Flutterby™! From 2001-09-01 to 2001-09-30

I enjoy the show Battlebots but their lawyers are doing their best to keep me from that enjoyment. Read this and then you may want to send email here.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Law ]

Ow. Wow. Whoah. I'm back from Burning Man. Spending today unpacking, cleaning Todd's truck (Alas, having Patricia tow the trailor fell through). We're going to have to drag Todd to a kickin' decompression party once we get the pictures back. Personal victories and accomplishments:

1. Hearing "Oh yeah, I saw your piece like this last year out near the trash fence, and it was one of the first things I told people about when I was describing Burning Man to people who didn't come", especially since that piece got destroyed in a storm on Wednesday last year.
2. Being in costume, walking past two guys dressed in very street clothes with cameras, taking pictures of a naked woman who was posing for them, and having them turn away from her to take a picture of me. Woohoo! Upstaged a naked chick!

[ related topics: Burning Man Photography Todd Gemmell ]

I didn't get to do the rain dance this year and I fear my crops will wither this year if I do not make amends. My first act of penance is to make a pilgrimage to The Di Rosa Art & Nature Preserve. There is a notice that some of the art may not be age appropriate so I might have to yank the girls from school so they can see naked statues copulating before someone tells them it's wrong.

[ related topics: Burning Man Children and growing up Nature and environment Art & Culture ]

The article indicates that HP is going after Big Blue but I can't help but think they are tired of Dell beating them up. Yes, there is more than PC sales going on here. Wouldn't it be cool if HP became research focused like IBM has in recent years?

[ related topics: Technology and Culture New Economy ]

Rember when the net had everyones homepage with a picture of their cat. Well here's a Rabbit Otaku who happens to be a photographer. It's a silly link but sometimes we need that.

I feel remiss in having let this go so long. I may have mentioned this a while back, and Dylan's probably too proud to post it himself, but Dylan's looking for a job in the Bay Area. If you need a computer person with good customer interaction and support skills, who learns quickly, who adamantly calls himself more admin-ish and customer-support-ish and disavows any programming knowledge but can fix scripts, who's got a fairly good knowledge of Windows, including registry issues and other stuff that I've tried to remain ignorant of, and who can do some mean InstallShield (although he'll kill me for mentioning that) and reasonable database work, you could do a lot worse.

[ related topics: Microsoft Coyote Grits ]

I first read about this several weeks ago, but here is the latest development in the case of a man who has been jailed for his thoughts. The incriminating evidence? His personal journal. Whether or not we believe that what he wrote is sickening, they were not a record of his actions - only his thoughts and musings. This sets a very frightening precedence, my friends...

[ related topics: Law ]

Mark Morford "gets" Burning Man:

I have seen far too many visions and experienced far too many sensory inputs and mental spankings and heartfelt funky communal connections to be able to capture them all in words -- and that, I have realized, is much of the point of Burning Man.

[ related topics: Burning Man Journalism and Media Mark Morford ]

Phil turned me on to the idea of Parasitic Computing. Rather than strict cracking, this takes the idea that you can use things like TCP/IP checksums to do real computation, and raises all sorts of interesting ethical questions about resource use.

[ related topics: Ethics ]

The /. story simulator might make Rob Malda have to find another line of work...

[ related topics: Humor ]

Here is a really great photo album of this year's event

[ related topics: Burning Man ]

Argh. My cable modem went out. The modem is making funny blinking patterns that I'm sure could be diagnosed if I could talk to someone knowledgeable enough. After 3 contacts with ATT Broadband tech support (the first attempts at which finally involved me entering some bizarre false ZIP code because "their database is screwed up", I've been walked through more "stand on your left foot, touch your right pinky to your left ear, and press reset" drills obviously meant to make sure I've got the cables plugged in correctly, I now have an appointment between 10 and noon on Tuesday for some guy to show up, say "your modem's bad, here's a new one", and leave. That is if the note to bring a new modem gets passed properly along. If only there were a "I've got a clue" card so I could talk to someone with a clue and we could save us both time and money. Sigh.

[ related topics: broadband ]

I took some time and finished The Government vs. Erotica: The Seige of Adam & Eve by Philip D. Harvey. It's the tale of his struggle with the US DOJ over obscenity prosecution of the Adam & Eve mail order company, from the initial assault on the company in 1986, through attempts to prosecute from as many different jurisdictions and community standards as possible, to, 7 years later, the Adam & Eve folks having to dig up a crime that they could plead guilty to (they eventually found a technical flaw in font size that violated postal regulations) so that the prosecutors could save face and everyone could avoid the additional costs of a trial. Probably nothing in here that Flutterby readers aren't already fairly familiar with, but some of the legal maneuvering is interesting, as is the reminder that it's up to all of us to fight for freedoms, and that the misapplication of law is a time-honored tradition.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture moron Law ]

A new story reported on Wired is looking a bit scary for mom-and-pop computer companies. The SSSCA aims to provide civil penalties for creating or selling a computer device that "does not include and utilize certified security technologies", and provide federal penalties (up to five years in prison and fines up to $500,000) for anyone with a networked computer who disables this mandatory copy protection.

[ related topics: Politics Web development Invention and Design Current Events ]

Reports - based on years of practice - out of Denmark nursing homes state that "pornography is healthier, cheaper and easier to use than medicine" for easing pains and tension in the elderly. Residents are also allowed regular visits by sex-workers. Just more evidence of our sexual backwardness here in the States...<sigh>

Story at: New York Times (registration required), and Ananova

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Went to the "break bread with Brad" yesterday. Lots o' cool people. Lots of fun discussion. Wish I could remember everyone's URLs, I need to spend some time tracking everyone down. A few things struck me:

• It's amazing that Dori and I seem to disagree on web standards and Macintoshes (Macintii? Macintiim? what is the plural?) online so much, and yet she's really fun to hang out and talk with in person.
• Wow, are webloggers obvious on a street corner.

In Marin county, no less: A California woman has filed a lawsuit against copy-protected CDs, saying that the album doesn't offer a disclaimer specifying that it won't work on computer CD players without registration of personal information.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Music Bay Area ]

Mary Anne reports that her first book, Torn Shapes of Desire, has been optioned by Venus Book Club, possibly depleting the original print run. Time to pack that autographed first edition in a nitrogen filled plastic bag...

[ related topics: Books Erotic ]

So you really liked the rocket launcher in Quake, but couldn't quite get over the non-reality of it? Via the Daily Illuminator, in France, man dies after challenging police to rocket launcher duel. I guess the more traditional flint-locks or revolvers are for pansies...

[ related topics: Humor Games moron Law Enforcement ]

My gawd! Watch the skies for those fluttering pigs, and pack the skis if you're headed for hell. That mythical beast; the Rational Politician has actually been spotted - and in numbers: The Sunday Times (UK) reports that Liberal Democrats in that country are calling for even more relaxed restrictions on pornography and a lowering of the viewing/purchasing age to 16. And that the policy is likely to be adopted. Will wonders never cease?

[ related topics: Politics Erotic Sexual Culture Current Events ]

Side splitting fun in this Burning Man News article. Yeah, I'm still flogging myself for missing it.

[ related topics: Burning Man Current Events ]

An enlightened point of view about Burning Man and Religion.

[ related topics: Religion Burning Man ]

CNN.com and the New York Times websites are completely slammed so I can't link to an article. Maybe Larry can find something on one of this aviation sites. In case you haven't heard, two rather large planes slammed into the World Trade Center in New York City this morning.

[ related topics: Aviation Law Current Events WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

I was going to try not to fall prey to the terror, but... Last night Phil, Bill and I got together for a few beers, and I think we've hashed out most of the questions, to no reasonable solution. Some of my unanswerables:

• Since I've been thinking about community a lot recently, especially in the wake of Burning Man, what is it that ties me closely to New York with so much a stronger bond than when accidents and deaths of similar magnitude occur elsewhere. Why does the changed New York skyline affect me more strongly than the changed Beirut skyline? And how does that bond differ from the bonds that lead to the attacks?
• If a religion posits that this life isn't the primary human experience, when am I at risk from its adherents at risk to die for their cause?
• What does this do to the suspense genre? Black Sunday suddenly seems tame in comparison.
• Seems like the next hijacker who just wants to go to Cuba is toast. Hopefully not the passengers as well, but this ups the ante in air-rage and similar threats while airborne, and seems to make a case for more weapons in the culture.
• Without caving to violence, how can we change foreign policy so that we're not consistently creating worst-case scenarios in countries with lots of turmoil? Is isolationism defensible?
• What assumptions about governments and their representations of civilian populations can I make? What does it mean to allow civilian acceptable losses in taking down a government?
• What cynicism makes me keep the Mossad on my short list?

No answers here, just some notes I can come back to later and see if I've come up with any answers.

[ related topics: Religion Burning Man Politics Sociology Law WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

Before yesterday's events I've been pondering what it means to give. I repeat with pride that my Dad once referred to my ethical structure as "right wing asshole", yet this year I've offered thousands of dollars and too many hours to total up to help friends and acquaintances in need, and reconciling these aspects of my philosophies doesn't come easily. In light of yesterday's events, a little unbridled patriotism seems in order, Mike and Eric dug up Gordon Sinclair's Let's Be Personal, a Canadian perspective on America, at least as things sat 25 years ago.

[ related topics: Politics Ethics Current Events WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

Fuck. I wanted to go back to living a normal life. I think we'll be able to get Charlene back from Burbank today via Amtrak assuming the derailment in Utah doesn't screw things up too badly (Dan at work had trouble with his commute from Davis today because of that). For news, Cam has been keeping up with things from Brooklyn and Dave has been keeping a pretty comprehensive list of everything, but, of course, what happened is past, and what's interesting now is what the reactions will be:

• John of Genehack muses on the fallacy of new security measures.
• Debra of Pursed Lips talks about fear.
• Kevin of Hornswoggled talks about his birthday.
• AVweb has notes on the incident from an air-savvy perspective

As the shock wears off, keep in mind this feeling of being able to meet people's eyes, of making connections, of shared purpose and trust with your neighbors, and try to find a way for that to happen without the carnage.

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett Politics John S Jacobs-Anderson Weblogs Dave Winer History Current Events WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

From AVweb:

"AVweb has also learned that this flight was being trailed by a military Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport during the final stages of its approach to the Pentagon. As the 757 struck the Pentagon and exploded, trained observers told AVweb that the C-130 executed what appeared to be "a high-G 180-degree turn" and departed the area."

What the hell?

[ related topics: Aviation WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

Phil Boyers, AOPA president, explains the continued grounding of IFR and VFR General Aviation.

[ related topics: Aviation WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

NY Times: Bush vows to erase terrorist networks, singling out Osama bin Laden. No. No. No. This needs to be taken in front of the UN Security Council and tried as a war crime. It's the frat-boy bar-fight attitude towards foreign policy that got us this hated to begin with.

[ related topics: Politics History WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

In honor of my linking to Let's Be Personal, Allan Connery passed along a National Post commentary on how Canadians view Americans.

Canadians know Americans as well as an outsider can, far better than those who unleashed the beast yesterday. To borrow from Winston Churchill in Britain's darkest hour, a half-century ago, we have been on their beaches, we have flown into their landing grounds, we have played in their fields and on their streets. They are our friends, and if as friends do, we have mocked them and caricatured them and been too often too quick to separate ourselves from them in our own pained quest for identity, we know the stuff of which they are made.

[ related topics: Politics Current Events WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

In the "maybe we can sneak this in while nobody's paying attention" department, Excite sells Blue Mountain Arts to American Greetings for 35 million, less than 1/20^th of what they paid for it. In other news, the Excite board amazingly hasn't excoriated the officers of the company and left them staked out in the sun over ant hills. Nobody can explain this incredible show of charity, maybe they're just grateful that Excite's CFO left without a fuss. And Cisco Systems has promised to buy back shares, just as soon as the markets open. Wow, does this read like a paragraph from Need To Know.

[ related topics: New Economy Current Events ]

A group arrested for a public orgy on a Spanish beach continued in the police van.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Current Events Law Enforcement ]

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson ally themselves with the terrorists, calling this retribution for, among other things, the ACLU.

[ related topics: Politics Current Events WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

Via Scripting News, Harry Browne goes further than I dared in condemning the US policies that lead to the attacks.

[ related topics: Politics Libertarian Dave Winer Current Events ]

Dave Winer published Mir Tamim Ansary on Afghanistan which provides a credible explanation for the attacks: The perpetrators want to force polarization and war. All the more reason to make this a UN matter.

[ related topics: Politics Dave Winer History WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

Man, Dave has been digging up some good stuff. Richard Dawkins on the WTC attacks. Maybe some of the more religous among us could pipe up with discussion on:

I am trying to call attention to the elephant in the room that everybody is too polite - or too devout - to notice: religion, and specifically the devaluing effect that religion has on human life. I don't mean devaluing the life of others (though it can do that too), but devaluing one's own life. Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end.

[ related topics: Religion Politics Dave Winer WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

Saw Tilsammans, subtitled as Together, last night with Charlene. A tale with promise that left me feeling kind of flat. A woman leaves an abusive husband with her children for the communal house that her brother lives in, and the story wraps up a bit too tidily. What I found most striking about the film was how much the director and the cinematographer learned during the making of the film; the quality of camera angles and choice of shots improved dramatically as the film wore on. A clue: Get out your camcorder and break off the zoom lever. Your efforts will be instantly dramatically better.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Movies ]

Oh yeah, like that's gonna do any good: Swaziland bans single young women from having sex for five years nominally to stop the spread of AIDS. Yet another example of people in denial with, if you'll pardon t he metaphor, their heads up their asses.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture moron Current Events ]

Either he's ignorant, or he's lying for political gain: Ashcroft says untrue things about current wiretap law, specifically that wiretaps are authorized for devices and not people. Current law clearly allows wiretaps for people. What's he trying to pull?

[ related topics: Politics Privacy moron ]

Rick Egan's photos contain some awsome Burning Man shots.

[ related topics: Burning Man Photography ]

First off, if you run Microsoft software, you are promulgating denial of service attacks on the net, this time via someething called the "Nimda" virus. But even worse than that, if you're forwarding virus alerts for non-existent viruses you're doing the same thing without running Microsoft software. Stop it, bozos!

[ related topics: Web development Microsoft moron ]

Sex & Heart attacks: German coroners are warning of the risks of heart attacks in brothels, and a man has heart attack after seeing his ex-wife in porn film. Meanwhile, in the "B&D/S&M/lmnop..., it's not just for role-players with safe-words" department: Canadian man still loves his wife, who ripped his testicles out after he came home drunk and slapped his son, and a driver parked on double yellow lines to meet a 'strict' traffic warden he'd fallen in love with. He has now married her.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Health Sociology Current Events ]

No source, and I haven't fact checked, but: If you bought $1000 of Nortel stock last year, you'd have $49 now. If you bought $1000 worth of Budweiser, drank it, crushed the cans and recycled them, you'd have $79.

[ related topics: Humor New Economy ]

Every U down in Uville liked U.S. a lot,

But the Binch, who lived Far East of Uville, did not.

The Binch hated U.S! the whole U.S. way!

Now don't ask me why, for nobody can say,

The story of the Binch in first reply

[ related topics: Humor WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

QOTD:

Today, I mistyped the URL of a porn site and ended up at the White House website.

--- Brad, September 19^th Must See HTTP:// entry.

[ related topics: Quotes Sexual Culture Weblogs ]

Via Doc Searls, Palm has screwed up big-time by demanding a name change from third party Palm fan sites. So now, rather than changing to the preferred Palm OS name and logo, those running the sites have said things like Jim McCarthy, proprietor of what used to be PalmGuru.com and is now PocketAnywhere.com: "I decided it would be best for me to change my name because I never wanted this issue to rise up again." We've seen this over and over again, if you let the dipshit lawyers get involved, you'll see what would be a nice small company try to become a huge company on the basis of its ability to piss off its customers. That only works short term.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property New Economy moron ]

So in the Bush call for a "War on Terror" he's created an Office of FatherHomeland Security, appointing Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge to head it. Presumably the Boy Scouts are going to change to brown shirts. But at least it seems that enough restraint is being shown that we're not going to bomb any pharmaceuticals plants in Sudan, claiming falsely that they're producing nerve gas on the basis of poorly designed web pages. I can't find the article I read where the Mossad threw serious doubts on the Bin Laden theory, but given that the FBI is no longer sure about the identities of the hijackers, I think we should be clear about when political maneuvering is about stopping domestic terror, and when it's about an excuse to attack the Taliban.

[ related topics: Politics History Current Events WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

I've mused before that perhaps it's wishful thinking, but we seem to be involved in a consciousness shift about government and hierarchy. If government is an illusion in the mind of the governed (thank you Robert Anton Wilson), then human cultures should start to evolve self-organizing entities to acheive goals. There has been considerable attention paid to the quality of weblog response to the WTC bombings, how various interested 'blogs got images and reports in a much more coalesced and cogent manner than most of the big media outlets. Of course the attacks themselves seem to have been much more self-organizing than previous attacks. Obviously we've seen self-organizing behavior with San Francisco's Critical Mass bicyclist rally. And Open Source software seems to be a step towards self-organization and self-motivation without centralized control. No conclusions yet, but I think there's an idea there that bears some exploration.

[ related topics: Free Software Weblogs Bay Area Software Engineering WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

Alec took me to Fairgrounds Paintball for my first paintball experience today. Not quite as cool as I'd imagined, although some of that is probably that this was all fairly tight indoors arena play, next time we'll go some place with big outdoors regions. And rental paintball guns are extremely innacurate, and rental face shields tend to fog up, so the fairly dark indoors thing often degenrated into "get behind something, popping up occasionally to empty an ammo container downrange". Even so, over lunch we played with a few of the serious folks in the larger brighter arena, and things started to come together. Lots of communications and tactics, and I realized that running isn't what gets you tagged, sitting still is. And I got my first "cool, I meant to take that guy out, and did" experience. So I did a lot of charging in the afternoon, where I realized that when you have to sit still, it's a good idea to have chosen the where to sit still very carefully. In one such charge I made it fairly deep into the enemy side, then realized that what I thought was my empty flank was actually occupied. So I got winged. But then walking out defeated through enemy territory (gun held high overhead with the muzzle plug in) I came by someone's hiding space and got hit in the thigh at point-blank. That's gonna smart. Anyway, a moderately fun, albeit very expensive, way to spend a day.

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

Dori linked to What Happens Next? Six options beyond war and peace, that lays out various attitudes about responses in a very clear way. Seth Gordon passed along his Goldstein, bin Laden, and Orwell, in which he talks about the use of redirection in discussion of atrocities and conflict. And Jason Kottke linked to a Suck article about the USS Cole bombing which talks about motivations that make people die for a cause, and has added Marshall's Men Against Fire to my reading list. (because it seems to tie in to my observations about trusting peer judgements). The article concludes:

If you're looking for the clear act of cowardice around the bombing of the Cole, then, look to the effort to describe it to the countrymen of the murdered sailors. To suggest that an organized attack, brought off skillfully by members of what must be an extraordinarily cohesive organization, represents nothing more than some simpering spasm of pathetic hatred is to carefully miss the very large, very unpleasant point: People who destroy human life in this precise manner are not alone, and not disorganized, and very much not finished.

[ related topics: Politics Books History WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

I signed up to make dessert for a shindig. So this weekend I refreshed myself on Eliane González's awesome book The Art of Chocolate, and sat down to make 8 individual chocolate cups. Chocolate is fun, but tough to work with because the right texture involves heating and cooling to target temperatures with tolerances of about 4 degrees F, and although you've got to use a double-boiler for that heat control, any water in a melted chocolate destroys it. So after an hour and a half waiting for the chocolate to reach 116F, but absolutely not exceed 120F, then cool to under 84F, then heat back to a working temperature (but not over 90F), I had this fantastic temper which was hard and shiny. But the molds wouldn't release without shattering. Damn. Throw the hardened chocolate back in to melt, hope that it doesn't get to hot while I go running out to get balloons. Luckily balloons worked great, the easier release allowed for thinner walls (which gave me 16 cups, a mixed blessing), although the temper isn't quite as gorgeous, and the killed time meant that each cup only had one rose on it. Pictures tomorrow.

[ related topics: Books Food ]

So down in Rio de Janiero, the Catholic Church has called in the authorities against an orgy, but as usual the blue-noses probably won't have the desired effect:

"We were expecting 1,500 people per day for this weekend's party," Oliveira said. "But since it's been in all the Brazilian media, the demand for tickets has increased by a lot. So we don't even know how many people we'll have."

[ related topics: Religion Sexual Culture Current Events ]

At Burning Man I talked to the guy with the solar powered bed. He'd also placed fairly high in the BattleBots competitions. He recommended Innovation First controllers, they seem to have put together a lot of the tools that you'd want, a 900 MHz two way digital link, 30 amp motor controllers, etc, in one convenient (albeit slightly pricey) package. Now if I can just figure out what control system the guy who had the electric cart that followed him, automatically staying at a fixed distance, was using. More pedal powered stuff is obviously my prime directive, since Todd seems to be working on the electric vehicle bits, but I'm keeping my eyes open.

[ related topics: Burning Man Cool Science Todd Gemmell Robotics ]

Apparently the World Trade Center/Pentagon attackers weren't so well funded. The attackers sought a US Agriculture Department loan to buy a crop duster. And everyone's concentrating on the biological weapons aspects of this, if I were feeling like mass destruction I'd load that puppy up with gasoline and fly it down main street. Might have to do a few calculations to get optimal oxygenation, but why is everyone so hung up on thinking high tech?

[ related topics: Current Events WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

"Correctness" is great in theory, but usually ends up inducing huge loads on subsequent programmers. If, in an API, you see a common mistake being made, the right solution is not to demand that users of that API fix their code, it's to allow for that mistake. Luckily it's my API and those objecting don't have the time to look at my code...

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

When I was a kid, airplanes were my fetish. My uncle owned a Cessna 150, I think it was N7660S, and sometimes he took me a long when he took it to get serviced. We flew out of the grass strip which he tied down at to this old airport up in the Adirondacks. Literally had a graveyard at either end of the runway, and when we taxied down-wind we went up to rotation speed to keep the potholes from ripping off the nose-gear. Cokes in the machine cost a nickel, and the airplanes were mostly from that era too. I remember poking through the back of one of the hangars one day and finding a Beechcraft staggerwing biplane. That was a gorgeous piece of machinery. Anyway, I'd spend the ground-time there listening to stories by the guy who ran the place. Eric asked how much a crop-duster cost, and while researching that I ran across Border Pilot [link has gone 404] reminiscences by a crop-dusting pilot.

Brings back memories. Good memories.

[Edit: The book now appears to be available as an e-book and in two formats on dead trees. I still recommend it!]

[ related topics: Nostalgia Dan's Life Aviation ]

According to the Watchman (some would call them a fantantical cult of christians).

Burning Man Festival, Black Rock Desert, NV: An annual festival celebrating neo-paganism and Satanism. The name comes from the culmination of the festival, in which a wooden man with outstretched arms (resembling a crucifix) is burned by the crowd.

They ask for suggestions/corrections on accuracy. I guess I'll try...

[ related topics: Burning Man moron ]

Aargh. Cable modem's down again. Was told in their ever so helpful chat thingie today "Check your DHCP settings." I'll go give that yet another try this evening. When this was first installed it was so much better than my DSL experiences, in the past month it's gone down to thinking about going back to a dial-up. I wanna live within 802.11b range of the virtual building.

[ related topics: Wireless broadband ]

Leo commented last night that he was looking for tickets to Boston. $1600. Sounds like the airlines are trying to rack up as much loss as possible in the next few so they can whine more loudly for that bailout. Meanwhile, increased security means driving to LA from SF beats flying. I know I'm going down there over Thanksgiving and despite the higher risk of driving we just couldn't justify not renting a van for the crew.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Aviation Bay Area ]

All right! Ananova has an easy way to keep track of the goings on of the Monster Raving Loony Party. Politics I could really get behind.

[ related topics: Politics Web development Current Events ]

So the reminiscence brought on by finding Border Pilot has me trying to remember something: I'm looking for the name of a metal H-tailed single engine tricycle landing gear low-wing plane. It might have been the Europa or similar, built around the late '40s, I think one of its quirks was that it just had a castoring nose wheel. Ringing any bells?

[ related topics: Nostalgia Aviation ]

Via the Daily Illuminator, Two Italian historians claim Pope Innocent XI funded William of Orange.

[ related topics: Politics History ]

I'm officially pissed off (again): On Friday, I got my GW Bush campaign notification of tax relief letter. On Saturday I got my check. Remember that scandal where House and Senate staffers were using the Congressional post office for mailing campaign flyers? How is using the IRS any better? Impeach the bastard for misuse of public funds.

[ related topics: Politics Current Events ]

Want, but not $6379 want: Canon EOS-1D 2464x1648 EOS mount digital SLR

[ related topics: Photography ]

You'll undoubtedly see this as forwarded e-mail far too many times over the next few.

To the Taliban: "Hand over Osama bin Laden or we'll take all your women and send them to college."

(Got this unattributed, just noticed that David Chess has a version attributed in his blog)

[ related topics: Spam WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

Sam now has an acting credit.

[ related topics: Pixar Movies ]

Via Edgecase, Ecuadorians file suit over Plan Columbia. Boy, it's a good thing the US has always taken the moral high ground on using crop dusting aircraft for terrorism, huh?

[ related topics: Politics Ethics Aviation WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wants to put student visas on hold "after learning that Hani Hanjour, the hijack suspect thought to have piloted American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, had entered the United States on a student visa." I'll bet at one point he ate pasta too. I think we should ban that.

[ related topics: Politics WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

The blog twinning project, "bringing people together, whether they like it or not", is an interesting attempt at building links between weblogs.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

I'm really bummed I missed God's Press Confrence but I read the transcript and found myself laughing through most of it and crying at the end of it.

[ related topics: Religion Politics Antidepressants WTC/Pentagon attacks ]

I went into the evil CompUSA looking for some printer supplies, and noticed they had Linksys 802.11b stuff, which I've been wanting for a while, on sale. So I bought a base station and a PCMCIA card. Then I foolishly upgraded my laptop to kernel 2.4.10, which was way ahead of the current Debian utility packages. But after a little poking about on the 'net I figured out the hack to my /etc/pcmcia/config and this is my first post without cables. So far, in the same room as the base, first ping is > 70ms, quickly settles down to circa 3ms, large transfers and ping floods put noise on the laptop speakers (I'm wondering if getting the kernel driving the sound might damp that), sustained throughput seems quite bursty, scp of the uncompressed kernel source gives a throughput of about 450k/sec. The base allegedly requires Windows to configure (which is how I did it), but the docs say something about SNMP, so I need to try diddling with that on my Linux machines.

[ related topics: Free Software Wireless ]

I'm not much of a game player, in my family attempts at things like Scrabble usually became collaborative. A while back, Charlene challenged me to Scrabble and whupped me handily, surprising us both. Tonight we had a rematch, and I was feeling pretty cocky about edging her out with my 296, then, double-checking the rules, saw that a two-headed game should run in the 300-400 range. Whoops. Not as much of a word geek as I thought.

[ related topics: Games Dan's Life ]

Expect a small outage Sunday morning as we switch to new IP addresses at the Highertech.net colo facility.

[ related topics: Flutterby Meta ]

Damn tiny lenses on point-n-shoots, not that I would've gotten a camera up in time anyway. Saw a bobcat today, hiking up near hill 88 and Fort Cronkite. Out in the middle of the day, walking up a fire road. An impressive beast, the size of a Labrador, but moves like a cat.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment ]