Flutterby™! From 2002-08-01 to 2002-08-31

Even for San Francisco, I thought that the... uhhh... large fiberglass "peanut" in Justin Herman Plaza this morning was a little... unsubtle. There's another view too.

[ related topics: Photography Bay Area Justin Herman Plaza ]

I got the AR-16 relay control system that Meuon recommended in yesterday, and started taking apart the system we're going to control. I have a new respect for people whose native programming language is hardware timers and relays, and who juggle 220v and 110v parts around in the same circuit, but I also now know the true definition of spaghetti code; only one color of wire in that whole damned control box. But I just got the device turning and locking under computer control. Cool.

[ related topics: Software Engineering Embedded Devices ]

Heidi and I took the bus up to Grandfather Mountain near Boone, NC this past weekend. It was the Sixth Annual High Country Bus Festival. About 150 VW busses and their owners. A scene kind of like a blend between a Dead show, a Rainbow Gathering, and Junkyard Wars...

[ related topics: Photography History Art & Culture Eric's Life Automobiles ]

Reasons I hate Windows #981235: From the Windows base Services General Technical Articles: Serial Communications in Win32 page:

The Platform SDK documentation uses the terms asynchronous and synchronous to connote these types of I/O operations. This article, however, uses the terms overlapped and nonoverlapped.

Take bets on what the API uses to refer to these concepts? At least this time it's not yet a third option.

[ related topics: Microsoft moron ]

I was going through a stack of papers, and ran across a Nini Lion postcard. She was one of the few artists who stood out in this year's Marin Open Studios, but she doesn't seem to have any of the line drawings that so captured our attention up there.

[ related topics: Bay Area Art & Culture ]

It was only a matter of time. So is Flutterby HOT or NOT?

[ related topics: Weblogs ]

Ok due to their somewhat effectiveness to get people to post and because I'm annoyed at the current porn thread here is your punishment link. Watch it for 52 seconds while chanting OOOOMMM and consider yourself duly punished.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Movies Bay Area ]

Someone is anoying you about your lack of comand of the Queen's english. Give them (212) 479-7990 and take the pain out of posting on Flutterby

[ related topics: Humor ]

Daddy can I have a Battle Mech?? please. SOme dads are kewler than others.

[ related topics: Robotics Current Events Bizarre ]

Should you have a Canon S100 digital camera, and should you ever drop it, and should the zoom stop working, and you decide that opening it up to fix it is preferable to sending it off to the service center where it will languish for two months, note that the screws holding the case on are not identical. Make a note of where each came from.

And even though it looks like it's just a pointy scriber, the smallest Wiha Philips Head screwdriver is perfect for such a task.

[ related topics: Photography Dan's Life Fabrication ]

A fart is a chemical substance

it comes from a place called bum

it penetrates the through trousers

and lands with a musical hum

to fart to fart is no disgrace,

for it gives the body ease

it warms the blankets on cold winter nights

and suffocates all the fleas

--- Madonna, on Truth or Dare

It's old news, but I'm sure there's more... Vampire Boy Guilty Of Murder. This relates to the child-porn discussion. Also, why are people so surprised that the Vatican didn't move faster in dealing with pedophile priests? After all, this is the organization that took almost 500 years to recognize Galileo was right - the Earth does revolve around the Sun. I'm sure priests have been chasing altar boys much longer than people thought the Sun was at the center of the Solar System.

[ related topics: Language Religion Books Erotic Sexual Culture Astronomy Current Events Community ]

Boy, it sure is a good thing that we protect women by making prostitution illegal, otherwise prostitutes might get killed by... umm... undercover vice-squad members arresting them. Meanwhile, over in Britain, there are concerns that those women who choose not to engage in marriage aren't getting compensated as handsomely.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Sociology Current Events Marriage ]

Yesterday evening I finished The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy of a Hollywood Fiasco, by Julie Salamon. It's a narrative of the making of the film version of Bonfire of the Vanities, and it's fascinating. From how trying to save a few hundred thousand dollars ballooned into spending two million, to the tribulations of second unit director Eric Schwab turning two shots that Brian DePalma thought were so cliché at they'd never be seen in his movie into masterpieces, and then getting credit stolen from him, it's a great look at how film-making works. Highly recommended.

[ related topics: Movies ]

Went to Digital Verité last night, saw The Last Stand, the tale of the takeover of Pacific Lumber, and how that snowballed into mudslides wiping out large portions of towns in Humboldt County. But we also talked about coming back each month with a short film, could be 5 seconds, could be as long as 3 or 4 minutes, on a given topic. I don't know how I'll be able to participate, given the whole Burning Man rush, but next month's topic is "flowers".

[ related topics: Movies Nature and environment California Culture ]

I started to read Bruce Sterling's speech to this year's O'Reilly Open Source Convention, but quit shortly in 'cause I thought it just proved that a guy who managed to turn a little bit of editing ability and a lot of standing in the line of fire into a writing career had run headling into irrelevance. But Tom riffed on the topic for a while, and said some good things.

[ related topics: Free Software Writing ]

/. reports that it's now possible to run Quicken on Linux with Wine. Time to set up a new box for Charlene so she's got a machine I can admin that doesn't crash so often.

[ related topics: Free Software Microsoft Open Source ]

Almost lost in the flurry of updates yesterday afternoon was a /. entry pointing to an exploit technique for privilege escalation under Windows. I need to go back through it when I have more time, but given the amount of time and energy being put into .NET security classes and privileges, the Microsoft response seems a little naive.

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron ]

I always said unions were un-American. Flogger had a link to a report that the Teamsters support Operation TIPS.

[ related topics: Civil Liberties ]

Gibbons are moving from being monogamous to having multiple partners, apparently due to changes in habitat, which I read as population pressures, and a new book, Cultures of Multiple Fathers, talks about 20 tribes where female promiscuity was the desired state.

[ related topics: Books Sexual Culture ]

Have you ever wanted to be part of a massive distributed computing project? Well now here's you Chance. Become part of the Yeti@home project.

Sure we are war with Terror but that doesn't mean the president has gone soft on education. Come see DE One in action.

[ related topics: Bay Area History Education ]

Welp I am officially in panic mode and have begun work on the barge. I've been calling it flutterbarge but it's not very graceful or butterfly like so I'm not sure if the name fits. I would love some suggestions on how to give it a look for this years Burning Man "Floating World" theme. Here are some Pictures & Sarcasm to take a look at.

[ related topics: Burning Man Butterflies Interactive Drama Photography Todd Gemmell Coyote Grits Work, productivity and environment Boats Douglas Adams ]

Dang it, I really need to re-implement the "delete an entry" ability too. Double sigh.

[ related topics: Web development Flutterby Meta ]

Aaargh! I'm looking through the Grainger catalog on-line. What I really want is to see all solenoids with about 10mm throws. Or all gear motors less than 4 rpm with at least 40lbs hanging capacity. But noooo, I'm stuck with keyword search, and a sort function that doesn't operate on any useful column of the results. Can't even say "exclude all valves from searches for 'solenoid'". So we walked over to the local Grainger store to get a catalog, and they're out. Sigh.

And if you walk away from the web page too long, it says "sorry, you're timed out". Excuse me? I was freakin' browsing.

[ related topics: Web development Machinery ]

I finished reading Martin Cruz Smith's Rose this morning. Not my usual fare, but Bill strongly suggested it. A story that was a little too genre, but the hero was easy to sympathise with, and wonderfully flawed, and I need to go back and find a quote about clothes and civilization in the context of the British caste system that got me to thinking about software interoperability, and why it's so important to Microsoft, and, as I found out this week, Adobe, that their software not exchange data well with other applications. I'll try to build a longer rant on that topic.

[ related topics: Free Software Books Microsoft Software Engineering Clothing ]

A woman is forced to drink her own breast milk to prove it was not a threat to other passengers before boarding a plane. Note the woman is not filing suit but just wants the morons punished. I guess it could have been worse. It could have been somone transporting urine samples or something.

[ related topics: moron Current Events ]

On Wide Angle last night they profiled the collapse of the Argentine government and how the people have been coping since December. It's truly sad to see that one of their top rated TV shows is called Human Resources where contestants attempt to win a job by trying to be the most pathetic.....long sigh... the coolest thing was that over a 5th of the population is engaging in barter trade where people are exchanging services and goods based on a credit system. It's like all the B-Ark people(D. Adams ref)are in the government or surrounding it in protest and the A-ARK & C-Ark people have started building a new society from scratch. Very Cool.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture moron Television Heinlein Civil Liberties ]

Some software is more fun to test than others. It's OK to watch the databases merge and the graphics render, but when the pistol range lights come on, the targets are lit and they hand you a box of ammo.. well.. you just gotta have fun.

[ related topics: Photography Software Engineering ]

I recently created a TIFF with Gimp that Photoshop couldn't read. Tons of other software reads it just fine, but Photoshop doesn't. Rather than taking it out on Adobe, I got crap for this. Then, reading Rose, I ran across this quote that summed up a lot of things well:

It's not just a matter of dresses or pants. Do you think Parliament would investigate these women if it was just a matter of pants? Pants are merely a symbol of civilization. Do I care whether they wear pants or seashells or go about stark naked? Not a fig. But I care about the rules. I can tell you from sad experience that civilization is nothing but rules adopted for the general good. I don't know how it is i nthe South Seas, but once an Englishwoman has dressed in pants she has divorced herself from decency or the considerations due her sex. Granted it's only a rule, but it's what separates us from the apes.

--- Chief Constable Moon, in Rose by Martin Cruz Smith

[ related topics: Books Sexual Culture Software Engineering Clothing ]

Anabella Brown receives her BS degree in 3 years from MTSU.....and she's engaged also! (Annie is my step-daughter)

[ related topics: Photography Chattanooga ]

I had heard this from a local computer dealer Friday when i picked up 3 systems, 1 with NT/2000 and the other two with no operation system (Linux bound). He's not sure what his official stance will be about essentially being forced to sell MS-OS systems, but his un-official response was 'Ya gotta buy parts, right? and parts is parts, we may just not call them systems.'

[ related topics: Free Software Microsoft Open Source ]

According to TV Tome, MTV is going to be bringing us Spider-Man, The Series - based on/fueled by the recent movie. Originally scheduled for a Fall 2002 release, it looks to have been pushed back to early 2003. According to news reports, Mainframe Entertainment, Inc. (of Reboot fame) will be doing the CGI for the new show.

In other news, Spider-Man 2 is apparently in the works for 2004.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Animation Movies Television Pop Culture ]

Charlene and I went to see OmniCircus put on EROShambo, "a surreal, erotic robotic cabaret." I felt very much like I did exploring computer graphics in the early '90s, some cool technology, some great artistic talent, no narrative. So rather than tying together in some way that made me feel like it was a complete work, I came away glad I'd gone, but in no hurry to run back. This might change after I listen to the CD that came with paying the higher end of the "pay what you will" scale, maybe the lyrics will make more sense on the second listening.

[ related topics: Music Erotic Robotics Graphics Art & Culture ]

Kristen Nygaard, who apparently invented/discovered inheritance in programming [according to some guy named Stroustrup ], has died at 75.

Though I don't understand inheritance, nor objects, nor subtypes, nor much beyond an if.. then statement, I suspect Mr Nygaard was probably a damn good lunch conversationalist as well as a programming pioneer.

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

I spent the morning hours hiking the Hogskins Branch Upper Loop and down into the gorge to the creek. Everything was very dry - some leaves even turning already. The creek itself still had some pools big enough (and clean enough) to jump into. Lots of flutterbies mating too...

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment ]

Thanks to all of those who've named Flutterby as their parent blog on BlogTree. I tried to go in and give appropriate credit (to at least Cam and Dave, although I'd really love to credit Bryon Sutherland if he exists anywhere), but apparently someone else owns the Flutterby record. Is it someone I know?

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett Weblogs Dave Winer Flutterby Meta ]

Eric Wagoner mentioned an exploding chocolate bomb from this catalog page. £69.99, and I'm not sure you could air-freight such a thing, but... want...

Our advice would be to place the bomb on a tray or solid plate in the centre of a cleared table, place the safety guard (included) around the bomb with further clear space around that. Light the wick and stand well back and wait. Do not remove the cardboard base from the bomb and like a firework do not return to the bomb once lit in the unlikely event it should fail to explode.

[ related topics: Chocolate ]

In response to some email communications, it occurred to me that I'd like to find a way to preserve some information about session tracking in the Flutterby logs, but make it so that even I can't find out what IP address posted what message. I've thought about an MD5 hash of the 4 byte number, but it seems like iterating through 32 bits to deconstruct the hash isn't out of the question. I'm not quite sure who I'm trying to protect, especially since if a poster is at all known in this community usually their syntax will give them away, but has anyone thought about this problem? Maybe I just need to figure out what sort of information I'd like to extract from the logs and purge them regularly.

[ related topics: Privacy Flutterby Meta Cryptography ]

Sometimes the court gets it right and I suppose it's a ....yeah duh... to the flutterby crowd but this was a court ruling on the conservative side of the country. Cool.

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Galen and Barbara Rowell die in plane crash in the Sierra. Both were fairly well known nature photographers.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment California Culture ]

I'm actually not sure if comments come through the template system, so here it is in plain text for all the world to see. My BlogTree claim tag is: [blogtree-claim:UTNSVVFVL3MkZjFyZkZ0aERoMTlwTnRtOC4ySnRMLg==]

[ related topics: Weblogs Flutterby Meta ]

Later: Okay, I think things are fixed. Need some better error reporting for me in the content system. And I need to open up CVS access so that people can diddle with it, I've had a couple of requests for the HTML parser code.

Sorry about the breakage, I'm on it. Just once I thought I'd have an upgrade that'd go cleanly. Damn. Damn. Damn.

Here's one for the Objectivists: conceptual artist Jonathon Keats wants Berkeley to legally acknowledge Aristotle's law, commonly expressed as A=A.

Mayor Shirley Dean was dumbfounded.

"I haven't a clue what that means," Dean said of Keats' proposition.

[ related topics: Objectivism Bay Area ]

Genehack pointed out: "Microsoft's TrueType core fonts for the Web are no longer available for download from www.microsoft.com". This kinda sucks 'cause the Debian install I did on my laptop went out and installed those, and I figured this way we could all still have a basic set of fallback fonts if our first choices didn't spec out. Oh well.

[ related topics: Free Software John S Jacobs-Anderson Microsoft Typography Graphic Design ]

Okay, I've made a tar file of the Flutterby sources. If you'd like access to the CVS repository gimme a yell and I'll give you a pserver login. I'd set up an anonymous system, but my time right now is short and I've got the whole thing in a chrooted directory which makes stuff tough.

I'd love for someone else to beat on this. I'd love to have an email exchange about installing it, or the philosophies behind this, so I can start to derive docs. Todd, I backed out a few things I did last night so unfortunately we'll still have problems running two instances on the same server 'til I get the time to go redo that (it turns out that wasn't the problem).

The HTML parser has a few issues right now, trying to make it understand my HTML and the common HTML errors I've found Flutterby users making means that there are some bad compromises I need to fix. Other things are probably broken, and the code tree really needs some reorganization. But there might be a nugget of goodness there.

[ related topics: Free Software Dan's Life Content Management Flutterby Meta Software Engineering ]

Except for the closed network part, this article makes a lot of sense how the internet has become very very US-centric, and more importantly than US-Centric content wise, the laws and proprietary technologies of the US prevail. I do like the quote:

"We need to build our borders online and offer our citizens protection within those borders, and escape from America. "

And feel it sometimes applies to those of us INSIDE of the USA as well.

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

Went to see the Cantankerous Lollies last night at the Make-Out Room. We had to leave a little early, about 11:00, but damn that was a good show. Fisherman and his band(s) did wonderful jazz and jams, I forget the name of the stripping singer, but she had a good set of pipes and an incredible stage presence.

[ related topics: Erotic Bay Area Art & Culture Burlesque ]

Phil and I went to the LinuxWorld Expo yesterday. Lame. The bright spot was picking up John F.X. Sundman's novel Acts of the Apostles, which has started out really strong. But Sun was there trying to scream "really, we're still here", there were the usual bunch of blade manufacturers, Microsoft had a booth showing off embedded WinCE and some dumbed down version of ASP, but nothing that leaped out and said "cool". Oh, and I picked up a sample copy of Linux Journal, to which I'd let my subscription lapse. To the folks at Linux Journal: that doppler shift about a year ago was relevance blowing by.

[ related topics: Free Software Microsoft Open Source Embedded Devices ]

I was going to call this "worst example of typography at LinuxWorld, but now that I think about it, the fact that it was misinterpreted as "bastard" so many times probably got Astaro more press than anything else they could possibly do.

[ related topics: security Typography ]

You know that old joke about eating at a German-Chinese restaurant, half an hour later you're hungry again... for power? This place is a block up from the office. Nobody's ever seen it open.

[ related topics: Humor Food ]

I mentioned that Phil and I had both bought Acts of the Apostles at LinuxWorld Expo. Finished reading it last night. I think Phil liked it more than I did, he compared it to Cryptonomicon, I thought it was a reasonably enjoyable techno-thriller written by someone at least as technically savvy as me. However, it is obviously the first novel John FX Sundman has written, the dialog is a little stilted at times, and the payoff felt a little weak. But if you're looking for a techno-thriller that won't insult your intelligence the way, say, a Michael Crichton tale does, this one does a pretty good job of keeping the real tech real, accurately rendering the Silicon Valley personalities we all know, even if the names are changed, and moving in plausible ways. There's a /. review, and a Google search turns up plenty more reviews.

[ related topics: Books Bioinformatics ]

Tee hee hee. Brad finds that there is a difference between gay bars in different states. Or at least in the denizens of them. Once again, California stands out.

Huh, typo: "gay bras".

[ related topics: Sexual Culture California Culture ]

What's the most requested document at the National Archives? When Elvis met Nixon. CNN explores the Elvis/Nixon relationship. Anyone remember Pinkard & Bowden? Specifically, Elvis was a Narc? (It's in MP3 format on the Pinkard & Bowden page, I'm not linking directly to it 'cause you should get your chance to order merchandise.)

Elvis was a narc

in rhinestones after dark

he did his best to keep Memphis drug free

he knew every pill he'd eat

was one less on the street

Elvis did 'em all for you and me.

[ related topics: Drugs Politics Music ]

Will wonders never cease? Has anyone seen the stage production?

[ related topics: Theater & Plays Chattanooga ]

Ages ago I had a Hi-8 video camera, used it for a little while, then the novelty wore off. But I've been hanging out with the Digital Verité guys, giving me an incentive to use it, the new laptop has an IEEE 1394 (FireWire^tm) port, and after helping Anne set up her Avid system I've been thinking it'd be fun to play with video.

On a lark last week I downloaded Cinelerra, a video editor for Linux. I finally got around to playing with it on the ferry, edited a couple of porn MPEGs because I didn't have anything else on the laptop to work with. After some false starts getting used to its workflow, and a few crashes, I figured out that I had to start thinking like an Avid user. And it works pretty damned well in that role, only a few cut styles (and the world will be better for it), and a reasonable package of effects and filters.

On the way home I stopped at CompUSA, just to check, and they had a DV camcorder on close-out, cheap, with the basic features I wanted.

I started by using dvgrab for input and making an MPEG with lav2yuv, but sound into Cinelerra is still a second step that way. Kino gets the sound too, but only has simple cuts. But at this point tieingh things together should be easy. And maybe, after life settles down, my contribution to Cinelerra could be getting it to read dv files directly.

Of course audio as a second step isn't too bad, because the best thing you can do for your editing is use a continuous sound track.

Digital video editing, on my laptop, on Linux. Charlene's machine has been Windows because we've been concerned about some driver issues, but after some printer problems late last week I'll be moving her to Linux shortly.

The only reason I have for a Windows box any more is to develop for it.

[ related topics: Free Software Microsoft Movies Open Source Cool Technology ]

Went into the city yesterday to chat with Diane (the reason for the ferry ride mentioned below), she and Charlie were going to meet Fakir Musafar at a book signing at Stormy Leather. Had a great chat with Diane and Charlie. Need to hang out with them more. Fakir Musafar was marvelously understated, fun to chat with, and despite the fact that some of his stuff is on the edge of squickyniss for me I bought his book and had it signed.

[ related topics: Books Erotic Dan's Life ]

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Back when I knew way more about QuickTime than was healthy, I seem to remember a simple file format converter that would read frames from AVI files and drop the data into a QuickTime file, keeping the codec specifications the same, just repackaging the digital data into the new format. Further research on my video on Linux experiments indicates that if I could find source code for this utility I'd be very happy. I'd write one myself, but I don't want to have to rededicate those neurons if I can avoid it, the details of framing just don't appeal any more... Anyone got any leads?

[ related topics: Free Software Movies Open Source Macintosh ]

Damn, just got mail on the official list, Blackhole is closing in two weeks. We'd only gotten to Titillation Theater there, and life has been busy recently, so we haven't managed to catch a few other events which looked very promising. The world needs more underground theaters.

[ related topics: Bay Area Theater & Plays ]

I'm not sure what Ruby is doing, but she keeps finding the cool links. Happen to need a small jet engine? You can order plans to build your own Gluhareff Pressure Jet Engine:

When Eugene M. Gluhareff examined the technical challenges of personal flight from his perspective as a helicopter design engineer, it quickly became obvious that the absence of a suitable blade-tip powerplant was the missing ingredient. So he designed his own powerplant specifically for this type of application.

And if you're looking for ideas for the stylin' ride you're going to power with that engine, check out Luigi Colani's Virtual Design Museum.

[ related topics: Aviation Art & Culture Graphic Design Machinery Cool Technology ]

Note to self: When working in systems that switch 110 volt motors and solenoids, also make sure that you've unplugged the harmless signal lines that cause the flash units to go off when shorted. Nothing kicks the adrenals like a short burst of daylight when you accidentally cross wires.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Work, productivity and environment ]

The Blender Fund is within a few thousand dollars (actually euros) of being able to buy the sources of Blender from NaN and GPL them. If you think a free animation and modeling package is worth having in the software community, we'd all appreciate a few bucks sent that direction.

[ related topics: Free Software Animation Software Engineering ]

Via Camworld, the U.S. would never make plans to commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to provoke public opinion into supporting a war, would it? Ahhh, the joys of the paranoid 1950s and '60s.

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett History ]

GNU Project: Free Software licensing quiz.

[ related topics: Free Software Software Engineering ]

I've just got to link to this because of the summary: Media chief decries Net's moral fiber.

The president of News Corp. warns that the Internet's future is threatened by porn, spam and rampant piracy. He condemns the medium's "enormous amount" of worthless content.

Wait. Peter Chernin is decrying enormous amounts of worthless content? Todd Levin, wherever you are, if you ever did find that gun loaded with "shut the fuck up" bullets we need you.

[ related topics: Current Events Journalism and Media Net Culture ]

The Economist asks if rural America is a good model for the country:

Here again the image of small-town piety bears little relation to reality in rural America. The states that Mr Bush won in 2000 boast slightly higher rates for murder, illegitimacy and teenage childbirth than the supposedly degenerate states that voted for Mr Gore.

I've been depressed recently over the fact that I'm running into a lot of instances where right and wrong have been replaced by legal and illegal, or even enforceable and unenforceable. My year at Gracenote probably skewed the sample, but I've seen attitudes among the most ardent liberals change on things like the DOJ anti-monopoly actions against Microsoft. Over on Kuro5hin, Microsoft - Undeserving of Libertarian Praise is getting such well thought out refutations as (in its entirety):

"I was there. This story is entirely false. A classic example of a know-nothing picking random 'facts' and making a 'story'." cite

And, of course, we've got the current financial melt-down. It's not like none of this crap was going on in the 8 years prior to this administration, but it seemed like at least people were embarassed about it. I wonder if we really are that much of a herd, or if I'm just bummed out right now and taking it out on humanity.

[ related topics: Politics Libertarian Microsoft New Economy moron Law ]

Various people seem to be up in arms over the DOJ going after file swappers using the No Electronic Theft (NET) act. Frankly this seems like exactly what they should be doing, exactly the tack the RIAA should be taking.

[ related topics: Business Music Law Current Events ]

On the ferry this evening I diddled about with some ideas for a new look. I've got a rough cut for a logo that I'm riffing on.

[ related topics: Flutterby Meta ]

Rachel passed along this NASA page on flames in microgravity. I hadn't considered that convection needs gravity and flames like convection.

[ related topics: Cool Science Space & Astronomy ]

If you're using syndication XML version of Flutterby, could you answer a few questions for me please?

1. What syndicator are you using. Radio? AmphetaDesk? Something else?
2. Would you like a version with HTML in the entries?
3. Should that version also not limit the size of the entries?
4. Any other complaints, comments or whatever?

[ related topics: Web development Content Management Flutterby Meta ]

Teeheeheehee. Cadbury apologizes for comparing Kashmir to one of their chocolates: "too good to share".

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Current Events ]

On the road to Dan's... Flagstaff AZ rocks!. Spent this morning riding bike and taking pictures in the painted desert. Life is good. The pictures are awesome. and I'll upload some when I get to Dan's. Even found an internet cafe.. I may stay and play here the rest of the day. A very neat little town on Route 66.

[ related topics: Photography Coyote Grits Net Culture ]

There's a new genehacklette. Yesterday, John announced: "Rosanna Lyn Jacobs Anderson, was born today at about 3:30 pm EDT." Maybe now that they've successfully gotten the product out he can get back to weblogging?

[ related topics: John S Jacobs-Anderson ]

Damn. I've been monster stressed over Burning Man, and completely ineffectual the last two nights working on stuff because of that. So screw it. I think I'll be able to finish what I don't get done here up there, Mike's in California now, Todd's on the case, I'm going to finish my work stuff. Damn, I'm looking forward to that last stop at the Reno KMart before turning north to the Black Rock Desert.

[ related topics: Burning Man Todd Gemmell ]

Volkswagen apparently is gonna bring back the Microbus.

Or would you prefer this? Perhaps Todd can interest Dan in one after Burning Man? <grin>

[ related topics: Automobiles ]

"Every kid who has put a firecracker under a tin can understands the principle of using high explosives to loft an object into space. What was novel to scientists at Los Alamos [the atomic laboratory in New Mexico] was the idea of using an atomic bomb as propellant. That strategy was the serendipitous result of an experiment that had gone somewhat awry.



"Project Thunderwell was the inspiration of astrophysicist Bob Brownlee, who in the summer of 1957 was faced with the problem of containing underground an explosion, expected to be equivalent to a few hundred tons of dynamite. Brownlee put the bomb at the bottom of a 500-foot vertical tunnel in the Nevada desert, sealing the opening with a four-inch thick steel plate weighing several hundred pounds. He knew the lid would be blown off; he didn't know exactly how fast. High-speed cameras caught the giant manhole cover as it began its unscheduled flight into history. Based upon his calculations and the evidence from the cameras, Brownlee estimated that the steel plate was traveling at a velocity six times that needed to escape Earth's gravity when it soared into the flawless blue Nevada sky. 'We never found it. It was gone,' Brownlee says, a touch of awe in his voice almost 35 years later.



"The following October the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, billed as the first man-made object in Earth orbit. Brownlee has never publicly challenged the Soviet's claim. But he has his doubts."



Ok, so it it wouldn't have been in orbit (at least not around Earth), but it's still an appealing story.

[ related topics: Cool Science History Space & Astronomy Pyrotechnics ]

How to pull the plug on a lake, almost literally



"Nine of the barges eventually popped back up like corks (the drilling rigs and tug were never to be seen again)."

[ related topics: History Boats ]

Not enough bandwidth to upload pictures... we've been having a great time at BurningMan. --Meuon--

[ related topics: Burning Man Photography broadband ]