January 30, 2003
no more darkfireknight
so you may have noticed the comment from "faux-DarkfireKnight". it's a bit of an inside joke. last week someone had been sending me prank emails accusing me of calling people child molesters. i would have written it off except the email address was darfireknight@hotmail.com and he had the most agitating tag line:
The dark behind the fire is where real fear lies: For only there do true Knights venture.
DarkfireKnight
it was just too much for me. so, i emailed hotmail trying to get his account canceled. my thought being, at least he'd have to come up with another stupid nickname and tagline. oh boy, you should have seen the little jig i did when i got the email telling me he'd been bounced. i wanted to mount it on my wall. screw that kid.
January 28, 2003
things my girlfriend and i argue about
well, actually they're not things that krista and i argue about, they're really things this english bloke and his crazy german girlfriend/wife argue about. so get a little time together and read through it, it's very funny.
January 26, 2003
January 25, 2003
bush's approval rating
bush's approval rating continues to drop. the daily kos has a graph which makes the trend very clear.
a new bike?
i've got a pretty sizeable check coming from working all the hours i've put in this month. even though it hasn't shown up yet it's burning a hole in my pocket. i was considering a new laptop or maybe a camera. tonight i went and hung out with bill spaceman (who leaves tomorrow on a three month trip to the netherlands) and he's convinced me that the best thing to buy is a new bike. isn't that a sexy machine? and at only $850 retail i can get that and a camera for the price of a laptop.
January 24, 2003
unwiring mt. everest
a team is building a wireless network to connect the mt. everest's base camp to the internet. the exciting side effect is that in the process they'll bring the internet to the neighboring village. the telco situation in nepal is a joke, phone lines are so expensive that you'd have internet cafes with 5 or 10 computers on one 28.8 modem. hopefully this kind of technology will provide an alternative.
January 23, 2003
bush's state of the union address
man somebody put together an amazing re-cut of bush's state of the union address. my only complaint is that it would have been much funnier if they'd been a bit more subtle. the editing was great, there were only one or two noticeable gaps in the audio.
January 19, 2003
looking back on my geek heritage
i've spent the last two hours reading all about the computing technology of the last century. it feels a bit odd to reading about the charactron on the flat screen of a brand new imac. browsing around world power systems is a trip back in time. not only is the author archiving information on the obsolete technology he's also creating what can only be called art with it.
i'm in love with the clock he's built from nixie tubes. if anyone's got $1800 burning a hole in their pocket...
mars?
the guardian has a piece on the rumors that bush may use his state of the nation address to announce plans to send astronauts to mars. personally, i think that would be a much better way to support the military industrial complex than the mythical missile shield.
January 17, 2003
one more pc case mod
how long 'til you see this on slashdot? it's a cigarette lighter adapter kit for your pc.
With this adapter kit, your PC can now do EVERYTHING a regular Cigarette Lighter can with no trouble at all. Charge cell phones, power cd players, you name it.
i'm assuming that it will light cigarettes too.
arggghh...
school started up the second week of january. this semester i'm taking (what seem like) much harder classes. i'm finally getting around to learning trig, mr. carter, would be so proud.
i've also started working again, i'm trying not to let it interfere with school but the hard part is that it's cutting into my internet time which gets shifted into cuts into my school time. i'll get that balance thing worked out soon enough.
i've got some cool things in mind for this site and katherinehouse.com, looking at doing a redesign to bring all the elements closer together. keep an eye out, as i get time i'll be implementing parts.
January 12, 2003
good free science fiction
cory doctorow, editor of the boing boing blog, has quickly become one of my favorite sf authors. i first read jury duty, a piece he'd co written with charlie stross and loved it. yesterday i downloaded his new book down and out in the magic kingdom. he talked the publisher into offering it up as a free download, it doesn't seem to be hurting the sales, it's in the top 300 on amazon.com. today i came across 0wnz0red an older piece that salon had published. i'd suggest that everyone go ahead and start reading...
bar monkey
the bar monkey is a little piece of applied engineering at it's finest. put simply, it's a computer controlled vending machine that mixes drinks.
January 08, 2003
sharon on interfering in another country's politcs
i got a kick out of an article reporting that sharon's miffed about blair's inviting the israeli labor party's candidate to a meeting in london saying "he considers the invitation to amram mitzna interference in israeli politics". i guess it's only a problem when it's not the palestinians.
disposable employees
if you've got a few minutes and a strong stomach you ought to read this article on the "genius of capitalism" manifesting itself at tyler pipe. every time some republican starts talking about burdensome regulations or how bad unions are, refer them to this story.
January 07, 2003
bush's plan to stimulate the wealthy... er economy
bush sure seems to be having a tough time selling his recently proposed "economic stimulus" package. most people seem to be identifying it as a handout for the wealthy. npr's talk of the nation had an economists on who made an excellent saying that this plan is like "aunt mae's cold cure, take two table spoons of anything and your cold will be gone in a week". the cold will be gone in a week either way but you end up giving aunt mae credit for it.
paul krugman tears the plan to shreds, first pointing out it's value as a distraction from foreign policy then making clear how little will actually act to simulate the economy. out that of the enormous $600 billion price tag, half will go end the stock dividend taxation. this percentage seems even more disproportionate once he he makes clear that the majority will go to people making more than $200,000 a year.
the economist, on the other hand, seems to think that stimulus is something of a dubious effort. getting legislation through congress is such a slow process that it's almost impossible to get the timing right. on top of that it's hard to know that a certain action will have the desired outcome.
in fact the only person in favor of the plan seems to be dirk van dongen, president of the national association of wholesaler-distributors, one of the special intrests groups that lobbied for parts of the plan.
January 06, 2003
news from around the globe
i was reading google's news service this morning and came across reports of the double suicide bombing in israel. the lead article was the bbc writing about the number of foreign workers killed in the blasts and their status in israel. the second article was from arabicnews.com. in it they avoid entirely the term suicide bomber and settle for the more "diplomatic" term "operation" and classify the victims as "settlers". initially i chalked the former up to a bad translation but after coming upon the later, could not. calling the victims "settlers" even though the attacks took place within the green line, not to mention the fact that most were illegal immigrants, makes it clear that the author and editors completely reject israel as a state. this would seem to be indicative of the arab media in general. it's interesting to contrast that biased view with ha'azretz's.
i'm probably comparing opposite extremes. i'm sure there are moderate arab news outlets someplace and i'm just as sure that i wouldn't have to look far to find israeli's with as hateful a view of the palestinians. i suppose that one of the strengths of the internet is that finding these viewpoints is much easier. unfortunately i think human nature rarely encourages us to seek out those view poins that which disagree with us.
January 03, 2003
wireless at school
the ny times has an article on the distractive nature of wireless networks in a classroom. it's something i can relate to, but i belive that it's really a reflection on the professor. in the math class i took last semester i'd surf the entire time. in contast, in my honors class i never would have even thought of doing anything on the computer but take notes. the class was interesting and i wanted to hear what the professors had to say. that said, access points are probably best installed in other places like labs, common areas and libraries.
north korea
i really detest william saffire. in his latest editorial he's managed a correct conclusion after completely misrepresenting the entire lead in to the current situation with north korea. he'd like you to believe that the delays in going to the un before attacking iraq are the cause, not bush's refusal to honor agreements signed during the clinton administration. china is the key though. we ought to make it clear to them that if north korea is nuclear, japan, south korea, and taiwan are all going to restart their nuclear programs and we're not going to stop them. the last thing china wants is a bunch of nuclear neighbors.
after reading saffire's piece you can only imagine my joy when i then came across paul krugman's editorial on the same topic. he does a much better job than i could of laying out the bush administrations missteps regarding north korea. god bless mr krugman.
what layoffs?
bush has found an easy way to improve unemployment statistics, by not collecting them. the funny part is his dad did the exact same thing back when he was in office, unfortunately clinton had reinstated them.
January 01, 2003
new blogs
dan's got a new look for his webpage. i moved him from blogger to moveabletype. charlie's finally gotten himself a new webpage as has krista.
a happy new year
woke up on the floor of strange bathroom this morning. krista and i had gone out to a house party with a bunch of people only one of which i knew. it was loads of fun, i might even get around to putting up some of the pictures i took. hopefully future mornings will be better than the first.
