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...by the inmates...for the inmates...
Thursday, October 31, 2002Fun With Google
Still typing boring search phrases in your Google box? Time to kick it up a notch. (Sorry, Emeril, I couldn't resist.)
Google tips. JD's New Media Musings writes about Google search tricks:
Or combine: "california" filetype:xls site:gov intitle:state to get spreadsheets from .gov sites that contain the word California and have the word "state" in the title.Here is a different example from the previous US-centered one: linux filetype:html site:fi intitle:kirjasto. This searches Linux-articles in HTML in Finland, with the word kirjasto (= library) in the title. [Universal Rule]
The Kindness Of Strangers
More tools for Radio UserLand. As a part-time programmer, I am impressed by the breadth of free tools available from a devoted user community.
dataFileCleaner Tool released. With loads of help from Greg Haneck, we are releasing the dataFileCleaner Tool. It is a complilation of several scripts that comb through several of the databases intrisic to many of the core functions of Radio and remove errant entries that are prone to cause problems. dataFileCleaner contains my cleanAggregatorStories script and Greg Haneck's cleanWeblogsComEntries script as well as another script that we thought would be useful, at least based upon several recent things Lawrence did to help others.The scripts that run in this tool are safe. Greg and I have been running them for many weeks now. If the tool does anything you will see an item in the Events Log. Try it you'll like it. [Surgical Diversions]
Got Photo?
Sweeeet. Go. Look. Drool.
Fantastic photographs....
Lofoten Photogalerie - armchair travel through this breathtaking gallery of photos from Norwegian Islands located within the Arctic Circle. The region offers awesome vistas in every season. Links courtesy of Mefioso Kogiak who has an interesting story on his site about how he found this gem. [MetaFilter] [Ye Olde Phart]
Toyota On The Move
Toyota to sell only hybrid autos by 2012. Toyota, the world's third-largest automaker, plans to only manufacture gas-electric hybrid cars by 2012. The plan is to decrease the cost of manufacturing hybrid cars by increasing production. I'm sure Mother Nature is breathing a sigh of relief.... [Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes]
RSS Explorer Access To Computerworld Feeds
Nice demo of Dave's new RSS Explorer tool. Thanks, Dave.
Computerworld has ten new RSS feeds. If you're a Radio user, be sure to get the nifty RSS Explorer tool, and then click here to choose the Computerworld feeds you'd like to subscribe to. It's a pretty nerdy pub, but they can probably tell you what IBM is up to and Unix and wireless stuff, and Microsoft. [Scripting News]
The Google Gods
"Data Recovery Group ... would typically come up around the fourth listing on Google's popular search engine last year. Then in January, when Google removed the company from its listings without explanation, Data Recovery saw a 30 percent drop in business."
News.Com: The Google Gods. [Scripting News]
Saturday, October 26, 2002Blogging Break
No more posts until late Wednesday, at the earliest.
A Wasted Day. Up Yours, Microsoft.
[Begin rant]
Wasted most of today getting the USB2/FireWire hard drive working properly with Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Yes, I had the latest O/S and driver updates from Microsoft, adapter card, and enclosure vendors before starting. This is, sadly, a common experience when adding hardware to Windows. What is supposed to be a simple plug-and-play installation becomes an entire day down the drain.
Of course, when I installed the drivers and plugged the hardware into Maria's PowerBook, using an old version of OS 9.0, it "just worked". No bullshit, no effort, it just worked as expected.
After many wasted hours, it also finally worked with the ThinkPads running Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Now I have a very fast backup capability.
Except, of course, that Windows is too stupid to let you just drag-and-drop your local drive onto your external backup drive. It gets part way through and then complains about various files being in use. No shit, Sherlock! Don't you understand how to copy open files on-the-fly? This ain't rocket science! If you can't do the job, why don't you just ask me if I want those files skipped and make me a list of them? Nooooooo. That would show some intelligence on the part of Microsoft engineers. Instead, I am presented with OK or Cancel buttons. Clicking either one stops the copy operation with no indication of how far it got, what was still uncopied, or any way to restart where you left off. Morons.
Before you say anything... YES, I know that I can use copy commands in DOS with command line parameters to bypass errors. The whole point is that should not be necessary.
Yes, I know that Windows includes a backup program. Anyone every use it? It is worse than no backup at all. Those who use it quickly learn that you should not trust your backups to a backup program from Microsoft. Been there, done that. Lost data. Every damn time. Microsoft claims they spend millions on usability testing. You'd never know it.
Of course, on Maria's PowerBook, I just did a drag-and-drop of her hard drive onto the external drive and it "just worked". No bullshit, no effort, it just worked as expected.
Anyone see a pattern here?
[End rant]
Cute Drawings With Historical Significance ;-)
Ancient patent drawings online.
Edison's Ark: scanned vintage patent drawings. Link Discuss (via The Schism Matrix)
[Boing Boing Blog]
A Bit Of Random Fun
Attn: Randomizer Members.
Non-members can play too: All you need to do is click this
Wanna join?
Improve Your Pixel-Capturing Skills
Top Ten Digital Photography Tips: "You have a digital camera and have recorded the typical shots of family and friends. Now what? Here are ten tips to make your next batch of digital images so impressive that people will ask: "Hey, what type of camera do you have?" Guess what? It's not the camera." [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service] [Mac Net Journal] [Universal Rule]
Friday, October 25, 2002Gonna Roast Me A Mouse
Is that a shrimp I smell on the barbee, or a mouse?
Copyright & The Roasted Pig - another good Lessig article about the "C" word and regulatory black holes. [ernie/the/attorney]
Amazing Grace
Those who claim any knowledge of the history of computing, know about Grace Hopper. One of the best in the business. Not just one of the best women in the business, one of the best, period. Yes, I know of Ada Byron Lovelace and others. By the way, her name is spelled incorrectly as "Harper" in the title of the post referenced below.
If you are not familiar with who Grace Hopper was you are missing a vital piece of computer history....
Celebrate Grace Harper Day. [Doug's Dynamic Drivel] [Ye Olde Phart]
New Hardware
Purchased combination FireWire and USB 2.0 enclosure for 3.5" hard drive at Fry's. Also purchased 2-port USB 2.0 CardBus laptop adapter. I already have 80 GB hard drive from Fry's sale several months ago. Once I slap the pieces together, I can easily make backups of my ThinkPad X20 via USB and Maria's PowerBook via FireWire. Why did I buy USB adapter for the ThinkPad instead of FireWire? We have several older USB 1.1 accessories such as color printer and scanner which we use with both the ThinkPad and the PowerBook. No FireWire toys of any kind and no current plans to buy any. Now... where's my screwdriver?
Thursday, October 24, 2002Humor: Confused By The Bill Of Rights?
A surfeit of rights - Howdy friends and neighbors. Does it seem like people these days have too many rights? Well then read this and see if that warms the cockles of your heart. [ernie/the/attorney]
Wednesday, October 23, 2002Webopedia
One of the better online dictionaries for technology-related material that I've seen. And it's free! [MetaFilter] [Ye Olde Phart]
Blogging Resources
Nice collection of blogging resources over at Blogroots. [Seblogging News]
Free Downloadable 300-Page Stats Book
A fascinating statistical study of American society....
The First Measured Century contains quite a bit of information about American society; population, work, education, religion, health, money, politics, crime and more. Everything from the median marriage age to the percentage of Americans who believe it is wrong to go to the movies on Sundays (13%). [MetaFilter] [Ye Olde Phart]
Jaguar, Here We Come?
Maybe we'll take advantage of Apple's free Jaguar OS X v10.2 offer. Maria is willing to give it a try and I'm interested to see it. We'll see.
More Photo Work
I was awake until 1:00 a.m. this morning scanning wedding photos and making multiple backups to CD. All scans were done at 300 dpi in Photoshop and saved in PSD format to preserve the quality. Now I need to do a quick batch downsize and JPG convert so I can email some of them. I'll bet Photoshop can do that itself. Maybe I'll check the help file tomorrow.
Stupid Router/UPS/Hub
Found the ISDN router turned on and dialed-up when I got home from work. I think it was last Wednesday when this last happened. Recently, I started turning off the hub and router by turning off the APC UPS each night. I think the UPS performs a weekly self-test. I might be turning itself on, performing the battery/self-test, but then not shutting off again. I checked with Maria and the kids, but nobody turned on the UPS after I shut it down this morning before leaving for work.
Penguin Lust Satisfied. Thanks, Bryan.
Bryan and I unpacked the Penguin Computing server mentioned on Sunday. Nice little black 1U rack-mount box. He plans to format the hard drive and install a clean copy of Linux. Given this, he said I can power up the box and play as much as I want. Too bad I won't have any time in the next few days.
Game Over. Bryan Lost.
Son Bryan and girlfriend Katie were here for dinner tonight and Bryan turned on the heater. The two of them then sat on the heater vent in the kitchen floor. Evidently this is a time-honored tradition at Katie's house as well as ours.
Every year I play a game with the family to see who finally turns on the heater as winter approaches. I tested it last Sunday to make sure it would light safely and that the burners produced a clean blue flame. I figured someone would break down soon and wanted to be ready. With both kids out of the house, it looked like we might hold out until November.
The house heater is fed by a (200 gallon?) outdoor propane tank. Time to check the fuel level. Our supplier is supposed to automatically replenish the tank, but they aren't very reliable.
Tuesday, October 22, 2002Wedding Photo Work
I've been scanning wedding photos for about 4 hours. Still not finished.
Monday, October 21, 2002One-Month Anniversary
As I mentioned in my toast at Crystal's wedding, people enjoy recognizing life's little anniversaries. The one-week anniversary of a first date. The six-month anniversary of meeting the parents. Life is full of these little gems. Today is the one-month anniversary of Crystal and Nate's wedding.
A Common Misconception
Doonesbury: Don't You Have to Have Something to Say?.
From this weekend's Doonesbury:
Sunday, October 20, 2002Penguin Lust
A box arrived for son Bryan yesterday from Penguin Computing. He is configuring a backup web/e-commerce server for a client in preparation for the holiday season. I don't know which model it is. It doesn't matter. I want to unpack the server and play with Linux. I won't ... but I want to. Geek With Penguin Lust; not a pretty sight.
Bryan Moves
Our son Bryan moved again today. He shared a three-bedroom house with friends for about a year. John D. had the smallest room, Bryan had the medium-sized room, while Mike and Emily shared the largest. John D. was forced to move to the East Coast because of a work reorganization, so the hunt for a new place started last month. Bryan, Mike, and Emily moved into a two-bedroom apartment (part of a four-plex?) today. Have not seen it yet.
Mitch Kapor Rides Again
The title of this post is not meant to imply that Mitch hasn't been doing anything useful lately. It means he is 'back in the software saddle', doing what he likes best. Both software users and developers will, hopefully, benefit from his latest adventure.
A fascinating tour through Mitch Kapor's mind in 2002. Mitch was the founder of Lotus, I worked with him many years ago at Personal Software. He is recreating Agenda, apparently, in some fashion, entirely using open source technology. Mitch is one of the great software designers, so it might be well designed. In a brief review of his site I find a lot to like, but the proof will be in the software he creates. [Scripting News]
Windows Tips
I read the print version of PC Magazine for years and years and years. The annual 'tips' issue always contained something worthwhile.
Buy this month's PC Magazine! I've been reading PC Magazine for a long, long time. Like 198x where x is less than 4. Anyway this months's issue, November 5, has 104 Windows Tips and they are really, really good. [ Online Version of Article ] [The FuzzyBlog!]
Saturday, October 19, 2002Me, Socialize? Bah, Humbug!
Maria and I attended the annual neighborhood picnic today. Although some folks find this hard to believe, I've become more reluctant to attend social events as I get older. Don't feel I have anything interesting to say. So why the hell would I start a blog? Beats me. Luckily, Maria drags me along anyway and I usually have a good time.
My parents, on the other hand, are very social critters. They participate in dinner groups, volunteer at their church, the local hospital, and the local wild animal park. Maybe the gene responsible for socializing skips a generation.
Greetings To The East Coast
Thanks to JoAnn W. in NY for requesting this web address again. If you missed it, you were mentioned in my post titled Another Wedding last Sunday.
Blogging Intro
One reader wondered what 'blogging' means. This web site is organized as a 'web log', a term shortened to 'weblog', and eventually to just 'blog'. The act of regularly posting items on a web site, organized in reverse-chronological order, comprised of comments and links to other articles of interest, is called 'blogging'. There are many software packages which assist in the task. The software I use is called Radio UserLand. The introductory links mentioned below might be helpful.
Weblogs?. Sarah Lohnes of the Center for Educational Technology at Middlebury College has started to compile some good introductory links on the topic of Weblogs. [Seblogging News]
Another View Of RIAA Stupidity
The full article is worth the quick read.
Rules for the RIAA. Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper weighs in on the music/copyright debate with a scathing column about the music industry's foolishness:
Be sanctimonious: Claim to be more concerned about the artists than about your profits. You are selfless; your only interest is paying the musicians, without whom you would be nothing. Pray that nobody remembers countless rockers who signed away their souls on recording contracts and were dumped the moment their sales started slipping.Link Discuss (Thanks, Kevin!) [Boing Boing Blog]Misunderstand your market: When you count the songs being swapped on peer-to-peer networks, do not notice that most are moldy oldies. It's still theft, you argue, even if you yourself stopped paying royalties for those songs in 1961. Blame piracy, not taste, for your inability to sell new songs that no radio station will play.
Lie: Go on Kazaa, count the MP3 versions of songs you produced, old and new, and multiply that number by the current retail price of a CD; howl that you are losing a fortune. Forget that a Buddy Holly album sold for $2.95 in 1958; you sell records for much more now, and that's the price you use when calculating your losses — it's more impressive.
I Am Not A Link Whore
In the last few days I found three items in my RSS feeds referencing posts from this, my sad little backwater blog. Those who have blogged since 'the web was young' have probably forgotten the thrill of first seeing your site mentioned somewhere. Goggle doesn't count. You can find all of us in Google; robots will read anything. But people (kind, wonderful people) saw fit to re-post something mentioned here.
Thank you to Don W. Strickland for the re-posts in his RadioFAQ category. I find many wonderful things there, which I stash in my own RadioFun category for off-line access. The same applies to his main dws site.
Thanks also to Joe Jenett for his re-post. I enjoy his site as well as his themes. Although the main Redwood Asylum site has a Userland theme, my RadioFun category and my Radio personal web desktop use his jenett.radio.simplicity.v2.1 theme. I also use his randomizer button. See the little blue-grey button
at the top of the left-hand navigation column? Try it. You'll be automagically transported to another site in the Radio randomizer network. What have you got to lose? Or try the button right here! The Rule Of Unintended Consequences
My favorite 2L in Boston has a few words about not pushing the envelope too far.
More Geek!
...We get everything for free ... but we lose something that a lot of people don't think about -- massive centralized repositories of case law. Maybe that doesn't outweigh the benefit of free or new searching, but it's something to consider. What happens when one state's server goes offline (or gets hacked)? What happens if the building catches on fire and that state didn't want to spend the money on off-site backups ... There are a lot of valid reasons why free isn't necessarily better... [a mad tea-party]
Ground-hugging Fog
When you really want to impress those Halloween visitors, bury them in a blanket of cool ground-level fog. Go on... you know you want to.
Fun with Fog Generators [Slashdot]
11 vs. 6 megapixel digital camera shots
I'm not ready to spend the money, but the pros among you might be. The new 11 megapixel Canon EOS-1Ds is looking pretty interesting.
On high resolution digital photography....
Canon EOS-1Ds vs. EOS-D60. Dave over at Imaging Resource has just posted a side-by-side comparison of the eleven megapixel EOS-1Ds and the six megapixel EOS-D60 posing the question "How much difference does it make?" [Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)] [Ye Olde Phart]
Tuesday, October 15, 2002What Sucks And Blows At The Same Time? Microsoft Software, Of Course!
While reading the pros and cons in David's disclaimer, I found these two items hit close to home.
On the first point: I easily beat David on the "long-suffering" record. Microsoft products have crashed on me for over 25 years. I won't say for how much longer; hate to date myself so obviously.
On the second point: Hardly a day passes without my wife or children hearing me mutter, grumble, and curse the many Microsoft products which I legally own and use. I am constantly amazed at how these very useful products can suck so incredibly much!
My wife won't use Windows, preferring Apple systems. My son started running Unix and Linux when he was old enough to purchase his own computer and install his own O/S.
I, on the gripping hand, am a masochistic moron who currently uses Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP Professional on various server, desktop, and laptop systems both at home and at work.
Patient: "It hurts when I hold my hand in the fire."
Doctor: "Have you tried taking your hand out of the fire?"
Full Disclosure. Why I Can't Ever Tell the Truth about Microsoft, Ever [JOHO the Blog]
I use and like many Microsoft products
Microsoft products have been crashing on me regularly for over 15 years
.
.
Every Microsoft engineer I have ever met has impressed me with his or her intelligence, customer focus, and integrity
I routinely curse the stupidity of the assholes who design dumbass fucking Microsoft products. What are they, a bunch of morons?
Photo Phun Phor All You Phreaks
This is great. Maybe I'm just easily impressed because I have a soft spot in my heart for photography. No talent, just a soft spot.
360º Panoramas. Kite Aerial Photography (Java version) "Stunning QuickTime VR photos taken with cameras attached to kites." [Boing Boing Blog]
Pretty cool stuff. The Quicktime version ran better than the Java version on my computer. [jenett.radio]
Quick Weblog Roundup
Sigh. Where was this when I first started comparing blog tools? It may lack the detailed narrative provided by other comparisons, but it is a great starting point. Thanks for the pointer, James.
Comparing weblog software. I have just come across a very handy weblog comparison site. It works like this: you pick up to five different packages to compare, and it builds you a table of features, showing which package does what. Very, very handy.... [Column Two]
Copyright: A Snapshot In Time
Think your Congress-critters today understand copyright issues? Think everyone in Parliament in 1841 was probably ill-informed because "that was then, and this is now"? Think again. I have not finished reading the referenced item yet, but I'm impressed so far...
Macauley v. Bono. Peter Kaminski points us to a brilliant speech given by Thomas Macauley in 1841 to Parliament as the question of copyright was being addressed. It's 10,000 words, but it is witty, thorough, deep and pithy. Man, that Macauley guy could really write good! [JOHO the Blog]
Monday, October 14, 2002Search Your Ass Off
You can never have too many search engines.
Specialized Search Engine FAQ [The Virtual Acquisition Shelf and News Desk]
I'm Baaaack
Some readers expressed disappointment that I have not yet posted the remaining blog entries for Crystal's wedding. I finally started, last night. No pictures yet, just blog posts. The posts are old enough that they won't appear on the home page. Use the September archive link in the left margin. I'll get caught up in the near future.
Sunday, October 13, 2002Public Domain Be Damned. Perpetual Copyright Anyone?
Anyone who cares about copyright should read the blog summary by Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, who argued the case before the Supreme Court last Wednesday. Most of the blogs I read have referenced his comments. Here is just one example:
Congress continues to extend the constitutionally-mandated "limited term" as it desires. According to Lessig, at one point during oral arguments, the government even argued "Congress could perpetually extend existing terms; it could even extend a copyright to works within the public domain." The mind reels. Your government, charged with promoting the useful arts, argues it could remove items from the public domain after lawful copyright expiration places them there. Perpetual copyright, here we come.Lessig Blog: From the Front Line. David Weinberger: "...this is must reading for anyone who cares about the future of copyright."
Related:
Edward W. Felten: "Larry Lessig offers an extraordinary post-mortem on this week's Supreme Court arguments in the Eldred case." [jenett.radio]
Another Wedding
Attended the wedding of Joy R. and Pramod M. this evening, held at the Opera House in Los Gatos. Wedding started at 4:00 p.m. followed by full dinner reception. We stayed until 7:30. Probably close to 150 people attended. Live string quartet played throughout the evening.
Maria and I talked to a young woman who was a former graduate student from Maria's college. Her husband also graduated from the college, and Maria knew both of them well. I told Maria the woman looked like a combination of two of my blog readers. If you combined the mid-20's good looks of Maria's college roommate Jo S. from CT and Maria's cousin Jo W. from NY, you'd come close.
PGP Encryption: Promotional Prices Expire Soon
This Slashdot item on the PGP 8.0 Beta release reminded me to check the PGP site for updates. The PGP promotional pricing expires 10/31/2002. Those of you looking for a good encryption product should try PGP; I've been a paying customer for many years. If you missed the August announcement, and thought PGP died when NAI discontinued support, see the product's new home at PGP Corp. I just renewed my PGP Corporate Desktop license for email, file, and virtual disk encryption along with my PGP Mobile license for PalmPilot/Handspring PDA encryption.
Friday, October 11, 2002Personal Knowledge Publishing and The Outboard Brain
I forgot to post this item on the home page, though it appeared in my RadioFun category.
I'm still working on the best mix of personal and professional items for this home page. Reading Sebastien's piece reminded me that I never posted a link to Cory Docotrow's "My Blog, My Outboard Brain", a good introduction to the concept of "public memory".Personal knowledge publishing and its uses in research. Sébastien Paquet has written an article about the rise of personal knowledge publishing. [Radio Free Blogistan]
Thursday, October 10, 2002Specialization Anyone?
It has been a long time since I first read this Heinlein quote. Thanks for the reminder, Don.
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an equation, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." Robert A. Heinlein [dws.]
Wednesday, October 09, 2002Almost Ready
I almost have the time, and emotional energy, to start updating this blog again. Taxes still #1 priority. Tax preparer called at 11:00 p.m. Tuesday night from southern California, asking for additional document. My tax guy turns 67 in a few weeks and is already semi-retired.
Saw Crystal and Nate's preview album of wedding pictures Monday night. Watched their wedding video. Got misty.
Maria wrote a letter last week to J.W. in New York, recapping some wedding details. I'll use it as the basis for a longer post when the time is right.
Enough for now... I said I was *almost* ready to update this blog... but not yet.
Thursday, October 03, 2002eSpective Update
Added notes to test eSpective category, using separate FTP upstream and template.
Tuesday, October 01, 2002Where Am I?
Buried in personal items after the wedding. I'll post wedding info and pictures when I have a chance. Not for at least a few more days. Sigh...