Blog content
Posted on 2005-08-31 at 08:03
I realize the content of the blog has been singleminded lately. Once this trip is behind me, I expect I'll be able to move to my next obsession. Until then, deal with it. :)
Beds that aren't mine
Posted on 2005-08-31 at 08:02
We will be staying at the JingLun hotel in Beijing for 3 nights, the Kowloon Shangri-La hotel in Hong Kong for two nights, and the White Swan hotel in Guangzhou for the rest of the trip.
Why do I do this?
Posted on 2005-08-31 at 08:01
Updating my blog on the last day of the month is probably a waste of time. I goes off the front page so quick that it's likley noone ever reads it. Well, I'm gonna do it anyway.
What will we see?
Posted on 2005-08-30 at 08:02
While in Beijing, Denise and I plan on visiting three places. The Great Wall at Mutianyu, The Forbidden City, and The Summer Palace. We may end up and The Great Wall at Badaling instead of Mutianyu if we can't convince our tour guide to take us there. I hold out hope that he will see reason (or cash!) and take us to Mutianyu instead.
The details emerge (UPDATED!)
Posted on 2005-08-30 at 08:01
My wife and I leave on Sunday (the 4th of September) at some preternaturally early time in the morning. We will be returning on Thursday the 22nd of September around 10 PM.
When we come back, we will have our daughter, Cadence, with us. The notice is short, but I want to get there as soon as possible, so I'm fine with leaving right away.
Going to China!
Posted on 2005-08-29 at 08:01
I just received the preliminary itinerary for my trip to China. Looks like I'll be leaving here this weekend (OhMyGodThatsSoQuickImFreakingOut!) and won't be coming back until the 22nd of September. Specifically, I'm set to leave on September 7th (next Wednesday) but because Denise and I plan to hit Beijing first for 3 days, that means leaving Saturday or Sunday. Seems like I have almost no time at all now.
Current mood: Wow!
Now Playing: Willis Alan Ramsey's "Muskrat Love" Nibbling on bacon, chewin' on cheese (Hey I'm on hold. Don't blame me!)
Concerning intelligence and the value of scientific inquiry
Posted on 2005-08-26 at 08:03
On a more serious note, though the study above is controversial, I find it disheartening that he is being attacked over the results. Scientific inquiry should be conducted without regard to political correctness and without sympathy to the subject. I don't know if his study is correct, but I know that the only attacks should be against the methodology of the study and the interpretation of its resultset. Furthermore, saying that women score lower on I.Q. tests really only says that women score lower when tested on that small sliver of our human intellect.
I score well on these tests, so take this from someone who has nothing to gain from attacking them. I do not believe they present a reasonable picture of human intellect. Indeed, the test is designed to measure only a small bit of intelligence: spatial and problem solving skills, primarily. What does it say about empathy, proprioception, or artistic ability? What does it say about the myriad of other skills our brains bring to the table? I'm not discounting the value of I.Q. tests. Indeed they are highly correlative to financial success and familial stability, but is that all that matters? I say "No". Even if the study is 100% correct, all it says is that there are a subset of intellectual skills that men perform better than women. Should we ever bother to study a different subet of those skills, we would likely find that there are some that women perform better.
The worst corralary to this study is not that women are stupider than men (which is not what the study claims at all) but that it suggests that men are better at some things while women are better at others. Why is this the worst corollary? Becuase there will be those who use it to justify social predestination...the old "a woman's place" argument. This argument is invalid, in that it presupposes that ability follows from predestiny, which is psuedoscience at its worst. That men are better with spatial thinking might mean that overall there will be more male than female engineers, but it does not mean that there cannot be female engineers. There will be female engineers who surpass their male collegues, even. General propensity should never determine individual rights...assuming this study is peer-reviewed and found valid.
I'm sorry to say...
Posted on 2005-08-26 at 08:02
...that Richard Lynn, the emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, will never get laid again.
One more step toward my immortality!
Posted on 2005-08-26 at 08:01
Scientists have discovered a gene that can extend a mouse's life expectancy by 30%. Currently, it has the side effects of reduced fertility and increasing risk of diabetes. The first makes sense (nature says "live longer but have fewer children") but the second is kinda serious. Still, it's a solid research gain and I look forward to seeing my 200th birthday (and eventually my 768th). You are all invited to the party in 2169. I want a pony.
The NJ guys are in town today and tomorrow
Posted on 2005-08-25 at 08:03
I guess the boss decided they needs some more time looking over my shoulder to learn what I do. Two months isn't enough? OK, this time take notes.
Interesting meeting yesterday at work
Posted on 2005-08-25 at 08:02
I made a few enemies and a few friends. It's funny how honesty works. Oh well.
America's Manifest Destiny...
Posted on 2005-08-25 at 08:01
...is the next largest rung on the belt buckle? How interesting that 80% of the planet is dying from too little food and the other 20% is dying from too much. Can we try something different now? I don't think this model is working as advertised.
Pat Robertson does not speak for Christianity
Posted on 2005-08-23 at 08:01
I've been informed that we Christians don't say that publically enough. Well then. There it is. Pat is not our spokesman, and if the media saw fit to look for the truth instead of ratings, it would stop fanning the flames of that misconception by posting every insane rambling from the man's mouth. I have confidence, however, that the average American already knew this, but maybe it should be said more often. There. I've said it.
Gnome 3.0 Needs To Clarify and Unify the API
Posted on 2005-08-18 at 08:05
It's time to invite in the outside developers. It's time for Gnome to design a clear and hierarchical Application Programming Interface modelled after Java or Mono. Something that can be bound to many languages, but which is, itself, simple and powerful. Said API should be heavily based around the First Class Objects I described yesterday. A progmrammer that hasn't ever worked in Gnome should be able to sit down and figure it out. Something that looks sane like this:
Person John = New Person("John Doe")
John.SendMessage("Hi John!")
or maybe something like this:
Event BirthdayParty = New Event
BirthdayParty.AddPerson "Bob"
BirthdayParty.AddPerson "Alice"
BirthdayParty.AddPerson "Krusty the Clown"
BirthdayParty.SendInvitations(viaEmail, withRVSP)
Of course, those are extremely simplified, but I don't see why the final API couldn't be pretty close to that easy. A simple dotHierarchy like that found in Java and .NET or Mono is the way to go. No reason why programmers couldn't choose to write their apps in C or even Assembly, but the API bindings should expose the objects in a manner similar to that which I've described briefly here. This mess about each different subsystem having it's own API that may or may not bear any resemlbance to other APIs and which does not relate to the system as a whole sucks. It's ain't working. Gnome is not sucking in new developers at any serious rate. Take a play from Microsoft's playbook: Attract the developers, let them write interesting apps, then watch the users follow the interesting apps like breadcrumbs to your platform. It works.
Gnome 3.0 Needs To Make Eye Candy Useful
Posted on 2005-08-18 at 08:04
Use Eye Candy. Use it liberally. Let there be transparent windows and morphing movies and glowing buttons. But make each piece of eye candy be justified. Make each piece prove that it should be included. The criteria should be as simple as Gnome itself. Does this piece of eye candy make the user's experience easier? If the answer is yes, then include it. If not, then discard it. Don't make it a circus of pulsating pixels, bothersome banners of information, and wobbly windows. Make each thing matter. And make it degrade gracefully. Test the video card. If the card can take it, turn it all on. If the card can't, only turn on that which ican be handled. What do I mean when I say "useful" eye candy? I mean a task bar that shows a miniaturized version of the task. I mean buttons that brithen when you hover over them, or glow when the user's attention is needed. I mean sliding sidebar windows that come out when the user must be informed of something. I don't mean transparent windows just for the sake of being able to see the desktop underneath. Transparent windows should be used only to let the user know something underneath requires their attention. that's what I mean when I say "useful".
Gnome 3.0 Needs Focal Computing
Posted on 2005-08-18 at 08:03
Show only one thing at a time. Make applications take the screen. Conform the entire screen to the task at hand. If the user is typing a letter, let the whole screen be about typing that letter. This goes deeper than making all windows run maximized. I mean to suggest a screen that is intensely focused on the task at hand. If the user is copying files to a disk, let the whole screen be about those files and that disk. That is not to say the user can't move that task to the background and move on to another, but that while the user is focused on that task, make it the computer's whole world. Offer inline help related to the task, allow the user easy access to all related activities. If the user is playing music, let the screen be about the artist, the album, the song. Let the screen offer to find more music from that artist. Let the screen offer to queue up the rest of the album from which the song is playing. Let the screen offer the user an immersive musical experience. If the user is typing a letter, let the screen offer to look up words. Let hte screen offer to find related correspondence on the system. Let the screen offer help with formatting. You get the idea.
Gnome 3.0 Needs To Own The Corners
Posted on 2005-08-18 at 08:02
SymphonyOS does this to great effect. Gnome needs to own all the corners. This is prime screen real estate. There are no easier spots to click than the corners and the four most common functions should be tied to them.
Commenting about my blog!
Posted on 2005-08-18 at 08:01
Note the link next to the heading for each day. You can click on that to offer me feedback about a particular entry. It'll open your mail cleint and populate the subject line with the entry date you intend to comment about. Feel free to try it out. :) Thanks go to Bob for spurring me on to do this. I still need to tweak it a bit, but the basic functionality is there. Enjoy my new interactive blog.
Methods of Project First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:10
A Project FCO is a different sort of FCO in that it is really just a grouping of other FCOs. A user may choose to create a new Project, and drag in 3 or 4 Person FCOs, 2 Event FCOs, and maybe a Multimedia FCO (a presentation). In this way, he can track a group of objects at a glance without having to resort to a keyword search. A Project object would allow a user to:
- Add objects
- Remove objects
- Add keyword
- Remove keyword
- View objects as slideshow
Methods of Event First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:09
Events are appointments or tasks that are to be tracked, attended to or otherwise addressed. An event should alow the user to:
- Cancel
- Invite people/Assign to others
- Mark as attended/completed
- Decline to attend/complete
Methods of Conversation First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:08
Technically, conversations are a sort of subset of the Person FCO, but there interest to the user warrants the promotion for FCO. The user should be able to click on a conversation (like an email or IM) and choose whether he wants to:
- Reply
- Make it an event
- View similar conversations
Methods of Person First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:07
People ought to be considered FCOs. Much of what we do on the computer nowadays revolves around working with and speaking with other people. To that end, there should be People objects that have the following actions associated:
- Talk
- Read blog
Methods of Data First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:06
Almost as much as pictures, users like to be able to store random data. We are not as organizaed as we'd like to be, but computers should facilitate organization. To that end, Gnome should make it trivial for users to start a new table of data to be stored just as you would a letter to mom or a picture of your dog. That data should be easy to edit (something that looks like a spreadsheet would suffice) and it should be easy to find data when you search. People could keep lists, names, ideas, or whaever else interests them it these data files. Look to applications like Glom for inspiration here for easy user access to data tables. With such a table, users would be able to:
- Modify the table structure
This FCO is probably the most likely to cause controversy, as it is the largest departure from the traditional user experience, but I feel strongly that it warrants some consideration.
Methods of Picture First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:05
Users like pictures. They like to store them, look at them, print them, and show them off. Graphics, in Gnome 3.0 should be associated with the following actions:
- View
- Make into presentation
Methods of Document First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:04
A Document FCO is any text-based file; be it an OpenOffice letter to Mom, a PDF file downloaded from the web, or a simple text-based reminder note (like those created by Tomboy or similar apps). With a Document, the user can:
- View
Methods of Multimedia First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:03
Multimedia FCOs would include movies, music, presentations and any other object that requires or allows VCR-like control. The gnome desktop would recognize the following actions with respect to Multimedia FCOs:
- Play
- Stop
- Pause
- Fast Forward
- Rewind
- Record
Methods of All First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:02
All FCOs will have the following actions associated with them:
- Send to a person
- Copy as new object
- Cut/Copy/Paste to and from object
- Edit the object
- Edit the object's properties (like its keywords or owner)
- Search
- Create new object
- Associate with a project
Gnome 3.0 First Class Objects
Posted on 2005-08-17 at 08:01
For version 3.0 of Gnome (currently codenamed Topaz), there has been some talk about centering the desktop experience around a set of what are being called "First Class Objects" (FCOs).
These FCOs will define and fence the user experience. For example, rather than firing up a Word Processor to write a letter to Mom, you might instead just "Create a new document" then "Edit the document". Though it seems like an obvious evolution, it is nonetheless a major break from the previous paradigm.
The user would no longer be concerned with applications, per se, but with the products of applications. The user experience would begin to focus on the end results of computing rather than the computing itself. Like any self-respecting linux nut, I have my own ideas as to how this should play out.
Firstly, I see 8 basic FCOs: Multimedia, Documents, Pictures, Data, People, Conversations, Events, and Projects. I describe how I understand each in the blog entries that follow this one.
I see an interface that strips away all the garbage that doesn't push the user toward these FCOs. Applications would be hyper-specialized but follow a design that blends them all together in terms of look and feel. It's the natural evolution of the Gnome HIG. Why open a whole mail program is all you want to do is read a particlar email thread? Aggregate as much as possible and open the APIs to allow developers to tie into the desktop aggregation. You can view some example screenshots of this sort of aggregation. You can read about the current developer thoughts on FCOs. My thoughts here deviate from those ideas slightly, but are heavily based on the same base concepts. The entries below that detail properties of those FCOs are an expansion of what is found on the linked official Gnome page.
And since I'm making sweeping statements about how others should do stuff that benefits me, let me add that gnome should start right away stealing liberally from SymphonyOS, which implements some really cool ideas.
Wuthering Heights and Modernity
Posted on 2005-08-16 at 08:04
Abstract:
Concerning the work Wuthering Heights and its relationship to Modernism. I greatly enjoyed Wuthering Heights for both its depth and its prose. In this paper, I try to address the Modern and Post Modern subtext of the work as it relates to the period in which it was written.
Paper:
It is natural for man to seek purpose and structure in life. The human experience seems to desire and even need such a base from which to begin. One of the most difficult intellectual transitions in history has been the move from a pre-modern understanding of the world as possessing inherent meaning, purpose and structure to a modern and post-modern understanding of the world as being devoid, or at least mostly devoid, of such meaning. In light of the profundity of this transition and its implications to every facet of our life, it petitions study, and yet it is notoriously difficult to isolate and examine without first examining the roots of the transition. While it is more often the case that academicians look to such works as Martin Luther's To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, Kierkegaard's Philosophical Fragments, T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, or any of the works from Marx, Freud, Vannever, or Darwin, it is occasionally more fruitful to examine it in the early works written by and for the community at large. Certainly Luther and Freud had a stronger grasp of the topic and addressed it more directly, but they had no interest in the practical effects of the shift. Their interest lay in ideology, philosophy, and theology rather than how this drastically different worldview would impact the daily lives of the people. The latter, however, is something at which literature excels. One of the most fascinating glimpses into the Modern malaise of meaninglessness can be found in Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights. Ostensibly, Wuthering Heights tells the story of Heathcliff---a man who seems destined to a life alone---but underneath that literal layer lies a distinctly modernist subtext.
Unlike the majority of her predecessors and contemporaries, Emily Bronte did not seem compelled to limit the actions and events of the story to the external world. She seemed quite comfortable explaining the actions of the internal world. It is in delving into the implicit rather than merely the explicit causes and motivations of her characters that she is able to tackle the problem of meaning. Heathcliff becomes something more than the just sum of his actions. He becomes the result of those actions as they interact with his motivations and his history. The reader is asked to see in Heathcliff a man who has utterly defied society and its inhibiting structures. The Heathcliff presented to the reader is one who veritably embodies that defiance. A "dirty, ragged, black-haired ... gipsy brat" brought home by Mr. Eanshaw, Heathcliff invades the social structure of the Wuthering Heights estate and assumes the role of son (Bronte, 30). Bronte's contemporaries would have immediately seen---in fact did see, as evidenced by her critic's responses---the problem inherent in this situation. Heathcliff was not of the same class as his adoptive family and therefore ought not pretend to be so. Bronte exacerbates her critic's horror by not only allowing the situation to continue but also escalating it until he supplants the rightful master. Again, had this been merely an external situation there might not have been cause for much concern. The reader, however, is forced to question the validity of too-quickly associating Heathcliff with his gypsy birth. Early on, Mr. Lockwood assesses Heathcliff:
He is a dark-skinned gipsy, in aspect; in dress, and manners, a gentleman, that is as much a gentleman as many a country squire: rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss, with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome figure---and rather morose---possibly, some people might suspect him of under-bred pride....(Bronte, 3)
The reader is continually reminded throughout the work that Heathcliff is not so simply defined---not by birth nor by environment. Is Heathcliff to be considered a gypsy with all of a gypsy's inherent faults or a gentleman capable of all that is ascribed to that class? The question is left open. In a conversation later between Nelly the housekeeper and Mr. Lockwood, Mr. Lockwood asks of Heathcliff:
Did he finish his education on the Continent, and come back a gentleman? or did he get a sizar's place at college, or escape to America, and earn honours by drawing blood from his foster-country, or make a fortune more promptly on the English highways? (Bronte, 77)
To which Nelly open-endedly replied:
He may have done a little in all these vocations, Mr. Lockwood, but I couldn't give my word for any. (Bronte, 77)
Mr. Lockwood's suggestion that one could become a gentleman through education implies a radical shift from earlier worldviews. Historically, up until this point, the world, being considered a creation of God, was the source of stability for the people in it. If this world was to be the stability of the people, it must be immutable---that is to say, it must be the same for one person as it is for another. In lay terms, the world, in this view, is invested with meaning by some higher authority (typically God) and each thing in it, therefore, can only mean what that authority originally intended. If one was born of a particular race or into a particular socio-economic status, that status or race carried with it an inherent meaning. Being a peasant, for example, defined for the individual the type of person he was---not only in economic terms, but also in social, political, ontological, and religious terms. As Sigmund Freud said in his work The Interpretation of Dreams, the "general view of life [of the pre-modern people was that they were] wont to project as reality in the outer world that which possessed reality only within the mind" (Freud 2). Therein lies the heart of the difference between Pre-Modern and (Post-) Modern man and Emily Bronte expressed that tension through Heathcliff's ambiguous social status.
Further intensifying the reader's uncertainty with regard to Heathcliff's natural social position is his attitude toward those of the class to which he later is associated. Heathcliff neither envies nor elevates the upper class that he observes. Instead, he displays disdain for their pettiness and insecurity. The author herself deepens the audience's despair by pointedly and unabashedly betraying the frailties of that upper class---thereby justifying Heathcliff's disdain. Rather than allowing the text the respite of some underlying truth that buttresses the status quo, which her contemporaries would surely have been more comfortable with, Emily Bronte presents a subset of the world wherein the status quo is shown to be a social construct instead of an immutable absolute. No reader can elevate the actions of the noble Linton children, Isabella and Edgar, after finding them arguing over ownership of a dog. Heathcliff describes his reaction:
Isabella--I believe she is eleven, a year younger than Cathy--lay screaming at the farther end of the room, shrieking as if witches were running red hot needles into her. Edgar stood on the hearth weeping silently, and in the middle of the table sat a little dog shaking its paw and yelping, which from their mutual accusations, we understood they had nearly pulled in two between them. The idiots! That was their pleasure---to quarrel who should hold a heap of warm hair, and each begin to cry because both, after struggling to get it, refused to take it. We laughed outright at the petted things. We did despise them. When would you catch me wishing to have what Catherine wanted, or find us by ourselves seeking entertainment in yelling, and sobbing, and rolling on the ground, divided by the whole room? I'd not exchange for a thousand lives my condition here for Edgar Linton's at Thrushcross Grange.... (Bronte, 40)
Heathcliff finds himself unable to contain his loathing for these "idiots." Likewise, the reader may find it difficult to accept any inherent superiority. Yet just as we begin to empathize with Heathcliff the ambiguity of his character and natural social status is strengthened with scenes showing his penchant for wild violence and incivility. After a discomfiting evening being humiliated by Edgar and Hindley, Heathcliff boldly proclaims to Nelly:
I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do! [...] God won't have the satisfaction that I shall [...] I only wish I knew the best way. Let me alone, and I'll plan it out; while I'm thinking of that I don't feel pain. (Bronte, 51)
Heathcliff grows into an absolutely hateful creature---miserable in his own existence and proactively seeking to make everyone as miserable as himself. Even as his love for Catherine was possibly his only worthy virtue in later life, he still reprimands her on her deathbed:
You teach me now how cruel you've been---cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry, and wring out my kisses and tears; they'll blight you---they'll damn you. You loved me; then what right had you to leave me? What right---answer me---for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery, and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart---you have broken it; and in breaking it you have broken mine. So much the worse for me that I am strong. Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you----- O God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?
The Heathcliff that the audience is left with is a chaotic one---a man torn between a spirit of nobility and of hatred. He is both proof of the status quo and challenge to the status quo. As Catherine's funeral approaches, her noble brother cannot stop himself from a drinking binge while Heathcliff prays alone in his room. The traditional understanding of good and evil, right and wrong, and noble and ignoble are blurred in Heathcliff's character. On one hand, he is the gypsy street waif, wild and full of hatred, while on the other hand, he is the country gentleman whose love for Catherine transcends even death and whose every action proves him to be a man of substance.
Emily Bronte does not permit her readers the luxury of a stable position. In fact, it may be this instability that Emily Bronte wishes for her audience. How is one to understand the modern dilemma unless one experiences it? Bronte's beautifully poetic writing and her unusual novel structure coalesce into a literary experience that manages to effectively impart that instability. Heathcliff's character pushes one way and just as it seems he is complete, he flits another way. Even his plans for revenge falter---not by some accident or machination, but by his own will. He chooses not to complete it once it is in his power to do so. This unlikely turn of events is expressed cryptically, through a discussion of dinner, late into the novel when Heathcliff said:
"I'm animated with hunger, and seemingly I must not eat."
"Your dinner is here," [Nelly] returned; "why won't you get it?"
"I don't want it now," he muttered hastily. (Bronte, 278)
How better to conclude Heathcliff's character growth than to leave him unsure of meaning in his own life! Though animated with a hunger for revenge, he simply doesn't want it. He now exists as a living contradiction. The warring aspects of his self have been made explicit in this one statement. He is unsure of his own motivations. He does not know why revenge "seemingly" must not be completed, he only knows that he will not do it. This is not the act of an ignoble creature, but of a noble human being. It is an act worthy of any lord or gentry. It is his redemptive moment. Here his character stands defiant against any who would say he does not deserve the title of nobility---regardless of gypsy birth. Heathcliff proves himself master of his own existence. This is what the audience may take from Bronte's novel. Heathcliff teaches the reader through his actions, to recognize and overcome those things that would control---hatred, abuse, love, birth, status, sin, and pride. Heathcliff is, for all his faults, a shining example of Post-Modern man creating his own raison d'etre. Neither Kierkegaard nor Eliot could have expressed it better.
Work's Cited
A new paper has been added
Posted on 2005-08-16 at 08:03
I wrote a paper on Wuthering Heights and Modernism. That paper can now be found in my academic works section.
Bryan is Dead
Posted on 2005-08-16 at 08:02
Tom goes to Will's house to visit. Tom asks, "Did your hear the news - Bryan is dead??!!!"
"Woah, what the hell happened to him?"
"Well he was on his way over to my house the other day and when he arrived outside the house he didn't brake properly and *BOOM* - He hit the curb, the car flipped over and he crashed through the sunroof - Went flying through the air and smashed through my upstairs window."
"What a horrible way to die!"
"No no, he survived that, that didn't kill him at all. So, he's landed in my upstairs room over the garage and he's all covered in broken glass on the floor. Then, he spots the big heavy speakers on those small stands I have in the room and reaches up for the corner to try to pull himself up. He's just dragging himself up when *BANG*, this set of speakers comes crashing down on top of him, crushing him and breaking most of his bones."
"What a way to go, that's terrible!"
"No no, that didn't kill him he survived that. He managed to get the speakers off him and crawls over to the window to call for help, he tries to pull himself up on the window ledge but under his weight, the ledge cracks and he lurches forward falling out of the window to the dirt below. In mid air, all the broken windows pieces spin and fall on him, pinning him to the ground, sticking right through him."
"Now that is the most unfortunate way to go!"
"No no, that didn't kill him, he even survived that. So he's on the lawn, just beside the side door. He crawls inside to the kitchen, tries to pull himself up on the stove, but reached for a big pot of boiling hot water, whoosh, the whole thing came down on him and burned most of his skin off him."
"Man, what a way to go!"
"No no, he survived that, he survived that! He's lying on the ground, covered in boiling water and he spots the phone and tries to pull himself up, to call for help, but instead he grabs the light switch and pulls the whole thing off the wall and the water and electricity didn't mix and so he got electrocuted, *WALLOP*, 10,000 volts shot through him."
"Now that is one awful way to go!"
"No no, he survived that..."
"Hold on now, just how the hell did he die?"
"I shot him!"
"You shot him? What the hell did you shoot him for?"
"He was wrecking my house."
Ba doom boom ching. Thanks folks. I'll be here all night. Don't forget to tip your waitresses.
Sticking it to The Man
Posted on 2005-08-16 at 08:01
Online advertisers are now complaining that when we delete browser cookies, we are taking food from their mouths. Though I understand that the ability to better manage browser cookies is disruptive to their current business model, I don't feel any particular moral imperative to help. Advertising is about lying. It's about making us feel less than complete, then offering us that which will make us whole again. Disrupting that sort of enterprise is, itself, a fulfilling endeavor. To that end, I present for linux users a simple script to remove unwanted browser cookies:
#! /bin/bash
cd ~/.mozilla/firefox/$profile/
echo "drop firefox cache and history"
shred -u Cache/* history.*
echo "grab all valid firefox cookies"
egrep '(slashdot|mapquest|mywebgrocer|news\.google|netflix)' <cookies.txt >cookiesnew.txt
echo "get rid of all cookies not explicitly kept above"
shred -u cookies.txt
mv cookiesnew.txt cookies.txt
echo "done"
Just replace $profile with the profile string for your install (it'll be in that directory) and run the script. It'll remove all your browser cache and history, as well as any cookies not explictly mentioned in the egrep statement above. Set it to run on log out and the advertisers will have one heck of a time trying to track you from day to day.
Why did I use shred (destroy the file) instead of rm (remove the file)? Because I'm one of the lunatic fringe that prefers it when a file that he's deleted is, um, deleted. Call me crazy.
Still?
Posted on 2005-08-15 at 08:05
Are you viewing this site using Internet Explorer? Well stop! Unless you are a flaggelant, there is no reason to continue beating yourself with that stick. Go to http://www.GetFirefox.com and get a browser with which you can be proud to be seen. It's easy. It's better. And the icons in the upper right corner of the screen right now will display properly. Plus, you can sleep at night knowing that you are no longer being led hook-in-nose by the Tyrant in Redmond. Don't be evil. Use Firefox instead.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), Not a bad poet for an American
Posted on 2005-08-15 at 08:04
We never know we go,--when we are going
We jest and shut the door;
Fate following behind us bolts it,
And we accost no more.
Welcome to my id. Would you care for a bologna sandwich?
Posted on 2005-08-15 at 08:03
If you click this link, your productivity will crawl into the nearest corner and slit its wrists. You have been warned.
Laptop Details
Posted on 2005-08-15 at 08:02
Pentium M Dothan 725
Windows XP Home Service Pack 2 (This abomination will be exorcised and filled with the holy spirit of Ubuntu Linux as soon as I am able!)
512 RAM 400MHz
80GB Hard Drive, 5.4K RPM (Mercury 9300)
15.4" WXGA LCD Screen
Wireless Network Card Intel 2200 LF
CDRW/DVD DriveCombo
Total Price after shipping and tax: $759.14
A new laptop
Posted on 2005-08-15 at 08:01
My wife and I purchased a new Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop from their refurbished systems outlet (which is the ONLY way to get a Dell system. The one she uses now is owned by her employer and we wanted one we can call our own with certainty. It was cheap (~$700.00) and does what needs doing (basic office and Internet work). I'd have preferred a Monarch system or Alienware system, but Dell had the best price by way of the refurb outlet. No arguing with raw numbers. Alienware and Monarch produce better systems. My current main system is a Monarch. So is my wife's. My previous main system was an Alienware. These are good companies, but you pay a premium for the better build quality. That premium is worth every penny, but in this case, I had limited funds and wanted a laptop. Price, more than quality, was the deciding factor. It'll be good enough for what we do with it. I am pleased with the purchase.
VideoCD follow up
Posted on 2005-08-12 at 08:02
I've since learned that when k3b burns the video to disk it does so based on video length, not file size. Firstly, that's odd because it implies that the video is being re-encoded in some way. I may be misunderstanding what I'm seeing. Secondly, it means I can't fit one week (four episodes) of the Daily Show on 1 CD (I mean, assuming I were to illegally download and try to do such a thing, which I've not done. Nope. Not me. Never.) because the show is just over 20 minutes in length per episode and the VideoCD can only hold 80 minutes of video. That means it inches over the limit by a scant two to five minutes, depending on how many commercials were taken out. So close. Not close enough. The only way to get all of a week's episodes onto one disk would be to open it up in something like Kino to edit the video and cut out the last few minutes myself. That's kind of a pain in the butt. Putting two to three episodes on a disk seems easier to me. It's just that, it'd be so good for my OCD if the episodes could be burned at a [one disk = one week] ratio. I suspect this will be one of those many things that will not be accomodating to my OCD. I think I need some sweet tea now please.
Form Criticism and My Blog
Posted on 2005-08-12 at 08:01
Writing is a multi-layered process. A good writer doesn't turn in his first draft; instead he mercilessly edits it until it hardly resembles the original. That's why this blog is, for me, an interesting experiment.
These entries don't go through the normal vetting process. I don't pour over them, making endless corrections. I don't do these things, because that is not what my blog is.
Once the entry is out there, I am quite loath to make changes, and tend to only make changes that don't alter the character of the original post. I don't know if that's how blogs ought to be written and read, but I know that's how you ought to read mine, because that's how I wrote it.
Corporate America
Posted on 2005-08-11 at 08:02
Trust me, Alice, you don't want to go down that rabbit hole.
With a "Curiouser and curiouser", you'll inch forward following a trail of paychecks until, looking back, the rabbit hole is gone and the rabbit is standing over a pool of employee tears screeching "Oh dear! Oh dear! We shall all be late!"
You'll keep going, hoping one day to be the Great Hookah'd Caterpillar--lounging on your leaf, watching little people beg confusedly at your feet to be just a little larger--but you'll never grow larger than a small worried rabbit.
You want to work for that? For the right to meet your boss face-to-face and have him, with a Cheshire grin purr or growl---as if you'd know the difference! All this while your friends, the rabbit and the dormouse, play at being more important than they are.
Join 'em if you want, but drinking from an empty cup will never fill your belly up.
You think that one day you'll be so important that the Queen will let you play Croquet by your rules? No chance. Dormouse or Rabbit or Caterpiller or Cat, if you make her game unpleasant she'll fix it with an "Off with his head!"
You drank their "Drink Me", you second-hand smoked their hookah, you pretended the cup was full and in the end, you'll still get the axe! You want that?
The Theta Alpha Kappa Shindig Results Are In
Posted on 2005-08-11 at 08:01
The new inductees are a good bunch and I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the House of Wansink. The refreshments were good (I'm a total whore for blueberries!) and the conversation was both pleasant and engaging...except when I said that Kristin's house was full of clutter because it helped to distract her from her profound loneliness. Probably a little too pointed---true, but pointed. Personally, I liked her just fine, but like all of us, she had some problems that needed addressing. I'm not sure they were being addressed back then. I hope they are now.
Changes to my blog
Posted on 2005-08-09 at 08:01
This is under-the-hood info, so if you don't care, move on to the next entry.
I've made some changes to the structure of the site. Firstly, you will notice the page names are now different. I used to use a mmyy_blog.htm format, but now I use the superior
XML, XSL, CSS, and Atom
Posted on 2005-08-08 at 08:04
Well, I've started moving converted content to the site. You will now note (or, for the apathetic, ignore) that older content is all in xml files and within a day or two I expect all content to be in xml format. Specifically, the xml I chose was Atom feed format. It's like RSS, but better. When I'm all done, you should be able to subscribe to the site as a live feed and just get headlines in your feed reader. That's cool stuff if it works. Either way, xml is cleaner and easier to use moving forward, so I did it.
And Girls?
Posted on 2005-08-08 at 08:03
The last entry asks a good question. Do any chicks read my blog? I mean, sure we all know that women want me and they're prepared to pay, but do they read the blog too? It's probably best that I never find out. I mean, this thing is an embarrassment enough just knowing that my own sex is reading it. Why, in God's name, would I want to subject a women to this horrid mess?
I'm not kooky...
Posted on 2005-08-08 at 08:02
...I'm "just unconstrained by traditional intellectual parameters." At least that's what a former professor of mine just told me. Cool. I rock! You guys (and girls?) suck!
Jennings UFO report
Posted on 2005-08-08 at 08:01
It seemed odd to me that Peter Jennings would do a report on UFOs a few months ago, especially one that was serious and reasonable. This is typically the deathknell for a reporter's career. Now I know why he was willing to do it. He had nothing to lose. :(
Converting AVI files to VCD disks in Ubuntu Linux
Posted on 2005-08-07 at 08:01
Since I dropped my paid TV subscription, I've missed the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. I'm not saying that I'm gonna start downloading The Daily Show and burning it to disk to watch---because that would be wrong and bad and evil---but if I were to do it, here's how I would go about it:
1) Convert the downloaded AVI files to MPG files.
ffmpeg -i The_Daily_Show_08-03-05.avi -target vcd dailyshow1.mpg
ffmpeg -i The_Daily_Show_08-04-05.avi -target vcd dailyshow2.mpg
etc...
2) Burn the video to disk with k3b (I normally prefer native Gnome applications, but k3b is an outstanding KDE app!). To burn to disk with k3b, I just started a New Video Project, then selected the MPG files to go on the disk, then hit Burn. Simple.
One caveat, k3b gave me a "charset conversion failed" error at first. I went into the k3b preferences, and added the "--filename-encoding=iso8859-1" parameter to vcdxbuild (an app it calls internally). That solved the problem.
More on the Blues Traveller concert
Posted on 2005-08-05 at 08:05
Well, enough people have asked for details that I suppose I should offer some review of the Blues Traveller concert at the Norva.
The structure of the show was uninspired. Blues Traveller was preceded by a local band; a nameless rock group whose music didn't much compliment the works of the headliner, but which---in and of itself---was well enough performed and displayed an acceptable measure of talent and creativity. Blues Traveller came after the local band had finished inflicting their unrequested works upon us. They performed many of their most popular songs, then left the stage. Was I to beleive that they were finished? Of course not. Predictably, they trotted out an encore wherein they played two songs that were among their larger commercial successes. What luck that they had those works in the barrel---cocked and loaded. The structure, as I said, was uninspired---as predictable as the blinking blue colon of my silver alarm clock.
The structure of the event not withstanding, I enjoyed myself. Why? Because even if the structure was banal, the performance was not. The band's songs were played with energy and enthusiasm.
The music had an energy and the crowd felt it. It was not so with the opening band, who were technically as proficient as the headliner. While I liked the music of the openers, their work drained me. I felt buffeted by their music. It was as though the music took more than it gave. They have potential, but they must learn to be more generous in their performance. They worked music. They didn't play it. The difference was, to me, obvious.
But the headliner, Blues Traveller, was not so stingy with their musical energy. With amps pushed to the same deafening setting of 11, vocals just as bled out and distorted as the openers, and songs no more profound than any popular band of their time, they managed to offer a performance that gave far more than it took. I spent the night energized, and enjoying the music. I felt more like a participant than an audience member. This was music that grabbed me by the t-shirt, dragged me to the stage, and forced an air guitar into my surprisingly deft hands.
What more can you demand from a concert than to close your eyes and feel like you are up there with them?
Why did I discuss Rhythm and Meter above?
Posted on 2005-08-05 at 08:04
Because I just had to correct someone about the distinction between the two and it seemed like something worth clarifying. Besides, the next time someone says "that poem uses iambic pentameter" you will know what they are talking about. The more you know....
Meter
Posted on 2005-08-05 at 08:03
The meter of a poem is determined by counting the feet on a single line of poetry. What is a foot? Well, a metric foot is equal to one repetition of a rhymthic pattern. So, for instance, we I to repeat the iambic rhythm five times in the same line of poetry, then I will have five metric feet. The proper names for metric feet are found below:
Monometer: 1 foot
Dimeter: 2 feet
Trimeter: 3 feet
Tetrameter: 4 feet
Pentameter: 5 feet
Hexameter: 6 feet
Heptameter: 7 feet
Octometer: 8 feet
Rhythm
Posted on 2005-08-05 at 08:02
Rhythm is, simply put, the pattern or relation of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of prose or poetry. The four most common poetic rhythms found are:
Iambic: - ^ (as in "She crossed the moat, and Christabel...")
Trochee: ^ - (as in "Once upon a midnight dreary...")
Dactyl: ^ - - (as in "Canon to right of them...")
Anapest: - - ^ (as in "His cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold...")
Note that in the above examples, a "-" means an unstressed syllable and a "^" means a stressed syllable. These are hardly the only poetic rhythms. Other less common rhythms include:
Pyrrhic - -
Tribrach: - - -
Bacchius: - ^ ^
AntiBacchius: ^ ^ -
Amphimacer: ^ - ^
Ionic a Minore: - ^ -
Chiriamb: ^ - - ^
Spondee: ^ ^
Molissos: ^ ^ ^
Antispast: - ^ ^ -
First Paeon: ^ - - -
Second Paeon: - ^ - -
Third Paeon: - - ^ -
Fourth Paeon: - - - ^
They really like the moon
Posted on 2005-08-05 at 08:01
Introducing the Moon Song.
Happy Birthday!
Posted on 2005-08-04 at 08:05
Today is my daughter's birthday. she's not here yet, so I can't celebrate it with her, but I can do this. :)
I go through life with this feeling
Posted on 2005-08-04 at 08:04
DNA Microarrays
Posted on 2005-08-04 at 08:03
...Here's another small step toward my living to the ripe old age of 768 (or at least 200!). And they called me crazy when I made the claim. Besides, if I can't do it this way, then maybe I can just decapitate myself right before death, and shoot my frozen head into orbit until my robot body has been completed. Mmmm, robot body.
Laptop
Posted on 2005-08-04 at 08:02
I gotta bring Denise's laptop to her work this morning. Apparently they are auditing all their equipment and need to scan the laptop barcode or some such junk. Lame. Too tired to do stuff early.
Blues Traveller Concert
Posted on 2005-08-04 at 08:01
I went to see the Blues Traveller concert at the Norva Tuesday night (the 2nd). Good concert. Small venue for the band. That's all.
Dr. Wansink just called!
Posted on 2005-08-02 at 08:04
Coolness. I have an official Theta Alpha Kappa shindig to attend next week. I wonder if I should show up in full vestment and a scholar's crown? I'd hate to be underdressed.
John Dryden (1631-1700)
Posted on 2005-08-02 at 08:03
"Furor fit laesa saepius patientia."
Right now, I'm feeling ya, Dryden, I'm feeling ya.
You are gonna die...
Posted on 2005-08-02 at 08:02
...but what are the odds, really, of dying in a given manner? Now you know.
Remote posting?
Posted on 2005-08-02 at 08:01
If you are reading this, then I have solved the problem of how to remotely post a blog entry. This means I can now add entries while at work or otherwise away from home. That's cool stuff.
Website looks strange
Posted on 2005-08-01 at 08:03
Yes, I know. It's jsut a permissions issue with some files on my site. I expect to have it fixed shortly. If the site looks fine to you, then I've already fixed it.
My congresscritter sucks
Posted on 2005-08-01 at 08:02
Thelma Drake is an asshat. Look what she had to say about the USAPATRIOT Act. This idiot actually believes that the PATRIOT Act protects our rights rather than limits them. Make sure you know who she is getting her graft from as well. I don't know if her stupidity is congenital, developmental, or accidental, but it's getting on my last nerve that she is in Washington to represent us.
I'm somebody's dad!
Posted on 2005-08-01 at 08:01
Her name is Yong Ni Dong (Dong is the name of the orphanage, Ni means "girl", and Yong means "Expressed In Poetic Form").
She was born on August 4th, 2004 and currently resides in the Yang Dong orphanage in the Guangdong province of China in the city of Guangzhou.
As of March 30th, 2005---when the attached picture was taken---she was 25.2 inches tall and 14.75 lbs with both a head and chest diameter of 16 inches...and she had 2 teeth.
