Flutterby™! From 2007-06-01 to 2007-06-30

I'm setting up a mirror of the server that crashed yesterday on my little home server. This involves setting up Scarab which means setting up Tomcat which complains that it couldn't find a Java Development Kit. Not wanting to make my life any harder than it has to be, I say "Okay, I'll run over to java.sun.com and download their installer." So I go there, and see:

• Java SE
• Java EE
• Java ME
• JavaFX
• See All

Uh. Right. This "super duper" language and apparently they don't have a CPAN like structure for it, so they have to make me, a guy just trying to install some bloody software, educate myself about five different versions to see which one I need.

Huh. Okay, maybe one of the Java clones will do the job better. Back to the package manager.

[ related topics: Free Software Perl Open Source Software Engineering Java ]

I hate to turn this place all techie, maybe even though May is over we can bring things back to a little more national masturbation month-ish material, but I have a little Java hate:

cd scarab-0.21

mvn war

Since then, the process "java" has been consuming roughly 99% of the CPU, 49:47.65 minutes. For compiling (why are we compiling Java, anyway?) a stupid web app. At least I hope it's compiling, the Maven status still says:

[INFO] Scanning for projects...

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

A fascinating SF Weekly look at Rebecca and Terry Solomon's duping of Bay Area investors for $20 million. Hint #1 to investors: Real estate tax records can tell you a lot, if they're renting a $20k/month house, consider carefully that two million dollar check.

But I guess that's why the Nigerian 419 scammers are still at it after how many years of people in my circles giggling over the idiocy of people who fall for them.

USDOJ press release on the situation.

[ related topics: Politics Bay Area Current Events Real Estate ]

One for TC: Boeing subsidiary Spectrolab claims 40% efficiency for solar cells (via /.). Here's the Spectrolab press release version of the story.

[ related topics: Current Events Photovoltaics ]

I wonder if this list of carbon dioxide use per capita takes into account energy and other products which cross borders and are used by residents of other states.

[ related topics: Politics ]

With most of the TV shows having wrapped up their seasons for the summer, I was looking for something new to record when I ran across "Sanctuary" (Flash site with sound) - a new sci-fi series headlining Amanda Tapping, of Stargate fame. Being a Stargate junkie, I hurried over to the site and found that the 2-hour series pilot is being delivered (in 8 episodes) entirely - and only - via the web. After watching the first episode, I can definitely say I'll be buying the others.

So far production quality and story are good. Acting could improve a touch, but that's not uncommon with new shows in my experience - it takes a bit for actors to really establish their character. As for the feel, it's bit of a cross between Buffy and Heroes, with a splash of Hellboy. Oh, and they apparently now hold the Guinness World Record for "Highest Budget Television Production Direct to the Web".

(more of my thoughts and info about the show in the comments.)

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Consumerism and advertising Journalism and Media Art & Culture Television Net Culture Video ]

My mom teaches at the ASHA school of massage and they need a little notice.

Reminder: Party at Dan and Charlene's next Sunday, 3 'til whenever. Lagunitas, park down on Sir Francis Drake and walk up Mountain View, we'll have markers out by the driveway. A little warning if you're gonna make it would be great so we'll know how many to plan for, but if you just show up that'll be cool too!

Email for more specific directions.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Yesterday Charlene and I took the tandem out to Point Reyes Station and back in the morning, because Bill said he wasn't going to be able to hike in the morning... the Ratatouille wrap party was Saturday night. MarkV covers the highlights. Congrats to the Pixar gang on completing another, I'm hearing good things about this one!

[ related topics: Pixar Animation ]

I don't know if y'all have have seen this, but Google Maps has a new "street view", they're taking a vehicle set up with a bunch of cameras pointing it every which way and driving it around, and making it browseable. Only a few major cities so far. Here's a Wired collection of the best scenes from it.

[ related topics: Photography Maps and Mapping ]

Charlene has asked me if there are any books I can purge, and I'm catching up on a couple that I'd picked up at some point because they looked interesting and never got around to. One such is Women Sailors & Sailors' Women by David Cordingly, and I'm having a fascinating jaunt through sailing history. Wow, the Brits were some mean nasty schmucks, makes me rather sympathetic to the pirates of that era. I'll probably drop assorted random observations in from time to time, but here's a note derived from William Sanger's study in New York prostitution in 1858:

The traditional explanation for why women became prostitutes was that they were seduced by men and then abandoned. But of the 2,000 women studied by Sanger, only 258 gave this as a reason. The largest number, 525, gave destitution as the cause for their taking to the streets, and 515 gave "inclination".

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Boats New York ]

Interesting story about how lenders are nervous about the practice of "piggybacking" on FICO scores.

Estruch paid $1,800 in December for three credit card spots, and by January, his FICO score jumped from 550 to 715. In mid-March, he closed on his four-bedroom beige stucco house after obtaining a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage from a unit of American Home Mortgage Investment Corp. It carried a 7.5 percent interest rate and required no down payment.

[ related topics: Economics Real Estate ]

National anthems are interesting. God Save the Queen has a stateliness that mirrors the utter confidence of the Victorians. La Marseillaise, with its rather blood-thirsty lyrics, makes you want to go bayonet a Prussian. And The Star-Spangled Banner, in its unsingability by any normal human voice, stubbornly clings to Yankee exceptionalism.

I stumbled on this video of Brazil's national anthem, which is pretty good. It has the air of a minor opera chorus, but the bombast listed in the rather badly translated lyrics is charming. I don't know of any other country that refers to itself as a 'vivid dream', do you?

[ related topics: Language Music Video ]

Life imitates Loony Tunes: Escaped Kangaroo Captured in Indiana.

[ related topics: Animation ]

Nora Ephron: How to Foil a Terrorist Plot in Seven Simple Steps:

3. The fact that you do not know any actual terrorists should not in any way deter you. Necessity is the mother of invention: if you can find the right raw material -- a sad, sick, lonely, drunk, deranged, disgruntled or just plain anti-American Muslim somewhere in the United States -- you can make your very own terrorist.

Note too that we've had any number of homegrown terrorist plots foiled in the past few years that have gotten zero air play, mostly because they weren't created by muslims.

[ related topics: Politics moron ]

On the 11^th, Camworld turns 10, and Bradlands has turned nine.

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett Weblogs ]

What do you do with a dying Kansas town with a population of 250 or thearabouts? Someone's bought up the local school buildings and is trying to turn the place into an artist colony: The Harveyville Project.

[ related topics: Sociology Art & Culture ]

U of M teen sex and depression study finds most teens' mental health unaffected by nonmarital sex. I hate to link to an "about.com" site, but sexuality.about.com is actually pretty good, this was from today's entry, but the previous entry posits that for all of the fact checking being done in sexuality stories, the New York Times may as well hire Paul Fishbein (of Adult Video News fame) for editor.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Sociology Current Events New York ]

Lyn linked to Preemptive Karma: You Think Gas Prices are Bad ..., which pointed to a Minneapolis Star Tribune article that pointed out that food prices are rising faster than gas prices.

In the past year, food prices have increased 3.7 percent and are on track to jump by as much as 7 percent by year's end. The current increase is more than double the 1.8 percent jump seen the year before, according to the consumer price index.

[ related topics: Food Consumerism and advertising Economics ]

Fuck Yeah!:

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday in favor of a Fox Television-led challenge to the policy and returned the case to the Federal Communications Commission to let the agency try to explain how its policy was not "arbitrary and capricious." The court said it doubted the FCC could.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Law Television ]

I'm happily ensconced in my current projects, but I've recently had a few other jobs come flirting, and I poked my head up and looked around a bit because... hey, it's always nice to flirt. Two of those flirts were really attractive, one for the money, although not so much for the work, one for the work, partially because it'd have meant a direction away from software. But although circumstances right now are somewhat tight, there are some things ya just can't walk away from.

However, there have been dry spells, and in those spells I've had dealings with companies that have made me wonder who the hell they're hiring.

Dori continues some musing she'd started in the comments to other threads with (How To) Hire Me.

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

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on the JFK Airport bombing plot:

"There are lots of threats to you in the world. There's the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can't sit there and worry about everything. Get a life," he said.

[Snipped WCBS editorializing]

"You have a much greater danger of being hit by lightning than being struck by a terrorist," he added.

Oh, my. Sane risk assessment from a politician? Why isn't this guy running for president?

[ related topics: Politics Aviation New York ]

Wendy McElroy quotes a look into Ron Paul's voting record from a Libertarian perspective.

[ related topics: Quotes Politics Libertarian Current Events ]

I just came across this article about a Connecticut substitute teacher who was CONVICTED of a FELONY charge and facing up to 40 years in prison because the computer she was using in the classroom was infected with spyware and flashed some pornography. I can't begin to count the ways that this is so wrong. Fortunately, the sentencing judge had the wherewithal to redict the conviction.

To start with, she was a substitute teacher. These folks are paid just over minimum wage to be thrown into a room with a bunch of kids they never met. Basically, they are baby sitters. She was also given technology she probably didn't receive training on and definitely was not responsible for maintaining security. But that's just the beginning...

How does flashing some porn in front of seventh grades warrant a felony conviction? I mean I've seen some damn racy stuff on prime-time TV. Stuff that was more racy than what I saw in Playboy and Penthouse when I was in seventh grade!

[ related topics: Children and growing up Erotic Privacy Sexual Culture Technology and Culture Law Work, productivity and environment Television Woodworking ]

A press release about Penile size and the ‘small penis syndrome’ by Kevin Wylie and Ian Eardley, in the June issue of BJU International, claims to have found an average penis size (which seems to match what we already thought of as an average penis size):

By drawing together the results of 12 studies that measured the penises of 11,531 men, they discovered that average erect penises ranged from 14-16cms (5.5 to 6.2 inches) in length and 12-13cm (4.7 to 5.1 inches) in girth.

It also found that:

85 per cent of women were satisfied with their partner’s penile size, but only 55 per cent of men were satisfied.

Which brings to mind that Ron White "We’re all a little bit gay" bit.

And just for post-modern self-referential journalistic silliness, here's a Guardian article reporting on a Sun article that was derived from that press release.

This news comes to you courtesy of Erica Barnett who made the same entry in her personal blog as she did over at The Stranger's Slog.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Journalism and Media ]

Over at Real Adult Sex, Figleaf has inquired why, out of all of the animals that copulate that way, we choose canines in naming "doggy style", and is asking for other suggestions.

J.B. Kochanie responds with a poem, "I want you to love me the way the animals do.".

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

In several of his books, Terry Pratchett has explained the government sanction of the existence of the guild of thieves in that universe by pointing out that there are no better organizations for restraining the practice of a trade in order to keep demand high than guilds.

It seems to me that even were the thieves to have government sanction, they'd still only aspire to be Realtor^tms. Case in point: Redfin advertises itself as "Find, Buy and Sell Homes Online". They had a weblog describing various properties that they'd visited with more than over-inflated square footage numbers and all caps listings with abbreviations that couldn't possibly mean what you thought they meant. Things like comparing a house to a pair of $1200 jeans. And now they "...will no longer publish eyewitness property reviews because of a local MLS rule that deems them an advertisement of another brokers' listing."

(I should also note that back before the Internet, Meuon and I tried to start an alternative to the local MLS without understanding the politics of Realtor^tms. Wow, was that an eye-opener, when "The Sopranos" is over and they need another profession with lots of backstabbing and twists and turns to chronicle, I think a real estate TV show could be really hot...)

[ related topics: Politics moron Law Television Seattle Terry Pratchett Real Estate ]

Jim nails my problem with summer blockbuster effects movies in today's Wireheads.

[ related topics: Movies ]

Economist.com: The Truth About Recycling. I was actually surprised, while recycling isn't yet self-sustaining outside of densely populated port areas, it's not as much of a money-loser as I would have guessed:

By the early 1990s so many American cities had established recycling programmes that the resulting glut of materials caused the market price for kerbside recyclables to fall from around $50 per ton to about $30, says Dr Morris, who has been tracking prices for recyclables in the Pacific Northwest since the mid-1980s. As with all commodities, costs for recyclables fluctuate. But the average price for kerbside materials has since slowly increased to about $90 per ton.

[ related topics: Economics ]

Wow. How was I unaware of this? The Falkirk Wheel, also The Falkirk Wheel, is sort of a ferris wheel for boats, because apparently someone figured it was cheaper and easier to do this amazing feat of engineering than to build a lock or three on a canal. Here's a video of the Falkirk Wheel in action. (via Borklog)

However, those badass Belgians apparently just hoist their boat-containing tubs of water up with winches. There are apparently four roughly hundred year old lifts and the more recent Strepy Thieu one.

Growing up in upstate New York I had a strong dose of the history of The Erie Canal, and I remember my grandfather taking me to watch the locks on the Champlain canal. Then in the Chattanooga area the Chickamauga lock was a place to go sit (and talk and make out) late into the evening.

But as neat as the big machinery of locks is, boat lifts are in the badass "because we can" category of big machinery.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Chattanooga Boats Machinery New York ]

President Bush's nominee for surgeon general, Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr, has says that 'Homosexuality Isn't Natural or Healthy':

"You have to wonder given the quality of some of the nominations that have gone forward recently, whether the selection group in the White House has gone on vacation," Gergen said. "There has been a growing criticism the administration favoring ideology over competence, and this nomination smacks of that."

How has Mary Cheney managed to go through life without laying some well-needed public smackdown on her father? I guess some people really can handle that level of cognitive dissonance with appearing batshit insane, at least not publicly so. But given the current level of politics and personality in this culture, I guess that appearing sane is a relative thing.

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Health Sociology ]

Spiegel interviews Kenyan economics expert James Shikwati:

SPIEGEL: Mr. Shikwati, the G8 summit at Gleneagles is about to beef up the development aid for Africa...

Shikwati: ... for God's sake, please just stop.

Propping up evil dictators and power-mad rebel factions is helping nobody over there.

[ related topics: Politics Economics ]

Ah, the reasoned discoures of politics: Alabama State Senator Charles Bishop (Republican) punched colleague Lowell Barron (Democrat):

Members of the Alabama House said the incident makes the entire Legislature look bad.

"It's certainly a black eye on the Legislature and the Senate in particular," Republican Rep. Jay Love said.

Everyone's a comedian.

[ related topics: Politics moron ]

http://www.aquatabch.org/afwe/HeathensIdolizeSchoolPrayer.pdf

I got my morning laugh on this.. thought I'd share.

But the main site page was also interesting: The VA recognizes Pentacles as a religious symbol? According to: The Aquarian Tabernacle Church and The VA Available Emblems List it does.

[ related topics: Religion ]

Interesting: One of the issues in embedded hardware is trying to minimize how many additional microcontrollers get used to respond to the stuff that needs real-time response, and then hooking up the communications between all those little CPUs. Parallax has an 8 core microcontroller they call the "Propellor".

[ related topics: Robotics Embedded Devices ]

QOTD:

I want more. I want my historical footprint to be so great that my foot fungus will grow on history's hair into eternity!

[ related topics: Quotes ]

Hat tip to Instapundit: A Youtube of Comrade Stalin arriving in Berlin to the cheers of Red Army Men and released prisoners. Of course, it never happened, that's an actor and its a recreation for a Soviet blockbuster: The Fall of Berlin, which was shot on captured German AgfaChrome stock. According to the blurb, the film even includes Stalin giving advice to a lovelorn Stakhonovite.

[ related topics: Movies Economics ]

Got a Flutterby reader coming out to San Francisco for "...a job interview + a couple days of sightseeing...". Suggestions?

[ related topics: Bay Area California Culture ]

Did the earth move for you?

Simply select your nearest city. The latitude will automatically appear. Then enter the duration of intercourse in minutes. Press the submit button to find out how far the earth moved for you.

[ related topics: Humor ]

Mark V. had some good ramblings and musings on education and wanting to know which seemed sparked by A (UK) physics teacher begs for his subject back. Both are worth reading.

And then go read Richard P. Feynman's experience with California textbooks: Judging Books by Their Covers.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Education Archival ]

Chris had some musings on the safety and efficacy of the FDA in which he linked to Theory, Evidence and Examples of FDA Harm.

60 Billion might be the total budget of the 16 US intelligence agencies in '05. Or about $200 per person. $60b/300m people = 200 each is the rounded number math. I'm wondering if we are getting our moneys worth.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Mathematics ]

Okay all you folks who believe that Ron Paul has a shot at the presidency: FreeMarketNews.com is predicting that he can raise $5 million very shortly, which would boost him out of the fringe candidate arena and into competitive with Romney, Giuliani and McCain. Here's your chance to show that he's a viable candidate.

[ related topics: Politics ]

17 year old sentenced to 10 years for oral sex on a 15 year old gets conviction downgraded to misdemeanor:

"If this court or any court cannot recognize the injustice of what has occurred here, then our court system has lost sight of the goal our judicial system has always strived to accomplish ... justice being served in a fair and equal manner," wrote Judge Thomas H. Wilson, no relation to Genarlow Wilson.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture Law Law Enforcement ]

According to various sources, the photographer who took a widely shown image of serial waste of space Paris Hilton being taken off to prison is also the guy who took the famous picture of a napalmed Vietnamese girl back in 1972. Oh, the Humanity!

[ related topics: Photography Art & Culture California Culture ]

Okay, all you Sopranos whiners: Recently I was talking with Chris Rasch, the topic of video games came up, and he summed up his disinterest with words pretty close to "...I decided to level up in real life". Which is roughly the same conclusion I'd come to, just expressed nice and succinctly.

Since the weblog universe is ablaze with discussion of last night's finalé to HBO's TV show The Sopranos, I'd like to suggest to some of you so deeply wrapped up in the handwringing about what it all means and bla bla bla bla bla, can I just suggest that y'all turn off the mesmerizing little box, go out side, and introduce yourself to your neighbors? Say "hi" to someone on the street? Get in a conversation with a real live human being? Make a connection that, perhaps, matters, rather than vesting so much in a one-sided relationship with a dysfunctional fictional character?

Thank you.

[ related topics: Games Weblogs Technology and Culture Television Community ]

I may end up paying for a podcast: Susie Bright interviews Debbie Nathan on the untestability of assorted internet child pornography claims.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Net Culture ]

Math Geeks in harmony: Finite Simple Group (of Order Two) (Via Leo).

[ related topics: Movies Mathematics ]

I spent a few hours today installing a very very simple PHP/MySQL application that we wrote and debugged on an Ubuntu LAMP server, but had to move it to a "licensed" MS-Novell-SUSE 10 box running in a VMware session at a regional bank.

The good news first: It had "joe" the editor as part of the base fresh install.. made it easy for me to edit files.

The bare install, with what was recommended as a LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP/Perl) server was otherwise "brain dead". Missing things I'd consider requirements for any decent LAMP server, like the MySQL driver for PHP, or PEAR and the basic PHP/Pear Modules like: Mail, or the "locate" command.

After using the odd provided commercial licensed SSH terminal (name ??) (and wishing for Putty or Cygwin) and weird other interfaces to the machine like having to run Yast (software installer) via VMWare's management interface (CLI/Term version inop because of bad SSH term).. and having to learn that it's not 'php' it's 'php5' and the pear command is 'pear5' and.. lots of other strange things I realized the truth:

It's this way to make Linux look much MUCH harder to administer and use than it really should be. That's why M$ is pushing M$-Linux via SUSE compatibility, their commercial SUSE package make Linux look kludgy and unfriendly.. for example: the bank IT staff guys were told the ONLY way to edit files via shell was 'vi'. Didn't know about locate, whereis, grep, wget... and yet, these are 'licensed' and 'supported' installs.

I loved freaking them out making a command line dance with powerful useful incantations... once I got them installed.

[ related topics: Free Software Perl Open Source Software Engineering Current Events Sports Cryptography Databases ]

Bifurcated Rivets had a link to these 8 rules of journalism which are mostly just republished from these 9 rules of journalism:

4. If the President of the United States is accused of violating the law on the same day that an African country erupts into civil war and an especially gloomy economic report is released, and you must decide which one is your lead story, ask yourself this: Did the local sports team just win a big game?

[ related topics: Journalism and Media ]

PlasticBoy had a link to Bumps and bruises are 'good for children’.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Health ]

This one's for Nancy: I just saw that there's a Disney patterns cartridge for the Cricut. And it'll cut individual parts out to be glued up in to larger layered characters. I have a Mickey Mouse around here somewhere I'll try to take some pictures of, but... well... I can appreciate Disney, but I wouldn't describe myself as a fan and I'm generally cynical about such things just on my anti-consumerist principles, but my reaction was "Oh my that is so cyoooooot" and I had to restrain myself from going and buying said cartridge.

I may have to anyway just to make up some of these characters to send you. And... dang it, there's some things I don't know if I can talk about, but if you like Disney keep watching the Cricut.

(Full disclosure: Uhh... no, I can't talk about it here, but I may not be unbiased when it comes to this device... I do have one now, though.)

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Photography Woodworking ]

Sean Conner has some commentary on someone else's commentary on The Mythical Man Month in which he questions:

But “while loops” and “if blocks” are low level details? I don't necessarily think so.

Okay, I'll bite. The original commentary says "...for and while loops..." (emphasis mine), and I'll go out on a limb here and say that "for" loops are almost always a low level detail. Loops are a way of saying "for each item apply this operation" or "find" or something else. The classic C idiom for (i = 0; i < n; ++i) is a way of saying "generate the set of integers from 0 through (n-1)", and different languages may have ways of expressing that that differently. For instance, you might say 0..(n-1) in Perl, depending on what you wanted to do with that resulting set, and if your language is smart enough both the programmer and the language win, because the programmer gets to express the thought more appropriately to the domain, and the language gets to decide how best to implement the thought.

[ related topics: Perl Software Engineering ]

Okay, if you waste a few minutes with only one stupid YouTube video today, make it this one: cat climbs into a goldfish bowl. Shades of Bonsai Kitten. Thanks, Medley.

[ related topics: Humor Video Cats ]

I've been trolling the trailers on Quicktime and IMDB and watched the trailer for You Kill Me. It's a movie about an alcoholic hitman who joins AA to try to mend his ways. What's crazy, and it took seeing the trailer twice to catch it, is that Ben Kingsley, who one the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of the man who embodies peace, Gandhi, is playing the drunk hitman! I also checked the trailer for his 2000 film Sexy Beast in which he plays a mafioso!

[ related topics: Movies ]

In another thread, we digressed into a conversation about (illegal) immigration. I was asked to bump it out as a new thread. Here are some sources I posted.

Here's a good overview of the effects of economic integration on immigration but it stops before getting into empirical data on the 21st century. And here's a later revision from Martin. An the more "objective" side, here is a pure economic treatment of migration using optimization techniques. Here Botz (a migration advocate) tries to frame current migration trends in terms of historical patterns.

[ related topics: Civil Liberties Education Economics Immigration ]

An NYU grad student creates embedded game controllers to put a little more "wee!" in your Wii!

[ related topics: Games Sexual Culture Robotics Sociology Embedded Devices ]

I feel so dirty. I've just written my first C++ code that depends upon member object instantiation order.

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

Figleaf recently had some harsh words for Senator Sam Brownback:

Sorry. I don't buy Brownback's argument that this is all about the sanctity of life. Forced-pregnancy rape fantasies are disturbingly rich genre in pornography and, one might assume, a disgracefully popular one among those who applaud him.

Yesterday he followed up on that with a post that I highly recommend reading, and today pointed to a a remembrance of Martha Solay titled Murio por ser pobre y por ser mujer, a Columbian woman who fought her country's anti-abortion laws, restrictions which killed her:

... She died because “pro-life” abortion laws in her country meant that she could not terminate her pregnancy, despite the fact that she had uterine cancer and waiting to treat it would inevitably kill her.

Martha, a street vendor, spent her last months trying trying to raise enough money to make sure that her children could survive without her. Her four girls, ages 17, 6, 5, and 2, are now orphans.

This, particularly, is why I don't care what else, for instance, Ron Paul may be pushing politically: if he believes in forced childbirth he does not believe in liberty or freedom. At least not for women.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Privacy Sexual Culture Civil Liberties ]

some photos of awesome wooden toys on the AR15.com forums.

[ related topics: Machinery Woodworking ]

Marijuana's Effects on Actual Driving Performance:

The third study was conducted in high-density urban traffic. Separate groups of 16 subjects were treated with 100 ug/kg THC and placebo; and, ethanol (mean BAC .034 g%) and placebo. Alcohol impaired performance relative to placebo but subjects did not perceive it. THC did not impair driving performance yet the subjects thought it had.

Yes, I cherry-picked that quote, the overall effects weren't completely benign, but overall marijuana's effects for a joint or two didn't exceed alcohol at a .08% bloodstream level...

[ related topics: Drugs ]

Private Sculpture - Erotic life cast sculpture studio, plaster, resin or bronze casts of a body, inside and out.

[ related topics: Erotic ]

You know that big headline that reads something like "Police Smash Global Pedophile Ring"? You know what's developed in that case that demands a headline? The guy who was busted last year was finally sentenced. It's a year old story that's getting play again today.

Why? Well, Gloria Brame suggests that editors needed to crowd other potential headlines off the front page today.

Aside from that conviction, the latest news in the article I linked read said:

A man described as Cox's lieutenant, Gordon Mackintosh, tried to resurrect the chat room in January. Authorities in Britain, Canada, Australia and the U.S. again infiltrated the operation.

Which seems kind of a silly thing to announce unless they believe that their infiltration has less value than the announcement that they have.

I'm not saying these busts weren't a good thing, I'm just a little wary of the various announcements and pronouncements that don't all add up.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Current Events Law Enforcement ]

I'm flying out east to visit with my family this next weekend, and I've started thinking about packing for the flight. I'll probably end up taking something that needs to get checked, but the usual "what can I or can't I take" thoughts have run through my head, and at some pint I realized that I could easily take everything necessary to bring down a large airplane through security, and that I regularly carry two out of three whenever I travel. And the third could be carried openly (For the record, should anyone from the assorted organizations be reading this, I'll likely leave those two items at home this trip, it's a pleasure trip, not business).

Which, of course, confirms my opinion that the "terrorist plots" that have recently been busted up are the work of idiots. Bruce Schneier: Portrait of the Modern Terrorist as an Idiot backs up my assessment:

I don't think these nut jobs, with their movie-plot threats, even deserve the moniker "terrorist." But in this country, while you have to be competent to pull off a terrorist attack, you don't have to be competent to cause terror. All you need to do is start plotting an attack and -- regardless of whether or not you have a viable plan, weapons or even the faintest clue -- the media will aid you in terrorizing the entire population.

(Via RC3, who says that "Bruce Schneier is the Director of Homeland Security on my federal government fantasy league team.")

[ related topics: Aviation moron Sociology Journalism and Media ]

Put it next to an Air Conditioner?

http://www.norcalblogs.com/watts/weather_stations/

Is there one near where you live?

The best URL is surfacestations.org but he is moving the site - must have been slashdotted....

"Because of it's many decades of relatively stable operation, high station density, and high proportion of rural locations, the Cooperative Network has been recognized as the most definitive source of information on U.S. climate trends for temperature and precipitation"

As the occupied areas expand - would it not make sense to put the sensing devices away from buildings and pavement?

[ related topics: Global Warming ]

Something I've noticed in various organizations is inclusion of flashy features "to wow VCs". I'd like to toss up a contrarian view: VCs are actually really smart. They aren't super rich and tossing around hundreds of millions of dollars because they're just lucky. That when a flashy feature wows a VC, it's because that feature displays an understanding of the market that transcends implementation.

Just something to consider when letting features influence development direction.

[ related topics: Economics ]

Google Goes Solar - it's a heck of a start.

[ related topics: Photovoltaics ]

Mark Atwood: What's the next big thing?

People are mostly going to have forgotten what an enormous pain in the ass provisioning computation was today. Today, we truly feel that pain, because it seems "normal", and everyone has to suffer it together.

I was working on a (too) long entry about Ron Paul and why he makes me nervous, partially as a "where I've gone politically" entry, but also as an excuse to link to Chris's case for him relative to the other Republican candidates, "Why Ron Paul should be the Republican nominee, even though his abortion views suck", but I don't know if I'm going to get that into a coherent weblog sized bite any time soon. At any rate, I agree that I'd rather see Ron Paul as a viable Republican presidential candidate over any of the other possibilities on that end.

Meanwhile, someone from Ron Paul's campaign has emailed me looking for volunteers to do techie stuff. So if you're inclined that way and have some time, give me a holler and I'll get you in touch.

[ related topics: Politics Weblogs ]

Cleantech Blog: The Real Price of Gasoline:

So, after the interviews and articles, I went back to find the study that was at the root of my recollection of a $10/gallon subsidy figure. The analysis belongs to Milton Copulos, the President of the National Defense Council Foundation. Mr. Copulos apparently updated his work this past January, and he now suggests a subsidy of $8.35/gallon of gasoline refined from Persian Gulf oil. Since the Persian Gulf reflects roughly 40% of world oil production, this implies a $3.35/gallon subsidy when spread across all gallons of gasoline. That's more in line with my expectations.

[ related topics: Politics Economics ]

Y'all are familiar with the unit of measure called a "milliHelen", right? That's the amount of beauty required to launch one ship. Elf asks about another unit:

Your task, should you decide to accept it, is to come up with a definition for the word milligoatse.

However, if you're not familiar with "goatse", please don't go searching for it. There are things that cannot be unseen.

[ related topics: Humor ]

Over at Oysters and Chocolate there's a little essay entitled Between Friends: Let's Talk about Sex that posits that there's a tipping point in female friendships where women can talk about sex in an open way.

And then it happens. She says something real, something that you can connect with and relate to on an honest level. It makes you laugh.

Something like, "I hate our new claw-footed bathtub, we can't get proper leverage."

And that got me wondering about how the analog for that occurs in male friendships...

[ related topics: Sexual Culture ]

At some point recently Eric rightly called me out for my usual whining about "the legal system", because I wasn't really whining about the system, which seems to be pretty good as such things go, but about the legislative system or about a particular judge.

Government is an illusion in the mind of the governed, it only exists so long as we maintain this consensual hallucination in the rules and procedures that make up a lawful society. When that breaks down, we end up with mobs.

So it was bad enough to read yesterday that Antonin Scalia praised the illegal actions of the fictional character Jack Bauer:

"Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?" Judge Scalia challenged his fellow judges. "Say that criminal law is against him? 'You have the right to a jury trial?' Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer? I don't think so.

"So the question is really whether we believe in these absolutes. And ought we believe in these absolutes."

I'd like to read a more in-depth article on the discussions that ensued, but today I read that a Texas mob killed the man who was trying to protect a driver in an accident that injured a child. "The child was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries." The driver is cooperating with police.

David Rivas Morales, the man who stood up for due process, is dead.

[ related topics: Law Law Enforcement ]

I find this kind of confusing. I always assumed that the Constitution and Bill of Rights a list of things that the Government is supposed to do and not do. In that assumption is that belief that these guidelines define our Government. I know that Guantanamo Bay stretches those guidelines significantly - but those are not American citizens and suspected terrorists. But what I didn't realize is that those guidelines for our Government don't apply to our Government's treatment of American citizens who aren't quite on American soil.

This comes from a Wired article about random laptop searches by the Border Patrol. Somehow, the Government thinks there isn't anything wrong with turning on someone's laptop and routing through their files!

[ related topics: Politics moron Law Current Events Civil Liberties California Culture ]

Anyone have information on finding historical stock data, from the 80s and 90s? Willing to pay for it, but having trouble with various pay services because the stock I'm looking for merged and renamed and such during the energy fiascos of the late '90s.

[ related topics: Economics ]

Jay has a friend named Cathy Salustri, and he's pointed to "I Had A Dream", in which she's moved into the south side of St Petersburg Florida, and realizes that she's becoming a racist. Today Jay linked to A St Petersburg Times article on that article and the fallout from it, and as I read through I realized something.

Yesterday, Columbine had a link to a long article about hate crimes, the circumstances surrounding the death murder of Aaron Hall, and the subsequent (lack of) press coverage, Perhaps I could describe what I'm feeling right now as "sudden heat.". This morning, as I re-read Cathy Salustri's part about watching the man who stole from her at his sentencing (time served), smiling at people in the spectator section of the courtroom, I realized that from my sheltered life here in the San Francisco Bay Area I'm having a similar reaction to... well... a good portion of the middle of United States. And I'd bet that many of us on the coasts (or in some of those midwestern havens like Minneapolis) feel the same way.

I don't know how to have that discussion, but I'd like to see it had.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Bay Area Journalism and Media Community ]

A little article about camping in the Bay Area headlined "Please Don't Retch On My Tent", unremarkable except that I ran into the leaders of the Canadians in Samuel P. Taylor State Park mentioned in that article down at our local general store where they were trying to track down wineries to visit, so I dragged 'em back to the house to use my internet connection to help plan their day. They were a college geography class that was doing a big multi-week loop through the southwestern U.S., sounded like a fun experience and I enjoyed talking to their teachers.

(Note, the article says that the Canadians were nice, just a bit boistrous, and had nothing to do with the tent retching mentioned in the headlines).

[ related topics: Education Maps and Mapping ]

Another SFGate article, this one about a high school student who put together a seminar to get teachers into real estate, that had this gem from the student, Huber Trenado:

"But I knew to get this project to completion, I had to learn about the housing market in the Bay Area and about loans," he said. "The loan application, it's like a whole different genre. There's nonfiction, fiction, terror and horror, and then there are loan products. I really had to read and ask my mentor, OK, what does this mean?"

[ related topics: Bay Area Education Real Estate ]

A couple of discussions here I want to pursue, but... got a full day of work and off to the hinterlands of northern Ohio for the weekend, so if I don't respond it's not 'cause I don't care.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Work, productivity and environment ]

I just stumbled across this series in the Canadian National Post that details the positions of the most prominent Global Warming deniers. It's a good read. Just as there are many really smart folks working diligently towards understanding Global Warming as a problem, there appear to a be decent number of pretty brilliant folks who are trying to make sure the holes in the science get filled (and, maybe a different set of hypotheses accepted and rejected).

It's important to note that even if you take "Global Warming" out as an accepted hypothesis, it doesn't eliminate the data that shows extremely elevated CO2 levels. And it doesn't eliminate the benefits of understanding and preparing for large-scale natural disasters - like Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean Tsunami.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Work, productivity and environment Television Hurricane Katrina Global Warming ]

	It started life in 1988, a simple 15' travel trailer, here on it's first camping trip after ripping the borken fridge out, and fixing the borken frozen plumbing. Add Solar panels, charge controllers...
	As we get ready for the 'burn, it's evolved a little more. Nancy and I painted it, added New 6 ply heavy duty tires, a new water heater, cut the old bumper off with a plasma torch, and welded a new one on it.
	And here is the bike rack I built and added on to the rear.. that will hold 3 bikes, including my recumbent bike. I reinforced the rear corners of the trailer, and the rack is on hinges and cables, so it can be lifted out of the way. You might also see the wheels I welded to the frame.

Next, we have to figure out how to add more water supply.. and proper grey water evaporation/filtering...

But it definitely tweaks the "status quo" both on the road, and when we park it. Little kids love it, as do interesting people. But we've also heard gasps of "Oh my God!" that just make me smile..

See ya'll at the 'Burn, or on the road somewhere..Honk, smile and wave. We'll do the same.

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design Heinlein Travel Fabrication Bicycling Furniture Photovoltaics ]

Back from a weekend visit to Whitehouse, a small town that's west-southwest of Toledo, Ohio, where my sister and her husband have a horse farm. Having the weekend in a middle U.S. manufacturing city and the surrounding areas I think I've got some ideas for advancing the conversation in that thread where nobody could figure out what it was I wanted to talk about.

I'll have to download pictures and do some musings on this today.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Archival ]

Incarcerex: It's time for a new bottom line (YouTube fake drug ad).

[ related topics: Drugs Politics ]

Interesting: Elizabeth Edwards declares support for gay marriage. I guess that the Edwards are trying the George and Barbara Bush thing...

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture Sociology Marriage ]

Time-lapse video of making a baby cake. The cake was made by the proprietor of Michelle Sugar Art and Michelle Cakes, here's a picture of the finished product. Via crasch who was willing to forgo vacation in order to provide his friends with edible babies.

[ related topics: Art & Culture Food - Cake ]

2 slashdot stories right next to each other offers me a view of MS-Reality^tm:

• 1. BBC Chooses Microsoft DRM platform
• 2. Vista Games Cracked to Run on XP

They can't even lock up their own code/software to run on their own OS's, yet the BBS choses them for DRM? Did the BBC choose a DRM platform that they are pretty sure will be made moot of, bypassed, hacked, etc.. while they point a finger at Microsoft and say: "It's not our fault." ?

Sometimes you buy a product, sometimes you buy a scapegoat.

[ related topics: Humor Games Microsoft Software Engineering moron Monty Python ]

Note to developers: The simple format of your build should not wipe any associated databases and recreate them. That is, if I type ant in order to try to reconstruct some configuration information that you install into your software during the build phase you should not wipe out all running user info and recreate the databases with dummy data.

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

Mark pointed out a Psychology Today interview with Robert Epstein, author of The Case Against Adolescence: Rediscovering The Adult In Every Teen. I found the interview worth a read, and Mark's comments and his commenters start some of the discussion.

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality ]

I think that Facebook is the only social networking site that I haven't been suckered into yet, but the mention of the Facebook API today got me wondering, and: WWW::Myspace, WWW::Mediawiki::Client, LJ::Simple (for LiveJournal), and I'd already known about Net::Twitter.

Might make it so that I can do my more personal stuff with a single command...

[ related topics: Perl ]

More software hate: The shortcut for "Build->Build Solution" in Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition is F6. The shortcut for "Build->Build Solution" in Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition? F7.

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft Software Engineering moron ]

Fascinating: Life At Google - The Microsoftie Perspective:

Many of you were asking for the feedback I received from my interview with the former Google employee I hired into ABC Development as a Sr.SDE. Here it is. This candidate is also a former MS employee who left the company and founded a “Start-up” called XYZ. XYZ was purchased by Google and he was hired on as a Senior Software Engineer II / Technical Lead. Here is his take on Google’s environment as well as areas Microsoft should consider improving in order to be more competitive.

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

Eric says "Lord, let there be one more tech boom, I promise not to blow it this time...", and Mark V manages to evaluate that in terms of principles to live by.

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Work, productivity and environment ]

YouTube video of cop assaulting kids for riding a skateboard, Hot Springs Arkansas mayor Mike Bush says:

"Unfortunately, the video shows it pretty good," Bush said.

Yeah, bummer that the cop got busted for assaulting a 13 year old, hey, dude?

Ya know, assholes like that in public service makes me want surveillance cameras freakin' everywhere.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Politics Law Enforcement Video ]

Those of us who have worked with him just call it: Dan Code.

[ related topics: Humor Television ]

If you're doing Microsoft Visual Studio development, I'll save you some time: download Dependency Walker. And all of you people who rave about how friendly Visual Studio is, consider this:

The specified module could not be found. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007007E)

There's something in a DLL that it doesn't like, but there's no indication what DLL that is or anything. And reading through Microsoft's support forums is an exercise in hilarity.

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft moron ]

Since cake is a popular topic, here's an easier one to build than most of the ones we laud: a kitty litter cake, a pineapple spice cake served in a kitty litter box.

[ related topics: Food - Cake ]

Philip Greenspun mentioned that many hedge funds don't outperform the S&P 500, after fees, and today he pointed to New Yorker: Hedge Clipping, a little puff piece about hedge funds and the software to simulate them, and why the real value of hedge funds may be in diversification, although I'd be wary of the "two virtual connections down one piece of fiber" problem...

[ related topics: Economics ]

Former "ex-gay" ministers apologize:

The former leaders of the interdenominational Christian organization Exodus International said Wednesday they had become disillusioned with promoting gay conversion.

"Some who heard our message were compelled to try to change an integral part of themselves, bringing harm to themselves and their families," the three said in a statement released outside the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center.

[ related topics: Religion Sexual Culture ]

So if you accept the premise that Global Warming has anthropogenic causation and that elevated CO2 is the culprit, then if you consider the UN tome "Livestock's Long Shadow" you can come to the conclusion that:

Vegetarians in Hummers do more for the planet than do meat-eaters who cruise around in hybrids or collect recyclable soda cans.

PETAs clamoring over vegetarianism not being pushed as a solution to Global Warming are guilty of dismissing another, even more effective method of decreasing long-term environmental impact.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Archival Global Warming ]

I was trying to find an old conversation on the ecological impacts of breeding to bring up in the context of Eric's comment below, and ran across an old long discussion titled "Dan as parent-hater", when what should appear on my local news site but... a story about a woman who's been banned from her local bus station for giving contraception advice to mothers of large families:

Stevens said she recently noticed a mother struggling to control her six children.

"I felt sorry for her. Maybe she doesn't know that she could get a patch and not have a kid for five years," Stevens said.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sexual Culture Public Transportation ]

By now you've undoubtedly seen the news that the CIA has released two sets of previously classified historical documents that detail a few of the illegal operations that the CIA has participated in. Here's the CIA's "Family Jewels" at the National Security Archives (should also be available over at foia.ia.gov). So why link to it now? Mark V has a link to Bruce Schneier on data reuse, in which he points out that the Census Bureau used individual data to round up Japanese-Americans during World War II.

... Data that is never collected cannot be reused. Data that is collected anonymously, or deleted immediately after it is used, is much harder to reuse. It's easy to build systems that collect data on everything -- it's what computers naturally do -- but it's far better to take the time to understand what data is needed and why, and only collect that.

(alt link to the article) and I thought that the two together was much more interesting than each on its own.

[ related topics: Politics Privacy History Sociology Propaganda ]

An NPR bit on "Explosives Camp", a pre-college course to recruit for the University of Missouri - Rolla. Here's the blurb for the 2007 course, I know at least one junior high student who'll be figuring out what he needs to do to get in this.

[ related topics: Education ]

A NASA Dryden list of California Aerospace and Aviation Museums. Charlene mentioned wanting to go see big rockets (every science museum these days has an old capsule, not everyone has a Saturn V), and I realized that the only places I could think of to do that were on the east coast.

[ related topics: Cool Science Aviation Space & Astronomy Astronomy Art & Culture California Culture ]

An SF Chronicle article on road trips mentioned Watch It Made in the U.S.A., a guide to factory tours and company museums. I'll be ordering that.

Heather Corinna is depressed over Scarleteen. She's having trouble getting advertisers or underwriters. There's a longer rant here but I don't have it in me this morning.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Consumerism and advertising ]

If you're a cyclist and fly through Minneapolis-St Paul airport, be wary of the cops.

[ related topics: Aviation Law Enforcement ]

Since I'm doing some hardware dissection today, this seems kind of apropos: AnandTech disassembles an iPhone. There was enough glued and epoxied in there that they destroyed it in the process, leading "eddiebax" in the Sensible Erection thread to point out that:

Because the contract is with ATT/Cingular, it will still be capable of making or completing as many calls as before...

As an AT&T/Cingular subscriber (they're the only company with a tower anywhere near us), I can only say "Bwahahahahaha!"

Speaking of dissecting electronics, I'm utterly flabberghasted at the number of link spammers that are trying to intercept "[obscure part number] datasheet".

[ related topics: iPhone ]