Flutterby™! From 2000-08-01 to 2000-08-29

Swaziland's government is going to ban miniskirts to curb the spread of aids??? I know things are pretty desperate over there but couldn't the government do something more pragmatic? like say... outlawing the color PINK

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

EEEK!Look out Lorena Bobbit

Well, I'm back from a weekend down near Fresno, Charlene decided I needed to see her old haunts. Probably be a rant on this in a little bit, among other things it was a harsh reminder that the Bay Area is a different country. Learned how to wake board, discovered once again that I'm really not a part of the power boat culture. Went up into the national forest near King's Canyon and spent a day lounging naked next to a waterfall. A little sore today, but that'll pass...

[ related topics: Dan's Life ]

In light of "Bush and Gore? This year's presidential election sounds like pay per view", Barry suggests some bumper stickers. For the Republicans, "Ya can't beat Dick 'n' Bush in 2000!" and "I like Dick 'n' Bush!", and for everyone else, "Lick Bush and beat Dick in 2000!", which Eric updates to "Bush n' Dick in 2000? Someone's gonna get screwed!", and Hank Fray suggests that the Log Cabin Republicans prefer... Oh, nevermind. Groan.

[ related topics: Politics ]

New RISKS Digest has a quick rundown of the house proceedings on the "Carnivore" email monitor, a cute hack to steal passwords from PayPal customers by confusing "l" and "I", yet another Outlook Trojan bug along with the usual assortment of stupid systems implementation tricks.

[ related topics: Web development Microsoft ]

An even newer RISKS Digest has a note on that IE bug that shows you different HTML than really exists and elaborations on more of the usual stupidities.

[ related topics: Web development ]

The Atlanta Linux Showcase is coming up October 10-14 at the Cobb Galleria. I went in the Spring and found it to be a very productive confernce. I plan to spend more time this year, maybe hit some of the Technical presentations, the Benefit Dinner and the Dave and Buster's trip!

[ related topics: Free Software ]

I've added a new category for notes on Coyote Grits, a little ways down the road I'll probably slap up a "diary of a startup" page. Since Coyote Grits is funded from our own shallow pockets, Todd and I are reluctant to outfit the new digs with the latest Herman Miller (warning, requires lots o' JavaScript) stuff, but we still want something that goes beyond folding tables. Todd's wife Danea is a construction manager, and when we were talking about furnishing the new digs she recommended Ikea. I'm impressed. For a little over $500 we outfitted the conference room with a table and 6 chairs, in birch. The chairs are solid wood, the table's got some veneer, which squicked us a little but if it holds up it's hard to tell. Except for one notch on one chair that wasn't drilled quite deep enough assembly was braindead, and the Allen wrenches they supplied even had the little ball swivel thingies machined on one end. We've still gotta run cable (I'm typing this on my laptop connected to my server/router dragged in from home connected to my Ricochet so we can test the wiring 'til we can get DSL) and do something about desks and bookshelves, but we can put those in as-needed. I think some of the Berkeley scrap yards are gonna get raided for server racks...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

As I take some machines into the new office I'm thinking about how my home network is configured. I still think I need a server to manage my 'net interface to my other computers and beef up some of my shared in-house resources so I can make my laptop my primary at home machine, but I'd still like to cut down on my power consumption (Granted I've had a Windows development box running, but $70 for a month of electricity in the summer seems a little steep). The latest Linux Journal also has a review of the Symphony wireless network cards that makes me think it's time to ditch the 50' CAT5 cable I've got draped across my living room. So: Anyone got suggestions for building an ultra-low power box that can handle three PCI cards (two ethernet, one wireless) and some disk (could be a laptop drive), at least 32 meg of memory and maybe a serial port? Enough power to run Samba, Apache, MySQL and maybe, if memory's cheap enough, a few apps as an X client. I figure it's gotta be possible to do this in under 10 watts, preferably from a wall brick or something so that if I start to play with 12 or 24 volt alternative power systems (I still think about a solar array for Burning Man that I could use year 'round) I can cobble a reasonable supply for it.

[ related topics: Free Software Burning Man Interactive Drama Wireless Cool Science Microsoft ]

Thanks to all those who sent notes about the spelling errors on the Coyote Grits web page, those responsible will be made to pull hundreds of feet of network cable <voice tone="Bond villain">muahahahahaha</voice>.

Some new Eric Boutillier-Brown photo entries.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Charles suggests a real presidential option: Twain 2000.

Some people will try anything to save on airfare. This is definatly not a recommended method.

Why wireless will take over the world: Yesterday we tried to run the phone cable from the Coyote Grits offices down to the telephone room. After dealing with several fire walls, negotiating with our neighbors ("Yes, all the cables between floors really do go down inside of a wall accessible only from your offices"), and finally coming up against some impassible duct work, we broke down and called a guy who's done this in this building before. In the mean time we went and bought a cordless phone and stashed the base station in the phone room. Since we're also waiting for DSL, I dragged my much maligned Ricochet in and had the office on the net, albeit slowly, which replaced the cable plugged in to the serial port in the bottom of Todd's cell phone. Say what you will about the advantages of monster bandwidth and streaming audio and video and what-have-you, between these experiences and the OmniSky which has become a regular part of my overloaded pockets, I'm far more impressed by 'net anywhere than by fast 'net.

[ related topics: Wireless Music ]

French Toast School Uniforms. Available in larger sizes...

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

Mouthorgan pointed to tales from the penis: toyland which reminded me that some day I'm gonna have to start making my bed so that I can put cute stuffed creatures on it so that people who come over to visit will drop into the bedroom to put down their coats or something and say "oh, how cyoooo..." and never finish the sentence. To whit: the Beanis.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture ]

Well yeesh, it's no wonder that the Repugnicans want to repeal the "marriage penalty", they need further economic incentive to lure women in to marriage because single women make more. "Women living alone increasingly comprise the strongest consumer block in much the same way that yuppies did in the '80s," said futurist Marian Salzman, head of Young & Rubicam's forecasting group The Intelligence Factory.

[ related topics: Web development ]

I hope that I'm finally done with my annoying experiences with InstallShield for Windows Installer, but just in case John passes along the Nullsoft SuperPimp install system. Alas, it doesn't look like it does the Windows Installer database, but maybe I can get a few companies to blow off Win2k certification...

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

The allocation of machines between Coyote Grits and home is making me reevaluate some of my computer use (that dual processor box is really wasted reading email and news...), so I've moved my email to my laptop, using XEmacs and vm. I've installed the Insidious Big Brother Database, set up a macro to go back and look at all the messages I've gotten on the laptop, and all of a sudden address completion works in a monstrously big way... Next up, synching this (both ways) with my Palm address book.

[ related topics: Web development Books ]

Sorry for the quiet day, I was sitting down to some productive documentation writing when the old Connor 540 meg drive which ran my server (which is currently our office gateway) for many years bit the dust. Of course I had one thing that wasn't backed up: The password to the POP account for Ricochet, which I only need because it lets me send outboud mail (?hello, they have my modem serial number, what else could they possibly want?). Anyway, there's apparently a bug in the Ricochet firmware which conflicts with the PPP in the 2.2.16 kernel, so I had trouble even getting the gateway back up and running... To tide y'all over, how about Ninjaburger, "30 minutes or we commit sepukku"?

[ related topics: Privacy ]

One positive for the weekend: Charlene and I made a lot of progress on an art project for Burning Man. Did some plaster casting, got some of the digitized sound electronics installed. The project is growing on me, it's very interactive and allows a whole lot of expressiveness by the participants within a fairly defined, but not rule based, framework. It's largely audio, I don't know if I'm going to be able to record that part of it, but I'll try to set up a web site with the pertinent stuff afterwards... And no, I'm not gonna tell you what it is, it's a surprise.

[ related topics: Burning Man Interactive Drama Music Dan's Life ]

Your running out of excuses why not to buy a Palm because now there is a Claudia Schiffer model(yes pun intended). anyhow look at the amazing new technology they cram into this extra special model(the palm not the girl). Also, there is a rumour that there is champane version coming out too.

Shamelessly stolen from Camworld The Fray Event is also happening in the bayarea also on September 22nd. If your around it looks like a good time...

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett Interactive Drama Web development ]

Cape Canaveral tries to oust Floating Bordello.

The current Straight Dope talks about recycling versus disposal, and like so many before makes a reasonable economic case for disposal, until you look at the DOE's realization that nuclear sites are not only permanently unsafe, the contamination is leaching, and realize that perhaps we need to look at how the theory translates into facts a little more closely, especially when we consider how cavalierly most of us treat household hazardous wastes like batteries and old electronics... (Observations that 35 miles square is 1225 square miles which is ballpark a little over 128,000 acres which is a hella-lotta land will be cheerfully glossed over...).

[ related topics: Web development ]

Mouthorgan on Joe Lieberman as Gore's VP says a lot of the things I'm thinking. The economic policies of a Democrat with the social restrictions of a Republican. I thought I might have to vote against Shrub if it looked like Gore was gonna lose, now I'm not sure there is a lesser of the evils and Harry Browne is one vote up.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Sexual Culture ]

Following up on the whole Sovereign Citizen thing, Seth passes along White Man's Ghost Dance, an essay on the notion of Common Law and why those who claim Sovereign Citizenship are courting the same sort of mythos that the Ghost Dancers who felt invulnerable to bullets did.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Todd and I went to the Churchill Club last night for a panel on wireless. No real surprises, Ben Waldeman, VP of mobile devices for Microsoft, was pushing the does everything with lots of flash model, "somehow we've always found a way to use additional CPU". Carl Yankowski, CEO of Palm was much more focused on function. The bright spot was Venk Shukla, CEO of Everypath who seemed to understand that design, and not technical limitations, is much of the problem. Jacob Christfort, CTO of OracleMobile was pushing "single source, many renderings", while Yankowski and Shukla both seemed to realize that the nature of the data that people are looking for varies from device to device, and tailoring the information to the use is important, Palm seems to think that machine solutions to clipping the useful bits seems to be necessary, something that brings up all those copyright issues that web based proxy browsers have been dredging through. And there was also a clear split between the "one device should do everything" and the "every device has a purpose", but little pondering on what BlueTooth and other technologies might mean for interoperability.

[ related topics: Wireless Microsoft ]

I wish people who kept talking about trying to paradigm shift would learn how to use the clutch. It'd grate less.

So how did I miss this? In between version 6 and 7, PostgreSQL turned into a real database. After a little playing around with it I've found that it's clearly a lot slower than MySQL and doesn't have as many useful built in data types, but since it's got extensible types that might be an acceptable tradeoff given the triggers and transactions (although transactions seem useful less often than I thought for web apps). If I were doing a hundred thousand comments a day, MySQL would be the clear choice, but I think I'm gonna switch to PostgreSQL and see how that treats me.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

While I'm cavalierly blowing web server computer power as though I had it, I'm starting to play with AxKit, Matt Sargeant's XML to whatever plug-in for Apache.

[ related topics: Free Software Web development Content Management ]

Via the latest AVWeb Flash, what happens when you toss a couple of model airplane engines on a 1 person airplane, a super lightweight twin engine jet.

[ related topics: Web development Cool Science ]

Funny 'cause it's true: Can anyone in Silicon Valley pass the Turing test? Kinda reminds me of Eric and my experience at Webzine 2000, assuming that the people there were kind of interested in independent content and publishing on the 'net I asked a guy "what web site defines you?". He said "I've got a website that sells handmade chairs." I mean, that's kinda cool and all, but did he come for the free drinks (I was paying $1.50 for water, so I don't think so), or what?

[ related topics: Web development ]

Free speech wins one! Silly Porn Law overturned.

[ related topics: Web development Erotic Sexual Culture ]

QOTD: "the finest moments in life have been the very reverse of Christian religion and morality"

--- Verrier Elwin

[ related topics: Religion Quotes ]

I got this nasty infection that makes it difficult to sit, and I'm taking some monster horse-pill antibiotics and told to soak the affected area 4-5 times per day in water as hot as I can possibly stand. So I've spent a bit o' time in the bathtub and laying on my stomach. Since typing is pretty much impossible, after I finished Damian Conway's excellent Object Oriented Perl I decided that if I was gonna be sick, I may as well catch up on some long past due pleasure reading. So I picked up Savaging the Civilized: Verrier Elwin, His Tribals, & India by Ramachandra Guha. I'd gotten this book because I'd heard of Elwin in the context of his "philanthropology" (some wag has also called it "philanderanthropology") amongst various tribes in India outside the Hindu mainstream, where he discovered variations on polyamory, promiscuity, and sexual norms unfetterd by the Christian and Hindu restrictions. The book did not live up to my prurient motivations, it covered Elwin's life and left the coverage of those customs to his books, but I got a good overview of India through the first half of the 20th century. From going to India as a Christian missionary, finding common common work within Ghandi's cause, and then finding that Ghandi's intolerance was as distasteful as that of the church he'd left, it's a remarkable story of a man trying to find a home and instead discovering causes. Longer review coming, but if you're into scholarly autobiographies it's an interesting read.

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Web development Books Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Down and out in San Francisco? Eat a pigeon, the renewable protein source that's the other, other white meat. I guess Tom Lehrer was wrong when he wrote "but it's not against any religion, to want to dispose of a pigeon..."

[ related topics: Religion Web development ]

Hef's in a huff after the cancellation of that fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion. Gee, maybe after all this scrambling by Democrats to look like Republicans and vice-versa we'll end up with parties aligned along axiis that actually matter for an election or two, with one of the major parties actually willing to stand up for freedom as those who believe in same are abandoned, although game theory and the embrace of pragmatism suggest that that wouldn't actually be a stable state.

[ related topics: Politics Web development Privacy Games ]

It's been a while since I've pointed to a new NETFUTURE, I found that the cries for stability were too much of a call for stasis, but the recent one has a section on the "golden rice" thingie, which speaks to me especially because many of the issues that Savaging the Civilized brought up about introducing technologies without contexts into cultures other than our own.

[ related topics: Web development Technology and Culture ]

Anyone out there know an affordable solution to transferring some data that might still reside on 5.25" Apple //c disks? I assume ProDOS, but they might be DOS3.3.

[ related topics: Apple Computer ]

Ages ago in a previous life, a sysop I knew put "Press ctrl-alt-del to continue" on one of the sign-up screens to his BBS. He used to count the number of carrier drops it took a person to successfully log-in. I waver between laughing at people who fall for that stuff, and thinking "well, maybe it's okay that they don't understand that particular underlying technology". Columbine reports a new favorite: Effective immediately, any customers who do not rewind their DVDs will be charged a $20 fee.

Life imitates "Airplane", the movie

[ related topics: Cool Science ]

Man, I missed my chance when Joel Furr was selling that "The Internet is full, go home" shirt. Now we've got people confusing the domain name system with a search engine, leading to some problems for Survivor Software. Recap so you're not just sucking off his bandwidth quota, Survivor.com is not the TV show, but fans don't seem to realize this, and even some morons at CBS have been pointing banner ads to it... I take back all those nice things I once said about Jakob Nielsen, the 'net is already way too easy to use.

[ related topics: Web development User Interface Technology and Culture ]

Via Genehack, Debian 2.2 is released, I'll be ordering a couple o' disks so that I have them on hand at the various places I might need 'em.

[ related topics: Free Software John S Jacobs-Anderson ]

One of my whines has been that this whole "technology in the schools" thing isn't curriculum driven, and that the promise of the computer in the classroom is much like the promise of the television in the classroom in the '70s. Reading, Writing and Candy Ads confirms that fear.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development Technology and Culture ]

About to install Perl 5.6 and PostgreSQL, if there seem to be issues in the database backed portions over the next day or so, that's what's happening.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Okay, Perl 5.6 is up and working, Postgres is going to wait 'til after Burning Man. But at least the scripts work again.

[ related topics: Burning Man ]

iToke: web based marijuana delivery. Yes, it appears serious.

[ related topics: Drugs Web development ]

Whew. Burning Man prep occupying my mind and time. I've got most of the new seats cut for the quadricycle, I've got to get three more bits cast for the sculpture, finish installing the sound, but I think I've got the shade structure for it figured out. Todd got a trailer to haul all this crap out to the playa with. Costumes are coming together less than I'd hoped, but I think we'll be well represented. I was hoping to build a bike trailer, but that's not gonna happen, I guess McTool and Handyman, superheroes of Black Rock City, will have to find other ways to carry their stuff. If you're gonna be up there, I think we're gonna be near 4:00 and Guts.

[ related topics: Burning Man Interactive Drama ]

Here's one for John of Genehack. Phil's musings about biotech have turned me on to A Low-Cost Approach to PCR(ISBN 0-19-511926-6). I've only read the intro and done a quick skim of one of the appendices, but this looks very cool. PCR is Polymerase Chain Reaction, the book steps through how to take a DNA sample, replicate it enough that you can do something interesting with it, then use gel electrophoresis to be able to compare it to other samples. Not quite sequencing ala the human genome project, but comparisons of the sort that many crime labs do. One of its targets is doctors and clinics in third world countries who could use this method to, for instance, classify infections within a day rather than having to do culturing which can take weeks, or inspectors who want to verify exactly what sort of meat is being sold in a market, but it looks like fun. As if I needed another project, I'm keeping my eyes open for an old record player (to make a horizontal shaker, and two blenders (for a centrifuge and a vortex mixer)...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Books John S Jacobs-Anderson ]

Following up on that mention of A Low Cost Approach to PCR yesterday, three Scientific American articles: Spooling the Stuff of Life, Sorting Molecules with Electricity and PCR at Home. It's a shame that the DNA for anything interesting has roughly the same information content as a complete human, 'cause there are a lot of hobbiests who play with things like flowers and yeasts for brewing and such who have the motivation to really contribute to our knowledge if some of this stuff works its way down to the level that amateurs can explore it.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Cool Science ]

I'm really glad the TV is stashed in my spare room: Salon has an article by someone who's been watching the web feeds for comparison on just how forced and contrived the "reality" of Big Brother is.

[ related topics: Web development Technology and Culture ]

Marylaine explores the fine line between helpfulness and meddling.

[ related topics: Web development Marylaine Block ]

That yellow first down line that we saw on televised football games last season and those replaced billboards that we saw on CBS's coverage of the new year have bothered me on a subliminal level since seeing them. This article in Technology Review brought home why.

But the ramifications of this new technology reach beyond satellite imagery. As live electronic manipulation becomes practical, the credibility of all video will become just as suspect as Soviet Cold War photos. The problem stems from the nature of modern video. Live or not, it is made of pixels, and as Livingston says, pixels can be changed.

[ related topics: Games ]

It's been a while since I've posted a new RISKS digest, since this update's a little late you've probably already run into all the issues elsewhere, nothing stands out.

[ related topics: Web development ]

The misanthropic bitch provides a quick reference to the presidential election. For instance, on Al Gore: Pro: He wants to expand anti-drug policies. But you're safe if you're related to him and attend Harvard. Con: He wants to expand anti-drug policies. In his youth, he put Cheech and Chong to shame, which means he's even more rabid about his anti-drug stance.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Web development Sexual Culture ]

I finally got sick of the web browser that came with the OmniSky, and tried installing ProxiWeb. Need to use it for a few days to see what all it does, and I haven't yet figured out their revenue model, but my initial impression is "wow, this is actually a product".

[ related topics: Web development Wireless New Economy ]

Chocolate: for better teeth.

I don't know how many of you ex-Pixarians read this, but if you do, Leo's started a networking and socializing mailing list for us. Send e-mail to majordomo@expixar.org with "subscribe cutting your@email.address" in the body of the message and wait for either Leo or me to approve it. It's not a bitch session, it's a way to keep in touch with some of the smartest and most creative people in the world as they go on to other things. Also, I'll be setting up forwarding from yourpixarlogin@expixar.org/com/net to the email address of your choice for ex-Pixarians who want an easy way to be found by others who've shared the experience.

[ related topics: Pixar Interactive Drama Animation ]

Since a few other 'bloggers have linked to it, Joel is wrong about anti-aliased text, but not for the reasons you think. He's wrong because he's lumping sub-pixel positioning in with anti-aliasing. Adobe figured this out years ago, back when they were playing with aliasing issues on early laser printers and added ways for fonts to hint that verticals need to get locked to a pixel line. And on the whole Microsoft ClearType thing, is everyone in this business so young that they no longer remember the Apple ][ hi-res mode?

[ related topics: Apple Computer Microsoft ]

Whoops! There's a bug in PGP's key server protocol, a fix is forthcoming...

Anyone out there have resources to figure out Lotus Ami Pro format? It looks almost straightforward, but a little more info would let me completely automate The Baltic web page.

Wanna hear live music in a mellow atmosphere in beautiful Point Richmond, California? I've put the September schedule up for The Baltic

[ related topics: Web development Music ]

I don't know why I've been so reluctant to track the whole Napster thing, perhaps because everyone else has been doing it so well, but I'm also trying to figure out my own feelings on the intellectual property issues involved. DeCSS has similar issues. So I'm going to steal a couple of links. Via Dave Winer, A CNN article that points to DeCSS mirror sites, in violation of the judgement the MPAA just got, which is particularly ironic because CNN is a subsidiary of Time-Warner which is a member of the MPAA. In the past few Dave also pointed out some other wonderfully ironic goofs made by AOL subsidiaries throughout this whole mess. Also seen at Dave's site and at the weblog of Rafe Colburn, the DeCSS source code set to music as an MP3 which I haven't played 'cause I've never bothered to set up a player. Rafe also points to proof that Sony doesn't get it, in threatening to block Napster at all sorts of places they don't understand that as long as people can communicate with each other files will get transferred and shared. Those in the entertainment industry: Wake up, there's a reason your consumers hate you, and if you piss them off more you're only hurting yourself, no matter what the short-term benefits.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Web development Music Weblogs Dave Winer ]

Via Backup Brain, Nader condemns assisted suicide law. A couple of people who only know me peripherally, but have heard my rants against the Demoblicans and the Republocrats, have asked me if I'm pro-Nader. For a whole bunch of reasons, starting with Unsafe At Any Speed, that'd be "No".

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Web development ]

Also via Backup Brain, the text of that DeCSS song.

[ related topics: Music ]

Damn, it's a shame Burning Man is this week, 'cause the whole "linking to DeCSS" thing has lots o' evolving promise. Dave Winer pointed to places Go/Disney links to CSS, to round out the hypocrisy, here are some places that AOL links to DeCSS sources.

[ related topics: Burning Man Dave Winer ]

Ages ago I wrote a quick sketch on the history of abortion which, despite its brevity and lack of citations (something I hope to fix), still gets me lots of mail. That piece talks about the history from a belief standpoint, here's a couple of functional links: Herbal Abortion, "if you can bake a cake, you can make an abortion"; Preventing and Ending Pregnancy; in the Medicinal herb FAQ there's a section on Herbal Abortives and Birth Control. Obviously since this information is on the net it must be true, and I'd also think about mainstream solutions first, but it's always interesting to look at historical options.

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Web development Sexual Culture ]

Mary Anne Mohanraj, editor of the new book Aqua Erotica, has been obsessing over it (scroll down to the 22nd) in her diary. I ordered it from my local bookstore (because I'm a good citizen of my community), and haven't had a chance to read much, but what I've read thus far has been pretty predictable, I like Thomas S. Roche and Carol Queen, but Poppy Z. Brite just leaves me limp, mainly because I don't think death is erotic. There may be something more, though, I find that writing like Debra Hyde's diary entries manage to communicate the effect of the "kinks" on her, whereas a lot of the current wave of erotica seems to expect that description of the kinks alone suffices. The writers I most connect with manage the former. Anyway, unlike others, I haven't found the waterproofness or the small type off-putting, and I've enjoyed a few of the stories, but I'm still seeking that editor who manages to collect the stories that really match my kinks.

[ related topics: Web development Books Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Well, chances of my doing anything 'nettish between now and driving to the playa tomorrow are 'round about nil, so see y'all in a week and change, or up in Black Rock City. We expect to be around 4:00 and Guts, but look for "Flutterby" on the location board or ask around Firetown. See y'all at Burning Man.

[ related topics: Burning Man ]

new RISKS digest notes that New York is running out of numbers to assign to fingerprint IDs, and will begin recycling soon (expect that go to smoothly); pranking cellphones with trojan horses; autonomous armed police robots in Thailand (Oh, there's a good idea...); the usual stupidities about those who use SSNs for ID (wasn't that once illegal?); and more! This one's well worth a perusal.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Do it for the rug rats starts out: IF THE political exploitation of children were a crime, most of our political leaders would be doing hard time. Put 'em away, I say. Three "do it for the childrens" and you're out.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Politics ]

Okay, one more: Via Baylink via Weblogging considered harmful comes the great internet pedophilia scare which points out that we're doing way more harm to children by scaring them with irrational fears than by protecting them from non-existent predators. It sure seems to me like most of the convictions we've seen thus far have been clear entrapment coupled with a jury of mouthbreathers that's easily lead to conclusions based on paranoia.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Web development Sexual Culture ]

Yikes! I can't help myself. Really, I should do the last few things for Burning Man prep while I try to get in touch with Todd so we can get the big stuff loaded from my house. But I do want to note that on the Scotch Night Sunday morning hike out near Stinson Beach (up Dipsea to the Steep Ravine, through Pantoll and back down the Matt Davis Trail) I saw (and heard) rattlesnakes in the wild for the first time. Several of them, big buggers all. And for the rest of the hike my ankles felt very, very vulnerable.

[ related topics: Burning Man ]

Welp, heading out to the playa tomorrow. Gawd there is a lot to do yet. After just chastising Dan for having panties in a bunch and fretting over preperations for a week of fun and relaxing, I can now return to my own quiet panic of preperation. 3 types of duct tape....check... and so forth. Burning Man is different for everyone but I tend to take a philisophical bend when there. Last year I read Dante's Paradiso (the section of the Divine Comedy people avoid and for good reason) and so this year I am bringing A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi for the light reading on the playa. As Dan already mentioned we'll be at or near 4th & Gut getting mellow. You can recognize the camp from the wind powered fornicating bears...

[ related topics: Burning Man Politics Books ]

This bizarre tale of a Chinese bureaucrat attempting to cover her past may be telling of the real reason for the break up of communism around the world. It may be that the spread of capitalism is taking more of the credit than it is due.

China is carrying out an extended drive against endemic corruption, which President Jiang Zemin said has threatens the rule of the Communist Party.



In a speech published in April, Jiang specifically cited the exchange of power for sex by top cadres as one example of behavior that would incur harsh punishments.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

I'm beginning to really take a likeing to e-books. I've bought several books from Peanut Press and I've been very satisfied so far. I'm still a little shy about paying the same amount for a new release in e-format as I am for a paperback or a hardback, mainly due to the fact that I can always take these to a used bookstore for trade while that isn't possible with an e-book, but I'm very willing to pay the four or five dollars for the out-of-print books that are so common in e-format. I'm glad to see that Seybold Seminars is holding a one-day event dedicated to e-books. Hopefully we will see more of these and a commonsense approach to commercial publishing in electronic format will develop.

[ related topics: Web development Books ]