Untitled Document
2004 News Archive
Quote
December 10, 2004
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go
away."
-- Philip K. Dick
No Child Left Behind
December 10, 2004
This NPR segment is very good,
very long, and worth the listen. An argument for local control of the
schools. In Real Audio format.
Song for Three Soldiers
December 10, 2004
A poem by Stephen Vincent Benet:
Song for Three Soldiers
Oh, where are you coming from, soldier, fine soldier,
In your dandy new uniform, all spick and span,
With your helmeted head and the gun on your shoulder,
Where are you coming from, gallant young man?
I come from the war that was yesterday's trouble,
I come with the bullet still blunt in my breast;
Though long was the battle and bitter the struggle,
Yet I fought with the bravest, I fought with the best.
Oh, where are you coming from, soldier, tall, soldier,
With ray-gun and sun-bomb and everything new,
And a face that might well have been carved from a boulder,
Where are you coming from, now tell me true!
My harness is novel, my uniform other
Than any gay uniform people have seen,
Yet I am your future and I am your brother
And I am the battle that has not yet been.
Oh, where are you coming from, soldier, gaunt soldier,
With weapons beyond any reach of my mind,
With weapons so deadly the world must grow older
And die in its tracks, if it does not turn kind?
Stand out of my way and be silent before me!
For none shall come after me, foeman or friend,
Since the seed of your seed called me out to employ me,
And that was the longest, and that was the end.
What is No Child Left Behind?
December 9, 2004
This kind
of sums it up:
"What I do know is that a national policy that insists that this
is Lake Woebegone where all the children are above average, and thus says
we can keep them all on the same track in the same schools and expect that
the smart ones will do well although the teachers have to spend most of
their time explaining the obvious to the less gifted -- and fines the schools
if all the children in the school don't achieve -- is not likely to keep
us competitive. The fact is that if you pay by average test scores and
fine schools for "leaving behind" anyone, it is inevitable that
most of the effort will be put into trying to get minimum performance from
the lowest in the school. The results are predictable."
-- Jerry Pournelle
The New Model Army
December 9, 2004
An interesting
take on US combat forces: "to own and possess is different from defeating
the enemy army." A look back at how the Romans did this, with considerable
success. Looks like we have it half right.
"No one seems to be thinking about this sort of thing now. The
Neocons have discovered the New Model Army that does things with fewer
and more elite troops, and marvels at their success; then is horrified
when warriors act like warriors; when young men taught to kill the enemy
shoot what turns out to be, not an armed enemy playing dead, but a dying
wounded man. But that is the price of conquest, particularly when warriors
are sent to do the job of constables." -- Jerry Pournelle
What is Poverty?
December 9, 2004
A summary of poverty from
The City Journal.
Robert F. Kennedy on the Danger of Futility
December 9, 2004
From Senator Robert F. Kennedy's 1966 Day
of Affirmation Address:
"First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or
one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery,
against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements,
of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk
began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia
to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France.
It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New /world, and 32 year old
Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me
a place to stand," said Archimedes, "and I will move the world." These
men moved the world, and so can we all. Few will have the greatness to bend history;
but each of us can work to change a small portion of the events, and in the total
of all these acts will be written the history of this generation. Thousands of
Peace Corps volunteers are making a difference in the isolated villages and the
city slums of dozens of countries. Thousands of unknown men and women in Europe
resisted the occupation of the Nazis and many died, but all added to the ultimate
strength and freedom of their countries. It is from numberless diverse acts of
courage such as these that the belief that human history is thus shaped. Each
time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes
out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each
other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build
a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Iraq Call to Action
December 9, 2004
Good review link.
Going Left on Big Business
December 9, 2004
Small, fiscally conservative, balanced budget, progressive tax rate, personal
liberty, and individual responsibilty. Radical
stuff.
"A large corporation is a citizen in a seventy-foot hydraulically-powered
metallic exoskeleton with rocket launchers and machine guns. It doesn't
mean they're not friendly and they won't say hello to you on your way to
the mailbox, but all that armor sure is scary." -- chrism
Good Line for Forums
December 9, 2004
"Although your a troll, I'll feed you."
Babylon 5 Movie
December 9, 2004
A screen
adaption of the excellent sci-fi TV series Babylon-5 is
being filmed. Written by J. Michael Straczynski, it will feature a new cast.
B5 was flat out one the best sci-fi shows, because it had long term plot continuity,
Lightwave 3D graphics wizardry, great characters, and galactic intrigue at
a grand scale. I'm really looking forward to this.
The Elephants Child
December 8, 2004
Just finished reading Rudyard Kipling's short story The
Elephant's Child to my three and a half year old daughter. It's about how
the Elephant got its trunk... but it's really about a three year old's "satiable
curiosity"; that is, asking "Why?" for the thousandth time.
This is from the Doubleday version of Kipling's Just
So Stories, which has wonderful illustrations. I don't think this Doubleday
version is still in print.
It was a children's story we both enjoyed.
DoJ tutorials on Muslim, Sikh head coverings remixed
December 8, 2004
From BoingBoing.net. The
U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released posters aimed at assisting
authorities with properly identifying and searching Muslims (PDF,
1.5 MB), Sikhs (PDF,
1 MB), and Rednecks (PDF
255KB).
What Fee Demo Means
November 20, 2004
Failure to pay public land access fees is now a criminal offense
punishable by up to $5,000 and/or 6 months in jail. Drivers, owners, and occupants
of vehicles on Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service, and Bureau of Reclamation lands not displaying either a daily or annual
pass will be presumed guilty of failure to pay and can all be charged, without
obligation by the government to prove their guilt. The measure encourages agencies
to contract with private companies and other non-governmental entities to manage
public lands and to enforce fee collection. The bill also establishes a national,
interagency annual pass called the America the Beautiful Pass, expected to
cost $85-$100 initially.
Let your Congress critter know what you think. Not that it makes a difference
anymore.
Fee Demo Made Permanent
November 20, 2004
In a last minute closed-door rider to the lame duck House Interior Appropriations
Bill, permanent access fees for recreation on all land managed by the Forest
Service, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and Bureau
of Reclamation was authorized. Fee demo is no longer a demonstration program.
The government will now charge YOU to visit YOUR public lands. It's been a
long fight-- the public lost and special interests won.
"By Thursday, however, Regula had reneged on the agreement. He
went over the heads of the Senate's public lands chairmen and struck a
deal with Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), Chair of the Senate Appropriations
Committee. Regula reportedly agreed to give Stevens funding for a road
in a remote community in Alaska in exchange for allowing Regula's bill
to be reattached.
That left the four Senators who had negotiated the original deal hopping
mad and disappointed millions of fee opponents who expected that such a
seismic shift in policy would receive public hearings, not be done behind
closed doors."
-- Western Slope No Fee Coalition
""This legislation ensures continued access to recreational
opportunities on our federal land while protecting the public's pocketbook"
-- House Committee on Resources Chairman Richard W. Pombo (R-CA).
When business mentions the word "opportunity", run.
Let 'em know, not that it will do any good:
Senator Thomas's office:
202-224-6441
Congressman Regula's office:
202-225-3876
Senator Stevens's office:
202-224-3004
CeltInstMakers.net
November 20, 2004
CeltInstMakers.net is
up. It includes forums, news, and information for makers of Celtic musical
instruments. Nothing fancy for now, but hopefully it will evolve over time
and become a viable exchange of information on the instrument making craft.
Oscar Schmidt Mandolin
November 20, 2004
If you are looking for a serviceable mandolin in the $100-200 price range,
the Oscar Schmidt OM10 is a good choice. I'm quite happy with it after a little
setup and tweaking. Nothing great, but better sounding and playing than some
$300 competition.
Spam Kings
November 18, 2004
O'Reilly has published Spam
Kings: The Real Story Behind the High-Rolling Hucksters Pushing Porn, Pills,
and %*@)# Enlargements.
On a daily basis perhaps 5000 email messages pass through my various email
servers. Of that, based on server logs, I can estimate that about 98% is spam.
Who pays for that bandwidth and the filtering software that I have to install
and maintain to combat spam? One guess... and I have not been able to pass
these costs on to customers, who demand cheap email accounts. This is such
a problem that I'm considering getting out of the email hosting business.
I have not yet read this book, but plan to, and will post a review. The first
chapter is
available here. It looks very good; it's written as a readable detective
narrative, as in the best Steven
Levy books.
Fee Demo Rider Defeated in Congress
November 16, 2004
Senator Craig Thomas (R Idaho), with support from Senators Burns (R Montana),
Stevens (R Alaska) and others have prevented the inclusion of any fee-demo
related legislation within the Appropriations Bills now working their way through
Congress. Not only does it appear that they have prevented HR 3283 from being
attached as a rider, they appear to have ensured that there will be NO fee-demo
extension passed in this lame duck session. Faxes and phone calls to the Interior
Appropriations committee helped immensely.
However, if you are against Fee Demo, keep vigilant on this. It will come
up again.
New HOWTO Posted
November 16, 2004
I've just posted HOWTO Build Effective Just-In-Time Web-Based
Training which will be used as material for a presentation to Mark Salisbury's
OLIT class tomorrow.
Will Rogers, Red Green, George Carlin, and Ed Abbey Quotes
November 9, 2004
Will
Rogers, George
Carlin, Red
Green, and random Ed
Abbey.
There are three kinds of men:
1) The ones that learn by reading.
2) The few who learn by observation.
3) The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence.
- Will Rogers
Uh, this is only temporary...unless it works.
- Red Green
Why is the man (or woman) who invests all your money called a broker?
- George Carlin
Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit.
- Edward Abbey
Making Scottish Smallpipes from CPVC and Brass Tubing
November 7, 2004
Here's an interesting tutorial on making
bellows blown smallpipes. They don't sound so bad either.
FBHG
November 7, 2004
Stands for (expletive) Blown Head Gasket. I hate when this happens-- and it
happens way too often on the 3VZE 2nd generation 4Runner motor. The 3.0 liter
3ZE, or 3.slow, is prone to this failure. There was even a recall. Don't get
a used 2nd Gen for this reason alone, despite all the BS Toyota reliability
hype. Had I only known.
There is a lot to like about this vehicle, but serious engine design weirdness
cramps that charm pretty quickly. Working on this vehicle is a pain, due tight
quarters under the hood. It's about a 12-16 hour job to fix. Very costly if
down by a pro, and complicated enough that a pro should probably do the work
unless you are in practice.
What I learned:
- When the heads are off, check for warpage and machine as necessary.
- It's a good time to rebuild your heads. Get a valve job.
- Consider the engine's bottom end once the heads are off. Now is the time
to do a rebuild. If coolant was in the case for a while, your crank bearings
may be damaged (rusted). Rebuild as necessary.
- Change the pigtail wire and sensor.
- It's also a good time to change the timing belt, idler, and water pump.
- Use OEM or better quality replacement gaskets!!!
- Don't put the gaskets on backwards, which is easy to do.
- You might be able to recover your radiator and heater core from oil-damage
by flushing with non-suds dishwasher detergent or simple green. Wynn's makes
a nice kit for doing so.
- Replace all cooling system hoses, since the oil has damaged them.
- My Cherokee and Ford F150 were/are much more reliable and easy to service
than any Toyota.
- You still can't beat the 4Runner for rock-crawling. It has a very stiff
frame.
Petzel Tikka Plus LED Headlamp
November 7, 2004
I've been wanting to try an LED headlamp for quite some time, and got this Petzel
Tikka Plus as a gift. I think it came from REI.
It's a real piece of junk, and not recommended for hard use. The housing is
made of a brittle plastic, and has already cracked my struggle to replace the
white lens with the red lens for night telescope work. The lens replacement
routine reveals a bad design, in that you have to about bust the lens or housing
to make the change. The red lens is not even red-- it is more of an orange
color, and required a layer of red tail-light tape over it so as not affect
nighttime vision. The power switch has the feel of something that won't last
long, though it is still working. I'm not optimistic as to how the plastic
would do in the cold. The whole thing kind of seems like a styrene plastic
model, though I'm sure Petzel would say it is more impact and crack resistant
than that. Made to be thrown away.
At $30, I'd look elsewhere for an LED headlamp. Target had some nice Eddie
Bauer models, but they all use funny and expensive batteries, so I'm going
to stay away from those.
Here's what
I really want. A wee bit pricey though.
Day of the Dead
October 31, 2004
Attended a Day of the Dead celebration at the Albuquerque National
Hispanic Cultural Center, but could not get any of the staff to really
tell me what it was all about. So I asked around...
Renee writes:
"Funny, I just read an article about Day of the Dead celebrations.
They are popular celebrations in Mexico and Spain and gaining popularity
here in the States. It is a family celebration that centers around the idea
that around November 1 the spirits of dead ancestors are most likely to return
to earth. To keep the spirits placated and out of mischief, the families
set up alters in their homes with pictures of their deceased loved ones,
candles, little skulls, and offerings of the deceased's favorite foods. The
families visit the cemetery and clean up the deceased's grave. The celebration
lasts about 3 days. The celebration is gaining popularity in the States among
Hispanics because more families are intact with multiple generations living
here instead of a mostly migrant population who's family are still in Mexico.
My guess, it is a combination of pre-Christian Central American Indian beliefs
and the Catholic holy day All Saints/Souls Day. Of course, like Cinco de
Mayo, its another great excuse to PARTY!"
Hailstorm and Balloons
October 5, 2004
We had an amazing hailstorm here last night in Albuquerque. Hail stones the
size of small ping pong balls. Further south, Socorro took some real damage.
Missy slept right through it. Ariane and I watched the light show.
This unseasonable bad weather is really cutting into the Albuquerque
International Balloon Fiesta this week. Two days of canceled events means
real loss of revenue for the balloon ride companies. A balloon ride is $250
a pop, and I've heard that over 500 rides have been canceled so far.
Sunday's mass ascension was a thing of beauty. Hundreds of balloons rising
near at once as the sun rises over the Sandias. The box was near perfect.
Hope it clears for the Star
Party this weekend.
Kitty Lie Over
October 5, 2004
Excellent Uilleann Pipes
and Fiddle CD from Mick O'Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh,
with most tunes in B Flat or F. Tune clips are available
here.
Schneier on Security Blog
October 5, 2004
Bruce Schneier has an ongoing
blog on emerging security issues. In this fear-driven election year, his
book Beyond Fear is
a primer on what's important in terms of security, and what is smoke. Blog
topics range from the effectiveness of terror alerts, academic freedom, network
outages, to Windows XP Service Pack 2. Good stuff.
"Secrecy is not the same as security, and most of the time secrecy
contributes to a false feeling of security instead of to real security."
"In the three years since 9/11, the U.S. government has instituted
a series of security measures at our borders, all designed to keep terrorists
out. One of those measures was to tighten up the rules for foreign visas.
Certainly this has hurt the tourism industry in the U.S., but the damage
done to academic research is more profound and longer-lasting. [The conferences
go elsewhere.]"
"Repeated warnings do more harm than good, by needlessly creating
fear and confusion among those who still trust the government, and anesthetizing
everyone else to any future alerts that might be important. And every false
alarm makes the next terror alert less effective. "
-- Bruce Schneier
Didn't Aseop
have a fable about that last one?
All Rush Radio
October 5, 2004
I've been enjoying All
Rush Radio for the last few days. Thirty years makes for a lot of music.
Neal Peart's lyrics continue to inspire, and Vapor Trails is growing on me.
Hey, it's Renee!
September 30, 2004
Renee got in touch by email this week. Thanks to all who made it happen
(DG, MD, CK, KK, MW, MW's mom, SD's mom, SD). Now Natalie has popped up, and
now Anne too. Indian telegraph across the wide open spaces!
Tracy has his Big ol' Truck Ready for the Socorro Star Party
September 30, 2004
Tracy has his big ol' yellow truck all spiffed up, loaded with telescopes,
and is ready for the Socorro Enchanted
Skies Star Party. A new engine and transmission no less. Let's all hope
he makes it through the wilds between Denver and Abq. unscathed.
This is one of the best small star parties. The skies are dark, and it's near
the National
Radio Astronomy Observatory VLA cluster (radio telescopes are just not
as much fun).
Lunasa, October 12, at the Lobo Theatre
September 30, 2004
Lunasa, the worlds best celtic
trad/prog band (says I, besides Flook)
will be playing at the very small, 400 seat, Lobo Theatre in Albuquerque on
Tuesday, October 12. Tickets are $20 (good deal) at Book Stop, and as of today,
there are some left. These guys put on one heck of a show. Let's sell out the
room.
Looks like Green Linnet Records released the master for Lunasa's recent CD "Redwood" without
the band's approval-- and it was from the wrong, and apparently inferior,
master. No wonder this CD sounds funny compared to their previous releases.
Green Linnet appears to have some pretty funky business practices, like not
paying their artists for tracks on their best selling compilation cd's. Lunasa
and several other artists are
filing a lawsuit, which is apparently long overdue.
Too bad. Green Linnet revived
the genre, but I will think twice before purchasing from a company that rips
off it's artists. It's dangerous to piss off such a loyal fan base.
Fortune Red Lives On
September 22, 2004
I have this vague memory of Fortune Red, a creepy fortune telling machine,
in the Pirates of the Caribbean exit hall at Disneyworld. I guess it's gone
from there, but lives on as
a fortune telling website. Scroll to the bottom of that page to have Fortune
Red tell your fortune. Check out the Jolly Roger history too. Right up there
with The
Turk.
Fee Demo: Democracy Failed
September 22, 2004
Very soon it looks like Federal land recreation fees will be permanent and
you will need to buy an "America the Beautiful" pass to visit YOUR
public lands. Details on the passing by the House of (HR 3283) are here (will
link as soon as this is available).
"Several years ago, Mr. Regula term limited out as Chair of the Appropriations
Committee and is not currently the Chair of that committee. If he wins his
reelection bid in November and is returned to the House for a 17th term,
he will be Chair of the Appropriations Committee once more.
Everyone in the House is keenly aware of that fact. Everyone in today's
markup for Mr. Regula's pet bill, HR 3283 knew that.
Mr. Regula conspicuously sat in the front row of today's hearing watching
carefully to see who would support him and who would dare to oppose him." --
Scott Silver
You are the Federal government's "Customer".
Best of the West: Heron Lake, New Mexico
September 18, 2004
Heron
Lake (Reservoir) State Park, New Mexico is a quiet and undiscovered gem
of a weekend destination for car campers. An easy 3-4 hour drive from Albuquerque,
campsites on the eastern shore look west over the lake to the Jicarilla Apache
mesa country. In September, the sun sets right over these mesas, and once
darkness descends, the sky is pitch black, revealing shoals of stars overhead.
Campsite are available both on first com first serve and reservation basis.
Near Chama, and the Cumbres
and Toltec Scenic Railroad, another must excursion.
Good Stuff at Chickenhead.com
September 18, 2004
Visit chickenhead.com and
take a look around. Highlights are georgewbush.org, whitehouse.org, bannertown, AIM
Buddy Icons, and, well there's more... Not necessarily work safe.
Logitech Z2200 Computer Speaker System
September 18, 2004
The Logitech
Z2200 Computer Speaker audio system is impressive. While not THX 5.1, (I
don't have the space) they handle John
Phillip Sousa and Miladiore equally well. 40x2 watts RMS on the speakers, 120x1
watts RMS on the sub. I think they blow the doors off the equivilent Bose setup,
which costs over a hundred dollars more. Includes powered sub-woofer, and two
speakers. $149 at Circuit City. A very good deal.
"What can I say, they sound awesome. No distortion even at wife-angering
levels." -- bit-tech.net review
Yes and Dream Theatre, Sandia Casino Abq. Sept 13th.
September 18, 2004
Yes played as well as ever, which is to say the show was pretty close to relgious
experience. Jon Anderson's positive energy is infectous. Not bad for a bunch
of 60 year olds. Current tour reviews are at yesworld.com.
Dream Theater was stiff and mechanical, not my cup of tea. They seem week in
the song writing area, but are monster players.
Sandia Labs Solar Array
September 6, 2004
Got a fantastic one-on-one tour of the late 70's Sandia National Labs Solar
Heliostat Array early this week. Thanks Patricia!
There are actually three
technologies being explored there. The big solar heliostat concentrator
(which is currently being used by NASA as a big Newtonian telescope) uses
hundreds of mirrors to focus concentrated sunlight onto a salt boiler, which
via a heat exchanger drives a steam turbine. Pretty expensive, and from the
era of Big Science. Seems like a relic, and though it has been running for
30 years, is not considered proven technology, so is not in much use globally.
The solar
parabolic troughs are much smaller, and use a concave mirror to focus
sunlight on a high-tech gas-filled tube, which again uses boiling salt in
the heat transfer process convert the solar energy to electricity. It seems
this would be viable if the gas tubes were not so proprietary and expensive.
One or two manufacturers have a lock, and keep the prices prohibitively high
it seems.
The most promising technology is the low-cost dish
concentrating solar (~10kw) which focuses sunlight to drive a small Stirling
engine, generating power. Enough power for ten houses or so,. It looks perhaps
practical maybe for small towns? Don't know the amortized costs.
Talk around the plant was that we are just past the
top of the curve.
John Taylor Gatto: The Underground History of American Education
September 6, 2004
Education is a helix sport. If you have anything to
do with the Hegalian institution of the American public school (most of us
do), and are concerned about your child (or anyone else) getting a real education, read
this book. The
prologue is available online. The well-researched case Gatto lays out
is devastating. Alternative education, like charter schools (if allowed to
succeed, which is unlikely; the administrators hate them) and home schooling
look more appealing than ever. I'll do a more in-depth review once I finish
the book.
"It took 150 years to build this apparatus. It won't quit breathing
overnight. Take five smooth stones and let fly. The home-schoolers have
already begun." -- John Taylor Gatto.
Why "No Child Left Behind" is Important to America
September 6, 2004
Chart shows that since 1965,
when Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), through
2003, the federal government has spent more than $242 billion to help educate
disadvantaged children. Details.
Note that as spending increases, the reading scores remain unchanged. Note
also that the computer revolution has had little or no effect on reading scores.
-- From Jerry Pournelle
Earth at Night
August 23, 2004
A NASA composite of the earth
at night, as of August 22, 2004. It seems we are even more lit up than
the last time I saw this image, about five years ago.
Two Quotes
August 23, 2004
"We haven't the money, so we have to think." -- Lord Ruthorford
"She's the sort of woman that lives for others. You can tell the others
by their hunted expressions." -- C.S. Lewis.
This Land is Your Land
August 5, 2004
This is the funniest thing i've seen in ages.
What's even funnier is that the folks who own
the rights to the Woody Guthrie song (Own the rights? Ain't this a national
treasure or something?) are suing the creators of the parody. Thank goodness
the answer to idiocy is to make fun of the idiot.
Arlo Guthrie says:
"Well, I really can't speak for him [Woody Guthrie]. I can just tell
you that when I saw it a few weeks ago I thought it was one of the funniest
commentaries if not one of the most directly inspired... I called my sister,
I called my friends, I sent everybody a link to the site so that they could
go see it. And we've all been laughing about it since then. I think my dad
would have absolutely loved the humor in it. "
Two Fun Carousels
August 4, 2004
If you have little kids, two fun carousels in
New England are at Heritage
Plantation on Cape Cod, and Bushnell
Park, in Hartford, CT. Heritage Park is one of the most amazing arboretums
I've seen, with the poison ivy long since eliminated. It has a great maze too.
The Bushnell Park carousel has a working steam Calliope. The attendants know
all about these great machines, so ask! A nice little playground is next to
the carousel, with squirting frogs-- good for hot humid days.
Every real carousel has a lead horse. How can you tell? The lead house has
a sash around it's neck, and flowers. I think that's been lost on some of the
newer carousels, like the one at the Cottenwood Mall in Albuquerque. At that
one the attendant did not even know what a gold ring was.
Flute Qualifies as a Bludgeon
August 4, 2004
According to the Transportation Security
Administration, my wonderful Casey
Burns Folk Flute is a bludgeon, and is not allowed in the cabin of a commercial
airplane. Fortunately it can be checked as baggage. This determination was
made by a high-ranking supervisor.
These are thoughtful and determined inspectors, not in the least troubled
by "Common Sense™". I feel quite safe in their highly trained
hands.
Another fun fact is that bore-oil (linseed, unboiled) appears to set of explosive
detectors in airports.
It was not the most enjoyable of flights. Will leave the instruments at home
next time in favor of a PVC whistle.
Gas Prices
August 4, 2004
Gosh gas is expensive right now ($2.05/gal. in RI). I appreciated
my Suzuki Aereo rental car this week for it's great gas mileage, if nothing
else.
The Button Box
August 4, 2004
Just a plug for The Button Box, an
all things concertina store in Amherst, MA. Went there last Saturday, and Doug
gave me the tour, and was very helpful providing some replacement springs for
an old Lachnael that I am restoring. Got to play the Morse Albion English Concertina;
it is a wonderful instrument. Light and very responsive, using accordion reeds,
but to my ears sounding enough like a concertina of old to be hugely acceptable.
Plays faster than you can!
The next spare $1700 that comes my way...
 Newly
Released Apollo 11 Photographs
July 22, 2004
Nasa has just
released some newly digitized imagery of the 1969 Apollo 11 moon mission.
Wow! (1, 2, 3).
I feel close to this, as my dad worked as a planatary geochemist for NASA
on the mission in that year, at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
I even later got to look at moon-dust close-up under a microscope at MIT
when I was 6 (I think that was a crime or something).
Here's a series of the world coolest rocket, the
Saturn V and one of the
launch. Here's Werner
von Braun during Apollo 11 launch! Here's the CSM
LEM separation. And here's Armstrong's
first photo after setting foot on the Moon.
This is inspiring. The US needs a project like this again, costs be damned.
Instead we get Iraq. I guess Vietnam was going full tilt at that time though,
and that one lasted through three presidents. Gotta keep that defense economy
rolling along.
Note: This server is getting slashdotted (07/22/04).
Ukrainian Cave hid Jews from Nazi's for a over a Year
July 22, 2004
This month's National Geographic has a fascinating
story about Ukrainian Jews who held out in a cave (Priest's Grotto, tenth
longest in the world currently) against Nazi's for over a year.
Police and villagers knew they were there, but "believed that the Jews
were armed and well secured within a maze of passages and secret exits. In
fact, they had no second exit from Priest's Grotto."
Prior to this, the longest continuous recorded time a human had spent underground
is 205 days.
Luck
July 11, 2004
To a considerable extent, we make our own luck.
-- David Hough, from the brilliant More
Proficient Motorcycling.
A Rouge's Gallery
July 11, 2004
 Found
this at What a Quiet Stiff.
Click on the image to enlarge. Isn't this just spot on?
Around the World on a KLR 650
July 8, 2004
Mariola Cichon, "Windflower" is making the attempt to be the first
woman to ride her KLR 650 around the
world. A great narrative of an exciting trip in both words and pictures.
Bad news is that Mariola was wrecked in Gambia, with resultant severe injuries.
She plans to continue once healed. Best of luck! Purchase her picture log CD
to support her continued journey. Or better yet, send
a donation and encourage this brave woman to continue her journey.
Zope-Based Forums
July 2, 2004
I've been evaluating Zope-based forum products lately, particularly ones that
integrate well with the outstanding Plone content management system. The three
that I have identified are CMFBoard, fcForums,
and PloneBoard. These
are all open-source and therefore nominally free; the cost is in maintenance
(!).
fcForums wins. However, all of these have serious problems (as of this date);
fcForums just seems to have fewer.
CMFBoard first. I've struggled with
this one for several months now. Each new upgrade brings new problems. In production
forums crash, break and are even lost. I feel that the interface is to some
degree counter-intuitive. Pluses are that this board supports i18n for shell
translation into many languages and integration directly into Plone, sharing
the default Plone user registry. Documentation is poor, especially on the upgrade
process which is mandatory, given the pace that bugs that are being squashed
in this product. New releases are practically weekly, and this perhaps points
to a more stable future. The Product's author has been very responsive to problems,
but as a whole supporting this forum product has been a pain; it is just not
ready for hard use, except at the bleeding edge.
To the best I can determine, PloneBoard does
not exist yet. I have not been able to find a version to evaluate, despite
there being a Soureforge link and some buzz around the product.
fcForums is the
most evolved product of the three. It has a very nice, usable, user interface
and is mostly stable. Features include decent documentation, subscription of
threads by users, and integration into the Plone user registry, and good response
by the developers to problems. In order to truly integrate this into a plone
site, and especially a skinned Plone site, you will currently need to do some
CSS/HTML and maybe python hacking. That may change if I understand correctly,
in future releases. There is a lot of promise here.
fcForums is my choice of a Zope forum product, though I have no idea yet how
it will hold up in production yet-- and I kind of dread finding out.
None of these even come close to the maturity and stability forums like phpBB,
but I need the Plone integration, which the more mature forum products lack.
Trans-America Trail
June 24, 2004
Ok, long-distance hikers, here's one you might not have heard of; The Trans-America
Trail. Actually it's not for hikers, but is for motorcyclists. It's a coast-to-coast
bike route using using dirt roads, gravel roads, jeep roads, forest roads and
farm roads. Good KLR 650 territory.
Here are some reports about
the trip.
Casey Burns Folk Flute
June 24, 2004
The new Casey Burns Folk
Flute has arrived. This flute is a dream for the beginner, and very fairly
priced at around $250-- a steal for a wooden Irish flute. Very responsive and
loud, though can go soft and subtle. The second octave is in dead-on in tune,
which makes sense, since this a true conical bore instrument. The wood is the
dense and not endangered Mopane. Consistency between flutes is rumored to be
excellent. If you are looking for a simple, unkeyed wooden flute, don't waste
your money on the eBay or Lark in the Morning Pakistani junk-- good wooden
flutes are available at a very reasonable price.
Here is the Folk Flute, as played by the
masterful Grey Larsen.
I'm glad I got mine now (three week wait), I have a feeling there may be a
considerable waiting list for these soon. Thanks Casey, you've expanded my
world!
New Canadian Quarter
June 23, 2004
 Outstanding.
Uilleann Pipe Reed Making Tutorial
June 20, 2004
It's the piper's despair-- making a good reed for the Uilleann Pipes is quite
difficult. I was looking for a video on this process and found
this very good tutorial online. With it, I think I could make a reed now,
though there are still some unclear points. At the rate that Uilleann construction
sites seem to be disappearing off the net (bagpipeworks.com), I'd print this
one up.
I also still need to locate a source of Spanish Cane. If you know of one,
please pass it on. And, here's a
page of bagpipe jokes.
Looking for a Good Cheap Whistle?
June 20, 2004
I think Susato is making the best inexpensive
whistles, in just about any key, includes some excellent sounding and affordable
low whistles. The C soprano whistle is particularly nice. You can get these
from the manufacturer, though they seem to have a decent distribution network,
and I can find the more common keys in Albuquerque. The three-pack (one head
and three bodies (D, C, B Flat) seems a good value.
DrakeSync
June 18, 2004
One of the nice features of Mandrake Linux
10 Official is an included package called DrakeSync, which
is a visual interface to the rsync shell command. The tool makes it convenient
to backup and synchronize remote servers, and to automate the process. About
the only bad thing I can find about this package, and it could be a disaster
for the unwary, is that, by default, 'delete' remote files after backup is
checked by default in the options. Do this, and you will probably have a backup,
but the files you are backing up will be removed. If your backup fails, you
are in real trouble. This should not be enabled by default. Otherwise, this
is an excellent tool, and the GUI is Python based.
A good listing of other Mandrake 10 file related tools is available here.
Quote of the Day
June 16, 2004
"Never get one of those cheap tin whistles. It leads to much harder drugs
like pipes and flutes" -- Phil Sexton
What's Difficult About Playing the Uilleann Pipes.
June 16, 2004
Everything.
Think of a Steam Calliope that has faired poorly in a train wreck. Think
of that Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" hand position. Was Leonard
Nemoy an Uilleann Piper?
CelticEclectic.com
June 13, 2004
My band; Saiorse finally has a website.
Lots of work yet to do on the site, but it's a start. Maybe if we can get our
demo together we will move onto a CD. A very talented group of players, and
we are starting to sound pretty good.
Dangerous Witty Worm
June 8, 2004
The Witty Worm is the first worm to combine bug free code, efficient delivery,
with a nasty payload. Here is an
analysis.
Outlook Alternative: Mozilla Thunderbird Mail
June 3, 2004
Mozilla.org, the open-source successor to Netscape, has released a free email
client, named Thunderbird Mail.
As an alternative to Outlook, it looks excellent.
Thunderbird allows you to import existing Outlook address books, has excellent
adaptive spam filtering, is less susceptible to viruses and exploits than Outlook,
and supports multiple mail accounts. About the only thing I see it is missing
is an integrated calendar. If you used Netscape for your mail client in the
past, this would be a good fit.
Personally, I'm still using the free and powerful Pegasus
Mail, but that is probably overkill for most, and many ISP's don't support
it.
Run, don't walk away from Microsoft Outlook.
Continental Divide Trail Hike Journal
May 31, 2004
An honest and entertaining online account of hiking
the CDT.
"The sky cleared, and with no cloud cover, what little heat had
built up during the day escaped into the frigid vacuum of the stars." --
Jonathan Ley
"What good is freedom alone, isolated, locked away from whatever
lay outside one's boundaries? By that definition, a prisoner was free.
Freedom had a new meaning to me, it wasn't freedom for an individual, it
was freedom of the land, freedom for all individuals, a freedom that required
us to get along and work as a nation. It was a freedom that said, "we all
can get along". It was a freedom that required responsibility, and one
that life was all about. The other freedom? that was one that separated
people, divided them along imaginary lines, and left them apart and alone.
It required no responsibility, only defensive posturing and the heavy hand
of the law."
-- Jonathan Ley
Jonathan has a very interesting website, with a lot of distance hiking (PCT)
and photography information. Some nice
wallpaper too.
Caving with Kids in New Mexico
May 31, 2004
New Mexico's El
Malpais National Conservation Area has many lava tube caves, some of which
can be a good introduction for kids to caving. Today we introduced our three
year old daughter to Junction Cave, which is a bit less than 1/2 mile from
its mouth to end. It is located at the El Calderon Picnic area. Missy made
it all the way to the bottom, and back out.
Wear sturdy shoes, jeans or durable long pants, a helmet, bring a headlamp
and two backup lighting sources, and bring a pee bottle (don't pee in the cave).
A nice crawl and a standup room with a flat mud floor make a good destination
at the end of the cave. You might hear or see some Mexican Freetail bats, although
we didn't. We are looking forward to exploring other
lava tube caves in the area . Missy has a bright future as a spelunker
(she can even say it!).
Mandrake Linux 10 CE
May 30, 2004
I hope that Mandrake 10 Official has
less problems then Mandrake 10 Community Edition. I've had lot's of problems
with that; boot install disk does not recognize the CD, 2.6 kernel won't install,
X misconfigures, network setup fails, printer detection fails, lots of goofy
permissions issues upon install, and crashing apps under Gnome. From what I've
read, I don't think it's just me experiencing these problems (installing on
a generic PC). I've mostly got things working now, but this was my worst Linux
install experience in several years. If this is any sign, we are no closer
to a viable Linux desktop. I hope much of this is resolved with the official
release, but I'm loath to spend the bucks to find out.
Alternatively, Fedora Core 1 has been
very stable, as a server. I'm hearing good things about Core 2.
Heinlein Website
May 30, 2004
After finishing Revelation
Space, I was thinking about Robert A. Heinlein's I
Will Fear no Evil, and came across this
website, about him.
Philip Greenspun's Blog
May 30, 2004
Philip Greenspun's personal blog is
both excellent and thought provoking.
Learning to Fly Helicopters
May 30, 2004
When I was 15, after tossing around in the bush with my dad in Ontario for
NASA, I had this idea that I was going to fly
a helicopter for a living. It's probably a good idea that I didn't, but
the bush flight mechanic gig would have been interesting.
An interesting aside; it seems that small fixed-wing flight insurance costs
about the same as motor-vehicle insurance in Cambridge, MA. What does
that say about the relative safety of drivers?
Educational End Goals
May 29, 2004
From the man who invented a religion on a bet...
“The end and goal of any society as it addresses the problem of education
is to raise the ability, the initiative and the cultural level, and with
all of that the survival level, of that society. And when a society forgets
any one of these things it is destroying itself by its own educational mediums.”
L. Ron Hubbard
An MIT Class I'd like to Take
May 30, 2004
Software Engineering for Internet Applications (6.171) looks like a class worth
taking. At MIT, and the curriculum
is online (ain't MIT grand?).
Frontline's "The Way the Music Died"
May 23, 2004
There is an interesting discussion going on at
Slashdot about Frontline's
documentary 'The Way the Music Died'. Personally, I think innovation and
independent distribution, both of which the Internet gives us, are going to
stomp the big distributors, and you can't say they don't have it coming. Bye-bye.
Willie Nelson said it nicely:
"Mr. Purified Country don't you know what the whole thing's about
Or is your head up your ass so far that you can't pull it out?
The world's getting smaller and everyone in it belongs
If you can't see that Mr. Music Executive why don't you write your own songs!"
Nice Bike
May 23, 2004
This BMW
F650 GS is a nice bike. Not so big; some off-road capability, less weight,
about half the price of the R1150
GS. Forum is here.
I think their is a Dakar version too. Some more forums are here at Adventure
Rider and there are some enthusiast
websites starting to popup.
Gunkanjima
May 23, 2004
Abandoned Japanese
island Gunkanjima, a reef mined for coal since 1810, and abandoned in the
1970's. Fantastic imagery of a lost place.
Fantastic Casey Burns Wood Folk Flute
May 23, 2004
I just ordered this wonderful flute from Casey
Burns. Listen.
Need I say more...however, keep in mind that Grey Larsen is playing. It won
out over a Delrin Pratten and the M&E Rudall & Rose copy, both of which
are also fine flutes. I think this one just sounds better, if Internet recording
are any way to judge. The wait time is currently two weeks, but might increase
since this is getting a lot of positive press over a Chiff
and Fipple.
PayPal Scam
May 19, 2004
I just received a very convincing PayPal scam email (co-incidentally about
a day after using PayPal for the first time in over a year). Something seemed
less than square, so I attempted to contact PayPal via phone.
Yikes! Have you ever tried to contact this company? They make it very difficult
to speak to someone. If-then robot hell, and you get to pay for the experience.
Finally, I got through to a rep, and the email indeed it was a scam.
The rep said that "you always will know when a message is from PayPal
because it will use your first and last name" (the scam email did not).
I can't imagine it would be to hard for bad guys to get this information, and
would expect this kind of scam to pop up in the near future.
I used to like PayPal, and even had some stock in the company prior to the
EBay merger. I'm starting to re-consider this company however. Their customer
service and dispute resolution borders on criminally bad, and I am beginning
to think that personal bank accounts are very vulnerable.
They could go a long way to combat this by improving their customer service--
real representatives with real solutions available through an 800 number.
The Flickering Mind
May 12, 2004
A new book, The
Flickering Mind, harshly criticizes computers in K-12 education. I've not
read it yet, but it is getting good reviews. Maybe this will help wake up clueless
administrators and educational technologists to some of the perils of computers
in the classroom. Pay for some good teachers instead of this year's boxen.
However, I do believe that high-school graduates should be proficient in a
word processor, email, a spreadsheet, a draw/paint program, and a database.
Microsoft Works / Appleworks / OpenOffice fits that bill nicely. All are inexpensive
or free, and require minimal hardware and software investment.
Gnome 6 Review
May 12, 2004
I've been a real fan of the minimalist Gnome 2 Linux desktop. In this review
of Gnome 2.6, Linux guru Nicholas Petreley really
slams this new version. He mainly focuses his ire on changes in the Nautilus
file manager. I don't much like Nautilus either, and instead use the KDE file
manager in the Gnome environment, getting the best of both worlds. In my experience,
neither stacks up against the elegance on Windows Explorer. Too bad. Many other
features of Gnome 2 are really excellent. And, it's a volunteer effort.
Minimalist Flashlight
May 12, 2004
My wife works with LED technology, so I thought she might get a kick out of this.
C.S. Lewis Quote
May 06, 2004
"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims
may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than
under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep,
his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our
own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their
own conscience."
-- C.S. Lewis
Scams, Lies, Deceit, and Offshoring
May 06, 2004
John C. Dvorak has posted this eye opening article on corporate
scamming and foreign outsourcing. It does my heart good not to be involved
with corporate America anymore. Don't put your eggs in that particular demopublican
basket.
Iraq: Fun Fact
May 06, 2004
Wouldn't it have made some sense if the US Army Language School had been reopened
about the time we decided to go into Iraq? Perhaps we would have some graduates
by now who SPEAK THE LANGUAGE.
An Amazingly Lame Article
May 06, 2004
Today's Daily Telegraph has an
amazingly lame article about the good 'ol girl Army torturer in Iraq. Do
they make em that dumb in West Virginia? It's like saying all those folks from
North Adams, MA, are really just stupid hicks. Perhaps she is just plain dumb,
a sadist, or was under orders, though she looks like she is enjoying herself.
The quality of big media news gets worse and worse.
This Week in Dumb
May 06, 2004
Harry Browne has put together a list of 19
amazingly dumb statements from politicians. Every one of them was made
by George Bush — "the ultimate decision-maker for this country" — at
his press conference last Tuesday, April 13.
Speaking of Larry Niven
May 05, 2004
After watching the X-Men inspired movie Unbreakable, I just reread Man
of Steel, Woman of Kleenex (reprinted online with permission), by Larry
Niven, part of the All
the Myriad Ways anthology. Makes me want to go re-read Ringworld. What
do you think-- is there a luck gene?
Jerry Pournelle: Chaos Manor Musing
May 05, 2004
I used to really enjoy Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manor column in Byte
Magazine. I guess he is still
writing these, but now in an online blog format. If you are looking for
an exciting summer read, Lucifer's
Hammer is still a great Sci/Fci epic, authored by Jerry and Larry Niven.
Bruce Schneier Challenges our National Security Practices
May 04, 2004
Bruce Schneier, author of several
outstanding works on rethinking security practices, both online and off,
provides some interesting thoughts on how we approach security in
this audio interview. If we secure the red door secure, won't the terrorists
use the insecure blue door instead? Author of the eye-opening Secrets
and Lies and Beyond
Fear.
How God Makes God
April 29, 2004
An online
article in the May 2004 ScientificAmerican.com on A-Life (synthetic biology).
Good read.
Primordial Life
April 29, 2004
And while on the topic of A-Life, I wonder if my favorite synthetic evolution
screensaver, Primordial Life, will
ever make if to v.4? Get v3.21 here.
High Country News Reports
April 28, 2004
High Country News reports that the reason
Eastern Colorado is so windy is because Kansas sucks and Texas blows.
Spyware Legislation
April 25, 2004
New York Senator Michael Balboni has introduced this to-the-point
legislation for criminalizing the installation of spyware on your computer,
as well as using bandwidth without your consent. Here is another bill in the
Senate, with less
teeth. Are these workable or enforceable? Anti-spam legislation seems to
be having no effect. By the way, i'm not being paranoid here. Have you checked
your home or work computer for spyware lately? If not, you will probably
find a disconcerting amount of it sending who knows what to who knows who.
BTW-- the above excellent anti-spyware software's website is getting slammed
by a DDoS attack. Guess who might be launching it?
Fee Demo News
April 22nd, 2004
It looks like the federal fee demo program is starting to lose support in the
Senate. In yesterday's Energy
Resources Fee-Demo hearing 4 out of the 5 senators made it clear that they
had major misgivings with the program. House Bill 3283 to make fee-demo permanent
has no co-sponsor representing any state west of Wisconsin.
In Idaho Senator Larry Craig's words:
"I want all to know that I will not support basic entrance fees
to any National Forest, BLM District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Refuge, or
Bureau of Reclamation lands, whether or not it is called an entrance fee
or basic fee or by any other name. These are public lands and they should
remain open to the public." Read
the full story.
Hope this thing is killed, but it looks like ARC will attempt
to revive it in a different form. Your participation is more important than
ever. Write, fax, or call your representative now.
What's Wrong with Public Lands User Fees
April 19th, 2004
Confused by the new public lands fee structures? Me too. Here's one example from
Tent Rocks National Monument, in New Mexico. Note that this Monument is only
a year old, and look at all the changes to the fee schedule posted on the sign.
It seems my annual National Park Pass is no longer good at National Monuments.
BTW, Tent Rocks is a superb hiking area, and I like to think the fees have
been used to build the excellent trail through the narrows. Wonder what Chociti
Pueblo has to say about of all this?
Nick's Oberling Website
April 19th, 2004
Highly talented and hardworking Montana
artist Nick Oberling (my brother-in-law) now has a website. And a very
tasteful one at that. It's nice to see artists (Nick and his equally talented
and hardworking wife Jennifer Li) making a living doing what they do. Jennifer,
where is yours? I guess you work harder 'cause you are mom too.
It's Patriot's Day
April 19th, 2004
So take a visit to http://thomas.loc.gov/ to
see what mischief your representatives are up to. Some libertarian resources
are here, here,
and here.
Bringing A Product to Market
April 19th, 2004
Just finished probably what is the most useful book i've encountered
on successfully developing and marketing a product. Will
it Sell? How to Determine If Your Invention Is Profitably Marketable, by
James E. White, is dense enough to be daunting, but has some very good advice,
especially about the patent shell game (along with Don
Lancaster's classic Case
Against Patents) and marketing. Another good resource is High
Tech Startup. by John Nesheim.
Concertina Playing Cat
April 16, 2004
My goodness, it's Friday again. Charlie
how'd your angels get down like that. Here's the Elbows
CD. More here, here yikes, yikes
again, and the motherload.
Howtoons, and the Carl and Jerry Stories
April 15, 2004
Howtoons are comics for kids that
show them how to make things. Carl and Jerry had a series of 'teenage engineer'
stories in Popular Mechanics in the 50's. These are
now online.
Best of the West
April 15, 2004
Silver City, NM, Butte,
MT, and Bisbee, AZ. Great small
business-oriented towns with character. And the best bed and breakfast...is
the Black Range Lodge.
The best hot springs are...well I can't tell you that, but i'll give a hint--
somewhere in SW New Mexico.
This is Broken
April 15, 2004
In the spirt of Don Norman,
broken user interfaces of all kinds are documented
here.
Summer 2004 Star Parties
April 14, 2004
The summer star parties are scheduled. Good ones in the U.S. Southwest are
at the Grand Canyon,
the Rocky Mountain Star Stare near
Colorado Springs, Enchanted
Skies near Socorro, New Mexico (October - the best!), and at White
Sands National Park, New Mexico (in October).
USGS thinks it unlikely the Yellowstone super-volcano will blow it's
top and take out half the USA.
April 14, 2004
Not this year anyway.
Turns out that the lava dome at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake has been there
quite a while, longer than records that is, and is considered stable. That's
not really so long is it? In other news High Country News reports that bison
have fallen over dead at the closed Norris Geyser Basin, due to toxic gas.
This Website Best Viewed With...
March 3, 2004
To those who just insist in adding
this message to their website, Tim Berners-Lee replies: "Anyone
who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on a Web page appears
to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web, when you had very little
chance of reading a document written on another computer, another word processor,
or another network." - Technology Review, 1996.
Action Comics #1
March 3, 2004
Superman's a bad dude here. Not the boyscout we all know now. The full scanned
version is posted
here.
Spybot-S&D Fake Warning
February 26, 2004
I've been recommending the excellent free Spybot-S&D software
for removing the spyware that is on your computer.
Scammers have somehow gotten the lame SpyHunter or SpyKiller to show up at
the top of a Google search for Spybot-S&D. Quote from the Spybot-S&D
website: "People downloading these two are forced to pay to remove
spyware, and in the case of SpyKiller are even directed to us for support!" So
be careful which one you download.
Spybot-S&D is so good that
it deserves support. You can donate to
continued development. Here's to excellent free software. I hope this guy can
make a living maintaining this.
Narthex: A Small Story from the Days of Punk
February 26, 2004
In the late 70's small unknown independent bands with energy and enthusiastic
local followings were the most exiting thing to happen to rock in 20 years. The
story is worth telling.
What A Quiet Stiff
February 19, 2004
A sliding surface for found
imagery. Yikes! This is so good that it gets a permanent home in the
right menu.
Improving Writing Skills
February 19, 2004
If you write for a living, or want to do so, James MacDonald is moderating a
very informative discussion on how to write well. It is worth at least
a read, and perhaps your participation in the thread.
WebMonkey RIP: 1996 – 2004
February 17, 2004
WebMonkey closes
up shop today. It had offered a great set of web development tutorials online
since 1996. I set up my first Apache / MySQL / PHP server with instructions
from WebMonkey. There were tutorials on everything from basic HTML to UNIX
firewall security. This was a great resource and will be missed. Link
to story.
CSS Zen Garden
February 16, 2004
This compilation site shows
some excellent examples of sites designed with CSS. Is it time to reconsider
using CSS? Probably so; the major browsers (IE and Mozilla) now do a decent,
but not perfect, job of rendering CSS, and are getting better all the time.
Yes you will have problems from the diehard Netscape 4 users, and your accessibility
will suffer. Products like Dreamweaver
2004 MX and Plone are really pushing
the CSS envelope. I'm on board this train, finally.
World of Ends: What the Internet Is and How to Stop Mistaking It for
Something Else.
February 16, 2004
Doc Searls and David Weinberger have put together a very
good summary of the Internet at it's best, and at it's worst. I particularly
like their three basic rules of Internet behavior: 1) No one owns it,
2) Everyone can use it, and 3) Anyone can improve it. Isn't
that kind of an antithesis to business and government's desire to control?
Understanding Fuses
February 9, 2004
While doing some work on my 95 4Runner this weekend, I inadvertently put the
battery in backwards and switched the positive and negative leads (duh!). Sparks...
Tried turning the ignition and nothing... My first reaction was that I had
caused some expensive damage, but upon pondering a bit, realized that their
probably was a fuse protecting the whole electrical subsystem from someone
like me. And yes in fact, the whole electrical system is protected by one 80
amp fuse, which forks out to many lessor fusible links for components like
the radio and lights. Replacing this fuse fixed the problem of course, but
wanting to know more, I found this excellent link
on fuses. Actually the whole site is an excellent tutorial on basic electricity.
Given that I'm about to add
a CB, junction
box, and inverter,
it's probably a good idea to get this stuff down cold.
Grammy's. Can It Get Any Worse?
February 9, 2004
I watched the Grammy's tonight. Most of
the show was downright pathetic. Especially the
whine by a dying bunch of industry leeches. I think that the mainstream
pop-music industry has become irrelevant. Good new music happens elsewhere.
Free to Download, Yours to Purchase
February 4, 2004
Cory Doctrow (Boing Boing) has published
his second book, Eastern Standard
Tribe, under a Creative Commons Licence. That
means you can download, read, and distribute it unchanged for free. It is also
in bookstores where you can buy the dead trees version. Apparently this worked
well for his last book, Down
and Out in the Magic Kingdom. Is this viable? I've bought several books
this way now, notably Philip and
Alex's Guide to Web Publishing. It was very good, and I don't like reading
blocks of text on the screen. Does this sales model apply to music as well?
IM Will Know Where You Are
January 29, 2004
The Internet is just not much fun anymore. Everything gets co-opted as a marketing
device. The latest is incorporating
location information into your instant messaging presence. GEOPRIV is
the group responsible for moving this forward, for better or for worse.
Tires 101
January 28, 2004
Pretty much all you need to know about reading
the sidewall ratings on tires. A very informative article that should help
in your next tire purchase.
Exporting Intellectual Labor
January 28, 2003
Dion Dennis, of Bridgewater State College, writes an interesting article, The
Digital Death Rattle of the American Middle Class, on the export of intellectual
labor to Asia, and the simultaneous erosion of American public education.
Columbia's Final Moments
January 27, 2004
A fascinating forensic
analysis of space shuttle Columbia's final decent.
Albuquerque Blue Dragon Celtic Session Ends
January 23, 2004
After four years of continuous excellent Celtic traditional music sessions,
Albuquerque's Blue Dragon Coffee house has informed participants that they
are no longer welcome.
Seems a bit short-sighted to alienate a group this large and connected to
the Albuquerque folk music scene, who have been so supportive, and brought
so much business to the the Blue Dragon over the years. Business is business
however, and the show must go on...
The session is actively looking for a new host. Suggestions?
Captain Kangaroo Dies
January 23, 2004
Bob Keehan, who played Captain Kangaroo for many years, has
died at age 76. Good journey Captain.
Should we take kids to concerts?
January 9, 2004
Today I tried to purchase tickets for Flook and Susan
Mckeown from a vendor in Albuquerque. I asked the price of a children's
ticket, and the clerk launched into a rant about how disruptive children are
at concerts. My jaw just dropped and I did not reply. He finally sold me the
tickets. Maybe he was just grouchy, but...
We almost never see children at the concerts we go to. When we do, they are
generally well behaved and enjoy the music. If they do get out of hand, which
happens, the child usually gets whisked away outside until they calm down.
It seems to me that exposure to good live music (art) at an early age is very
important. Culturally this seems not acceptable. Instead, we feed our kids
dumbed down "'Children's" music. Few kids were at the recent impressionist
art show at the Albuquerque Museum either.
Weird times we live in.
BTW, Susan Mckeown brings her 2 year old on tour with her (very cool).
Spam Analysis
January 9, 2004
An interesting analysis
of a spam message that keeps showing up. No solution though. SpamAssassan,
which is a very good server side flagging tool, does not seem to catch it.
BTW the way, if spam is a problem, check with your ISP to see if they provide
some tool like that. It catches about 90% of the junk email.
Plone Gaining Institutional Acceptance
January 9, 2004
I keep getting requests to back up the claims that Plone/Zope is not
only affordable, but the best content management out there. Thankfully, that's
starting to happen.
Presentation CSS
January 9, 2004
Is this cool or what? Being able to create presentations in HTML that
your browser turns into a slide show. Too bad only Opera supports
it so far. Example (works,
but poorly in IE 6 and Mozilla 1.4) Could be a good alternative to flaky Powerpoint.
Wisdom from Brooks' The
Mythical Man-Month #1
January 9, 2004
Complexity: Software does not benefit from repetition.
Many other forms of engineering benefit from being able to repeat small elements
or scale them into larger elements to scale the project. In software, repetition
is eliminated as much as possible through functions and procedures. Scaling-up
a software project necessarily involves increasing the number of distinct components.
As the number of components increases, the number of possible states and interactions
between those components increases non-linearly. It's also important to note
that this complexity is the essence of the software. Creating a simplified
model of the software is generally useless, unlike in physics.
Wisdom from Brooks' The
Mythical Man-Month #2
January 9, 2004
Conformity: The complexity of a software system often
stems from the need to conform to arbitrary constraints (the beloved "Requirements" document).
Software needs to interface with external systems, software, formats, and rules,
all of which are specified without rhyme or reason. This complexity cannot
be removed through any design decision.
Wisdom from Brooks' The
Mythical Man-Month #3
January 9, 2004
Changeability: Software is under constant pressure
to change because it is easier to change than physical, manufactured products.
People have an inherent understanding that they cannot ask for a complete redesign
of a bridge. Their lack of understanding of software development does not keep
them from asking for software changes which may require a complete redesign,
however.
Wisdom from Brooks' The
Mythical Man-Month #4
January 9, 2004
Invisibility: This one is a little hard to explain,
but is closely related to complexity. Software systems are so complex that
a useful, comprehensive graph or diagram of them cannot be created. UML diagrams
are cute, but you need several different types of them to be able to see the
whole picture, and any diagram for a reasonably large system with one type
of view of all it's interactions would be ridiculously huge. Couple this with
the fact that you need many such diagrams, some of which are not even planar
(difficult or impossible to represent in 2 dimensions), and you start to see
the problem. The human mind has very powerful visual processing; the engineer
gains much by being able to visualize her system. While other types of engineers
are able to visualize their systems, unfortunately, software developers cannot.
Fiddlers: O'Neils and Allans are Online!
Jan 7, 2004
''O'Neil's Music of Ireland' and 'Allan's Irish Fiddler' are
now completely online! Wow! Ohmygosh! How cool! In NWC, ABC, MIDI, and
GIF (notation) formats. Also
available on CD for $10.00.
Fantastic Page of Metal WSorking Links
Jan 7, 2004
Pat's Metalwork
Links assembles an excellent list of metalworking resources together
in one place. Includes: metalworking art, blacksmithing, books, bulletin
boards, careers, tool catalogs, clockmaking, clubs and associations, CNC,
competitions, foundry, gears, howtos, history, home shops, humor, machines,
machining, material sources, math, news, projects, references, services,
spinning, software, steam engines, and welding information. A few links are
broken, but what a goldmine!
What You Can't Say
January 4, 2004
Having put my foot in it one too many times online, here's a
good piece on what you can't say, and why.
Johnny Cunningham RIP
January 3, 2004
 Johnny
Cunningham, the multi-talented Scottish fiddle player, poet, and producer,
died on December 15, 2003. My daughter, who is two-and-a-half, got to sit front-row
center for one of his last performances (with wonderful Susan
Mckeown ), in late November. She's a lucky little girl. Her favorite music
is the "pig song" (fa-la-la-la-la) from A
Winter Talisman (a fantastic CD), and she wants to play the violin like
Johnny-- and she can growl just like Johnny's less than urbane bear ("ewe
canna scare me Grizzly"). At the concert, he gave her a wink and a nod,
and made us all laugh with the story of the Unfortunate Snow Incident. Thanks
Johnny! You influenced many, both big and little.
Link to
his memorial page.
Flook 2004 NM Tour Dates
January 3, 2004
Good Celtic band Flook. Don't
miss!
Tracks.
| Thursday 22nd, Las Cruces, New Mexico State
University |
Wednesday 28th, Santa Fe,
Lensic Theater |
| Friday 23rd, Socorro, New Mexico Tech Performing
Arts Series |
Thursday 29th, Taos or Alamosa tbc |
| Saturday 24th, Farmington, San Juan College |
Friday 30th, Alamagordo, Flickinger Center
for Performing Arts |
| Sunday 25th, Albuquerque, South Broadway Cultural
Center, 2pm and 7pm |
Saturday 31st, Silver City, Mimbres Region
Arts Council |
| Tuesday 27th, Tucumcari, Quay Council for
Arts & Humanities |
|
|
