Flutterby™! From 2002-02-01 to 2002-02-28

Dave Winer took some cheap shots at overhead in C# versus Frontier, but it got me thinking about how much boilerplate crap I've come to see as acceptable. When I was first exposed to Cobol I said "150 lines, minimum?", but now the C system under which I spend most of my time is a multi-threaded monstrosity which pushes huge responsibilities back on to the programmers. Even Perl has the obligatory:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict;

at the head of every program. The purpose of a good programming language is to not bog down the programmer with cognitive load, to let the algorithm be expressed succinctly and clearly. It's very easy to lose track of just how succinct and clear the algorithm can be at its core. Thanks for the reminder, Dave.

[ related topics: Dave Winer Perl Open Source Software Engineering ]

Via Medley, 26 rules for being Republican. Apropos of Dylan's earlier query about Libertarians and Republicans:

2. You have to believe that those privileged from birth achieve success all on their own.

And

14. You have to believe that the ACLU is bad because they defend the Constitution, while the NRA is good because they defend the Constitution.

[ related topics: Politics Humor ]

I haven't followed the Chu Mei-Feng scandal 'cause it's not Taiwan's internal affairs that have been garnering the "international news" bits of my attention, but Dazereader has a quick run-down on the politician who ended up on a porn DVD when someone rigged her apartment with cameras.

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture Current Events ]

Phil wanted to go to Yosemite this weekend. Lots of things conspired to make that not happen, but a virtual visit seems apropos, especially since I'm feeling sick and am probably going to be completely stir-crazy this weekend.

[ related topics: Photography Yosemite ]

In Maine anyway... for the time being. A judge has ruled that the state's legal definition of indecency does not apply to "a woman simply naked in the street" - in part because women's genitalia (the defining factor of the law) are internal.

Unfortunately, I expect the Maine legislature - or the various local authorities - will "remedy" this oversight right quick.

[ related topics: Free Speech Nudity Law Civil Liberties ]

Now these are some awards I can really get behind: The Anti-Bloggies are now open for voting.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

A study on the ability to distinguish whisky (uisge beatha) from brandy (cognac). Wow. I'll have to repeat the test blind to make sure, but I'm confident that I can distinguish the four Scotches currently in my stash. That may be easier than the challenge listed because two of mine are Islay Scotches, and one has a sherry finish.

[ related topics: Wines and Spirits ]

Today's images are from out at Limantour beach, a dog who was intent on getting that mass of kelp out of the surf.

[ related topics: Photography California Culture ]

I've got a bunch of code refactoring done, and I'm about ready to slap the Blogger API on Flutterby. Mark Hershberger had expressed an interest in using the Blogger API to do comments here. Obviously there's not a clean mapping across, so I was thinking of using the "blogid" parameter to reference a given entry, and use a special-case one for the main 'blog. Anyone out there who'd use such an API got an interest?

Oh yeah: SQL views rock.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

Today's image is just a little point of reference for Todd in his efforts to get me to buy a new car: I really do drive 'em into the ground. This is part of the remains of Bodie, in the state park.

[ related topics: Photography Dan's Life Todd Gemmell History ]

This page is going to give me nightmares. It's weird in a way that I can't quite place but it gives me the willies. And being the unselfish guy I am, I can't quite resist sharing my willies with you.

the horror

[ related topics: Children and growing up moron ]

With the development explosion in Mammoth, the town of June Lake isn't as attractive to me as it once was, but it's hard to say bad things about any place that looks like this out the motel room window. Thanksgiving, 2000.

[ related topics: Photography Dan's Life Travel ]

It's bad enough when someone puts a web server at a domain name address rather than a machine address. It's worse when they redirect www.domainname.org to domainname.org with a "301" permanent redirection. But when they then stop doing that, and then start putting the previously "permanently redirected" URL in the weblogs.com list, well. Someone needs to give the admins of a popular nerd news site a severe bludgeoning with a clue-by-four. That updated time on the list to the right is becoming way more hassle than its worth.

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

Software engineering thought for the day:

Anyone who thinks software gets crufty hasn't run cable in an old commercial building.

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

Sunday morning's hike climbed out of the fog, up Mount Burdell. Another view shows some of the devastation that the Live Oak disease is causing, whole trees just collapsing in place.

[ related topics: Photography Dan's Life Nature and environment ]

A few random notes on hardware: part of my hate for the Mac could involve transferrence of the "get this thing to boot" stage of Intel hardware assembly. Because of that, I'd stopped off at CompUSA yesterday as I hadn't gotten the part I needed before the shops in Berkeley closed, and saw the new iMac. I now understand why everyone thinks it's ugly. In pictures, it's very cute, in person it's this huge monstrosity which makes that wonderful slim screen take up more desk space than a CRT.

[ related topics: Hardware Hackery Invention and Design Macintosh ]

The real problem of "permanent September" wasn't the proliferation of "m3 t00" messages, it was the sudden existence of that many people who were willing to accept heavy commercialism in their lives. Spam needs an audience, people who actually want to "Make Penis Fast", without that audience it's only worth doing as flame bait. How does this tie to digital rights management? Well, diveintomark pointed to the Beagle Bros Online Museum reader feedback, which had this note:

I was friends with a fairly notorious cracker. He cracked dozens and dozens of software titles and gave them freely to anyone and everyone. When it came to Beagle software, however, he never gave away copies because Beagle did not copy-protected any of their stuff and actually trusted the users to be honest.

I had the same experience. If, rather than doing open battle with their customers, entertainment companies would start to target customers who respect the work of real artists, we'd have a smaller entertainment industry, but I'd bet we'd have better mass-market music.

[ related topics: Nostalgia Music Spam Art & Culture Civil Liberties ]

The [adult] webcomic Sexy Losers has been taken down. The artist says something about Row going down and that he's not likely to put it [Sexy Losers] back up without Row. Does anyone know what he's talking about?

His other adult comic, Little White Lie appears to be down entirely as well (no DNS), but his collaboration work - Sunday Morning Coffee - is still up.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Art & Culture Comics ]

This is why I have so much trouble connectiong with my generation: When I hear "Joshua Tree", I don't make the connection with U2 (And when I hear "U2", I think "spy plane"). A couple of singed but hardy ones (trees, not airplanes) in, where else, Joshua Tree National Park.

[ related topics: Photography Dan's Life Nature and environment Aviation ]

Dylan & Dan got all freaked over a fuzzy little bear sloshing around the womb. Well that aint nothing. The Little Girl Beauty Kit had me laughing and cringing at the same time. The music makes it extra soooper creepy. You need quicktime and bandwidth/patience to watch.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Music Movies Ethics broadband California Culture ]

Via Dan Bungie's top secret skunkwerks project Pimps at Sea coming to a Ho near you.

[ related topics: Coyote Grits ]

If Microsoft customer support was this good. People would have less to complain about. Although this makes the false assumption that the shipping documentation is of some value (it's too hard for toilet paper)

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron Work, productivity and environment ]

In honor of my recent Mac rant, Dori talks about some Mac frustration, and I'm linking to this mainly to say: That's okay, Dori, the image of the "bag of peanuts exploding when" [you] "opened it and going everywhere" cheered me up.

[ related topics: Macintosh ]

And warns that Bush/Ashcroft are gearing up for a full frontal assault.

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture Civil Liberties ]

Some images aren't very good, but the subject is cool. This is why I need a 600/F4 IS lens (If you don't follow the link, just rest assured that it's the best 35mm glass that $8000 can buy. Geek toy lust at its most obscene). This is an albino deer out in Bear Valley, just south of Point Reyes, taken with my extremely soft (but light and portable) 75-300 IS lens. There's another view of the deer; these are the best two I've shot of them, but some day I should just go out to stalk the herd and try to get some photos more like this one (which fills the frame, but unfortunately makes the deer look like a rat with a PR consultant. Not that that's a wrong perception).

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

In another forum, I've been defending the notion that many of the stereotypes that get laid on the south are justified. But those damned Pennsylvanians are making headway in this matter: store pulls fried chicken special for Black history month.

[ related topics: Political Correctness Current Events ]

Sun Embraces Linux. Now if they used their development dollars for Linux instead of Solaris...and while I'm wishing maybe SGI could drop Irix and fully support Linux.

[ related topics: Free Software Interactive Drama Open Source Current Events Graphics ]

Speaking of Rats & Deer

Aspens and foliage near Rainbow Lake in the Sierra off I80. I guess it was autumn of 2000, the Sunday morning hike crowd stayed overnight at Rainbow Lodge, had a fantastic dinner, got up crack of dawn, did a hike up to the lakes and a bit beyond to see the Aspen foliage and back, and had a very nice breakfast. We never did find the big Aspen grove we were looking for, and had to settle with some great rock formations and, of course, the beauty of the high Sierra, but it was a very worthwhile trek. Closer to the Bay Area than you'd think.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment California Culture ]

Time for some Ananova silliness: New Zealand survey finds politician a less respected job title than prostitute. Elsewhere, a politician, Philipine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is encouraging American soldiers to visit museums, not brothels.

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture moron Current Events ]

Interesting history of The Spectator, the Bay Area's sex weekly, in Layne Winklebleck's letter about stepping down as editor. It amazes me that people I find interesting, like David Steinberg, and articles I find interesting, appear amongst ads that are completely uninteresting to me.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture California Culture ]

It was only a matter of time after Greenspun left but they have sold their assets to Red Hat and Shut Down

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source Art & Culture ]

A Dot-Com survivor Shutterfly is a pretty cool service. I'm pretty tired of good ideas (along with a ton of bad ones) going bust so it's nice to spread some good news. This company actually figured how to execute and have excellent customer service. One of the reasons I think these guys will continue is that not only does my semi-technical wife use them but my completely tech-clue-less father in-law. With all the shutterbugs in this communty I figure some of you might benifit. The coolest trick I found is that you can put up all your digital pictures from say a trip somewhere and people can order the pictures and quantities they want online.

[ related topics: Photography Content Management Technology and Culture Current Events Travel ]

There have been several times I've been headed east on I80 just past Sparks, Nevada, as the sun is just starting to lighten the eastern sky.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Dammit...I know standards suck and everything...but god I hate when I get a file, I know what's in it...and I can't figure out what the hell to open it with.

So...does anybody know of an image format with a .cps extension?? The only thing I've found is postscript files and I don't think that's what these are.

So, any of you more image-able folks out there (ex-Pixar employees, I'm looking in your direction) care to enlighten me?

by the way...the original topics turned out funny, so they stay.

[ related topics: Pixar Religion Animation Work, productivity and environment Graphics ]

Some days the light works. Not in any cosmic "this is art" sense, but in the "that'd be cool on my wall" sense. That was on a hike on a dreary day down on the Peninsula with some [cough] wonderfully clear signage.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Bay Area ]

Sometime this weekend I heard some audiophile's tribute to Henry Kloss, who died last Thursday. And it got me wondering: When I walk by San Anselmo Coffee Roasters, even if the windows are fogged and the place is packed, I can tell through the closed door if the music inside is live or CD based. I've gone looking occasionally for higher end audio equipment, including Cambridge Soundworks, started by Kloss, and it seems like the pricier I get the further away from live it sounds. The bass gets more pronounced in a way that screams to me "artificial", the sound loses some of the harsher echoes. Is this style of audio equipment an outspring of the fact that most music nowadays is amplified, and so this is what people expect to hear? Any psychoacoustic specialists out there want to speculate?

[ related topics: Music Bay Area ]

What does it mean when a quick browse through /. reader comments shows them to be less technically informed than the Fucked Company reader comments?

[ related topics: New Economy moron ]

"Some balls are held for charity, and some for fancy dress...", and some sit beside the campground on the rocks in Joshua Tree National Park.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment ]

Sorry I'm not finding cool links for y'all, but... Well... British Telecom is further defending a patent on ideas which predate their claim by 35 years. The much vaunted "War on Terrorism" still hasn't found Osama bin Laden, doesn't seem to be having the desired deterrent effect, and has probably killed more Afghan civilians than were killed in the attacks on the US. At least Ken Lay is keeping his mouth shut rather than perjuring himself like other execs at Enron, and the Israelis are arresting Palestinians rather than just assasinating them, but... well... Obviously I need a change of pace in my own life, 'cause I'm obviously bored and boring right now.

And the topic-monster chose "Monty Python" for this post. Which I've removed.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Current Events ]

Via Segway News, the Post Office finds Segway almost as efficient as walking. Mail carriers can't sort while they ride the Segway, and it has problems on rough sidewalks, so carriers aren't able to deliver more mail per person. On the up side, their feet hurt less. I wonder how many mail carriers enjoy the walking?

[ related topics: Cool Science Current Events ]

I no longer watch the Olympics. I used to turn on the Winter Olympics occasionally, but as much as I can enjoy watching some of those sports, the definition of "amateur" has been stretched way too far, the best athletes often don't participate (see snowboarding, for example), and it's been clear for many years that in the subjective events the politics count for a lot. So, much as I was bemused at the whining about Salt Lake City officials bribing Olympic organizers, I'm bemused at calls for figure skating judging reform after the Canadians won silver. I didn't see the two performances in question, but Surya Bonaly's scores in previous years told me that it's a stacked deck. Shut up and stop whining. Furthermore, because the papers need controversy to whine about, it sounds like the topic isn't getting covered evenly. Diane thinks the Russians deserved the gold. And Gwen Knapp thinks critics of the process should shut up because politics have always been a part of ice skating judging, and judges who've tried to change this have been hung out to dry in the past.

[ related topics: Politics Current Events Sports ]

After titling yesterday's picture I've got the opening riff to AC/DC's Back in Black running through my head. Luckily this replaces "The Song That Never Ends" ("...it just goes on, and on, my friends..."), but either way it's gonna drive me absolutely... ahem... bugfuck. Sorry. These two were out in Valley of Fire, about an hour north of Las Vegas, Nevada. And yes, another toy on the list when I win tonight's $125 million lottery is a good long macro lens.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Las Vegas ]

Ziffle passes along this heartwarming story: New Zealand Telecom is investigating a "penalty for being an arrogant bastard" charge on a customer's mobile phone bill. To the perpetrator, whoever you are, may you never be found, and... I completely sympathize.

[ related topics: Ziffle Humor Current Events ]

Before Shawn gets to it: On the SHS mailing list, Ron forwarded this report that Nina Hartley will talk about sex at Temple Beth Ami. That might be a way to drag me back into the synagogue.

[ related topics: Religion Erotic Sexual Culture Current Events ]

Dave Winer asked "are tables really evil?". While attempting to answer that question, he links to Owen Brigg's Design Rant, which says, in part:

The combined resources of MS, AOL, and Opera have failed to give us any browser that fully supports a 1996 spec, and they have succeeded in giving us a series of browsers that each have different rendering bugs.

Was it Donald Norman who pointed out that if humans are consistently misinterpreting an interface, perhaps better training isn't the solution? The one thing I do really like about CSS is that unreadable CSS pages (like the aforementioned design rant) become much more readable with Ctrl-G under Opera than without. Just make sure it's usable in Lynx and let it degrade. That having been said, Flutterby will probably go CSS in the near future.

[ related topics: Web development Dave Winer ]

More fuel for Dylan's Republican sympathizing Libertarians rant, ignoring any pretext of local control, the new administration is destroying the Bay Area's medical marijuana process, and trying to make your reading habits evidence in court.

[ related topics: Drugs Politics Books Privacy California Culture ]

I should really take the time to tweak the color in this to bring up the greens, and I don't think there's any texture in the overcast sky, but it kinda stands okay on its own. From a trip Phil, Tom and I made to Yosemite in April a few years back.

[ related topics: Photography Travel Yosemite ]

We'll be away this weekend, and Alec will be watching the house and feeding the cats. I told him that if he left the pentagrams on the hardwood floors, that was one thing, but if any demons from his summonings were running around the house... there would be hell to pay. Along those lines, via the Daily Illuminator, in response to all of those people who claim that Harry Potter teaches witchcraft, The Escapist has set about testing the spells from Harry Potter. Good to see the scientific method debunking fundamentalism once again.

[ related topics: Religion Books ]

I haven't linked to Clean Sheets in a while, but they've got an article on nude bungee jumping. I've never done bungee jumping, but if I had the opportunity to do it nude I might try.

[ related topics: Erotic Sports ]

Via Justin's Journal, an amazing sequence, apparently shot back in the 1970s, of what happens when a drawbridge doesn't open for a tugboat.

[ related topics: Humor ]

Phil got Kelly some of Martine's Chocolates for Fat Tuesday. Conclusion: The best confections Kelly has ever had. And that's saying something, as Kelly is a professional chef and has tasted some pretty good food. Gonna have to get me some.

[ related topics: Food ]

As I mentioned below, I'll be out of town for a few days. Just in case the rest of these slackers don't keep y'all updated, a few other weblogs to read: Via Anita's Book of Days, b-may is reporting live from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Sgt Stryker's Daily Briefing has been giving me perspectives on U.S. military action that's challenging my peacenickishness in a good way. Hornswoggled is back. And, of course, you must read the Secret Diaries of the Lord of the Rings.

[ related topics: Politics Books Weblogs Movies Theater & Plays Sports ]

David Brin (whom I generally consider a god amongst writers, and who has an absolutely prophetic vision of society) has some very interesting things to say about privacy, freedom and safety - and how the three are not as at odds as we believe them to be.

[ related topics: Books Privacy Technology and Culture Current Events Civil Liberties ]

Last year, David Schofield's wife went to an MBA Career Fair where Enron was handing out a book of souvenir post-it notes

[ related topics: Humor Enron ]

Well I normally would try to give more warning of something like this but circumstances really don't allow it. I'm leaving California within the next 10 days or so, and I doubt I'll be back other than for visits. So, for those of you in Cali who know me...I'll miss you until I come back for the Burn next year. If you want to get in touch, dylan@coyotegrits.com is accepting mail and will be until Dan decides to cut me off or stop paying for the domain name. I should be around for the next week and checking mail, after that the computer will be packed. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Coyote Grits California Culture ]

I hereby begin the rhyme-off with a limerick I wrote a few days ago. I know it's cheating, but it has to start somewhere...Topspin, the gauntlet lies at your feet! Um...pick it up or something.

Voilá, behold my genius:

there once was a man from Seattle

with an unhealthy longing for cattle,

he said to his shrink,

explaining his kink,

"I'd do horses if not for the saddle"

Yes. Fear my genius. Love it. Pet it. Feed it monkeys.

[ related topics: Humor ]

I'm suprised nobody mentioned the new wireless Palm that's out now. Personaly I'm going to wait for the 802.11g Clie that is coming out but this palm looks pretty sweet.

[ related topics: Wireless Invention and Design ]

I was too swamped earlier this week to post but did anyone see the Frontline report American Porn last monday night?? I thought they did dam fine job giving a snap shot of the industry. I especially liked how they showed the conflict between the established dons like Larry Flint and the new guys trying to make a name for themselves. If you follow the link they have the program on streaming video without all the *bleeps* you get on TV.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture Technology and Culture Invention and Design Software Engineering Television Heinlein ]

Just to keep the day from getting too boring. hit the Surrealist Compliment Generator Page for a few Hun? ....oh thats nice(I guess) moments

[ related topics: Humor ]

So we went to the Oakland Zoo last tuseday and you all know how dangerous that can be during the spring(well they think it's spring) and these two are going at it and notice the other one waiting for his turn. I make this crack about never seeing this on an Oreilly Book and the guy (obviously a programmer) says I dunno it sorta looks like perl 6 development to me. Some of you will find this funny the rest of you can just assume I am trying to one up Dan's Bugfuck picture

[ related topics: Books Photography Todd Gemmell Perl Open Source Coyote Grits Bay Area Software Engineering ]

Colin Powell clearly stated his mind in favor of condom use during an MTV program. I know it's a "yeah duh" for the flutterby crowd but I gotta respect Powell for his stand in direct oposition to the Bush "just say no" to sex horse pucky.

[ related topics: Politics Erotic Sexual Culture Software Engineering Current Events ]

Code Con is going on in the city right now if any of you codies are interested.

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

I thought it was a parody site at first but I'm not sure. Check out Coincidence Design and see if you want them to stalk the love of your life.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Technology and Culture ]

An Enron code of ethics manual is up for auction on Ebay..<snarf>

[ related topics: Ethics ]

Start your christmas shopping early. 13 great toys well maybe 7 of them are mostly great toys but doesn't every child deserve a Jesus action figure? Maybe we can include them with food shipments to afghanistan?

[Edit: Dan thinks the archive link is this one]

[ related topics: Religion Humor ]

Burning Man Town Meeting!

Saturday, April 6th, from 12:00 Noon until 4:00. Meet all of the key

players that make Burning Man happen and sign up to join in. Every

department needing help will be there ready to get you involved.

Bring food to share for our annual pot luck.

Where? SOMARTS, 934 Brannan Street, between 8th and 9th in San Francisco

[ related topics: Burning Man Food Bay Area California Culture ]

It's a little late but here are some valentines you don't want to get. It's nice to see our youth are growing to be well adjusted respectable citizens (whoa my inner voice did cranky ol man accent) yikes.

In my further pursuits of understanding entertainment and toy design, I came across Gobler Toys. I would describe them as the Willy Wonka of toys.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Humor Games ]

Odd Todd(no relation) made a pretty funny Flash Film about being laid off.

[ related topics: Humor Antidepressants Bay Area ]

Just a little note on the area Dan is traveling in. Over 100 corpses have been found stored at a crematorium. The bodies were found in the woods and stacked up like cords of wood in a storage building out back. It appears some of these bodies have been around more than twenty years. The owner said his incinerator was broken.

Note: Hmm, the catagorizer picked Coyote Grits and Monty Python as appropriate catagories. I don't know what that might mean.

[ related topics: Current Events Chattanooga Bizarre ]

Millerswork, Inc. (bias alert: Of which I am the webmaster) has just completed an extensive facelift and UI redesign. Our mission is no less than the redefinition of porn as a responsible, respectable business.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Justin has an update on the disappearance of those tugboat pictures. The person who put up the page got hit with a $3000 bandwidth bill. I'll get PayPal information shortly, Justin is trying to track down the original photographer to get permission, and I'm doing some back-of-the-envelope calculations to see if we can put them up on this server.

[ related topics: Web development Photography broadband ]

UC Berkeley stops student-run sex class that allegedly included an orgy and a "guess whose genitals" session. Damn, classes like this could make me care about getting a degree.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Bay Area ]

The Chronicle has a great essay on censoring "vagina" on morning TV, apparently someone pitching the Vagina Monologues on the San Francisco's KTVU morning show was told not to use the word.

"Language is so powerful," said Elizabeth Bachen, an assistant professor of psychology at Mills College. "Feeling comfortable with the word could very well translate into feeling comfortable with your body. How can we talk about what gives us pleasure if we can't even say the word?"

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Bay Area Television California Culture ]

Visits to the southeast are stressful for me. I have too many friends and acquaintances, so someone's bound to get ticked off that I couldn't drop in on them. But my Dad had an altercation with a table saw, and it seemed like a quick weekend was in order, and given the Southwest fares I ended up going through Nashville for a real quick stop in Chattanooga. So Robert, Ziffle (whom I actually expected to run into), Mark and Kelley, Charles, Gary and all the other people I missed, I'll try to get out there again shortly without the extreme time constraint.

But with all that, Charlene and I did take an hour and a half for ourselves to go up and hang out in the canyon off Signal Point along Rainbow Creek.

[ related topics: Ziffle Photography Dan's Life Nature and environment Chattanooga ]

I'd heard the NPR interview with Bernard Lewis, so on the plane flight out I read What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response. Interesting book, compiled from three lectures, which proposes that the political situation in the middle east stems directly form the historical applications of Islam. Among other things, Lewis points out htat Judaism and Christianity stem from myths with unrealized rewards (Moses dying before entering the promised land, the crucifixion), where Mohammed was victorious in his own life, and while the jews were scattered and Christians actively send out missionaries, Islam has strongly encouraged Muslims to live in Islamic states.

[ related topics: Religion Politics Books ]

More positive health news: Via Edgecase, dark chocolate may help prevent heart attacks.

[ related topics: Health Current Events ]

Dave Winer has some musings on the News.com article about Microsoft backpedaling on .Net. I know I've been trying to install Visual Studio .Net under XP, and it sure ain't "apt-get install vs-net". Web pages which have complex "open this control panel, make sure this setting is on" sort of things. Hidden directories that I can type in to get to, but can't figure out how to set the browser to show. Now the installer is in a state that it always thinks part of it is running, even after I've restarted. Clear that there's a lot of work left to be done before .Net and XP are usable.

[ related topics: Business Dave Winer Microsoft Current Events Work, productivity and environment ]

Hey, any of y'all out there near Demopolis, Alabama and know sign language? Ray Fagan, the guy who posted those tugboat pictures, and then got stuck with the bill, is mostly deaf, and would love help from an interpreter in tracking down the rest of this story. He and Justin are hot on the trail of what could be some really cool tales.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Flutterby has a new database schema

In anticipation of the new Blogger API and some other features. Email me or leave comments under this entry if anything doesn't work. I think I've tested, but you know how that is.

[ related topics: Flutterby Meta ]

Bad snapshot time, I apparently couldn't get the right exposure out of the little digital: I love the mountains around Chattanooga, but by the time you get down to Atlanta it's flat and boring. Except for Stone Mountain, a big granite monolith that's gradually being turned into an amusement park. But the geology of the rock is pretty cool for those of us with rock fetishes, and there's a large monument of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee and General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson carved into the side. I got one picture a little closer, but for some reason the exposure and the zoom still sucks, and it doesn't capture the scale.

[ related topics: Photography Chattanooga ]

In Southwest Airlines Spirit, their in-flight magazine, there was an article on sales that pushed sales techniques over knowledge of the product or the market. This matches my own cynicism of late: It seems like the people running businesses are very often not critical thinkers, and who value manipulative relationships over results. Obviously the next question is: what skills do they have that I don't? Or is this just a function of the tail end of the .com boom?

[ related topics: Mathematics ]

At the Nashville airport your car rental options are laid out pretty clearly... The leasing agent must be a bastard, and I mean that as the highest compliment.

[ related topics: Humor Photography ]

Via Backup Brain, Cheney tells high tech folks to support the war effort for defense contract kickbacks.

[ related topics: Politics History Current Events ]

Wow, if I was at all interested, the Salon interview with the creators of the HBO documentary "Sex With Strangers" removed any desire to see it. I realize that television needs to be entertaining, but their discussion of how they picked the subjects make this sound like a bad "reality TV" concept, not a documentary.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Television ]

Rob Morse critiques John Ashcroft's mixing of religion and public policy:

In this week's speech, Ashcroft tried to defuse tensions by saying that the war on terrorism isn't a religious war, but "a defense of our right to make moral choices, to seek fellowship with God that is chosen and not commanded."

[ related topics: Religion Ethics tolkien History moron ]

Time to shake off those mid-winter blues and get together with people you normally wouldn't be seen around. Party at Dan and Charlene's in Fairfax, up in Marin, next Saturday, kinda pot-luckish, 5 'til whenever. Was a widely varied group last time, should be similarly diverse this time. Email for directions and so we can get an approximation of how many folks'll be showing up.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Bay Area ]

News.com claims Canon has announced the D60, 6.3 megapixels (that's as much as I ever hope to get out of Velvia), $2999. Want. Mid-April availability. If you go to the Canon web site, click on "English" (not "US customers"), you can get to a D60 page that has broken links, but confirms some of this (which I've also been seeing vague rumors of elsewhere).

[ related topics: Photography ]

Argh! So I've been playing with a new look for Flutterby, attempting to use CSS. I'm trying to make a 32 pixel high button bar, and I'd like to put the search text entry field in the middle of that button bar. Trivial with tables. I think I might be able to figure a way to make this work with CSS, but after hours of screwing with it I've decided it'll degrade nicer with tables. And render faster. Sigh. I guess that the CSS tutorial site I was looking at did this with tables should have been a clue.

[ related topics: Web development ]

Via Borklog, Which Rocky Horror character are you? I'm Frank-n-Furter, of course.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Rocky Horror Picture Show ]

You undoubtedly know that Chuck Jones died. User Friendly has a good one-panel tribute to him.

[ related topics: Humor Television Comics ]

Headline of the day: Saudis say they don't grow terrorists. "Honest, officer, I don't know what those plants were doing in my yard. I thought the buds were pretty, but I had no idea..."

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Pot bust yields orchids. Ed Rosenthal, who helped found NORML and wrote a growing advice column for High Times, was recently busted. When cops entered his warehouse, they found flowers.

"The feds came looking for pot, but they found a lot of orchids," he said. "I just love plants -- even illegal ones."

[ related topics: Drugs ]

Charlene and I have had bizarre schedules recently, to where we've been reduced to "hi/bye", and "I spent hours slaving over this meal, I hope you enjoy it, I've gotta run". So this morning I took a few hours off and we went hiking up Cascade Canyon. Other images will follow this week, but to start off: The butterflies were numerous, and amazingly still. This was taken with the point-n-shoot, and I doubt I'll ever again have a chance to get this close to one that kept its wings spread for as long as this one did.

[ related topics: Butterflies Photography Nature and environment ]

Dan D. strongly recommends Big Ball of Mud, a paper on software engineering. From the intro:

This paper examines this most frequently deployed of software architectures: the BIG BALL OF MUD. A BIG BALL OF MUD is a casually, even haphazardly, structured system. Its organization, if one can call it that, is dictated more by expediency than design. Yet, its enduring popularity cannot merely be indicative of a general disregard for architecture.

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

Via RC3, Dubya talks about relations between Japan and the United States:

...for a century and a half now, America and Japan have formed one of the great and enduring alliances of modern times.

I'm reminded of an old Tom Lehrer song about the Germans getting into the MLF treaty:

Once all the Germans were warlike, and mean

But that couldn't happen again

We taught them a lesson in nineteen eighteen

And they've hardly bothered us since then...

[ related topics: Politics Humor moron ]

Justin says most of what I want about Jack Valenti's recent comments on movies, intellectual property, and the net.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Web development Movies ]

Yeah, the world needs another waterfall picture like it needs another boy band, but what the hell. On the Cascade Canyon trail, just out of Fairfax.

[ related topics: Photography Bay Area ]

On NPR this morning they profiled the Music Maker Relief Foundation, a group that provides assistance and publicity to blues musicians. From the sounds in the NPR bit on the foundation and the musicians a trip to the Music Maker Store could set you up with some pretty amazing blues.

[ related topics: Music Travel ]

I'm finally down to a few computers that work. While I could throw the remainder of my computer stuff, old hard drives, lots of old cards, in the trash, I believe that if I interpret the garbage rules strictly that's illegal. Lots of lead and other stuff that landfill operators would like to not deal with. Anyone know how to safely and legally dispose of this stuff?

[ related topics: Nature and environment ]

Layers of irony: If you're part of the metablogging scene, you've undoubtedly seen John Dvorak (who I'm not going to justify with a link because he wasn't even entertaining back when his hook was randomly bolding words in his column) look stupid taking apart The Cluetrain Manifesto. Which is pretty amazing, 'cause Cluetrain is some of the most puerile Pollyanna "new economy" speak out there; to go and make an ass of yourself critiquing it can only be a desperate cry for attention from someone in the death-throes of irrelevance. But while looking at the various sputtering from both sides I saw that Rage Boy says that Michael Moore's Stupid White Men is #1 on Amazon. You want your refutation of both Moore and Cluetrain, in one entry? It's right there, baby.

[ related topics: Books Andersen/Accenture New Economy ]

Word to the wise: If you're a teacher, boffing a student, don't videotape it, and definitely don't have your husband fly into a jealous rage and threaten the parents of the student.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sexual Culture Current Events ]

More from Monday's hike, with the sudden-oak-death die-offs it seems like there's lots more places for this hanging lichen or moss (When I was a kid my mom referred to us little ones collectively as "Lykens". It's a wonder I don't have a full-time therapist [grin]).

[ related topics: Nostalgia Photography Nature and environment ]

Manufactured news pisses me off. For instance, an AP wire story says "drug trafficking growing on the Internet". Um. Yeah. So what's the RFC for DTP (the Drug Transfer Protocol)? Can I tunnel it via SSH? Will somebody out there take my credit card and deliver a few hits of acid out my floppy drive? I guess "people are communicating with each other" doesn't make a headline, huh?

[ related topics: Drugs Health Current Events Journalism and Media ]

Today's Mark Morford column pointed to a New York Times report on massive monarch butterfly die-offs in Mexico. Which reminds me that I need to go check the books to identify the one in Monday's picture. The various sub-genres of orange butterflies get really picayune.

[ related topics: Butterflies Mark Morford ]

I'm pretty lucky in being able to have a colocated server and the smarts to run a network. As I watch friends with PacBell DSL have outbound email stuck in the queue for 12 hours, and see the hassles people have with ATTBI tech support for their web hosting I'm realizing that one of the costs of broadband is that you've still got to pay a real ISP for competently administered email, web hosting and the rest of the services you used to get included from your small dial-up provider. So how can we convince the broadband providers to get the hell out of the way? I'm not quite sure how to tie this together, but Microsoft is trying to cast HTTP as obsolete because network attitudes like those pushed by the big ISPs have turned HTTP away from its original purpose, which was as a peer-to-peer protocol.

[ related topics: Microsoft broadband moron ]

Professional Cheese Racing

Sorry I have been too busy to post to Flutterby lately. So just one puerile post for now.

Okay, I'm just this southern guy. My experience with Scotch is limited to some shots of something less than Chivas Regal and a futile attempt back in '80 to seduce a blue-eyed beauty named Jennifer with Scotch and water.

Well, today my buddy Barry walks into work with a gift for me. It was a bottle of Scotch with a coupla fingers gone. Barry's had some recent health problems and he'd be better off not drinking much, but he's been around and knows a good spirit.

Long story short, tonight I sipped my first thimble of Glenmorangie Single Highland Malt Whisky, Port Wood Finish after dinner.

I'll be entering a 12-step program soon. It's about 12 steps back to the kitchen for some more.......

[ related topics: Wines and Spirits ]

Via Backup Brain, Christsicles.

[ related topics: Religion Humor ]

Now I feel like I've been missing out on something really important. First David Chess mentioned boiled peanuts, then Diane mentiones a a place that'll FedEx them to you. But given David's response to peanuts the morning after, maybe I'll just wait 'til I'm in the south again.

[ related topics: Food ]

Via The Jer Zone, The Stripper's FAQ.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture ]

So as part of this usual mental masturbation about changing Flutterby's design I went through the logs looking for client strings. A hell of a lot of you are still using Netscape 4.x browsers. And not even 4.7x. Wow. Okay, guess I will be worrying about how things degrade still, guess I have to put in those hooks to make the appearance options really work if I put up the snazzier versions.

[ related topics: Web development Flutterby Meta Work, productivity and environment ]

Fluffy Salon article says e-books on the rise, but the one I don't get is from Patricia Schroeder, former Congrescritter and president of the Association of American Publishers:

"Can I label myself a creature of habit?" she said. "I'm 61 years old, and I think this is going to be harder for people like me to change.

"Besides," she added, "I have a lot of other stuff to schlep around."

One of the reasons I like reading on my Palm is that then I don't have a lot of other stuff to schlep around.

[ related topics: Books ]

Word of the day: Chiasmus, "a figure of speech by which the order of the terms in the first of two parallel clauses is reversed in the second." As in "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy", and "pleasure's a sin, and sometimes sin's a pleasure" (Byron). Not to be confused with chiasma, which is an anatomy and genetics term.

Ray passed along pallet jumping with "who says rednecks are only in the south...."

[ related topics: Humor ]

An interesting article about how Weblogs can, and do, affect the ranking of search results on Google. I particularly liked the practice of Google Bombing.

[ related topics: Weblogs Technology and Culture ]