capable of producing biological agents. This is the man who spent decades hiding tools of mass murder. He knew the inspectors were looking for them. You know better than me he's got a big country in which to hide them. We're on the look. We'll reveal the truth --George W. Bush, CAMP SAYLIYA, Qatar 6/5/2003 No one ever said that we knew precisely where all of these agents were, where they were stored --Condoleeza Rice US National Security Advisor Meet the Press 6/8/2003 What the president has said is because it's been the long-standing view of numerous people, not only in this country, not only in this administration, but around the world, including at the United Nations, who came to those conclusions...And the president is not going to engage in the rewriting of history that others may be trying to engage in. --Ari Fleischer Press Secretary 6/9/2003 Iraq had a weapons program...Intelligence throughout the decade showed they had a weapons program. I am absolutely convinced with time we'll find out they did have a weapons program. --George W. Bush Comment to Reporters 6/9/2003

Free Antivirus Software

Kevin — Mon, 23 Jun 2003 16:02:34 +0000

I'm not sure how good these products are, but they've received some good reviews lately.

Does anyone know of others?

Ren & Stimpy is back!

Kevin — Mon, 23 Jun 2003 16:19:39 +0000

One of my favorite cartoons of all time, Ren & Stimpy, is back with new episodes starting this Thursday June 26th. The show is now on TNN at 10:00 PM Eastern. Ever better news is that John K., the show's creator and original voice of Ren, is back at the helm. John and his Spümcø animation studio were kicked off the show by Nickelodeon after the 2nd year. The show quickly went downhill with his departure...

Ren & Stimpy Followup

Kevin — Fri, 27 Jun 2003 03:46:15 +0000

Wow...I just finished watching the new Ren & Stimpy. Thoughts:

Pro:

John K. is back
...with Bob Jacques, the animator behind some of the best of the original R&S episodes.
John K. once again the voice of Ren.

Neutral:

Who knew that Ren and Stimpy were lovers? To quote Stimpy: "You're the pitcher, I'm the catcher...". :-)
Stimpy's new voice - almost Billy West quality.

Con:

NOT FUNNY! Damnit, I didn't really have a good laugh the entire episode!
Overly gross. C'mon, guys...the booger and poop jokes were stale after 2 minutes. Less puke, more laughs please...

Overall a real disappointment. I actually got bored half way through and was thinking about switching channels. I hope they improve.

Last Word on New R&S

Kevin — Fri, 18 Jul 2003 15:43:19 +0000

4 episodes in and I've laughed a total of 2 times. It sucks, plain and simple. I never thought I'd say this, but Nickelodeon/Games did a better job at R&S than John K. is doing right now.
Ren and Stimpy - RIP

Over 300 Proofs of God's Existence

Kevin — Fri, 01 Aug 2003 21:14:48 +0000

Godless Geeks has a great page listing Over 300 proofs of God's existence. My favorite: #162. ARGUMENT FROM COOLNESS (1) That's really cool. (2) God must have done that. (3) Therefore, God exists.

New Porcupine Tree video - "Blackest Eyes"

Kevin — Fri, 01 Aug 2003 21:19:54 +0000

My favorite band, Porcupine Tree, has a new web page featuring their latest music video for the song "Blackest Eyes". If you enjoy Prog or Psyche, you should check these guys out.

Ahhh, Memories...

Kevin — Sat, 02 Aug 2003 05:23:20 +0000

My first computer (circa 1983) - Franklin Ace 1000 My second computer (circa 1984) - Apple //c: My third computer (circa 1985) - IBM PC/XT:

BLAAARGHAAAGGGHHHHH! part deux

Kevin — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 15:52:08 +0000

BLAAARGHAAAGGGHHHHH!

Killer or Coder?

Kevin — Mon, 04 Aug 2003 16:49:04 +0000

Can you tell the difference between a serial killer and a computer scientist? Take this test and see... BTW, I scored 7/10.

The Joy of Installing Fonts under Windows

Kevin — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 13:55:33 +0000

Here's an excellent rant from Anil Dash on the idiotic font installer interface in Windows. I had the same thoughts a few days back when I had to install a font under Windows XP, and Anil has done a masterful job of expressing my thoughts. A quote:

Please understand: You have about fifty five thousand employees. That's bigger than the town I grew up in. That's enough to fill a stadium. I know everybody still wants to see the company as being just Bill Gates, even though he's not even CEO any more, but you've got piles and piles of humans lying around. What incredibly massive pile of bureacratic idiocy has to be weighing you all down that you can't get one little box changed in a decade? You've amassed more than forty billion dollars since the last time you took a look at this dialog box.

More Tales of Dell Inspiron 8200 Woes

Kevin — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 17:33:10 +0000

As I've stated in several posts, I've been having an ongoing problem (well, set of problems) with my Dell Inspiron 8200 laptop. Everything from spontaneous reboots, device failures, slow CDROM access, etc. Many other people on Dell's user bulletin board are also complaining of similar problems, and a distinct lack of help from Dell tech support. Today I ran across this article on The Inquirer. This quote pretty much sums up my feelings too:

I don't think I will ever buy another Dell. I had purchased two for my home. The first one I purchased in 1998 and it has never had any problems. The second has been nothing but problems. I had purchased eight Dells for the company I work for and the last time I needed service was in 2001. The service was exceptional and I thought maybe business customers are treated better than home users because they mean more money. After researching online customer problems I see that Dell has just gone down hill in the last few years and my problem with Dell is not unique. I also would not recommend Dell to my worst enemy knowing how bad your customer service is. Whenever I hear an ad on television for Dell I have to change the channel so I don't get that sick feeling in knowing it's a lie hearing them say they have award winning customer service. Maybe once upon a time they did but now if they gave them an award it would be for the worst...

It's a real shame, as in the past I've purchased several Dell desktop machines for home use (as well as dozens for work) and loved them. It's probably time to start looking for a replacement brand. If anyone reading this has any suggestions, please post 'em. And, btw, even after Dell replaced my motherboard, CPU, Ethernet adapter, etc., they still didn't get it right - I isolated the problem to their lousy OEM NVidia video driver, and after installing a hacked video driver, it's only crashed once in 4 months (it used to be multiple times daily). Knock on wood...

Real Life Dilbertisms

Kevin — Tue, 05 Aug 2003 20:51:39 +0000

This may or may not be true (Snopes does not mention it), so caveat lector. ---------- A magazine ran a "Dilbert Quotes" contest. They were looking for people to submit quotes from their real life Dilbert-type managers. Here are the finalists: "As of tomorrow, employees will only be able to access the building using individual security cards. Pictures will be taken next Wednesday and employees will receive their cards in two weeks." (This was the winning quote from Fred Dales at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, WA.) "What I need is a list of specific unknown problems we will encounter." (Lykes Lines Shipping) "E-mail is not to be used to pass on information or data. It should be used only for company business." (Accounting manager, Electric Boat Company) "This project is so important, we can't let things that are more important interfere with it." (Advertising/Marketing manager, United Parcel Service) "Doing it right is no excuse for not meeting the schedule." "No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them." (R&D supervisor, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing/3M Corp.) "My Boss spent the entire weekend retyping a 25-page proposal that only needed corrections. She claims the disk I gave her was damaged and she couldn't edit it. The disk I gave her was write-protected." (CIO of Dell Computers) Quote from the Boss: "Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say." (Marketing executive, Citrix Corporation) My sister passed away and her funeral was scheduled for Monday. When I told my boss, he said she died on purpose so that I would have to miss work on the busiest day of the year. He then asked if we could change her burial to Friday. He said, "That would be better for me." (Shipping executive, FTD Florists) "We know that communication is a problem, but the company is not going to discuss it with the employees." (Switching supervisor, AT&T Long Lines Division) We recently received a memo from senior management saying: "This is to inform you that a memo will be issued today regarding the memo mentioned above." (Microsoft, Legal Affairs Division) One day my Boss asked me to submit a status report to him concerning a project I was working on. I asked him if tomorrow would be soon enough. He said, "If I wanted it tomorrow, I would have waited until tomorrow to ask for it!" (New business manager, Hallmark Greeting Cards)

Best Job Ad Copy Ever

Kevin — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 19:30:35 +0000

From the Random mailing list:

Web Developer So you were a top Web Developer, once, many years ago, until the "correction". Now nobody cares and you are shunned in public, much as lepers were in the fifteenth century. Your modern-day equivalent of the chiming bell and vile burbling exclamations of "Unclean! Unclean!" is the obnoxious ringtone on your expensive mobile. Theres a good chance you listen to either Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus or elaborate Paul Oakenfold remixes, with a bit of bootlegged Chemical Brothers thrown in for good measure. Maybe you find yourself missing the ashtray completely, and your ESC through F3 keys are thoroughly clogged up with burned, cancerous grey flakes. For better or for worse, youre familiar with such repugnant images as goatse.cx and know what STFU means. In all probability your beverage of choice is Jolt/Columbian Cola, and you have the weeping stomach ulcers to prove it. You give copies of Photoshop 7.0 to your friends, thereby depriving a fat CEO somewhere of a heated driveway. You have a world-crushing collection of MP3s. Your author of choice: Neal Stephenson or William Gibson. You have every volume of Gaimans Sandman series, though you decided after Volume III that it`s all a bit of a wank. Sometimes, you pretend you are in The Matrix. Your half-elf mage/rogue is at Level 9, and has actually worked out how to put a Bag of Holding within another Bag of Holding without imploding Ravenloft. You can pronounce "Urotsukidoji" without hurting yourself, and can rocket-jump better than anyone you know. You have a bit of an attitude when it comes to Windows XP, and you like to recompile kernels. Your spine looks like a u-bend. Others may call you freakish. We call you lovely. And in reward for your loveliness, we would like to offer you this mildly exciting opportunity, if your idea of excitement is a RAM upgrade: This is a fun little two week contract for a reasonably experienced Web Developer with plenty of HTML (well, duh), JavaScript and ASP know-how. Ideally you will also be fluent in the, and I quote, "uploading of ASP pages from a SAP business connector". I said that out loud and Shub-Niggurath appeared and attempted to devour my soul through some impressive shambling and ominous tentacle-writhing, so I wont investigate it any further. But anyway, thats the deal. Either you like it or you dont, and were not about to tell you either way. Its a two week contract for a company here in the city, and will probably be paying about $25 per hour, commensurate with experience. So apply now (or dont), or call Gary Fernandes for more information.

A Few Interesting Anagrams

Kevin — Wed, 06 Aug 2003 19:33:42 +0000

GEORGE BUSH: When you rearrange the letters: HE BUGS GORE DORMITORY: When you rearrange the letters: DIRTY ROOM EVANGELIST: When you rearrange the letters: EVIL'S AGENT PRESBYTERIAN: When you rearrange the letters: BEST IN PRAYER DESPERATION: When you rearrange the letters: A ROPE ENDS IT THE MORSE CODE: When you rearrange the letters: HERE COME DOTS SLOT MACHINES: When you rearrange the letters: CASH LOST IN ME ANIMOSITY: When you rearrange the letters: IS NO AMITY MOTHER-IN-LAW: When you rearrange the letters: WOMAN HITLER SNOOZE ALARMS: When you rearrange the letters: ALAS! NO MORE Z 'S A DECIMAL POINT: When you rearrange the letters: I ' M A DOT IN PLACE THE EARTHQUAKES: When you rearrange the letters: THAT QUEER SHAKE ELEVEN PLUS TWO: When you rearrange the letters: TWELVE PLUS ONE And for the grand finale: PRESIDENT CLINTON OF THE USA: When you rearrange the letters (With no letters left over and using each letter only once): TO COPULATE HE FINDS INTERNS

New Google Calculator

Kevin — Wed, 13 Aug 2003 16:33:54 +0000

Google never fails to amaze me. Their site is not only the best search engine around, but it also includes additional useful functionality - maps, phone book, stock quotes, etc. It now even has a built-in calculator. Want to know the mass of the sun * pi as measured in stones? Pounds? Grams? Atomic Mass Units? How about pennyweight? How about converting 3,737,844,653 to hexidecimal? Binary? Octal? Very handy.

The Stellar Acting Career of Troy McClure

Kevin — Fri, 15 Aug 2003 17:23:15 +0000

This belongs on the Internet Movie Database... http://www.snpp.com/guides/troy.mcclure.html

Where Can I Buy a Swiss Lasagne?

Kevin — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 17:10:11 +0000

Just got this spam:

Hi, Thank you for expressing interest in ATGWS watches. We would like to take this opportunity to offer you our fine selection of Italian crafted Rolex Timepieces. You can view our large selection of Rolexes (including Breitling, Tag Heuer, Cartier etc) at: www.XXXXXX.com For all orders placed in the month of August, all shipping and handling charges will be free. As we are the direct manufacturers, you are guaranteed of lowest prices and highest quality each and every time you purchase from us.

View of Blackout from Space

Kevin — Wed, 20 Aug 2003 17:17:48 +0000

Space.Com's picture of the day is a view of the East coast blackout from space:

New Toy

Kevin — Thu, 21 Aug 2003 15:21:51 +0000

I finally got sick of carrying around my overly large Kyocera 6035 SmartPhone. Good timing, too, as Verizon is finally selling a low-cost camera phone -- the LG VX6000. So far I love it, with the only bad features being the obnoxious polyphonic MIDI ringtones (do you *really* need to have tinny, bombastic classical music for your ringer?) and the lack of PC cable (USB cable to be released "soon").

Here's some sample pics:


Arch Street in Boston	The lobby of 101 Arch St.	View from the commuter boat

Another from the boat	Tommy	Unsafe driving

Ack!

Kevin — Thu, 21 Aug 2003 18:48:43 +0000

I really miss Bloom County...

Interesting Article on Billion-to-One Shots

Kevin — Mon, 25 Aug 2003 22:15:41 +0000

From The Independent: What are the chances of that?

In 2001 Laura Buxton released a balloon in Staffordshire. It was found 140 miles away - by a girl called Laura Buxton. Neville Ebin died in Bermuda when a taxi knocked him off his moped. A year later his brother was killed on the same moped in the same street by the same taxi driven by the same man and carrying the same passenger. And, best of all, in Massachusetts in 1965 Roger Lausier, aged four, was saved from drowning by a woman called Alice Blaise. Nine years later Roger saw a man drowning on the same beach, dived in and saved him. He was Alice Blaise's husband.

People Be Stoopid

Kevin — Tue, 26 Aug 2003 18:01:48 +0000

The ignorance that still abounds in the 21st century never fails to amaze me. Mars Will Not Kill You

One SPACE.com reader asks: "Will it be dangerous when Mars gets that close to Earth? It has me a little worried." Others have e-mailed to say they heard there would be earthquakes or other disasters. One of the many rumors going around says the two planets will collide.

C'mon, people. Instead of using your fancy new computer to play solitaire or surf joke-of-the-day web sites, why don't you spend a few hours (hell, even a few minutes) actually *learning* instead of spreading ignorance. Dumb, dumb, dumb...

It Still Floats!

Kevin — Thu, 28 Aug 2003 14:58:03 +0000

For the second year in a row, I was lucky enough to see the USS Constitution out in Boston Harbor while aboard the commuter boat from Hingham. "Old Ironsides" is towed out into the harbor twice yearly and is subsequently brought back in facing the opposite way so that it can weather evenly. Unlike last year I had my trusty camera phone with me and managed to take a blurry shot while we slowly passed. Here's a better shot from 1997:

Meet Ryan

Kevin — Sat, 30 Aug 2003 04:51:20 +0000

This is Ryan O'Malley. He's my trainer at the Boston Sports Club at Downtown Crossing. In this picture, Ryan is encouraging me by telling me that I'm his #1 client. Seriously, if you're looking for an excellent trainer, he's your guy.

Quote of the Day

Kevin — Tue, 02 Sep 2003 22:33:27 +0000

From WSJ's OpinionJournal:

Europe, in short, hasn't changed much since Sept. 11, 2001, which is not what you'd expect if you'd been listening to certain Americans--specifically, opponents of the Bush administration. To hear them tell it, Europe is full of hostility toward America, resentful over the liberation of Iraq and various other American policies. Having actually visited the place, we didn't see it. Oh, we heard a few disparaging comments about President Bush, but no worse than what we hear here in New York City. (Actually, it's kind of cute that, say, a Belgian would take an interest in America's leadership. Is there a single American who even knows who the head of Belgium is?)

Job Ad of the Week

Kevin — Thu, 04 Sep 2003 14:07:02 +0000

From hotjobs.com:

Are you better than everyone else? Working for idiots and losers? Doing all the work but underpaid and under appreciated? Then quit and join us. We can take your bs if you can deliver the deals. We will kiss your ass and overpay you. You can come in late, take 2 hour lunches, forget to turn in your reports, scream at the staff, and pretty much do whatever else you want. We will even hide you when the police show up, tell lies to your wife (or husband) when she (he) calls, and look bill collectors right in the face and say we never heard of you. All you have to do is sell like a maniac and put up or shut up by taking the gig on a commission only basis - no sales, no money. Q: How much? A: A realistic opportunity to earn $20K a month. Unless you're a poser - then you get squat. Note the words "realistic" not fantasy, "opportunity" not guaranteed, "earn" not a giveaway salary. Q: Who do I have to kill? A: That's optional. We pay extra. Q: What's the gig? A: Sell money to lawyers on the phone. A one-call close. A high level job doing business on the phone with professionals. Q: What about the recession? A: Screw the recession. Lawyers are like vultures - when something bad happens it's time to eat! Q: What experience do I have to have? A: If you can sell at this level or have run a business then you the man (or woman). I could care less what you know or don't know about the law. This is all about helping small business owners be more successful. Q: Why should I work for you? How do I know you're not a bunch of losers? A: We're the leaders in our space - a large mainstream market. We're in our third sales year and cash positive from sales - we aren't living off sucker (investor) money. We offer a unique product with no real competition. We have the legal, technical, and marketing expertise that the pretenders don't have so we kick sand in their face and laugh. If you use Internet Explorer type "lawyer" into the search box and see who comes up on top. LegalMatch. We own the net and have tons of clients waiting for an attorney. Therefore the attorneys line up and have to sell us. Q: Who the hell are you? A: The VP Sales. A commission only top gun closer from way back. As a rep, I hated working for useless poser managers who couldn't close a door let alone a deal and therefore couldn't teach me anything and only got in my way. I told a few that they were no longer allowed to go on sales calls with me because they were stupid and would blurt out idiotic words like "discount" which cost me money. I vowed that when I got into a position of power I would literally design the company and product around the close and the rep. Mission accomplished. See it for yourself and be prepared to smile so much your face will hurt. Q: Are you for real? Crazy? Some kinda comedian? Serious? A: Yes. Q: When do I start? A: We start a training cycle every 2 weeks. If you impress me and are in a hurry I may let you start today and train later. Q: What's next? A: Email a resume and tell me why I should hire you. Back up your bs fairy tales with some heroic stories about how you slay dragons and pull deals out of your . . . Make it good or I'll drag your email into the trashcan with the other losers. Q: This post is "unprofessional". You can't say this kinda stuff when recruiting. Blah, blah, blah . . A: Professional is as professional does. We provide a real service in a win-win truly ethical manner and tell no lies. Which is more than you can say for Enron, Arthur Andersen, Imclone, WorldCom, Tyco, and the rest of those crooks. Feel free to send me your best flame - just make it interesting. I plan on reading the best ones at our IPO party some day.

Scientists Weigh In on the 5-Second Rule

Kevin — Fri, 05 Sep 2003 16:01:32 +0000

It's about time the 5 second rule was tested:

URBANA--High-school student Jillian Clarke investigated the scientific validity of the "5-second rule" during her apprenticeship in Hans Blaschek's University of Illinois lab this summer. You know the rule: If food falls to the floor and it's in contact with the floor for fewer than 5 seconds, it's safe to pick it up and eat it. According to Clarke, a senior at the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, the 5-second rule dates back to the time of Genghis Khan, who first determined how long it was safe for food to remain on a floor when dropped there. Khan had slightly lower standards, however; he specified 12 hours, more or less. Among Clarke's findings: --Seventy percent of women and 56 percent of men are familiar with the 5-second rule, and most use it to make decisions about tasty treats that slip through their fingers. --University floors are remarkably clean from a microbial standpoint. --Women are more likely than men to eat food that's been on the floor. --Cookies and candy are much more likely to be picked up and eaten than cauliflower or broccoli. --And, if you drop your food on a floor that does contain microorganisms, the food can be contaminated in 5 seconds or less.

My personal theory is that the impact of a cookie hitting the floor actually decimates all bacterial life within a 10 inch radius, therefore making it safe to eat for roughly 4-5 seconds. :-)

Hey, Beavis...he said "Pisanu"

Kevin — Mon, 08 Sep 2003 20:00:08 +0000

US, EU Butt Heads On Airline Info

Mysterious Urban Memes

Kevin — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 14:41:17 +0000

Toynbee Tiles:

[I remember seeing these all over Philly when I lived there back in 1992. I'll have to track down a few of the Boston tiles...]

Obey Giant (Andre the Giant has a Posse):

LG VX6000 Links and Info

Kevin — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 17:04:34 +0000

Here's some good links for LG VX6000 info (will update this link as I find more):

Yahoo VX6000 Group
Howard Forums' LG Board
The VX6000 Cellar
VX6000 Manual (PDF)
Digital PIMP - sync phone with Outlook calendar.
PureVoice converter for Win32 (convert WAV to QCP audio file)
LG1200 USB data cable - compatible w/ VX6000
GAGIN - sw for accessing VX6000 via data cable
Create .BIT (picture) files
Bitpim: an app to view and manipulate data on LG VX440 and VX6000 phones
The phone uses r5g6b5 bitmap format.
Bitmaps are 120x131, 16 bit color depth.
Sound files must be under 30K.
Bitmap hint:
If you have photoshop (or any program that can produce flipped bitmaps with r5g6b5 bitmaps), crop your images to 120x131. Save as bitmap and use advanced settings to select r5g6b5 and flipped row order. Open the resulting file with a hex editor and remove the first 54 bytes, then add 0x78008300 to the beginning of the file. Additionally remove the last 2 bytes which should be 0x0000. Now send this to your phone to replace wallpaper.bit, poweron.bit or poweroff.bit. My wallpaper does not contain any white space except for where it's supposed to be in the picture.
How to turn on "speakerphone" mode
-- Initial Preparation: One-time Setup -- It requires a little bit of initial setup which can be a little bit of a pain. Basically you need to make sure you have a voice ringer on your phone. The easiest way to produce one of these is to go into the Voice Memo feature, record a quick memo (can be silence if you like), save it, then go into Send Pix Message in the Camera mode, enter your cell number as the destination, go down to Sound, hit OK, choose Voice Memo, and select the memo you just recorded. Send it. When you receive the message, select Save Sound from the options menu and enter a name of some sort. -- Starting Speakerphone Mode -- Now you're all set. To initiate Speakerphone mode, you need to press and hold the * key twice to throw the phone in Silence All mode. Go into your My Media menu (Menu + 7), Music (2), and scroll down to the voice memo you saved as a voice ringer. Let the phone sit there for a few seconds, then hit End to return to the main screen. If you like, you can now hold * a few seconds to exit Silence All mode. Place a call. To turn the Speakerphone on, press any key. -- Drawbacks/Bugs/Needs Further Investigation -- The press-any-key-to-go-speakerphone functionality seems to remain active, surviving power-cycles, until you remove the battery. I haven't found a way to turn off this functionality without killing power to the phone, but then again, most of my work tonight has been focused on getting the phone INTO speakerphone mode, not out of it. Obviously, this is better suited for use as a "toy" feature more than something that will appeal to die-hard speakerphone fans, since there's no way to toggle the speakerphone off during a call. You need to pop the battery off and reboot. But, again, I'm sure someone else will find a way around this and will post it here (e-mailing me a copy of the details while they're at it, of course).
How to use VX6000 as modem
1. Purchase the LG1200 cablecable from futuredial. 2. Install the Prolific USB driver which is included on the CD. It will install the driver on COM4 by default. 3. Set the phone to Menu/(9)Settings/(6)1xData/(2)Select Port = RS232C(COM Port) and Menu/(9)Settings/(6)1xData/(3)Port Speed = 115200 You may need to repeat step 3 as the phone sometimes reverts to USB. In the Device manager under ports set the Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM4) speed to 115200 as well. Now if you have the Verizon Dialer you can install it and it will add a modem, and 2 dialup connections. The modem name is "Verizon Wireless Phone HS (1xRTT)" Dialup Connections are Express Network (1XRTT) and Quick 2 Net (14.4kbps) Both are configured to use the modem above. If you do not have the Verizon Dialer software, you can get to the same point by adding a *generic* 33.6K modem and adding the initialization string: AT$QCMDR=3 Place this modem on COM4 or whatever port your cable is on. Next create a dialup connection using the modem above and use Phone Number: #777 Username: 10digit_phone_number@vzw3g.com Password: vzw I think to get the 14.4 Quick 2 Net connection use the Phone Number: #777 Username: qnc Password: qnc or Phone Number: your dialup isp # Username: your dialup isp id Password: your dialup isp pwd I think that's it. Happy surfing...
BigFlavor's Tutorial for LG VX6000

Breathed is Back!

Kevin — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 17:14:40 +0000

Berkeley Breathed, creator of Bloom County, is back with a new comic strip! From the Washington Post:

After eight years away from newspapers, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed is creating a new comic strip called "Opus," starring his beloved penguin of the same name. The Washington Post Writers Group, which will syndicate the strip, is expected to officially announce Breathed's return this Sunday. The reclusive Breathed, who rarely gives interviews, could not be reached yesterday for comment. The new strip will appear on Sundays in The Washington Post starting Nov. 23.

More info on CBS News site.

I'm an Amendment to Be

Kevin — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 15:29:09 +0000

Lee over at Right Thinking just reminded me about this Simpsons gem from "The Day the Violence Died". It's (obv.) a spoof of "I'm Just a Bill" from Schoolhouse Rock.

Lyrics for "Amendment-to-Be" (with Jack Sheldon, Pamela Hayden, and Harry Shearer) Boy: [spoken] Hey, who left all this garbage lying on the steps of Congress? Amendment: [spoken] I'm not garbage. I'm an amendment to be Yes, an amendment to be And I'm hoping that they'll ratify me There's a lot of flag burners Who have got too much freedom I wanna make it legal For policemen To beat 'em 'Cause there's limits to our liberties 'Least I hope and pray that there are 'Cause those liberal freaks go too far. Boy: [spoken] But why can't we just make a law against flag burning? Amendment: [spoken] Because that law would be unconstitutional. But if we _changed_ the Constitution... Boy: [spoken] Then we could make all sorts of crazy laws! Amendment: [spoken] Now you're catching on! Boy: [spoken] But what if they say you're not good enough to be in the Constitution? Amendment: Then I'll destroy all opposition to me And I'll make Ted Kennedy pay If he fights back I'll say that he's gay Big Fat Guy: [running up] Good news, Amendment! They ratified 'ya. You're in the U.S. Constitution! Amendment: Oh, yeah! Door's open, boys! [many bills and amendments run in, guns a-shooting and bombs a-flying]

...and Speaking of Bad Ideas for Constitutional Amendments...

Kevin — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 19:47:28 +0000

U.S. Catholic Leaders Endorse Constitutional Amendment Against Gay Marriage Why, people, why? Why do you think that everyone else in the country has to follow whatever screwed-up beliefs of "morality" you happen to hold near and dear? Are gays really bothering you that much? Believe me, I'm the first one to speak up in favor of marriage and family. But why does "marriage" have to be limited to man and woman? No wonder I'm no longer Catholic. Hell, no wonder I no longer belong to *any* established religion. This is the worst idea for an amendment since someone came up with the idea that the flag should be Constitutionally protected.

The Boston Toynbee Search Begins

Kevin — Wed, 10 Sep 2003 20:00:14 +0000

I had lunch with an old friend today (Hi, Martha!) at Copley Plaza and thought I'd search for a few of the Boston Toynbee Tiles on the walk back. First I headed down St. James to see if I could find the one that's supposed to be on the corner of St. James and Berkeley (right in front of Heather's old office building, strangely enough). Nothing. Spent a few minutes circling the area but couldn't find it. Fine. Next target was the tile that's supposed to be on Charles between the Public Garden and the Common. After 10 minutes walking up and down Charles I gave up. Damnit, I want to find one! I used to see them all the time in Philly but never gave them a second glance.

The Story of the Smoot

Kevin — Thu, 11 Sep 2003 16:11:26 +0000

From http://spectrum.lbl.gov/www/personnel/smoot/smoot-measure.html:

Harvard Bridge spans the Charles River linking Boston and Cambridge. In 1958 Lambda Chi Alpha took 5' 7" MIT freshman pledge Oliver R. Smoot, Jr. and rolled him head over heels the entire length of the bridge. Every ten smoots they calibrated the bridge, painting marks. The bridge was found to be exactly 364.4 smoots plus an ear. Successive pledge classes repainted the markings. In 1987 the Mass. Dept. of Public Works decided the concrete of the bridge was due for replacement. They had no plans for smoot preservation. The Boston Press tracked down Oliver R. Smoot, Jr. who was then age 48, and executive vice president of Computer and Business Equipment Manufactures Association in Washington D. C. He had no plans of being reused for new markings. The Mass. Metropolitan District Commission, the government body in charge of the bridge went on record in support of smoots. They stated, "We recognize the smoots' role in local history. That's not to mean that the agency encourages graffiti painting. But smoots aren't just any kind of graffiti. They're smoots! If commemorative plaques and markers are not installed by the state once the bridge work is done, then we'll see that it's done." Stephen Smoot, a son of Oliver R. Smoot, Jr, was then age 21 and attending MIT was ready to redo the smoot measurements, although he was 5'11", so everything would be off. There are a couple of pictures of Oliver R. Smoot, of MIT students ready to redo measurements with Stephen Smoot, and of a plaque that reads: "This plaque place in honor of THE SMOOT which joined the angstrom, meter and light year as standards of length, when in October 1958 the span of this bridge was measured, using the body of Oliver Reed Smoot, M.I.T. '62 and found to be precisely 364.4 smoots and one ear. Commemorated at out 25th reunion June 6, 1987 M.I.T. Class of 1962" Another clipping states that the Mass. Dept. of Public Works gave two Smooted sections of sidewalk to the MIT museum at a ceremony. Continental Construction Company of Cambridge also agreed to make the new concrete sidewalk slabs 5' 7" long to coincide with the Smoots, instead of the usual 6' increments.

What the Heck is a Quattuoroctogintillion?

Kevin — Thu, 11 Sep 2003 16:17:39 +0000

Is 1.0 × 10⁴⁸ one quindecillion or one billiard? The real question is, which numbering system do you use?

Windows XP Tools

Kevin — Thu, 11 Sep 2003 18:54:44 +0000

Your mileage may vary. Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel BootVis - watch what happens when XP boots PageDefrag - defragment your pagefile Diskeeper Lite - a real disk defrag tool for Windows

New Personal SpamAssassin Record

Kevin — Fri, 12 Sep 2003 01:44:58 +0000

New record score: 36.10!!!
Subject: SENSATIONAL Offer! Better Health!

Content analysis details:   (36.10 points, 5 required)
X_PRIORITY_HIGH    (1.9 points)  Sent with 'X-Priority' set to high
WE_HONOR_ALL       (4.3 points)  BODY: Claims to honor removal requests
REVERSE_AGING      (2.1 points)  BODY: Reverses Aging
AS_SEEN_ON         (1.9 points)  BODY: As seen on national TV!
BANG_GUARANTEE     (0.5 points)  BODY: Something is emphatically guaranteed
WRINKLES           (2.9 points)  BODY: Removes Wrinkles
BANG_OPRAH         (4.3 points)  BODY: Talks about Oprah with an exclamation!
WHILE_YOU_SLEEP    (1.7 points)  BODY: While you Sleep
BANG_EXERCISE      (2.5 points)  BODY: Talks about exercise with an exclamation!
OPT_IN_CAPS        (0.2 points)  BODY: Talks about opting in (capitalized version)
COMPLETELY_FREE    (1.1 points)  BODY: No such thing as a free lunch (2)
HTML_30_40         (0.9 points)  BODY: Message is 30% to 40% HTML
HTML_FONT_COLOR_RED (0.1 points)  BODY: HTML font color is red
HTML_FONT_COLOR_GREEN (0.8 points)  BODY: HTML font color is green
HTML_MESSAGE       (0.1 points)  BODY: HTML included in message
HTML_FONT_COLOR_BLUE (0.1 points)  BODY: HTML font color is blue
HTML_LINK_CLICK_HERE (0.1 points)  BODY: HTML link text says "click here"
HTML_SHOUTING6     (2.9 points)  BODY: HTML has very strong "shouting" markup
MIME_HTML_NO_CHARSET (0.8 points)  RAW: Message text in HTML without specified charset
DATE_IN_FUTURE_06_12 (1.3 points)  Date: is 6 to 12 hours after Received: date
RCVD_IN_OSIRUSOFT_COM (0.6 points)  RBL: Received via a relay in relays.osirusoft.com
                   [RBL check: found 194.215.121.196.relays.osirusoft.com.]
FORGED_MUA_OUTLOOK (3.5 points)  Forged mail pretending to be from MS Outlook
MIME_HTML_ONLY     (0.1 points)  Message only has text/html MIME parts
MANY_EXCLAMATIONS  (0.8 points)  Subject has many exclamations
MISSING_MIMEOLE    (0.5 points)  Message has X-MSMail-Priority, but no X-MimeOLE
CLICK_BELOW        (0.1 points)  Asks you to click below

(SpamAssassin 2.55, standard rule set)

Tihs is Vrey Irentstenig

Kevin — Fri, 12 Sep 2003 18:35:01 +0000

Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

"My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)", and other "Science" Fair Projects

Kevin — Fri, 12 Sep 2003 21:34:42 +0000

I love these project names:

"My Uncle Is A Man Named Steve (Not A Monkey)"
"Women Were Designed For Homemaking"
"Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria"
"Rocks Can't Evolve, Where Did They Come From Mr. Darwin?"

It's the Creation Science Fair 2001.

A New SA Leader!!!

Kevin — Fri, 12 Sep 2003 23:54:37 +0000

Wow, what a week for spam. I've never seen scores this high! These people honestly suck at disguising their spam...

New record score: 38.80
Subject: Amazing small digital camera!

Content analysis details:   (38.80 points, 5 required)
RCVD_FAKE_HELO_DOTCOM (2.6 points)  Received contains a faked HELO hostname
TO_MALFORMED       (1.5 points)  To: has a malformed address
INVALID_DATE_TZ_ABSURD (4.3 points)  Invalid Date: header (timezone does not exist)
MSGID_OE_SPAM_4ZERO (3.5 points)  Message-Id generated by spam tool (4-zeroes variant)
FAKED_UNDISC_RECIPS (4.3 points)  Faked To "Undisclosed-Recipients"
MSGID_SPAMSIGN_ZEROES (4.3 points)  Message-Id generated by spam tool (zeroes variant)
OPT_OUT            (0.0 points)  BODY: Talks about opting out (lowercase version)
EXCUSE_3           (0.1 points)  BODY: Claims you can be removed from the list
EXCUSE_REMOVE      (2.4 points)  BODY: Talks about how to be removed from mailings
REMOVE_PAGE        (0.3 points)  URI: URL of page called "remove"
MSGID_OUTLOOK_TIME (4.4 points)  Message-Id is fake (in Outlook Express format)
DATE_IN_FUTURE_06_12 (1.3 points)  Date: is 6 to 12 hours after Received: date
RCVD_FAKE_HELO_DOTCOM_2 (2.4 points)  Received contains a faked HELO hostname (2)
FORGED_JUNO_RCVD   (2.8 points)  'From' juno.com does not match 'Received' headers
RCVD_IN_NJABL      (0.9 points)  RBL: Received via a relay in dnsbl.njabl.org
                   [RBL check: found 8.64.87.159.dnsbl.njabl.org.]
X_NJABL_OPEN_PROXY (0.5 points)  RBL: NJABL: sender is proxy/relay/formmail/spam-source
RCVD_IN_UNCONFIRMED_DSBL (0.5 points)  RBL: Received via a relay in unconfirmed.dsbl.org
                   [RBL check: found 8.64.87.159.unconfirmed.dsbl.org.]
RCVD_IN_DSBL       (2.6 points)  RBL: Received via a relay in list.dsbl.org
                   [RBL check: found 187.83.95.200.list.dsbl.org.]
CLICK_BELOW        (0.1 points)  Asks you to click below

Who's he kidding?

Kevin — Mon, 15 Sep 2003 15:02:57 +0000

Ex-Pres Clinton is still living in his own personal fantasy world. From AP:

"Don't tell me about class warfare," Clinton said. "I'm all for wealth and business. I just think we all ought to go up together." The former president told activists that he has become rich since leaving the White House, largely based on a big book contract: "I never had a nickel until I left the White House.

If my memory serves me correctly, the Presidential salary is around $200K, a bit more than a nickel. And, strangely enough, the Clintons are now very much in debt due to legal fees from the Whitewater case -- which means their net worth is less now than before 1992...

Windows Memory Diagnostic

Kevin — Wed, 17 Sep 2003 13:49:28 +0000

From http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp:

The Windows Memory Diagnostic tests the Random Access Memory (RAM) on your computer for errors. The diagnostic includes a comprehensive set of memory tests. If you are experiencing problems while running Windows, you can use the diagnostic to determine whether the problems are caused by failing hardware, such as RAM or the memory system of your motherboard. Windows Memory Diagnostic is designed to be easy and fast. On most configurations, you can download the diagnostic, read the documentation, run the test and complete the first test pass in less than 30 minutes.

Excellent Milton Friedman Interview

Kevin — Wed, 17 Sep 2003 15:59:30 +0000

Right Wing News (God, I hate that name) has an excellent interview with Nobel-prize winning economist Milton Friedman. Fave quote:

I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible. The reason I am is because I believe the big problem is not taxes, the big problem is spending. The question is, "How do you hold down government spending?" Government spending now amounts to close to 40% of national income not counting indirect spending through regulation and the like. If you include that, you get up to roughly half. The real danger we face is that number will creep up and up and up. The only effective way I think to hold it down, is to hold down the amount of income the government has. The way to do that is to cut taxes.

Shoving "Kindness" Down Their Throats

Kevin — Wed, 17 Sep 2003 17:30:05 +0000

For some wacky reason, the idea of government enforcing good manners makes me nervous. It's already a reality in Singapore - check out their Singapore Kindness Movement. I had the pleasure of visting Singapore a few years ago. It's an interesting place, with a government that strongly believes in Capitalism. It also, on the other hand, strongly believes in government enforcement of propriety. Chewing gum is illegal. Spitting is an arrestable offense, as is jaywalking. Big Brother-type signs are everywhere, reminding the populace that they are being watched and that they should behave as mandated by "society" (ie. the government). Here's an excellent example -- it's a photo I took in the heavily Indian section of Singapore:

YASAL

Kevin — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 14:01:49 +0000

Yet Another SpamAssassin Leader

New record score: 45.20
Subject: Could Make You Financially Secure For Life!

Content analysis details:   (45.20 points, 5 required)
AS_SEEN_ON         (3.0 points)  BODY: As seen on national TV!
MLM                (0.7 points)  BODY: Multi Level Marketing mentioned
EARN_MONEY         (0.9 points)  BODY: Message talks about earning money
JODY               (2.9 points)  BODY: Contains "My wife, Jody" testimonial
BANG_MONEY         (1.7 points)  BODY: Talks about money with an exclamation!
BULK_EMAIL         (1.8 points)  BODY: Talks about bulk email
ORDER_REPORT       (2.9 points)  BODY: Order a report from someone
SENT_IN_COMPLIANCE (4.3 points)  BODY: Claims compliance with spam regulations
FINANCIAL          (4.3 points)  BODY: Financial Freedom
SECTION_301        (1.1 points)  BODY: Claims compliance with spam regulations
EXCUSE_3           (0.2 points)  BODY: Claims you can be removed from the list
INVALUABLE_MARKETING (2.9 points)  BODY: Invaluable marketing information
RISK_FREE          (0.8 points)  BODY: Risk free.  Suuurreeee....
COPY_ACCURATELY    (2.9 points)  BODY: Common pyramid scheme phrase (1)
INITIAL_INVEST     (2.7 points)  BODY: Requires Initial Investment
HTML_30_40         (0.6 points)  BODY: Message is 30% to 40% HTML
BAYES_90           (3.0 points)  BODY: Bayesian classifier says spam probability is 90 to 99%
                   [score: 0.9880]
HTML_WITH_BGCOLOR  (0.1 points)  BODY: HTML mail with non-white background 
HTML_FONT_COLOR_RED (0.1 points)  BODY: HTML font color is red
HTML_FONT_BIG      (0.2 points)  BODY: FONT Size +2 and up or 3 and up
HTML_FONT_COLOR_BLUE (0.1 points)  BODY: HTML font color is blue 
RAZOR2_CF_RANGE_91_100 (1.2 points)  BODY: Razor2 gives a spam confidence level between 91 and 100
                   [cf: 100]
HTML_SHOUTING5     (0.0 points)  BODY: HTML has very strong "shouting" markup
REMOVE_PAGE        (0.4 points)  URI: URL of page called "remove"
NORMAL_HTTP_TO_IP  (0.7 points)  URI: Uses a dotted-decimal IP address in URL
RAZOR2_CHECK       (0.9 points)  Listed in Razor2, see http://razor.sf.net/
DATE_IN_PAST_03_06 (0.3 points)  Date: is 3 to 6 hours before Received: date
RCVD_IN_DSBL       (4.3 points)  RBL: Received via a relay in list.dsbl.org
                   [RBL check: found 119.24.21.67.list.dsbl.org.]
CASHCASHCASH       (0.0 points)  Contains at least 3 dollar signs in a row
MIME_HTML_ONLY     (0.1 points)  Message only has text/html MIME parts
MISSING_MIMEOLE    (0.1 points)  Message has X-MSMail-Priority, but no X-MimeOLE
MISSING_OUTLOOK_NAME (0.0 points)  Message looks like Outlook, but isn't

Thank You, Pat!

Kevin — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 20:36:06 +0000

Thank you Pat Robertson for saving us from the hurricanes! What a fruitcake...

Like Jumbo Shrimp, Military Intelligence...

Kevin — Wed, 24 Sep 2003 03:39:50 +0000

...Kevin and Clowns don't mix. I really hate clowns...

The Adventures of Isabel

Kevin — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 15:34:44 +0000

In honor of my daughter:

Adventures of Isabel Isabel met an enormous bear, Isabel, Isabel, didn't care; The bear was hungry, the bear was ravenous, The bear's big mouth was cruel and cavernous. The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you, How do, Isabel, now I'll eat you! Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry. Isabel didn't scream or scurry. She washed her hands and she straightened her hair up, Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up. Once in a night as black as pitch Isabel met a wicked old witch. the witch's face was cross and wrinkled, The witch's gums with teeth were sprinkled. Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed, I'll turn you into an ugly toad! Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry, Isabel didn't scream or scurry, She showed no rage and she showed no rancor, But she turned the witch into milk and drank her. Isabel met a hideous giant, Isabel continued self reliant. The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid, He had one eye in the middle of his forhead. Good morning, Isabel, the giant said, I'll grind your bones to make my bread. Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry, Isabel didn't scream or scurry. She nibled the zwieback that she always fed off, And when it was gone, she cut the giant's head off. Isabel met a troublesome doctor, He punched and he poked till he really shocked her. The doctor's talk was of coughs and chills And the doctor's satchel bulged with pills. The doctor said unto Isabel, Swallow this, it will make you well. Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry, Isabel didn't scream or scurry. She took those pills from the pill concocter, And Isabel calmly cured the doctor. - Ogden Nash

I Need to Move

Kevin — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 15:43:01 +0000

The Free State Project has picked New Hampshire! At least it's only an hour away from where I live now.

Rare Picture of Daytime Fireball

Kevin — Wed, 01 Oct 2003 16:05:09 +0000

From APOD:

Jon Burnett, a teenager from South Wales, UK, was photographing some friends skateboarding last week when the sky did something very strange. High in the distance, a sofa-sized rock came hurtling into the nearby atmosphere of planet Earth and disintegrated. By diverting his camera, he was able to document this rare sky event and capture one of the more spectacular meteor images yet recorded.

Delete a Transaction Log from MS SQL Server

Kevin — Thu, 02 Oct 2003 15:37:27 +0000

Just in case you run into the same problem I had - tiny 100 MB database with a 1750 MB transaction log. From dBforums:

If you don't care about saving the trans log and just want to start over, a really easy way to do this is: 1. From the Enterprise Manager, right click on your dB and select All Tasks->Detach Database 2. Go to the storage location for the database on your machine (probably located under the directory ...\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Data. From here, find the log file for that particular database which will probably end with extension .ldf. 3. Delete that file (make sure this is the correct log file!) 4. Go back to Enterprise Manager and right-click the 'Databases' folder under your SQL Server instance and select All Tasks->Attach Database 5. In the next dialog that pops up, find the file for your database (probably ending in extension .mdf) and located in the same folder as the log file. Enter any other info you might need in this dialog (you might not need to enter anything) and click OK. You might get some kind of error about the log file missing and it will probably ask if it can create a new one. Go ahead and let it. This looks like a lot of info, but once you do it once it's really easy. You might want to test this on some other database first to get the feel for it. Also consider backing up your dB before this also.

Go, Tommy, Go!

Kevin — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 14:46:16 +0000

My oldest son, Tommy, started skating lessons the other day. It was his second time on ice skates and after a few minor spills he was having a great time. In fact, he was having so much fun that he wanted to free skate and not line up with the other kids: He has obviously inherited his Mother's sense of fun and his Father's ability to ignore teachers. :-)

How Pencils are Made

Kevin — Mon, 06 Oct 2003 17:15:16 +0000

Have you ever wondered how pencils are made? Here's how.

A Methodology Per Project

Kevin — Tue, 07 Oct 2003 15:05:21 +0000

Interesting paper by Alistair Cockburn - "A Methodology Per Project". Abstract:

Looking at "what a methodology consists of", we can see the inevitability of different methodologies. "Optimal" differs for different projects. More than that, people have different biases based around their experiences, fears and principles. Three variables are key to the selection of a methodology: team size, project criticality, and project priorities. Team cultural values and individuals' personalities play in the result. This paper describes the framework and project experiences that made use of it.

via Rujith de Silva

LG VX6000 - One Month Later

Kevin — Wed, 08 Oct 2003 18:14:23 +0000

(Well, more like 1 1/2 months...) OK, so I've had an LG VX6000 camera phone for a while now. I use it daily as a cell phone, and almost as often as a camera and web browser. Here's a list of pros and cons for anyone thinking of buying one. Pro

Small and light-weight.
Clear reception.
Easy to use.
It's great to always have a camera with you - you never know when you'll need one.
MSN web portal has links to many useful sites.
Voice memo feature is handy, esp. if you're forgetful like me.
Ringer can use polyphonic MIDI files and converted WAVs (via QCP format).

Con

Camera only stores 20 photos.
Photo quality is far from excellent.
- Photo quality is fuzzy.
- Strange "dark band" artifacts if insufficient light.
- Hard to determine what the camera will auto-focus on, esp. if subject is far away.
Phone tends to drop connection a bit too often.
Lack of good PC software for contact list maintenance, photo xfer, etc.
No way to upload your own apps - everything must come from Verizon's "Get It Now" service, and nothing is free.
Battery life is too short - needs recharging daily.
Stock poly ringers are OBNOXIOUS!

Overall I'd recommend this phone, but I'm sure something better will be out soon.

Too Bad, So Sad

Kevin — Wed, 08 Oct 2003 18:43:50 +0000

Another fine example of centrist, non-partisan reporting from the LA Times: Der Gropenfuhrer Muscles His Way Into Office -- So What Now?

Ask a Bear with Searing Gas Pain

Kevin — Mon, 13 Oct 2003 03:04:46 +0000

I don't know why, but I find this hilarious...

The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)

Kevin — Tue, 14 Oct 2003 16:17:21 +0000

Joel Spolsky has written a very good article on Unicode and why you should be using it.

Spinsanity on Moore's New Book

Kevin — Thu, 16 Oct 2003 15:37:40 +0000

The exceptionally impartial Spinsanity web site has found (surprise surprise) no less than 17 factual errors in Michael Moore's new book, "Dude, Where's My Country?". Moore continues to play fast and loose with the facts to give his fans what they want to hear. Too bad they don't want to hear the truth. One can only hope that the majority of people will file his books (as well as Ann Coulter's) under "bullshit" and start to ignore these angry, bitter, less-than-honest individuals.

What's Special About This Number?

Kevin — Thu, 16 Oct 2003 16:09:39 +0000

Number fun!

Hell Has Frozen Over

Kevin — Thu, 16 Oct 2003 22:24:19 +0000

Apple has finally released iTunes for Windows! I've been hitting reload every 15 minutes today waiting for its arrival. So far it seems to be excellent. I've also finally had the opportunity to download music from the iTunes Music Store and I'm already hooked. Just finished downloading:

"Blasphemous Rumors" and "Master and Servant" by Depeche Mode
"I Want You to Want Me" by Cheap Trick
"Things Can Only Get Better" by Howard Jones
"Cult of Personality" by Living Color
"Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, I Andante Tranquillo" by Bela Bartok
The entire "Shout: Best of Tears for Fears" album

All for ~$16.00. And it all sounds great. My iPod is very very happy.

Everything You Wanted to Know About CIDR

Kevin — Mon, 20 Oct 2003 15:30:46 +0000

If you ever do any networking, you'll probably need to know about the CIDR notation.

Fascism

Kevin — Tue, 21 Oct 2003 21:35:54 +0000

I see the word "Fascism" being casually tossed around lately by people of the Far Left persuasion. "Bush is a fascist". "America is a fascist state". I'm not sure if they actually know the definition of the word, so here it is just in case they stumble across my web site (thanks to dictionary.com):

fas·cism ( P ) Pronunciation Key (fshzm)
n.

often Fascism
1. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
2. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.
Oppressive, dictatorial control.

[Italian fascismo, from fascio, group, from Late Latin fascium, from Latin fascis, bundle.]

fas·cistic (f-shstk) adj.

Word History: It is fitting that the name of an authoritarian political movement like Fascism, founded in 1919 by Benito Mussolini, should come from the name of a symbol of authority. The Italian name of the movement, fascismo, is derived from fascio, “bundle, (political) group,” but also refers to the movement's emblem, the fasces, a bundle of rods bound around a projecting axe-head that was carried before an ancient Roman magistrate by an attendant as a symbol of authority and power. The name of Mussolini's group of revolutionaries was soon used for similar nationalistic movements in other countries that sought to gain power through violence and ruthlessness, such as National Socialism.

Sorry, while Bush is fairly right-wing (much much more than our leftist friends), he doesn't fit the definition. Check out this guy for a real fascist. It's also interesting to note that Fascism was born out of Socialism...

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." - Inigo Montoya

It Sounds Like a "Daily Show" News Item

Kevin — Wed, 22 Oct 2003 13:57:49 +0000

How can anyone take PETA seriously?

Animal Rights Group Wants City Name Change RODEO, Calif., 1:24 p.m. PDT October 21, 2003 - Animal rights activists want the East Bay town of Rodeo --and pronounced ro-day-oh -- to change its name to Unity. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says the name recalls the sport of rodeo. They claim rodeo animals are abused and mistreated. If Contra Costa County supervisors vote to change the name, PETA says it will donate $20,000 worth of veggie burgers to local schools.

POLAPOLAPOLAPOLAPOLAPOLAPOLAPOLAPOLA

Kevin — Wed, 22 Oct 2003 14:23:24 +0000

A picture of a picture of a picture...

All began in 1996 in Bretany, France. On a beach I photographed with a the SX-70 a polaroid showing sand and stones. Again the resulting picture was photographed with the Polaroid-camera. The distances in space and time became greater. The previous polaroid is allways the basis for the next one and so on ... In the meantime more than 130 pictures are telling of - sometimes very personal - moments in the last seven years.

How's This For a Fast Download

Kevin — Fri, 24 Oct 2003 21:16:44 +0000

We've recently switched from a Sprint T1 line here at work to Cogent's all fiber optic network. 100 Mbit/sec for $1000/month. That's 66 T1's (a T1 is ~1.5 Mbit/s) for around what you'd pay for a T1. While downloading iTune for Windows, I managed to get a screenshot of the IE download status - yes, that's 1.39 Megabytes per second! I wish I could get Cogent at home... :-)

Where's My Skinny Piano Tie?

Kevin — Sat, 01 Nov 2003 21:08:09 +0000

I was cleaning up some old papers and found a copy of my old band's first group photo. For those of you who don't know, the name of the band was "Façade" and we played the Western New York club circuit back in the mid-80s. We even opened for Run-DMC, OMD, and a few other bands that were fairly popular back then. Anyways, here's the pic. I'm the scowling 145 lb keyboardist on the right. :-)

The Love Between Boy and Ghoul

Kevin — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 17:41:28 +0000

If this sworn declaration is true, someone needs to go to jail for a long long time...

The Love Between Boy and Ghoul

Kevin — Thu, 20 Nov 2003 17:41:30 +0000

If this sworn declaration is true, someone needs to go to jail for a long long time...

Zero Patience for Zero Tolerance

Kevin — Tue, 25 Nov 2003 18:16:46 +0000

Fox News has an interesting op-ed on zero tolerance by ifeminist's Wendy McElroy.

The punishment for possessing an obvious toy became the same as for possessing a real weapon because zero tolerance means zero distinctions. Zero tolerance takes discretion and evaluation away from educators and mandates responses that can be wildly inappropriate. Behavior that used to be corrected by detention or a trip to the principal's office now receives suspension, expulsion or even police involvement. What used to be the last resort has become the first and only option.

What's the Big Deal About Paris Hilton?

Kevin — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 03:56:09 +0000

I don't understand what the big deal is about Paris Hilton...

Rumsfeld Wins "Foot in Mouth" Award

Kevin — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 16:28:24 +0000

Via CNN: LONDON, England (Reuters) -- A comment last year by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on the hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was awarded the "Foot in Mouth" prize Monday by Britain's Plain English Campaign. Rumsfeld, renowned for his uncompromising tough talking, received the prize for the most baffling comment by a public figure.

"Reports that say something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."

John Lister, spokesman for the campaign, which strives to have public information delivered in clear, straightforward English, said: "We think we know what he means. But we don't know if we really know."

Letter to the President re: his Trip to the UK

Kevin — Mon, 01 Dec 2003 21:41:16 +0000

From the Guardian:

Dear Mr President,

Today you arrive in my country for the first state visit by an American president for many decades, and I bid you welcome.

You will find yourself assailed on every hand by some pretty pretentious characters collectively known as the British left. They traditionally believe they have a monopoly on morality and that your recent actions preclude you from the club. You opposed and destroyed the world's most blood-encrusted dictator. This is quite unforgivable.

I beg you to take no notice. The British left intermittently erupts like a pustule upon the buttock of a rather good country. Seventy years ago it opposed mobilisation against Adolf Hitler and worshipped the other genocide, Josef Stalin.

It has marched for Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov. It has slobbered over Ceausescu and Mugabe. It has demonstrated against everything and everyone American for a century. Broadly speaking, it hates your country first, mine second.

Eleven years ago something dreadful happened. Maggie was ousted, Ronald retired, the Berlin wall fell and Gorby abolished communism. All the left's idols fell and its demons retired. For a decade there was nothing really to hate. But thank the Lord for his limitless mercy. Now they can applaud Saddam, Bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il... and hate a God-fearing Texan. So hallelujah and have a good time.

Frederick Forsyth
Novelist

Matt Stone of "South Park" fame said it best, "I hate conservatives, but I really fucking hate liberals."

Truth in Advertising

Kevin — Tue, 09 Dec 2003 17:41:59 +0000

Via JWZ's weblog:

Thanks, Comcast!

Kevin — Thu, 18 Dec 2003 03:58:46 +0000

Comcast just bumped my downstream speed up to 3Mbps. I just downloaded a file from an Akamai server at over 400 KBps. Not bad... Now if I could have faster upstream (it's capped at 256 Kbps) I'd be a very happy man.

The Big Dig is Almost Complete

Kevin — Fri, 19 Dec 2003 17:09:06 +0000

The nightmare commute for many people in the Boston area is almost over:

$14.6 billion later, Boston's Big Dig wraps up. With a tellingly simple ribbon-cutting ceremony, the last underground segment of Boston's Big Dig project opens Friday - completing major construction on one of the most complex and controversial engineering projects in human history. It may not look as dramatic as the Hoover Dam, but the revamp of traffic flows in one of America's oldest cities rivals any past US public-works project in complexity - and outpaced them all in cost. Its effects will be felt for decades and far beyond Boston: It is changing commuting habits here, may influence the prospects for any similarly large-scale efforts in the future, and has hit the pocketbook of almost every taxpayer in America. But the Big Dig's scale - at its peak it employed 5,000 construction workers - was rivaled by high costs that have been a source of controversy since the project's inception in 1987 - after President Reagan tried unsuccessfully to wield a penny-pinching veto pen.

Another great (free) tool from Google

Kevin — Sun, 04 Jan 2004 04:54:20 +0000

The Google Deskbar "enables you to search with Google from any application without lifting your fingers from the keyboard". Good stuff.

Wheeeeee!!!!

Kevin — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 19:12:29 +0000

Back to work

Kevin — Tue, 06 Jan 2004 19:27:00 +0000

I'm finally back to work after 2 weeks of flu hell. I had a flu shot back in early October, and I think it saved me from getting a serious case of the virus. My family, however, did not get flu shots and they all became very ill. Both Heather and Peter had to make trips to the ER. I spent the majority of my vacation either ill (will some flu-like symptoms) or taking care of the family. Merry freakin' Christmas... :-) It's actually a big relief to be back here in the office and out of the house. Cabin fever is almost as bad as the flu itself.

How I Got Out of a Speeding Ticket

Kevin — Wed, 07 Jan 2004 22:26:37 +0000

It's always nice to have a victory when going up against the system. Today I had one of those victories. Early last November, I was heading back from Logan Airport after having spent the day in NYC on a business trip. One of my co-workers needed a ride back to his place in the North End and I happily obliged. Now, if you've driven around Boston over the past few years, you'll most certainly know that the Big Dig has been making the lives of Boston drivers very interesting. It seems that every few weeks there are new tunnels, new exits, closed exits, etc. If you drive infrequently like I do (I commute to the city via boat), routes seem to change every time you drive. So, I'm driving back from Logan, and lo and behold, my "usual" route from the airport no longer exists - I now get to use the Ted Williams Tunnel instead of the old Callahan Tunnel. Fine, I enter the Williams Tunnel and start trying to figure out which exit I need to take to get to the North End. No sooner do I see my exit than I drive right past it. OK, no problem. I'll just take the Storrow Drive exit and use back roads to get to the North End. The Storrow Drive exit is fairly short, with a stop sign at the end, and it curves rather tightly. It's not the sort of exit ramp where you can drive quickly. In fact, the speed on the ramp is 25 MPH and it's not possible to go much faster. I'm not really sure where I'm going, and while trying to figure out where I need to go Im not paying close attention to my speed. I come to the stop and make a left turn, only to see the flashing blue lights of an unmarked State Troopers car in my rear view mirror. I get pulled over and I'm told that I was driving almost 45 MPH on a 25 MPH off ramp! Hmmm, I don't drive *that* quickly, but OK. The officer comes back and tells me that he'll reduce it to 35 in a 25, which is still a $100 fine plus points on my insurance. Yikes. If you're like me, you have better things to do with your limited free time than spend it in a court room. Still, several of my coworkers convinced me that it's always a good idea to spend the hour or so fighting the ticket. The worst that can happen is that you'll just wind up paying the original fine, and you waste an hour or so in court. Against my better judgment, I decide to plead not guilty and go to court. A month goes by with no word from the Massachusetts court. Finally in late December I get a notice telling me to report to the court in Post Office Square, right around the corner from where I work downtown. Very convenient. I start to think about what I will say in court. Will I simply lie and say that I was not speeding? Will I make up a story that I had my kids in the back seat and that I never speed when I'm driving the children? Or, will I simply tell the truth - that I may have been going over 25 MPH, but most certainly not 35 (let alone 45). A few more weeks go by, and it's court day. I walk over a bit early, hoping that I can see a few other people plead innocent before it's my turn. No such luck - the court room is empty. I sit down and play some Tetris on my cell phone. A few more people arrive, and it's finally time. In walks the Magistrate (i.e. a clerk) and a state trooper. We're sworn in and then the Magistrate explains what's about to happen. I was under the (mistaken) impression that if the trooper that wrote the ticket does not appear, you automatically get off. Well, it doesn't work that way. We were told by the Magistrate that the trooper is there to represent the troopers that wrote the tickets. If we did not accept that, we were free to appeal (at a cost of $20) and come back at a later date to see a judge. So much for the easy out. I'm going to have to go up and present my case. By this time I've decided to take the high road and admit my guilt (hell, I *was* going too fast), but state that I was not going 35. The trooper had not used radar but had instead estimated my speed while he was parked on the side of the road. This was a good thing, as the ticket became much more subjective - his word against mine. The first guy goes up, dressed in jeans and a sweat shirt (I'm in a brand new suit, btw). 74 in a 40. His excuse my wife was in the car with me and she distracted me by talking too much. The female Magistrate is not taken in by his story and in fact looks a bit pissed off, and even cuts him off. She offers to reduce his fine to $200. He accepts. A total of 2 minutes from start to end. That was pretty easy! A woman gets called, and we find out that she had hit a jersey barrier, swerved into a car, and swerved again into another car. They won't even reduce her fine as she was the cause of a multicar accident. She decides to appeal and is given another court date, this time in front of a Judge. Again, shes finished in 3-4 minutes. After a few more people I get called (Mr. Jär-nŏt). I sit down, the trooper reads my offense to the court, and I tell the Magistrate that I admit I may have gone faster than 25, but not 35. There was no way with the stop sign, curve, etc. She stops me there, and tells me that due to my clean record the fines would be dropped. She writes something and hands me a copy. Not responsible! $0 fine, no points on my insurance. Success! Im out of the court by 3:15, only fifteen minutes after the session started. Well worth the time.

The PC Guide

Kevin — Thu, 08 Jan 2004 21:54:01 +0000

I can't believe I've never heard of this site before. It's called The PC Guide and it is a VERY comprehensive guide to the PC, often with very deep detail. It's slightly out of date (last updated in 2001), but should still be mostly applicable to new PCs.

Back to the Moon?

Kevin — Fri, 09 Jan 2004 13:50:17 +0000

From CNN:

President Bush next week will lay out his "vision for expanding the space program," which is expected to include long-term proposals for manned missions to the moon and an eventual manned mission to Mars, senior administration officials say. NASA's target for a moon mission is 2018, an official said.

As much as I hate the idea of the government using my tax dollars for anything besides the bare necessities, I can't help but be excited about this. Then again, I'd be much more excited if a private enterprise made the same proposal...

Finally - A Workable Solution for Iraq

Kevin — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 20:57:28 +0000

Leave it to the Onion to come up with the perfect solution for Iraq's troubles.

I'm very excited," Ahmed Allawi said. "A free, unregulated market will swiftly and efficiently lead to the establishment of an array of fairly priced goods and services. Any day now, there should be something available to spend this money on. As for today, the open-air market down the street is still on fire."

U.S. To Give Every Iraqi $3,544.91, Let Free-Market Capitalism Do The Rest

Automatically Kill Processes that are Waiting to Die

Kevin — Wed, 14 Jan 2004 14:07:53 +0000

(how's that for a catchy title?) When you shutdown windows, the task manager steps through the process list and tries to gracefully kill each running program. Sometimes a program just refuses to die gracefully (Norton Antiirus is a good example), and the task manager will wait for the process to die, and finally give up. It will them prompt the user with an alert asking if it's ok to kill the process in a less than graceful manner. The big problem with this is that you may start a reboot process, go away for a while, only to find an alert waiting for you when you return (and the PC obviously has not rebooted). To automatically kill all waiting processes without prompting, you can simply set the AutoEndTasks registry entry in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop to 1. Now no more alert boxes.

Now That's Cold

Kevin — Fri, 16 Jan 2004 04:48:05 +0000

It's currently -2F (-22F wind chill) here in Scituate. I thought that was cold until I looked up Mt Washington in New Hampshire:

New "Cyber Security Bulletin" from CERT and NCSD

Kevin — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 15:03:41 +0000

The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) and the Department of Homeland Security's National Cyber Security Division (NCSD) have joined together to create a bi-weekly newsletter called "Cyber Security Bulletins":

[F]or technical professionals, we are pleased to announce Cyber Security Bulletins. Bulletins will be produced every other week and will summarize notable information from the past two weeks, including topics covered in Cyber Security Alerts and other sources....The Bulletins provide bi-weekly summaries of security issues and new vulnerabilities. The Bulletins also provide patches, work-arounds, and other actions to help mitigate risk. "

More info at http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/index.html

Yet Another Reason to Dump Bush

Kevin — Wed, 28 Jan 2004 18:49:20 +0000

The Washington Times reports:

"Only about 1 percent of the 1,266 civil rights and civil liberties complaints filed against Justice Department employees over the past six months concerning the USA Patriot Act 'warranted opening an investigation or conducting a closer review,' according to a report ... by the department's Office of Inspector General."

Georgia Remains in the 19th Century

Kevin — Fri, 30 Jan 2004 15:53:32 +0000

Note to self - do not move to Georgia. It continues to be the most back-assed state in the country...

Georgia considers banning 'evolution' ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The state's school superintendent has proposed striking the word evolution from Georgia's science curriculum and replacing it with the phrase "biological changes over time." [Superintendent Kathy] Cox repeatedly referred to evolution as a "buzzword" Thursday and said the ban was proposed, in part, to alleviate pressure on teachers in socially conservative areas where parents object to its teaching.

The CNN article has to be read to be believed... Thank you, religious right, for keeping us safe from knowledge.

Tongue Tied

Kevin — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 15:05:27 +0000

I just discovered an interesting blog called "Tongue Tied" that keeps track of news stories about politically correct excess. It's a fun read. "Carping about the excesses of clueless crybabies since the turn of the century. "

So THAT'S What Was on her Chest

Kevin — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 19:26:01 +0000

Via patented Jarnot Photo Enhancement Technology™ (click on image): Update: Looks like the FCC is investigating the ripped bodice incident. Please protect us FCC!!! :-)

I'm Sure Tipper Blames Those Nasty Rock Lyrics

Kevin — Mon, 02 Feb 2004 22:01:07 +0000

Al Gore's Son Must Enter Substance Abuse Program For Pot Charge

Albert Gore III will have to complete a substance abuse program under an agreement approved Monday by a judge presiding over a marijuana possession case against the son of former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore.

While I believe marijuana should be 100% legal, driving while intoxicated is a bad bad thing.

*NIX Pronunciation Guide

Kevin — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 14:35:30 +0000

[via Boing Boing] The Pronunciation Guide for UNIX:

How do I pronounce "vi" , or "!", or "/*", or ...? You can start a very long and pointless discussion by wondering about this topic on the net. Some people say "vye", some say "vee-eye" (the vi manual suggests this) and some Roman numerologists say "six". How you pronounce "vi" has nothing to do with whether or not you are a true Unix wizard.

For the record, I say "vee-eye", ! is pronounced "bang", * is "star", > is "blows", / is "slash", and (of course) # is "octothorpe". OK, just kidding about the last one...it's really "pound".

Bush Must Go (Part 1)

Kevin — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 15:48:50 +0000

Being a libertarian can really suck, especially when you have to decide who to support for President. What are my choices? 1) The Libertarian Party candidate (to be decided at the LP Convention in May). I know I should vote LP, but they don't have a chance in hell. The LP needs to do some quality marketing to the general public to convince Joe American that they are a viable party and not a bunch of "right-wing crackpots who smoke pot". 2) The Democratic Candidate (i.e. Kerry). Too liberal for my taste, but at least he'll defend civil liberities and replace Ashcroft with a more reasonable AG. I'm just concerned that he's too pro-Union, pro-environment - hell, too pro-special interest. Yes, Liberal America - Unions, Environmental Activists, the NAACP, etc. are all special interest groups concerned about their limited views of the world that generally have nothing to do with the average citizen or even reality as a whole. 3) The Green Party candidate. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, please... 4) Bush. While I agree with some of his policies, I simply cannot vote for a man who has a terrible record with respect to protection of civil liberties and government spending/growth. How can he call himself a Republican when he has allowed spending to rise to unprecedented levels? Hell, Clinton was a spendthrift compared to Bush. I think the answer is ultimately going to be #2, with #1 a possibility.

Bush Must Go (Part 2)

Kevin — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 15:51:28 +0000

From today's Reason Express newsletter:

Opinion polls are just beginning to reflect it, but President George Bush is seeing his re-election steamroller beginning to veer off-course. Its latest detour: the White House's reluctant backing for some sort of independent look at WMD intelligence failures. That deal was sealed when Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) jumped ship and voiced his support for an intel review. A WMD panel would be in addition to the 9/11-review panel that's still at work. Thus, Bush is looking at two potentially embarrassing reviews underway as he campaigns. Democrats, for their part, will be able to use the very existence of these panels to question the administration's handling of foreign policy and national security, even though they failed to oppose much of anything Bush did when he sought to do it. This is extremely lucky for them. On the domestic front, Bush faces intense anger within his own base regarding trade, immigration, and rampant spending. The cynical manipulation of the true cost of Medicare drug benefits has conservative activists particularly upset; the White House repeatedly assured them that fears of a price tag above $400 billion price was just silly talk. Now with the number at $540 billion, conservatives are too mad even to mutter I-told-you-so. It remains to seen whether Bush can rope his party back together and fend off the various probes without expending so much political capital that he has little left for the stretch run. What looked like blowout election is looking closer. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3980-2004Feb1?language=printer http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=486951

Nice Trophy There, Mister

Kevin — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 19:34:40 +0000

The Patriots Superbowl Parade is happening right now here in Boston - starting at Copley Square, winding its way down Boylston to Tremont and then to City Hall Plaza. Over 1 million people have turned out to see the Pats, and to me it looks like 80% of them are teenage kids skipping school. Loud, obnoxious buggers, the lot of 'em. :-) Anyways, I was workiing out at the BSC in Downtown Crossing at 1:00. The club is on the 3rd floor (actually really a bit higher - they're big floors) and I could look out the window and see the parade going down Tremont. Sure enough, there was Tom Brady holding the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Pretty cool.

DO NOT CLICK ON THIS LINK!!!

Kevin — Tue, 03 Feb 2004 21:17:01 +0000

PLEASE! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT CLICK ON THIS LINK!!!! SWEET FANCY MOSES, DON'T DO IT! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT DOING IT! Seriously, it's really gross. I'm not kidding. Last warning... THE LINK YOU SHOULD NOT CLICK (See, I told you so)

Bush Must Go (Part 3)

Kevin — Wed, 04 Feb 2004 14:44:43 +0000

From the Feb 3rd USA Today - Running the political numbers:

Bush's $2.4 trillion budget for fiscal year 2005 may make it harder for him to claim [the label Compassionate Conservative]. Contrary to conservative doctrine, government spending has grown steadily during his White House tenure, and deficits have replaced surpluses. And to offset big increases in spending on the military and homeland security, Bush has cut dozens of programs that affect Americans' daily lives, including community policing, housing for low-income people and projects to control water pollution.

Cutting many of the vast number of social programs is a good thing. but:

He wants to greatly increase the levels of funding for defense and homeland security.
The $230B surplus his term started with is now gone, and we have a $521B deficit.
He wants to increase spending for poor school districts by $1B and provide an extra $1B for disabled students. Good ideas, but you know this money will be wasted. It always is.
Superfund cleanup funds increase by %9.9. Many of these Superfund sites are EPA boondoggles.
$270M to convince kids not to have sex. C'mon...
$240M to promote marriage to limit out-of-wedlock births.
$50B for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The list goes on...

Boston Drivers

Kevin — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 15:37:38 +0000

When I logged in to my home Linux box this morning I received the following "fortune":

I suppose some of the variation between Boston drivers and the rest of the country is due to the progressive Massachusetts Driver Education Manual which I happen to have in my top desk drawer. Some of the Tips for Better Driving are worth considering, to wit: [110.13]: "When traveling on a one-way street, stay to the right, so as not to interfere with oncoming traffic." [22.17b]: "Learning to change lanes takes time and patience. The best recommendation that can be made is to go to a Celtics [basketball] game; study the fast break and then go out and practice it on the highway." [41.16]: "Never bump a baby carriage out of a crosswalk unless the kid's really asking for it."

N.Y. City Council Passes Anti-Patriot Act Measure

Kevin — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 17:16:43 +0000

I Love New York...from today's WaPo:

New York City, site of the country's most horrific terrorist attack, Wednesday became the latest in a long list of cities and towns that have formally opposed the expanded investigatory powers granted to law enforcement agencies under the USA Patriot Act. "The Patriot Act is really unpatriotic, it undermines our civil rights and civil liberties," said council member Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan), the bill's sponsor. "We never give up our rights that's what makes us Americans."

Good for them.

Be Patriotic: Don't Vote

Kevin — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 17:33:41 +0000

Interesting opinion piece on LewRockwell.com:

"Being patriotic in America means being devoted to the Constitution, if not the natural rights philosophy that motivated much of it. Since neither of the major political parties has any interest whatsoever in enforcing the constitutional limitations on the state, they are all traitors to the Constitution (with one lone exception, Congressman Ron Paul). Anyone who supports them [politicians of either major party] is also behaving in a traitorous manner. That is, anyone who votes for any of them. Voting only allows these traitors to the Constitution to proclaim that 'the people have spoken' and 'I am your president,' or congressman, senator, governor, or whatever. Their legitimacy rests solely on their ability to make this claim."

Is Georgia Moving Into the 20th Century?

Kevin — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 17:45:17 +0000

Maybe Georgia ain't so stoopid:

ATLANTA Georgia's school superintendent Thursday dropped plans to remove the word "evolution" from the state's high school science curriculum. "I will recommend to the teacher teams that the word 'evolution' be put back in the curriculum," Kathy Cox said in a statement. Cox said she originally wanted to replace "evolution" with the phrase "biological changes over time" to avoid controversy. "Instead, a greater controversy ensued," she said. The proposal drew widespread criticism. Former President Carter said it exposed the state to nationwide ridicule. The proposed change was included in more than 800 pages of draft revisions to the curriculum that have been posted by the state Education Department on its Web site.

Microsoft Acquires MySQL?

Kevin — Thu, 05 Feb 2004 20:20:49 +0000

Just saw this on a XO Communications product sheet: Uh, oh. That's a big oopsie. :-)

A New (Free) Kind of Science

Kevin — Sat, 07 Feb 2004 02:53:28 +0000

Stephen Wolfram's grand treatise, "A New Kind of Science" has been made available for free. Maybe it's time to attempt to read it...

Just Say No to Clown Protests

Kevin — Sun, 08 Feb 2004 17:30:28 +0000

20 clowns surprise BART riders and a train becomes a fun house

One-year-old Hazel Praught cried when she saw the deluge of clowns. Her mom, Michelle, said she hoped her daughter was not scarred for life. "One clown is scary enough,'' she said.

False Domain Info May Mean Jail

Kevin — Sun, 08 Feb 2004 18:05:34 +0000

Via Wired:

Congress may crack down on businesses and people who provide false information when they register a website, proposing huge fines and extra jail time for those who violate copyright and trademark law. Backers say the bill, known as the Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act, targets only those who lie when submitting data to domain-registration databases and then go on to break federal laws. Co-sponsors Reps. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and Howard Berman (D-California) hope the law will help copyright holders track down those who sell counterfeit merchandise on the Web, set up "phisher" sites to con unsuspecting Internet users into turning over credit card and PIN numbers, or illegally offer copyright works for download.

Yet another example of Congress making laws for specific industries, this time the RIAA and MPAA. And they continue to get away with it... Mind you, this is no better or worse that laws they've made in the past for farmers, environmental groups, etc. Not only "evil corporations" are special interest groups - something I wish Liberals would begin to understand.

Bush Should Listen to Friedman and Hayek

Kevin — Mon, 09 Feb 2004 22:00:40 +0000

From NRO:

The fiscal news out of the White House continues to be appalling. The Bush administration now admits that the recently enacted $400-billion prescription-drug program will actually cost $534 billion. This week President Bush unveiled a record $2.4 trillion budget proposal. Despite a few nominal program cuts made by the White House, overall federal spending is spinning out of control A key reason for this is the president's flawed fiscal philosophy. The president seems not to fully realize that taxation and spending policies are more than just fiscal tools to improve economic performance or address group demands. In addition, these policies determine the extent of individual liberty in our society. In this regard, Bush should heed the advice of two Nobel Prize-winning economists and conservative icons, Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek. An expansionist government, even in the pursuit of noble causes, reduces freedom. That's why the current federal spending spree isn't just a budget issue, but a freedom issue. Given the unrest among his conservative base, President Bush must rediscover the importance of limited government to the maintenance of a free people and the promotion of a free society.

Amen.

This Sounds Fair to Me - Not

Kevin — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 14:16:30 +0000

From WSFA12 Montogomery, AL: Alabama State Representative Alvin Holmes was pulled over after seen weaving on a highway in Montgomery.

An off-duty deputy says he approached Holmes and noticed his speech was slurred and his breath smelled of alcohol. Holmes denies any wrong-doing. He says he was driving home from the state house that night when his pickup truck started to overheat. He says he pulled over to look for a flashlight and that's when the deputy pulled in behind him.

So, the State Rep was arrested and taken into custody, right? Wrong.

Holmes wasn't arrested because he's a state legislator and a state law gives legislators immunity to certain crimes. During the one hundred and five days of the legislative session, the law says legislators can only be arrested for treason, a felony, or a breach of peace. The law is a privilege which many say helps legislators break the law. Republican Senator Larry Dixon says it was needed in the 19th century to stop sheriffs from using their power to keep legislators from voting.

Nice.

Original Star Wars Trilogy Finally Coming Out on DVD

Kevin — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 14:56:31 +0000

The New York Post has an article stating that the original three Star Wars films will be released on DVD Septmber 21st.

Fans have long been clamoring for DVD versions of the trilogy, the last holdouts from the top 200 grossing films of all time to be scheduled for release on DVD. "Star Wars" creator George Lucas has finally relented, after insisting the three movies wouldn't be released until the final "Star Wars" hits theaters in May 2005. The set (details like pricing are still unavailable) will include four DVDs, with the fourth disc containing a brand-new two-hour documentary.

Note that these are the revised releases from the 90s and not the original theatrical versions.

The DVDs, which are certain to be blockbusters, are also certain to be controversial: Despite pleas from "Star Wars" fanatics all over the world, these DVDs will not contain the original theatrical version of the movies. Instead, the DVDs will include the much-debated versions director Lucas released in the '90s with new digital effects and plot twists that softened the character of Han Solo - even though DVD makes it easy to offer both the original and director's cut of a movie. It's simply a matter of an artist's right, says Jim Ward, a Lucasfilm vice president and the executive producer of the set.

Is Putin Making a Power Play?

Kevin — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 16:32:00 +0000

Three of Vladamir Putin's rivals in the upcoming March election have been killed or have disappeared. Ingvald Godal, a member of Norway's parliament, thinks Putin himself is behind it. Update:

Rybkin told the radio station Echo of Moscow that "I haven't disappeared anywhere." "I decided not to listen to the radio and TV" for a few days, Rybkin said. "I decided to go to Kiev to visit friends." Rybkin, 57, said he was "shocked" when he read Russian newspapers on Tuesday and saw that his absence was being given wide attention. He failed to turn up for a news conference Friday and missed his official registration as a candidate Saturday for the March 14 election. Rybkin also has not contacted his wife, Albina, his close friends or staff, and didn't answer his mobile phone. Albina Rybkina filed a missing persons report Sunday, waiting the three days required under Russian law.

Still sounds a bit fishy, eh?

Cross-Border Church Visit Costs Man $10,000

Kevin — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 16:41:04 +0000

This was bound to happen sooner or later:

Crossing the U.S.-Canada border to go to church on a Sunday cost a U.S. citizen $10,000 for breaching Washington's tough new security rules. The expensive trip to church was a surprise for Richard Albert, a resident of rural Maine who lives so close to the Canadian border the U.S. customs office is right next door to his house. The local U.S. customs station is closed on Sundays, so he just drove around the locked gate, as he had done every weekend since the gate appeared last May, following a tightening of border security. Two days later, Albert was summoned to the customs office, where an officer told him he had been caught on camera crossing the border illegally.

Battlestar Galactica becomes a regular series on SciFi Channel

Kevin — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 19:43:36 +0000

From BoingBoing:

SCI FI Channel has greenlit production on the Battlestar Galactica franchise as a new original weekly series. Based on the top-rated December miniseries event of the same name, the one-hour drama is slated to begin production on 13 episodes in Vancouver next month. All principal cast from the mini will reprise their roles for the series, including Edward James Olmos (Commander Adama), Mary McDonnell (President Laura Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck), and Tricia Helfer (Number Six), among others. Ronald D. Moore (Carnivale, Mission Impossible 2) returns as executive producer as well as writer. The project will be produced exclusively for SCI FI, in association with Sky One. The series will be distributed by USACE, where David Eick, an executive producer of the miniseries, serves as Executive Vice President.

Like I've said before, the new Galactica (which until now was limited to a two episode miniseries) is much better than the original. While I have very fond memories for the 1970's Glen Larson version, they are specious memories at best. This photograph says it all:

PETA Tries to Smear Atkins

Kevin — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 20:41:48 +0000

More stupidity from PETA (everyone favorite animal lovin' cult):

The late Dr. Robert Atkins is being smeared for his alleged obesity at the time of his death, by a phony doctors organization that has been exposed as a front group for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and has been censured by the American Medical Association (AMA). The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has taken in over $1 million from PETA and the animal rights movement. PCRM and PETA also share office space, board members, and staff.

More info at Consumer Freedom.com.

PETA Tries to Smear Atkins

Kevin — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 20:41:49 +0000

More stupidity from PETA (everyone favorite animal lovin' cult):

More info at Consumer Freedom.com.

Bush Must Go (Part 4)

Kevin — Thu, 12 Feb 2004 15:30:11 +0000

The Cato Institute has a page that contains all of Bush's most recent budget charts. So much for the Republican party being the party of small government and fiscal responsibility...

Hey, That's My Blow!

Kevin — Fri, 13 Feb 2004 23:43:20 +0000

FYI - my office is right above the Downtown Crossing subway station.

[Brutus "The Barber"] Beefcake - these days Edward Leslie, 46, of Winchester - voluntarily checked into a treatment program Monday, according to a source, after cocaine he admitted was his created an anthrax scare at the MBTA's Downtown Crossing subway station.

http://www.wrestling-news.com/artman/publish/article_2047.shtml

Animals on the Underground

Kevin — Tue, 17 Feb 2004 16:35:16 +0000

The Animals, made up using tube lines, stations and junctions were spotted by Paul Middlewick some 15 years ago. The original Animal, the Elephant' was 'discovered' while Paul was staring at the tube map during his daily journey to work.

Interesting device to steal ATM accounts

Kevin — Thu, 19 Feb 2004 14:54:37 +0000

From Risks Digest #23.19:

Bank ATMs Converted to Steal Bank Customer IDs A team of organized criminals is installing equipment on legitimate bank ATMs in at least 2 regions to steal both the ATM card number and the PIN. The team sits nearby in a car receiving the information transmitted wirelessly over weekends and evenings from equipment they install on the front of the ATM. If you see an attachment like this, do not use the ATM and report it immediately to the bank using the 800 number or phone on the front of the ATM. The equipment used to capture your ATM card number and PIN is cleverly disguised to look like normal ATM equipment. A "skimmer" is mounted to the front of the normal ATM card slot that reads the ATM card number and transmits it to the criminals sitting in a nearby car. At the same time, a wireless camera is disguised to look like a leaflet holder and is mounted in a position to view ATM PIN entries. The thieves copy the cards and use the PIN numbers to withdraw thousands from many accounts in a very short time directly from the bank ATM.

ATM with theft equipment installed. Hidden PIN-capture camera installed in leaflet container.

"Tux Racer" Arcade Game!

Kevin — Mon, 23 Feb 2004 14:55:14 +0000

On Sunday, Heather and I took the kids to a local kid's entertainment center called "Scallywags". It's the sort of place that has jungle gyms, inflatable trampolines, etc. inside a large commercial building - and an area for parents to sit and have a few minutes of freedom to read and talk. Off to one side of the building was the arcade area, filled with kid-friendly arcade games. Imagine my surprise when I saw an arcade version of the Linux game "Tux Racer". Too bad it was broken - it would have been fun to play with Tommy and Petey. Here's a couple of snapshots from my camera phone. It was a bit dark inside the arcade, so the quality isn't so great.

Free Martha!

Kevin — Fri, 27 Feb 2004 17:28:41 +0000

Justice has prevailed.

Linux Sighting on Delta Song

Kevin — Sat, 13 Mar 2004 22:50:53 +0000

My family just spent a week in Florida and used Delta Song airlines (highly recommended). One of the great things about Song's planes is that they have entertainment centers built into every seat. They allow you to watch television, listen to music, or play trivia games against other passengers. After boarding the plan, we waited for the entertainment centers to become active. After 10 minutes of blank screens, they lit up with scrolling text and strangely enough a small picture of a penguin at the top of the screen. It took a second to realize it was Redhat Linux booting up. Very nice... :-)

Howard Stern calls fair game on Bush

Kevin — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 05:10:27 +0000

From Salon via BoingBoing: Howard Stern is calling on his 8 million listeners (and their friends and family) to vote anti-Bush in the next election.

Stern had strongly backed Bush's war on Iraq, but in the past two weeks, he has derided the president as a "Jesus freak," a "maniac" and "an arrogant bastard," while ranting against "the Christian right minority that has taken over the White House." Specifically, Stern has assailed Bush's use of 9/11 images in his campaign ads, questioned his National Guard service, condemned his decision to curb stem cell research and labeled him an enemy of civil liberties, abortion rights and gay rights.

You'll remember that Howard ran for Governor of New York on the Libertarian ticket oh so many years ago. He's dead-on in his appraisal of our soon-to-be ex-president.

In defense of Biblical marriage

Kevin — Mon, 22 Mar 2004 03:27:47 +0000

If you're going to use the Bible as a reference for the gay marriage topic, you should be consistent. Seven more amendments that the Bible recommends:

Because Jacob and David each had more than one wife, marriage in Massachusetts shall consist of a union between one man and one or more women of his choosing (II Sam. 3:2-5; Gen. 29:17-28).
A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is found not to be a virgin, "they shall take her to the door of her fathers house and her fellow citizens shall stone her to death" (Deut. 22:13-21). (Here, Governor Romneys resurrection of the death penalty will come in handy.)
As Rehoboam, David, and Solomon all possessed concubines, a married man in Massachusetts shall also have the right to keep concubines in addition to his wife or wives (I Kings 11:3; II Sam. 5:13; II Chron. 11:21).
When Moses said, "Every one of you must put to death those of his people who have committed themselves to the Baal of Peor," he was forbidding the marriage of a believer to a nonbeliever (Gen. 24:3; Neh. 10:30).
Christ said, "What God has united, man must not divide." Therefore, neither the Constitution nor any state law of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts shall permit divorce (Deut. 22:19; Mark 10:9-12).
If a married man dies childless, the widow must not marry a stranger outside of the family. Instead, the dead mans brother must marry the widow. If the brother refuses to marry the widow or refuses to give her children, the law shall fine him one sandal, and he will be forced to go about wearing one sandal for the rest of his days, and he shall be called the Unshod One of Massachusetts (Deut. 25:5-10; Gen. 38:6-10).
If there are no acceptable men to be found in the town, a woman shall ply her father with wine and have sex with him in order to produce progeny to carry on the family name (Gen. 19:31-36).

Which State Has the Worst Drivers?

Kevin — Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:45:37 +0000

As I've suspected - Massachusetts has the worst drivers. So says a survey from the Speed Channel.

Every copy of Reason customized

Kevin — Tue, 06 Apr 2004 15:47:36 +0000

Via bOing bOing: The next issue of Reason magazine will be mailed out to 40,000 subscribers, with 40,000 custom covers, each bearing a satellite photo of the individual subscriber's neighborhood, with the subscriber's house circled. The point? "Everybody, including our magazine, has been harping on the erosion of privacy and the fears of a database nation. It is a totally legit fear. But they make our lives unbelievably easier as well, in terms of commercial transactions, credit, you name it." Link

Forced erasures of Scalia speech outrage journalists

Kevin — Sat, 10 Apr 2004 02:34:47 +0000

Jesus, what next??? From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Several journalism groups are expressing outrage over the actions of a deputy marshal who forced the erasure of two journalists' audio recordings of a speech by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at a Mississippi high school. The U.S. Marshals Service stopped short of fully defending the deputy's actions. "The deputy's actions were based on the justice's standing policy prohibiting such recordings of his remarks," said Marshals Service spokesman David Turner. Officials at Presbyterian Christian High School in Hattiesburg did not announce the policy before Scalia's Wednesday appearance there. Two reporters recorded the beginning of Scalia's speech but were ordered to stop and to delete their tapes. One reporter complied, the other refused. The Associated Press reported that at the event Deputy Marshal Melanie Rube demanded that an AP reporter erase a digital recording of the speech. The reporter resisted, but when the deputy took the recording device from her, she showed the deputy how to erase the speech, the AP said. Rube also made a reporter with the Hattiesburg American erase her tape, the AP said. The U.S. Marshals service did not dispute the AP account of what had happened. "In such cases the Marshals Services takes the appropriate actions," said Turner. But when asked whether the deputy's actions were "appropriate," the spokesman replied, "I can't go that far right now."

Heads need to roll for this one...

Bruce Schneier on National ID Cards

Kevin — Thu, 15 Apr 2004 15:48:30 +0000

The potential privacy encroachments of an ID card system are far from minor. And the interruptions and delays caused by incessant ID checks could easily proliferate into a persistent traffic jam in office lobbies and airports and hospital waiting rooms and shopping malls. But my primary objection isn't the totalitarian potential of national IDs, nor the likelihood that they'll create a whole immense new class of social and economic dislocations. Nor is it the opportunities they will create for colossal boondoggles by government contractors. My objection to the national ID card, at least for the purposes of this essay, is much simpler. It won't work. It won't make us more secure. In fact, everything I've learned about security over the last 20 years tells me that once it is put in place, a national ID card program will actually make us less secure.

Link

How Colds Work

Kevin — Tue, 04 May 2004 13:33:48 +0000

Ever wonder how you catch a cold? What a cold is? What a cold virus looks like? Link (via bOingbOing)

Missing mysqld in RHEL

Kevin — Thu, 13 May 2004 17:36:53 +0000

We're now running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 3.0 at work. I'm in the process of setting up Bugzilla, which needs MySQL. I went to access MySQL (which I know was installed during the initial OS install) and lo and behold - no mysqld. All of the client apps are there, but no server. Damn... Anyways, after poking around the Web for a bit, I found out that the server is not installed by default (stupid). AND, to top it off, the mysql-server package is not part of the base OS - instead it's available via the Extras channel on RedHat Network. So, to get it installed, I had to log into RHN, add the "Extras" channel to my subscripion list, and the use up2date to install by typing up2date mysql-server. Now it's there. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb.

We've moved!

Kevin — Fri, 11 Jun 2004 19:52:01 +0000

jarnot.com has moved from a spare PIII 500 in my basement to 1&1 Hosting. I feel like I've grown up. :-) I just need to find some spare time to rewrite my kludgy PHP wrapper around MovableType. Until then, I'm using a bare-bones install of MT.

Jack and Jenny - a Socialist Fairy Tale

Kevin — Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:01:54 +0000

A simplistic, yet effective, fairy tale. The moral of the story?

Capitalism functions by giving all people equal opportunity. Socialism functions by trying to make all people equal, regardless of risks taken or the contributions of each. Capitalism says, "what you earn you keep." Socialism says, "those who have must give to those who do not have." Charity is one thing. Stupidity is something totally different.

Hermione, Oh Me, Oh My

Kevin — Wed, 23 Jun 2004 20:43:19 +0000

Donald, Donald, Donald...you bring shame to UNIX geeks everywhere. And I'll bet your web site will bring a restraining order to you some day, too. The Countdown to Hermione Granger's 18th birthday (shudder)

GMail

Kevin — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 21:14:58 +0000

Finally got myself a much-coveted GMail account. Too bad I had to cheat and buy one off of eBay ($0.99). For some reason I feel like a better man now.

Microsoft Dumps XSLT 2.0 in Favor of XQuery

Kevin — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 22:57:00 +0000

Interesting entry on Dare Obasanjo's blog regarding Microsoft's decision to not support XSLT 2.0 or XPath 2.0 in the next release of the .NET framework. Instead, they're switching to XQuery.

What You Should Know About Download.Ject

Kevin — Sat, 26 Jun 2004 20:43:13 +0000

Information from Microsoft on the latest Windows exploit. Oy.

May Day Mystery

Kevin — Sun, 27 Jun 2004 17:40:49 +0000

From the May Day Mystery web site:

The Game seems to revolve around May 1st, commonly known as May Day. The solution to solving the puzzle lies within unraveling a series of complex, detailed, and interwoven pages that are printed every May 1st in the Arizona Daily Wildcat, the student run newspaper on the University of Arizona Campus.

Hepatitis A discovered at Quiznos in Downtown Crossing

Kevin — Mon, 28 Jun 2004 14:00:42 +0000

What a way to start the week...

Boston public health officials yesterday urged hundreds of people who ate at a downtown franchise June 17, 18 or 19 to get inoculated for hepatitis A - a shot given in the backside - after a Quiznos worker was hospitalized with the liver disease. A hospital reported the latest case to the city, which in turn alerted Quiznos after learning the patient worked at the 74 Summer St. franchise. Although rarely fatal, hepatitis A causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and fatigue. The virus has a 15-day incubation period.

Sure enough, I ate there on June 17th. I guess I'll be dropping trou' for an innoculation. More on Boston.com

The Induce Act: Innovation Under Attack

Kevin — Tue, 29 Jun 2004 11:48:07 +0000

From the EFF's web site:

Senator Orrin Hatch's new Inducing Infringement of Copyright Act (S.2560, Induce Act) would make it a crime to aid, abet, or induce copyright infringement. He want us all to think that the Induce Act is no big deal and that it only targets "the bad guys" while leaving "the good guys" alone. He says that it doesn't change the law; it just clarifies it. He's wrong. Right now, under the Supreme Court's ruling in Sony v. Universal (the Betamax VCR case), devices like the iPod and CD burners are 100% legal -- not because they aren't sometimes used for infringement, but because they also have legitimate uses. The Court in Sony called these "substantial non-infringing uses." This has been the rule in the technology sector for the last 20 years. Billions of dollars and thousands of jobs have depended on it. Industries have blossomed under it. But the Induce Act would end that era of innovation. Don't let this happen on your watch - tell your Senators to fight the Induce Act!

Excellent Scripting Site

Kevin — Thu, 01 Jul 2004 18:46:14 +0000

Rob van der Woude's Scripting Pages is an excellent reference site for everything scripting - including DOS batch files, Perl, Rexx, and WSH. Lots of examples, which makes it all the better.

I Love a Good Ice Storm in July...

Kevin — Sat, 03 Jul 2004 15:52:01 +0000

Yesterday was a hot and humid day here on the South Shore. My chore for the day was to clean out the garage, and I even talked Tommy and Pete into helping me sweep. As we were cleaning, the sky began to turn dark and it began to hail. The kids had never seen hail before, and they ran around trying to collect the 1/4 inch chunks of ice before they melted. Having seen in the past what hail storms can do to car bodies, I quickly drove my car into the garage. Just as I turned off the ignition the hail began to fall in larger amounts. What started as a minor rain/hail storm now turned into a real hailstorm. The kids ran into the garage just in time. The hail was now an inch in diameter. Then 1 1/2 inches. Then 2 inches or even bigger. It was something out of "The Day After Tomorrow". There was larger than golfball-sized hail, smashing into everything - cars, tree branches. One chunk of ice precisely hit our outdoor light, smashing the glass globe into a hundred pieces. After sending the kids into the basement, I grabbed the video camera and started filming. I also snapped a few pics with my camera phone (excuse the lack of quality): Heather was unlucky enough to be out driving during the worst of it, and her car is covered in dents and dings. Still, she was one of the lucky ones, as she had pulled over under some cover just in time. Others who had not found cover had their windshields cracked or even smashed. My neighbor called to tell me that there had been a report of a tornado forming over Marshfield, the town just to the south. Luckily the funnel never fully formed over land and the storm went out to sea. As someone that had a funnel cloud touch down on top of them (in Cheektowaga, NY back in 1987), I definitely would not want to go through that experience again.

Quote of the Week

Kevin — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:05:37 +0000

While speaking to a gathering of supporters of Sen. Barbara Boxer in San Francisco last week, many of whom paid upwards of $10,000 to attend, Sen. Hillary Clinton stated:

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you. We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." -- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Thank you, Hillary, for knowing what's best for us.

Study: Cough Syrups Ineffective

Kevin — Wed, 07 Jul 2004 14:28:56 +0000

From CNN: Two ingredients commonly used in cough syrup are no better than sugar water in suppressing night-time coughing in children, according to a study published Tuesday. The two ingredients are dextromethorphan -- often listed on labels as "DM" -- and diphenhydramine, an antihistamine. The former is the most common nonprescription cough suppressant on the U.S. market, and commonly abused by adolescents who try to get high on cough medicine. "Our study showed that the two ingredients used in most over-the-counter medications were no better than a placebo ... in providing night time relief for children with cough and sleep difficulty as a result of upper respiratory infection," he added. Asked what parents should do, Paul said "my advice has been to do things that are harmless but could help -- saline nose drops, good hydration and humidified air."

Microsoft Faces Angry IE Users' Questions

Kevin — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 17:35:47 +0000

From InternetNews.com and /.:

In a lively online discussion Thursday, Microsoft (Quote, Chart) engineers faced off with end users who lobbed irate questions, comments and a few tirades about its Internet Explorer browser. More than any topic, security reigned as the most pervasive theme during the online discussion, including when end users could see the next patch for vulnerabilities in IE.

The New Steve

Kevin — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 21:35:05 +0000

From the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette: Ex-‘Blue’s Clues’ host reinvented as rocker By Steve Penhollow

The reporter had something to tell Steve Burns, but he was having trouble finding the words. Burns is the former host of the beloved Nickelodeon children’s program, “Blue’s Clues.” Since he left the show in 2003, he has seemingly reinvented himself as an indie rocker. The reporter bears more than a few scars inflicted by the actor-turned-singer genre (David Soul, Bruce Willis, Eddie Murphy, William Shatner, ouch, ouch, stop, stop), so he had reason to be wary of Burns’ debut album “Songs For Dustmites.” But he wasn’t prepared for his reaction to the CD. “You’re surprised that my album didn’t suck,” Burns offered helpfully. Exactly.

The Fine Art of Male Circumcision

Kevin — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 22:07:57 +0000

From Smartklamp.com:

The SmartKlamp® is a new, one time use only, circumcision tool, which is designed to create, a safer, faster, and smarter way to perform circumcisions. The SmartKlamp® is a small plastic device, which workings can be compared with the umbilical cord clamp. It consists of a plastic transparent tube of polycarbonate, and a white clamping mechanism of nylon. It is very light and easy to use. Through its unique design the SmartKlamp® provides for full protection of the penis during the circumcision, and gives a cosmetically predictable result. It makes the circumcision practically bloodless, which helps reducing the risk of spreading infections like AIDS or Hepatitis. The SmartKlamp® comes in various sizes, from newborn (10mm) to adult, and is individually EO sterilized packed. Every SmartKlamp® is supplied with a size-0-meter, to ensure you select the right size of device.

120 Years of Electronic Musical Instruments

Kevin — Sun, 11 Jul 2004 04:01:33 +0000

Interesting timeline of electronic instruments. Link

Bruce Schneier on Due Process and Security

Kevin — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 15:08:20 +0000

From this month's CryptoGram:

The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided the three legal challenges to the Bush administration's legal maneuverings against terrorism. These cases have been endlessly debated on legal and civil liberties grounds. They were decided, mostly but not entirely, in favor of presumption-of-innocence and due process. But I want to talk about how important the decisions are to our nation's security. Security is multifaceted; there are many threats from many different directions. It includes the security of people against terrorism, and also the security of people against tyrannical government. There are some very broad security issues at work here. The Constitution (which includes the Bill of Rights) was designed to ensure the security of people: American citizens and visitors. Its limitations on governmental power are a security measure. Its enshrinement of human rights is a security measure. These measures were developed in response to colonial tyranny by Britain, and have been extended in response to abuses of power within our own country. Laws mandating speedy trial by jury, laws prohibiting detention without charge, laws regulating police behavior -- these are all laws that make us more secure. Without them, government and police power remains unchecked. We need to carry on these principles of fair and open justice, both because it is the right thing to do and because it makes us all more secure. The United States is admired throughout the world because of our freedoms and our liberties. The very rights inherent in these Supreme Court cases are the rights that keep us all safe and secure. The more our fight against terrorism is conducted within the confines of law, the more it gives consideration to the principles of fair and open trial, due process, and "innocent until proven guilty," the safer we all are. Unchecked police and military power is a security threat -- just as important a threat as unchecked terrorism. There is no reason to sacrifice the former to obtain the latter, and there are very good reasons not to.

Babies Babble in Sign Language Too

Kevin — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 18:00:32 +0000

From New Scientist:

Babies exposed to sign language babble with their hands, even if they are not deaf. The finding supports the idea that human infants have an innate sensitivity to the rhythm of language and engage it however they can, the researchers who made the discovery claim.

Occidental College Ruthlessly Suppresses Free Speech

Kevin — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:16:14 +0000

Just received a press release from FIRE: Occidental College Ruthlessly Suppresses Free Speech Censors Student Radio Host, Dissolves Student Government LOS ANGELES, July 15, 2004—Showing profound contempt for free speech, Occidental College in Los Angeles has fired the student host of a popular student radio program and found him guilty of sexual harassment due to satirical jokes made on the air. Occidental also used this controversy as a pretext for the unprecedented decision to dissolve its entire student government and assume control of nearly half a million dollars in funds from student fees. Occidental then began a campaign of false accusations and distortions to justify, after the fact, its illiberal actions. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has spearheaded the defense of student radio host Jason Antebi since he was removed from his show last March, has formed a national coalition of organizations and is launching a public campaign to oppose Occidental’s outrageous actions. “Occidental’s ruthless and corrupt actions are without parallel,” said Greg Lukianoff, FIRE’s director of legal and public advocacy. “Censorship is bad enough. Baselessly implying that a student had committed serious offenses in a cynical and dishonest attempt to scare off those who might aid him is worse. Using the controversy as an excuse to dissolve the entire student government is beyond the pale. Occidental must not be allowed to get away with what it has done.” Numerous national organizations have joined FIRE in condemning Occidental’s actions against Jason Antebi, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, the Student Press Law Center, and Students for Academic Freedom. Read the ACLU's letter in support of Antebi here. [463 KB PDF] Antebi had hosted a popular radio show on Occidental’s student radio station for three years. The show, “Rant and Rave,” was a forum for political parody and provocative humor. The program frequently mocked Occidental’s administration, its student government, and various political and social causes. Antebi was also a vice president in Occidental’s student government, where he was highly critical of various administrative decisions. In response to Antebi’s biting on-air satire, three students filed sexual harassment complaints against him in March 2004. Two of his accusers were student government rivals who had unsuccessfully tried to have him recalled from office on different grounds earlier in the year. In their complaints, the offended students claimed that Antebi’s show promoted “disrespect and slander” against “women, diversity, and Occidental College” and thus constituted a form of punishable “hostile environment” harassment. Occidental administrators then fired Antebi from his radio show despite objections by the radio station’s student management. Antebi contacted FIRE, which quickly wrote a letter on his behalf, pointing out that “none of [the accusers] state a single claim that would transform Mr. Antebi’s speech from fully protected provocative speech to unprotected harassment.” On March 30, amidst the controversy over Antebi’s show, Occidental College President Ted Mitchell announced his decision to dissolve the student government. While Mitchell did not refer to Jason Antebi by name, virtually all of the reasons he gave for closing down the student government were directly related to the Antebi controversy. Then, on April 12, Occidental found Antebi guilty of “sexual and gender hostile environment harassment,” ignoring both the college’s promises to defend free speech and California’s “Leonard Law,” which guarantees free speech to students at private colleges and universities in California. Read more here.

Black and Gray TV?

Kevin — Thu, 15 Jul 2004 20:40:34 +0000

From the Cape Times:

Zimbabwe's colour TV may also ban pink, purple, white and green "Red is just the start," said Solly Solinga, spokesperson for Zimbabwean Television, when I phoned him about the decision to ban that colour from the country's TV screens because it symbolised the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party. "We have other colours in mind, too." "But there is red in so many things," I argued. "You can't simply ban it out of the spectrum." "We can do what we like with the spectrum, whatever that is," said Solly. "We are not bound by Western concepts. Besides, red also signifies other hateful things to our revered president. It is the colour of London buses, so beloved by our former colonial oppressors. There is also the red herring of human rights abuses, when everyone knows our people have never been happier. Worst of all is when our enemies claim our national finances are in the red, so envious are they of our favourite colour, black." "What about red carpets?" I asked. "The president is prepared to make an exception in the case of red carpets, so long as they are for him," said Solly. "Pink is also banned. It reminds the president of homosexuals."

Read the rest here.

test

Kevin — Fri, 16 Jul 2004 21:22:34 +0000

use lib "/homepages/15/d104325680/htdocs/local/lib/perl/5.6.1/auto/"; use Business::ISBN qw( is_valid_checksum isbn_to_ean ean_to_isbn ); $isbn = ean_to_isbn("9780130462824"); print "ISBN = " . $isbn . "

\n"; This is *not* working! "James Bond”:imdb:Sean+Connery

Even the Catholic Church is Outsourcing to India

Kevin — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 14:29:56 +0000

From Ekklesia:

As US and European companies outsource hi-tech work to India to benefit from low-cost and abundant skilled labour, the clergy is doing likewise seeking to compensate for the acute shortage of priests in the West reports Sky News. Foreign priests are reportedly shipping out "Mass intentions" -- requests for services such as thanksgiving and forgiveness of sins -- to congregations in India, with each earning a priest about five euros or six dollars. The Mass intentions usually come by post or e-mail through the church, although some Indian priests take down the requests by telephone from friends and contacts made abroad.

"I Trust God Speaks Through Me"

Kevin — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 14:32:29 +0000

From Lancaster Online via Marc Bronsdon: "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job." - G.W. Bush, 16 July 04

President Bush met privately with a group of Old Order Amish during his visit to Lancaster County last Friday. He discussed their farms and their hats and his religion. He asked them to vote for him in November. At the end of the session, Bush reportedly told the group, "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job."

Yet another reason not to vote for the man -- he's deluded.

“Once again," Mr. Cheney replied, “it’s on.”

Kevin — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 17:43:24 +0000

How it really went down - c/o the New Yorker (by way of JWZ):

“Oh, it’s like that?” Mr. Cheney queried. “Whut? Whut?” Mr. Leahy shot back. “Once again,” Mr. Cheney replied (quite obviously quoting a lyric from Ice Cube’s 1990 album, “AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted”), “it’s on.” As a quick-thinking senatorial aide switched on the Senate’s public-address system and cued up the infamous “Seven Minutes of Funk” break, Mr. Leahy and Mr. Cheney went head-to-head in what can only be described as a “take no prisoners” freestyle rap battle. Most of the rhymes kicked therein cannot be quoted in a family publication, but observers gave Mr. Cheney credit for his deceptively laid-back flow. Mr. Leahy was applauded for managing to rhyme the phrases “unethical for certain,” “crude oil spurtin’,” and “like Halliburton.” Despite the fact that both participants brought their A-game and succeeded in dropping mad scientifics, the bout seemed to end in a draw.

PC Reliability and Service

Kevin — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 18:47:44 +0000

Interesting survey results from PC World: Compaq (sold by Hewlett-Packard)

Satisfaction with reliability: Poor

Satisfaction with service: Poor Dell

Satisfaction with reliability: Good

Satisfaction with service: Fair EMachines (sold by Gateway)

Satisfaction with reliability: Fair

Satisfaction with service: Fair Gateway

Satisfaction with reliability: Fair

Satisfaction with service: Fair Hewlett-Packard

Satisfaction with reliability: Poor

Satisfaction with service: Poor IBM

Satisfaction with reliability: Fair

Satisfaction with service: Fair Sony

Satisfaction with reliability: Good

Satisfaction with service: Fair Independent Stores

Satisfaction with reliability: Fair

Satisfaction with service: Good

Isaac Hayes' Three Laws of Robotics

Kevin — Thu, 22 Jul 2004 20:56:39 +0000

From Engadget: Isaac Hayes' Three Laws of Robotics:

A robot must risk his neck for his brother man, and may not cop out when there’s danger all about.
A robot must be a sex machine to all the chicks, except where such actions conflict with the will of his main woman.
A robot must at all times strive to be one bad motha-shutchyomouth.

Hating America

Kevin — Fri, 23 Jul 2004 21:34:00 +0000

Intersting article by Bruce Bawer on Hudson Review:

Living in Europe, I gradually came to appreciate American virtues I’d always taken for granted, or even disdained—among them a lack of self-seriousness, a grasp of irony and self-deprecating humor, a friendly informality with strangers, an unashamed curiosity, an openness to new experience, an innate optimism, a willingness to think for oneself and speak one’s mind and question the accepted way of doing things. (One reason why Euro- peans view Americans as ignorant is that when we don’t know something, we’re more likely to admit it freely and ask questions.) While Americans, I saw, cherished liberty, Europeans tended to take it for granted or dismiss it as a naive or cynical, and somehow vaguely embarrassing, American fiction. I found myself toting up words that begin with i: individuality, imagination, initiative, inventiveness, independence of mind. Americans, it seemed to me, were more likely to think for themselves and trust their own judgments, and less easily cowed by authorities or bossed around by “experts”; they believed in their own ability to make things better. No wonder so many smart, ambitious young Europeans look for inspiration to the United States, which has a dynamism their own countries lack, and which communicates the idea that life can be an adventure and that there’s important, exciting work to be done.

Another interesting quote:

Yet the endlessly reiterated claim that George W. Bush “squandered” Western Europe’s post-9/11 sympathy is nonsense. The sympathy was a blip; the anti-Americanism is chronic.

Moebius Strips for Kids

Kevin — Wed, 28 Jul 2004 15:43:54 +0000

Little Tikes Commercial has created a Moebius strip for playgrounds. The "Infinity Climber" recently won a 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Award (IDEA). Damn, I really want one of these for the back yard... Update: Boing Boing has posted my submission for this item, and I stand corrected - it's not a Moebius strip, as there are two twists in the structure. It's actually a "Double Twist Strip".

"Must Buy" Kids Books

Kevin — Thu, 29 Jul 2004 18:49:57 +0000

"I, Crocodile" by Fred Marcellino "Skippyjon Jones" by Judith Byron Schachner "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type" by Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin "Giggle, Giggle, Quack" by Doreen Cronin, Betsy Lewin "A Light in the Attic" by Shel Silverstein "Katy and the Big Snow" by Virginia Lee Burton

Huh?

Kevin — Mon, 02 Aug 2004 19:48:08 +0000

Just received the following spam:

Dear Popular-Soft Client! I am "Colony C. Metamorphic", and I work at Hot-Software representative office. You are is so grave for our organization! You waste your banknote and your time at our Company, and I wanna to present that our company have conclude update of software assortment. We like to remind u that our company propose that this time We have more larger 1555 toprated soft products for huga low Price with your individual Client discount on a price. please spare few of Your expensive Time to test our updated Oem-Soft catalogue righ here: http://embarrassment.bestwarez.info/ With the best regards, Purchasers Service section, "Colony C. Metamorphic"

Test of Pocket SharpMT

Kevin — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 20:39:01 +0000

This entry was posted via my PocketPC using Pocket SharpMT software.

And this was posted via SharpMT

Kevin — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 20:46:46 +0000

In my quest for the perfect blog editor, I have also installed SharpMT on my desktop. Very positive impressions so far...

Best Damn Toilet Ever, Period

Kevin — Wed, 25 Aug 2004 21:20:10 +0000

My company had its summer outing yesterday on Thompson Island in Boston Harbor. While waiting for the rest of the employees to show up on the Long Wharf, my wife told me she had to use the bathroom. She went off in search of public facilities while I waited outside in front of the New England Aquarium. As I paced around the area, I saw a large kiosk labelled "City Toilet". Heather came back a few minutes later -- she couldn't find a bathroom -- and I showed her the kiosk. It was roughly 20 feet long, 10 feet deep, with USS Enterprise-style doors. A computer display on the front stated that it cost $0,25 (ooops - incorrect localization!) for 20 minutes. Heather popped in a quarter, the doors slid open, and she entered the kiosk. The doors closed with a "whoosh". A few minutes later she emerged, smiling widely. "That was the coolest bathroom ever", she said. My turn. I went to put my quarter in, but the display stated that it was currently being sanitized, and a progress bar inched towards completion. When it finished, it said "ready" and I inserted my quarter. I was then asked where I wanted the toilet positioned - "left", "right", or "center". I pressed center and then entered. The room was very spacious with a large mirror (not a traditional public bathroom mirror-like shiny piece of metal), sink, and centered toilet. New Age-y music (Tangerine Dream meets Ty-D-Bowl) was playing over a speaker. I settled myself in and did what I came to do. When I finished, I pressed an ergonomically-placed "flush" button and the bowl emptied. The sink, like everything else in the room, was completely hands free. There were three labelled areas where I could place my hands - "soap", "wash" and "dry". Each was activated via proximity sensors. When I approached the doors, all I had to do was lightly tap the "door open" button with my foot. After the doors closed, I could hear the sanitization process start up. German engineering at its best.

A Digital Video Recorder via Linux

Kevin — Thu, 26 Aug 2004 17:25:46 +0000

mysettopbox.tv is a web site that provides easy instructions on how to assemble your own DVR using Linux and cheap off-the-shelf hardware. Also see KnoppMyth and MythTV.

Maya 6 Personal Learning Edition available

Kevin — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 17:22:29 +0000

For those of you interested in computer graphics and 3D modelling, you can now download a free version of Alias' Maya 6 software (Personal Learning Edition). It's fully functional, but will include a watermark on any image generated, For $24.99 you can also purchase their Maya Beginner's Guide Bundle, which includes the Personal Learning Edition on CDROM as well as a training DVD. I had purchased their beginner's bundle for version 5 and it was well worth the money. I just hope that the watermark in version 6 is not as intrusive as it was in version 5. It made viewing models difficult.

Greatest Monologue Ever?

Kevin — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 04:39:26 +0000

Greatest monologue ever? I've narrowed it down to three: This day is called the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:' Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars. And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.' Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember with advantages What feats he did that day: then shall our names. Familiar in his mouth as household words Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England now a-bed Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Very well, where do I begin? My father was a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low grade narcolepsy and a penchant for buggery. My mother was a fifteen year old French prostitute named Chloe with webbed feet. My father would womanize, he would drink, he would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Some times he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy, the sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. My childhood was typical, summers in Rangoon, luge lessons. In the spring we'd make meat helmets. When I was insolent I was placed in a burlap bag and beaten with reeds, pretty standard really. At the age of 12 I received my first scribe. At the age of fourteen, a Zoroastrian woman named Vilma ritualistically shaved my testicles. There really is nothing like a shorn scrotum, it's breathtaking, I suggest you try it.

What a pal. Ahhh. This is the good life. Just relax...and let my mind drift. Yeahhhh. I'll just relax, and think pleasant thoughts... Chicken pot pie!...Chocolate-covered raisins!...Ehh...Glazed ham!...Heh...heh...heh...they think I'm CRAZY. But I know better. It is not *I* who am crazy. It is not I who am MAD! Didn'tcha hear 'em? Didn'tcha see the CROWDS? Oh my beloved ice cream bar...how I love to lick your creamy center! HOOOWWWWWW....and your oh-so-nutty chocolate covering! You're not like the others...you like the same things I do! Waxed paper...boiled football leather...dog breath...We're not hitchhiking anymore! We're RIDING!

Links on Homeopathy

Kevin — Sun, 29 Aug 2004 22:16:43 +0000

I've been reading up on homeopathy lately and thought I'd share some good links. I'm still undecided - my bullshit detector tells me there's no scientific basis for homeopathic cures, but I've seen some positive results in people who have worked with a homeopath.

The best quote is from the h2g2 entry:

Despite the fact that scientific evidence is against homeopathy as an effective cure, there remain many who have testified that homeopathy works. But how can sugar water cure a complex ailment that involves genetic predisposition or pathogens? One Researcher has provided valuable insight on this matter: "I have been through a very long period of stress some years ago, and somehow my body was reacting to that: skin rashes, constant headaches etc... There was nothing conventional medicine could do except for cortisone against the rash and aspirin against the headache. That's when I was persuaded to look up a homeopath. I went there and had a go. The way this man worked was fascinating. He is in reality a shrink and heals you in his sessions. You're there for say two hours and talk about your problems. Then he tells you some mumbo-jumbo about homeopathy, prescribes you some placebo. My skin rash and headaches got cured. Of course it had nothing to do with the atoms (if any) I swallowed during the 'treatment'. In retrospect I think this was highly clever of that physician. There are probably a lot of people with illnesses that are caused by stress or psychologic things, but somehow a lot of people hesitate to go to a shrink." This is probably where conventional medicine went wrong and where homeopaths got it nailed down. People who are sick do not want to be poked and prodded, and presented with incomprehensible medical jargon and a bottle of 'just take this and come back in two days if your condition does not improve' medicine (usually delivered with a degree of impatience). They want to know what is wrong with their bodies, how it could have happened, how the medicine will cure them. These patients need counselling and comfort, which they will not get from the typical harried doctor who has 20 other patients to see. On the other hand, you have the homeopath, who not only readily listens to your complaints and problems, but takes the trouble to discuss them. He then prescribes some medication that he probably knows has no curative value, but it does not matter - the patient, by peace of mind from the counselling, has already initiated his own healing process. Doctors should maybe take a lesson or two from these people about psychology.

Michael Chabon on "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman

Kevin — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 03:31:44 +0000

Via Linkfilter. Michael Chabon in the New York Review of Books:

Pity those adventurers, adolescents, authors of young adult fiction who make their way in the borderland between worlds. It is at worst an invisible and at best an inhospitable place. Build your literary house on the borderlands, as the English writer Philip Pullman has done, and you may find that your work is recommended by booksellers, as a stopgap between installments of Harry Potter, to children who cannot (one hopes) fully appreciate it, and to adults, disdainful or baffled, who "don't read fantasy." Yet all mystery resides there, in the margins, between life and death, childhood and adulthood, Newtonian and quantum, "serious" and "genre" literature. And it is from the confrontation with mystery that the truest stories have always drawn their power.

Spear & Magic Helmet!

Kevin — Mon, 30 Aug 2004 19:02:38 +0000

From Looney Lyrics: (Elmer) Be very quiet I'm hunting rabbits (E) Rabbit tracks!!! (E) Kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit (E) Yo ho to oh! Yo ho to oh! Yo ho... (Bugs) O mighty warrior of great fighting stock (B) Might I enquire to ask, eh, what's up doc?? (E) I'm going to kill the rabbit!! (B) Oh mighty warrior t'will be quite a task (B) How will you do it, might I enquire to ask?? (E) I will do it with my spear and magic helmet! (B) Your spear and magic helmet? (E) Spear & magic helmet! (B) Magic helmet? (E) Magic helmet! (B) Magic helmet (E) Yes, magic helmet and I'll give you a sample (B) Bye (E) (that was the rabbit) (E) Oh Brunhilda, you're so lovely (B) Yes I know it I can't help it (E) Oh Brunhilda be my love (E) Return my love a longing burns deep inside me (B) Return my love I want you always beside me (E) A love like ours must be (B) Made for you and for me (B&E) Return won't you return my love for my love is yours (E) I'll kill the rabbit (E) Arise storms (E) North winds blow, south winds blow (E) Typhoons, hurricanes, earthquakes, smog (E) Flash lightning strike the rabbit (E) What have I done?? I've killed the rabbit.... (E) Poor little bunny, poor little rabbit... (B) (well what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending???)

Death Mask Gallery

Kevin — Tue, 31 Aug 2004 21:48:29 +0000

Fascinating picture gallery of death masks.

Tips for Naming Computers

Kevin — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 16:22:48 +0000

Have a bunch of new computers that need names? Here are some handy tips for naming computers and names given to computers.

Risks of Digital Storage

Kevin — Wed, 01 Sep 2004 16:31:14 +0000

Think your CDROM backups are safe? So did Tom Gromak at the Detroit News:

After a recent move, I found myself cleaning out boxes that looked like they hadn't been opened in at least two previous moves - maybe longer. Inside one was a computer magazine trumpeting on its cover (yet again): "The paperless office has arrived." Cheap optical storage devices like writeable and rewriteable CDs, it predicted, were going to revolutionize the way we store and share and retrieve everything. Among the casualties: Floppy disks, ZIP drives, file cabinets and folders. I remember buying into that argument when I shelled out hundreds of dollars years ago for my first rewriteable CD drive. I quickly, and blindly, moved many megabytes of documents -- articles I had written, digital photos and scans of photos, audio snippets of my daughter, etc. And all those obsolete printouts went into file 13. My information was safe and sound, and I could sleep better. So, as I re-read that old magazine, I wondered: Where were all those old documents? It didn't take long to find the series of rewriteable discs I had used to save them (I had used rewriteable discs so I could update some of the works without ending up with duplicate versions of the files). I popped the CD-RW into my PC with the same expectation one gets when cracking open a time capsule. And I got -- I got -- nothing but a Windows error message offering to format the unformatted disc in my PC. Everything I had saved, everything I had disposed of because it was supposedly safe, was gone.

This is why I not only backup important data to CDROM, but also to a dedicated large-capacity hard drive.

Things You Have to Believe as a Republican

Kevin — Fri, 03 Sep 2004 14:47:47 +0000

Just received this via email... Things you have to believe to be a Republican today:

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy.
Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense.
A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy, and questioning the president too much about it is just plain un-American.
Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages, the Commander in Chief's inherent right to jail people without trial, and censoring the Internet.
The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.
Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness, and you need our prayers for your recovery.
You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have the right to adopt.
What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

Want a Gmail account?

Kevin — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 15:49:10 +0000

I have a few Gmail invites available. If you'd like an invite to use Gmail (Google's new webmail service with 1 GB storage), just drop me an email at webmaster@jarnot.com.

Finally - Edgar Rice Burroughs' "A Princess of Mars" on the Big Screen

Kevin — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 18:34:39 +0000

Kerry Conran, director of Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, is filming Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. This is the first book of Burroughs' excellent Martian Tales series. Stanley Wiater's review on Amazon.com describes the books quite well:

Although Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875-1950) is justifiably famous as the creator of Tarzan of the Apes, that uprooted Englishman was not his only popular hero. Burroughs's first sale (in 1912) was A Princess of Mars, opening the floodgates to one of the must successful--and prolific--literary careers in history. This is a wonderful scientific romance that perhaps can be best described as early science fiction melded with an epic dose of romantic adventure. A Princess of Mars is the first adventure of John Carter, a Civil War veteran who unexpectedly find himself transplanted to the planet Mars. Yet this red planet is far more than a dusty, barren place; it's a fantasy world populated with giant green barbarians, beautiful maidens in distress, and weird flora and monstrous fauna the likes of which could only exist in the author's boundless imagination. Sheer escapism of the tallest order, the Martian novels are perfect entertainment for those who find Tarzan's fantastic adventures aren't, well, fantastic enough. Although this novel can stand alone, there are a total of 11 volumes in this classic series of otherworldly, swashbuckling adventure.

I really hope he does the book justice.

Clowns Invade West Bank

Kevin — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 19:22:03 +0000

Warning - pictures will be disturbing to anyone with enough sense to dislike clowns.

A Critique of Port Knocking

Kevin — Thu, 16 Sep 2004 20:40:57 +0000

NewsForge has an interesting article that critiques port knocking, which is a method of opening and closing service ports on servers via a secret knock sequence. Their conclusion?

In general, port knocking has too many points of potential attack. In particular, anyone with non-root access to the server should be able to trivially break the system. This does not seem to be of concern to the developers.

Changes in new Star Wars Trilogy DVDs

Kevin — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 15:30:41 +0000

The Digital Bits has an interesting page that shows the changes made to the original Star Wars trilogy for its release on DVD. Update: Ain't it Cool News also has a good article on the subject.

Feelin' old...

Kevin — Fri, 17 Sep 2004 21:45:04 +0000

My oldest son, Tommy, started kindergarden last week. I'm getting old... :-)

Libertarian Presidential Candidate Michael Badnarik Answers Questions on Slashdot

Kevin — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 22:19:38 +0000

Slashdot readers had the opportunity to submit questions to LP candidate Michael Badnarik:

Last monday, you were given the chance to Ask Questions of the Libertarian Party's US Presidential nominee, Michael Badnarik. Today we present to you 15 of the most highly rated comments, and the answers from the man himself. Thanks to Mr. Badnarik for taking the time to talk to us.

H2G2 is Back on the Radio

Kevin — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 21:58:36 +0000

The BBC is broadcasting a new "phase" of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy on BBC 4.

Twenty-five years after the original radio series of Douglas Adams? The Hitchhiker?s Guide To The Galaxy exploded into the public consciousness, the further exploits of its bewildered hero, Arthur Dent, are being brought to life in their original medium and with the (mainly) original cast. The last three books of the ?trilogy in five parts?, Life, The Universe And Everything; So Long And Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless, have been dramatised as two new series (none of them were previously produced for radio). As the original two series were dubbed the Primary and Secondary Phases by Douglas Adams, these new series form the Tertiary, Quadrenary and Quintessential Phases. Thanks to the wonders of digital technology, Douglas Adams himself can be heard playing the part of Agrajag.

A Bunch of Links for Your Amusement

Kevin — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 15:06:32 +0000

Spamusement - poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines
Disturbing Auctions Daily - people sure do sell weird crap on eBay
Bryan's Rice-Boy Page - their cars may not be fast, but they sure do look like they are. Yeah, sure...
In Passing... - strange thing heard from strangers
Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics - 'nuff said

The Geek Test

Kevin — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 16:23:05 +0000

A bunch of us here at DebtX just took the geek test at Innergeek.us. I knew I'd scored high, but I didn't expect to be the biggest geek. I scored 40.0395%, which is "Major Geek". One of the developers came close with 39.25049%, and as expected the non-engineers had sub-10% scores. Update: Oops, I tied with one of the developers. Congrats, Zach. :-)

Minnesota Trooper Writes 205 MPH Ticket

Kevin — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 19:52:32 +0000

Wow.

WABASHA, Minn. - With a State Patrol airplane overhead, a motorcyclist hit the throttle and possibly set the informal record for the fastest speeding ticket in Minnesota history: 205 mph. On Saturday afternoon, State Patrol pilot Al Loney was flying near Wabasha, in southeastern Minnesota on the Wisconsin border, watching two motorcyclists racing along U.S. Highway 61. When one of the riders shot forward, Loney was ready with his stopwatch. He clicked it once when the motorcycle reached a white marker on the road and again a quarter-mile later. The watch read 4.39 seconds, which Loney calculated to be 205 mph. "I was in total disbelief," Loney told the St. Paul Pioneer Press for Tuesday's editions. "I had to double-check my watch because in 27 years I'd never seen anything move that fast." Several law enforcement sources told the newspaper that, although no official records are kept, it was probably the fastest ticket ever written in the state. After about three-quarters of a mile, the biker slowed to about 100 mph and let the other cycle catch up. By then Loney had radioed ahead to another state trooper, who pulled the two over soon afterward. The State Patrol officer arrested the faster rider, 20-year-old Stillwater resident Samuel Armstrong Tilley, for reckless driving, driving without a motorcycle license and driving 140 miles per hour over the posted speed limit of 65 mph. A search of speeding tickets written by state troopers, who patrol most of the state's highways, between 1990 and February 2004 shows the next fastest ticket was for 150 mph in 1994 in Lake of the Woods County. Tilley did not return calls from the newspaper to his home Monday. A working number for him could not immediately be found by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Only a handful of exotic sports cars can reach 200 mph, but many high-performance motorcycles can top 175 mph. With minor modifications, they can hit 200 mph. Tilley was riding a Honda 1000, Loney said. Kathy Swanson of the state Office of Traffic Safety said unless Tilley was wearing the kind of protective gear professional motorcycle racers wear, he was courting death at 200 mph. "I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you crashed at 200 miles per hour," Swanson said. "But it wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure."

'Nuff Said

Kevin — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 02:45:06 +0000

How to Create a Pre-patched Windows XP Setup CD

Kevin — Thu, 23 Sep 2004 15:24:21 +0000

From Fred Langa's column in Information Week:

Our recent discussions about Windows XP's SP2 show that the huge patch is working fine for most users; and that with caution (make a full backup or image beforehand; read and follow all of Microsoft's pre-SP2 installation tips), even potentially troublesome installations can be handled smoothly. But not swiftly: The update process can take a considerable chunk of your workday, even if you don't count the download time or install from the free SP2 CD. Twenty to 40 minutes seems about the norm for installs on faster PCs; older, slower systems can take well over an hour. There's not a lot that can be done about that, but you can achieve a huge time savings on future installations and reinstallations of XP by integrating SP2's files with those of your original XP setup CD. Your hybrid install CD will work exactly as the original one did, even to the point of using the same 25-character Product Key, but it will be completely up to date with all patches and updates, up to and including SP2. Any system you set up with the hybrid CD will be pre-patched to current levels, in one step. You'll be totally up to date from the start, rather than facing maybe an hour or more of additional downloads to bring the new installation or reinstallation to SP2 levels.

Misplaced Priorities

Kevin — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 04:07:56 +0000

I'm sure this will be the Internet meme of the week:

Vitamin E Can Restore Hearing

Kevin — Sun, 26 Sep 2004 17:38:25 +0000

Back in 1998, I lost quite a bit of hearing in my right ear due to a viral infection. I remember lying in bed and having the strange sensation of my ear "popping in reverse" (it's hard to explain). After several visits to the ear doctor -- one visit specifically to test if I had a tumor -- I was diagnosed with sudden deafness. I lost the majority of hearing in the high- and mid-range in that ear, combined with a wonderful case of tinnitus (ringing). I've been living with it ever since, and to be honest, I've mostly come to terms with it. If the ringing gets too annoying at night, I simply turn on the air conditioner and the white noise blocks most of it. The hardest part is trying to hear conversations where there's a high level of background noise. The good news is that the left ear seems to have adjusted to the other ear's problem, and I can carry on conversations much easier than I could after the problem first occurred. Anyways, I saw an article on the BBC's web site this morning that stated that vitamin E can help to restore hearing in some people that suffer from sudden deafness. I hope it's true - it would be great to regain any of the hearing I've lost. I already take 400-800 mg of vitamin E every day to help recover from heavy weight lifting sessions. The vitamin helps speed up recovery from torn muscle tissue -- I honestly feel less muscle pain after taking it in the morning.

Kite Flying an Extreme Sport?

Kevin — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 14:44:32 +0000

Kite flying techniques in Pakistan seem to be a very different from where I grew up:

Seven people were killed and more than 100 injured in Pakistan during the annual kite flying festival marking the arrival of spring, officials said today. An 18-month-old girl's throat was cut by a stray kite string while she was travelling with her parents on a motorbike, witnesses said, adding that she died on the spot. Three people were electrocuted when metal wires they were using to fly or catch stray kites fell on live electric lines, and two people fell from roofs, hospital officials said. A 12-year-old boy died while trying to catch a stray kite when he was hit by a car on a main road, police said. More than 100 people had been reported injured since last night in various kite-related accidents, medical workers said.

Link

Escher for Real

Kevin — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 17:37:21 +0000

A (student? prof? researcher?) at the Israel Institute of Technology has created some amazing three-dimensional models of M.C. Escher's impossible drawings.

"Postmodernism Disrobed"

Kevin — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 17:14:44 +0000

Richard Dawkins had reviewed a book titled "Intellectual Impostures" by Alan Sokal back in 1998. The book discusses the utter bullshit coming from the mouths of many academics. To quote Dawkins:

Suppose you are an intellectual impostor with nothing to say, but with strong ambitions to succeed in academic life, collect a coterie of reverent disciples and have students around the world anoint your pages with respectful yellow highlighter. What kind of literary style would you cultivate? Not a lucid one, surely, for clarity would expose your lack of content. The chances are that you would produce something like the following: "We can clearly see that there is no bi-univocal correspondence between linear signifying links or archi-writing, depending on the author, and this multireferential, multi-dimensional machinic catalysis. The symmetry of scale, the transversality, the pathic non-discursive character of their expansion: all these dimensions remove us from the logic of the excluded middle and reinforce us in our dismissal of the ontological binarism we criticised previously." These texts contain a handful of intelligible sentences -- sometimes banal, sometimes erroneous -- and we have commented on some of them in the footnotes. For the rest, we leave it to the reader to judge. [But] it's tough on the reader. No doubt there exist thoughts so profound that most of us will not understand the language in which they are expressed. And no doubt there is also language designed to be unintelligible in order to conceal an absence of honest thought. But how are we to tell the difference? What if it really takes an expert eye to detect whether the emperor has clothes? In particular, how shall we know whether the modish French 'philosophy', whose disciples and exponents have all but taken over large sections of American academic life, is genuinely profound or the vacuous rhetoric of mountebanks and charlatans?

I love this part, too:

The feminist 'philosopher' Luce Irigaray is another who gets whole-chapter treatment from Sokal and Bricmont. In a passage reminiscent of a notorious feminist description of Newton's Principia (a "rape manual"), Irigaray argues that E=mc² is a "sexed equation". Why? Because "it privileges the speed of light over other speeds that are vitally necessary to us" (my emphasis of what I am rapidly coming to learn is an 'in' word). Just as typical of this school of thought is Irigaray's thesis on fluid mechanics. Fluids, you see, have been unfairly neglected. "Masculine physics" privileges rigid, solid things. Her American expositor Katherine Hayles made the mistake of re-expressing Irigaray's thoughts in (comparatively) clear language. For once, we get a reasonably unobstructed look at the emperor and, yes, he has no clothes: "The privileging of solid over fluid mechanics, and indeed the inability of science to deal with turbulent flow at all, she attributes to the association of fluidity with femininity. Whereas men have sex organs that protrude and become rigid, women have openings that leak menstrual blood and vaginal fluids... From this perspective it is no wonder that science has not been able to arrive at a successful model for turbulence. The problem of turbulent flow cannot be solved because the conceptions of fluids (and of women) have been formulated so as necessarily to leave unarticulated remainders." You do not have to be a physicist to smell out the daffy absurdity of this kind of argument (the tone of it has become all too familiar), but it helps to have Sokal and Bricmont on hand to tell us the real reason why turbulent flow is a hard problem: the Navier-Stokes equations are difficult to solve.

An interesting (and entertaining) read...

Google via SMS!

Kevin — Fri, 08 Oct 2004 18:31:49 +0000

My love of all things Google continues. You can now Google via SMS via your cell phone. Cool...

Review of new Dell Axim X50v Pocket PC

Kevin — Wed, 13 Oct 2004 03:29:33 +0000

PDA Buyer's Guide has a review of the new Dell Axim X50v, which makes my not-even-a-year-old Axim X3i look like an abacus. Specs - Display: Transflective TFT color LCD, 64K colors, Screen Size Diag: 3.7", Resolution: 640 x 480, VGA. Intel 2700G graphics processor with 3D acceleration and 16 megs of video memory. Battery: Lithium Ion rechargeable. Battery is user replaceable. 1100 mA. 2200 mA extended battery available for purchase. Performance: Intel XScale PXA270 624MHz processor. 64 MB built-in RAM 61 megs available. 128 MB NOR Intel StrataFlash Flash ROM with 91.43 available in File Store for your use. Size: 4.7 x 2.9 x .7 in. Weight: 6.2 oz. Audio: Built in speaker, mic and 3.5mm standard stereo headphone jack. Can accept 3-ring 3.5mm stereo + mic headsets. Voice Recorder and Windows Pocket Media Player 10 included for your MP3 pleasure. Networking: Integrated WiFi 802.11b and Bluetooth 1.2. Software: Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition operating system Microsoft Pocket Office suite including Pocket Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, and Outlook. Also, Terminal Services, MSN Messenger, Pocket Windows Media Player 10, and Voice Recorder as well as handwriting recognition. 3rd party software: Resco Picture Viewer, Dell Diagnostic Utility, Enigmo (game), Fathammer's Stuntcar Extreme (game), Funk Odyssey VPN Client, Data Backup. ActiveSync 3.7 and Outlook 2002 for PCs included. Expansion: 1 SD (Secure Digital) with 4 bit data bus supporting SDIO and SDIO Now!. 1 CF type II slot that works with type I and type II CF cards. Standard IR (SIR).

I'm in Good Company

Kevin — Fri, 15 Oct 2004 20:04:11 +0000

From Slate's review of Team America: World Police:

That's the part that has Sean Penn wringing his hands and must have puzzled a lot of people who assume that Parker and Stone, with their toilet talk and blasphemy and camp sensibility, are flaming lefties. But they're not; they're Cato Institute-level libertarians. They actually hate liberals as much if not more than their right-wing counterparts. The biggest surprise in Team America is that there's no Barbra Streisand to kick around (or disembowel, or decapitate).

Review of "The Last Starfighter: The Musical"

Kevin — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 20:19:37 +0000

Review of The Last Starfighter: The Musical:

1982. Atari Games, to celebrate the creation of their Atari 2600 Pac-Man Game (which, I might add, was one of the most pathetic, slapdash, slipshod piece of programming ever to churn out of a development studio) held a massive "Pac Man Day" in Citicorp Center in New York City. Being a confessed "Pac Maniac", I couldn't resist. To complete the picture, you have to know that I had that great uncontrolled 11-year-old hair of unequal length, and an old army fatigue jacket with a "PAC MAN" t-shirt transfer on the back. Now, it was me and literately THOUSANDS of kids jammed into the inadequately-planned celebration area at the Center, with all of us vying for places to stand and have fun. They had the contest, which only had maybe a dozen of us actually show enough nerve to go up on stage, and due to a REALLY LOUD chomping sound, I placed somewhere around third. Of course, this is up to dispute, because the place essentially turned into a riot (I can still recall my father up on a balcony, screaming at me to stand against a wall so I wouldn't be stepped on) and they generally just THREW stuff into the crowd, but I was third.
This is a memory I will hold dear until all of time. It was not a depth. It was a pinnacle. It was a heady, breathless moment in time in which my own fannish interest in something led me to a situation, a unique situation, that could barely be explained to others without sounding truly off-the-wall, absolutely beyond saving. And like many such unique events, you hold a fear in your heart, beyond the memory, a fear that as time goes on you will not feel such things again.So, as I sit here typing these words to you, I know I have achieved something of equal, deep geekdom. I have attended an off-broadway musical based on The Last Starfighter.

Red Sox Win Game Five in 14 Innings, Six Hours

Kevin — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 20:39:21 +0000

Yahoo!

Wall Street traders acting like zombies because of Red Sox-Yankees marathon games

Kevin — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 21:18:09 +0000

Wall Street traders acting like zombies because of Red Sox-Yankees marathon games

If some traders on Wall Street have seemed a bit groggy lately, it's simple enough to explain: the Red Sox and the Yankees. Major League Baseball's American League championship series between the New York Yankees and archrival Boston Red Sox is leaving Wall Street staffed with bleary-eyed baseball fans who've been glued to their TV sets during three marathon games in as many nights.

TV-B-Gone

Kevin — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 14:56:38 +0000

From Wired:

"Altman's key-chain fob was a TV-B-Gone, a new universal remote that turns off almost any television. The device, which looks like an automobile remote, has just one button. When activated, it spends over a minute flashing out 209 different codes to turn off televisions, the most popular brands first. For Altman, founder of Silicon Valley data-storage maker 3ware, the TV-B-Gone is all about freeing people from the attention-sapping hold of omnipresent television programming. The device is also providing hours of entertainment for its inventor."

The Blessing of Heaven is on Bush

Kevin — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 15:02:34 +0000

Double oy. From CNN:

"And I warned him about this war. I had deep misgivings about this war, deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, 'Mr. President, you had better prepare the American people for casualties.' " Robertson said the president then told him, "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." Robertson, the televangelist who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1988, said he wishes Bush would admit to mistakes made. "I mean, the Lord told me it was going to be A, a disaster, and B, messy," Robertson said. "I warned him about casualties." Even as Robertson criticized Bush for downplaying the potential dangers of the Iraq war, he heaped praise on Bush, saying he believes the president will win the election and that "the blessing of heaven is on Bush." "Even if he stumbles and messes up -- and he's had his share of stumbles and gaffes -- I just think God's blessing is on him," Robertson said.

Leafy Sea Dragon Gallery

Kevin — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 19:56:21 +0000

The New England Aquarium has recently opened a new Sea Dragon tank, and it's now my family's favorite exhibit. After Angler Fish and other deep sea creatures, I think Sea Dragon's win the "bizarre looking sea creature" prize. Check out the Leafy Sea Dragon Picture Gallery to see what I mean.

After 86 Years...

Kevin — Thu, 28 Oct 2004 05:16:06 +0000

I love the way Boston.com put it: I can actually hear church bells ringing outside...

Quake II as a Robotic and Multi-Agent Platform

Kevin — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 16:57:00 +0000

A good friend of mine, Dave Costello, is co-author of a paper entitled "Quake II as a Robotic and Multi-Agent Platform". It should also be noted that Dave is also on the top scorers list for his senior hockey league, and is very proud of that fact. :-)

We have modified the public-domain Quake II game to support research and teaching. Our research is in multi-agent control and supporting human-computer interfaces. Teaching applications have so far been in an undergraduate Artificial Intelligence class and include natural language understanding, machine learning, computer vision, and production system control. The motivation for this report is mainly to document our system development and interface. Only early results are in, but they appear promising. Our source code and user-level documentation is available on the web. The information document is a somewhat motion-blurred snapshot of the situation in September 2004.

The paper is actually a fun read, especially if you're a Computer Science geek that enjoys Quake -- much like me!.

Funny - I've never Met a Dog named "Kevin"...

Kevin — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 18:39:15 +0000

From AP:

A Brazilian legislator wants to make it illegal to give pets names that are common among people. Federal congressman Reinaldo Santos e Silva proposed the law after psychologists suggested that some children may get depressed when they learn they share their first name with someone's pet, said Damarias Alves, a spokeswoman for Silva. "Names have importance," said Alves. The congressman "wants to challenge people's assumptions that it's acceptable to give animals human names," she said. If the law is passed, pet stores and veterinary clinics would be required to display a sign noting the prohibition of human first names for pets. Brazilians who break the law would be subject to fines or community service. Alves admitted the law's chances of passage were slim but said Silva hoped the bill would call attention to his other efforts to protect animals. "He's proposed many laws to protect wildlife in Brazil, but this is the only one that has ever gotten any attention," Alves said.

Microsoft - "We're faster - and we dare you to try to prove us wrong"

Kevin — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 18:49:51 +0000

From Ed Foster's "Gripe Log":

Now that Steve Ballmer and company have given you all the facts you need to compare Windows and Linux, allow me to add just one little tidbit. A few days ago, Ballmer published an "executive letter" at http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/ in which he invited IT professionals to look at all the propaganda ... oops, I mean facts Microsoft has assembled comparing open source and Windows platforms. And while he didn't point to it specifically, one couldn't help but notice the white paper at the very top of Microsoft's "Get the Facts" page (http://www.microsoft.com/getthefacts). "Comparing Microsoft .NET to IBM Websphere/J2EE" is a study commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by The Middleware Company analyzing productivity, performance, reliability and manageability of the two platforms. Now, there are some interesting facts in that study and there are also some things that could be questioned, but I'm not going to go into detail on its findings or methodology. You can read it for yourself if you're interested and make your own judgments. Of course, since Microsoft commissioned the study, it will come as no surprise to you that Windows wins. When you pay for the testing, you get to write the test plan. What interests me most about this particular white paper is that it contains some benchmark results comparing performance of Windows server 2003 and the .Net development framework versus IBM Websphere running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Which brings me to that one little fact I wanted to add. The license agreement for Windows Server 2003 states: "Benchmark Testing. The 32-bit version of the Software contains the Microsoft .NET Framework. Disclosure of the results of any benchmark test of the .NET Framework component of the Software to any third party without Microsoft's prior written approval is prohibited." In other words, Microsoft says competitors need their permission to publish results of a study like the one Microsoft commissioned. If IBM, Red Hat, or some other open source advocate wanted to counter Microsoft's claims with a study of their own, Microsoft's license would deny them the right to publish their own set of benchmark results. Since Microsoft's censorship clause is probably not legally enforceable, it would theoretically be possible for a competitor to do its own study and dare Microsoft to do something about it. In practice, though, a competitor would probably have a great deal of difficulty getting any of the major independent labs to conduct the test without Microsoft's approval. And, assuming that the test plan was one designed to show open source in a far more favorable light than Microsoft's did, it's highly unlikely Microsoft's approval would be forthcoming. Steve Ballmer says customers want factual information to help them answer questions about how open source and Windows platforms compare, and that's certainly true. Microsoft can and should publish any information it thinks will sway customers to their side. What it shouldn't do is to try to deny anyone else the right to do the same thing. Sometimes it seems like Microsoft has a monopoly of just about everything, but it shouldn't have one on the facts.

Idiocy of the Do Not Fly List

Kevin — Fri, 29 Oct 2004 20:16:02 +0000

From BoingBoing:

Deirdre McNamer (how appropriate) wrote a story in The New Yorker magazine in October 2002 about a 28-year-old pinko-gray-skinned, blue-eyed, red-blond-haired criminal called Christian Michael Longo who used the alias 'John Thomas Christopher.' His alias was placed on the DNFL used by the Transportation Security Administration. He was arrested in January 2002 but his alias was not removed from the DNFL. On March 23, 2002, 70-year-old brown-skinned, dark-eyed, gray-haired grandmother Johnnie Thomas was informed that she was on the master terrorist list and would have special security measures applied every time she flew. Indeed, the poor lady found that she was repeatedly delayed by a scurry of activity when she presented her tickets at an airline counter, extra X-rays of her checked baggage, supplementary examination of her hand-baggage and extra wanding at the entrance gates. On one occasion she was told that she had graduated to the exalted status labeled, 'Not allowed to fly.' She discovered that there was no method available for having 'her' name removed from the DNFL; indeed, one person from her local FBI office dismissively told her to hire a lawyer (although ironically, he refused to identify himself). An employee of the TSA informed her that 'four other law-abiding John Thomases had called to complain.'

Link

How do you know you're browsing a secure site?

Kevin — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 20:23:05 +0000

How do you know you're browsing a secure site?
Uploaded by jkottke via flickr.

I was just thinking the same thing the other day - Firefox makes it very clear if you're viewing a secure site.

The "Uncanny Valley" and "The Polar Express"

Kevin — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 15:50:33 +0000

Japanese robotocist Masahiro Mori made an interesting observation that has come to be known as the "uncanny valley":

Stated simply, the idea is that if one were to plot emotional response against similarity to human appearance and movement, the curve is not a sure, steady upward trend. Instead, there is a peak shortly before one reaches a completely human 'look' . . . but then a deep chasm plunges below neutrality into a strongly negative response before rebounding to a second peak where resemblance to humanity is complete.

In other words, there's a point just before 100% realism where human models/robots/puppets appear freakishly frightening - the living dead, so to speak. Many of us have experienced the valley when viewing figures in wax museums. There's just something, well, wrong with the figure. I've had this same feeling when viewing CG figures, especially when they are animated. The eyes just don't look right. Even when the eyes dart and shift in a supposedly natural manner, there's still something just "off" that gives goosebumps. As production companies strive towards fully realistic CG movies, this will be the biggest barrier to acceptance by the general public. "The Polar Express" is premiering this week, and as you may know it is a fully CG movie that uses motion capture to record the movements of various actors (Tom Hanks in five different roles), and animates these recorded performances via CG models. The reviews generally state that the movements of the CG figures are amazingly lifelike, but the character's eyes appear dead, zombie-like, and creepy. Paul Clinton's review on CNN said:

This season's biggest holiday extravaganza, "The Polar Express," should be subtitled "The Night of the Living Dead." The characters are that frightening.

The technical issue is that the motion capture cameras cannot currently record the movement of the actor's eyes, as there is no way to attach sensors to the eye (each actor is covered with hundreds of sensors that the infrared motion capture system can detect). I wonder how difficult it would be to implement retinal tracking, perhaps via goggles.

One down, three to go

Kevin — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 21:33:13 +0000

Ashcroft is out. Now we just need to lose Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz and I'll feel better about the current administration.

Rev. Jerry Falwell Planning an 'Evangelical Revolution'

Kevin — Wed, 10 Nov 2004 21:55:28 +0000

Dear God, not again...

The Rev. Jerry Falwell is launching a new organization called The Faith and Values Coalition, which he describes as a "21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority." The new coalition will lobby for pro-life judicial appointments; a federal amendment barring same-sex marriage; and the election of another conservative president in 2008. Falwell, now 71, said he would serve as national chairman of the new coalition for four years. "Following the sweeping re-election of President Bush and a new generation of conservative lawmakers nationwide, a new organization, The Faith and Values Coalition (TFVC), has been launched," Falwell announced Tuesday from his headquarters in Lynchburg, Va.

What Would Jesus Use for Effects Processing?

Kevin — Thu, 11 Nov 2004 20:39:11 +0000

From the maker of WinAMP and Gnutella -- the Jesusonic.

Using the Jesusonic, you can combine any number of effects in whatever order you choose. Effects can interact with eachother (for example, a volume detection effect can trigger a tremolo effect), or (especially in the case of the Jesusonic CrusFX 1000) with the user (you can assign triggers to effects like loop samplers, for example). A wide assortment of built-in effects are included, and you will be able to share effects with other people, through the User Resources page here on Jesusonic.com.

First Snow

Kevin — Fri, 12 Nov 2004 18:00:07 +0000

The first snow of 2004 is falling outside. Damn, I want to move to Anguilla...

How to Watch the Leonid Meteor Shower

Kevin — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 23:19:05 +0000

From Space.com:

The meteors will appear to emanate from out of the so-called "Sickle" of Leo, but prospective viewers should not concentrate on that area of the sky around Leo, but rather keep their eyes moving around to different parts of the sky. Because Leo does not start coming fully into view until the after midnight hours, that would be the best time to concentrate on looking for the Leonid meteors. The hours after midnight are generally best for watching for "shooting stars" anyway, because before midnight we are riding on the back side of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun, whereas after midnight we are on the front or advancing side. After midnight the only meteoroids escaping collision are those ahead of the Earth and moving in the same direction with velocities exceeding 18.5 miles per second. All others we will either overtake or meet head-on. But before midnight, when we are on the backside, the only meteoroids we encounter are those with velocities high enough to overtake the Earth. Therefore, on the average, morning meteors appear brighter and faster than those we see in the evening. And because the Leonids are moving along in their orbit around the Sun in a direction opposite to that of Earth, they slam into our atmosphere nearly head-on, resulting in the fastest meteor velocities possible: 45 miles per second (72 kilometers per second). Such speeds tend to produce bright meteors, which leave long-lasting streaks or trains in their wake.

Constitution Class taught by Michael Badnarik

Kevin — Mon, 15 Nov 2004 21:14:55 +0000

Wow! Just found this on the Internet Archive. They have a seven part series of videos of Michael Badnarik's class on the US Constitution available for free download. Fantastic...

The Folklore of Election '04

Kevin — Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:21:10 +0000

Interesting article in Time magazine about the various urban legends that have sprung up about the 2004 election. They include:

evangelical Christians swayed the election
Christian "Moral values" dominated the list of deciding issues
young voters stayed home
the millions of dollars donated to Kerry's campaign were wasted
the US has moved to the right on social issues
the election was stolen from Kerry

I'm really getting sick of hearing the whining and excuse making from my liberal friends. Every indication shows that Kerry lost fair and square. I just wish both Bush and Kerry lost. :-)

Good "Faith vs. Science" Rant

Kevin — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 22:37:27 +0000

c/o jwz - Entertaining rant on "faith" vs. science:

I am sorry if my column offended you, but please understand: I am deeply offended by the notion that myths invented in the Bronze Age by superstitious desert nomads should be given exactly the same credence as the work of people like Darwin and Einstein and Euclid and Hawking and Newton. Our world is being driven further and further into irrationality by people who cannot reconcile their faith with reality, and therefore decide that it is reality which is lacking. [...] It is considered perfectly okay for you to mock my perfectly rational ideas about evolution, but if I point out that your position depends upon the notion of a magic superhero in the sky, you'll probably take offense. Why? Why are irrational beliefs somehow less subject to scrutiny and dissection than rational ones? Why can't we simply point out in school that some people believe that God made the world in seven days, and that's fine, but there's no actual evidence to support that, other than some poorly translated writings that were cribbed from oral traditions that were already hundreds of years old before the first written copy of Genesis ever appeared?

Portable Firefox

Kevin — Wed, 01 Dec 2004 13:57:14 +0000

John Haller has modified Firefox 1.0 to run off of a USB key drive.

Portable Firefox is a fully functional package of Firefox optimized for use on a USB key drive. It has some specially-selected optimizations to make it perform faster and extend the life of your USB key as well as a specialized launcher that will allow most of your favorite extensions to work as you switch computers. It will also work from a CDRW drive (in packet mode), ZIP drives, external hard drives, some MP3 players, flash RAM cards and more.

The Joys of Oatmeal

Kevin — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 16:44:52 +0000

As seen in the men's locker room at my local gym:

Please refrain from bringing oatmeal into the shower.

My Dream Toy - A Robot Chimp Head

Kevin — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 21:50:43 +0000

Wow Wee Toys, the makers of the obnoxious-but-cool Robosapien, is coming out with an ultra-realistic robot monkey head.

On the more mind-blowing and unusual side, is the new Wow Wee Robotics Alive Series. These are life-like, animated, remote-controlled robot heads that include stereoscopic hearing so they can track your position and even your distance away. Wow Wee's first demonstration of this technology is a frighteningly real looking monkey head with a fully articulated face. The real stunner, though, is the expected price: $129. George York, Wow Wee's chief designer on the project said he's been working with the company's divisions in Hong Kong and China to have the robots ready for a 2006 release.

Also see PC Magazine article. I want one!!!

100 Things We Didn't Know This Time Last Year

Kevin — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 18:51:44 +0000

Interesting list from the BBC. A few random selections: 3. Brussels sprouts have three times as much vitamin C as oranges. 8. Brazilians are the nationality most likely to read spam. 19. The collective noun for rhinos is "crash". 26. The full names of Scooby Doo's Mystery Inc members are: Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, Scooby "Scoobert" Doo. Shaggy is actually Norville Rogers. 43. In 1911, Pablo Picasso was one of the suspects arrested for the theft of the Mona Lisa. 47. A "jiffy" is 10 milliseconds in computer science terms. 66. An American girl aged between three and 11 has, on average, 10 Barbie dolls in her toy box. 67. It's 30 years since the world's first barcode was used. It was on a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit at a supermarket in Ohio. The gum is now an exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. 75. Freak conditions above Everest can cause the sky to "fall in". An analysis of weather patterns in May 1996, by University of Toronto researchers, said eight people died when the stratosphere sank to the level of the summit. 97. Matt Groening's father - the inspiration for Homer Simpson - has only complained once about his alter-ego's actions. It was an episode in which Homer badgered Marge into walking some considerable distance on a hot day to fetch him something. 100. Bill Clinton sent just two e-mails while he was president.

TSA's Permitted/Prohibited Items List

Kevin — Tue, 18 Jan 2005 19:01:13 +0000

Just in case you want to know what you can and cannot take onto a plane: the TSA's Permitted/Prohibited List

5 Free Windows Web Design Apps You Can't Live Without

Kevin — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 15:41:28 +0000

Via SitePoint:

Microsoft's DRM Has Been cracked

Kevin — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 15:44:53 +0000

Wow. Someone named "Beale Screamer" has cracked MS's Digital Rights Management (the copy protection in WMV and WMA files):

Beale Screamer has successfully cracked Microsoft's copy protection used in Windows Media digital right management software. The crack called Freeme strips off the piece from the WMA or WMV file that prevents copying the file.This is extremely bad news for Microsoft. Because they had some deals going with movie studios and record labels in order to get WM used as a standard in digital media distribution online. Microsoft's has built DRM2 software in way that does allow copy-protection upgrades, so even that songs that are previously locked with WM technology can be unlocked, new songs can contain new copy-protections. But still these locks will be cracked as well. All copy protection methods are and will be cracked in the future.

Funhaler!

Kevin — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 15:50:18 +0000

Via BoingBoing: I wish I had this when I was a little kid...

The Funhaler is an asthma medicine delivery device for kids. Traditional asthma inhalers scare kids into misuse (or non-use), but the Funhaler apparently "overcomes these difficulties by motivating the child to inhale willingly and effectively by the use of breath-driven incentive toys attached to the device, such as whistles and spinning discs."

What Spare Time?

Kevin — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 16:11:19 +0000

Almost forgot about this bit of shameless self-promotion. From the September 21, 2004 edition of the Mortgage Bankers Association's MBA Newslink newsletter:

Kevin Jarnot, technology managing director at DebtX, Boston, has been appointed to a key committee of the Mortgage Bankers Association's Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO). He will serve as co-chair of the MISMO Commercial Architecture Workgroup, which oversees the development and proposed maintenance to all Commercial MISMO specifications.

Ricky Gervais to Write for The Simpsons

Kevin — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 21:02:57 +0000

Ricky Gervais, creator and star of the excellent British comedy, "The Office", has been asked by Matt Groening to write for The Simpsons.

Springfield, the garish home of the dysfunctional American cartoon family The Simpsons, is a long way from Slough. But the two towns will be linked next year in the form of Ricky Gervais, aka David Brent of The Office, who said yesterday he had become the first British writer to be asked to work on the American series. Matt Groening, a fan of British comedy in general and The Office in particular, asked Gervais to write an episode after meeting him in Los Angeles last year when the British comedy won two Golden Globe awards. "It was embarrassing, because he was saying how much he loved The Office and I was saying how much I loved The Simpsons. It turns you into a nerd because I was quoting bits of the show back at him," said Gervais. Having agreed to write the script with executive producer Al Jean, Gervais said he had already completed a first draft. "I bang it down, give it to them, they make it funny and I claim the credit," he said. "I feel like I know Homer. It's a joy."

My Evil Sons

Kevin — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 04:41:57 +0000

I was playing around with the night vision feature of my digital camcorder today. It makes my sons look downright eeeeevillllll...

Evil Tommy

Evil Petey

Fear the Jarnot children...

Mmmmm...Carbolicious...

Kevin — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 20:09:31 +0000

From twinkies.com via Boing Boing: Hostess Twinkies Sushi Japanese animation, Hello Kitty, samurais, ninjas, and Sushi are really popular right now! Here's a wild recipe that's super easy to make and super fun to eat as a light and fruity snack! This recipe transforms the much loved Twinkie into a hip and tropical flavored treat. Items Needed:

3 Hostess Twinkies
Assorted dried fruits
Assorted fruity candies
2 green fruit roll ups
Dried mangoes (looks like pickled ginger)

DIRECTIONS: Slice Hostess Twinkies into pieces about an inch tall. Slice fruit roll ups in strips to be long enough and wide enough to wrap around the Hostess Twinkie pieces. Wrap the fruit roll ups around the Hostess Twinkie pieces. Place dried fruits and candies into the cream filling. Place Twinkie rolls on a plate or in a bento box. Garnish with strips of dried mango to resemble pickled ginger if you wish! Serve with chopsticks if you wish.

Jarnot.com Wiki

Kevin — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 21:03:24 +0000

I've installed a copy of the TWiki wiki software to hold information on everything I research. It replaces the "Study" section of this web site. Check it out if you're interested - http://www.jarnot.com/twiki

Hiëronymus Bosch Action Figures

Kevin — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:29:29 +0000

Wow - how cool is this? Paratsone Studios offers a line of Hiëronymus Bosch action figures!

UNIX "find" Utility with XPath Support

Kevin — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 18:11:58 +0000

A new version of the venerable UNIX find utility has been released - now with support for XPath.

One example:

$ ./find -xpath '/bin/*[@size > /bin/bash/@size]'
/bin/ipv6calc
/bin/rpm

On Wall St., alphabet is up for grabs

Kevin — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 13:52:19 +0000

From Money:

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Is the single-letter ticker symbol dying a slow death? If so, the reason might be that a solo symbol is less a blessing than a curse. In recent weeks, three high-profile companies whose stocks trade under a single letter have announced that they will be acquired, and thus lose their old symbols. Gillette (G) is merging with Procter & Gamble; Sears (S) will be acquired by rival Kmart (and move its stock from the New York Stock Exchange to Nasdaq); and AT&T (T) is to be swallowed up by its former offspring, SBC Communications. When the transactions are completed, it could leave as many as 11 of the potential 26 one-letter symbols unoccupied, if no other companies assume their places.

The full list:

A - Agilent
B - Barnes Grp
C - Citigroup
D - Dominion
E - Eni
F - Ford
G - Gillette
H - Open (ex-Harcourt)
I - Open
J - Open (ex-Jackpot)
K - Kellogg
L - Liberty
M - Open
N - Inco
O - Realty Inc
P - Open (ex-Phillips)
Q - Qwest
R - Ryder
S - Sears
T - AT&T
U - Open (ex-US Air)
V - Vivendi
W - Open (ex-Westvaco)
X - US Steel
Y - Alleghany
Z - Open (ex-Venator)

Google Maps

Kevin — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 15:05:45 +0000

Google has done it again - the beta version of Google Maps has gone live. Things to try:

Search for pizza restaurants in your zip code (e.g. "pizza 02066")
Click and drag on the map to scroll.
Get directions and click on each step in the instructions to get an animated close-up view.
See where Kevin works :-)

Damn, they have some excellent web developers!

Updated Firefox SpoofStick Extension to Display Homograph Spoofs

Kevin — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 22:13:36 +0000

I've modified the *excellent* SpoofStick extension for Firefox to now find and label any homographs detected in the current URL. This should hopefully be a help until the Mozilla folks fix IDN support. Install Updated SpoofStick extension Test the extension by visting the Shmoo IDN exploit page and click on the fake Paypal links. I plan on forwarding my code changes to the SpoofStick developers - they're free to use my code as they see fit. Update: I've been Boing Boing'd! (hi, everyone) Update: note that the extension's appearance has not changed from the original version. Please direct any requests for look and feel changes to the original developers. Update: Yes, I know it's very "English-centric". Big update: The official version of SpoofStick now supports IDN checks. I recommend that everyone uninstall my hack and install the official version.

The Cure for Cancer Might be: HIV

Kevin — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 21:25:07 +0000

Wired News has published that Scientists have successfully modified the AIDS-causing HIV in such a way that it can attack metasticized melanoma (cancer cells). The impact of genetic research on cancer research is in and of itself amazing. To mix this with the strategy of using one strong enemy against another is brilliance! Research will continue, obviously, but they are already reporting success on living creatures. Link

Survivors more common in America

Kevin — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 18:17:20 +0000

So much for the benefits of socialized medicine... Survivors more common in America

In "Die in Britain, survive in U.S.," the cover article of the February 2005 issue of The Spectator, a British magazine, James Bartholomew details the downside of Britain's universal health care system. Among women with breast cancer, for example, there's a 46 percent chance of dying from it in Britain, versus a 25 percent chance in the United States. "Britain has one of worst survival rates in the advanced world," writes Bartholomew, "and America has the best." If you're a man diagnosed with prostate cancer, you have a 57 percent chance of it killing you in Britain. In the United States, the chance of dying drops to 19 percent. Again, reports Bartholomew, "Britain is at the bottom of the class and America is at the top."

Today's Fortune

Kevin — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 20:24:26 +0000

Here's today's fortune via my Linux box: bq.. The notes blatted skyward as they rose over the Canada geese, feathered rumps mooning the day, webbed appendages frantically pedaling unseen bicycles in their search for sustenance, driven by cruel Nature's maxim, 'Ya wanna eat, ya gotta work,' and at last I knew Pittsburgh. -- Winning sentence, 1987 Bulwer-Lytton bad fiction contest.

i18n test

Kevin — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 14:08:39 +0000

Iñtërnâtiônàlizætiøn wfewf

Countermeasures for Identity Theft from Frank W. Abagnale

Kevin — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 15:23:11 +0000

Via GeekWisdom.com: An article by Frank W. Abagnale, the lecturer and consultant, entitled 14 tips to avoid identity theft details some good advice for protecting your identity. Abagnale's tips: # Guard your Social Security number. It is the key to your credit report and banking accounts and is the prime target of criminals. # Monitor your credit report. It contains your SSN, present and prior employers, a listing of all account numbers, including those that have been closed, and your overall credit score. After applying for a loan, credit card, rental or anything else that requires a credit report, request that your SSN on the application be truncated or completely obliterated and your original credit report be shredded before your eyes or returned to you once a decision has been made. A lender or rental manager needs to retain only your name and credit score to justify a decision. # Shred all old bank and credit statements and "junk mail" credit card offers before trashing them. Use a crosscut shredder. Crosscut shredders cost more than regular shredders but are superior. # Remove your name from the marketing lists of the three credit reporting bureaus to reduce the number of pre-approved credit offers you receive. # Add your name to the name-deletion lists of the Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Service and Telephone Preference Service used by banks and other marketers. # Do not carry extra credit cards or other important identity documents except when needed. # Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Copy both sides of your license and credit cards so you have all the account numbers, expiration dates and phone numbers if your wallet or purse is stolen. # Do not mail bill payments and checks from home. They can be stolen from your mailbox and washed clean in chemicals. Take them to the post office. # Do not print your Social Security number on your checks. # Order your Social Security Earnings and Benefits statement once a year to check for fraud. # Examine the charges on your credit card statements before paying them. # Cancel unused credit card accounts. # Never give your credit card number or personal information over the phone unless you have initiated the call and trust that business. # Subscribe to a credit report monitoring service that will notify you whenever someone applies for credit in your name.

DDJ on the Flaws in .NET

Kevin — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 13:17:51 +0000

Via Slashdot: bq.. Richard Grimes of Dr. Dobbs Journal wrote an article entitled Mr. Grimes' Farewell, in which he discusses what he feels are inherent flaws in .NET, and how he is abandoning his .NET column. Grimes argues that .NET is merely thin wrappers to Win32 calls (Avalon uses message functions that date back to 16-bit Windows), that Microsoft has abandoned confidence in both .NET and sales of Longhorn, and that the framework itself is too large and poorly implemented, most of it ported from past APIs like WFC and VB.

How to Snatch a Domain Name

Kevin — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 18:38:33 +0000

Interesting article in which Mike Davidson describes how to snatch up a domain name that has expired.

DVD Jon creates DRM-free iTunes interface "PyMusique"

Kevin — Fri, 18 Mar 2005 16:11:45 +0000

Via BoingBoing: DVD Jon has created a program which bypasses the DRM stage of the downloading process when purchasing songs from iTunes. One still pays for the tracks, and FairPlay is not included. Link to download page, and Link to Jon Johansen's blog. Here's a snip from The Register's story:

PyMusique [is] a Python-based utility that offers a "fair interface to the iTunes Music Store", co-written with Travis Watkins and Cody Brocious. The app provides the usual ITMS features - access to song previews and the ability to set up a payment account and to use it to buy songs - but there are two crucial differences.
First, PyMusique allows you to re-download songs you've purchased. So if your hard drive goes up the Suwannee and you haven't backed it up for a while, you can re-acquire your ITMS-sourced song library. Second, none of the tracks you download will be encumbered with DRM.
Of course, it's of very questionable legality. Quite apart from potentially bypassing Apple's FairPlay copy protection system - a no-no according to Europe's European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) - running the software infringes the terms and conditions ITMS user agree to abide by when they set up an account.

Bad Geek Joke for Monday March 21, 2005

Kevin — Mon, 21 Mar 2005 21:28:25 +0000

#!/bin/sh
#The Unix Guru's View of Sex
unzip; 
strip; 
touch; 
grep; 
finger; 
mount; 
fsck; 
more; 
yes; 
umount; 
sleep;

Note to Self: Don't Move South

Kevin — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 03:49:12 +0000

From CNN: *IMAX theaters reject film over evolution* CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AP) -- IMAX theaters in several Southern cities have decided not to show a film on volcanoes out of concern that its references to evolution might offend those with fundamental religious beliefs. "We've got to pick a film that's going to sell in our area. If it's not going to sell, we're not going to take it," said Lisa Buzzelli, director of an IMAX theater in Charleston that is not showing the movie. "Many people here believe in creationism, not evolution." The film, "Volcanoes of the Deep Sea," makes a connection between human DNA and microbes inside undersea volcanoes. Buzzelli doesn't rule out showing the movie in the future. IMAX theaters in Texas, Georgia and the Carolinas have declined to show the film, said Pietro Serapiglia, who handles distribution for Stephen Low, the film's Montreal-based director and producer. "I find it's only in the South," Serapiglia said. Critics worry screening out films that mention evolution will discourage the production of others in the future. "It's going to restrain the creative approach by directors who refer to evolution," said Joe DeAmicis, vice president for marketing at the California Science Center in Los Angeles and a former director of an IMAX theater. "References to evolution will be dropped."

Bad Geek Joke for Thursday March 24, 2005

Kevin — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 14:26:09 +0000

Why do computer geeks celebrate Halloween on Christmas? Because Oct 31 is equal to Dec 25.

DebtX in WSJ (archived)

Kevin — Fri, 25 Mar 2005 13:55:43 +0000

Well, OK, not the print version, but wsj.com is pretty close. :-) **Once Immobile Loans Fly With DebtX Trading $100M Monthly** By CHRISTINE RICHARD March 24, 2005 2:45 p.m. Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK -- Small commercial loans used to sit on bank balance sheets through good times and bad as their size made selling them unprofitable. But as financial institutions look for ways to free up capital, diversify lending risk and cash out of non-performing loans in what has been for a long time a low-yielding environment, a booming business has developed in the trading of small commercial loans. Boston-based loan sale advisor DebtX is providing a marketplace for small commercial loans and has seen trading surge to around $100 million in loans every month with more than 1,500 accredited users. "Two pieces have really come together," said Kingsley Greenland, chief executive officer of DebtX. "There's an inability to find yield elsewhere" which is creating demand for loans, Greenland said. And the DebtX platform gives both buyers and sellers a way to trade those small loans that is cost effective. Though the Federal Reserve has been steadily increasing short-term rates, yields on Treasurys and corporate bonds remain low. That's driven investors, flush with cash, to look for better returns in previously untapped corners of the market. "Generally speaking, for the same credit profile, you get a higher yield for a loan (than a bond) because historically it was less liquid," said Greenland. DebtX's auction process is similar to the one used by Ebay Inc.'s (EBAY) Web-based auction site. It allows loan holders to invite bids at indicated prices, though there is extensive interaction between bidders and DebtX employees during the auction process. Approximately half of the loans traded on DebtX are distressed, or nonperforming loans. The performing loans offer a yield between 6.0% and 10.0%. The distressed loans, however, can achieve yields of 20% and higher in successful recovery situations, said Greenland. While most of the trading is between U.S.-based buyers and sellers, both foreign banks and investors are participating in the market, according to Greenland. Among those buying loans off the platform are small private funds that may be looking to pick up yield on loans as small as $1 million. In the past, purchasing loan portfolios of anything less than $50 million generally wasn't cost effective. "It meant getting on a plane and spending days going through boxes of documents in a war room," said Greenland. But more standardized loan documentation and a secure platform for viewing information and trading changes that dynamic. Buyers can view everything from photos of a commercial property to tax records and appraisals on the DebtX platform. *Risk Management Tool* Small banks also have become more comfortable with the idea of selling their loans. "There used to be more concern on the sell side about what's going to happen to my customer," said Greenland. But in reality, companies don't care where they send the check to service the debt, he added. That change in attitude has freed up smaller banks to follow the lead of larger institutions. "Banks no longer make commercial loans to keep them on their books until maturity," said Lee Kidder, director of wholesale banking research at TowerGroup in Needham, Mass. "The expectation is that they can be dealt with like any asset with some inherent value and can be bought and sold in secondary markets." While commercial loans have been syndicated and sold off to large institutional investors for more than a decade, those loans tend to be very large, Kidder said. "What DebtX is doing is broadening the market for the disposition for commercial loans," he added. "There also are small banks that want to diversify and change risk portfolios." FirstMerit Bank, which operates in Ohio and Pennsylvania and has assets of $10.5 billion, has used DebtX to sell more than 150 loans with a value of around $100 million, according to David Lucht, chief credit officer of First Merit. Loans the bank has sold through DebtX include a term loan to a manufacturer of metal parts and a commercial real estate loan to a hotel. "I was a skeptic because I had not seen these types of small loans sold successfully at prices anywhere near fair market value," said Lucht. "But there now is liquidity for these types of loans." The sales went a long way to improving the bank's credit metrics, according to Lucht. Nonperforming loans have fallen to 0.7% of the bank's portfolio from 1.34% due to the sale of loans on DebtX. -By Christine Richard; Dow Jones Newswires; 201 938-2189; christine.richard@dowjones.com

TSA Lied About Protecting Passenger Data

Kevin — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 18:47:14 +0000

Via Bruce Schneier's blog:

According to the AP: bq.. The Transportation Security Administration misled the public about its role in obtaining personal information about 12 million airline passengers to test a new computerized system that screens for terrorists, according to a government investigation. The report, released Friday by Homeland Security Department Acting Inspector General Richard Skinner, said the agency misinformed individuals, the press and Congress in 2003 and 2004. It stopped short of saying TSA lied. p. I'll say it: the TSA lied. Here's the report. It's worth reading. And when you read it, keep in mind that it's written by the DHS's own Inspector General. I presume a more independent investigator would be even more severe. Not that the report isn't severe, mind you. Another AP article has more details: bq.. The report cites several occasions where TSA officials made inaccurate statements about passenger data: * In September 2003, the agency's Freedom of Information Act staff received hundreds of requests from Jet Blue passengers asking if the TSA had their records. After a cursory search, the FOIA staff posted a notice on the TSA Web site that it had no JetBlue passenger data. Though the FOIA staff found JetBlue passenger records in TSA's possession in May, the notice stayed on the Web site for more than a year. * In November 2003, TSA chief James Loy incorrectly told the Governmental Affairs Committee that certain kinds of passenger data were not being used to test passenger prescreening. * In September 2003, a technology magazine reporter asked a TSA spokesman whether real data were used to test the passenger prescreening system. The spokesman said only fake data were used; the responses "were not accurate," the report said. p.

Read the rest of the article.

Playful Parenting session

Kevin — Sun, 03 Apr 2005 21:48:01 +0000

I had the pleasure of presenting a session on "Playful Parenting" at the 2005 Massachusetts/Rhode Island/Vermont La Leche League Conference. It was this weekend in Chelmsford, MA. Before you ask, my wife is a La Leche leader here in Scituate, and she and several of her co-leaders had asked me to run a session for the fathers in attendance. While I'm no expert on parenting, I think I'm pretty good at it. :-) Playful Parenting is an excellent book by Dr. Lawrence J. Cohen, a psychologist from nearby Brookline, MA. To sum it up: bq.. Have you ever stepped back to watch what really goes on when your children play? As psychologist Lawrence J. Cohen points out, play is children’s way of exploring the world, communicating deep feelings, getting close to those they care about, working through stressful situations, and simply blowing off steam. That’s why “playful parenting” is so important and so successful in building strong, close bonds between parents and children. Through play we join our kids in their world–and help them to * Express and understand complex emotions * Break through shyness, anger, and fear * Empower themselves and respect diversity * Play their way through sibling rivalry * Cooperate without power struggles p.. If you're interested, my session notes are available on my web site's wiki.

Beeeeeeefcaaaaaake!!!

Kevin — Sun, 17 Apr 2005 04:08:15 +0000

To celebrate my 39th birthday, I squatted 320 lbs. My eyes crossed, I blew a few capillaries, and it made me very happy... :-)

Jokes with Realistic Endings

Kevin — Tue, 19 Apr 2005 14:02:05 +0000

Via Something Awful. This is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Highlights: bq.. A priest, a rabbi, and a buddhist monk walk into a bar, sit at the end and start having some drinks. Two hours later, they come out with a better understanding of each other and a mutual respect, the beginnings of a friendship that last a lifetime. bq.. What do you get when you cross a chicken with a centipede? A media circus about the debate over the morals and ethics of genetic engineering. bq.. How do you drown a blonde? Hold her head underwater until she can no longer breathe and stops struggling. bq.. Why did the blonde get fired from the M&M factory? Repeated absences and stealing. bq.. A man walks into a bar. He drinks 6 Newcastles, 4 shots of Jack Daniels, hits on the waitress unsuccessfully, takes his wedding ring off, tried again and fails, drinks 3 more shots, drives home, beats his daughter for coming home late, and cries himself to sleep realizing that he hates his life.

People of the United States! We are Unitarian Jihad!

Kevin — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 15:40:47 +0000

Greetings to the Imprisoned Citizens of the United States. We are Unitarian Jihad. There is only God, unless there is more than one God. The vote of our God subcommittee is 10-8 in favor of one God, with two abstentions. Brother Flaming Sword of Moderation noted the possibility of there being no God at all, and his objection was noted with love by the secretary. Link

In the Reign of Cotton Mather

Kevin — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 20:30:31 +0000

Excellent Forbes article by Cato analyst Radley Balko: bq.. This country's laws are being rewritten by puritans, prigs and busybodies. Earlier this year, when Major League Baseball questioned Congress' right to hold public hearings on steroid use in the big leagues, Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis (R-Va.) and ranking minority member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) sent back a striking response. Davis and Waxman told baseball that the committee "may at any time conduct investigations of any matter." Any time. Any matter. And this from the congressional committee charged with curbing government excesses. But "any time, any matter" jurisdiction is fast becoming the norm in Washington. Think Terry Schiavo and gay marriage. Think obesity, the "crisis" that has Congress poking around in your kid's lunchbox and in your refrigerator. Think the drug war, which gives cops access to our medicine cabinets, doctors' offices and hospices. If you think the feds are bad, state governments are even worse. The Nanny State is descending, from 50 capitals.

WiFi crypto can be broken in 3 mins

Kevin — Tue, 17 May 2005 22:02:52 +0000

Via Boing Boing: WEP, the access-control system for WiFi, is notoriously shit. Now Fed computer scientists have shown an attack that can break a WEP key in three minutes. Gabe sez, "Brilliant approach, using a second computer to re-send the same packet back to the router, thus generating more traffic, thus catching more weak packets, etc."

The FBI team used the deauth feature of void11 to repeatedly disassociate the laptop from the access point. Desired additional traffic was then generated as Windows XP tried to re-associate back to the AP. Note that this is not a particularly stealthy attack, as the laptop user will notice a series of "Wireless Network unavailable" notifications in the taskbar of their desktop screen.
Another attack method the FBI team used is a replay attack. The basic premise of this attack is to capture at least one packet traveling from the victim laptop to victim access point. This packet can then be replayed into the network, causing the target AP to respond and provide more traffic to capture.

Link

William Safire's Rules for Writers

Kevin — Tue, 24 May 2005 16:08:33 +0000

*William Safire's Rules for Writers*

Remember to never split an infinitive.
The passive voice should never be used.
Do not put statements in the negative form.
Verbs have to agree with their subject.
Proofread carefully to see if you words out. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
A writer must not shift your point of view.
And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
Remember, too, a preposition is a terrible word to end a sentence with.
Don't overuse exclamation marks!!!
Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
Always pick on the correct idiom.
The adverb always follows the verb.
Last but not least, avoid cliches like the plague; seek viable alternatives.

Voyager Enters Solar System's Final Frontier

Kevin — Wed, 25 May 2005 18:09:19 +0000

From NASA's web site: bq.. NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered the solar system's final frontier, a vast, turbulent expanse where the Sun's influence ends and the solar wind crashes into the thin gas between stars. "Voyager has entered the final lap on its race to the edge of interstellar space, as it begins exploring the solar system's final frontier," said Dr. Edward Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which built and operates Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2. !/IMAGES/115949main_helio_sm8.jpg! In November 2003, the Voyager team announced it was seeing events unlike any encountered before in the mission's then 26-year history. The team believed the unusual events indicated Voyager 1 was approaching a strange region of space, likely the beginning of this new frontier called the termination shock region. There was controversy at that time over whether Voyager 1 had indeed encountered the termination shock or was just getting close. "The consensus of the team now is that Voyager 1, at 8.7 billion miles from the Sun, has at last entered the heliosheath, the region beyond the termination shock," said Dr. John Richardson from MIT, Principal Investigator of the Voyager plasma science investigation. The termination shock is where the solar wind, a thin stream of electrically charged gas blowing continuously outward from the Sun, is slowed by pressure from gas between the stars. At the termination shock, the solar wind slows abruptly from its average speed of 300 to 700 km per second (700,000 - 1,500,000 miles per hour) and becomes denser and hotter. p.

Northeast has Dumbest Drivers

Kevin — Fri, 27 May 2005 15:26:29 +0000

Who would have guessed that Massachusetts drivers knew nothing about driving? (if you've ever driven around the Boston area, you'll get the joke) From CNN: bq.. When faced with a written test, similar to ones given to beginning drivers applying for licenses, one in ten drivers couldn't get a passing score, according to a study commissioned by GMAC Insurance. Drivers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states did worst. Twenty percent of test-takers failed there. The state of Rhode Island leads the nation in driver cluelessness, according to the survey. The average test score there was 77, just eight points above a failing grade. Those in neighboring Massachusetts were second worst and New Jersey, third worst. For instance, one out of five drivers doesn't know that a pedestrian in a crosswalk has the right of way, and one out of three drivers speeds up to make a yellow light, even when pedestrians are present, the study said. Drivers not only lack basic road knowledge, but exhibit dangerous driving behavior as well.

BEWARE THE MEGA-WOMBAT!

Kevin — Wed, 01 Jun 2005 14:46:04 +0000

I wish I could have seen one of these critters. bq.. Analyses of ancient fossils suggest that early Australian Aborigines did not wipe out the continent's megafauna in a frenzied hunting rampage. New research conducted by Australian and British scientists reveals that in fact humans and megafauna, such as gigantic three tonne wombat-like creatures, a ferocious marsupial "lion" and the world's all-time biggest lizard, may have co-existed for around 15 000 years. In a study published in the prestigious scientific journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, a research team including co-authors Dr Judith Field of the University of Sydney and Dr Clive Trueman of the University of Portsmouth establish that some Australian megafauna, including the largest animals, persisted until around 30,000 years ago, coexisting with humans for at least 15,000 years. p. Full article is available here. !-/IMAGES/megawombat.jpg (Megawombat vs Bert Convy)!
Image 1: Megawombat compared to Bert Convy

"Cool Software of Questionable Legal Status" of the Day

Kevin — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 18:49:53 +0000

DVD43Free - " DVD43 removes most types of copy protection found on found on movie DVDs. DVD43 only works on Win2K and WinXP." DVD Shrink - "DVD Shrink is software to backup DVD discs. You can use this software in conjunction with DVD burning software of your choice, to make a backup copy of any DVD video disc. DVD Shrink will also burn your backup DVD, if you have installed the latest version of Nero. You can download a demo version of Nero here. If you already possess alternative burning software and prefer to stick with it, then you can still use DVD Shrink. The output from DVD Shrink can be saved as files on your hard drive, which you can then burn with software of your choice." Kevin does not condone or encourage illegal copying of DVDs. For archival purposes only. Offer valid in continental US only. Void where prohibited. Must be 18 or over. Do not download if you are pregnant.

How to Choose a Digital Camera

Kevin — Thu, 02 Jun 2005 21:21:21 +0000

Some good pointers on how to choose a digital camera, via the Digital Photography Blog.

Google to Laser Scan US Cities

Kevin — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 15:18:08 +0000

From SiliconValleyWatcher: bq.. Google plans to use trucks equipped with lasers and digital photographic equipment to create a realistic 3D online version of San Francisco, and eventually other major US cities. The trucks would drive along every San Francisco street using the lasers to measure the dimensions of buildings, to create a 3D framework onto which digital photos can be mapped. This would complement the mostly top-down view of San Francisco available through Google's Keyhole satellite photo application. The goal is to create similar 3D online versions of other cities in the US and overseas.

"Simpsons" Movie Finally in Production

Kevin — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 15:28:24 +0000

From Yahoo: bq.. Producers had always indicated that the movie would likely debut after the TV show ran its course. But with the show continuing to perform well, averaging about 10 million viewers last season, the Simpsons brain trust decided to move forward now, according to a rep for 20th Century Fox, which will distribute the Simpsons film. "They are working on hammering out a script, but there's no title or production date or release date," studio spokeswoman Antonia Coffman told E! Online Wednesday. "We always wanted the show to end first but it just keeps going. Now they've worked out a team to simultaneously do [both the film and show]."

Google's War on Hierarchy, and the Death of Hierarchical Folders

Kevin — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 20:55:02 +0000

Excellent article by John Hiler on how Google is pioneering the Death of Folders. bq.. Hierarchical Folders have helped us manage information for decades. They've proven themselves as some of the most flexible tools ever created: organizing wildly different industries, from Web Directories, to Email and Desktop File Systems. But Folders rarely solve the core problem that they address - and often create new ones, like forcing you to create new folders just to manage new information. Solutions like Search, Archives, Stars and Labels get more directly at the core problem... and promise that the future of information management will look very different from its past.

What the Hell is Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)?

Kevin — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:28:21 +0000

A new tech term has started popping up in all of the standard industry rags - SOA, or _Service-Oriented Architecture_. The problem is that for some reason the rag writers never seem to want to define what SOA means (I hate when they do that). I finally find a good intro article on SOA on the JavaWorld web site. Lo and behold - SOA is simply the combination of the venerable message-bus architecture with the newer XML-based web services (SOAP, WSDL, UDDI). Welcome back to the 1980s. :-) bq.. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an evolution of distributed computing based on the request/reply design paradigm for synchronous and asynchronous applications. An application's business logic or individual functions are modularized and presented as services for consumer/client applications. What's key to these services is their loosely coupled nature; i.e., the service interface is independent of the implementation. Application developers or system integrators can build applications by composing one or more services without knowing the services' underlying implementations. For example, a service can be implemented either in .Net or J2EE, and the application consuming the service can be on a different platform or language.

That's One Big Freakin' Moon

Kevin — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 15:06:14 +0000

From Science@NASA: bq.. The lowest-hanging full moon in 18 years is going to play tricks on you this week. Sometimes you can't believe your eyes. This week is one of those times. Step outside any evening at sunset and look around. You'll see a giant moon rising in the east. It looks like Earth's moon, round and cratered; the Man in the Moon is in his usual place. But something's wrong. This full moon is strangely inflated. It's huge! You've just experienced the Moon Illusion. Sky watchers have known this for thousands of years: moons hanging low in the sky look unnaturally big. Cameras don't see it, but our eyes do. It's a real illusion. This week's full moon hangs lower in the sky than any full moon since June 1987, so the Moon Illusion is going to be extra strong. What makes the moon so low? It's summer. Remember, the sun and the full Moon are on opposite sides of the sky. During summer the sun is high, which means the full moon must be low. This week?s full moon occurs on June 22nd, barely a day after the summer solstice on June 21st--perfect timing for the Moon Illusion. When you look at the moon, rays of moonlight converge and form an image about 0.15 mm wide in the back of your eye. High moons and low moons make the same sized spot. So why does your brain think one is bigger than the other? After all these years, scientists still aren't sure why. Maybe it's the shape of the sky. Humans perceive the sky as a flattened dome, with the zenith nearby and the horizon far away. It makes sense: Birds flying overhead are closer than birds on the horizon. When the moon is near the horizon, your brain, trained by watching birds, miscalculates the moon's true distance and size. The best time to look is around moonrise, when the moon is peeking through trees and houses or over mountain ridges, doing its best to trick you. p. Note that the best time to see this illusion in the North East is 7:25 PM on June 20, 8:39 PM on June 21 and 9:43 PM on June 22.

Just Desserts

Kevin — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 18:25:08 +0000

Since the Supreme Court doesn't seem to mind watering down the 5th Amendment so that eminent domain can be used for private development, the judges' own personal property should also be eligible. Right? Right. From FreeStar Media: bq.. Weare, New Hampshire (PRWEB) Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter's land. Justice Souter's vote in the "Kelo vs. City of New London" decision allows city governments to take land from one private owner and give it to another if the government will generate greater tax revenue or other economic benefits when the land is developed by the new owner. On Monday June 27, Logan Darrow Clements, faxed a request to Chip Meany the code enforcement officer of the Towne of Weare, New Hampshire seeking to start the application process to build a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road. This is the present location of Mr. Souter's home. Clements, CEO of Freestar Media, LLC, points out that the City of Weare will certainly gain greater tax revenue and economic benefits with a hotel on 34 Cilley Hill Road than allowing Mr. Souter to own the land. The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America. Instead of a Gideon's Bible each guest will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged." Clements indicated that the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans. "This is not a prank" said Clements, "The Towne of Weare has five people on the Board of Selectmen. If three of them vote to use the power of eminent domain to take this land from Mr. Souter we can begin our hotel development." Clements' plan is to raise investment capital from wealthy pro-liberty investors and draw up architectural plans. These plans would then be used to raise investment capital for the project. Clements hopes that regular customers of the hotel might include supporters of the Institute For Justice and participants in the Free State Project among others. p. Hey. It's only fair...

List of Recent Search Keywords

Kevin — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 20:32:16 +0000

Here's a list of search terms that have brought people to jarnot.com recently:

perfect shave badger hair
how to shave male public area [Note - not "pubic" - kjj]
punching faster
tourist of death
jokes realistic endings
evil sesame street
fuck mather
sea dragon picture
storm kids

Pixar's Joe Ranft, Dead at 45

Kevin — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 14:05:29 +0000

From the ["Hollywood Reporter":http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/people/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001017139]: bq.. Joe Ranft, Pixar Animation Studios' head of story for more than a decade and a cornerstone of the company's creative team, died Tuesday when the car he was riding in plunged into the ocean after running off the road in Mendocino County, Calif. He was 45. A spokeswoman for the Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner's Office confirmed Wednesday that Ranft was one of two people who died when the 2004 Honda Element they were traveling in veered off the road while heading north on Highway 1. Ranft was a co-writer on 1995's "Toy Story," for which he earned an Oscar nomination, and 1998's "A Bug's Life." Before Pixar, he was a leading member of the story department at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he was a writer on 1991's "Beauty and the Beast" and 1994's "The Lion King." Ranft's voice-over work for Pixar included such characters as Heimlich in "A Bug's Life" and Wheezy the Penguin in "Toy Story 2."

Hunter S. Thompson's Ashes to be Sent High on Fireworks

Kevin — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 21:57:52 +0000

In accordance with his last wishes, Hunter S Thompson's ashes will be sent into the sky in 34 fireworks mortar tubes. From ["Rocky Mountain News":http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4011107,00.html]: bq.. Hunter S. Thompson's cremated remains, mixed with fireworks and packed into 34 mortar tubes, were en route to Woody Creek Wednesday. The unusual shipment from New Castle, Pa., via padlocked truck is one of the final steps towards a funeral Saturday expected to mix solemnity with pageantry. Thompson's only son, Juan Thompson, stresses the respectful tone he wants to strike, but acknowledges that his father's funeral wishes were unusual. Based on Hunter Thompson's comments in a 1978 BBC documentary, fireworks launchers will arc his ashes from a 153-foot structure capped by a double-thumbed, red Fiberglas fist. Actor Johnny Depp, a friend of Thompson's who portrayed the writer in a film, is footing the estimated $2 million cost of the send-off.

Another Personal Hero Dies

Kevin — Mon, 22 Aug 2005 14:28:18 +0000

Bob Moog, one of the fathers of electronic music, has died at 71. From ["Moog Music":http://www.moogmusic.com/]: bq.. ASHEVILLE, N.C. - August 21, 2005 - Bob died this afternoon at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 71. Bob was diagnosed with brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme or GBM) in late April 2005. He had received both radiation treatment and chemotherapy to help combat the disease. He is survived by his wife, Ileana, his five children, Laura Moog Lanier, Matthew Moog, Michelle Moog-Koussa, Renee Moog, and Miranda Richmond; and the mother of his children, Shirleigh Moog. Bob was warm and outgoing. He enjoyed meeting people from all over the world. He especially appreciated what Ileana referred to as "the magical connection" between music-makers and their instruments. No public memorial is planned. Fans and friends can direct their sympathies or remembrances to www.caringbridge.com/visit/bobmoog. Bob's family has established The Bob Moog Foundation dedicated to the Advancement of Electronic Music in his memory. Many of his longtime collaborators including musicians, engineers and educators have agreed to sit on its executive board including David Borden, Wendy Carlos, Joel Chadabpe, John Eaton, David Mash, and Rick Wakeman. For more information about the foundation, contact Matthew Moog at mattmoog@yahoo.com. We'll miss you Bob. p. I grew up five miles away from Moog Music, and used to spend time as a teenager at Moog's showroom in Cheektowaga, NY. It was always thrilling when a new Moog synth was released.

The iPod Family Cemetery

Kevin — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 15:08:40 +0000

Engadget's tribute to iPods past.

Bush Joke of the Day

Kevin — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 14:23:59 +0000

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed." "OH NO!" the president exclaims. "That's terrible!" His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the president sits, head in hands. Finally, the president looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"

Quote of the day

Kevin — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 14:39:23 +0000

If there is ever a statue made in honor of good project managers, I suspect the inscription would say, "Bring me your randomized, your righteously confused, your sarcastic and bitter masses of programmers yearning for clarity." -- Scott Berkun, "The Art of Project Management"

I Love Airports

Kevin — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 00:02:42 +0000

My good friend Bob, from back home in Buffalo, has asked me to be the Godfather for his baby girl, Jenna. I'm flying from Boston to Buffalo tonight. My flight is at 8:10, but I had high hopes that I could catch an earlier flight. I arrived at Logan at 3:00. All earlier flights are full...so...I've been sitting here reading "Agile Project Management" by Jim Highsmith, and keeping an eye on the Red Sox game that's playing on a TV in Legal Seafood. The game isn't looking too good. Freakin' idiots... Here's a great list from the book of "six questions that illustrate the damaging illusions of our 20th-century approaches to management", originally from Phillip Hodgson and Randall White: # Why do you believe you are in control? # Why do you behave as if you can predict the future, its consequences and outcomes? # Why do you think that because you've done it before and it worked that it will work again? # Why do you believe everything important is measurable? # Why do you think that words like leadership, management, and change have the same meaning to everyone? # Why do you think that reducing uncertainty will necessarily increase certainty? Good questions...

I Love Airports, Part Deux

Kevin — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 00:02:45 +0000

So much for flying home to Boston. Logan's radar system is out, and I'm stuck in Buffalo. I just hope that they get it fixed by tomorrow morning's 7:00 AM flight...

Now THAT'S Chutzpah...

Kevin — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 16:37:38 +0000

The Memory Hole has an interesting article showing that the Justice Department has censored a Supreme Court decision by redacting a quote that discusses the abuse of power by the Government. Talk about self-referential... bq.. The Justice Department tipped its hand in its ongoing legal war with the ACLU over the Patriot Act. Because the matter is so sensitive, the Justice Dept is allowed to black out those passages in the ACLU's court filings that it feels should not be publicly released. Ostensibly, they would use their powers of censorship only to remove material that truly could jeopardize US operations. But in reality, what did they do? They blacked out a quotation from a Supreme Court decision: _"The danger to political dissent is acute where the Government attempts to act under so vague a concept as the power to protect 'domestic security.' Given the difficulty of defining the domestic security interest, the danger of abuse in acting to protect that interest becomes apparent."_ The mind reels at such a blatant abuse of power (and at the sheer chutzpah of using national security as an excuse to censor a quotation about using national security as an excuse to stifle dissent). It's hard to imagine a more public, open document than a decision written by the Supreme Court. It is incontestably public property: widely reprinted online and on paper; poured over by generations of judges, attorneys, prosecutors, and law students; quoted for centuries to come in court cases and political essays. Yet the Justice Department had the incomprehensible arrogance and gall to strip this quotation from a court document, as if it represented a grave threat to the republic. Luckily, the court slapped down this redaction and several others. If it hadn't, we would've been left with the impression that this was a legitimate redaction, that whatever was underneath the thick black ink was something so incredibly sensitive and damaging that it must be kept from our eyes. Now we know the truth. Think about this the next time you see a black mark on a public document.

"In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans"

Kevin — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 15:43:45 +0000

The obituary of a Chicago-area WWII veteran named Theodore Roosevelt Heller requests "in lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans". Within days, hundreds of people have left comments on his obituary page pledging their support. Just for fun, I've created a Wikipedia entry for "Heller Letter".

" I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome..."

Kevin — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 16:17:11 +0000

My neighbor, Marty Bahamonde, had the dubious honor of being the first FEMA official in New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit. Last week he was hauled in front of the Congress-critters to give his side of the story about what went wrong. From the New Orleans Times Picayune: bq.. Although Bahamonde said he had enjoyed a good relationship with Brown, who had trusted him as his "eyes and ears" for major disasters even though he lacked formal emergency management training, at one point he let loose with rage against his bosses. On Aug. 31, he had e-mailed Brown from the Superdome to tell him that thousands of evacuees were gathering in the streets outside the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center without food or water and that there were "estimates that many will die within hours." "Sir, I know that you know the situation is past critical," he wrote. But less than three hours later, Brown's press secretary said in an e-mail that "it is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner" at a Baton Rouge restaurant that night before appearing on an MSNBC talk show. "We now have traffic to encounter . . . followed by wait service from the restaurant staff, eating, etc.," the e-mail said. "OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!" Bahamonde wrote in an apparently hastily written response to a colleague at FEMA after the message was shared with him. "Just tell her (the press secretary) that I just ate an MRE and crapped in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends so I understand her concern about busy retaurants. Maybe tonight I will have time to move the pebbles on the parking garage floor so they don't stab me in the back while I try to sleep." p. CNN.com has has a good article on his appearance before the Congressional committee, but the Daily Show (as usual) has my favorite coverage (see the "Relief Ditcher" link). :-)

Techie Manager

Kevin — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 03:34:13 +0000

My new web site, Techie Manager is now up and running. Its purpose is to provide a resource for techies that have switched career tracks and find themselves in management, with little or no formal management training. From the "About" page: bq.. I'd like to welcome you to TechieManager.com, what I hope will become a useful resource for technical folk that have - for one reason or another - found their way into the world of management. Most of us Techie Managers have very little formal management training. Often, we have Computer Science, Engineering, Biology, or other techical degrees. Over time, we have moved from hands-on technical work to leadership positions that require less technical prowess and more managerial skills. Some are lucky to have the chance to get formal management training - either via an MBA program or some other form of instruction. More often Techie Managers find themselves thrust into the new position and are forced to learn as they go - scrounging around for any resources that can help guide them. Over the past 10 or so years that I have been employed as a software development manager, director, and ultimately CTO, I have been looking around the web for good resources to help enhance my skills as a Techie Manager. Sadly, there is very little out there. Hopefully this site will provide a forum where we can learn from each other. p. Stop by if it sounds interesting to you - http://www.techiemanager.com.

Wired News: History's Worst Software

Kevin — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 20:56:30 +0000

Wired News: History's Worst Software Bugs Excellent article detailing the worst bugs of all time.

Every Number is Significant

Kevin — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:45:31 +0000

This cool list shows the significance of EVERY number from 1-9,999 -- Such as 3025 is the sum of the first 10 cubes, or 18 is the only number that is twice the sum of its digits.

read more

Hard Drive prices over the last 25 years

Kevin — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 21:46:12 +0000

Stroll down memory lane to 1995 when $2900 got you a 2.9 GIG Seagate or better yet, to 1980 when $4000 got you an 18MB North Star...

read more

Arrested Development Cancelled

Kevin — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 21:27:45 +0000

Sad day for fans of the idiosyncratic. Hey, maybe they'll make a movie! From the first day that I watched this show, I knew it didn't have a chance in hell to survive on Fox. I still can't believe that it made it to 2 1/2 seasons...

read more

Fun with Corn Starch

Kevin — Fri, 18 Nov 2005 14:02:01 +0000

Who knew you could have so much fun with corn starch? Very very cool.

Yeah - that IS how I pictured Cartman in real life...

Kevin — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 15:43:53 +0000

This week's South Park episode, "Free Willzyx", gave us a glimpse of what the boys would look like is real life. After "rescuing" a killer whale from Denver's version of Sea World, a police sketch is circulated of the kidnappers: We then get a closeup of Kyle, the "ringleader": From what I've read, Stan looks like a young Trey Parker and Kyle is a young Matt Stone. Kenny? Who knows. Cartman? Perfect. :-)

"Stolen From Apple" (Man in Jail) Icon coded into Mac ROM

Kevin — Fri, 09 Dec 2005 15:54:47 +0000

Steve decided that if a company copied the Mac ROM into their computer, he would like to be able to do a demo during the trial, where he could type a few keystrokes into an unmodified infringing machine, and have a large "Stolen From Apple" icon (featuring a guy in prison bars!) appear on its screen"
read more

Japanese Emoticons

Kevin — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 15:46:57 +0000

Here's an excellent list of Japanese emoticons (or smileys). VERY different from the emoticons that originally developed in the West.

(*^_^*)

Some New Top 5 Lists

Kevin — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 19:24:05 +0000

Least favorite movie directors # "Joel Schumacher":http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001708/ # "Michael Bay":http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000881/ # "Raja Gosnell":http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0331532/ # "Roland Emmerich":http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000386/ # Top albums of 2005 # # # # #

How to Wolf Whistle

Kevin — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 15:01:08 +0000

Just in case you ever wanted to learn how to wolf whistle.

Senate Rejects Extension of Patriot Act

Kevin — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 20:43:04 +0000

Woohoo! Finally, some sense has found its way to DC. From Yahoo!: bq.. The Senate on Friday refused to reauthorize major portions of the USA Patriot Act after critics complained they infringed too much on Americans' privacy and liberty, dealing a huge defeat to the Bush administration and Republican leaders. In a crucial vote early Friday, the bill's Senate supporters were not able to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster by Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and Larry Craig, R-Idaho, and their allies. The final vote was 52-47. President Bush, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Republicans congressional leaders had lobbied fiercely to make most of the expiring Patriot Act provisions permanent. They also supported new safeguards and expiration dates to the act's two most controversial parts: authorization for roving wiretaps, which allow investigators to monitor multiple devices to keep a target from evading detection by switching phones or computers; and secret warrants for books, records and other items from businesses, hospitals and organizations such as libraries. Feingold, Craig and other critics said those efforts weren't enough, and have called for the law to be extended in its present form so they can continue to try and add more civil liberties safeguards. But Bush, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert have said they won't accept a short-term extension of the law. If a compromise is not reached, the 16 Patriot Act provisions expire on Dec. 31, but the expirations have enormous exceptions. Investigators will still be able to use those powers to complete any investigation that began before the expiration date and to initiate new investigations of any alleged crime that began before Dec. 31, according to a provision in the original law. There are ongoing investigations of every known terrorist group, including al-Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Islamic Jihad and the Zarqawi group in Iraq, and all the Patriot Act tools could continue to be used in those investigations. Five Republicans voted against the reauthorization: Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Craig and Frist. Two Democrats voted to extend the provisions: Sens. Tim Johnson of South Dakota and Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Frist, R-Tenn., changed his vote at the last moment after seeing the critics would win. He decided to vote with the prevailing side so he could call for a new vote at any time. He immediately objected to an offer of a short term extension from Democrats, saying the House won't approve it and the president won't sign it. "We have more to fear from terrorism than we do from this Patriot Act," Frist warned. If the Patriot Act provisions expire, Republicans say they will place the blame on Democrats in next year's midterm elections. "In the war on terror, we cannot afford to be without these vital tools for a single moment," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "The time for Democrats to stop standing in the way has come." But the Patriot Act's critics got a boost from a New York Times report saying Bush authorized the National Security Agency to monitor the international phone calls and international e-mails of hundreds — perhaps thousands — of people inside the United States. Previously, the NSA typically limited its domestic surveillance to foreign embassies and missions and obtained court orders for such investigations. "I don't want to hear again from the attorney general or anyone on this floor that this government has shown it can be trusted to use the power we give it with restraint and care," said Feingold, the only senator to vote against the Patriot Act in 2001. "It is time to have some checks and balances in this country," shouted Sen. Patrick Leahy, ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. "We are more American for doing that." p.. Exactly, Mr. Leahy. Now just do us a favor and remember saying this when/if the Democrats ever gain power again.

The Security Threat of Unchecked Presidential Power

Kevin — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 14:24:22 +0000

Security guru (and personal hero) Bruce Schneier has written an excellent article on the current Presidential regime's abuse of power. Excerpt: bq.. The result is that the president's wartime powers, with its armies, battles, victories, and congressional declarations, now extend to the rhetorical "War on Terror": a war with no fronts, no boundaries, no opposing army, and -- most ominously -- no knowable "victory." Investigations, arrests, and trials are not tools of war. But according to the Yoo memo, the president can define war however he chooses, and remain "at war" for as long as he chooses. This is indefinite dictatorial power. And I don't use that term lightly; the very definition of a dictatorship is a system that puts a ruler above the law. In the weeks after 9/11, while America and the world were grieving, Bush built a legal rationale for a dictatorship. Then he immediately started using it to avoid the law. p.. It's a must-read, whether you're a Republicrat or Democratan.

Who needs a star or angel...

Kevin — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 16:17:22 +0000

...when you could have the FSM sitting atop your tree? Original Flickr link

Behind the Scenes at a Steve Jobs Keynote Speech

Kevin — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 21:02:54 +0000

Fascinating article about how much preparation goes into one of Apple's Steve Jobs' keynote speeches. bq.. Steve starts his preparation for a keynote weeks in advance, reviewing all the products and technologies he might include. Although development and release schedules are set far in advance, he still has to satisfy himself that the chosen products are keynote-ready. For software, this can be hard to decide: the engineering work is usually still underway, so he will make a preliminary determination based on seeing unfinished software. More than once this has caused some tense moments in rehearsal when programs haven't behaved.

The story of Schroedinger's cat (an epic poem)

Kevin — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 16:53:22 +0000

Originally from Cecil Adams' The Straight Dope column, May 7, 1982: bq.. Dear Cecil: Cecil, you're my final hope Of finding out the true Straight Dope For I have been reading of Schroedinger's cat But none of my cats are at all like that. This unusual animal (so it is said) Is simultaneously live and dead! What I don't understand is just why he Can't be one or other, unquestionably. My future now hangs in between eigenstates. In one I'm enlightened, the other I ain't. If you understand, Cecil, then show me the way And rescue my psyche from quantum decay. But if this queer thing has perplexed even you, Then I will and won't see you in Schroedinger's zoo. -- Randy F., Chicago p..
bq.. Dear Randy: Schroedinger, Erwin! Professor of physics! Wrote daring equations! Confounded his critics! (Not bad, eh? Don't worry. This part of the verse Starts off pretty good, but it gets a lot worse.) Win saw that the theory that Newton'd invented By Einstein's discov'ries had been badly dented. What now? wailed his colleagues. Said Erwin, "Don't panic, No grease monkey I, but a quantum mechanic. Consider electrons. Now, these teeny articles Are sometimes like waves, and then sometimes like particles. If that's not confusing, the nuclear dance Of electrons and suchlike is governed by chance! No sweat, though--my theory permits us to judge Where some of 'em is and the rest of 'em was." Not everyone bought this. It threatened to wreck The comforting linkage of cause and effect. E'en Einstein had doubts, and so Schroedinger tried To tell him what quantum mechanics implied. Said Win to Al, "Brother, suppose we've a cat, And inside a tube we have put that cat at-- Along with a solitaire deck and some Fritos, A bottle of Night Train, a couple mosquitoes (Or something else rhyming) and, oh, if you got 'em, One vial prussic acid, one decaying ottom Or atom--whatever--but when it emits, A trigger device blasts the vial into bits Which snuffs our poor kitty. The odds of this crime Are 50 to 50 per hour each time. The cylinder's sealed. The hour's passed away. Is Our pussy still purring--or pushing up daisies? Now, you'd say the cat either lives or it don't But quantum mechanics is stubborn and won't. Statistically speaking, the cat (goes the joke), Is half a cat breathing and half a cat croaked. To some this may seem a ridiculous split, But quantum mechanics must answer, "Tough @#&! We may not know much, but one thing's fo' sho': There's things in the cosmos that we cannot know. Shine light on electrons--you'll cause them to swerve. The act of observing disturbs the observed-- Which ruins your test. But then if there's no testing To see if a particle's moving or resting Why try to conjecture? Pure useless endeavor! We know probability--certainty, never.' The effect of this notion? I very much fear 'Twill make doubtful all things that were formerly clear. Till soon the cat doctors will say in reports, "We've just flipped a coin and we've learned he's a corpse."' So saith Herr Erwin. Quoth Albert, "You're nuts. God doesn't play dice with the universe, putz. I'll prove it!" he said, and the Lord knows he tried-- In vain--until fin'ly he more or less died. Win spoke at the funeral: "Listen, dear friends, Sweet Al was my buddy. I must make amends. Though he doubted my theory, I'll say of this saint: Ten-to-one he's in heaven--but five bucks says he ain't." -- Cecil Adams

Future American lawyers to be proud of

Kevin — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 14:08:25 +0000

From Insomnia's LiveJournal: Alberto Gonzales spoke before law students at Georgetown today, justifying illegal, unauthorized surveillance of US citizens, but during the course of his speech the students in class did something pretty ballsy and brave. They got up from their seats and turned their backs to him.

To quote Georgetown law prof David Cole, who participated in the panel discussion:

When you're a law student, they tell you if say that if you can't argue the law, argue the facts. They also tell you if you can't argue the facts, argue the law. If you can't argue either, apparently, the solution is to go on a public relations offensive and make it a political issue... to say over and over again "it's lawful", and to think that the American people will somehow come to believe this if we say it often enough. In light of this, I'm proud of the very civil civil disobedience that was shown here today.

Fan-n-n-n-tastic...nice Franklin quote, too (and a belated happy 300th, Ben!)

1337 Emoticon of the Day

Kevin — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 17:19:48 +0000

Just saw this one on Ars Technica:

\m/ (>.<) \m/

D0000000000d! :-)

Bye Bye, PalmOS

Kevin — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 16:04:25 +0000

PalmOS is officially dead and replaced by Linux. From the press release: bq.. ACCESS Co., Ltd., and its wholly owned subsidiary, PalmSource, Inc., today announced the ACCESS Linux Platform (ALP), the latest evolution of Palm OS(R) for Linux. The ACCESS Linux Platform is designed to be an integrated, open and flexible Linux-based platform tailored for smartphones and mobile devices. p. From Wired Gear Factor: bq.. The four horsemen of the PDA apocalypse are mounted up and ready to ride, and Palm OS is now officially dead. With Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5.0 now running on Palm devices and Palm OS developer PalmSource long since sold to the Japanese company Access, it was only a matter of time. Access is putting Palm OS to bed in favor of a completely rebranded and totally redesigned mobile operating system built entirely on Linux. The new OS will still run legacy Palm software in addition to lots of Linux-based apps, but it won't even have the word "palm" in the name. Instead, it'll be called Access Linux Platform. Of course, it'll be a while before the new OS comes to a handheld near you, as the developer's kit won't even be available until much later this year.

Homeland Security Expands the Scope of Their Duties?

Kevin — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 20:42:43 +0000

If I were a xenophobic isolationist crackpot, I would be more scared of the Department of Homeland Security than the UN and the "New World Order". From the Washington Post: bq.. Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of all patrons using the computers. Then they made their announcement: The viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden. The men looked stern and wore baseball caps emblazoned with the words "Homeland Security." The bizarre scene unfolded Feb. 9, leaving some residents confused and forcing county officials to explain how employees assigned to protect county buildings against terrorists came to see it as their job to police the viewing of pornography. After the two men made their announcement, one of them challenged an Internet user's choice of viewing material and asked him to step outside, according to a witness. A librarian intervened, and the two men went into the library's work area to discuss the matter. A police officer arrived. In the end, no one had to step outside except the uniformed men. They were officers of the security division of Montgomery County's Homeland Security Department, an unarmed force that patrols about 300 county buildings -- but is not responsible for enforcing obscenity laws.

Black and White Twins

Kevin — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:16:31 +0000

Via the Daily Mail: bq.. Remee, who weighed 5lb 15oz, was blonde and fair skinned. Her sister Kian, born a minute later weighing 6lb, was black. Both Kylie and her partner Remi Horder, 17, are of mixed race. Their mothers are both white and their fathers are black. According to the Multiple Births Foundation, baby Kian must have inherited the black genes from both sides of the family, whilst Remee inherited the white ones. [...] Skin colour is believed to be determined by up to seven different genes working together. The odds against of a mixed race couple having twins of dramatically different colour are a million to one.

Harry Browne Dead at 72

Kevin — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 02:18:40 +0000

Harry Browne, perennial (quadrennial?) Libertarian Party presidential candidate, has died at 72. bq.. Former Libertarian Party Presidential Candidate, noted scholar, and investment advisor Harry Browne died at his home in Franklin, TN on the night of March 1, 2006, after a long illness. A well-known inspirational speaker and writer, Harry was the author of 12 books that sold more than 2 million copies. In 1996 and 2000, he was the Libertarian Party’s candidate for President of the United States, with popular vote totals of 485,798 and 384,431 respectively. Harry was the founder of DownsizeDC.org, a non-profit group dedicated to reducing the size of government and forcing governmental institutions into compliance with the Constitution. He authored several popular books on the libertarian movement and philosophy including, Why Government Doesn’t Work and The Great Libertarian Offer. In addition to these works on Libertarianism, Harry wrote investment advice books including You Can Profit from a Monetary Crisis and Fail-Safe Investing. During Harry Browne’s campaigns, he made appearances in almost every state and was credited with over 1,000 media appearances. He was often praised by the media, and won the endorsements of multiple talk-show hosts and journalists. “Harry Browne’s actions and rhetoric were inspirations for me,” stated Sam New, acting director of communications for the Libertarian Party. “Through Harry’s writings, I began to understand what Libertarianism is. I trace the beginning of my involvement with the Party to him. His contributions to the Party will forever be evident. Harry will truly be missed by many supporters, followers, and friends around the world.”

Jupiter is Growing a new Red Spot!

Kevin — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 19:28:02 +0000

From science.nasa.gov: bq.. The official name of this storm is "Oval BA," but "Red Jr." might be better. It's about half the size of the famous Great Red Spot and almost exactly the same color. Oval BA first appeared in the year 2000 when three smaller spots collided and merged. Using Hubble and other telescopes, astronomers watched with great interest. A similar merger centuries ago may have created the original Great Red Spot, a storm twice as wide as our planet and at least 300 years old. At first, Oval BA remained white—the same color as the storms that combined to create it. But in recent months, things began to change: "The oval was white in November 2005, it slowly turned brown in December 2005, and red a few weeks ago," reports Go. "Now it is the same color as the Great Red Spot!" "Wow!" says Dr. Glenn Orton, an astronomer at JPL who specializes in studies of storms on Jupiter and other giant planets. "This is convincing. We've been monitoring Jupiter for years to see if Oval BA would turn red—and it finally seems to be happening." (Red Jr? Orton prefers "the not-so-Great Red Spot.") Why red? Curiously, no one knows precisely why the Great Red Spot itself is red. A favorite idea is that the storm dredges material from deep beneath Jupiter's cloudtops and lifts it to high altitudes where solar ultraviolet radiation--via some unknown chemical reaction—produces the familiar brick color. "The Great Red Spot is the most powerful storm on Jupiter, indeed, in the whole solar system," says Orton. The top of the storm rises 8 km above surrounding clouds. "It takes a powerful storm to lift material so high," he adds.

The Torn-Up Credit Card Application

Kevin — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 19:36:31 +0000

OK, now this just pisses me off. Just so you know, I'm currently on hold with American Express's fraud dept, as I just discovered four fraudulant charges on my latest statement. This has happened to me every 6 months or so over the past few years that I've been actively shopping online. While I'm (not so) patiently waiting to speak to someone, I read this (from cockeyed.com): bq.. You should probably buy a shredder today. I wasn't sure if just tearing a Credit Card application into tiny bits was good enough to prevent dumpster-diving theft, so I did a test. I tore one up, then taped it back together again, filled it out with a DIFFERENT address and CELL number. Sure enough, in four weeks I was rewarded with a shiny new card with a $5,000 limit. Now I guess I'll go buy a shredder with this card. p. My God, just how dumb *are* the credit card companies?!?

Will Wright's "Spore"

Kevin — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 03:54:32 +0000

Will Wright, creator of SimCity, The Sims, and other sim-games, discusses and demos his latest masterpiece, Spore, at the 2005 Game Developer Conference. This game looks like a must buy! It's coming out in Q4 2006.