Virginia's UFO History
Posted on 2006-01-30 at 08:28
Our local paper, the Virginian Pilot, ran with a Sunday Headline of "UFOs: Seeing is Believing?"
Let me start by saying that I'm happily surprised that they gave it as much coverage as they did.
Now let me point out that much of the article just rehashes the same inaccuracies that have been spit out of the media machine for years regarding things like Project Blue Book (saying that most of the cases have been explained by Project Blue Book avoids the point that many have not!) and "odd winged military aircraft". That last one bugged me. The writer quotes an Air Force spokesman who says effectively, "No, we were not flying anything that could have explained that sighting" then states with a wink and a nudge that we all know the military is flying super-secret "odd winged" aircraft around here! Really? Because I've never seen any of that! Indeed, the many Air Force, NASA, and Governmental employees (including at least two former presidents) would likely know the difference and they have most certainly not chalked it all up to odd-winged military aircraft.
The article wasn't all bad, but it was far from good for ufology. Too many jabs and jokes for my taste.
Yes, it's still me
Posted on 2006-01-30 at 07:23
OK, so I'm making some changes to the look and feel of the site. The structure is essentialy the same, but the look is totally different.
In particular, I've dropped the use of tables for layout in favor of using CSS positioned elements. this makes it easier to make wholesale changes to the layout later without having to redo the table structure every time. Tables for layout is sooo 1990's. CSS is the way forward. Of course, for now, there a ton of ugly hacks I had to employ so that this site looks right in browsers that don't properly implement CSS (really this is just Internet Explorer at this point!).
Gung Hay Fat Choy
Posted on 2006-01-30 at 06:54
The Year of the Dog.
The Years of the Dog are: 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, (and every 12 years going on).
Born in the Year of the Dog, you possess all that is good about humanity. You are honest, loyal, and trustworthy. Though sometimes selfish and eccentric, you don't much care about money (though you always seem to have it!). In social situations, you can appear to others as cold or distant, but you make a good leader, nonetheless. You are most compatible with those born in the Years of Horse, Tiger, and Rabbit.
Will the United States lose out to China and India?
Posted on 2006-01-26 at 20:08
We've all heard to claim.
The U.S. is slowing down on the science and technology track and China and India are nipping at our heels.
The reasons cited are numerous, but often boiled down to a few basic points. While other countries are steadily reducing rural anti-intellectualism, America is slowly being taking over by zealots who would rather the bible be our only science text book. Additionally, China and India are putting out many more engineers than the U.S. Our jobs are leaving our shores and going overseas where all these (inexpensive!) engineers dwell. And besides, isn't the Unites States showing all the signs of Roman decay and lethargy?
All these reasons are plausible, but are they true?
I submit that these perfectly plausible reasons do not represent the unfair reality of the situation.
Looking closer at America's anti-intellectual movement (as typified by those who deny such things as evolution and global warming), we can see that while these people may have the attention of the media, they do not have the attention of the researchers and developers of the country, including those funded by the government. If we set aside the media hype about fundamentalists running the country and just look at the numbers, the picture is quite different. The amount of money the U.S. spends on research is staggering. According to UNESCO's 2005 Report on Science and Technology Statistics, China spends about 1.23% of it's GDP on R&D. In the US, we spend 2.67% of ours on R&D and we have a much higher GDP. In an apples-to-apples comparison, China spends $72,014,408,000 in adjusted (ie standardized) currency on R&D (a lot to be sure), but in the U.S. we spend $275,095,956,000. If we rounded down to the nearest 100 billion dollars the rounded amount we drop would be more than China spends in total. And it's a snowball effect. We make advances in-country and those advances bring us both profit and more advances more quickly. It's hard to compete with that. China (a country I have a great affection for!) can't just throw bodies at that problem to see it solved. They simply cannot muster the technological resources to stand toe-to-toe with us in that way, and by the time they get to where we are now, we will have advanced significantly.
They don't fare much better when we look at other numbers as well. Let me start with the numbers you'll hear most often. The U.S. graduated 70,000 engineers in 2004, but China graduated 600,000 and India graduated 350,000 in the same period. Sounds dire until you hear the rest of the story. To hear the full story, we had to wait for Duke University to finish their report entitled "Framing the Engineering Outsourcing Debate: Placing the United States on a Level Playing Field with China and India." Rather than poorly paraphrase the conclusion of the report, I'll quote it:
Our study has determined that these are inappropriate comparisons. These massive numbers of Indian and Chinese engineering graduates include not only four-year degrees, but also three-year training programs and diploma holders. These numbers have been compared against the annual production of accredited four-year engineering degrees in the United States. In addition to the lack of nuanced analysis around the type of graduates (transactional or dynamic) and quality of degrees being awarded, these articles also tend not to ground the numbers in the larger demographics of each country. A comparison of like-to-like data suggests that the U.S. produces a highly significant number of engineers, computer scientists and information technology specialists, and remains competitive in global markets.
In other words, these numbers that are compared head-to-head really aren't head-to-head data. Our engineers are held to a standard. We have a clear definiton of Engineer, we know what a minimum educational level should be, and we know a minimum school accredidation should be. China and India cannot say the same. Moreover, even if you accept the higher raw numbers of engineers, the number per capita favors the U.S. The report suggests that per every one million citizens, the United States is producing roughly 750 technology specialists, compared with 500 in China and 200 in India. Of those that China and India count, many come from diploma, not degree, programs. Many are little more than copy machine repair techs (technically an engineer by some standards) whereas the U.S. does not use as loose a definition.
I'd refute the outsourcing claim, but anyone who has actually worked with these outsourcing outfits understands all too well the problems with that option.
So are we going to fall behind? In truth, I admit I wish I could say the world will be a fair place where hard work and dedication will see these others join us as leaders of the technolgoy community, but the world isn't fair. The world is no respecter of diligence or equity. The race is long, and I'm not saying we are garuanteed to win, but I am saying that at this point the race is rigged by circumstance to favor us...greatly! Unfair? Yeah, it is. Sadly, the most the international community can realistically hope for is that the U.S. becomes a nation that respects the rest of the world and seeks to lift others up rather than knock them down. As Spider Man's Uncle Ben once said, "With great power comes great responsiblity." Well, we have the power? Are we going to act responsibly or keep on as we have been?
what's wrong with my fellow Christians
Posted on 2006-01-25 at 12:35
No words do this video justice. I am scared.
Meouch
Posted on 2006-01-25 at 10:48
A video of cats doing what cats do. Courtesy of Google Video by way of Dvorak by way of Will.
Edith Sitwell - Still Falls the Rain
Posted on 2006-01-25 at 09:05
The Raids, 1940. Night and Dawn.
Still falls the Rain---
Dark as the world of man, black as our loss---
Blind as the nineteen hundred and forty nails
Upon the Cross.
Still falls the Rain
With a sound like the pulse of the heart that is changed to the hammer-beat
In the Potter's Field, and the sound of the impious feet
On the Tomb:
Still falls the Rain
In the Field of Blood where the small hopes breed and the human brain
Nurtures its greed, that worm with the brow of Cain.
Still falls the Rain
At the feet of the Starved Man hung upon the Cross.
Christ that each day, each night, nails there, have mercy on us---
On Dives and on Lazarus:
Under the Rain the sore and the gold are as one.
Still falls the Rain---
Still falls the Blood from the Starved Man's wounded Side:
He bears in His Heart all wounds,---those of the light that died,
The last faint spark
In the self-murdered heart, the wounds of the sad uncomprehending dark,
The wounds of the baited bear---
The blind and weeping bear whom the keepers beat
On his helpless flesh... the tears of the hunted hare.
Still falls the Rain---
Then--- O Ile leape up to my God: who pulles me doune---
See, see where Christ's blood streames in the firmament:
It flows from the Brow we nailed upon the tree
Deep to the dying, to the thirsting heart
That holds the fires of the world,---dark-smirched with pain
As Caesar's laurel crown.
Then sounds the voice of One who like the heart of man
Was once a child who among beasts has lain---
"Still do I love, still shed my innocent light, my Blood, for thee."
It calls to me
Posted on 2006-01-23 at 09:28
Must...have...Starbuck's Soy Hot Chocolate.
Dear Diary
Posted on 2006-01-20 at 16:55
Today I brought 16 quad-processor servers to their knees. The client whose servers were made to weep openly are impressed with my ability to stop all database activity companywide by hitting F5 in SQL Server's Enterprise Manager. Apparently it's a bad thing when SQL Server reports the number of rows returned in scientific notation because it's otherwise too large to display.
I hope they still love me in the morning.
Tell me about...
Posted on 2006-01-20 at 11:50
I had an idea for a series of children's books called "Tell me about...".
It doesn't seem terribly original, but I haven't seen it done elsewhere yet. The idea struck me when I was at the bookstore---a favorite haunt of anyone who fancies themselves a member of the posh literati---looking through a book in the "...For Dummies" series about religion. I was struck by how useful such a series would be for children if it were properly geared to their level and needs.
I began thinking about a book on religion called "Tell me about religion." Then I considered how useful it would be to my current situation if there were one called "Tell me about China" or "Tell me about adoption."
That's when I considered the general usefulness of a children's series of educational books. In my mind, I tentatively named the series "Tell me about...", since that tends to be how a pedagogical learner, like a child, would start the inquiry process.
What I need to do is make such a thing a reality and submit a manuscript and series proposal to the right people. Sadly, in my internal debate between doing important things and sitting around, sitting around kicks the crap outta doing important things just about every time.
Still, I really need to get on it. This is a legitimately good idea. Kids need to learn and there are a distinct paucity of books geared toward children of this type. Am I crazy? (Yes, that was a call for feedback)
NASA digs me
Posted on 2006-01-19 at 15:36
Well, to be fair, I don't know whether they dig me or just like laughing at me. All I know is that I've had 115 visits to this blog from NASA this month alone. I just thought others would find that interesting. I did. Maybe they are reading my UFO blogs.
Mock ups of a next generation Gnome interface
Posted on 2006-01-18 at 20:47
These are not my own, but I was quite impressed with these ideas for a next gen interface look and feel for Gnome. I found them on gnome-look and art.gnome.
Four basic categories of ethical philosophy
Posted on 2006-01-18 at 16:27
Normative
Associated mainly with absolutism, normative ethics tries to prescribe or describe a norm or standard of morality to which all people should be held. Often this is done through either an appeal to monotheism (i.e., He said so, therefore...) or statistical methods (i.e., All people everywhere believe x is wrong therefore x is wrong).
Teleological
Teleological (from the Greek telos meaning end or goal) is distinct from Deontological in that it stresses intrinsic value in some external thing relating to an act or intent. Usually that external thing involves a purpose from which the act either deviates from or aligns with or an end which can be said to be bad. Breaking a promise is wrong in that it is against God's will or produces bad effects but not because it simply is wrong, for instance.
Deontological
Deontological (from the Greek deon meaning duty) is distinct from Teleological in that it stresses intrinsic value in an act or intent without reference to its consequences. Breaking a promise is wrong in itself regardless of its consequences, for instance.
Autonomy
As Kant understood it, autonomy is the state of man. It is his freedom from influence---the ability to act from pure reason. Basically, he believes that man is rational and as a rational creature, it can act in accordance with a conception of laws (stopping at a stop light, for instance, as opposed to natural laws such as gravity) and when he chooses to obey those conceptualized laws, he is exercising his autonomy. Were he not to obey those laws, he would be acting heteronomously, that is, under another influence such as desire or natural inclination.
Five great men of ethical philosophy
Posted on 2006-01-18 at 15:34
Aristotle
This philosopher is associated with an ethical theory known as virtue ethics. Virtue ethics essentially states that virtue is good. He, of course, lists those virtues so as to resolve any ambiguity. Those virtues consist of characteristics that are between extremes. Whereas neither cowardice nor fearlessness is praise-worthy, bravery or courage is, for instance. Ultimately the proper exercise of character, exemplified in virtue will bring happiness, which is the one true ultimate end. Therefore, the good is defined as the activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. Practicing virtue builds it, making it a self-feeding cycle.
Jeremy Bentham
This philosopher is associated with an ethical theory known as utilitarianism. Bentham's brand of utilitarianism, classical hedonism, essentially affirms the belief that pleasure is the only intrinsic value while pain is the only intrinsic evil. These two factors should drive all moral decisions in that we should always seek to produce the greatest good---measured, using Bentham's hedonistic calculus, by its intensity, duration, certainty, propinquity, fecundity, purity, and extant---for the greatest number of people while seeking to inflict the least pain to the least number of people.
Thomas Aquinas
This philosopher is associated with an ethical theory known as natural law theory. Natural law theory essentially states that which is natural is good. Natural is defined as God's purposes. Man's natural inclinations, in this system, are as follows in order of inclination: self preservation, procreation, social existence, intellectual curiosity. Since it is concerned with purpose, this theory is teleological. Since it based on the idea of one true God and His true purposes, it is absolutist. Since it is concerned with purpose, intent is paramount, rather than consequences. Aquinas, believes that man's natural ends are essentially good, and that all those ends all eventually point to a contemplation of God---God being the end of every intellectual substance, according to Aquinas.
J.S. Mill
This philosopher is associated with an ethical theory known as utilitarianism. Mill's brand of utilitarianism, what has been called eudaimonistic utilitarianism, affirms a position somewhat similar to Bentham's brand, in that both believe in the greatest good for the greatest number. Mill, however, seeks to establish a qualitative difference between pleasure and happiness (hence the term eudaimonistic)and even between qualities of happiness. Put most succinctly by Mill himself, "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied."
Friedrich Nietzsche
This philosopher is associated with an ethical theory known as perspectivism. He affirms that there are essentially two types of morality: slave and master. Through this system, Nietzsche attempts to demonstrate a need to "revaluate" our values. Being a relativist, he sees all good and evil as a matter of perspective.
Immanuel Kant
This philosopher is associated with an ethical theory known as deontological ethics. Deontological ethics affirms the primacy of duty in the practice of the good. For Kant, this requires establishing a way to know duty, thus reason is applied to the categorical imperative (writting in the language of logic that would be "Premise, therefore not not Premise"). Since he states that by definition all people are morally responsible, they can and should always apply this imperative to moral situations to determine moral correctness. Being autonomous requires that morality be exercised since it is only in obeying a conception of a law that we exercise freedom. Also, the Will plays a vital part in his theory because he establishes that only the Will can actually be good, thus intention, rather than consequence, becomes the central moral pivot.
Lessons my blog taught me about my writing
Posted on 2006-01-18 at 13:07
Unless you are writing concrete poetry (poetry whose visual layout is part of the art of the work itself) the words should be layout-neutral. Seems obvious, I know, but it's a lesson made clear to me in my recent reorganization of this blog. I have entries that reference the entries above and below them. I have entries that are not discreet (that is they rely on another entry being next to them). These entries are among my weakest in content now that they can be read on their own and even when grouped with other entries, they draw the readers attention from the words to the form when they reference an entry that should be directly above them but no longer are.
Content is king. Those entries of mine that offer new opinions or information are my most popular. By. A. Very. Large. Margin. Regulars occasionally appreciate the entries in which I link to interesting things elsewhere, but most readers, including regulars (yes, both of you!) prefer original content. It is my college papers, my how-to guides, and my religious commentary that get the most attention from visitors. OK. I get the hint. I'm not gonna stop linking to cool things I find, but I'll try to put more original content online.
I don't have a voice. It takes a while for a writer's voice to coalese, and from my writings on here, it appears mine has not yet done so. What is a writer's voice? A writer's voice is that distinctive tone and language that let's a reader identify a writer by the words alone. Poe has a clear voice. Read some Poe, and I garuantee that you will be able to pick out his work from a crowd without benefit of byline. I seem to change voice depending on topic and mood. I'll need to spend some time pondering that.
Less is more. By nature, I ramble. I'm learning to rein that in a bit. Brevity is not my strong suit, but my most recent posts show that I'm learning to be more dense in my writing. I consider this a good thing.
Ghost man terrorizes village, IT workers chuckle
Posted on 2006-01-17 at 13:58
According to Reuters, An Indian man in prison was reported dead to his family by a distant relative who saw him admitted to the prison hospital. Not so interesting right? It gets better.
Turns out he never died. Indeed, he came home and his family and friends, who thought him dead were shocked to see him still alive. Good news, you say? Sit back down. There's more.
Shock turned to fear as children screamed "Ghost! Ghost!" and ran away from him. Villagers locked their doors and hid. His own brothers fled from him when he showed himself. Just a poor first reaction? No. Not in India.
Villagers have continued to ostracize him under the assumption that he is an apparition come to haunt them. The ghost felon in question has filed a complaint with the local police who have stepped in to mediate the confusion. Can the situation take a rational turn now? Not quite. There's yet more insane-in-the-membrane left in these people.
The village council has determined that they are reasonable men of science. They will accept his claim to life if he can but prove he is not a ghost. To quote the modern sage Napoleon Dynamite, "Idiots!"
The next time your employer mentions outsourcing work to these guys, remember this. And laugh.
Chuck Jones, The Scarlet Pumpernickel
Posted on 2006-01-17 at 08:30
"And do you think (fop that I am) that I could be the Scarlet Pumpernickel?"
Word of the Day: Mesothelioma
Posted on 2006-01-17 at 08:15
Mesothelioma is an uncommon form of cancer, usually associated with previous exposure to asbestos. In this disease, malignant (cancerous) cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Its most common site is the pleura (outer lining of the lungs and chest cavity), but it may also occur in the peritoneum (the lining of the abdominal cavity) or the pericardium (a sac that surrounds the heart).
Most people who develop mesothelioma have worked on jobs where they inhaled asbestos particles, or have been exposed to asbestos dust and fibre in other ways, such as by washing the clothes of a family member who worked with asbestos, or by home renovation using asbestos cement products.
Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear until 30 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos. Shortness of breath and pain in the chest due to an accumulation of fluid in the pleural space are often symptoms of pleural mesothelioma.
Symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma include weight loss and cachexia, abdominal swelling and pain due to ascites (a buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity). Other symptoms of peritoneal mesothelioma may include bowel obstruction, blood clotting abnormalities, anemia, and fever. If the cancer has spread beyond the mesothelium to other parts of the body, symptoms may include pain, trouble swallowing, or swelling of the neck or face.
These symptoms may be caused by mesothelioma or by other, less serious conditions.
In the United States, the average mesothelioma-related settlement was $1 million; for cases that go to trial awards averaged $6 million, according to a study by the RAND Corporation. Only a small fraction of the thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits in the United States every year are related to mesothelioma. In 2004, a bill in the United States Senate aimed a asbestos litigation reform failed to reach a floor vote. In January of 2005, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter announced he would again try to pass an asbestos litigation reform bill.
A separate bill introduced on March 17, 2005, the Fairness in Asbestos Injury Resolution Act of 2005 (FAIR act of 2005), seeks to ensure a set amount of compensation dependent on the symptoms of the victim. The range is from Medical Monitoring for victims with Asbestosis or Pleural Disease to $35,000 for victims with Mixed Disease With Impairment all the way to over $1,000,000 for Mesothelioma victims and nonsmoking Lung Cancer victims.
The above data regarding Mesothelioma was gleaned mostly from the wikipedia. Learn to love the LazyWeb. And before the rumors begin a-flying, the answer is "no". I do not have or know anyone who has this afflication. I really did just write about it as a "Word of the Day".
AWStats in Ubuntu
Posted on 2006-01-16 at 11:28
I've been using Webalizer for purusing my logs to see what visitors frequest my site. Webalizer is a good free software application for getting a quick overview of site trends, but I wanted more detail than it offered.
I consulted the Great LazyWeb (via his esteemed oracle Google) and was given a vision that I should install awstats.
To install awstats in Ubuntu all i had to do was "sudo apt-get install awstats". Afterwards, I modified the /etc/awstats/awstats.conf file to point to my apache logs for the log location and to a directory I created called awstats for the working directory (ie, where it puts everything). Specifically, the following bits from the conf file are the bits I changed:
LogFile="/var/log/apache2/tomde.access.log.1"
LogType=W
LogFormat=1
SiteDomain="tom.digitalelite.com"
DNSLookup=1
DirData="/var/www/awstats"
There were two small gotchas for the uninitiated. First, when I tried to run it with the command "perl awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -update" it told me it couldn't find the file awstats.pl. Well, a short find command later and I discovered that Ubuntu put it in the /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ directory. So I changed my command to "perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -update" which worked like a charm. The app ran and did...nothing that I could see. Thus the second small gotcha. Apparently all that command does it compile the log data into a database format for it to use later for report generation. So I found the commands to run for each report (again, the Great LazyWeb provided me the guidance I sought, Oh Great LazyWeb, Thou art grand indeed.). It suggested that I could run some particular script that would run all the reports at once, but I could not find it, so I took all the commands for each report, copied them into a single shell script and ran that. The shell script looks like this:
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -update
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=alldomains -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.alldomains.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=allhosts -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.allhosts.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=lasthosts -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.lasthosts.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=unknownip -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.unknownip.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=alllogins -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.alllogins.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=lastlogins -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.lastlogins.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=allrobots -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.allrobots.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=lastrobots -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.lastrobots.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=urldetail -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.urldetail.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=urlentry -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.urlentry.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=urlexit -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.urlexit.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=browserdetail -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.browserdetail.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=osdetail -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.osdetail.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=unknownbrowser -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.unknownbrowser.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=unknownos -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.unknownos.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=refererse -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.refererse.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=refererpages -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.refererpages.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=keyphrases -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.keyphrases.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=keywords -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.keywords.html
perl /usr/lib/cgi-bin/awstats.pl -config=tom.digitalelite.com -output=errors404 -staticlinks > awstats.tom.digitalelite.com.errors404.html
After running that script, suddently awstats provided me just what was promised. Not as simple as webalizer, but not too difficult either. And the details it provides are greater than webalizer! I am pleased.
Now, go forth and do as I have done that we may show glory to the Vision of the Great LazyWeb in out words and deeds.
The minutia of my life
Posted on 2006-01-16 at 11:23
I've moved from my old 64 MB keydrive (she has served me well) to a new keydrive formfactored card reader with a 256 MB SD Card. Now I can upgrade the drive without buying a new drive every time. Plus, I can read other card types when I need to. For those who care about such things (ie, no one), the new drive is is a Lexar Trio reader. It'll read SD, XD, MMC, Memory Stick, and a couple other formats. It's just a bit larger (but hardly at all) than my old keydrive. The only problem I have with it is that it has no loop for a keyring. I have to carry it in my pocket instead of on my keyring. That is lame, but otherwise it's really a very good product so far. I may upgrade this one to a yet smaller kind that I saw in the store recently. I'd have done it then, but they had none that would read SD Cards in stock. Still, I'm quite pleased.
I'm sure you feel edified having now been updated on this most significant aspect of my life.
My untitled happy snippet
Posted on 2006-01-16 at 10:15
Now peep the wild things from their dark places.
The light of the sun shines bright on their faces.
I don't wanna go to work today...
Posted on 2006-01-16 at 08:21
...and Calvin agrees.
Mono and Gnome APIs
Posted on 2006-01-13 at 14:45
I've said it before. I'll say it again. Linux will not ever become mainstream until it can make itself more approachable by the average corporate programmer.
I like Mono and what they have done for Gnome. But let's step back and look at the big picture. We need our own API, not a reworked version of one Microsoft has handed us. Take what's good about .NET and Java and come up with a new API that is specific to the Gnome platform. Moving away from a reliance on Sun or Microsoft's propriatary works, rightly or wrongly, will help to bring the community together. Additionally, making that new standard approachable in the way that Java and .NET are will help bring new developers to the Gnome platform.
Remember that Windows has users because it has applications. It has applications because it courts the average corporate programmer successfully. Gnome could learn a bit from that. It means slaughtering a few sacred cows of the Gnome world. An example? How about drag-n-drop form design? This is not an afterthought. If you want to be taken seriously by the corporate programmer community (the people you NEED to be taken seriously by!) then this is an absolute requirement of every IDE. Period. No debates. And I don't mean some sort of decoupled Glade interface that you can reference in your code, but an integrated drag-n-drop form designer where you can doubleclick a control and write the code associated with the default action of that control. I can design a gui in code just like you, but frankly I'm not gonna. Not when Visual Studio (hands down the best IDE on the planet right now...and I am an ardent Linux supporter) offers me so more simpler a way to do the same thing. Do you hear me Monodevelop? Do you hear me Eclipse? I'm talking to you!
Defining risk
Posted on 2006-01-13 at 13:32
Risk is having only one source of income.
For that reason, I am always on the search for ways to diversify my income base. I'd rather have 5 smaller checks coming in regularly than one big check. That way, if something goes belly-up, my income is reduced not eliminated. It's why I liked the idea of investing in a flooring business. It's why I still look for good opportunities to add another trickle source to the list.
Most recently, I've been looking into opening a franchise of Liberty Tax. The numbers look good. All the right people (Fortune mag and that crowd) are saying good things. The initial investment is low compared to many other franchise opportunities. The stars seem to be aligning. I'm not sure that I'll do it yet, but you'll be among the first to know if you keep reading this blog. I'm still researching the details to determine how long it'll take to blackline (ie, get out of the red, profitwise) and what the time commitments are. If everything continues to line up right, I may do it.
Remember rule 95 of the Ferengi Rules of Aquisition: Expand or die.
Speaking of the Rules of Aquisition, I need to address rule 51. Matt needs his due share of the latinum.
Crystal Reports Header Trick
Posted on 2006-01-13 at 12:11
Problem
I have a Crystal Report with a chart in the group header and the details for the chart in the details section. How do I get the headings for the details to repeat on every page? I can't put them in the Page Heading since they wouod then print above the chart on the first page and it would look odd.
Solution
Create a formula called "FakeGroupForHeader". In that formula, say "whilereadingrecords; 1". Next, insert a new group using that formula as the basis and tell it to repeat the group on each page. This will result in there being only one grouping with no unique data. Wrap the details section in the new faked group, then put the detail headings (that would normally go in the page header) in that group's headings. Voila. You know have headings that repeat every page, but only under the chart (which is in the group heading for the parent group). Problem solved.
Fred "Mr." Rogers
Posted on 2006-01-13 at 10:42
"The secret of life is that when you are with another person---whether in the flesh or on the phone---is to make sure that other person does not feel alone."
Pay for Pray
Posted on 2006-01-10 at 13:42
I could probably make a good living by offering my for-pay services to pray for people. I could tout my background and trump it up to make it sound like I'm some sort of wandering mendicant or holy hermit, then offer my direct pipeline to God for a fee. I could even abstract it out further by offering it on a web site where I tell people that I'll pray for them if they click an ad (thereby generating revenue) and they email me their prayer request. I wouldn't actually have to pray for them, but they wouldn't know that. I could even automate the prayer request response with some heuristic language reply logic to make it seem like a person instead of a form letter. People would feel better and I would be richer.
I could totally capitalize on my degree. I mean, why should Pay Robertson be the only guy locally riding God's coattails to the bank?!?
Of course, if I did all this I'd go to that special roped-off section of hell reserved for crooked politicians, corrupt judges, and people who rip other people off for 3 dollars and 75 fucking cents because they are too stupid and cheap to check their god damn records and write me a check for the amount I'm actually owed instead of some fantasy number he made up like an asshole!
Having morals sucks ass. I can't carry out any of my most ingenuitive plans.
The Internet is for Porn
Posted on 2006-01-09 at 19:45
You simply must see this. It is not work-safe, but it is not crude either. It's just damn funny.
Milton's Mythological Restructuring Of The Fall
Posted on 2006-01-09 at 15:33
Abstract
Concerning Milton's poetic license in his recasting of the myth of Genesis and the Fall of Man.
Paper
Milton's work, Paradise Lost, retells the story of the Garden of Eden as found in Genesis, the first book in the canon of Hebrew Scriptures known as the Torah or Bible. This story relates the tale of the fall from grace which anthropos, the original man, supposedly had early on in human history. Due to the popularity of the story, it is not surprising that Milton, an educated man and poet, chose it as the subject for one of his works. What is worthy of note, however, is the multitude of ways in which he deviated from the original story. For example, while it is true that many are under the misunderstanding that Satan plays an important role in the Genesis story of the Fall, he does not. He is, in fact, not mentioned even once in the Book of Genesis and yet Milton confers on him a large role. Milton was a man educated in the Hebrew Bible and language from a young age by a tutor his father had hired, Thomas Young (c.f., Hutchinson 8ff.) and so it was unlikely that Milton was unaware of his discrepancies. It seems that for the reader to fully understand Milton's theology of the Fall, one must understand first what was changed in the story from the original and second what theological significance the change has.
The original story of the fall of man is presented in Genesis 3:1-7 and is abbreviated below:
[T]he serpent said to the woman, "You will not die [for eating fruit from the tree which God has said not to eat from]; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." ... [S]he took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:4-6)
In this story, as presented in Genesis, the two are tempted by the forbidden fruit at the prompting of a serpent who is later punished for his role in the affair. Thus they fall from grace and are cast from Eden to "toil" (Genesis 3:17) for all their days until death, which after the fall is now an eminent reality in their lives (Genesis 3:19). Before any detailed exegesis is begun, one must consider the work being dealt with. Genesis is not an historical work designed to describe accurately the early world and its origins. Genesis is a mythological work which is designed to describe accurately the relationship of God to his earthly creation and more precisely the relationship of God to his chosen people---the Jews. The exegesis of genesis, then, should account for a mythological framework and allow for the historical inaccuracies typically found in mythological works.
As any mythology, the book of Genesis makes heavy use of a complex symbol system which the early Jews would have invested with particular meaning. The fact that this symbol system is not immediately at hand for the average modern reader has caused some problems. Many of these problems arise as a result of the unusual nature of the characters in the story. The characters associated with The Fall are Adam, Eve, and the serpent. Some investigation reveals that the Hebrew word Adam---which means man---is intentionally similar to the Hebrew word Adamah---which means earth, dust, or ground. Also, the character of Adam was used early in the work to refer to all men. It was not until later editors of the story began adding new parts that Adam became an individual rather than collective man. The original concept of the character of Adam, then, was meant to represent the race of men as a whole and their relation to the ground which is God's other creation. Genesis, for these reasons, is notoriously ambiguous about Adam's status. Eve, on the other hand, seems less entangled by conflicting portrayals. Her name, which is similar the Hebrew word for life, shows that she is quite literally "the mother of all living" (Genesis 3:20), but moreover, she is also blamed and punished by God harsher than Adam for her apparently more significant role in The Fall. Though Adam was there with her with she was tempted, and though he did nothing to stop it, he is still punished less severely than her. The third character, the serpent, has been the primary point of confusion and misunderstanding in the story. Nowhere does it say that this serpent is Satan. Satan does not appear in the Torah (The first 5 books of the Bible also known as the Law) at all. It is not until the Kethuvim (The collection of Hebrew books known also as the Writings---as distinct from the Torah [law] and the Nebi'im [prophets]), in 1 Chronicles 21:1, that his name is uttered. Yet, for all this, most modern readers see the serpent as Satan in serpent form. The cause of this is likely the much later references to Satan as being analogous to a serpent or dragon. Though later Jews made this symbolic connection, the writers and editors of Genesis did not. The serpent's mythological meaning must be found elsewhere. Many scholars now believe that rather than a symbol of whole evil, the serpent may have been a symbol of life. It is known that many, if not most, primitive peoples associate the serpent or snake with life and rebirth because of its ability to shed its own skin seasonally and begin anew. If the ancient writers of Genesis were also working under this mythological symbology, then the story of The Fall takes on new meaning. Rather than the serpent representing that which is purely evil, it begins to represent that which is a synthesis of good and evil. Genesis becomes a story of man's inevitable entrance into life which has its temptations and its shortcomings, but also its joys and its invaluable experiences. Through it all, the Fall tells us that though we may stray in life, God is ever-present and ever-protective when needed (c.f. Genesis 3:21 & 4:15). Thus the myth of the Fall establishes an understanding of the nature of God's relationship to us from the beginning as one of unconditional concern for His creations.
Milton, as he attempts to recast the myth for a later audience, brings with him certain assumptions---primarily from his Puritanical background---which color his interpretation of the story. It is apparent from reading Paradise Lost that Milton was trying to convey the same truths that were presented there. He recognized that these truths were not present in the objects of the story but rather in the meaning and symbology of the story:
"The claim for the truth of events is absolute: these things happened; for the truth of images---the poem's places and personages---less absolute, but still insistent that the qualities and potencies bodied forth in them are real" (qtd. in Madsen 18)
It was not apparent accuracy in objects he strove for, but symbolic accuracy in meaning. Milton foreshadows the dynamics of The Fall as early as the creation story when Adam and Eve are first shown to be distinct in their inclinations. Eve, upon her creation, is transfixed by her own mirror image (c.f. Paradise Lost IV:443 ff) in a pool of water nearby---reminiscent of the story of Narcissus--- while Adam, in Book VIII:277ff, begins his life mindful of God's role in this event. Interestingly, this prelapsarian relationship between Adam, Eve, and God is not a mirror image of the one presented in Genesis. Instead of an equal and non-hierarchical relationship between Adam and Eve, Milton begins with Adam as the dominant partner as established by Eve's remark concerning Adam:
... O thou for whom
And from whom I was formd flesh of thy flesh,
And without whom am to no end, my Guide
And Head ... (Paradise Lost IV:440-443)
This can be contrasted with Genesis' understanding of their relationship as equal until after the Fall when God pronounced that man "shall rule over" woman (Genesis 3:16) as punishment for her sin whereas in the prelapsarian state, they were equal (c.f. Genesis 1:27-28 & 3:18-23).
To his defense, Milton had the difficult task of presenting an Adam and Eve who seemed believable, poetic, and yet not superficial or lofty. They are the archetypal civilized savages---an oxymoron which can only sustain existence in theory. Portraying their roles and relationships as presented in the book of Genesis is flatly impossible. They are ripe with contradiction partly as a result of their own ambiguity and partly as a result of the brevity of their roles in that earlier story. Genesis gave no substantial dialogue and thus avoided Milton's pitfall. Still, it seems that Milton was aware of this problem. Only in a few places does the dialogue become too philosophical for a savage or too savage for a philosopher. And yet this tension does exist. Whereas in the prelapsarian state of Genesis they are sinless and full of God's glory, the prelapsarian state of Paradise Lost shows them to be inescapably drawn toward the Fall. As Waldock put it in his work Paradise Lost And Its Critics, "[t]here was no way for Milton of making [sic] the transition from sinlessness to sin perfectly intelligible" (Waldock 61). As mentioned earlier, Eve spends her opening scene transfixed by her vanity, but it cannot be ignored that Adam is no saint either. Shortly after his creation Adam, not content with what he has been given, asks for more:
Thou hast provided all things: but with mee
I see not who partakes. In solitude
What happiness, who can enjoy alone,
Or all enjoying, what contentment find? (Paradise Lost VIII:663-666)
Later, in talking with Raphael, the Angel, he begins to slander even the helpmate which he'd asked for by first telling of his weakness for Eve's "Transported touch" and rather than accepting blame for his weakness he blames either the Maker (God) or Eve herself as a temptress:
... but here
Farr otherwise, transported I behold,
Transported touch; here passion first I felt,
Commotion strange, in all enjoyments else
Superiour and unmov'd, here onely weake
Against the charm of Beauties powerful glance.
Or Nature faild in mee, and left some part
Not proof enough such Object to sustain,
Or from my side subducting, took perhaps
More then enough; at least on her bestow'd
Too much of Ornament, in outward shew
Elaborate, of inward less exact. (Paradise Lost VIII:528-539)
"[C]arnal desire is not a surprising sequel to Adam's uxoriousness" according to Kelley in her work, This Great Argument (Kelley 149). Adam and Eve, in Milton's work, already possess those errant tendencies with contribute to the occurrence of the Fall. If fact, Adam and Eve have, by the very nature of possessing these tendencies, already fallen. They were created fallen. Here Milton's theology becomes evident. The Genesis story does not parallel this sentiment. In Genesis, Adam makes no such statements about Eve, nor does he ask for more from God than he is given. God's wisdom is sufficient to account for all of their needs (c.f. Genesis 2:18). Furthermore, Adam's understanding of his own urges is moralized in Milton's work in a way that does not mimic Genesis:
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:24-25)
In the above passage man and woman specifically do not consider this a cause of a strange "[c]ommotion." Milton's Puritanical and moralistic upbringing has crept into his work.
Satan's presence in the story thrusts into it a particularly interesting dynamic. He is shown as a fallen angel full of contempt and false pride. It is he, in Paradise Lost, who tempts Eve when she wanders away from Adam. By appealing to her vanity he seduced her into partaking of the forbidden fruit. Thus some would say she was felled rather than fallen by the serpent-disguised Satan. Having left a state of grace, she appealed to Adam to join her and he, not willing to give her up, did just that by eating the fruit as well. The Fall is complete. Madsen, in his work From Shadowy Types To Truth, describes Adam's fall as follows:
When he determines to throw in his lot with Eve, he has seen his image in her, just as Satan saw his image in Sin, and he turns from God to Eve, as Eve had turned from Adam to her own shadow in the water. (Madsen 104)
The question must then turn to who or what these figures (Adam, Eve, and Satan as the serpent) are meant to represent in Milton's mythological restructuring. One theory which seems supported by the text is the idea that while Adam and Eve may be symbolic of men and women universally, the other beings---angels, demons, and specifically Satan---are physical representations of God's hand in action. Thus the Fall, which in Milton's work is inevitable and expected, becomes God's will. Satan, Raphael and others in the story act as tangible markers of God's intangible work. Through Satan, God frees man to live and learn. Through Raphael, the reader sees God's ever-present protection and help when man needs it most. As if to make this point himself, Milton includes the following passage:
... so doth the Prince of Hell
And his Adherents, that with so much ease
I suffer them to enter and possess
A place so heav'nly, ...
And [they] know not that I call'd and drew them thither
My Hell-hounds, to lick up the draff and filth
Which mans polluting Sin with taint hath shed
On what was pure, till cramm'd and gorg'd, nigh burst
With suckt and glutted offal, at one sling
Of thy victorious Arm, well-pleasing Son,
Both Sin, and Death, and yawning Grave at last
Through Chaos hurld, obstruct the mouth of Hell
For ever, and seal up his ravenous Jawes. (Paradise Lost X:621-637)
Here God is saying that not only is it through His will that they exist, but moreover, that they exist specifically to do His bidding. As James Sims explained it in his work, The Bible In Milton's Epics, "even these horrible monsters, unknown to themselves, fulfill His purposes" (Sims 157).
Paradise Lost is a story which tells of the relationship between God and His creations. It talks of God as ever-present in the lives of men, ever-caring for them, and even in punishment giving them the gift of life. Is this so different from the story told in Genesis? Though the characters, the crimes, and the plot are utterly different, the story remains substantially unchanged. The myth and its message are brought to a new audience using images that will convey to them the symbolic meaning which the Genesis images conveyed to the early Jewish readers. Milton seems to have succeeded in his endeavor. The Genesis story is retold and his changes, upon analysis, do betray his motives. The myth is recast.
Works Cited:
Other Works Consulted:
Started new client today
Posted on 2006-01-09 at 13:24
So, judging by the calls I've gotten today I guess I'm supposed to announce such things. So be it. I've started a new client today. It's Liberty Tax. So far, so good.
If fact, I'd go so far as to say it's one of my better clients. The work is low end boring stuff, but the environment is casual without being sloppy and laid back without being unconcerned. I like it.
The James Martin Institute of Oxford
Posted on 2006-01-08 at 19:20
I was speaking with an Oxford fellow this morning about science, human advancement, and the role of ethics therein and he referred me to the James Martin Institute. It seems to be in it's early stages, but plans to directly address those issues surrounding the radical polymorphing of humanness that our species is intent upon inflicting (gifting?) on itself. Fascinating.
While on the subject, if you have an interest in such things as living forever and doing so in a healthy manner, you should also check out the Biosingularity blog. It's a well done blog that---unlike my monstrosity of a personal podium---has a point, a focus, and a use.
Am I crazy to consider the possibility that I might reach 200 or even 768 years of age? No, I am not. Not only are we continually advancing the limits of medical science, we are quickening the rate of that advancement with each new advance. What took 30 years to determine a century ago can be tested and resolved in a few years, in a decade or two, it might be resolvable in a matter of weeks. All I need to do is survive until the next breakthrough. Give me 5 more years and I'll be alive to see the next advance to see 10 more years and so on. Am I certain that I'll see 768? No, but I have a far better chance than you might think. And that's no joke.
I mean they got that one ape to do sign language...
Posted on 2006-01-06 at 12:39
...so why can't we get Bryan to stop eating his own feces like an obese primate?
My Predictions for 2006
Posted on 2006-01-06 at 11:32
The new year is upon us and with it a plethora of experts predicting the fate of their respective industries for the coming year. Rather than insult the experts, I'll submit to tradition and offer my own thoughts on what I expect to see this year for the software industry. Here are five specific predictions I have about the coming year.
1. Linux will master multimedia and thereby gain a new enemy---the multimedia content industry.
I expect that during this year, we'll see linux begin to make its audio/video experience simpler and more comprehensive. The Linux multimedia experience will surpass the Windows and Apple multimedia experiences in ease of use and in breadth of coverage. With it will come legal issues related to Digital Rights Management.
2. Linux will lose server market share to Windows
The latest offering from Microsoft greatly improves the stability and therefore reliability of Windows' Server Edition. All this is done without sacrificing ease-of-use for the admin tools. I hope I'm wrong, but I think this will negatively impact linux server market share in the short term. In the long term (ie, after htis year) I see this is a non issue. The benefits of linux are too great to ignore permanently.
3. Linux will gain desktop market share at Window's expense.
This one is a bit to obvious, since that has been happening at a steady rate for years, so to make it interesting, I will offer a concrete number: 5%. Linux will take 5% of the desktop market by year's end. This will mean that it surpasses Apple (unless Apple also grabs a greater share, which is outside the scope of this prediction). This increased marketshare will not be at Apple's expense, but rather at Microsoft Window's expense. In short, the long predicted "Year of the Linux Desktop" is, in some sense, upon us. Other's have predictied this in th epast and been wrong. This is the first time I'm predicting this. I, of course, will be right.
4. Home Servers will become the new thing to have.
Long a staple of the geek's home, home servers---serving up music and movies and more---will start to take hold in the general populace. By year's end, I predict that the youth market will be on board with this trend, looking for ways to store, access, and share their growing collection of digital miscellany. I'm not sure it will happen byu year's end, but soon enough the market will respond with appliance server devices similar to those on the market now for file and printer sharing. these new appliances will do much more than server files and printers to requesting computers. They will offer the ability to playback music and video, share printers, trade files with remote friends, serve web sites, and more.
5. Apple will enter Tivo's market
Apple will release a hardware solution (not just a software solution, which they already have) that will compete head-to-head with Tivo. Apple will, by consequence, begin moving itself more into the role of entertainment computing and away from professional computing. They will still offer professional enterprise solutions, but they will come to be known as the vendor for the entertainment market, just as they used to be known as the vendor for the graphics market. Specifically, I think Apple will embrace this new conception of themselves. Unlike the graphics market, the entertainment market is all but limitless. They can, and will, make a killing by playing to this.
6. Chairman Bill Gates will download himself into a computer and Google will drop him from the cache
I know I said I'd offer predictions, but I'm throwing this one in for free. Mark my words, Bill Gates will transfer his being into the cyber-ether and Google will in an act of techno-violence remove him from their cache. Many will decry the actions of Google as evil, but punishment will be softer than the public rhetoric. Life will go on.
Consequences
If any one of my above predictions are wrong, even number six, I will eat my hat, provided that I can find a chocolate hat by December 31st of this new year.
Tivo Series 3 HDTV
Posted on 2006-01-06 at 10:21
My drooling fit has come closer to an end.
At this year's CES, Tivo announced that they will be releasing in 2006 the High Definition Series 3 Tivo unit. This unit will sport two tuners, the ability to be used with or without cablecards, external SATA, ethernet and USB, and a front panel that shows you what is currently tuned in and how much space is left on the drive! There are pictures here to be pawed at.
Gadget fetish engaged: Must. Have. Now.
The Origin of Duulan
Posted on 2006-01-04 at 10:48
Spit into this world near the base of the Ageless Mountains, I have never felt a part of the greater scheme---in fact, I never even understood this greater scheme of which others spoke. How could they be so easily duped! While other young boys spent their early mornings in the temple listening to crippled priests spew old lies about Garl Glittergold and his travails against the Big Folk, I sat alone, staring out over the valley that spread beneath my window, and wondered. It was the unknown that called to me! It was the unknown that made itself in my image each morning as I stared over that wide expanse. I read voraciously from my mother's tattered texts of illusions. I longed for a taste of the valley as it really was, not as it seemed from my sterile cloister. Garl be damned! I would leave this place and seek true knowledge. Alas, it was not until my forty-third year that I had the funds with which to leave. But leave I did! And from there I sought the greatest illusionist in the land. My mother had mentioned his name casually once, but I did not forget. Haurdwen the Neverseen she called him---and her voice was pregnant with awe as the name lifted from her tongue. Yes, it was Haurdwen who would teach me.
Searching for nearly ten years, I found Haurdwen in the city of Moy, near the southernmost coast of the Mercara Bay. There he sat, alone and unconcerned. He was a gnome to be admired. Haurdwen the Neverseen. Haurdwen the Black. Haurdwen Shadowbringer, Many were the names of Haurdwen from the few people who'd heard of him and lived. To himself, he was merely Haurdwen. Haurdwen saw my potential and chose me as his only student in nearly forty years. The pride filled my fluttering chest and gripped my legs with iron as I heard him accept me as pupil. My tales would be grand. I would honor Haurdwen. Never would he look back on me and think this a mistake.
And he never did. My history with my mother's old texts proved useful to my studies under Haurdwen. I quickly moved past the basic Glamers expected of apprentices. Haurdwen chose well. It was my eleventh year of tutelage under the great master when he introduced me to the next level of my studies:
"Truly, Duulan, you have shown great promise and done me proud. It is time now to put aside your childhood and become one with the magic. For long have you studied the ancient texts, as I did in youth as well. They, Duulan, are not enough. I will now teach you the arts of subterfuge from which our illusions extend. You will learn to be and to not be, to exist without existing, to have and to not have. There are those who will name you 'thief' and 'scoundrel' and 'skulker', but they are craven and fear what you represent. You, Duulan, will be the unknown. You will walk carefully through this world while those around you stomp carelessly. You will whisper truths while those around you shout lies. You will be everpresent and neverseen. Duulan, you wished to know the unknown. I will make you the unknown. In childhood you spoke like a child, you thought like a child, you knew only what a child knows. For then you knew only in part, but now you shall know fully even as you meld with the unknown. This is my last gift to my greatest student. Accept it and be content that you have pleased me."
My lessons took a turn toward the stealthful arts. I learned the workings of locks, so that no secrets can be kept from me. I learned to move without the signs of sight or sound, so that I may come and go as I please in secrecy. I learned the arts of subterfuge and innuendo, so that I might speak without telling all and listen to parts while hearing the whole. Many were the lessons Haurdwen taught me, and many more were the questions I had for him. I learned well.
Then came the time---nine fruitful years later---when Haurdwen was to let me go into the world. Saddened but prepared, I left Haurdwen's lair---the place I'd called home for the past twenty years. Coming to Deas Caer, I called upon a party of adventurers in search of a thief. I am no mere thief, but they could not be expected to know that. Perhaps they weren't meant to know that....
What is your most dangerous idea?
Posted on 2006-01-04 at 07:47
"The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?"
The Edge asks one question annually to a hundred or so experts of disparate fields. These questions are engaging, insightful, and demand attention. When asked the question above for the 6th annual Edge Question, the experts' answers are fascinating. Read and think.
Conspiracy Dave?
Posted on 2006-01-03 at 10:19
When did you get your own web site?