w00t - Even NASA scientists say it

Excuse me, I'm going to geek out for a minute....

They found water ice on MARS! Go Phoenix!

Please tell me they got video of it sublimating away (and therefore proving its iciness). Because that would be awesome...*googles like a geeked-out googlin' fool*.......OMG they DID!

Lower left corner = ICE chunks evaporating

*ahem* Off to bed now.

Link to full post.

The Great Music App Search

My long-promised Hardy Heron review has been delayed in my search for a new music application. I’ve tried just about everything available at this point and I’m quite surprised it took this long to find a player. Note: I did not find a “player I like as much as XMMS” but rather “one that works well”.

See full post for a recounting of my slightly disgruntled examination of music applications.

Goddammit. Why no XMMS? Really. What’s so wrong with a really simple music player whose appearance I can change? I know, after my Rythymbox woes, I decided to search around for something else after the Hardy upgrade. But this is a forced change...I don’t react well to forced changes. I went through a crazy number of players until I found something that actually did the one or two functions I need in a music player in a way that didn’t annoy the ever-loving heck out of me. Here’s a summary of my music player adventures:

Aqualung: Didn’t work AT ALL. As in, didn’t even open. No link for you.

Audacious: Opened and allowed me to load my library as a playlist but didn’t play AT ALL. No link for you either.

BMPx: Opened and very feature rich but easy to navigate interface...With one key exception...You cannot load your entire library as a playlist. This is for some complicated technical reasons but frankly, I don’t care.

Amarok: Opened, loaded library as playlist and played. However, it was slightly buggy sound. Occasionally it would fritz out entirely and I’d have to tweak some preferences to get it playing again. Also, there are too many features in this program! It felt like I was using a 100-function Swiss Army knife to chop celery.

Exaile: I had high hopes for this one. Opened, loaded library and played music with no problems. Much fewer features and a less cluttered interface than Amarok (even though its supposed to be an Amarok clone for GNOME):

Unfortunately, Exaile has one key flaw: a terrible, horrible tag generator/editor. It imported a lot of my filenames as “Titles” instead of the actual tags. This isn’t a few files. It’s 1000+ of 2600 files. Which is a ridiculous amount of work. Not to mention, the tags menu is useless.


Banshee: Opened, loaded library & played. No bugs. One key thing some people may not be aware of: The version of Banshee available through “Add/Remove...” is not the latest (indeed that version kinda sucks). To get the latest version, open “System”—“Administration” – “Software Sources”. Under the “Third Party Software” tab add the following two entires:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/banshee-team/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/banshee-team/ubuntu hardy main

Then open up your terminal and type the following:

sudo apt-get install banshee-1

This version of banshee has Last.FM compatibility but it doesn’t let you play “Friends” or “Neighbors” only similar artists to stuff you’ve already played. Still, it’s good to finally have something decent to play music:

There’s still a major tagging problem, where some of my general folder names (“70s Stuff”, “Musicals”) are being loaded as album names. Also, the “Download Album Art” feature is especially irksome. Thank god they at least give me the option to turn it off. But I have to turn it off each time I open the program, yuck. Is there nothing better?

Songbird: FINALLY. It looks complicated but this sucker does exactly what I want. Opened, loaded music library and played. This one requires an install similar to Banshee. Add the following to "Third Party Sources":

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/fta/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/fta/ubuntu hardy main

Then run the following from the command line:

sudo apt-get install songbird

When you first open the program,you select a folder and it automatically loads your library, first thing! I had a moment of "Oh not again!" panic when the library first loaded. The tags don't fill in until you play the tracks!

Meaning.....I do not have to re-input tag data. EVER. Between this and the (thankful) lack of automatic "Download Album Art" feature, I'm officially SOLD on this player. There's also an add-on that allows for audio-scobbling via Last.FM.

Although the default theme is really dark, installing different themes is as easy as in Firefox. (They are called "Feathers" here)

Right now, I'm running a nice light green/gray theme to go with my desktop a bit better.


Now, after all this searching and frustration, I would like to get on my soapbox a little. Please ignore the following....

(/Begin rant)
For all their so-called variety, the music players available in Ubuntu aren’t very satisfactory to me. I understand a lot of people have very strong favorable opinions of these players but, for me personally, they seriously underwhelm. They all look the same and while they let you do complicated things, there’s very little emphasis placed on making simple actions simple. 97% of the time, I do one thing with a music player: load my library as a playlist, hit “shuffle” and play. That’s it.

BMPx considers this unnecessary; Amarok worked but was buggy and the other features just overwhelmed (who needs all that crap?). Exaile had the worst tag editor in the history of mankind. Don’t even get me started on Rythymbox. Simpler players such as Audacious and Aqualung didn’t work at all. I’ve gotten to the point where I see that oh-so-recognizable style of interface and cringe. Because it means that this player will be a complicated chore to use. I was even reluctant to try Songbird simply because its similarities. Thankfully, while it has plenty of fancier features, it's very easy to use and doesn't require a lot of work on my part.
(*deep cleansing breaths* End rant\)

Now that I have a player that shows songs with correct tags, I can now complete my cross-reference between my music collection and my MP3 player. Once I’ve correctly synced my files, I’m going to go on a celebratory music-buying spree like you would not believe. Amazon Downloads better brace themselves....

Link to full post.

In (Someone Else's) Mail

Once again, my coworker has received something amusing in the mail*. However, this time it is not a call to God. Today, it was a nicely printed invitation to dinner and some lectures on Estate Planning. Unfortunately, the lecture list provided does not inspire confidence. Please read the text in the red square:

Notice anything?.....Here’s a hint: J(1), T(2), W(3), R(4), O(5), S(6)...Yes, that’s right people who cannot differentiate between five & six are going to instruct you in financial matters. Note: these same people can exactly predict your losses ($780,800) from an incorrectly planned will. Perhaps it is only small numbers they have trouble with?

Also, I really don’t think they should be giving a lecture entitled “How to Disinherit You Own Children Unintentionally”.....It should be referred to by its true name, “How To Punish The Ungrateful Brats Without ‘Officially’ Disinheriting Anyone (And Getting Away With it)”.

*Why do I always get the boring junk mail? How is that remotely fair?

Link to full post.

Petroleum & People Skills

When will the US government is finally getting off its duff and allow drilling in "coastal" waters! With oil prices as high as they have been, I’m really surprised we haven’t been OKing a lot more domestic drilling. There are at least three major sources of domestic oil that aren’t being exploited: ANWR, oil shale and coastal drilling. If we started accessing these resources and building some refineries it could really reduce the prices at the pump both short term and long term.

So, there’s no good reason we have to keep paying through the nose for foreign oil. No good reason except certain people would rather make working Americans pay big money in order to discourage oil use.

While there have been great strides in making solar and wind power more affordable, they aren’t yet ready to compete with coal and oil. They are getting there. Yes, we should be encouraging this trend. But, we should also be working to make that transition as painless as possible. Otherwise, too many people will associate going green with financial ruin and bureaucratically coerced sacrifices. By preventing us developing resources and infrastructure, what could have been a painless (and more voluntary) transition is going instead to be a financial train-wreck for working class Americans. Don’t environmentalists realize how much damage they are doing?

If you’re a working class American paying $4+ per gallon and you found out that there was plenty of oil, only you weren’t allowed to use it, how happy would you be with the the people who told you “No”? How much would you trust them next time they said going green was necessary? There’s been some very good strides recently in the environmental movement to portray a more positive message of the future (not “OMG, We’re Going to DIE! And we kinda deserve it.” but “Hey, the future could be cool if we work at it a little”). Now, for many Americans, that good is being undone. Because when they think of the green movement, they will think of artificially high oil prices and coercive manipulation by bureaucrats.

(I know the green movement includes a very diverse selection of opinions, some of which I have no problem with. However, the “average” American isn’t necessarily informed about that diversity. There is a real risk of the subset of opinions on drilling and refinery construction harming the average American’s opinion of the larger movement. Considering that some changes do need to be made, I really worry about this.)

Link to full post.

ACTA = OMG Scary

Well, it appears the United States government has decided to stop being a country of the people, for the people and by the people. Instead, it has chosen, along with the governments of other nations, to become the paid thugs for Big Entertainment.

This week, they have been in secret negotiations to grant border guards the right to scan your laptops, ipods, media devices for infringing material and confiscate or destroy them without due process of right of appeal! What does a border guard know of intricacies copyright law? How will they know the difference between mp3 files from your CD collection and content downloaded illegally? Or is the whole point to criminalize ripping files from their CD collection? Is this Big Entertainment's way around the "fair use" doctrine which has so far protected the activity? If you don't believe me, see for yourself how utterly terrible this treaty is.

There was no public outcry for this. There was no public opinion consulted on the validity, necessity or terms of this treaty. No, this treaty is based on outcry by corporations afraid of change, based on inaccurate data they themselves generate. It is the result of consultation with only one side of the complex and PUBLIC discussion that has occurred lately on copyright. It was intended to be negotiated entirely in secret and presented to the American people as holy international writ.

More importantly, it is a supremely bad law that is based on a 20th century perspective of copyright. A perspective that this paper makes abundantly clear has no bearing on reality in a digital age. The technological ignorance of CEOs of entertainment companies and our elected "leaders" is going to lead to a terrible set of laws which protects no one, helps no one and criminalizes every single person with digital media on their computer.

Our politicians are such amazingly gutless sell-outs. And, the entertainment industry apparently thinks it is completely reasonable to criminalize every single one of their customers world-wide. I wonder how many of them have degrees in Constitutional law or, hell, even copyright law. More importantly, I don't recall electing any entertainment CEOs to office. Just because something is good for the Entertainment Industry's tired, out-dated business model does NOT mean it is good for the United States, its citizens or any other country in the world.

Go here to read more....but only if you have a strong stomach.

(I actually wrote my Senator about this one...that's a first for me. But if we get copyright reform wrong, it sets a really bad precedent for the other technological changes coming this century)

Link to full post.

My Alma Mater in Action (sigh)

One of my coworkers has a University of Texas desk calendar with fun facts and quiz questions about the university. Since three of us are all graduates from the Austin campus, he often shares the daily entries with us. Here is today’s astonishing revelation:

“The University of Texas At Austin Fact (of the day):
L. Theo Bellmont, for whom is credited for helping create Memorial Stadium, is also credited with helping discover and create the Southwest Conference.”

As can be expected by anyone with a lick of understanding of English, my coworkers and I mocked the living hell out of this sentence. Mocking was imperative because it was very, very, very poorly written. If this sentence is indicative of the quality of education received from UT Austin, I should be demanding a significant chunk of my money back.

How is it wrong? Let me count the ways:

1) “for whom is credited for” is totally incorrect. Please read it aloud to develop a full appreciation for the supremely clunky phrasing. It should be “who is credited with”.

2) “create Memorial Stadium” – Granted, I’m just an engineer, but aren’t stadiums built? Did he wish the stadium into existence by using the power of the Force? How exactly do you “create” a stadium in a way that doesn’t involve more applicable verbs like designing, financing, building or overseeing?

3) "credited" used 2X! - The English language in wonderful in its variety. To use such a vanilla verb twice in the same sentence is just lazy, especially when so many better options are available for the second use: "originated", "advocated for", "greatly improved". These other verbs are preferable because they can be more specific about what this man's achievement actually was. Simply checking Wikipedia for Mr. Bellmont would help anyone in accurately describing his accomplishments.

4) “discover and create the Southwest Conference” – You cannot “discover” a sports conference! The Southwest Conference is a frackin’ football league not something dug up in Bolivia proving the existence of pocketknives in Pre-Columbian cultures. To describe it in this way, conflates his achievement by linking it connotatively to more scientifically rigorous accomplishments. Which is ridiculous & wrong. Compared to “discover”, the second use of “create” is almost acceptable. Except it is the second word used twice in ONE sentence. BUY A THESAURUS PEOPLE! A better phrasing would be, “founded and developed the Southwest Conference”.

Is it too much too ask for someone with an understanding of English sentence structure, grammar and vocabulary? Especially when using a University’s name, a University which presumes to have multiple experts in all of the aforementioned topics.

*is feeling very smug about having never donated to the Texas Alumni Association*

(For the record, my version of the sentence would read: "L. Theo Bellmont, who is credited with helping fund the construction of Memorial Stadium, also founded and developed the Southwest Conference.” Read it aloud and tell me it isn't 10x better than the original.)

Link to full post.

Beijing Olympics Protests

A bunch of people are posting protest graphics for the upcoming Beijing Olympics on Flickr. They are good enough to overcome my aversion to Flickr and look around:

Keep up the good work guys. Knowing the Chinese government, there will be plenty of fodder for moral indignation.

Link to full post.

Antiquing Patterns

Yesterday, my mom & I went antiquing several places west of San Antonio (mainly Castroville & Uvalde). Antiquing offers up a treasure trove of patterns both good and bad. Full post contains some of the best & worst from the trip. Lots of photos (not dial-up friendly).

Teaser: Rugs are whole pattern-fest on their own. But here's a sampler.

As far as antiques go, it appears the really crazy upholsteries are on the chairs. Like so:
It's like a summer-style naval pattern. Way too busy for me.

I found a pattern somewhat similar to my recently replaced tablecloth:
A little lighter than mine but still quite appealing, I think.

The same I cannot say for the overly pink setee:
Yuck.

Remember:


I bought a cabinet on this trip and when we went to load it, I noticed on of my Mom's blankets:
Whoa, this is ugly! And very, very pink.

It's not just chair that have outrageous prints. Here's a tablerunner:
Why would anyone think "depressing, mutant Cupids" is a good motif?

And someplaces have old scarves. Most of the time, they're pretty good. However, there are exceptions:
I'd feel like I was wearing an ornate tile floor around my neck. Or Celtic traffic signs.

Some of the chairs have absolutely lovely prints. Here's one I was really surprised by:
Very light coloring but it's pretty.

There's also this very colorful piece:
I wouldn't want a whole room done with this, but on a few throw pillows, it'd be great. Because of all the colors in it, you could use it after redecorating several times.

That was good use of color. This is bad use of color:
Staring at this too long makes your eyes tear.

Of course, sometimes you discover something so outrageous it redefines “bad”:
Betty Boop upholstery = SO VERY WRONG.

Now, antique shops always have a lot of rugs. For the most part, they are pretty vanilla neo-victorian prints. There are exceptions, both good:

And bad:
It looks like the welcome mat to Strawberry Shortcake's home.

A lot of places include quilts in their displays. Again, most of the time they are pretty much what you expect. But occasionally, there's some pretty crazy patterns:
I feel like a colorblind person's scrap bin was used to make this quilt. Having said that, it's so crazy I almost find it appealing...Almost.

One place had a whole quilting room, which would have been cool if it wasn't for this thing:
AHHHH!!! Flowers Everywhere! Run Away Before the Vines Get You!

I also really, like the screens used to divide up the rooms. Usually these have floral patterns or are solid wood colors.
Given the gold color, I shouldn't like this but the geometric print is just too wonderful.

Certain patterns would be overwhelming if done in bright colors:
But when done in washed-out or monochromatic tones, they look pretty darn cool.

Some patterns have no hope color-wise:
*shudder*

In addition to the stuff inside antique shops, occasionally the walls and floors offer worthy textures and colors of their own. These include:
Shiny concrete

Wooden walls

Granite Counter-tops
Or colorful walls

I'd really like to try several of these out as desktop wallpapers. Could lead to some different-looking themes.

*Ends post because she is thinking about redoing her desktop...And she ran out of photos*

Link to full post.

The Sportscaster In Upholstery Hell

Every now and again, working with a bunch of guys exposes me to parts of the world that I simply never knew existed. Indeed, I would have been happy to remain ignorant. For example, I have discovered the fashion “sense” of sportscaster Don Cherry.

Dear God, my eyes burn. Let me share the pain. Optical masochists are welcome here.

On one level, I admire a guy who can navigate the super-macho world of sportscasting while wearing this outfit:
On another level, I want to bleach my brain clean of the image.

And, worst of all, that’s not the ugliest suit he’s worn. Occasionally, he takes on a nature/grandma’s-couch theme:

Suits like this make me want to burn down the rainforest. Or at the very least, set fire to a greenhouse. Good frickin’ riddance to inspiration for these monstrosities.

In an effort to convey a more masculine image, he moved on to geometric patterns.
It didn’t work.

I would just like to thank Mr. Cherry for so thoroughly traumatizing my delicate pattern-loving sensibilities.

Link to full post.

Engineering Lunar Telescopes

Someone figured out how to make concrete from synthetic lunar dust and spin it to make telescope dishes. Can I just say how incredibly cool that is? Carry on.

Link to full post.

E-Books Galore!

Recent attempts to read have been a bit uninspiring for me ("Code 2.0" took me a ridiculously lone time to get through). So in an effort to get back into my reading groove, I downloaded and read several works from Manybooks.net.

“Raffles” by E.W.Hornung: Basically this is a parody of the Sherlock Holmes by a friend of Arthur Conan Doyle. Aside from some embarrassing changes in slang since the nineteenth century, it’s held up remarkably well. The Raffles character is enjoyable and the narrator-sidekick is a bit amusing as his conscience turns on and off depending on how desperate he is for money. I can't wait to read the rest of the books in this series.

“Planet of the Damned” by Harry Harrison: What a nice little suspense novel! The settings and circumstances are all sci-fi but at its heart this is a story of a clock ticking and one man’s attempts to avert disaster. While reading I found it quite dated but I cannot recall why; it definitely has an old-fashioned sensibility but it serves the story quite well. Very nice with some quite interesting twists.

“The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft: I read this one after realizing I never had checked out the origin of the whole Cthulhu business. Lovecraft builds a horror tale strictly around events investigated but never seen by the narrating character. Very good tale that leaves you with a palpable sense of dread and foreboding.

“The Aliens” by Murray Leinster: An interesting first-contact tale. This one isn’t as dated as the Harrison novel (in terms that it was clearly written in the 1960). The story does a pretty good job of conveying the fear, misunderstandings and potential of contacting an alien race. Again, this had a couple of interesting turns. The only downer was the completely nonsensical science. Giant Magnets as Stardrives?!

“The Time Traders” by Andre Norton: I’m not usually one for time-travel stories or Andre Norton but this was a damn good book! Russians stealing technology through time-travel and the efforts to recruit non-conformists to travel back in time to hunt them down….It’s one hell of a premise. I can’t wait to check out the sequels.

Link to full post.

Movie: “Catch & Release”

“Catch & Release” is a somewhat strange film, a romantic comedy that isn’t exceptionally comedic. Don’t get me wrong, I found it an enjoyable film but its best feature was the fact that the character and situations felt very real and complicated. Granted, there are standard aspects to the film but they are executed well and don’t detract from the fact it’s a remarkably good movie about the emotional aftermath of a death. People find out things they didn’t know, people act badly and people surprise you. Also, for all its conventional pedigree, there were several plot elements that tweaked the expected a little.

If you want a light-hearted romp of misadventure and romance, this really isn’t the movie for you. But if you’re in the mood for a more contemplative tale of funerals, friends and falling in love, then I would very much recommend this movie.

Link to full post.

Hardy Heron Update - Initial Review

WAAAAYY Better than Gutsy for one reason alone.....My streaming media sound works flawlessly! It quit working about a month ago in Gutsy and I put off updating until I could get it worked out. Glad I didn't wait any longer. Hello YouTube! *waves* Hello Last.Fm! *hugs* I've missed you both!

*intends to stay up waaaay too late watching "Britain's Got Talent!" on YouTube*

(more detailed review to follow)

Link to full post.

Women Aren’t “Naturally” Bad At Math = DUH

A fewe months ago, I went onto my soapbox about women in engineering after reading an very disturbing article that presumed women needed special curriculum in order to succeed in math and scientific fields.

At lunch today, I read another article over at Ars Technica, “Why Judy Can’t Add”. The punchline: A huge international study has found that lower math scores in women is a mainly social phenomenon (ie – it is directly proportional to the amount of gender equality in the societies tested).

This confirms yet again, that expectations matter.In my case, my parents, my teachers and my classmates all had very high expectations regarding my intellectual abilities. I didn’t realize until I got to college and especially when I got out in the workplace how rare that can be.

For most, little girls learn it’s unfeminine to be intellectual or more specifically mathematical from the adults around them. That subtle education affects their schoolwork and testing. The result is a gap in performance that “everyone” knows is because women aren’t as good at math as men. Which the next generation of women sees as reason to not fully apply themselves to mathematics because if it’s biology, then it doesn’t matter how hard they study, right?

Perhaps the self-esteem movement isn’t completely unfounded. Confidence in yourself is well and good but it has to be based in a real ability to perform. Maybe instead of hyping the more generalized self-esteem we should be emphasizing analytical skills and intellectual esteem in and for our young women. It also couldn’t hurt to remind them of women who are clearly intellectual success stories.

Link to full post.

Take That You, Extrovert-Centrists!

Today, I was exceeedingly happy to read this article over at The Science Blog. Apparently, recent research validates the idea that it’s OK not to talk about your traumatic experiences immediately following those experiences. The article does point out some caveats and expresses that everyone reacts differently.

Still for too long, the mental health professions assumed everyone wasn’t different and there was only one healthy reaction: to express your feelings as quickly as possible. As someone whose general reaction to anything is to not talk about it for a while*, I’m greatly heartened to have scientific backing for that stance. Few things annoy me more than someone forcing my emotional timetable into fast forward because it doesn’t meet their expectations.

*I'm a muller. Someone who mulls. My brain sometimes works on problems while I'm doing other things, so when I come back to the problem it's already half-solved. I handle any problem I'm stuck on by putting it down for while.

Link to full post.