Flutterby™! From 2003-05-01 to 2003-05-31

A 3d Goggle-less Display in the form of a crystal ball. - Link stolen from Slashdot - It's small, it's $40k.. and it does not have Quake drivers (yet), but its is so very very cool. pic of whole system, shows scale

[ related topics: Games Graphics Earthquake ]

The consortium of European nations that operate the European Southern Observatory in the Chilean Andes is working on the Overwhelmingly Large Telescope or OWL. This is a cluster of adaptive, linked mirrors that will create the equivalent of a 100 meter mirror! Interestingly enough, the entire structure will be slid out of its dome to operate in the open air. To give you an idea of the engineering feat in running this thing, moving and aiming the structure involves manipulating a weight 30% greater than an Aegis-type naval cruiser! Too, too cool!

[ related topics: Cool Science Astronomy ]

This is probably in the "well, duh" department, but anyone else noticed that the Matrix Reloaded(official site) release date is a reversal of 5150? Kewl marketing, especially since the Thursday release means they probably put it there for a reason (otherwise they'd go with Wednesday if the marketing folks believed in the movie, Friday if they thought it sucked and the opening weekend wouldn't be bouyed by the word of mouth).

[ related topics: Movies Consumerism and advertising California Culture Marketing ]

Australian investors today snapped up shares in the first publically-traded brothel. It's an income stock. "Should we hold this one, honey? It's only going to go up!"

Eric Boutilier-Brown informs me that there have been updates to Evolving Beauty, with new entries in the Photo Diaries, and a project called Portfolio XV, fifteen of his favorite images from previous work.

[ related topics: Photography Erotic ]

After my own heart dept: Yahoo reports that a survey from the folks at SafeOutdoorSex.com:

...found that 94 percent of respondents thought outdoor sex was a good way to maintain an exciting relationship, with two-thirds admitting to having had sex in a car and nearly half saying they had frolicked in a field.

SafeOutdoorSex.com is brought to you by Mates Condoms, who also bring you I Shagged Here, where:

...you can create your own Mates plaque to print out, cut out and mount at the scene of your most unforgettable sexual encounter.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Nature and environment Current Events Automobiles ]

Gotta hand it to the "unconventional sex = rape" crowd, they're doing a great job at demonizing an Air Force Academy cadet who ran a web site to organize gang bangs. I've no more information than I can derive from that article, but it sure sounds a lot like this could be an innocent hung out to dry because the higher ups are looking for some excuses for the atmosphere there which reportedly fostered attitudes which led to sexual harrasment and a number of rapes.

(Okay, what made the topic picker grab Heinlein for this?)

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Current Events ]

This one's for Meuon: Tannerite exploding targets:

We are the inventor of the Binary Target concept as well as the chemical composition. These amazing 1/2 pound targets are so freakin loud that we recomend they be used in remote areas only to avoid complaints from neighboring land owners. We have a 110% guarantee that you will be so happy with these KICK ASS targets, that if you'r not shocked as hell with the first shot, we'll refund your order NO QUESTIONS ASKED. Guaranteed to give grown men woodies. The chest thumping ROAR of the Tannerite TM Exploding Target is one of the most exihilerating feelings a gun lover can have. Perfect for a number of applications.

[ related topics: Guns ]

David Lazarus reports that orders for sex toys to overseas military addresses are up.

James Garcia, MyPleasure's inventory and distribution manager, took a close look at his records and determined that the vast majority of orders from military personnel in the Gulf involved "solitary enjoyment."

"It wasn't for couples," he said. "No games. No role-playing stuff. These were pretty much all things for self-pleasure."

Good to know that our troops are playing it safe and making sure they protect us by not bringing anything home with them.

[ related topics: Games Sexual Culture Bay Area Current Events War ]

Some fun science demonstrations and experiments saved off for later. This weekend I think we're going to do some physics and chemistry experiments with Forest. And yes, Diane, now that we've accepted that we're in or a longer haul we need to find a time.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Dan's Life Cool Science Education ]

Over at Utopia With Cheese, Columbine admitted "a secret, shameful interest" in World War II propaganda posters, and linked to Powers of Persuasion. Well, I looked at Glenn Grohe's "He's Watching You", and it screamed to me that what was really needed was a little compositing with a picture of John Ashcroft. Juvenile, I know.

[ related topics: Politics Photography Privacy History ]

Aaargh. It's one of those days, so here are some non-sequiters to tell you where part of my train of thought is chugging.

SCO takes strategy from the Bush administration, as Group Chief Executive Darl McBride says SCO code shows up in the Linux kernel, but he won't say where. In other news, the former Iraqi information minister (and we love the Iraqi Information Minister) Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf has been offered a job on Dubai's al-Arabiya satellite channel. I smell a bidding war, as that's about the only thing that'd get me to watch CNN.

By this time you've all seen the quote from Dubya praising him in an interview with Tom Brokaw: "He's my man, he was great. Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there. He was a classic."

And while I'm rambling on unconnected topics, y'all know that the TSA is cutting 6,000 airport security screener jobs this year. So apparently then the panic is over, and we can start pushing our congressweasels to repeal the Patriot Act?

[ related topics: Free Software Business Politics History moron Current Events ]

Some suggestions for making Hentai better.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Animation ]

I was looking at buying a Tom Robinson CD, when I realized that I didn't know if his record label was an RIAA member or not. I'm still not sure, but I did find the "Just say no to the RIAA" page, with a list of labels that aren't. Need a better database to track these things.

[ related topics: Politics Music Civil Liberties Databases ]

Debra reflects on 20 years of marriage. We're obviously coming at things from different perspectives, but there are some neat insights in there.

[ related topics: Sociology ]

Still unsure on when the kid is going back. There's hope for the end of this week, but we've had one other false alarm. I'm keenly aware now that some people are alive only because it is illegal to kill them. I'm starting to get a little snippy with him; I've been trying to treat him as a peer because I've always had the best luck with kids in the past doing that, but this little whiner is like one of those small obnoxious dogs that's always either humping your leg or barking at the car.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Dan's Life ]

Giggle. SF Weekly wonders what GTA would look like in San Francisco.

[ related topics: Humor Games Bay Area California Culture ]

Here's a little much-needed fun for ya, Dan:

Furrygoat shares the newest Jedi's private training video as well as the remixed version, complete with sound and visual effects, from Waxy.org.

[ related topics: Humor Star Wars Video ]

Happy Hundred and Forty First anniversary of a French military defe..., nope, mustn't use a magic Googleable phrase.

[ related topics: History ]

More conservatives who can't help themselves: You've probably already seen the news that Morality crusader William Bennett has a pretty hefty gambling addiction.

"He'll usually call a host and let us know when he's coming," says one source. "We can limo him in. He prefers the high-limit room, where he's less likely to be seen and where he can play the $500-a-pull slots. He usually plays very late at night or early in the morning--usually between midnight and 6 a.m."

Slots? Yeesh. In Skipping Towards Gomorrah, Dan Savage opined that gambling was a way for people without real consequences in their lives to experience loss, and by extension living. Time to go back and re-read that chapter, although Savage at least bases his experience on playing blackjack. Of course Bennett feels that blowing $1.2M at a shot is okay because he can handle it.

[ related topics: Current Events Gambling ]

Do not be drinking anything when you view this: Three Fictional Heroes.

[ related topics: Humor Movies War ]

According to this NY Times article, the RIAA companies are possibly making viruses to sabotage end user computers. Isn't copyright violation a misdemeanor and developing a virus a felony?!?

[ related topics: virus Copyright/Trademark ]

Well, I owe Windows an apology. In the process of Forest lugging my XP box back and forth to the rat boys' house, something came loose inside it. Component isolation implicated the motherboard. So I went to CompUSA and, after struggling with a salesdude for a while, got a replacement motherboard. Of course that took different RAM and had a warning sticker saying "Warning: Use only 1.5v AGP 2.0", but after the CompUSA experience I wasn't about to go back there. So I went to Central Computer, where I got a video card I was sure was okay, and some new RAM, plugged it in, and Windows didn't boot. It started, but got midway through, crashed, and restarted.

My XP license was through an MSDN subscription to a startup venture that no longer exists, so after some back and forth there, I got a new XP Professional license, with great trepidation started setup, and... it had a repair option that worked. On the way I had various frustrations, but in the end I got my machine back up without having to spend a day and a half feeding it CDs and answering silly questions to reinstall all the software. Perhaps no easier than recovering from a similar problem with Linux, but in the end, with all the right disks, not much worse.

And, being a Waldorf kid (props to David Chess for "kids with chopped apples, celery and walnuts in mayonnaise?"), I have my old 3^rd grade schoolwork in a box here. This evening I'll pull it out and Forest and I can see where I really was at his age. I've a feeling it won't all be as rosy as I remember it.

[ related topics: Free Software Children and growing up Dan's Life Microsoft ]

Ten ways to be a lover: Lessons on romance and sex from romance novels. Much more concise than Halley's Alpha Male lessons, and frankly probably a little more likely to lead to a lasting meaningful relationship.

[ related topics: Humor Books Sexual Culture ]

It will come as no surprise to most of those who watch the United States' ham-fisted foreign policy and hypocritical moralizing that the current administration has become a parody of the South Park movie: U.S. has threatened that there will be consequences if Canada loosens its marijuana laws:

"We would have to respond. We would be forced to respond," said ["right hand man" to U.S. "drug czar" John Walters, David] Murray.

This raises some obvious questions. First off, what's he doing with his left hand? But "forced to respond"? Them's some ominous words. And we've noted before that the feds have found "a bunch of pot-smoking sick people" reason to call in reinforcements.

[ related topics: Drugs Politics moron ]

Debra sends mail saying that Pursed Lips is having some server issues. Patience, it'll come back.

Why are patents screwed up? Well, the race is on to patent the SARS virus. So if your lab sequenced the whole thing but didn't have the legal abilities of another lab, sorry, all that work is now moot. The British Columbia Cancer Agency is saying that their patent will "protect accessibility", but it's unclear as to exactly how that will play out.

Dr. Marco Marra, credited with cracking the genetic code, said he supports the patent application, but only because it keeps the door to further research open.

"I believe that the agency is acting in the best interests of the public in protecting access to the sequence information."

Marra said he personally requested that his name not be included on the patent application as the scientist who found the genetic sequence.

"This stems largely from a personal belief that DNA sequence is a discovery as opposed to an invention and should not be patentable," he said.

I think he's naive, but I also don't know whether or not his parent organization will ever be in financial straits and need to show a profit to its funders.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Health virus Bioinformatics Law ]

Hey, there are good lawyers! This one explains in detail how to get $500 from a telemarketer, with law cites and everything. Strongly recommended.

[ related topics: Privacy Law ]

For as long as I've lived in Marin I've heard worries over the breast cancer rate, yet nobody ever seemed to come up with a smoking gun. One side would proclaim that there were abnormally high rates of breast cancer, the other would counter that when normalized for other demographics it was just that well-off caucasian women had that rate of breast cancer. Well, after ruling out environmental factors, breast feeding differences, even membership in organized religion (which apparently raises your chances of breast cancer, so you'd think Marin would be lower) UCSF researchers have chalked it up to higher alcohol consumption.

[ related topics: Religion Drugs Bay Area Race ]

Stolen from Weird Ass Shit (comments here) because for some reason I thought it would appeal to Tom over at Monkeyspeak (which is back, now, by the way): Overclocked Jesus performs miracles faster.

Chicago, IL - A group of bored students in Chicago overclocked Jesus so that he now performs miracles nearly twice as fast as before. Goran Radovich and Trey Gafney managed to overclock Jesus and keep him stable at a record 3.69 GHz.

[ related topics: Religion Humor ]

Does it bother anyone else that we're getting these "one-a-day" questionable stories of atrocities by relatives of Saddam Hussein while there's still no evidence of the "conservative estimate" of "a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent" that Colin Powell alleged in his remarks to the United Nations Security Council? Rafe Colburn has some good notes looking back on the Powell speech. I'm sure Saddam Hussein and his cronies are baaaad people, but given the treatment of U.S. prisoners of war, and the assertions made when the invasion started, I also think we're getting one hell of a smokescreen right now.

[ related topics: Politics History Current Events Sports Dictators ]

Well, we've got a Southwest ticket for Forest to fly to Las Vegas on Saturday. Despite our occasional blow-ups and apparently stricter approach to learning, he doesn't want to go. But I think it's time, and if we plan ahead and watch the specials it's not that expensive to have him come visit. At least for the flight.

In the process of staying here, he's managed to get a 800+MHz Wintel machine donated to his cause, quite a coup considering that within the last year Charlene gave him his first computer, her old Mac Performa. But we don't yet have a monitor arranged for this. There have been some rumblings, but if anyone out there has a spare monitor, especially all of you yuppies who've been replacing your CRTs with snazzy new LCDs, that they'd want to use to make a 9 year old very happy and maybe help give him some aspirations that'll break some economic cycles, speak up. I gave my spare to Zack, and Charlene's has been making weird noises, so replacing hers with an LCD and sending it off and then trying to diagnose that long-range rather than just waiting for it to break here doesn't seem like a reasonable scenario.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Dan's Life Macintosh Education Las Vegas ]

Feeling nostalgic for those wonderful window-smashing routs of your youth? Still dreaming of the Berkely Free Speech Riots or the soccer disorders after the last World Cup? Then perhaps the London Riot Reenactment Society is for you. Bring your own helmet and remember: Chicks in Front!

[ related topics: Nostalgia History Sports War ]

Metafilter has a link to an awesome site: A Korean speaking American's visit to North Korea. A travelog in North Korea. Many of the pictures remind me of slides of my youth; my dad's images from East Germany, other images from family friends who'd visited Moscow with the chandeliers in the subway. What also struck me was something that reminded me of that link to Eason Jordan's apologia for suppressing news coming from Iraq:

Ever wonder why CNN seems to be the only Western news organization regularly allowed into North Korea? The next room perhaps offered a clue. In the 'Gifts from America' room a whole section of one wall is taken up by gifts from CNN. A few engraved plaques, a coffee cup (yeah, a freaking coffee cup!), a logo ashtray, etc. Probably at most a couple hundred bucks worth of crap that nonetheless get pride of place in the museum - for they reveal obvious signs of respect from a world famous news organization. The people at CNN are certainly using their heads and showing they know how to play the game. Though one wonders how that fits in with journalistic integrity . . .

Anyway, strongly recommend reading this, it's a good reminder not only that closed societies still exist, but in reading it I found myself asking why the narrator was making waves, which quickly reminded me that unless we make waves, unless we celebrate the dissent, we risk that sort of fearful conformity.

[ related topics: Politics Photography Current Events Journalism and Media Art & Culture ]

Nude models at the Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia are considering unionizing.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Current Events Graphic Design Education ]

Now I'm sorry that I blew off the morning session of the .Net server 2003 launch. Found these on Vivian Kam's weblog, Eh?, in the entries here and here email asking for reproduction permission shows that the original artist is unknown.

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft ]

So I see in this CNN report on the storms in the Southeast that "In Chattanooga, Tennessee, school closings stretched into their third day Thursday..." and "...the Tennessee River -- which had reached its highest levels in 30 years in recent days -- receded Thursday morning but was still about five feet above flood level." Anyone been on the Ocoee recently? How's the paddling? In years past I've had a soft spot for that river when it's kickin' a little.

[ related topics: Chattanooga Whitewater ]

Just as I'm rethinking the role of school for kids, I find that I'm completely unsurprised by the news that Girls paid money to be assaulted, covered in pig intestines, and possibly feces, in high school initiation. Anyone who was shocked, who thinks that there's not a whole political structure going on that teachers and administrators at the very least have no say in, if not are completely clueless about, needs to go re-read Elinor Burkett's Another Planet.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Politics moron Space & Astronomy Current Events Currency ]

Eric of Cigarettes and Coffee is trying to manipulate the BlogShares market. Let's see if it takes.

[ related topics: Games Weblogs ]

Mark Morford talks about living in the San Francisco bubble. Further ammo for Meuon next time someone asks him why Chattanooga doesn't have a tech economy:

But overall, in a nation where innovative, even anarchic ideas about gender and belief and the violent insult that is our sanctimonious oil-drunk warmongering government are not only frowned upon but also openly mocked and threatened and sneered at, San Francisco still reins(sic) as the funk epicenter, the winking liberal stronghold, the ecstatic 69 to the nation's droning missionary position.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Bay Area Art & Culture Chattanooga Mark Morford ]

Somebody needs to fact check Dave Winer:

On this day in 1999 we opened up the channel list for My.UserLand.... At that time all weblogs were done in Frontier.

Ummm... I don't know how many other counter-examples I'd need to provide, I can come up with probably at least 10 off the top of my head, most of what became the "A-list", but this one wasn't. Of course at that point I might have still called Flutterby a "microportal" or one of the other terms that was flying around, but yeesh, Dave, is your version of history really that limited?

[ related topics: Dan's Life Weblogs Dave Winer Flutterby Meta ]

Yet another upstanding Republican: Katrina Leung, prominent GOP fundraiser, indicted in LA on charges of spying for China.

[ related topics: Current Events ]

In Christian circles there is an argument as to whether a proper understanding of Jesus' teachings demand pacifism. Perhaps other faiths have the same controversy, as reported in YahooNews, where The first Buddhist burial at Arlington Cemetary takes place.

[ related topics: Religion Current Events War ]

Earlier today I asked for counters to Dave Winer's claim that all weblogs in May of 1999 were in Frontier. Via personal correspondence, confirmed that the site actually existed:

• Jessamyn's Librarian.net and Abada Abada
• Bifurcated Rivets
• Bradlands didn't go Frontier until 2001
• Camworld
• Honeyguide
• Rebecca Blood
• Windowseat
• Sabren.net
• More Like This
• Joshua Schachter says he didn't use Frontier, so that includes Memepool.
• It's moved around a bit, and the old archives aren't available, but Amanda Holland-Minkley's Screenshot

This is harder than I thought, because a few sites that I didn't think were Frontier based were, like Now This and Robot Wisdom. So there are a bunch of sites from that era that I could be wrong about. If you ran a weblog in May of 1999, how about adding in the comments your Frontier situation.

[ related topics: Jorn Barger Cameron Barrett Interactive Drama Weblogs Dave Winer Robotics ]

At a little before 4:10 yesterday afternoon, Southwest flight 2808 pushed back from the gate and departed for Las Vegas. Forest has gone home to his Mom.

[ related topics: Aviation Gambling ]

Ron asked if anyone had played with Denim, "An Informal Tool For Early Stage Web Site and UI Design". From the screen shots, this might be enough to sell someone on a tablet PC. Aaaand, it's cross-platform. It's based on Satin, a toolkit in Java for pen-based apps, including scene graph management. Looks promising, I haven't had a chance to download them yet, but put here for reference.

[ related topics: User Interface Bay Area Software Engineering Graphic Design ]

I'm a little behind (the pictures were taken weeks or months ago) but I'm finally getting around to making my photo contribution to Flutterby.

Not to be outdone by Dan's ferry pics, this is the local train station where I was catching the bus to school until Katrina broke her leg and I had to stay home to take care of her. (I returned to school this week - part time - and am using the car since she currently can't take me down the station and doesn't need it during the day either.) We don't see a train every morning and this one was both long and hauling... er... tail.

More photos to follow, as well as information on the camera.

[ related topics: Photography Shawn's Life Trains ]

I was once again disappointed when I heard the report on All Things Considered about the Union County pagan suing the school system because she was harrassed for 'being different' (according to the principal). But that's really bleeding-edge civil rights activism compared to what's going on in Marin County: Lawyer Seeks Ban on Oreo Cookies. I think Dan missed the point living in the cultural bubble of San Francisco. Out there you guys are quibbling over the right to eat cookies and here we are dealing with real First Amendment issues!

[ related topics: Bay Area Sociology Law Civil Liberties California Culture Chattanooga ]

Study links chiropractic "spinal manipulative therapy" to increased stroke risk. Done with a small sample, but while I've long been a believer in chiropractic treatments for some things, I haven't yet found a practitioner out here in Marin that I'd trust to adjust me.

[ related topics: Health Bay Area ]

Bay Area folks, set your VCRs: KRON (4) shows San Francisco: Sex and the City at 10 on Wednesday

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Bay Area Television California Culture ]

Wandering around today, somewhere near Farner on the north side of the Hiwassee, I came across a Flutterby Community. As you might expect, they were diverse, lively, and going in several directions at once..... but maintaining a sense of community.

[ related topics: Photography Chattanooga Community ]

Things that make you go "hmmmm": An empty San Francisco Sightseeing double-decker tour bus idling outside of Mr. S Leather this morning. What's next, those faux cable car busses touring down Valencia?

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Bay Area ]

Saved here for future reference: Just found out that Douglas and Sturgess is just down the street from us at 730 Bryant, and that they've got platinum cure silicones, which should be mucus membrane safe. I'll have to double-check with them, but that could mean some interesting devices created to provide new and interesting sensations on mucus membranes.

[ related topics: Erotic Dan's Life Invention and Design Bay Area ]

Two things on linguistics and semantics stored away for future reference, from the /. thread on the "Klingon interpreter needed in Oregon mental health facility" story: Toki Pona is a stripped down language, and a comment on Polish linguist Anna Wierzbicka's ideas of semantic primitives.

[ related topics: Language Artificial Intelligence ]

Visible only in the larger version (which, in turn, was cropped from this image), there were three parrots up in the ornaments on the San Francisco Ferry Building yesterday morning. Looked for 'em again this morning, but didn't see them.

[ related topics: Photography Bay Area Birds ]

Can't remember where I got it, but I thought this was an excellent essay comparing hackers and painters. It really struck a cord with me and finds me at a time in my life when I'm beginning to realize the possible/probable importance of viewing work prospects as a "day job".

[ related topics: Software Engineering Work, productivity and environment ]

In my link to the travelogue of a North Korea visit I commented that as I read it, I kept wondering why the traveler didn't just keep his mouth shut. Here's why: Transcript of Tim Robbin's speech to the National Press Club. He says:

...And the most frightening thing about the weekend was the amount of times we were thanked for speaking out against the war because that individual speaking thought it unsafe to do so in their own community, in their own life. Keep talking, they said; I haven't been able to open my mouth.

Now it happens that although I was lied to by the Bush administration that I'm not strongly against the war. I'm not sure that we'll make Iraq a better place, the U.S. has a bad track record on that and it'll be a decade or two before we know, but I'm fairly sure it isn't a worse place. There are times when the cacaphony gets a little loud, but we're stronger for our diversity of opinion. Every voice silenced makes us that much weaker.

[ related topics: Politics Free Speech History Current Events Community War ]

Be a New York Times reporter who writes lies that get published in said paper, have the feds after you. At least if you get caught; long-time readers know that I consider The New York Times to have roughly the credibility of a certain class of website (ie: those which have blinking multicolored text or promise scientific breakthroughs). Be a large corporation, like, say, Nike, write lies that get published in the New York Times and the U.S. D.O.J. will come to your defense.

Okay, admittedly the situation in Nike v. Kasky is a little different, but the only real difference I see is that since Jayson Blair was paid by The New York Times there should be grounds for a civil case by the New York Times against Jayson Blair. Why the opposite stances by the U.S. D.O.J.?

[ related topics: Law Current Events Journalism and Media ]

Russ Cooper, NTBugtraq editor, on the flaws of Windows Update. Required reading. Meanwhile, here in the development world Phil has finally actually had to work with real code, rather than just writing image processing loops that the rest of us have to integrate, and his enthusiasm for the Windows development environment has diminished to the "think I'm going to be using Linux for my home explorations". Ken yesterday described his experiences with Windows Server 2003 as "I guess they can't put the admins out of a job". In the face of all this, it's good to know that Microsoft is hard at work on translucent menus. Time to get Charlene's desktop machine switched to Linux, we need to be making the tweaks necessary to roll the better system out into the world.

[ related topics: Free Software Dan's Life Microsoft Open Source moron Work, productivity and environment ]

I'm starting to shop for the parts for my Summer research project - flying a PC and digital camera with helium ballons to take georeferenced digital aerial photographs. I've been looking at Mini-ITX motherboards like Dan's Via Eden. Because of power consumption concerns, I'll probably go with the EPIA 5000 (fanless). I don't need alot of CPU horsepower. Has anyone tried out the FIC Falon? I'm wondering how well it works as a home PC. The lack of USB 2.0 is a drag - but $150 for a system that'll play DVDs and MP3s without a hard drive or OS is pretty swank!

[ related topics: Music Photography Coyote Grits Aviation Embedded Devices - Via Eden Gambling ]

This discriminating mallard has chosen our fountain pool at BCC as his new hang-out.

The camera is a Vivitar ViviCam 3615. Nothing special next to the equipment in use by other Flutterby residents, but I've been reasonably happy with the results if I use the highest resolution/qualify and then reduce the image about 50% in Photoshop.

[ related topics: Photography Shawn's Life ]

Silly question for a Burning Man project: Anyone know of a 110v dimmer that will, when it gets power, fade lights up to some intensity over a few seconds? And then perhaps back down, but that might be asking too much. Jeanne's got an idea, and I'm trying to figure out how to do it with off-the-shelf parts.

[ related topics: Burning Man ]

Hey Bay Area folks, The Guardian's 29th annual nude beach guide is out.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Nature and environment Nudity California Culture Douglas Adams ]

A whole bunch of us hiked up into the hills of Terra Linda yesterday evening to view the eclipse. We met at Phil's house, where Kelly had laid out an amazing spread and a pitcher full of amaretto sours, hiked up into the hills, and looked out over China Camp, waiting. When it finally showed up, it was higher than we expected, and very faint. As the sky got darker, the image got stronger, but I wasn't thinking and just went for long exposures rather than kicking the sensitivity of the Canon D60 up, so most of my images are fuzzy from atmospheric disturbances. And, of course, the thing I didn't think about was that it'd be late enough when we finally saw it that there'd be nothing in the foreground, so despite having lots more background noise Fredric Larson's image in the Chronicle this morning totally spanks my efforts.

Well, except for one kinda cool shot with airplane landing and nav lights in it.

[ related topics: Photography Dan's Life Aviation Astronomy Current Events ]

Jay had a link to Jeff Raskin's alarmist pointing out that bombs are easy to deliver (lots of holes, a few nuggets, most answered in how-to build your own cruise missile), which mentioned this: 13kg aircraft crosses the Atlantic autonomously. Okay, it's mostly an accomplishment if you look at it from the perspective of garage engineering; there are still cool hobbies doing cool stuff, it isn't all just playing video games.

[ related topics: Robotics Aviation Current Events Cool Technology ]

There is the Blood Assurance program where you store up blood for those times you really need it. Can Beer Assurance be far behind?

"It had been a long time since I didn't have to feel guilty and hide my head in shame for drinking. Now, thanks to Beer For The Homeless, I am walking proud."

Take that San Francisco -- you are so -- behind in your thinking.....

http://beerforthehomeless.com

Ziffle

[ related topics: Bay Area Software Engineering Beer California Culture ]

I just figured it out: The Matrix is the same story as Monsters, Inc. In both, person living in the human world discovers that they're being enslaved and terrorized to create energy for another world. Think about it: Sully as Morpheus; Boo as Neo; that whole door scene versus Neo fighting off a gazillion attackers. This is just waaaay too similar.

[ related topics: Movies ]

The Seattle Times reports: High school seniors on field trip to "the big city". On their own time, a group (all 18 and over) visit the local Deja Vu (popup warning) strip club. Principal threatens "consequences".

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sexual Culture ]

Charlene's project is coming closer to fruition, and today we had to unroll and straighten a boat load of trim that had sat on its reels too long and developed some waves. So we secured some pieces of PVC, ran the trim out onto it, wetted it down, let the sun dry it, then rolled it back up on some reels we built that keep it straight. And climbed up on the roof and hung some of the shorter pieces that wouldn't stretch all the way across the rack down the front of the house.

Unfortunately, I was caught up in the day and didn't see some of the photographic possiblities that showed up in the bottom of this image. And, as you can see, our choice of weights and parts was whatever was at hand.

[ related topics: Photography Dan's Life Machinery ]

The hike this morning was up the newly opened trail above the new Lucas facility at Big Rock (which looks like a pretty cool place). Too many wildflowers to name, lots of clover, and some gorgeous views over various nooks and valleys. And the trail is really well built. No falling cows, but a good hike.

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

To help counter my frustration of the day, the rowing team heading back up Corte Madera creek, Mount Tam in the background, from the morning ferry last week. Whole sequence here.

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

Attention: Effective immediately, Dan's Guardian Angel Services will no longer provide same day computer repair services, especially not for people who think it's a good idea to clean up their "C" drive. Work may be done on a "time available basis".

While the identity of those involved in such matters will be kept confidential, your experiences and computer use skills will be recounted in interface design meetings, where the insight Dan has gained from such mentoring will be promptly discounted because "that's not what the users want to do" and "it doesn't look pretty enough".

[ related topics: User Interface Dan's Life ]

U.S. Army Major releived of duty after refusing to take over TV station in Northwest Iraq. Apparently citing concerns over freedom of the press, Major Charmaine Means, head of the Army public-affairs office in Mosul, refused to take part in seizing the TV station.

As word of the decision filtered through the main American base in downtown Mosul, several officers condemned it. The officers said they were particularly incensed that the military had allowed the Iraqi militia leader, Meshaam Jabori, to broadcast political messages for weeks without interference, only to seize it Wednesday after it occasionally showed al-Jazeera programming. The station also airs programming from other Arabic news channels, as well as from NBC. Mr. Jabori couldn't be reached for comment.

I'd be interested in a little follow-up to this, and also wonder about the applicability of "... do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States..." as it is applied to those who aren't U.S. citizens.

[ related topics: Politics Law Current Events Television Civil Liberties War ]

Apparently Hooters is coming to San Francisco. The discussion at work was somewhat incredulous, "isn't that the sort of thing they do in Fresno or Bakersfield or something?", somewhat mollified by the realization that this'll be up near Pier 39 and the gawdawful tourist district. But, of course, we quickly turned to establishments we'd like to see. I realized just how far I've come from my days in Chattanooga when Keevah's rooster themed "Peckers" idea was novel; the discussion started with drag queens in tight shirts and skimpy shorts and [cough] progressed [ahem] from there.

[ related topics: Bay Area California Culture Chattanooga Clothing ]

Jared Blank is an analyst for Jupiter Research , and he has a weblog. He asks What If You Built a Blog and No One Came? I'll tell you why, Jared:

First: I've only taken a first glance, but there's nothing on your weblog that isn't already covered in more detail and with more knowledgeable commentary in AvWeb.

Second: You say

I was experiencing the online marketing frustration likely shared by many ClickZ readers. I'm following best practices for e-mail campaigns. I'm producing interesting (I think), well-designed newsletters. I'm including viral marketing within my newsletters, hoping to encourage pass-along.

Wake up call! Maybe all this crap you and your fellow analysts have been spewing to the pointy haired folks is unmitigated bullshit?

Third: It's a good bet that people who overpay for your reports aren't the sorts of people who read weblogs. How about rather than simply regurgitating the news story in fewer words you expand on what those changes might mean?

[ related topics: Weblogs New Economy Aviation Consumerism and advertising Marketing ]

Of note: Rich, Black, Flunking, describing U.C. Berkeley Professor John Ogbu's study of black kids from upscale families doing poorly in high school in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.

Ogbu concluded that the average black student in Shaker Heights put little effort into schoolwork and was part of a peer culture that looked down on academic success as "acting white." Although he noted that other factors also play a role, and doesn't deny that there may be antiblack sentiment in the district, he concluded that discrimination alone could not explain the gap.

Of course he's been roundly condemned. The article is worth a read, and the book, Black American Students in an Affluent Suburb: A Study of Academic Disengagement, sounds like it might be worth putting on the queue once it gets a little shorter.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Books Bay Area Political Correctness Sociology Race ]

Oh. My. Deities. Marketing has sunk to a new low. Lower even than the horribly intrusive and annoying Cadillac plugs in the movie Women vs. Men that Charlene and I recently watched (which wasn't quite as annoying as the ad, but was still three and three-quarter person-hours we'll never get back). Slate is doing this "Paris on a Segway" series that is just page after page of advertising for a set of sponsors, strung together with some really tacky narrative of the "Ugly American" experience.

Now frankly I think that this is a lot of what has to happen to writing, and it's good to see that the first glimmerings of it aren't as subtle and insidious as I'd feared. Frankly it's like watching an upscale Crazy Eddie commercial.

[ related topics: Movies Writing Consumerism and advertising Automobiles Marketing Segway/Ginger/IT ]

The true reason for all of those color hi-res cell phone displays is that porn is the killer ap for cell phones. I just stopped using anyone elses phone... ugh..

[ related topics: Wireless Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Recreating Escher, Dyson makes water appear to flow uphill, which is a way kewl art project. At the bottom of this article is a sign of our times, a warning that Dyson has or should take care of legal protection for 'his idea' for such a water feature. Would not the idea be Escher's? - I have noticed lately how much, months after Burning Man, that some memes are stuck in my head. Art is to share, to foster new ideas and new art, new synergy. A )^( artist would be proud to see his original idea expanded on, although outright copying would be lame. Unfortunately, there are lots of lame people out there.

[ related topics: Burning Man Invention and Design Law Current Events Monty Python Art & Culture California Culture ]

Apparently, Bush is a military hero of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Uh... right.

[ related topics: Politics War ]

A few years ago Charlene and I enjoyed a few films at the Sex Worker's Film Festival(mention here), it's happening again this weekend: The Guardian has a quick preview of this year's.

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

Via Borklog, GIANTmicrobes are plush, stuffed, cuddly... well... giant microbes. Orthomyoxvirus, Rhinovirus (I bet you could adapt this into a cute cuddly SARS virus), Shigella, and Streptococcus. Best yet, the whole set is just $20.

I'd get 'em, but Charlene already thinks I'm weird for my plush Cthulhu and the switchblade toting rabbit, Bun Bun from Sluggy Freelance (yes, I know, he's actually some obscure subgenus of rabbit).

[ related topics: Humor Dan's Life Health virus ]

Sally Gall gave me something to aspire to, on her website, pick 'fine art', then 'new' for some cave photo's using nothing but ambient light and long exposures. Her other work is interesting as well, a good eye.

[ related topics: Photography Coyote Grits Invention and Design Work, productivity and environment Art & Culture ]

Hiya All, been kinda swamped so you get a break from me, but had to post this via Kiki for Dan ....cheers

[ related topics: Children and growing up Humor Coyote Grits Art & Culture ]

I may have mentioned that a while ago Zack was talking about playing Airsoft and said "I want to build a Bouncing Betty". Well, we didn't quite end up with one of them, but we did build a trip-wire triggered flour thrower. Here's a close-up of the mechanism, cut from extruded steel pieces with a little bit of braizing, and another image of it firing. We need to work a bit on how the payload is dispersed, but the launching mechanism has plenty of force and triggers fairly easily.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Dan's Life ]

Great hike today, from the top of the coastal ridge out along Sky Trail, down Woodward Valley Trail to Sculptured Beach, then back along the surf line to the car. Lots of gorgeous wildflowers along the trail, some spectacular birds (although lots of fog got in the way of real viewing),

One of the things I love about the hiking group is the smart people. Here Dave, who just won an Emmy, shows tremendous common sense as... Oh, the heck with it. At least the guy knows what it takes to get the picture.

I'll dole the rest of the images out this week to try to make things more pretty.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Bay Area Television Birds ]

Okay, here's a ridiculous question for you: An acquaintance in dire straits who needs a hand has a load of stuff in storage near Needles, CA, and needs to get it to near Las Vegas, NV. Options under consideration have included:

1. Fly to LA, train to Needles, pick up rented truck, drive to Las Vegas, fly home
2. Retrieve trailer from Todd, drive to Needles (at least 9 hours), thence to Las Vegas (at least 4 hours), thence home (at least 9 hours). This could be combined with a stopover in Helendale to see the Exotic World Burlesque Museum.
3. Find someone in Needles willing to package and ship said stuff to Vegas.

Cash flow has been a bit of an issue of late, cheaper is good, but there are aspects of #3 that are appealing. However, I've no idea where to start in trying to arrange logistics for such a thing. Last time I shipped a pallet or two worth of stuff was over a decade ago, and that was from a major transportation hub to same. Anyone know how this stuff is done?

[ related topics: Dan's Life Trains ]

Recently, and without any disrespect meant by omission: Army Spc. William A. Jeffries, Army Spc. Brandon Rowe, Marine Capt. Aaron J. Contreras, Marine Sgt. Michael V. Lalush, Marine Sgt. Brian McGinnis, Marine Staff Sgt. James Cawley, Army Cpl. Michael Curtin, Army Pfc. Diego Fernando Rincon, Army Pfc. Michael Russell Creighton-Weldon, Marine Lance Cpl. William W. White, Army Sgt. Eugene Williams, Marine Sgt. Fernando Padilla- Ramirez, Army Sgt. Roderic A. Solomon , Marine Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Menusa, Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus A. Suarez Del Solar, Marine Maj. Kevin G. Nave, Marine Pfc. Francisco A. Martinez Flores, Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Michael Vann Johnson Jr., Marine Staff Sgt. Donald C. May, Marine Lance Cpl. Patrick T. O'Day, Marine Cpl. Robert M. Rodriguez, Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone, Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas A. Blair, Marine Cpl. Evan James, Marine Sgt. Bradley S. Korthaus, Army Spc. Gregory P. Sanders, Army Spc. Jamaal R. Addison, Army Sgt. Edward John Anguiano, Marine Sgt. Michael E. Bitz, Marine Lance Cpl. Brian Rory Buesing, Army Sgt. George Edward Buggs, Marine Pfc. Tamario D. Burkett, Marine Cpl. Kemaphoom A. Chanawongse, Marine Lance Cpl. Donald John Cline, Army 1st Sgt. Robert J. Dowdy, Army Pvt. Ruben Estrella-Soto, Marine Lance Cpl. David K. Fribley, Marine Cpl. Jose A. Garibay, Marine Pvt. Jonathan L. Gifford, Marine Cpl. Jorge A. Gonzalez, Marine Pvt. Nolen R. Hutchings, Army Pfc. Howard Johnson II, Marine Staff Sgt. Phillip A. Jordan, Army Spc. James Kiehl, Army Chief Warrant Officer Johnny Villareal Mata, Marine Lance Cpl. Patrick R. Nixon, Army Pfc. Lori Piestewa, Marine 2nd Lt. Frederick E. Pokorney Jr., Marine Sgt. Brendon Reiss, Marine Cpl. Randal Kent Rosacker, Army Pvt. Brandon Sloan, Marine Lance Cpl. Thomas J. Slocum, Army Sgt. Donald Walters, Marine Lance Cpl. Michael J. Williams, Navy Lt. Thomas Mullen Adams, Marine Sgt. Nicolas M. Hodson, Marine Lance Cpl. Eric J. Orlowski, Army Capt. Christopher Scott Seifert, Army Reserve Spc. Brandon S. Tobler, Marine Maj. Jay Thomas Aubin, Marine Capt. Ryan Anthony Beaupre, Marine 2nd Lt. Therrel S. Childers, Marine Lance Cpl. Jose Gutierrez, Marine Cpl. Brian Matthew Kennedy, Marine Staff Sgt. Kendall Damon Waters-Bey.

[ related topics: Politics War ]

From yesterday's hike, a huge bird that Dave tells me is a female Northern Harrier, spotted as we came up over the dunes from Limantour beach to the parking lot yesterday. And since big birds are on my mind today, here's an interview with Buzz Hull of the Golden Gate Raport Observatory.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Bay Area Birds ]

Even yet more from Sunday's hike,

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment ]

A bunch of people have been linking to this one, so I guess it's time to pile on the bandwagon: USA Today reports that Republicans outspend Democracts.

State legislatures controlled by Republicans increased spending an average of 6.54% per year from 1997 to 2002, compared with 6.17% for legislatures run by Democrats. State spending rose slowest -- 6% annually -- when legislatures were split, and each party controlled one chamber. Inflation averaged 2.55% annually 1997-2002.

[ related topics: Politics Current Events ]

Scoble has been teasing us by linking to a lot of people asking "Is IE dead?". Slightly Bent, DonXML, then Frans Bouma saying "Don't reinvent the browser". Today Scoble continues the tease with:

All of you who are asking "is IE dead?" are asking the wrong question.

The right question is: "is the Web dead in Longhorn?"

Ages ago, Cam invited me down to a Netscape developer's shindig, shortly after it became Mozilla and had AOL pouring some bucks into it. I didn't understand then what people were talking about, the browser and the development environment merging, but now it's crystal: Microsoft clearly believes that HTML over HTTP has gone about as far as application development can. And using HTML as a forms layout language allows for too much openness, it's too easy for Mozilla and Opera to keep up with embedding controls. What matters is that the applications start to become more and more native to the platform. That's how you buy the lock-in, make sure that the apps aren't portable any more. When you use a signed app from an airline to order tickets from the airline, then these little differences from browser bugs pale in the face of asking the pointy haired ones at the airline to build multiple front-ends. And the pointy hairs get what they've always been pushing for: More control over the user.

Yes. IE is dead. Long live .NET.

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett Microsoft Open Source Graphic Design ]

For an interesting viewpoint of world events and a look at the English Language's most remote cousin, try the Austrailian Broadcasting Company's Pidgin webpage. Can't understand it? Try saying it out loud. I particularly want to catch the Redio Dokta and the Yut Forem programs

Again, from Sunday's hike, just to bury the nerdliness of that IE post a little.

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

Hiking is what cavers do to get to caves.. this weekends adventures at Speleofest in Kentucky including 300 ft belly crawls, 140 ft pits (rapell down, climb up) wading through underground streams.. and lots of fun sliding (controlled?) down 200 foot of mud passages shaped like a playland slide, but you did get rinsed off a bit climbing up the waterfall.. Caves too rough and dirty to get my new camera out of the Pelican box much, so not many pics, but had a blast. - The Altar on the left was built in Diamond Cave (Commercial) for weddings, on right Pam in a wild cave.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Invention and Design ]

Some interesting graphs from the Office of Management and Budget:

Hmmm... Corporations have been getting HUGE tax breaks. It appears to me that corporations are bigger than ever (especially transnationals!) but they are paying proportionally much less in taxes. Of course, you could argue the taxation-without-representation and say that corporations need direct representation in Congress if taxed like an individual - but I think their lobbies are much more powerful than a handful of votes...

And in 2003 the Government will spend $81B on "Education, training, employment, and social services." In otherwords, we spent almost as much this year fight a war in some desert as we will trying to educate our citizens and "provide for the common welfare." But if we paid off our national debt, we'd be able to fight a war like Iraq II and more than double this lineitem with no tax increases! Heck, we could even throw in a small tax cut too!

Maybe I need to reread my Alexander Hamilton, but this national debt thing doesn't really make sense to me...

[ related topics: Politics History moron Education ]

If you missed yesterday's pictures (the second batch) and Meuon's caving pix yesterday, scroll down and look at 'em. Today's pictures from that awesomely photogenic Sunday hike:

Moving the office today, tomorrow we start with some more pedestrian images from the ferry ride. Or something. I'm starting to play with trying to get landmarks in backgrounds and stuff like that.

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

[ related topics: Photography ]

Dan and Mike aren't the only ones taking pictures:

[ related topics: Photography Antidepressants Eric's Life ]

The Lord moves in mysterious ways, as attested by the existance of several Cowboy Churches in various states, including Illinois, of all places. Mosey down and set a spell.

Students at schools with condom give-away programs are less likely to have sex than students at schools without.

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

Playing with long lenses from the ferry, some pilot boats in front of Coit Tower. The office is in the process of moving, so I'm at home today, looking at circuits to drive stepper motors and stuff like that. Also looking for PC sockets for flash connections, which is about the hardest thing in the world to find because "PC" not only comes up as an abbreviation for "personal computer", but for "pieces". So far I'm down to $10.50 each, which drives the price of my $6 circuit up to $50.

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

My last remaining grandparent just died. Opa lived in the same town his entire life, the same house for most of it, was a volunteer fireman there. He taught me how to play poker, some things about patience, and Charlene and I got a chance to visit him back in January. Not unexpected, and while he had regrets, I think he understood them and had come to terms with them.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Gambling Dan & Charlene's January 2003 New York Trip ]

UC panel approves policy banning intimate faculty-student relationships. You know what this means? Yep, that many more available cute Berkeley students that aren't gonna get immediately snatched up by pervy old professors. Open season for pervy old Flutterby readers.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Bay Area Current Events ]

There have been a couple of entries over at Idle Words recently that deserve front page coverage here. Two days ago Maciej reported being contacted by a recruiter for Microsoft. But today he reports that the recruiter called back, having trouble understanding why no one was using Microsoft products to develop web search engines:

I've been scratching my head over this baffling little datum. Take me, for example. Why did I write my web crawler in Perl, using the excellent Web crawling modules already available for free on the CPAN, instead of paying $2,000 for a MSDN subscription? Why did I download existing GPL'd code for my language identifier, instead of taking three weeks to write a C# text parsing library from scratch? And why did I store the whole thing in a MySQL database on Linux, at a cost of zero dollars, instead of paying a couple of grand for a Window/SQL Server installation that would do the same thing?

That's right, because I'm a religious zealot!

Now I got my MSDN license for free, but I still find the development environment and tools available under Linux far superior in terms of usability and capability.

But it goes deeper than this. At the .NET Server 2003 launch, one of the reasons even the most Microsoft friendly of my coworkers rolled his eyes and left in disgust is that Microsoft isn't solving the problems that innovators need solved. All this .NET stuff is about building a better COBOL, and big corporate customers will not be where the innovation comes from.

Which leads us to patents and IP issues. Idle Words also has a report of finding "prior art", but what most amazed me about the details of this is that I've done some principal component analysis code to play with protein expression datasets, and as soon as I understood what I was seeing I thought "hey, this would be really cool for grouping documents". That's what the patent (and the long previous paper) covers. How do we reform patents so that the obvious stuff, the things nobody even bothers to point out, don't get put in place because the patent examiners don't work in the field? Alas, when we have multiple patents with the same claims coming through, I suppose we have larger issues in the USPTO.

Of course even solving these problems won't make patents ethical.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Free Software Microsoft Ethics Perl Open Source moron Work, productivity and environment Databases ]

I don't know if y'all have been following the SCO versus Linux situation, but in case you're having trouble keeping up, via Genehack and Baylink here's an easy to follow summary of the SCO versus Linux events, especially for the Chattanoogans.

[ related topics: Free Software Humor John S Jacobs-Anderson Open Source Law Chattanooga ]

The Photographer's Right, a downloadable rundown of your rights as a photographer in a public place, by Bert P. Krages, an attorney up in Portland, Oregon. Print a few copies and stuff in your camera bag for the next time you get questioned.

[ related topics: Photography Law Civil Liberties ]

It has finally happened. Somebody has taken the recent practice of trojan horse e-mail virus/worm delivery and gotten... well, either smart or nasty - depending on your outlook (no pun intended). Today, I received a malicious payload attached to what otherwise is a virtually indestinguishable MAILER-DAEMON error response. My only clues were,

• I'd only recently sent e-mails to known and established addresses (family, etc.), and
• The attached "error" - which I was, of course, supposed to open - came as an HTML Application file (.hta)

See the comments for more details.

[ related topics: Microsoft virus Spam ]