Flutterby™! From 2003-06-01 to 2003-06-27

Just got this one:

> From: Chastity <bademail@address>
> Subject: Meet the best singles in your area   (ID:OEAE)

So... why would I be taking advice on that topic from "Chastity"?

[ related topics: Humor Spam moron ]

Just the thing for late night trips through dark alleys: The No-Contact Jacket delivers a non-lethal, high-voltage charge when the attacker grabs the wearer. Currently only designed (intentionally - it's part of the design concept, to prevent it from being used by a man) for slim women.

[ related topics: security Law Enforcement Cool Technology Clothing ]

Hewlett Packard has apparently been working on a kind of a remotely controlled, proxy robot avatar kind of thingy. The ultimate in telecommuting. Now you really can be in two places at once.

[ related topics: Robotics Work, productivity and environment ]

The best phrased recap of the recent Microsoft/AOL settlement I've seen.

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Microsoft moron ]

This morning's hike was a short loop around the College of Marin Indian Valley Campus. The guy on the left was nice enough to stay still for two shots, the second one I actually got in focus. The flower on the right was actually along Lucas Valley Road as I was biking home from Bill's house.

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

Charlene and I just saw Finding Nemo, the latest from Pixar. More narrative than story, lots of action, overall a better film than Monsters, Inc., but I'm not itching to go back and see it again. Some great water effects, but some of that led to art direction decisions where I was jolted out of the world as it went from real to surreal and back again. And wow was it fast paced.

[ related topics: Pixar Animation Movies Graphics Art & Culture ]

Watching Bats (on left) exit Sautos cave at Sunset with a new friend was the end to a fantastic weekend that included lots and lots of dancing, and a great use of old Mac's as furniture. I'm waiting for them to ban Contra dancing, it's way too much fun to be legal.

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design Macintosh Dancing ]

To complement Cookin' with Google there's Hacking with Google. I never dug into Google's command set. Good stuff to know...

My parents have raised a lot of dogs to be guide dogs for the blind. A good article in today's SF Gate: Cody Learns to Guide the Blind, on the basics of training guide dogs.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Handicaps & Disabilities Dogs ]

Courtesy of the Guardian: A New Zealand hobbyist is building a cruise missle in his garage, using components he is buying on the Web. He hopes to show how easy it is for a terrorist to do the same, and to prove it he will publish full details on his website! The local authorities are aware of his work, but state that they don't recommend people try it themselves.

[ related topics: Coyote Grits Invention and Design Current Events Work, productivity and environment ]

Last Thursday the company I work for moved our offices, we're now right in San Francisco's financial district less than a block off of Market Street. A "Class A" building, security guards who know you, all that stuff. Lots of lawyers and financial services types companies. The lease is over 30 pages long, and there are all sorts of rules about what we can and can't do. We have to get approval to move anything, and we can't take out our own garbage.

At first I thought these rules were for the decorum of the building, but as I've learned the ins-and-outs and how the building staff interpret these things I've realized that most of these rules are in place to prevent employees from stealing from companies who lease space in the building.

Huh. Lawyer's offices and investment companies with employee theft problems. Go figure.

[ related topics: Bay Area Law Work, productivity and environment ]

With the office move we're still without telecommunications services at work. So I've been trying to use the 802.11b ("WiFi" for those of you who buy the marketing speak. Don't invest in a "WiFi" operation unless you've already identified the sucker) service that T-Mobile sells from the Starbucks halfway down the block. Yeesh, those boys need to figure out how to build an access point; one moment I'll be told my account has used all its minutes, the next it works, connectivity is on and off, the way they handle the initial redirect plays hell with caches. This isn't rocket science, there are open source solutions for billed wireless access points. It amazes me that even with the simplification of a centralized user login server they haven't got this right.

[ related topics: Free Software Wireless Dan's Life Consumerism and advertising Work, productivity and environment ]

I'm ignorant and need some help. I'm heading out for a lightweight camping weekend with a large group of people, all of whom have their gear, but I'm both a newbie and gearless and not interested in buying a ton of stuff I'll use at most two or three times a year.

No power, but no weight concerns (it sounds more like a "drive out in the country and drink" deal than anything else), and it'll be two nights and three days, with at least one tubing session.

I've got, uh, a flashlight (3D Mag) and that's about it. I need sleeping gear (it'll be warm, but possibly wet), food ideas (I don't eat meat), suggestions for water-resistant sunscreen and bug-repellent, and whatever else you think should be a priority for such a lightweight outing.

Medical stuff shouldn't be an issue since cars will be handy and civilization is not far away.

[ related topics: Food Beer Community red neck culture ]

Some Spam I would open....

[ related topics: Weblogs Spam Monty Python ]

"UPPSALA, Sweden - MySQL AB, developer of open source database, has received $19.5 million Series B round of financing led by Benchmark Capital with Index Ventures participating. Proceeds will be used to fuel its growth in the mainstream DBMS market."

Makes me wonder about the future of MySQL for basic lightweight web applications. That's a lot of dough that will demand a return on investment.

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source Databases ]

With props to Brad and his occasional reportings of conversations from the bar scene (for example), a conversation from the ferry:

Phil: I think I'm going to work from home tomorrow.

Dan: Well, I'm going in, so if there are any messages you need me to deliver...

Glances are exchanged.

Dan: There's no way I'm getting a dead horse past the security guards, so that one is right out.

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

Random notes:

1. Production of the original rear-engined Volkswagen Beetle to end.
2. The Rev reminds us that we need to band together in these times of oppression and Free Martha.
3. Now that everyone's a journalist, what happens when professional journalists honor "off-the-record" remarks and bloggers aren't told that such remarks are off-the-record?
4. Occasionally, Kansas Republicans get it right: Senator Sam Brownback introduces a bill to require judicial intervention in discovering the names of alleged copyright infringers, and slows down the race to DRM

[ related topics: Weblogs Current Events Journalism and Media Work, productivity and environment Copyright/Trademark ]

Carl had a link to an Amateur Rocket Society news bit pointing to a QuadCity times article about hobby shops around Davenport, IA that have been asked for information about customers who purchase model rocket and model airplane supplies.

"A few months ago, someone from the Scott County sheriff's office came in and was asking questions. He (the officer) was asking about the small box (payload)," Dittmer said. "They talked to me about keeping track of who was buying what and asked me to get a license number if I suspected anything."

Dittmer said a Scott County sheriff's deputy also told him that radio-controlled aircraft were found in abandoned caves in Afghanistan after the Taliban was chased from power there.

Now there are some inconsistencies in the news story that make me think maybe there's either some loose cannon running around the area, or maybe someone who's using the "I'm in law enforcement..." bit to surreptitiously gather information about the possibilities of the use of hobby parts to build weapons. Especially given that Gunning's Hobbies in San Anselmo is on the periphery of a scare involving guys playing Airsoft games on the Kentfield school grounds and giving the poor janitor there brown trousers, I'm going to have to ask those folks if they've had any queries. Y'all wanna ask your favorite hobby shop proprietor?

[ related topics: Children and growing up Aviation Space & Astronomy Law Enforcement Guns Toys San Anselmo ]

We liked Finding Nemo, and obviously I've still got a soft spot for anything Pixar, so when today's Morning Fix referenced a cheesey little snippet which was obviously just badly reworded from a press release about how little Nemo would have been shredded to pulp on his way to the sea (modulo that leaky pipe, which the Sidney sewer department should be heavily fined and sanctioned for), I searched for JWC Environmental and found out that they make machines like the Macho Monster:

"This beefy new Macho Monster is designed to handle a wide variety of bulky and tough solids including animal carcasses, wood, recyclables, trash, slurry and even bits of metal."

What's not to like? I don't even have a pumping application and I want one. So I sent them email, and, amazingly, within a short time had a few images and a press release back. I've put an HTMLified version of the "Nemo vs Muffin Monster" press release and the images on a Wiki page.

[ related topics: Pixar Cool Technology ]

If there were any time I actually listened to radio anymore, I'd probably be interested in The Commonwealth Club. They bill themselves as "the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum," the programs I heard gave me a certain respect.

Recently, they've been running these ads on Muni vehicles and in BART stations of the form "I wanted to ask [person] if [amazingly trite question related to person's expertise]. So I did", with the tag: "Meet interesting people. Become one."

One of these was "I wanted to ask Larry Harvey if success was killing his original idea for Burning Man. So I did."

I won't go into all the reasons this grates on me, we'll just leave it at "...so rather than going out to the desert and expanding my horizons and building some awesome artistic creation and running into Larry, I sat on my pampered ass in an air-conditioned auditorium and now make brief appearances at the Odeon so that I'll look hip and 'with it', even though I can't stand any of the acts there until they get imitated by someone mainstream."

Over at SF Weekly, John Mecklin is less charitable.

Of course none of this matters, because we live in a blissfully broadcast media free house, and I only listen to the radio on those days that I don't take the bus to the ferry and I'm riding alone.

[ related topics: Burning Man Bay Area Consumerism and advertising Art & Culture ]

Had a great visit to Angel Island today. Took the ferry from Tiburon, wandered the north and east sides of it, which I hadn't been to yet, and Charlene hadn't been to the island at all. Lots of butterflies, only a few stopped long enough to get pictures, including this guy. Yep, that's one butterfly, blue from one angle, black from another.

Anyway, there'll be lots of pictures this week.

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

This one was flying around the ruins down near that fort on the southeast side of Angel Island with the flowers. Of course as soon as some other bird with the red head came along the flowers got forgotten on a fence:

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

When I looked down from the heights of Angel Island and saw these, I thought it was the end result of the "Give your SUV some balls" idea. Took me a little while to figure out that this was just the chase vehicle to the real penis compensation boats.

And there were a number of spinnakers, a few fun-looking boats, and a number of five horn blast situations.

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

WalMart to obscure covers of women's magazines.

The company is testing binders that will cover the magazines' photos and language, spokesman Tom Williams said at the company's annual shareholders meeting Friday. Women's fashion magazines often tout sex tips and can feature revealing photos of models and celebrities.

Watch for cheap polyester burkas to start appearing on the racks. I wonder if that Florida judge who ruled that the Muslim woman must have her face photographed for her drivers licence will run into flack when the WalMart shoppers start complaining about exposed flesh on official documents?

[ related topics: Sexual Culture moron Law Current Events Fashion ]

It's been a good week for butterfly pictures, this guy stayed still enough for me to get a few with the little point-n-shoot. But go look at the third picture down in BurningBird's road trip travelogue.

[ related topics: Butterflies Photography Travel ]

Looong meanderings ahead, scroll down and see the pictures in subsequent entries even if this entry is boring.

With the recent PipeVine fiasco and the alleged misconduct of the Santa Clara Goodwill exec, it seems a good time for reevaluating charitable giving. Weeks ago, I got a note asking if I was following the controversy around The Nature Conservancy. The correspondent had been Googling around trying to find weblog coverage of it. I asked "what controversy?", which lead to a bunch of Washington Post articles:

I'm cynical. I don't expect my charities to be squeaky clean, I understand that non-profits are usually set up to help someone make a living doing what they love. So I wasn't all that surprised to find out that Steven J. McCormick, the president of the operation, is paid about $420k a year, which is above the $275k+health & benefits that the charity initially reported. Given that the guy was hired away from a law practice in San Francisco, that seems about in-line. Comments about the contributions to the economy made by the legal profession elided because this isn't that sort of rant.

It also doesn't bother me too much that they buy land and sell it at a loss, that they seem to let people donate money to buy the land that later gets resold to the donors with deed restrictions and that some attempts at promoting ecotourism businesses to preserve areas have failed. Part of what I respect about The Nature Conservancy is that they're pragmatic and that they're not "smash the Starbucks" anarchists, but folks who acknowledge that this economy has brought us some good things.

It bothers me a little more that an attempt to develop prarie chicken habitat was harmful to the species, and that co-branding standards might have been sketchy, but that The Nature Conservancy has amassed billions and has members of large polluting corporations on the board is less of a concern: This is a big operation, and big operations require big money.

Obviously all of these are The Washington Post trying to sell papers, and I haven't gone back through and done the journalistic thing and tried to find my own cites and track anything further. My conclusion is that these "revelations" are roughly what I'd expect of the operation, I'd prefer it if they dropped the glossy magazine and cleaned up a few operations, but compared to some of the misinformation campaigns waged by operations like the National Resources Defense Council and mixed political messages of various other "conservation" organizations, this is about as good as I can expect from a national group. As always, if you want to feel best about your charitable dollars, be directly involved and make a difference locally.

[ related topics: Politics Nature and environment Food Bay Area Law Journalism and Media Birds ]

Hey, Pixarians, anyone know who the owner of the yellow S4 with the license plate FFFF00 that Viv saw at Thunderhill on Saturday is?

You can tell him the girl in the red GTI who figured out his license plate and terrorized his BMW-driving friend says "Hi".

[ related topics: Pixar Bay Area Automobiles ]

Okay, now I'm interested in tablet computing: Debian Linux on the Acer Travelmate C100. Sorry, Scoble, all the weight advantage in the world that the NEC tablets offer is useless if they don't run the software.

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source Cool Technology ]

Last weekend Dr. Litchford and I went out on Lake Chickamauga for a lazy afternoon of sailing. The wind was real light. Not much interesting on the river. I took a number of pics of this house. Not particularly impressive by Northern California standards - but stands out like a sore thumb in the Tennessee Valley - especially nestled on quite a 'scar' on the lake.

Here's a shot of the bloom on my landlord's paddle cactus. He grew the cactus from seed... But he does have a Ph.D. in horticulture...

[ related topics: Photography California Culture Chattanooga Boats ]

A bunch of folks have linked to Dean Kuiper's LA Times essay on the erotic in literature. Notably, over at Section 12, Debra has started to write some long pieces responding to it, first praising him for starting the conversation, and then (and maybe I'm reading into this) taking him to task for ignoring a large American tradition.

The essay suffers from two assumptions: that what is generally recognized as "modern literature" isn't just another genre (or set of genres), and that genre fiction doesn't have strong things to teach us about humanity.

Awkward word constructions and archaic vocabulary do not literature make. In the rush to worship "intelligence", as so often happens we've mistaken correlated measurable attributes for the thing. But just because someone can ace the vocabulary section of the SAT doesn't give them particular insight into human behavior, and good vocabulary doesn't necessarily mean good communication. For better examples of that than I can offer here, I strongly recommend The Reader's Manifesto.

Neither does having a good idea of what the story will be destroy the insights into desires and needs that the story can contain. Genre fiction is successful because it has an effect. In the rush to escape from various genre ghettos, what we far too often see in modern literature is writing which strives to be intellectual rather than emotional, and in so doing becomes a collection of pompous tricks.

The good literature has always come from outside the mainstream. Those who question are a small subset of the market, most people just want their prejudices reaffirmed. A few decades ago this exploration was happening most in "speculative fiction" (or whatever you want to call the "SF" genre), nowadays it's happening in "erotica". That it wil take another few years for the critics to acknowledge this, and then quickly bury the fact as those ideas make it into the mainstream writing, reflects more on the critics than the ideas or the poor marginalized genre.

But stay tuned to Pursed Lips for the next installment, I think she's got deeper and less reactionary insight into the matter than I.

[ related topics: Books Sexual Culture Writing ]

Over at Notes on a Glamor Profession (does anyone else look at that URL and think "inside the law, it's too dark to read"?) there have been a few notes covering what he refers to as "The Bufalo Bike Riot", Buffalo News article here.

Go read it now, 'cause I don't find a good way to link to his June 2003 archives, but there's some good coverage and follow-up of a "Critical Mass" style bike ride busted up by the cops in Buffalo, New York, and the photographs and witness discussions of the event seem to indicate that this isn't a "hippies overreacting" situation, it's what happens when a small group of dedicated people try to slowly and non-violently drag middle America into the twenty first century.

[ related topics: Current Events Journalism and Media Law Enforcement New York Bicycling ]

Not sure what the purpose of the union of these little guys on the left was, 'cause it didn't seem to last very long, but these were all over while we were walking through the semi-shaded areas on Angel Island. Other view. And I need to dig through the bird book to figure out what these long-necked diving birds were.

[ related topics: Books Photography Birds ]

I'll be getting my grant money July 1 and I'm trying to hammer out some of the details. Some important things I've learned since:

1. The rig won't need to go much higher than about 80m. This changes the design radically. I'll will attempt to use stranded cat-5 as my tether and run 12V DC over one pair.
2. After reviewing Canon's offerings, I found I can't do everything I want unless I buy a PowerShot S series (the S45 is about $500). So I'm looking at the photopc library for Linux but I'm not familiar with Epson's or Fuji's camera offerings. Using photopc means I can run Linux in the gondola (+geekpts) and use a solid state Flash drive.

I've got a laptop running Win2K for the basestation. I'll probably setup a webserver in the gondola computer and build a web-frontend for the camera and other gear. I'm just wary of USB support in Linux. Photopc talks alot about serial but that's way too slow for what I want. I also need a good altimeter and would prefer something the PC can read. I'll play with putting a GPS in the ballon, but GPS sucks for accurate elevation readings (+/- 20m).

[ related topics: Language Free Software Books Photography Open Source Sports Graphic Design Currency Maps and Mapping ]

Apologies for the slow response at Flutterby today. I'm running a job to clean out the long-neglected referrer links database. Oh, and I just discovered why the update dates on the right there seem to be getting lost occasionally. A quick SQL optimization is in order.

[ related topics: Flutterby Meta Databases ]

near Florence Alabama, it's surreal, a railroad bridge to /dev/null. Part of last weekend with fun people.

[ related topics: Photography Machinery Trains ]

In my association with those who work with young children, every time I hear the words "baby bounce" my ears perk up. Of course usually it's just bouncing the kid on your knee while they listen to stories, and I'm disappointed, but (source from Rebecca's Pocket), in south Wales they take young boys out and bounce them off of rocks in a 650 year old ritual meant to instill the boundaries of the town.

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

A cultural history and etymology of 'cunt'.

It is clear that the word 'cunt' is a powerful taboo within Western society, and has been so for over five centuries, though there is also evidence that, at one time, it was a word with no social stigmas or offensive connotations: "early citations [suggest] that the term, while vulgar, was descriptive rather than obscene" [Green, 1998]. Chaucerian disguising of the term ("queynte" [Chaucer, 1400]), and Shakespearian punning references ("country matters" [Shakespeare, 1604]), are evidence of its later taboo status.

[ related topics: Language Sexual Culture Political Correctness Theater & Plays Sociology ]

Just a gentle reminder to Columbine that some of us are waiting for Mei Wah pages 34+. I'm printing them out in preparation for the Hong Kong trip, figuring that since I've been helping Alec cram for finals I should do a little cramming myself.

[ related topics: Language Dan's Life Travel Hong Kong ]

While I'm waiting for software to install on two machines: Dave points to Michael Gartenberg asking "what is an Age Card?". I'm sure I've ranted on this before, but here's the answer: In my meager years on this earth, I've learned that:

1. Those older than me who think they have something to teach me usually do, but the lesson is almost always counter to what they think it is.
2. The people still learning, still willing to hear, are the ones who actually have the valuable information. These people will never say "you'll understand when you're older".
3. I'm already past the life expectancy of those mythical tribal populations where the elderly are respected.
4. Youth and enthusiasm make up for a lot, and experience is a better teacher than any teacher will ever be.

#4.a:My Opa also taught me that "old age and treachery beat youth and skill, every time". Remember, as someone is trying to get you to believe something based on their age and alleged experiences that the "treachery" bit is really something learned with those experiences.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Dan's Life Dave Winer History Education ]

A Wall Street Journal piece on "illegal cheese", imported cheeses made from raw milk. I grew up on raw milk, and as an adult I've shunned milk. Friends never understood why, and neither did I until recently we found that the local health food store stocks raw milk. Now I remember again what real milk tastes like, and why I don't drink the pasteurized stuff. This also explains why I liked Quebec brie a lot when I was a kid, and can take or leave brie now.

[ related topics: Nostalgia Dan's Life Health Food ]

Setting up an account on my laptop to handle my work mail for my upcoming trip, and our sysadmin is out of town and I couldn't remember the details of my mail setup. So I set up Ethereal ("Sniffing the glue that holds the Internet together"), turned on packet logging, hit the "Get new mail" button, turned it off, and there was all my critical info.

Gulp. Now I'm really sure that anything plain text is a bad idea, and I'll be setting up SSH tunnelling for inbound POP and outbound SMTP really shortly. But it was a handy way to solve the "Well, I entered my password into my mail client when I first set it up and then forgot about it" problem.

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

Judge fails to unravel rap lyrics:

The judge said the claim "led to the faintly surreal experience of three gentlemen in horsehair wigs [himself and the two barristers in the case] examining the meaning of such phrases as 'mish mish man' and 'shizzle my nizzle'."

In any event, the words, although in a form of English, were "for practical purposes a foreign language" and he had no expert evidence as to what they meant.

The case was a defamation of character suit by composer Andrew Alcee against Heartless Crew. The judge apparently had to resort to The Urban Dictionary to try to sort things out.

[ related topics: Language Music Law Current Events ]

Stumped trying to find a gift for Father's Day? Try the gift that keeps on giving: The Potato of the Month Club.

[ related topics: Food Consumerism and advertising ]

Last night about 6pm there was a doozie of a storm. Here's what's left of the oak trees on Oak Street:

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Chattanooga ]

I'm not even going to bother trying to find the mailing list archives, and probably weblog entries, where I pointed out that RSS as most aggregators implement it has some severe security issues. But it has been years. Well, Mark finally pointed out the flaws in most aggregators.

Entity encoding HTML in XML has always been a freakin' bad idea, especially for all those people who've been saying "HTML is hard to parse" while they've been pushing the lameness that is RSS. All the aggregator writers have known about the possibilities of this situation for a long time, and sometimes it takes a wide-spread demonstration to piss off the customers so that the vendors fix their stuff.

[ related topics: Web development Content Management Weblogs ]

Off to Hong Kong this evening, gone for the week, busy day prepping. Hopefully the (ir)regulars will keep Flutterby interesting 'til I get back, 'cause once again I don't know what my net connection situation will look like. Lots of setting up product at large fashion label you've heard of, a bunch of talking with folks for manufacturing product, some business process stuff. A week is going to feel very short. But at least this time I've got part of a day free with one of our folks promising to show me around, so maybe I'll be more comfortable on busses and able to get places off of the train line.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Machinery Trains Fashion Hong Kong ]

Damn. The president gets all the fun. Dubya does what I wanted to when I rode a Segway. This comes via The Register, there are all sorts of nasty jokes I could make at the president's expense, but frankly I think it's better to ponder some of the utopian claims made about the Segway, and consider it relative to a ZAP! Scooter.

[Edit: BBC images here]

[ related topics: Politics Current Events Segway/Ginger/IT ]

Checking in from Hong Kong while I wait for the folks arranging for my visa to China for tomorrow's tour of that side of the border to get back with my passport (yes, I do feel slightly naked...). Weather sucks, but I do have a bunch of pictures that I mean to upload as soon as I get to a real net connection, this is via a flakey proxied one on a borrowed machine. If you know what I mean.

So far I'm less enthused with the city than I was last time, but that might be because it's the hot and rainy season, and because I'm staying down in Tsim Sha Tsui this time, which is closer to central Hong Kong, but the lack of tourism right now means that I'm a target for every hooker and con artist out there, and they frequent that area.

Last night I was shown around Mong Kok, I'd missed it last time, but it's like the Temple Street bazaar except not cleaned up for the tourists. This is where the pirated software, DVDs and music and video CDS with ink jet printed covers sell for less than what I thought the cost per page of an ink jet print go for.

And I got well and truly lost later wandering around east Tsim Sha Tsui down by the waterfront. Walked for many blocks down non-right angle streets in the general direction of where I thought my hotel was, ended up right back where I'd decided to head for home. Sigh.

[ related topics: Music Art & Culture Travel Hong Kong Video Dan's June 2003 Hong Kong Trip ]

TopSpin traversed DeSoto Falls (NE Alabama) Saturday on a rope (As well as Meuon, Margaret, Jen..) - All had a great time taking a giant leap of faith off a cliff. My second time, took a running jump off the cliff.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Sports ]

Dan, Flutterby needs an easy way to refresh the main page. Or am I just too dense to find it?

[ related topics: Coyote Grits ]

Uhhhh... But what if I wanted to go out drinking tonight? And there's no shortage of self aggrandizement here in Hong Kong, there's the "Park Excellent Villa", the "All Good Friend Camera Company", and enough "Very Good (Tailor|Restaurant|whatever)" shops that I'm wondering if it's some sort of franchise. And I'm not quite sure what to make of the "Willy convenient supermarket".

[ related topics: Photography Dan's Life Food Hong Kong Dan's June 2003 Hong Kong Trip ]

Hoping I get this typed before I run out of time. Today we went up to Dong Guan. I should have been suspicious when they said "fill in 'Tour' for your reason, it'll make the visa easier to get". But yesterday evening it was "we'll never get a whole computer through customs. Find a nondescript bag and we'll carry parts." So we took the KCR up to Shenzen, then had a driver take us further in. Oh, my. Boston has nothing on driving in China. Lanes are taken as merest suggestions. If you might have to take a U-turn, people just drive the wrong way down a divided highway, including coming up the entrance ramp, to make the turn they want.

But actually (and the few images I felt comfortable taking are still uploading), what most surprised me was how much like Burning Man it was. Lots of wacky pedal-powered contraptions, various vehicles which looked like carts pulled by the guts of a roto-tiller. Shacks that were definitely destined for the next province if a big storm ever hit.

And, of course, nobody does class separation like the communists. Lunch was authentic Chinese on a big lazy susan in the middle served by women in uniforms who were constantly replacing our under-plates whenever anything fell out of the rice bowl onto it. And the private guards stood, clicked heels and saluted us whenever we went in or out of a building.

[ related topics: Burning Man Interactive Drama Pedal Power Hong Kong Dan's June 2003 Hong Kong Trip ]

The Guardian offers two competing lists of the best sex scenes in the Cinema, produced by Premiere and Playboy. I have seen most of these, but I have some quibbles. The famous scene with Veruska from Blow-Up is great, but I prefer the purple paper scene with the two teeny-boppers from the same film. I haven't seen the Bardot version of And God Created Woman, but I have seem Roger Vadim's 1988 remake with Rebecca De Mornay and Vincent Spano, which has a zipless fuck scene that untied my gym shoes. Any other entries?

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Movies Shoes ]

Helpful Hong Kong travel tips:

• Get an Octopus Card. HK$150 gives you HK$100 worth of travel dollars and a deposit. These things are kinda like the Bay Area's Translink, except that they work (everywhere), including for purchases in some convenience stores, and they'll let you avoid buying tickets or fumbling for change at various tourist attractions like the Star Ferry or the Peak Tram.
• Every MTR station has a Hang Seng Bank branch. It's a great meeting place, because at every station but the huge Central/Hong Kong complex there's only one. So you often see people waiting outside the bank in the stations.
• Some stations even have helpful vending machines to sell you games for your cell phone, like the one pictured here.
• The Peak Tram is not a worthwhile trip during the day if the visibility is low.

[ related topics: Photography Games Bay Area Travel Hong Kong Dan's June 2003 Hong Kong Trip ]

For lunch today: Not one, but two different types of intestine (cow), and "phoenix claw" (chicken feet). Not sure I need to repeat the experience, but not too bad. The chicken feet were actually kinda tasty, although too fatty for my preferences.

[ related topics: Food Birds Dan's June 2003 Hong Kong Trip ]

One more day. This one's a doozy, tomorrow's a post-mortem and then the flight leaves at 4:00PM, and gets in to San Francisco two hours before it leaves, 13 hours later. Last night was reviewing plans for today until 11:00PM over in Central, over pizza and an iced mocha. Part of hanging out with the locals is that they get sick of the local food. Because I was down in Central last night we'll redo the Hong Kong architecture schtick, starting with the I. M. Pei designed Bank of China building, and then the last two are of one of the buildings who's name I forget that has the fully RGB lighting system:

[ related topics: Photography Food Bay Area Hong Kong Architecture Dan's June 2003 Hong Kong Trip ]

Last traces of Mustang Ranch brothel headed for eBay.

"It's all new to me. There's nothing in the BLM manual about selling off a brothel," said Mark Struble, a BLM spokesman in Carson City.

But all the real collectibles are already gone.

"The risque stuff is really all gone," said Cindy Becker, assistant director of Oregon's Department of Administrative Services.

"It's just run-of-the-mill stuff, like tile and doors, lamps, appliances, a sink," she said from Salem, Ore.

But it does sound like the Moonlite Bunny Ranch brothel will have a museum of Mustang Ranch memorabilia.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Art & Culture ]

Missouri court strikes down "alienation of affection" law that was used to win a suit for $75k against a mistress.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Law ]

In the "just try it" department: I'm looking for Hong Kong net access. The great resource at WiFinder gives me a list of likely candidates, and there, in the midst of everything, I see that the hotel I'm staying at, the Stanford Hillview, claims that:

All rooms are equipped with wireless broadband internet access

Duh. Guess next time I should just flip up the little "on" button rather than assuming there's nothing local. Maybe I can catch up on email tonight.

(and have I mentioned how much I loathe the browsing experience in IE yet?)

[ related topics: Wireless broadband Travel Hong Kong ]

Lobbiest group posts partial Social Security Numbers of CA lawmakers who voted against privacy bill.

"We should be free to vote our conscience and not be threatened or harassed if we choose to vote contrary to people who are lobbying for special legislation," said Assemblyman Ed Chavez, D-La Puente, one of the lawmakers whose partial number was published.

Of course the first four numbers is really just related to birth place and date. Posting the last four would be more telling.

[ related topics: Privacy moron ]

More evidence in the "some of us are just introverts" observation: Shyness may be inherited.

All the subjects were exposed to a series of pictures of faces with neutral expressions. After they had become accustomed to those pictures, new faces were introduced while the researchers measured the reaction of the amygdala structure in their brains using magnetic resonance imaging.

The brains of the once-shy children were much more active than the other subjects.

"No, I'm not sulking, I just have an exciteable amygdala."

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Health Antidepressants ]

I've been promised that in another 15 minutes or so we go to lunch, then I catch the MTR out to the Hong Kong airport, and I can come home. I need to sleep for 6 hours or so as soon as we take off, then stay awake for the rest, and I should end up home with just the right amount of tiredness to not be a walking zombie Friday evening, but still be able to kick my schedule back.

Notes on Hong Kong porn when I get back, and (no, not relatedly) there have been some changes at the workplace in my absence, next week will be... interesting.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Dan's Life Work, productivity and environment Dan's June 2003 Hong Kong Trip ]

I suppose I shouldn't have been suprised when I learned recently that Idi Amin Dada, the brutal once-ruler of Uganda, whose statesmanship was a hilarious parody of diplomacy (yes, fans of Kissinger, it is possible to parody diplomacy) which belied a repressive regime that killed three hundred thousand people during his rule, was living out his remainng days in relative luxury in Saudia Arabia. But I don't often think of former dictators. They're out of power, out of the news, and presumably the countries they once governed have learned the lessons and moved on.

Enter Riccardo Orizio's book Talk of the Devil: Encounters With Seven Dictators, translated from Italian to English by Avril Bardoni (ISBN: 0-8027-1416-I). Orizio tracked down Idi Amin, along with 7 other now deposed heads of state, and in telling the stories of this process and the subsequent discussions with the objects of his quest, he reveals a lot about leadership, power, and humanity's desire to beleive in the earnest.

Orizio doesn't come off as confrontational or pushing the hard questions, rather he's interviewing to try to understand the humanity of those who've lead others to commit inhuman acts. From Wojciech Jaruzelski' vision of himself as a man trapped by circumstance in between the Soviets and the social reform of the Solidarity labor movement, trying to protect as many Poles as possible, to Jean-Bedel Bokasa's role as African emperor and "secretly baptized... thirtheenth apostle of the Holy Mother Church", Talk of the Devil offers views of unshakeable self belief, with enough historical context to understand why that confidence is flawed.

I don't think I came away from this book with any new insights into human nature, I knew that leadership was largely a function of self-delusion and exploitation of fear, but it was quite readable, and put into perspective some of the struggles that still echo in conflicts today.

[ related topics: Religion Politics Books Current Events Race Dictators ]

I went into the bookshop in the airport terminal looking for some light reading for the flight home. After finishing Talk of the Devil: Encounters With Seven Dictators, the only other thing I had for the airplane was a history of Hong Kong(which turned out to be less than satisfying). But somehow The China Dream: The Elusive Quest for the Greatest Untapped Market on Earth by Joe Studwell caught my eye. Well, despite a good long rest on the plane, I've finished it. A good quick read (mostly because the last third is notes and sources) about the follies of those who went rushing into China in the '90s expecting to find a vast untapped market. The Internet wasn't the only bubble of that era.

One of my own business problems is that in living in the San Francisco Bay Area I'm so far from manufacturing facilities and the actual creation of "stuff" that there's a big disconnect between the theoretical and the practical. However, in my short visit to China I met some smart people who were accomplishing with nothing, but who were working within a rigidly heirarchical social structure which left no place for innovation and rewarded age and etiquette over ability. China could be a lot more than just cheap labor, but it will take a huge cultural shift to make that happen.

The China Dream confirms those observations, and points out the failures made by various big U.S. companies as they dove headlong into that culture, seeing the trappings of success and mistaking that for success.

[ related topics: New Economy Bay Area Sociology Work, productivity and environment Hong Kong ]

When I first saw this boat, I thought the captain must have testicles of steel. I couldn't get an accurate gauge of its size, and over the Star Ferry building it looked huge. Still a big boat to be maneuvering through all those high speed ferries zipping back and forth, and the little putt-putt of the Star Ferry boats. And I don't often speak highly of architects, but realizing that that building in the center is not disappearing into the clouds, it just looks that way, blew me away. The weather wasn't conducive to good photography when I was out and about, but the Big White Guy has had some good pictures of Hong Kong this week, a a tugboat in Lau Wong Hoi Hap, a scary looking (but very pretty) spider he discovered while hiking, and pretty cool waterfall.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Boats Hong Kong Dan's June 2003 Hong Kong Trip ]

Three years ago I mentioned reading Joe Kurmaskie's first book, Metal Cowboy. Joe recently emailed me to tell me that his latest book, Riding Outside The Lines, was out. I sent him a note back telling him I'd already ordered it. There's an excerpt on his website, and it roughly catches the spirit.

Ages ago, I used to pick up hitch-hikers, figuring that along with the lift I might get an enlightening story or two. Only ever got one passenger where I felt like I got my driving time's worth, but that man had a set of experiences that were entertaining, and along the way I learned a few things about the human spirit. Kurmaskie provides his own transportation, but reading his books is a bit like picking up that mythical hitch-hiker, the one with the good stories who's on the road by choice, not circumstance, and who's looking for something universal. True, one or two of the stories feel a bit like filler (this one has a real editor from a big publisher, so it's reasonable to think that chapter got thrown in at the editor's request), and some of them ramble a bit, he's not as polished as, say, William Least Heat Moon, whose Blue Highways is the quintessential road book, but he beats the hell out of Kerouac.

From the Irish countryside to the deep desert of Australia to cabins in the wilds of Alaska, he uses the bicycle as an opener to conversations and adventures with people. If you've ever dreamt of clipping into the bike and heading off into the unknown, jobs and family be damned, this one's for you.

Recommended: Riding Outside the Lines, by Joe Kurmaskie, ISBN 1-400-4798-6.

[ related topics: Books Sociology Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Today's hike was up at China Camp State Park, to the site of the old missile battery at the top. For years I've seen the bike trail down this drop-off, but I've never seen anyone ride it. Today we had a couple of folks willing to show off for the hikers. All three images.

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

Wanted to hire: Technical person in Hong Kong. Must be able to talk mechanical engineering in Cantonese and communicate with me in English. Should know how to handle a soldering iron, know what configuring a second ethernet card in a Windows XP machine means, and have basic mechanical and computer problem solving skills. Needn't be a programmer. And there'll probably be customer support involved, I expect that this position will evolve into something between a field engineer and a customer support/technical sales sort of job, but for starters I need a set of eyes, ears and hands on the ground in that area.

And, bonus position: if anyone wants to do office manager type of work in San Francisco, I can pass on a resumé to the appropriate folks there.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Microsoft Bay Area Work, productivity and environment Hong Kong ]

Berkeley police rescue man who fell 10 feet out of a tree, then 30 feet into a ravine, while meditating.

[ related topics: Bay Area moron Law Enforcement ]

Still jet lagged from last week, I'll be flying to New York tomorrow via Long Beach, arriving at 2:00 AM, and arriving home at 9:30 Thursday. "Sucks" doesn't begin to describe...

[ related topics: Dan's Life Aviation New York ]

One of the things that online role-playing games can teach us is theology: If there were a god, what would the world be like? I heard glimmers of this, probably from Alec, but Rebecca's Pocket had a link to a Wired article about the hacking of Shadowbane back in May:

The population of an entire Shadowbane town was forcibly moved to the bottom of the sea, where they drowned. City guards turned feral and attacked town residents. Mobs of never-before-seen superpowerful creatures, seemingly spontaneously spawned from the ether, began to prowl the streets unchecked, killing characters in the most painful way possible.

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Games Sociology Current Events ]

Noticed this on the flight back from Hong Kong: Cathay Pacific offers in-flight email. USB jack in First Class, Business, and the first few rows of economy. Special Windows client software that talks to your POP account. Up to 15 minute latency. That article says $9.95 per flight plus $0.60 per K of body text, it was still in free trials on my flight although I had enough to do that I didn't want to reboot into Windows and install some funky drivers to try it out; you read the headers and download only the ones you care about. Seems like an expensive toy, but cool from a tech standpoint.

[ related topics: Wireless Microsoft Aviation Cool Technology Hong Kong ]

Diane recounts her experiences running a triathlon this weekend.

[ related topics: Sports ]

Fun things to do on a weeknight.. include helping Ann (caver friend) hang a rope from a tree in her back yard for climbing practice. It brings a new meaning to "hanging around at Ann's". - first thing she tries: rapelling upside down. - Putting a large external flash on my CyberShot makes a BIG difference on night shots.

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design ]

Back from the Big Apple. Work went okay. Some real sleep would be nice, but I've got to summarize my Hong Kong trip and my New York trip and do some other work on Friday, Saturday morning we take off for Seattle, then north to hang out with my family in the far reaches of the islands off of Washington. And, of course, back on next Friday for Sam and Kathleen's wedding. Maybe that Saturday?

Two New York moments involving rescue vehicles:

1. From the taxi driving from JFK to Manhattan, I saw a fire truck, lights flashing and siren wailing, enter the expressway in front of us. We blew by it in the left lane.
2. Walking up 8^th Avenue. Ambulance in traffice next to us, siren wailing. At first we thought it was the car alarm on the vehicle being towed. Took three blocks for it to pass us.

The Hotel Moderne was better than my experiences at the Hotel Pennsylvania, but an extra coat of paint and some Warhol prints didn't mask the decrepit in-room air conditioner, and it was freakin' hot in the city that allegedly never sleeps. Passable, but barely.

Jet Blue both ways. It's strange how the seats in the Cathay Pacific Airbus planes are so much more comfortable than the leather seats in planes from the same manufacturer that Jet Blue flies. But my experience of Jet Blue is improving.

(And two of my four recent flights have had an empty seat next to me! Woohoo! More bright smiles for the check-in clerks!)

However, having five and a half hours of DirecTV programming available to me each way has done nothing to make me want more television in my life. And, dayumn, most of the material on VH-1 Classic makes the viking kittens even more entertaining. Although I'm also now much more conscious of hairstyles, and ya know, there are some moderns ones which are going to look really bad in two decades.

[ related topics: Dan's Life New York ]

Ever wanted to start your own country? You and a lot of other people. The Footnotes to History site lists numerous nations and states that tried to get off the ground but never quite made it. Take a look at some of the attempts, such as the Free State of Jones, the Welsh colony in Argentinia, and the unlikely Greco-Polish Republic.

Yesterday was my 35^th birthday. Apologies if I was short with anyone who called with greetings yesterday; on Wednesday we were exchanging a lot of important stuff on the cell phone so I was in the habit of answering it, in the course of the last 40 or so minutes of finishing up with the large fashion company of which you have certainly heard I think I got calls from almost everyone who has my cell phone number, most of whom knew I was busy, and the most important parts of those calls while I was trying to juggle meetings, people and data flow were, yes, the birthday greetings. I'll give you my update on the situation as soon as I've finished figuring out what the hell the situation is, damn it!

Charlene got me one of those "on your birthday" books, which was going to lead to all sorts of cool links, but that all got overshadowed by what seems to me the most groundbreaking United States Supreme Court decision in quite a while: Lawrence et al v. Texas:

For this inquiry the Court deems it necessary to reconsider its Bowers holding. The Bowers Court's inital substantive statement—"The issue presented is whether the Federal Constitution confers a fundamental right upon the homosexuals to engage in sodomy ...," 478 U.S., at 190—discloses the Court's failure to appreciate the extent of teh liberty at stake. To say that the issue in Bowers was simply the right to engage in certain sexual conduct demeans the claim the individual put forward, just as it would demean a married couple were it said that marriage is just about the right to have sexual intercourse.

And:

...this Court's obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate its own moral code.

I could not have asked for a more uplifting birthday present.

Daze Reader has dubbed yesterday "sodomy day", and has links to a bunch of articles exploring the scope of the ruling. Medley also has a large collection of links. Brad celebrates appropriately.

And go read Notes on a Glamour Profession (dang it, what do we have to do to get permanent links on that 'blog?) on the topic.

Runner-up for great birthday gifts from the cosmic wow: That lovable old bigot Strom Thurmond has also left the senate, and this earth.

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture Dan's Life Ethics Sociology Law Civil Liberties ]

That great San Francisco landmark has changed hands: The Lusty Lady becomes worker-owned.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Bay Area ]