Flutterby™! From 2008-02-04 to 2008-02-29

Argh. I promised myself I was going to ignore any Ron Paul related news here, 'cause... well... we don't change each other's minds in the comments (although Obama and Hillary are doin' their level headed best to change my mind about him...). However, this was too interesting to support: Q4 FEC Reports: Ron Paul Receives More Military Donations Than All Other Republicans Combined:

Total military donations nearly as much as the total of all other remaining candidates - Republican and Democrat

Still don't like the guy, but I'm seeing a good case made that he's the lesser of the evils.

[ related topics: Politics Current Events War ]

Buzz on a few cycling mailing lists is that Sheldon Brown has died of a heart attack. His web site has been a tremendous resource, he'll be missed, and I hope that arrangements can be made to carry on the legacy of information that he's published in some manner.

[ related topics: Sports Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Am I just getting old, or are this year's Super Bowl ads really that un-funny? Yesterday afternoon I was feeling like I should really weasel my way out of working on the house and go hang out at a party. It would have been nice to socialize, but, damn, that looks like the worst backdrop to a party since the Star Wars Holiday Special(Yeah, I'm smiling when I say that, even though I missed your party this year Brian).

[ related topics: Star Wars Consumerism and advertising Sports ]

Digitally over-compressed classical music piped through a cell phone codec played on said cell phone in speaker phone mode while I'm waiting on hold is very very bad.

[ related topics: Wireless Music ]

The TSA has a blog. Over at Educated Guesswork there's a good look at why a blog filled with bureaucratic double-speak and fumbling non-explanations won't end well for the TSA.

[ related topics: Weblogs Archival ]

It's hard to improve on the Metafilter entry pointing to this, but the author of XKCD has created LimerickDB, and I'm convinced that if Topspin gets a hold of this horrific things will result. Which is why I'm compelled to link to it.

You could start with the LimerickDB top 150, which includes gems like this one:

A woman in liquor production

Owns a still of exquisite construction.

The alcohol boils

Through magnetic coils.

She says that it's "proof by induction."

[ related topics: Humor Writing ]

Dang it: Steven Brust writes Firefly novel, puts it on the web for free. Productivity around the net plummets.

[ related topics: Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Whoah, now I'm totally not sure about the geography, and I'm convinced that the guy who posted the pictures isn't either: Some amazing pictures of the Ralah(?) (originally Ramallah) wall knocked down, and Gaza (Ramallah would imply West Bank) residents streaming over the border to Egypt. (Via) [Edit: Thanks for sending me out looking to correct my geography, Hanan]

[ related topics: Photography ]

Mac vs Windows: Who spends the most on sex toys? Note the footnote about Linux users...

[ related topics: Free Software Sexual Culture Microsoft Open Source Macintosh ]

Snicker. QOTD on the immigration issue:

recall the Oakies (Gapes of Wrath?),,,they did the work Americans would not do.

Ignoring the whole "the Americas have other countries in 'em besides the U.S." nit-picking (Canadians are so un-American...), Take that, Merle.

[ related topics: Quotes moron Work, productivity and environment ]

Six word memoirs, stolen from Metafilter.

[ related topics: Writing ]

Ten years ago or so I interviewed at a place that was trying to turn some basic shape recognition and camera technology into "interactive teletubbies". Recently I got sent this little video game system with a camera interface, and was reminded of the flashback to then, and started thinking about organizations that reach well beyond the technology of the day, that promise things that won't be ready for a decade. Then I got sent this bit of vaporware video about shape-shifting swarming robots that starts out with animations of people manipulating full-fledged highly detailed models, and the clicks over to clunky electromagnet blocks.

And I got to thinking about Dust Networks.

Does the company that makes grandiose promises that the technology won't meet for a decade or more ever win? Or is it better to look to the achievable and, more importantly, sell the achievable?

[ related topics: Games Robotics Video ]

Speaking of overpromising technology: a vasectomy you can turn on and off with a remote control. I'm remembering a story back in the day about wiring up a garage door opener to a counter chip and a 555 counter and discovering which of your neighbors had the same frequency, just different security code...

[ related topics: Health Cool Technology ]

First, Eric (w/Dan and Heidi assisting) took some great wedding pics by balloon, and then a friend with a helicopter e-mailed me some unique pictures of our house. Plugging his Aerial Photography Services is the least I can do.

[ related topics: Hardware Hackery Photography Robotics Embedded Devices Marriage Real Estate Aviation - Helicopters ]

Tips for becoming a roadie, on making the transition from mountain biking:

As a second example, when a mountain biker talks about going on a 'group ride', it means that a bunch of friends got together, regrouped at junctures of the ride, talked as they were riding, and probably had a beer or twelve together after the ride. When roadies have a 'group ride', on the other hand, riders are expected to ride in a tight formation, paying strict attention to the gap between your front tire and the rear wheel ahead of you. the gap should be no more than four inches. After the obligatory ten minute warmup, it becomes each rider's dual purpose to drop every other rider, while not being dropped yourself.

Via.

[ related topics: Humor Current Events Beer Bicycling ]

Two classes of devices I'm interested in:

• The TI MSP 430 is a super low power 16 bit microcontroller that looks like they've got some great little wireless demo boards for in the $50 range.
• The Cypress PSoC devices are, among other things, advertising 14 bit(!) ADCs. There's a couple of applications where that makes a bunch of external complexity completely irrelevant.

[ related topics: Wireless Consumerism and advertising Embedded Devices ]

Charlene's reading a paper-craft site for some activities for the kids, and one of them has an "Option for mass-producing young children". There's a hyphen in there somewhere, but when she read it out loud I didn't hear it.

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

Thanks to prodding from Charlene and the Santa Rosa Woodcraft store, we now have a Festool Domino and a DeWalt 735 planer. I have no more excuses, the cabinets must get built...

[ related topics: Woodworking Festool ]

A couple of lenses scarfed from this MeFi thread: the Canon EOS 1200/5.6L USM that started the thread, a a Carl Zeiss 1700mm/F4 with a 6x6mm coverage area (more), the Nikkor 6mm/5.6 (fisheye, would have been totally amazing as a rectilinear...), and a Zeiss 50mm/0.7

[ related topics: Photography Cool Technology ]

Snicker: The real commercial for Windows Vista. On that line, we were unpacking some new toys last night, and on the instruction manual for one I noticed that the French word for "Warning" is "Avertissement". Yeah, sounds about right.

[ related topics: Humor Technology and Culture Microsoft Invention and Design Television ]

Lyn's del.icio.us/uncorked feed had TPM: Hillary Campaign Goes To War With MSNBC Over Chelsea "Pimp" Comment and Taylor Marsh: MSNBC's David Shuster: Chelsea 'Pimped Out' by Hillary:

In what world do we allow political pundits to attack a young woman proudly campaigning for her mother, a woman who is running for president, then let them get away with calling her mother a pimp and the daughter a hooker?

When I clicked through the first article I thought "oh, look, there's a political campaign going on", but when I read that second quote, I got pissed off. It's television and campaigning, so I certainly believe that an MSNBC employee could use inappropriate metaphors, and I think it's reasonable to call "mainstream journalism" on such idiocies.

However, that quote pissed me off for another reason: What are we saying when we allow "hooker" to be an insult? Or even "pimp"? A "hooker" is, presumably, a woman who exchanges sexual services for pay, as the line goes, "prostitution is a combination of sex and free enterprise, which of those are you opposed to?". And a pimp is someone who sells those services and provides some protection to the exchange.

Unlike, say, being a senator or a television pundit, neither of those require you to debase your morals and common decency for cash. Neither of those necessarily require lying as a function of the job. Sure, there are bad pimps, but are there any good television pundits? Precious few good senators, that's for sure.

As the old song goes, "...and the pig got up and slowly walked away". I'd really hope to see an outpouring from various sex workers outraged that their professions would be compared to a senator and a hedge fund manager.

So, yeah, David Shuster, shame on you for pandering to an audience that doesn't know any better, but what the hell, they're Republicans, we expect a certain level of knee-jerk ideology and lack of critical thinking, but shame on you too, Taylor Marsh, for your automatic misogyny.

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture moron Journalism and Media ]

Sentiment of the moment:

All that because I wanted to note that I got some "Wildlife print" band-aids at the dollar store a couple of weeks ago. Last night I put on a baby seal band-aid, and soon discovered that the drawback of having a cute baby seal on your band-aid is that it will shortly become a bloody baby seal.

Makes me feel better about getting the girls Barbie band-aids, though...

[ related topics: Children and growing up Humor ]

Bush was reported as "Rallying Republican Base around McCain" at the Conervative Public Action Conference:

The stakes in November are high. . . . Prosperity and peace are in the balance.

Yep. Prosperity and Peace are in the balance - maybe we'll get some after he's out of the office!

[ related topics: Politics Conferences ]

I was in REI today looking at bike parts. I've been planning to fix up my second-hand mountain bike to make it better for commuting but instead ended up tooling around parking lot on a Marin Muirwoods 29er. Compared to my early-90s era DiamondBack, this was a dream! Lighter chrome-oly frame, disc brakes, and huge 29" wheels. I started scanning the web and found the Marin Hamilton 29er - the same bike in fixed-gear (or free wheel) for $140 less. Neither bike is terribly expensive and the way I ride, I think I'd rather have the disc brakes...

Of course, I walked out of REI empty-handed. Still too much ice on the roads for my taste (not that it has stopped more die hard Boulderites). But I'm thinking that 29er is a better investment than upgrading my clunker.

[ related topics: Bay Area Bicycling Economics ]

I've been hanging out with Kat for a few days in Nashville and we saw Death and The Maiden last night at the Belcourt.

The production disturbed us, as we thought it would, with thoughts of retribution and how far we would go if we had the chance with those who've wronged us. On a larger scale, the program notes featured an article from the author, Ariel Dorfman, penned just 22 days after 9/11/01 in which he harkened back to Chile's 9/11/73 when Pinochet bombed the Presidential Palace to begin his coup. It shamed me that I somehow felt America "owned" tragedy on 9/11 and the day was blameless before 2001.

The excellent introspective conversation which followed was wonderful, but left me up early delving into more writings by Dorfman concerning America and the world's view of us:

Beware the plague of victimhood, America.



The finger I point at you, pointed back at my own self. I know that thrill, I have sweetly sucked it in, I have felt the surge of self-righteousness that comes from being unfairly hurt. Anything we do, justified. Any criticism against us, dismissed.



Beware the plague of fear and rage, America.



Nothing more dangerous: a giant who is afraid. Projecting power and terror so the demons within and without will not devour him, so the traumas of the past will not repeat themselves.



Beware the plague of amnesia, America.



Or have you forgotten Chile? Not just a name. Chile? Democratic Chile? Demonized, destabilised by your government in 1973? Chile? That country misruled for 17 years by a dictator you helped to install?



And other countries, other names. Iran, Nicaragua, the Congo, Indonesia, South Africa, Laos, Guatemala. Just names? Just footnotes in history books, your creatures?

continuing toward....

Where is that America of mine? Where is that other America? Where is the America of 'as I would not be a slave so would I not be a master', the America of this 'land is our land this land was meant for you and me', the America of all men, and all women, everyone of us on this ravaged, glorious earth of ours, all of us, created equal? Created equal: one baby in Afghanistan or Iraq as sacred as one baby in Minneapolis. Where is my America? The America that taught me tolerance of every race and every religion, that filled me with pioneer energy, that is generous to a fault when catastrophes strike?

Dorfman spares neither the love nor the disgust with America. A VERY interesting read for this good ol' boy.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Books History Theater & Plays Writing Dictators ]

The archives for the early days of Flutterby were by month, so I don't know when in February of 1998 I slapped the first few posts through the early scripts, but Flutterby as a weblog is a decade old. Wow, time flies.

[ related topics: Weblogs Archival ]

I did not know that February is National Awareness Month Awareness Month.

Still working through the details, but I've resigned from DigitalFish to pursue other projects. Love everybody at DigitalFish, love the product, but the amounts I've been offered for various other jobs have ratcheted up to the point where I just couldn't justify staying.

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

Video of an impact test of an F4 into a concrete barrier.

[ related topics: Movies Video ]

Many folks have mused on how virtual relationships have dramatically changed our reactions to things like death. What does it mean when, for instance, a semi-anonymous blogger whose writing we've enjoyed stops posting? Is that a virtual death, a real death, or will we ever know? Two reactions to deaths of members of online communities:

• The Short, Deadly Story of a Kid and his M5, kid shows up on performance driving forum, has interactions, some members express their concern that he's driving beyond abilities. Kid drives BMW off of an edge at over a hundred miles an hour, killing himself and four friends. Forum members make the connection.
• An active member over at LumberJocks dies, The Community Creates A Memorial, and more continuity on the memorial project, brought to prominence by today's entry on making the inlays on the frame for the stained glass piece.

[ related topics: Weblogs Automobiles Community Woodworking ]

The World's Best Places To Be An Immigrant:

In how many countries can you imagine a politician saying, "We are in a global race for talent and we must win our share," as New Zealand's then immigration minister did in 2005?

Via John Robb.

[ related topics: Politics ]

Overheard comments on relationships, in honor of Valentine's Day (as distinct from that other VD...). Many giggles:

-- "Yes, I told him I have a boyfriend and a girlfriend. I mean I live in San Francisco, don't I?" (Person on cell phone on Montgomery Street, overheard by N. Stricker.)

[ related topics: Humor Sexual Culture Bay Area California Culture ]

Over at the Festool Owner's Group, I asked some questions about cabinet construction, one of which revolved around trying to create doors that could be taken apart for re-finishing and regular maintenance in a decade or so. One of the commenters in that thread attributed to Marc Adams the observation that kitchen cabinets in the United States get replaced every 7.5 years. This in defense of using pocket screws in cabinets.

Of course my immediate response was that if you're using pocket screws in veneered MDF, then the average kitchen cabinet has to get replaced every 7.5 years. And since it appears that the kitchen in this house has survived for 60, the modern variation is probably a lot less than that.

Rafe ruminates on some related issues in Aesthetics In The Era of Disposables, or how beat up is becoming an "in" aesthetic in the age of shiny looking mass produced disposables.

[ related topics: Sociology Fabrication Real Estate Woodworking ]

Okay, lazy web: Anyone got an idea on estimating incremental costs of an overly large hot modern water heater? I've been fairly well convinced that a flash water heater isn't appropriate for us, but we need something larger than we've got, and I can't figure out if we go for the 50 gallon, or just spend the extra and get the 75 gallon.

Since the only thing that should impact operating cost difference is the external surface area and insulation quality, and surface area should only go up with the square root of the volume increase, is there any reason to not just go big?

The primary reason that I'm currently running Ubuntu rather than Xubuntu is that I like the Gnome wireless network manager. wicd aims to be a lightweight wired and wireless network manager with minimal dependencies. If it'll do the obvious things, give me a list of available networks and manage my WiFi passwords, I may switch back to Xubuntu.

[ related topics: Wireless broadband Linux ]

NYPD spreads fear and terror needlessly:

Undercover police secretly set up a fake company to demonstrate how easily and anonymously a terrorist could purchase chlorine on the Internet for a deadly chemical strike against the city.

And you know what? You can buy bleach and ammonia based cleaners anonymously! In every town in America! There's only one way to be safe: We need to track the ID of everyone buying cleaning products, and limit the amount of cleaning products they can buy per month, and...

Morons.

[ related topics: moron Consumerism and advertising Law Enforcement ]

Renovo Hardwood Bicycles: "wood is carbon fiber, naturally". Stunningly beautiful, and they're claiming 16-19.5 lbs with components. Via

[ related topics: Bicycling Woodworking ]

In the "wow, that came out o' left field" department, Lyn and Steve are expecting!

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

Dear Apple, I know y'all have a reputation as the gods of interface design, and I'm willing to forgive you the abomination that is Mail.app simply because it gives me so many laughs and snickers when people talk about the Macintosh aesthetic and how superior your designers are and why OS/X is better than Ubuntu, but let's talk for a moment about iChat: What doofus decided that "Send File..." should sit under the "Buddies" menu?

Giggle.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Humor Macintosh Graphic Design ]

I've mentioned that my libertarian leanings have been tempered of late, but I had it tossed back in my face a bit yesterday, and figured maybe I'd do a little musing on it. This MeFi thread points to a collection of un-sourced anecdotes called Mythbusting Canadian Health Care. I hear the argument, I've also known various Canadian doctors and nurses who've come down to the U.S. to practice, and the well-off Canadian politician who preaches the superiority of their system until they have something major go wrong and they have to sneak across the border to the U.S. is so common that it's cliché

So I don't want to talk about socialized medicine "single payer" health care. Instead it was the self-realization when I read "blenderfish" pointing out:

You are perfectly free to give your income that isn't taxed to people who need medical care, without the government's help. But that's not what you want; you want guys with guns to force me to pay, too.

Of course what follows is the usual "if you want no government you could move to Rwanda" canards. Blenderfish is right, of course, that's what taxes are, but the ensuing discussion got me to wondering when I stopped viewing removing violence from human interactions as a good thing? Heck, nowadays I'm almost a proponent of single payer health care, I acknowledge that the implementation of it is a matter of threatening violence, and like the kid who won't tell on his shoplifting buddies because he wants to fit in, preaching non-violence is no longer worth the struggle.

I guess that I've come around to see that threats against our neighbors is the natural order of things, and that it's a matter of compromising to build coalitions so that my side has the ability to kick the ass of your side, which, frankly, makes me sound more Neo-Con than Democrat, I just wish we'd get our rhetoric in-line with our actions so that our response to the idealistic youth isn't this patronizing "you'll temper your views when you grow up" bullshit. When you grow a little older you'll realize that you can't win alone, and you'll have to lie to build coalitions, and that's just the way it is.

So, Blenderfish, back when I was a teenager I airbrushed a T-shirt for my grandfather that said "Old age and treachery beat youth and skill, every time". It's true, and all that crap you were told as a child about peace and harmony is mostly a way to keep your youthful energy from being a threat. C'mon over to the dark side, it's the way of the world.

[ related topics: Nostalgia Children and growing up Interactive Drama Politics Libertarian Weblogs Health moron Community Guns Clothing ]

I hate lazy susans, but what else are you going to put in that corner cabinet? Lee Valley sells a "Blind Corner Unit", a set of shelves that slide out and rotate away so that the shelves in the corner can be slid out and accessible.

[ related topics: Woodworking Home Improvement ]

QOTD:

Said, by boyfriend dearest, about my Valentine's Day gift: "I got you something better than a fur coat. I got you Browncoats!"

[ related topics: Quotes Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Eric lays out a likely scenario in which the Democrats could lose this presidential election.

Many of you have probably noticed that the 5^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down a Texas law making it illegal to promote or sell "obscene devices", ie: dildos:

"Just as in Lawrence, the state here wants to use its laws to enforce a public moral code by restricting private intimate conduct," the appeals judges wrote. "The case is not about public sex. It is not about controlling commerce in sex. It is about controlling what people do in the privacy of their own homes because the state is morally opposed to a certain type of consensual private intimate conduct. This is an insufficient justification after Lawrence."

kendallmck says:

Holy fucking shit. I just realized that THIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD, IN 2008, AND WE'RE CELEBRATING THE LEGALIZATION OF MASTURBATION.

WTFFFFFFFFFFFF?????!!!!!

JanieBelle says:

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to have that orgy in Alabama or Mississippi. Sorry ladies, y’all will have to keep using your cell phones on vibrate… until they outlaw that function there, that is.

And apropos of nothing else, I giggled at Elf's response to some spam:

I received this spam today: Do you want your penis to be seven inches?

My first thought was, There's no way I'm cutting any more of it off. Circumcision was enough!

[ related topics: Humor Libertarian Privacy Sexual Culture Spam Law ]

Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream:

... Socioeconomically speaking, my story is a rebuttal to Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch, the books that spoke on the death of the American Dream. With investigative projects of her own, Ehrenreich attempted to establish that working stiffs are doomed to live in the same disgraceful conditions forever. I reject that theory, and my story is a search to evaluate if hard work and discipline provide any payoff whatsoever or if they are, as Ehrenreich suggests, futile pursuits.

Christian Science Monitor interview with author Adam Shepard, and the MeFi entry which linked to this, the resulting discussion thread making me think, especially in light of yesterday's musings, that maybe I should just stop reading discussion forums frequented by people with excuses and no ambition...

[ related topics: Books Theater & Plays Sociology Work, productivity and environment Economics ]

The current issue of Rolling Stone offers a cover story "Britney Spears - Inside an American Tragedy".

I haven't seen the article or its visuals.

[ related topics: Pop Culture ]

Study finds correlation between Evangelical Christianity and the location of "payday loan" operations. More over at consumerist's look at the study. Via.

[ related topics: Religion Sociology Economics ]

When I was in Austin, TX, last November, I was quite impressed at how bicycle-friendly the city was. Austin, like many tech/creative hubs, has dealt with insane rates of growth over the past two decades since I lived there in my teens. Add to that growth the fact that it's the Capitol city of a state known for oil and big trucks and you begin to understand my surprise!

Granted, Austin's Silver rating puts it below Boulder's gold. However, now that Lance Armstrong is settling in on a new career, Boulder might need to watch out!

[ related topics: Movies Invention and Design History Machinery Pedal Power Bicycling ]

The Locks O' Truth - or how realistic is shooting a lock to take it off anyway? (Via).

[ related topics: Guns ]

I wasn't motivated to go out and see the Tour of California blow by on its Sausalito to Santa Rosa stage yesterday, but I did pop up the race page to make sure we weren't going to get into the middle of it, and catched the dramatic break-away. J.J. Haedo won yesterday's stage, but Jackson Stewart pulled a breakaway for 61 miles of the 97 mile stage, at times holding a 15 minute lead.

The part I tuned in for he was out in the lead blasting north along Route 1, holding damned close to 30MPH. They claim he's not much of a climber (which is why he got caught on the Coleman Valley climb), but he must be an amazing time-trialer, and he must be looking to switch teams: That's a lousy strategy for winning a race, but if your coaching can put people in the right place in the pack it must be staggering to have someone like that pulling.

[ related topics: Bay Area Sports Bicycling Sausalito ]

Seems like linking to the National Home Gardening Club review page is a public service. Borklog reports hassles with their billing department.

[ related topics: Gardening ]

In much the same way that I was disappointed when I learned that "metrosexual" just referred to heterosexual consumerist gym rats rather than, for instance, bears, I'm disappointed that "foodie" has become synonymous with sycophants who couldn't distinguish Velveeta from sheep's milk gouda if it were presented by someone with enough celebrity.

[ related topics: Food ]

One thing bothers me about this report about formaldehyde levels in FEMA trailers for evacuees of New Orleans: Are the FEMA trailers special somehow, or is this just that all cheap abodes use cheap formaldehyde laden plywoods, particle boards and fiberboards, and we need to account for this on a grander scale? I want to know if perhaps this isn't a matter of FEMA incompetence, but rather a larger issue with potentially dangerous construction materials.

I bring this up because as we're planning various projects we're looking at materials, and we'll probably end up using a bunch of veneered plywood or MDF (probably plywood), and one of our considerations in buying these materials is going to be making sure that they're formaldehyde free. This will cost a premium, but I'm wondering what else I need to be on the lookout for...

[ related topics: Journalism and Media Fabrication Hurricane Katrina Real Estate ]

I could rip off this SE post wholesale, but instead I'll divvy it up into two sections. This one will address bookcases, specifically the Bookcase / stair combo pictured at the bottom of this post and repeated here. We've got 8½ foot ceilings, we're planning on built-ins, we don't want extra stuff to dust at the top, but getting to the upper shelves can be a challenge. In hindsight, the solution is obvious: Build the steps into the book cases.

[ related topics: Real Estate Woodworking ]

Also ripped off from this SE post, the Photography of Mona Kuhn, interesting nudes (of both genders). Mirrored at the M+B gallery.

[ related topics: Photography Erotic ]

Dirty Found:

We collect DIRTY FOUND stuff: pervy Polaroids, sleazy birthday cards, raunchy to-do lists, nasty poetry on napkins, illustrations--anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's sex life. It's just like our sister, FOUND Magazine, only sleazier.

I love finding things like notes on how to write various words in Japanese, kind of reminds me of the notes I was probably littering all over when I was working trough Mei Wah, but with a different focus...

[ related topics: Erotic Sociology ]

In light of my comments about being libertarian, and how everyone has a breaking point after which they're willing to use violence, Georgia is trying to annex just enough of Tennessee that they can suck water out of Nickajack Lake, rather than working towards a sustainable infrastructure that doesn't involve raping the natural resources of neighboring states. Atlanta: like L.A., but without the beaches.

(And, no, Resaca Beach doesn't count...)

[ related topics: Politics Libertarian Nature and environment Work, productivity and environment Chattanooga Archival ]

While I'm sure I'll still be doing a lot of coding from home, It's time GeekLabs grows up, mostly because of UtiliFlex, which is evolving into more of a complete customer service and billing system for utilities using "smart meters". We've rented out Suite 243 and 241 of 535 Chestnut Street (the old "IBM Building") and have the adjacent data center room, which already has racks and fiber from previous tenants. My other big client/project: NextKnowledge is on the first floor, so it'll make it easier to take care of them as well. We'll be moving in the end of March, if you are in the 'hood, stop by and visit.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Software Engineering ]

First thing to come out of the new shop is a replacement for the slide-out cutting board for the kitchen. It's not terribly flat, has all sorts of flaws, and my cursing over that was what prompted Charlene to say "we need to buy a planer". First project with the router table I built probably a year ago, and first time I've made a breadboard edge, it's pinned with those dowels.

A big storm came through this weekend, we're still not sure about the source of one leak in a wall, so I tore out some plasterboard and I need to run over to pull a permit for rewiring the bedrooms while I've got holes in the wall, but I also spent some time getting our cheap ShopFox dovetail jig working. Replaced the cheap knobs with set screws, spent a bunch of time twiddling stops and bit heights.

Sunday evening, Charlene wasn't feeling like woodworking, so we didn't start on the bathroom vanity, but I felt like making some sawdust, so I started building a chair, just to give me some experience playing with ridiculous joints and the Domino. Wow, what an amazing tool. Normally I try to maintain a setup, no more so than, for instance, that dovetail jig, with the Domino it was trivial to set up for a 7.5° face, and for different depths, easy enough that I didn't worry about keeping a setup. Pictures coming as I get further on the chair.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Fabrication Furniture Woodworking Festool ]

I'm well down the Canon route, and unlikely to pursue too much more gear that direction in the foreseeable future, so I put this up not for its potential value to those choosing camera equipment, but because one of the things that annoys me most about Apple's design aesthetic, and one of the things that people seem to want to emulate and I really wish they wouldn't, is the idea of getting rid of buttons. Philip Greenspun's travelogue on flying from Boston to the Bahamas in a Cirrus R22 includes this observation:

Played with Ellis's Nikon D3. The interface seems more functional than on the Canon digital SLRs. There are more dedicated buttons and switches, e.g., to change autofocus mode you turn a switch on the Nikon whereas on the Canon you would press a button, look at the LCD display, and turn a multifunction dial.

Yeah, that's a lot of why extended playing with the iPhone turned me off, and a part of why I don't like the Apple laptops. Give me devices I can use with partial attention, or without engaging more of my sensory system than strictly necessary, and I'll be way happier.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Photography Aviation Graphic Design iPhone ]

Diebold leaks election results early by accident. - Absolutely hilarious. It it satire or not?

[ related topics: Video ]

Remember the '80s? Everyone, everywhere, spoke English. The dunes of Monterey and a few fake moustaches on actors were a passable substitute for Hungary(!?), before the Leatherman and its ilk when Swiss Army Knives were cool, and a buff good looking guy being particularly nice to children wasn't creepy? MacGyver, Season 1, on the web, in all its cheesey bad plot glory, but we loved it because he got out of his jams with sciencethinking! Of course that all went to hell sometime after the first season, but you take your minor victories in, what are, in retrospect, really bad, TV shows where you can.

Also Star Trek, Twilight Zone, Hawaii Five-O, and... uh... Melrose Place.

[ related topics: Star Trek Television ]

So, let me see if I've got this straight: Mr. campaign finance "reform" himself, John McCain was running short on cash, so he went to the bank, said "if we lose in the next few primaries, we'll sign up for Federal matching funds to pay you back", of course if they won there'd be plenty of cash to pay back the banks.

So the question now is: legally, did John McCain pledge those funds, in which case he's got just $4M to spend between now and September, or didn't he, in which case he didn't opt-in to the campaign spending limits that would come with those funds?

In any event, the McCain campaign argues that The FEC, lacking a quorum, cannot deny its application to withdraw from the campaign. Mason's position, which seems sounder as a matter of law under 437c(c), is that without a quorum, they cannot authorize McCain to withdraw. McCain is now waiving around his constitutional rights to withdraw from the plan, which is a bit sketchy given his prior statement that, "I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected." One can obviously waive constitutional rights, and the question is whether or not McCain did so by entering a contract with the FEC to limit his spending. So McCain's assertion merely begs the real question: has he waived his constitutional right to unlimited funding?

So this whole thing appears to rest right now on some brinksmanship Senator Obama was playing earlier that, if I understand it right, has left the FEC one person short. Ain't politics fun?

[ related topics: Politics moron Law ]

Mark Hershberger on why page load time still matters (and an update on his travels in Rwanda).

[ related topics: Web development Travel ]

William F. Buckley Jr. dead at 82. And now "conservative" is represented by the likes of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck. Sigh. Elf has a good rant on the idiocy of that last one.

[ related topics: Politics ]

Closing some browser tabs:

• Tara Calishain on using Google's really simple maps API for generating static maps.
• Ken Kifer's Bike Pages, including the bicycle camping and touring pages. Charlene and I are trying to set up a way to take a week this summer and explore Sonoma County on the tandem, carrying camping gear and doing it just like we'd do a cross country trip, only 20-30 miles a day.
• An extremely positive review of the Interphone BlueTooth Intercom system, because we're still looking for a system that'll let us have a conversation at speed on the tandem, and these folks may have solved it for the 80MPH case, not just the 25MPH case.
• My Dad pointed me to the Weem s Creek Solutions Power Monitors page, including the Kill A Watt power monitor for $22. I need to adjust the contrast on the display of our BlueLine PowerCost monitor that does the whole house, 'cause after the move the display takes a really strange angle and some guessing to read, but something that works on individual devices rather than the whole house at a time would be very cool.
• And we thought we'd talked ourselves out of a "flash" hot water heater, but the Takagi Tankless water heaters appear to actually have useful specs, I think their claimed temperature rise is sufficient for our climate, and they actually have some decent throughput. It kind of concerns me that the prices I'm seeing on them aren't as much of a premium as I'd expected over a sufficiently sized tank heater, so I'll dig further, but it sure would be nice to have a smaller form-factor heater rather than have to rework for a larger one, and we really do use our hot water in two bursts (morning showers, and evening dish-washing and relaxing baths) rather than continuously.

[ related topics: Travel Cool Technology Maps and Mapping Bicycling Bicycling - Tandem Energy Monitoring ]

Bacon weave.

[ related topics: Food Food - Bacon ]

http://gravity.phy.umassd.edu/ps3.html - Claims a PS3 is worth 25 IBM Blue Gene Nodes because of the Cell processor, and has a 16 PS3 Cluster working on gravity math. - All beyond my understanding except the cost savings involved and how efficient the cell processor must be at the types of math he is doing.

Makes me wonder how good of a LAMP server one would make?

[ related topics: Bioinformatics Work, productivity and environment Mathematics ]

At the Atmel training for the UC3. Among the coolness I didn't realize, they've got a FAT filesystem for this chip, and enough other cool little utility drivers that I don't need to run Linux on its bigger brother.

[ related topics: Hardware Hackery Open Source Embedded Devices ]

Jerry Work has some gorgeous construction photos from a round conference table he just did. He seems to be avoiding hot-linking, and once I figured out his URL scheme... well... I concur. Click on "tutorials" up there in the top bar, it's worth it.

[ related topics: Fabrication Furniture Woodworking ]

Yesterday, as I was in a workshop, struggling to get Vista on my computer to run the workshop software, if I thought I could have run to a local office supply store and bought a laptop with XP loaded on it, I would have. This was my first major run-in with Vista, and it was a doozy, in the worst possible venue.

The good news is that the vendor expects to ship their Linux version before they iron out the Vista install issues.

[ related topics: Free Software Microsoft Open Source Software Engineering moron ]

Bacon cups! And, by the way, you can now browse all of the Food - Bacon entries on Flutterby.

[ related topics: Food Food - Bacon ]

The Daily Mail on Oscar Winner Tilda Swinton coming out with her unconventional relationships.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Movies ]