Flutterby™! From 2009-07-01 to 2009-07-31

Fine Woodworking has embedded YouTube link (Direct link) of SawStop inventor Steve Gass sticking his finger into one of his tablesaws, taken from Discovery Channel's Time Warp series.

[ related topics: Technology and Culture Television Embedded Devices Woodworking ]

I have an idea for the evolution of a few scripts and applications that I've been playing with that I think could turn into something larger. I've started doing a little playing around with a browser app, and realized that I need a little bit of structure.

So, a couple of questions:

1. This app needs to run in a browser, needs to be quick and responsive, and needs to communicate the changes to the document that the user makes back to the server and confirm that those changes got made in a robust way. I could re-invent a bunch of wheels, but I have the feeling that people have already tried to build JavaScript frameworks for this. Anyone got experience with jQuery, Prototype.js, or something else they'd recommend?
2. I'm planning on using Perl with Apache and mod_perl for the server, just because it'll let me build and deploy fast. Any particular "gotcha"s in architecting something that talks to a JavaScript browser app?
3. What's the best set of docs for mapping APIs? Google Maps has a lot of bad info and dead ends in their documentation, but at least there's public discussion and lots of development happening. OpenLayers has a lot to recommend it, but their documentation doesn't even mention some of the types of events that I think are critical (ways to get interaction events out of the map to code in the surrounding web page).

And, yes, the flaws in the KML from last weekend's road trip (pan south to the stuff in Monterey) is what's driving this.

[ related topics: Free Software Perl Open Source Travel Maps and Mapping ]

Hey, Petalumans, there's a gathering at Aqus next Tuesday, 7/7 at 7. Come meet the meat behind other online personas.

Light Lane: Bring Your Own Lane for bicyling at night. Brilliant idea. Illuminating application. I'd put one on my recumbant.

Vanity Fair: Trouble in Paradise. Interesting article on the sexual culture that evolved on Pitcairn Island, where the "Mutiny on the Bounty" descendants landed, and how that's conflicting with British sexual culture. No answers, but the start of some questions.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Sociology ]

Louis Rosenfeld: Shame and disgust, on contracting for the VA hospital system and asking one's-self ethical questions:

Nope. What they told me was that they didn't really want to make it easy for veterans—those people risking their lives for their country—to learn about the health benefits that they were entitled to. And that taxpayers had committed to funding. All to save money—and for what??

Hat tip to Hanan Cohen.

[ related topics: Politics Ethics ]

Your disaster speculation for the day: Seed Magazine: The Extinction Oscillator.

... It turns out that the biodiversity minima of the 62-million- year cycle happens when the Sun is “bobbed up” on only one side of the galaxy, when the solar system is on the disk’s upper, “north” side. ...

[ related topics: Nature and environment Astronomy ]

Why comprensive sex education is a good idea: 16 year old Torrington Connecticut girl mistakes sounds of sex for assault, rounds up friends who go beat up her mother's lover.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sexual Culture Education ]

Hunter S. Thompson motivational posters (Via SE).

[ related topics: Drugs Humor ]

Frank Paynter abandons Twitter, following Bill Meloney: I’m going back to IRC … See you there. I'm not quite ready to give up on Twitter, and IRC has its own shortcomings, but the points are all valid.

A MetaFilter entry reads

A five meters long 1/72 scale model of the USS Enterprise is looking for a new home

Basically, the guy who built it is moving into a retirement home and is looking for a museum or some such that'll take it. Seems like a message that needs to get spread pretty far.

[ related topics: Art & Culture ]

For some reason, comments are turned off in Dan's original post about Michael Jackson... So I'll just comment out here in the open. It took me a few days to figure out why Dan's comment bothered me.

It must be nice to have lived such a privileged childhood to have avoided African-American culture in the 70s and early 80s to not have recognized who Michael Jackson was. And it must be nice to continue such a privileged existence not to understand the significance of what Michael Jackson achieved. Now that we have a person of African descent in the Whitehouse, it's easy to dismiss the gains made by other black Americans.

Michael Jackson achieved a level of fame and fortune largely denied African Americans. He did so by creating music that crossed racial boundaries. He also used his wealth to purchase the Apple Records catalog. Think about what that might mean to African Americans - that this young black guy can own the creative output of some of the most heralded white performers.

It's also easy to vilify the man. It's hard to imagine what his world was like - growing up performing under an abusive father. He, likely, was always trying to recover his childhood that was sacrificed to his own success. Maybe, in that sense, Michael Jackson and Dan have something in common - unusual childhoods. Dan's childhood perpetuates a sense of privilege. Michael Jackson's childhood perpetuated a need to find, perhaps, the chance at innocence that Dan experienced.

Maybe Dan should do some due diligence and try to answer his question himself: "Who the Hell is Michael Jackson?"

[ related topics: Children and growing up Music Dan's Life Sociology Race Archival ]

Ever since hearing Barack Obama say "there are white folks, and then there are dumb motherfuckers like you", I've wanted to listen to Dreams from My Father. We drove down to Fresno this weekend, so on Friday I went looking for a version I could download on to my MP3 player.

All the web searches led to various domain names which were all spammer resellers for Audible.com. I've avoided downloading crap from Audible, but the pages promised me MP3, so I went through with the purchase, which then told me I needed to download and install their download manager. Did that, which did a long download (for which I had to decide up-front which device it was for), and then told me my MP3 player was incompatible.

Left an irate feedback on customer service, got a call back shortly, in which the nice man walked me through how to get it working (involved using IE and a sequence of unplugs and replugs) and waited for the download to complete, but...

Is there an alternative to Audible.com that just gives me straight MP3 downloads without any lousy-ass buggy iTunes clone (well, of course its buggy, that's part of what makes it an iTunes clone)? I'd like more spoken word audio for long car trips, but I don't like paying extra for all the annoying DRM crap.

[ related topics: Music ]

In the Federal Government, we don't all work with asses. But if you really want to, here's a good paying opportunity.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Government ]

NCBI ROFL, hilarious scientific papers in blog form.

[ related topics: Cool Science ]

Wendy Kaminer in The Atlantic: Child porn, animal cruelty porn and the right to examine.

At least one federal judge was deeply troubled by this case. Dissenting from the 4th circuit's refusal to re-hear Whorley's appeal, Judge Gregory encouraged him to seek Supreme Court review: "The (Court's) obscenity jurisprudence has never come close to stripping adults of First Amendment protections for their purely private fantasies, and the implications of our sanctioning this governmental intrusion into individual freedom of thought are incredibly worrisome," Gregory wrote.

[ related topics: Privacy Sexual Culture Law Civil Liberties Government ]

Scott Rosenberg has a little bit of commentary on the Washington Post's recent "pay to play" scandal putting the final bullet in the head of credibility of conventional "journalism".

[ related topics: Journalism and Media ]

MarkV had a link to scanwidget: Using an AVR as an RFID tag. Neat hack that takes advantage of the clamping diodes on the I/O pins on the ATtiny85 to provide both power and a 125Khz clock via the coil.

[ related topics: Hardware Hackery RFID ]

Sorry. Somebody's gotta do this and Flutterby happens to be the biggest soap box I can stand on:

"I want to work, right now, for people who are going to work in office or out of office for the right things. Those principles that built up America, those who are inspired by the values of America, and will not deride or apologize for the values we hold as Americans. I’m gonna work for those people.” - Sarah Palin

So, Sarah, you're saying categorically that Alaskans, the people whom you worked for and just quit, aren't "those people"?

"It's out of the box and unconventional. That's what we are as Alaskans and certainly how I am as a public servant." - Sarah Palin

Umm, Sarah? You aren't a public servant anymore. You just quit!

"People losing their jobs or their homes right now, they have it a heck of a lot tougher than I do taking political shots." - Sarah Palin

But Sarah... In the toughest economy since the depression, you just quit your job! You also just caused yourself to be evicted from the Alaska Governor's Mansion (or is that Igloo?). And you didn't just quit your job - you quit on those people losing their jobs and homes that you speak of. They elected you to lead them - and you quit on them! Sure must be nice to feel like you can quit your job when the going gets tough - especially when it's even tougher for everyone else.

"Team Sarah members anxiously await Palin's next decision on how she believes she can best serve our nation. Since the 2008 election, the continual presence of personal attacks on both Governor Palin and her family indicate that she remains a threat to the liberal feminist political establishment," the group's co-founder, Jane Abraham, said in a statement. "Despite criticism, Governor Palin's success will endure. Team Sarah's thousands of members remain as engaged as ever on TeamSarah.org. The Governor has inspired millions, and her audience of enthusiastic support will only grow in the future."

Ah... Now I understand. That's for clearing that up, Jane Abraham. This isn't about what's best for Alaska - this is about Team Sarah. And by the way, that's ex-Governor Palin to you.

I sure am glad I don't live in Alaska. I'd have a hard time not being royally pissed that this woman just up and quit in the middle of her job. A lot of faith was put in her by the Alaskan people. She was relatively inexperienced when she was elected. She made some silly decisions. But she also brought a lot of great attention to the state. But now she's just a quitter. Tricky Dick claimed "I am not a quitter." A claim that Sarah defining can't make.

Quotes borrowed from Boston.com.

[ related topics: Quotes Politics moron Current Events Economics Alaska ]

Dave credits it to us, but I don't see mention of this here: A group at Carnegie Mellon says that guessing Social Security numbers is easy. Here's a MeFi entry, and the paper itself.

Of course the real idiocy is using the Social Security Number as an access mechanism to any sort of data in the first place. Its an identifier that's shared with enough people that there's no way it can remain secret.

Brilliant giggles: Fancy Fast Food, fast food cut up and served with presentation in mind.

[ related topics: Humor Food ]

I just got the call to drive SAG (Support And Gear) for the Sunrise Century again this year. Last year was eventful as a cyclist not involved in the race was killed on the course. This year may prove even more eventful as people in the mountain communities have planned a protest against the new pro-cycling laws in Colorado. The intent is to blockade the leg of the route between US-36 and Jamestown on Left Hand Canyon Road. My afternoon route, last year, followed US-36 from Left Hand Canyon to the race end (including the intersection where the guy was killed).

[ related topics: Current Events Civil Liberties Sports Community Pedal Power Bicycling Government ]

Okay, LazyWeb: The Flutterby CMS knows some stuff about HTML and jumps through hoops to prevent users from entering malicious HTML. It's probably not perfect, but through the years I've seen exploits in various other web sites and thought "wow, I can't believe they left that in."

I'm playing with a new web site, and am wondering what the current mainstream mechanisms are for filtering user input HTML to control the potential for exploits or bad HTML.

[ related topics: Content Management Invention and Design ]

Snicker. Just got this press release from BSG PR (a porn PR agency): Mobile Adult Film Studio Takes Blame for Overheating iPhone Problem.

Busick cited a specific scene added to the site recently as the most likely source of the scorching heat being reported by iPhone users.

More serious look at iPhone 3GS overheating at Wired.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Archival iPhone ]

Gang of retirees accused of kidnapping and torturing financial advisor who lost €2m of their savings:

The pensioners, nicknamed the "Geritol Gang" by police after an arthritis drug, face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty of subjecting German-American James Amburn to the alleged four-day ordeal.

Via John Robb.

[ related topics: Current Events Law Enforcement Economics ]

According to what might be a scanned copy of the mysterious NCEE Report - There is global cooling going on rather than warming. WTF?!?

"Proposed NCEE Comments on Draft Technical Support Document for Endangerment Analysis for Greehouse Gas Emissions under the Clear Air Act" is a 90+ page PDF that I got emailed that is supposed authentic, and that people have been fired for it and contradicting the "global warming" meme.

[ related topics: Global Warming ]

My neighbor just put his house plant on Twitter. He used an Arduino and various sensors. He's working on a page with the details and code.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Real Estate ]

Just did my ethics training for my appointment to the Technology & Telecommunications Advisory Committee. I wish I'd had a chance to read this before I'd tossed my name into the hat, it will have an impact on what discussions I can have with other committee members on issues of data access, and if any other members of the committee become interested in these issues we're going to have disclosure issues.

I also now need to track any gifts I get, to make sure that I comply with the appropriate reporting guidelines, and "...state law also prohibits public officials from trading votes with one another". That latter one has to be very spottily enforced...

And, an interesting note: because I'm in an appointed post, if I choose to run for elected office, I have to report campaign contributions more stringently than if I already held an elected office.

There are also interesting rules on transportation gifts, which make me think I need to talk with the city attorney's office regarding how I account for who drives when we share a car on hiking trips.

[ related topics: Ethics ]

A recent revelation from GS is that they have been responsible for 25% of all stock trades using a super duper program that trades at high speed on all exchanges.

The programmer who was making $400k quit over pay probably, and went to Chicago for $1.2 mil per year and was arrested by the FBI for his efforts. Luckily he believed in version control so now we can all manipulate the markets.

Goldman, in court, said they were concerned that the program could be used unfairly. Recently Goldman announced record earnings.

[ related topics: Software Engineering Law Law Enforcement Economics ]

Transit and Trails, camping and hiking accessible from public transit. Right now looks like all Bay Area, but could be a really cool addition to vacation options; if we knew we could get to the outdoors without renting a car...

[ related topics: Nature and environment Bay Area Public Transportation ]

So Charlene and I have got our iPhones synced to Google Calendar. I set up my calendar first, then created hers, added my calendar into hers, then hers into mine. Go to hers or mine online, get both of our events.

However, on the iPhone, she gets both events, I only get my events. Anyone got a clue?

[ related topics: iPhone ]

Shadow forwarded along this Wired blurb on a pump rechargeable bicycle air horn called the "Eco Blast" which looks like a re-branding or copy of the AirZound, which I cannot believe I haven't mentioned on Flutterby before.

Oh, wait, here we go: the EcoBlast is the hand-held version of the AirZound.

[ related topics: Bicycling ]

The headline says that Britain's National Health Service "recommends pupils have 'an orgasm a day' to reduce risk of heart attack and stroke":

Under the heading 'an orgasm a day keeps the doctor away', the leaflet says: 'Health promotion experts advocate five portions of fruit and veg a day and 30 minutes physical activity three times a week. What about sex or masturbation twice a week?'

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Health Current Events ]

The internet has taken its toll on my research skills. Anyone got ideas on how to track down the "Journal of Naturopathic Medicine 5(1):74-76, 1994"?

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

Well this is interesting... California Assembly Bill 1506, latest amendment:

This bill would require a state agency to accept, from any person or entity, a registered warrant or other similar evidence of indebtedness issued by the Controller endorsed by that payee, at full face value, for the payment of any obligations owed by that payee to that state agency.

Brought to my attention by John Robb. I believe that they're currently selling at a discount, if I could find a broker on that front that I'd trust I'd buy them to, say, pay my quarterlies with...

Of course there's that pesky U.S. Constitution:

Section 10. No state shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility.

[ related topics: Law California Culture Currency ]

Dear Microsoft,

While My Phone sounds like a wonderful way to have my data safe and available, please understand my reticence when the Vista64 machine charging my phone "bleats" when I plug the USB cable in, but Windows Mobile Device Center, which synced dutifully Monday, now refuses to acknowledge the phone exists, much less sync.

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft Bay Area moron ]

Two stolen from crasch's latest entry:

• A SomethingAwful forum entry on building a 4'x4' CNC router, based on the plans from Joe's CNC.
• A short Packard Forest Products page on bendy ply/wiggle wood that reminds me I've got options for the built-ins in the office...

[ related topics: Woodworking ]

Cory Silverberg: Examining the Effects of Child Pornography looks at Endrass, J., Urbaniok, F., Hammermeister, L.C., et. al. “The consumption of Internet Child Pornography and Violent and Sex Offending” BMC Psychiatry (in press). I haven't looked at the paper, but Cory's article and the comments are worth a perusal.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Law ]

http://www.HowToUseTwitterForMarketingAndPR.com/

Interesting read: David S. Bernstein writes in The Boston Phoenix about Sarah Palin's future: ™, Inc. and ways she can leverage her brand into money. Via Columbine, who quotes a bit of it.

[ related topics: Politics Current Events Economics ]

For the 40th anniversary of the moon landings: Q&A prepared by Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins. Sounds like a worthy old curmudgeon:

Heroes abound, and should be revered as such, but don't count astronauts among them. We work very hard; we did our jobs to near perfection, but that was what we had hired on to do. In no way did we meet the criterion of the Congressional Medal of Honor: 'above and beyond the call of duty.'

Via More Like This.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Astronomy Work, productivity and environment ]

Dustin Curtis: You should follow me on twitter, experiments in how link text changes click through rates.

[ related topics: Web development Net Culture ]

Philip Greenspun has some commentary on California's current fiscal crisis, and mentions this page which claims that, adjusted for inflation:

In 2008 the total California budget was 3.54 times higher than it was in 1970.

[ related topics: California Culture Economics ]

I figured "what the hell, it's free!", so I downloaded the Kindle iPhone app, just in case, then Shawn mentioned that Amazon was giving away one of Robin Hobb's books in Kindle form, so I tried it out. The Kindle app gets a lot of iPhone touches right, their page flip mechanism means it's actually possible to read one handed (stop that!), they have an option to lock rotation so you can read lying on your side, the font works well and is readable...

But... but... Amazon has just unpublished a couple of books. Apparently the copyright owner backed out of the deal, so Amazon deleted them from people's devices and refunded the money. Which... well... should make us all more aware of what we're giving up when we think we're getting a deal.

[ related topics: Books Law Typography Graphic Design Currency Copyright/Trademark Birds iPhone ]

I generally buy the coffee that I home brew from Petaluma Coffee & Tea Company. I've heard that coffee is best within a week or so of roasting, and they move enough product and keep a low enough inventory that I figure I'm getting the freshest coffee I can. And, so far, I haven't been disappointed.

A friend of mine got a hot air roaster and has been experimenting with it. Not to be left out, yesterday around lunch-time, I went down to Petaluma Coffee & Tea Company, bought a pound of raw Sumatra Mandheling beans (at their suggestion), took the popcorn popper out to the driveway, and tried roasting my own.

First thing I noticed was that our popcorn popper wasn't getting a reasonable recirculation, right off the bat I was getting some char marks on the beans stuck down by the heaters, so I stirred continuously with a wooden spoon. After a few minutes of that the beans started cracking, what I believe they call "first crack". I was looking for a light roast, so after a minute or so of vigorous cracking (there's supposed to be a decent interval and different sound between "first crack" and "second crack", I'll probably do a dark batch to check) I deemed them done, poured them out on to a tray, and shook them to cool them. Did a second batch similarly and mixed both batches.

Color isn't uniformly dark, which means most commercial roasters would probably say I pulled them too early. Tasted a bean, it was moderately acidic but had a lot of other good flavors going for it. Despite the warnings about waiting, brewed me a cup, which frothed amazingly (I brew with a drip filter holder that sits over the cup), and it was still acidic but had a wonderful nose.

This morning the acidity is toned down, the frothing is lower, and the scent is wonderfully light. I don't know if I'm going to roast my own all the time, but it's not that big a hassle, and its reminding me that dark roasts are... well... I'm less and less a Peet's fan.

[ related topics: Coffee ]

The government is only trying to do whats best for us financially, even if we don't know what that should be.

All this irresponsible talk of recession only makes it more likely. Do your bit for the economy by only reading the news through this web browser, which blacks out unwelcome words.

Lets have the internet block bad words - like 'risk' etc.

Or flutterby with only good words

[ related topics: Interactive Drama moron Current Events Net Culture Economics ]

Tegucigalpa -- The National Direction of Criminal Investigation confiscated computers in the Presidential House in which were registered the supposed results of the referendum on the reform of the Constitution that was planned by former President Manuel Zelaya on last June 28, the day that he was ousted.

Makes one wonder who the people are that actually load the data - do they never surface?

[ related topics: Law Civil Liberties Real Estate ]

Typically, Boulder cyclists have to watch out for hazards such as bears. Evidently out Dan's way, it's the non-stationary trees that are the problem.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Current Events California Culture Bicycling ]

From the Times of London, the story of a a self-made millionaire in Philadelphia who has been discovered to an ex-IRA terrorist. He ends up facing conviction on immigration charges, tax fraud, illegal weapons purchases and impersonating a Texan. Then his son is convicted of accidently shooting a friend, and his daughter may be jailed for killing her grandmother while driving drunk. I think Euripides had nothing on this guy.

[ related topics: Current Events Guns Immigration ]

Charlene has been working to coordinate support for a friend who's in the hospital awaiting an organ transplant. This weekend we were in the ICU at the hospital joking with the nurse about getting more people to ride Muni so we'd get a bigger donor pool...

(And as I noted on my FaceTwit.ca stream, I see the signs to "admitting" and I envision either a cinderblock walled room with a single bare lightbulb and a cop saying "we can do this the easy way, or...", or something involving "bless me Father, for I...")

So it is with that sort of dark fatalism that I present the most recent PartiallyClips, "Surgical Team", on the joys of exploratory surgery.

[ related topics: Health Work, productivity and environment Public Transportation ]

Kendall, Todd: Pornography, Rape, and the Internet, Clemson University Law & Economics Seminar, 2006

The arrival of the internet caused a large decline in both the pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs of accessing pornography. Using state-level panel data from 1998-2003, I find that the arrival of the internet was associated with a reduction in rape incidence. However, growth in internet usage had no apparent effect on other crimes. Moreover, when I disaggregate the rape data by offender age, I find that the effect of the internet on rape is concentrated among those for whom the internet-induced fall in the non-pecuniary price of pornography was the largest – men ages 15-19, who typically live with their parents. These results, which suggest that pornography and rape are substitutes, are in contrast with most previous literature. However, earlier population-level studies do not control adequately for many omitted variables, including the age distribution of the population, and most laboratory studies simply do not allow for potential substitutability between pornography and rape.

Via Elf Sternberg.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Economics ]

Johannes Ernst recommended Tom DeMarco's article in the July/August 2009 IEEE Software: Software Engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone?

... This leads us to the odd conclusion that strict control is something that matters a lot on relatively useless projects and much less on useful projects. It suggests that the more you focus on control, the more likely you’re working on a project that’s striving to deliver something of relatively minor value.

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

Weekend before last, Zack brought over a PAiA Theremax theremin that needed some debugging. We diddled about with it 'til the early hours of the morning, got the pitch portion of the circuit tuned, were befuddled by the volume portion, but I realized that when I'm not working on the projects I'm getting paid for, where I can basically say "it's not working" and make it someone else's problem, it'd do me good to build a few things that are more complex than tying a microcontroller to another easily controlled component and get the scope on them.

This morning, Radix forwarded the Cylon-O-Lantern, a carved pumpkin with a circuit to do the "Cylon eye" effect built out of components (rather than throwing a microcontroller at it). Seems like it might be worth soldering that together out of the parts bin just to remember how a 555 works...

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Embedded Devices ]

Quoting Debra Hyde: "Thank you, Barney Rosset.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture ]

Before the inevitable dog-pile occurs, I just want to say that I sympathize with Sarah Palin: An independent investigator rules that Sarah Palin may have violated ethics laws when she sought money for lawyer's fees. I just took the California ethics law training, and there's a lot of ins and outs and loopholes and niggly crap that makes being an elected or appointed public official and dealing with ethics laws a royal pain in the ass and a total minefield.

So I may not agree with her on much or think highly of her in general, but I've got no beef here.

[ related topics: Ethics Law California Culture Government ]

Wataru Ito has built a city crafted of paper. I don't think it's strictly "origami", because he used glue, a knife and a whole punch, but it sure is spectacular. It's worth stepping through the slideshow. He says he plans to burn it, then play the video backwards. I'd like to see that.

[ related topics: Sociology Current Events California Culture Video ]

Apparently Bev Vincent writes like a girl. On gender bias in editing fiction. Well worth a read.

One of the hardest parts about talking about alternative health care is trying to sort out the actual useful and proven bits of conventional health care from the misinformation and shysterism that pervades health suggestions. The New York Times has a good little article on how most cancer screening is actually counter-productive.

[ related topics: Politics Health Consumerism and advertising ]

From Gizmodo, the latest thing to do with your cellphone. This one, however, involves some hardware.

[ related topics: Bioinformatics Cool Technology ]

Dori: A Typical "Women In Tech" Panel.

Unfortunately, if you replaced those names and pictures with male ones you'd have a typical tech panel, seems like its often the airheads on stage.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Photography ]

Why didn't this get more play? Using the iPhone 3.0 geolocation javascript API.

[ related topics: iPhone ]

You all know that I'm the first to jump on posters on Flutterby for being privileged. But sometimes privilege doesn't always follow racial boundaries the way we expect. Even if you're the director of Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research and close personal friend of President Obama, when you try to break into your house because you locked yourself out, loudly accusing the cop who shows up of racial profiling is a bad idea. Even worse when that cop is accompanied by a black officer. Worse still when that cop trains other cops on how to avoid racial profiling.

I really feel bad for this cop being called out by Obama. From the beginning, it sounded like he was just doing his job and that Gates was acting belligerent. In the photo, it looks pretty clear that Gates was yelling at Crowley was trying to calm him down.

[ related topics: Journalism and Media Law Enforcement Education Race ]

Five healthy male volunteers in their 20s were placed bare-chested in front of the cameras in complete darkness in light-tight rooms for 20 minutes every three hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for three days.

I thought this only happened near nuclear power plants... if they used topless girls instead I'll bet they would have had better results.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Photography Health moron Current Events Gardening ]

CNN republication of an Oprah magazine article on women buying porn:

Theresa Flynt, vice president of marketing for Hustler video, says that women account for 56 percent of business at her company's video stores. ...

In other less progressive news, EA puts sexual bounty on its own booth babes at Comic Con. Sigh.

[ related topics: Games Sexual Culture Current Events Consumerism and advertising Marketing ]

Yesterday I finally got underneath the house to do the rework to the sump pump that several contractors who've been under there have told me needed to be done. The quotes have generally been about $400, and, indeed, it was about 4 hours worth of labor, but as I dug down through the current sump I discovered that it was exactly what they'd claimed they were going to replace it with: the sump bucket was set on bricks and in gravel and everything looked hunky dory. But I replaced it with a two layer, more gravel setup, so it should be even better.

Also laid down a vapor barrier and started setting in floor insulation. Hopefully I'll finish that this week, though I need to get a good positive pressure full-face respirator for working with that fiberglass.

In that news, Radix forwarded along Adrian Cockcroft's notes on his home solar power installation.

[ related topics: Real Estate Photovoltaics ]

SFGate has two on a theme: U.S. Citizens wrongly detained, deported by ICE:

"I don't carry my birth certificate around with me and I bet you don't," NYU's Morawetz said. "ICE ought to know the law. Individuals might not, but the government is supposed to. They're the experts."

And U.S. citizens tell of ICE lockup, deportations, including the tale of a Brooklyn-born man who was detained in Houston:

"The deputy told me I had a foreign accent," Parrish recalled. "I told him I had an East Coast accent. He said, 'It sounds like a foreign accent to me.' "

Doesn't that just reinforce every negative stereotype of Texas you've got?

[ related topics: moron ]

Went up to Woodcraft in Santa Rosa this evening to look at a Trend Airshield. I was hoping for a better solution to the lenses of my goggles fogging while I was trying to install the insulation in the crawl space, and figured $300, although steep, was a reasonable thing to pay for ease of installation and clean lungs.

I decided against it. The one they had out for display didn't have the battery charged, but it seemed like it relied too much on a fan pulling through too little of a filter. Might be okay for dust and chips off the router table, but I wasn't confident that it could pull fiberglass fibers out of the air. And it would have required wearing ear plugs rather than muffs during general shop operations, maybe that's the primary difference between the Airshield and the Airshield Pro.

Seems like the next step up are the various 3M systems, but list on those is closer to a grand, and its also unclear what sort of impact protection the various options there offer.

I'm going to try calling the local paintball store tomorrow to see what they've got in terms of auxiliary fan cleared goggles that I could wear with the respirator I've got, but I'm interested in options that'd protect my vision and my lungs, and make it easier for me to see what I'm doing as I install the rest of the insulation, rather than working mostly by feel.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Work, productivity and environment Furniture Woodworking ]

http://www.tonidoplug.com/ Possibly an under $100 wall wart Linux based server?

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source ]

Giggle. Porn company can't get porn on to the iPhone via the app store, and there aren't generic video players on the iPhone, so porn company just shoots it on a 3GS: Here's the press release from Pink Visual.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Video iPhone ]

I've off-handedly commented for quite a while that the apparent dumbing down of media, especially of television, but probably also of newspapers, comes from advertisers, the real customers of media, not wanting intelligent consumers.

With that in mind, we'll have to see how this plays out: Users of Microsoft's "Bing" search engine click through ads more often than Google users. Via /..

[ related topics: Humor Technology and Culture Microsoft moron Consumerism and advertising Journalism and Media Art & Culture Television Machinery ]

Silly question: We have a semi-enclosed awning structure in the back yard. We've started thinking that we could enclose that structure and move the workshop back there, making the garage space clean and getting the sawdust out of the laundry area.

We'll probably have to go for a code variance because the rear setback of the existing structure isn't sufficient and we'd really like to be up against the fence. So we'll just replace the structure as it stands. We've looked at Tuff Shed, yes, they sell a nicer version than the ones that go through the Home Despot, and could get a 12x20 in the $8k range, but we could get an all-metal (galvanized steel) barn/carport like structure of the same size for less than $2k.

Anyone got experience with how hot a structure like this will get in the summer? What sort of insulation concerns we'd need to deal with generally? And what code's like for wiring it (I assume we'd just run everything in conduit)?

I've also got enough concerns with the Tuff Shed that I'm going to price out doing it myself with commercial roof trusses, and think about engineering the thing to carry the loads of a living roof.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Real Estate ]

William Shatner performs Sarah Palin's resignation speech (Vanity Fair invites various editors to correct and mark it up).

And while we're celebrating the awesome that is Shatner: Star Trek + Nine Inch Nails = Closer (YouTube vide that is distinctly not safe for work...).

[ related topics: Politics Star Trek Video ]

Dirty Jobs' Mike Rowe talks about lamb castration and American labor. (Via Mark Hershberger).

[ related topics: Politics Political Correctness Work, productivity and environment ]

I'm not generally a death penalty advocate, but can we use it just this once? Asheville NC firefighter shoots cyclist after argument over safety and which roads it was appropriate to ride on. The attempted murderer is now on paid administrative leave.

Only half-joking: How long are we cyclists going to take this shit? When do we reach the breaking point and start shooting back? Spiro Bikopoulis (aka "Spike Bike"), where are you?

Additional article, and even more,

[ related topics: moron Current Events Bicycling ]

Thought of the moment: Everyone pays some portion of a transaction in order to protect that transaction. Prostitutes pay it to pimps to protect themselves from cops and clients, we pay it to our legal system and our military. There's an overhead necessary to enforce the terms agreed upon.

Seems like for a resident of the U.S. that's probably about a quarter of the transaction, right? We pay a little less than half our income in taxes, half of the federal budget is the U.S. military, and then we pay for the judicial system and other paramilitary organizations, police and Sheriff and the like.

Does anyone have a closer number for this, and does anyone have comparative numbers? I remember the Freakonomics guys came up with some numbers on pimps and prostitutes, and that probably very much varies by economic stratus of the customer, I'm just interested in how people have looked at this number.

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture Law Law Enforcement Currency Economics Government ]

Eric's entry on Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research director Henry Louis Gates Jr single-handedly setting back the cause of equality for Americans of African ancestry by several decades got me back to pondering issues of police relations, and why I was even for a moment willing to assume that a Harvard professor was more credible than a police officer.

(Bonus link: Cambridge Police Profiling Still A Grim Reality For Harvard Faculty Assholes)

Recently someone commented to me that the Petaluma Police Department home page had "all sorts of 'Cops' pictures". I went there, and... well... you can see a sample over there on the right. I freely concede that that's what many people sign up to be cops to do, that there are people who are adrenaline junkies and this is a career that allows them to live out those experiences, but...

Exhibit two is this Facebook ad. I mean, egads, if being attracted to an ad like that isn't already an immediate disqualification for working as a police officer, it bloody well should be.

To be fair to the Petaluma police, they do also have other pictures in their slideshow, pictures like this one (scaled down a bit because I'm poaching it without express permission, and I believe this is fair use, but its fairer use if I'm really excerpting and not grabbing full-res everything):

There are a few others, too, of cops smiling, having conversations with people, or securing accident scenes, that sort of thing.

I think we need a cultural shift where we end up with far more of that sort of image of police work. Less of the guns drawn power trip, more of the mentoring and talking. And if we can get that, then the next time some Harvard professor loses his shit (okay, is tired from traveling and his front door is jammed because someone broke into it) then we'll be likely to give the police officer who responds to the passerby concerned that someone's forcing entry to a house the benefit of the doubt.

[ related topics: Photography Political Correctness moron Sociology Law Enforcement Guns Race ]

This one's for Chris and his seasteading interests, by way of Sean: The Citadel: Europe's first floating apartment complex.

[ related topics: Boats Real Estate ]

Trade your old clunker in for Obama dollars!

Here are the dealership instructions to disable the vehicle (Page 126)

Engine Disablement Procedures for the CARS Program

Moved to comments - (too many lines for the front upon review)

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Software Engineering Law Graphics Civil Liberties Machinery Currency Clothing ]

[ related topics: Books ]

Warkitty has some good notes on abused women.

We've long known that the uniqueness of fingerprints is at best a myth, here are some more sources of "evidence" that aren't: Forensics Myths Debunked - The Truth Behind Real CSI Evidence. (Dave's Picks)

U.S. divorce rates for various faith groups, age groups and geographical areas:

Barna's results verified findings of earlier polls: that conservative Protestant Christians, on average, have the highest divorce rate, while mainline Christians have a much lower rate. They found some new information as well: that atheists and agnostics have the lowest divorce rate of all.  George Barna commented that the results raise "questions regarding the effectiveness of how churches minister to families." The data challenge "the idea that churches provide truly practical and life-changing support for marriage."

Via SE. And while I'm trolling here, atheist nations are more peaceful.

[ related topics: Religion Invention and Design Sociology Marriage ]

How to bake cheeseburger cupcakes.

[ related topics: Photography Food - Cake ]