Congress At Work....

You know, as long as we keep them out of economic, foriegn policy and health care issues, the Democrats do good work. Case in point, three Congressmen's* new proposed bill to more clearly delinate the rules for border laptop searches. The current rules of "at the border guard's discreation" are overly broad and the competing bill would merely take statistics on the situation and not actually provide the guidance it sounds like the Travelers Privacy Protection Act would.

After last night's single most boring debate ever and last week's disastrous posturing by Congress, it's nice to know our elected officials aren't totally useless.

* technically, it's Congresspeople b/c one is a woman but I think Congresspeople sounds incredibly lame and refuse to use it.

Link to full post.

AAAAHHHHH (No Coffee Req'd)

Thanks to this discovery I made in my bathroom sink.

As if it being Monday isn't traumatic enough....

Link to full post.

Stupid Geniuses & Other Cliches

What's that old quote? "Some ideas are so stupid only smart people believe in them." Or something like that....

I was all excited about the TEDTalks YouTube channel, so I click the very first video and listen to some old guy talking about how large our population should be....Of course, if only we only had 100-500 million all our problems would just magically disappear. What Zero-Sum Pro-Maltusian bullshit!

It's not about how many people we have, it's about how inefficiently we provide for them! You would think someone considered an expert in their field wouldn't fall prey to the same blinkered thinking that caused so much death and destruction in the last century.

You want to know where Americans get their anti-intellectualism streak? It's from guys saying stuff like this: "There should only be so many people, spread out where they cannot cause trouble....The right ones of course." Dude, where have we heard that one before? You want to convince people to build sustainable healthy societies, how about you not tell 6.1 billion of them that they are unnecessary?

There is no "perfect" amount of people for the world. There is only how many are sustainable at this time with the current level of technology. If you change the level of technology, then you can support more people. And we are constantly increasing the level of technology, a fact you'd expect a robotics professor at MIT would be aware of.

And spreading people out? How dumb are you?! Urban areas are more efficient than rural areas, hands-down. It's easier for people to combine their efforts in sustainable and effective ways in cities. It's easier for them to close loops so resources aren't lost or left un-recycled. It's also more likely people will hold their own reproduction in check when they are in an urban setting versus a rural one.

Let me tell you my completely non-expert opinion: Poor people who become rich have fewer children (Note: NOT poor people who are made rich by government fiat or redistribution schemes). Rich countries more efficiently use their resources so problems like sustainability and resource-shortage become smaller problems over time. As the wealth of the world increases, like it has been, these problems will be solved by people, all those supposedly non-essential workers you don't see any value in.

All I can say is, the quicker we lose these outdated 20th century thinkers from our educational and research institutions, the better off the world will be. I mean compare this view of the world with all of these other people.

Link to full post.

OMG Really?!

I will not be doing anything constructive with my weekend. Instead, I will be studiously preparing for the release of the Stargate Worlds beta on Oct 15th. It looks gorgeous!
More screenshots are available here....
If anything will help me get over the cancellation of Atlantis, this is it!

*runs off to register*

Link to full post.

The Big Next Big Ubuntu

I'd never read the release notes for an upcoming version of Ubuntu. Sometimes, the surprise of a new feature is a joy in and of itself. However, I did a quick read through of the notes and there's some pretty cool things on the way.

From improving privacy to little tweaks to the desktop, it sounds like I'm going to enjoy my post-upgrade experience. I can only hope they get flash/sound issues under control. Right now, that's the biggest day-to-day weakness in the system. This problem isn't Ubuntu's fault but the average user doesn't care about the politics of proprietary codecs, they just want to easily switch between playing their music and watching YouTube videos.

Ok, this post isn't intended to be a lecture. Two little things I'm looking forward to trying with the next release"
1) Encrypted Private Directories in your "Home" folder - Very neat idea.
2) "Last Successful Boot Option" - To make it easier to recover from a bad upgrade to the kernel.

Link to full post.

Putting my $$ where my mouth is...

Via the super-cool idea of DonorsChoose.org. It's like crowd-sourced education funding. Teachers post their requested items, they provide you location information and you choose which things to fund. I saw BoingBoing advertising it this morning but only just now checked it out.

So, in an effort to address the lack of math skills that I frequently complain about, I think my donations will be targeted toward math classes. There's actually a teacher in Houston requesting calculators. Definitely giving my old hometown the nod. I hit a couple others also but there's too many for just me. If you're interested in helping math & science education in Texas, please consider these:

1) Buying Students Copies of "A Short History of Nearly Everything" to promote interest in Chemistry
2) Book bins for 2nd Graders (Hey, I'm a big reader too)
3) Buying TI-83 Calculators. Heck, I still use the TI-85 bought for my high school Algebra II class. Learning to use doesn't just help math but also works as a good introduction to programming.
4) Six Pre-packaged Science Tubs full of experiments & hands-on equipment.
5) Computer Lab - This is a big one but learning to use a computer early is critical in today's world.
6) 2nd Grader's Making Their Own Science Lessons - Really fantastic idea. Just the act of explaining a topic to someone else helps you learn.
7) Fetal Pig Dissection Kit - Yeah, it's gross but I remember doing this lab in 9th grade and it really did help me understand anatomy when I took Biology.
8) Geology & Jewelry Making - Teaching kids geology and small business skills at the same time. Also, it's a fundraiser to help the kids continue to raise more funds on their own. I really like this one.
9) MANY MORE. If you're not from Texas, it's worth it to search the site for projects in your state.

Man, the internet really does help you do everything better!

Link to full post.

Overheard at Work, pt16

Well, technically this is "read at work" but it's too awesome to not post.

From a Spring Design handbook:
"Stress Concentration - The Troublemaker"

Because remember kids, sharp corners are the gateway drug of bad design! Be on the lookout for the following individuals....


*is repressing the urge to re-watch "Rebel Without A Cause"*

Link to full post.

GIMP the Weekened Away

In an effort to design some customer stickers for my laptop, I started tricking out GIMP this weekend. Basically, I just went to DeviantArt, searched for "GIMP" and loaded anything that looked interesting. There's plenty of other links, including the GIMP Plug-In Registry, blogs like hawksmont universe (for the really awesome brushes) and help forums like those at GIMPTalk (the also have a great "Resources" sub-forum).

While I didn't make much progress with my laptop sticker design, I did manage to get some pretty cool wallpapers made. Credit of course goes to the people who actually produced the brushes, patterns, etc. Their stuff made using some of the better features of GIMP very easy and fun for me.
Teaser:
I call this one "Antiquing". To make it I used brushes from several different sets and this really great pattern from here.
10 more wallpapers in full post.

Now, I'm not usually one for orange but I really, like how this one turned out...

I used the rather interesting "Glass Bottles" and "Labels" brushes to do this one. It's called "Olde Laboratory".
I definitely think I'll be doing more like this in the future.

Ok, not everything I tried turned out. For instance, although I'm happy with the purple wallpapers using other colors (see below), the straight-up purple ones really didn't turn out. This was the better one and, I don't know, it just doesn't work somehow...

Here's purple done well. This was the closest I could get to a OK-looking asian-themed wallpaper. I got tons of brushes from the various sites but few things beat the simplicity of blossoms & branches.
This is a green tentacled wallpaper. While I used the obvious curls & swirls, there actually are tentacle brushes. Not to mention some nice gradient brushes used here also.
What geek wallpaper collection would be complete without fractals? Thanks to this collection of brushes.
Ok, these last three I think are the best of the bunch. We have another green curly wallpaper. I don't know if I'm just liking the yellow better over the brown but I prefer this to the green tentacle one. Lots of swirls and curls used here.
I really really wanted to do something with plants but, man, they aren't easy to layout in a way that doesn't look stupid. It took several tries for me to get a plant wallpaper I could stand. But I'm quite happy with the final result. I'm pretty sure I used only foliage brushes from this set (which is a very good collection).

OK, this one is my favorite and it was an absolute blast to make. I used mainly this collection of bubbles brushes and a collection called "So 60s Circles Sequel".

So, what do you think?

Link to full post.

The Vatican Has Impressed Me (For Real!)

I find myself really impressed by this news: The Catholic Church is NOT Inviting Advocates of Creationism or Intelligent Design to Its Forum on Evolution.

From the Horse's Mouth:

Jesuit Father Marc Leclerc, a philosophy professor at the Gregorian, told Catholic News Service Sept. 16 that organizers "wanted to create a conference that was strictly scientific" and that discussed rational philosophy and theology along with the latest scientific discoveries.
He said arguments "that cannot be critically defined as being science, or philosophy or theology did not seem feasible to include in a dialogue at this level and, therefore, for this reason we did not think to invite" supporters of creationism and intelligent design.

Because when reviewing a topic in a scholarly manner, Jesuits (of all people) know better than to listen to those who impose EITHER-OR fallacies where they do not belong.

Also, in between a note that evolution doesn't comply with the Bible and hopes from some guidance from the Church on the subject, there is this zinger:

Gennaro Auletta, professor of philosophy at the Gregorian and head of the STOQ project, said organizers hope the encounter will help theologians and philosophers be "a bit more humble and learn to listen a bit more" to what science is unveiling about humanity and the world.

Wow guys. Keep this up, I'm might actually start calling myself a Catholic again (well, probably not but good job anyway).

(my emphasis added both quotes)

Link to full post.

Super Stylin' Old Books

While wandering around Half-Price Books waiting for them to review my offered DVDs, I came across two beautifully bound older books. Look at these covers:

On the left is "The Scarlet Pimpernel" By Baroness Orczy & on the right is "The Decameron" by Giovanni Boccaccio

Modern hardcovers veer from bland-looking to wrapped in gaudy cover art at first chance. I’m not knocking all cover art necessarily. Only, I think there is something to be said for a bound book whose packaging aims more for elegance as opposed to eye-catching gaudiness or slick graphic design.

Link to full post.

Street-Crossing For The Mathematically Disinclined

After the last few shopping trips I’ve taken, I am compelled to address an unfortunate consequence of the general public’s lack of mathematic skills. While you may think that high school Geometry class was useless, there is one area where an intuitive understanding of angles, lines and polynomials will greatly decrease your likelihood of being run over by a severely annoyed seat belt engineer (random example).

When crossing from a parking lot into a store, the general population choses from three possible techniques. These may be described thusly: Imagine two parallel lines each representing the boundary of the parking lot and the store entrance respectively. Pedestrian paths crossing this space can be then rendered graphically as shown below:

Technique 1: Line AB
Technique 2: Line AC
Technique 3: Curve DE

Now, it is intuitively obvious that the technique involving the shortest distance to cross the street is the least dangerous (less exposure to traffic). However based on my recent shopping experiences most people follow some version of Technique 3, which is undeniably incorrect of them. Allow me to prove it.

The points A, B, C, D & E are located as follows:
A (20, 0)
B (0, 0)
C (0, 7)
D (0, 30)
E (20, -5)

Based on this we can determine equations for each of the 3 pathways:


Distance from Point A to B:


Distance from Point A to C:


Distance from Point D to E:
(Since I could not discover via googling any way to directly calculate the length of a polynomial curve segment, I did an approximation by breaking up the curve into tiny little line segments.)
Note: I purposely chose a relatively “flat” equation to describe the path of the pedestrian. More wobbly paths intersecting the same points would be even longer. Two of these possibilities are:

Confirming the distances given by these equations is left as an exercise for the reader.

As the above calculations demonstrate, by choosing a curved path, you are exposing yourself and your companions to more danger of being run over by drivers who feel that while yielding to pedestrians is a good thing, that doesn’t apply to pedestrians too stupid to understand the difference between roads and sidewalks. So, please for your safety (and my sanity) always utilize Technique 1 when crossing streets.

Sidenote: The above analysis is equally applicable to people crossing aisles in parking lots. While obesity is becoming more common, those wide aisles lined with cars are not in fact sidewalks so please do not treat them as such. FYI.

Link to full post.

I've Been Totally Outclassed....

But it's OK. Another fan of "The Middleman" took my 9 measly "Reasons to Watch The Middleman" and raised me, "101 Reasons to Watch 'The Middleman'" (all of which are very good reasons that I cannot believe I didn't think of).

Also, another enterprising person, to address the gaping hole left by ABC Family's merchandising department, has begun offering Middleman stuff on CafePress. I'm torn between "Manservant Neville Serves You!" and "The Jolly Fats Wehawkin Employment Agency".....So I'm getting both I think.

In sadder news, my not-so-secret goal of getting people to discover my weblog via searches for "trout-eating zombies" has failed. I had decided to be more dedicated to my chosen task via (to coin a phrase) a plan that is sheer elegance in its simplicity.

To that end: trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies, trout-eating zombies. TROUT-EATING ZOMBIES.

Link to full post.

ABC News, "Ethics? What is this thing you speak of?"

With all my computer work, I missed out on Sarah Palin's first big interview...Which looks like a good thing because according to NewsBusters, ABC news did a whole lot of creative editing in order to manipulate her responses.

It's pretty obvious from their edits they were trying to make her appear more hard-line and "Bush-like" than she actually was. Look at the below example (bold text deleted from aired interview):

GIBSON: Let me turn to Iran. Do you consider a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat to Israel?

PALIN: I believe that under the leadership of Ahmadinejad, nuclear weapons in the hands of his government are extremely dangerous to everyone on this globe, yes.

GIBSON: So what should we do about a nuclear Iran? John McCain said the only thing worse than a war with Iran would be a nuclear Iran. John Abizaid said we may have to live with a nuclear Iran. Who’s right?

PALIN: No, no. I agree with John McCain that nuclear weapons in the hands of those who would seek to destroy our allies, in this case, we’re talking about Israel, we’re talking about Ahmadinejad’s comment about Israel being the “stinking corpse, should be wiped off the face of the earth,” that’s atrocious. That’s unacceptable.

GIBSON: So what do you do about a nuclear Iran?

PALIN: We have got to make sure that these weapons of mass destruction, that nuclear weapons are not given to those hands of Ahmadinejad, not that he would use them, but that he would allow terrorists to be able to use them. So we have got to put the pressure on Iran and we have got to count on our allies to help us, diplomatic pressure.

GIBSON: But, Governor, we’ve threatened greater sanctions against Iran for a long time. It hasn’t done any good. It hasn’t stemmed their nuclear program.

PALIN: We need to pursue those and we need to implement those. We cannot back off. We cannot just concede that, oh, gee, maybe they’re going to have nuclear weapons, what can we do about it. No way, not Americans. We do not have to stand for that.

In the aired portion she sounds like she plans to attack Iran first thing. In the actual interview, there's a great deal more discussion of various options to handle Iran. But apparently, that was a little too knowledgeable of a response for ABC so the "corrected" it to show a response from Palin more in keeping with ABC News world-view. Because when airing a political interview which will inform millions of Americans, preserving your own prejudices is soooo much more critical than accurate reporting.

The above is hardly the only example from the interview. There's plenty more here also.

Thank you ABC News & Charlie Gibson for 100% validating my decision to not watch any network news EVER.

Link to full post.

Adventures in Computing

Having spent the greater part of last week and especially the last two days installing Ubuntu, applications and various other things, I've noticed a few things...

1) “Compaq” has terrible user’s manuals! The whole paper manual focuses on troubleshooting which presupposes the use of Windows Vista and recommends sending out for help a lot. The more technical manuals are sent on the HD instead as a printed copy. While I appreciate the stance of putting the user guides on the computer to save paper....That doesn’t exactly help people who don’t plan to ever boot into Windows. The “Acer” laptop I bought came with a better printed manual: system specs, repair tips and troubleshooting that doesn’t presume their customers are half brain-dead. The only problem was they sorta hid BIOS setting info. That is tucked away in other sections which didn’t impress me because the BIOS info was the first and foremost piece of info I needed from the laptop manual. While I’m at it, I’d just like to say the manual for the “Dell” tower that died was always useful. That book was a great example of a thin, well-written instruction guide which informs users of exactly what they need while also giving the tools to learn more.

2) “Acer” makes good laptops but for completely inexplicable reasons they cover their products in stickers! I had one sticker for the wireless brand, two for the processor chip(s?), the “Vista” sticker and a sticker with a list of system specs (which repeated most of the info on the other stickers). You know, if “Acer” put all that on the box instead, I wouldn’t have to spend 30 extremely annoying minutes getting the stickers & glue off the computer with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip.

3) 2Gb of RAM is a noticeable improvement over the 1.5Gb I was used to. With the extra RAM in both the new tower and the laptop, Compiz Fusion really looks amazing. Not to mention, every desktop switch and window opening has a certain “pop” to it.

4) I’m insanely grateful that I took the time before my Japan trip to install Puppy Linux on a USB drive. The OS and the utilities that come with it have been extremely valuable in preparing for the data transfer from the old HD. If it wasn’t for Puppy, I might have had to use Vista for a couple days (shudder). Not to mention, Puppy was the easiest OS install I have ever done. Due to the time constraints to prepare for my trip, I didn’t get the opportunity to tweak Puppy into everything it could be. Still, even the standard install with a couple cosmetic tweaks proved very useful.

5) Having played around with Vista in the store, I can now say: It really does suck. Visually, it’s quite striking. However, Ubuntu has similar visuals so that’s not really a unique selling point (I know it’s likely that Ubuntu was probably influenced by Vista visually and not the other way around). Still, Vista does everything Ubuntu does only in the most annoying and condescending manner possible. While Windows broke down and increased their theming options, they are still pretty tightly controlled. While Vista has lots of settings & menus, it’s still pretty “let me hold your hand while we do this, because changing the color of your windows is so mentally taxing”. With Ubuntu, there’s a lot more control over what’s present and how it is configured without the talking down to the customer. The only area where I would say Windows has an unquestionably good thing going on is the Windows Media Player. After my recent search for a music/media program, I have a newfound appreciation for how WMP combines all music & media tasks in one place. It’s not as configurable as the Ubuntu music applications but it’s also a lot more seamlessly functional.

6) I’d never done a straight-up install of Ubuntu. All my previous experiences were loading it on machines with existing configurations. Since there was nothing fancy required for the laptop, I just wiped the Windows install and put Hardy on instead. The actual install was shockingly easy; it took less than 30 minutes with no errors. The only hard part was getting the laptop to boot off the CD/DVD drive before Vista jumped in and started “configuring”. However, since I have a very specific suite of applications, I wasn’t really done with the set-up(s) until tonight. Here’s a quick summary of what I did post-install on both the laptop & the new tower:
REMOVED: Evolution, Rythymbox (someone made this easier to delete – thanks?)
ADDED: Thunderbird, Compiz Fusion, AWN, Last.FM client, Songbird, Ubuntu Tweak, VLC, gNomad2, several games, Octave, misc small applications & dependency files
TWEAKED: AWN applets/launchers, DVD Playing Firefox Add-ons, Emerald Themes
While I had planned to clone my previous HD, having done a clean install for the laptop I realized how messy (for lack of a better word) my old HD was. As a result, I decided to do a clean install for the new tower also. However, I still need to import some of my personal data from my old HD. This is on hold due a lack of proper cable which will allow my old HD to talk to the new computer.

7) Whatever I say about "Compaq" manuals, their case layout is brilliant. Whoever designed the brackets & cages inside this Presario PC really thought about how people would have to move around and take it apart to upgrade the machine. It was very easy adding my old HD inside the case (if not connecting it). In this respect, the did a much better job than Dell did. It was a complete pain getting my old HD out of the Dell case!

Link to full post.

While the Cat’s Away, the Machines Will Play

So, after returning from a week in Japan (more to follow on that), I discover that both my TiVo and my computer are malfunctioning. I can’t decide if this is random problems or their idea of a political protest against the new season of “The Sarah Conner Chronicles”.

The computer problem appeared pretty straightforward. My power supply died. Thankfully, acquiring a replacement didn’t take any significant amount of time. I’d never switched a power supply before and it was surprisingly easy. The hardest part was knowing which cables go where. I got around that by taking pictures of the connections for the old one before I removed it and just matching the new cables to the pictures.

Unfortunately, this did not fix my computer. After a quick check to the power supply to verify it’s OK, I realized whatever damaged the power supply probably also ruined the motherboard. Doubly unfortunately, I know very little about motherboards and changing one is a bit more involved. “Altex” is pretty much the only store nearby that has internal computer parts but they don’t guarantee the parts. I once bought a memory card from them that didn’t work at all so I’m very reluctant to buy a motherboard from them. And online sources are out because all shopping sites are blocked at work, the only other location where I have access to a computer.

So, rather than deal with the motherboard, I just bought a new tower. I am currently studying the Ubuntu forums to figure out how to clone my old HD. Also, it really is a crime you can’t walk into a major store and ask for a BLANK computer. The sales guys at “Best Buy”, while helpful, were kinda baffled by the idea of selling a computer without an OS. As it is, I’m booting into a USB-install of Puppy Linux until I can recreate my previous HD install. Even that wasn’t so easy because Vista has this dumbass “Easy Config” program that tries to run immediately after you turn on the computer the first time.

In other news, I have NO self control at all. How do I know this? Because I walked into to “Best Buy” intent on purchasing a tower.... I walked out with a tower and a shiny new laptop. Because the most sensible action during a machine rebellion is to allow one more in your life. I’ve decided the tower will be my “official” computer and the laptop will be my “play” computer where I install and try out new stuff.

Now, if only I could figure out why TiVo cannot detect my phone line anymore....

Link to full post.