Thursday, January 31
Found some cough drops last night with Menthol, eucalyptus, and benzocaine. Yeah! But now my throat seems to be doing better. It was one of those wimpy, two-day, lack-of-sleep colds.
Forbes.com - Magazine Article No wonder we are so smirkily obsessed with sex and the momentary release of orgasm: Almost all other routes to ecstatic experience have been effectively blocked.
Wednesday, January 30
There has got to be a better cough drop out there. I am using these gutless halls things. I have also been trying cold-eeze. They are supposed to shorten your cold while providing very little throat relief. I want to be made numb and healthier at the same time. Painless healing! That's all I ask.
Things I have lost:
1. one nimh aaa battery. This is maddening. Only three left now.
2. Brian Street's Literacy and Development Why didn't I just buy this book? Now the library gets $55
3. My enthusiasm for much of life. (I know I left it around here somewhere)
Things I have lost:
1. one nimh aaa battery. This is maddening. Only three left now.
2. Brian Street's Literacy and Development Why didn't I just buy this book? Now the library gets $55
3. My enthusiasm for much of life. (I know I left it around here somewhere)
Tuesday, January 29
Red Rock Eater Digest - notes and recommendations
You see this conflation, for example, in Foucault's talk about the
"production of subjects". The idea is that, by becoming a doctor
or a citizen or a psychiatric patient, you become inserted into an
all-encompassing social being -- a way of seeing, thinking, acting,
interacting, talking, writing, feeling, and so on. There is, to
be sure, some truth in this: to become a doctor is certainly to be
socialized to a significant degree into ways of thinking and acting
and so on. Much of this lies beyond individual consciousness: it
happens so complicatedly, and in so many different ways, and with
so much nonobvious structure, and with so many appeals to emotion
and reason, and with so much seclusion from the outside world, that
it is bound to change you. In fact, the very difficulty of becoming
a doctor is part of what causes it to change you so completely:
the skills require effort to master, and demands rain down upon
the emerging doctor from so many directions that great dedication is
required to integrate them all by slow degrees into a smooth everyday
performance.
Life will have to wait (1/29/2002) For Bay design engineer Steve Chen, 43, the most painful personal test came last summer. He had to decide whether to go immediately to his mother's bedside in Japan or take a day or so to get his work in order. The doctors had told him his mother was dying of cancer. They said he probably had a few days, but they were wrong.
``She was already dead,'' Chen says of the day he arrived in Japan. He helped with the funeral and handled the bureaucracy of death. Then he brought his mother's ashes back with him to Cupertino.
``She was already dead,'' Chen says of the day he arrived in Japan. He helped with the funeral and handled the bureaucracy of death. Then he brought his mother's ashes back with him to Cupertino.
Red Rock Eater Digest - Minor Annoyances and What They Teach Us
Then you haveThomas Sowell. His columns in Forbes rarely make logical sense, but the logical problems are not evident at first because he writes with such assaultive hostility that you feel like you've been kicked by a mule. It took me years of reading his columns at the newsstand before I managed to penetrate their toxic surface and search for an actual argument.
This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow "We've seen it in cases like this before, where it's demanded that presidents cough up and compromise on important principles...we are weaker today as an institution because of the unwise compromises that have been made over the last 30 to 35 years."
Translation: Nixon should never have turned over those tapes 30 years ago, and by god I'm not going to make the same mistake today.
Translation: Nixon should never have turned over those tapes 30 years ago, and by god I'm not going to make the same mistake today.
Monday, January 28
Red Rock Eater Digest - Supporting the Intellectual Life of a Democratic Society
[I don't know what to make of this paper. It's the strangest thing
I've ever written. It grows out of many years of careful observation
of the process by which I do whatever it is I do for a living. But
its significance is not just personal. I believe that everyone has
an intellectual calling, and for years I've evolved methods to force
students out of an attitude of passive conformity, doing whatever the
professor wants, and instead to discover what it is they really care
about, so that they can articulate in intellectual terms a calling
that they really feel, really believe in, and really get up in the
morning to act on.
Net Presence I decided that I was more interested in the social aspects of computer work than with the technical aspects. My dissertation, which is probably one of the more peculiar theses ever accepted by MIT outside of art and architecture, offers a deconstruction and partial reconstruction of AI's technical ideas about human action. From there I took a series of short-term jobs as I went through the painful process of shifting from a semi-nonconformist computer person to a semi-outsider social scientist.
PageSix.com: Cindy Adams: FUTURE'S ON THE LINE FOR CHENEY It would almost seem - almost - almost as if, if somebody eventually needs to be thrown overboard in light of Enron's end run, that the wise heads, wise guys and wise asses on top of the mountain are readying the VP to be the designated sinker.
Space Trader Information Space Trader is a complex game, in which the player's aim is to amass enough money to be able to buy a moon to retire to. The player starts out with a small space ship, armed with one simple laser, and 1000 credits in cash. The safest and easiest way to earn money is to trade goods between neighbouring solar systems. If the player chooses the goods to trade wisely, it isn't too difficult to sell them with a profit. There are other ways to get rich, though. You might become a bounty hunter and hunt down pirates. It is also possible to become a pirate yourself and rob honest traders of their cargo. Beware, though: pirating is a way to get rich quickly, but the police force will go after you.
Palm::Datebook - Handler for Palm DateBook databases. The Datebook PDB handler is a helper class for the Palm::PDB package. It parses DateBook databases
It's Clear Bush Tax Cuts Have Hurt Americans Published on Sunday, December 9, 2001 in the Boulder Daily Camera
It's Clear Bush Tax Cuts Have Hurt Americans
by Paul Krugman
Shortly after Sept. 11, George W. Bush interrupted his inveighing against evildoers to crack a joke. Bush had repeatedly promised to run an overall budget surplus at least as large as the Social Security surplus, except in the event of recession, war or national emergency. "Lucky me," he remarked to Mitch Daniels, his budget director. "I hit the trifecta."
Lucky him, indeed. The Enron analogy will soon become a tired cliche, but in this case the parallel is irresistible. Enron management and the administration the company did so much to place in power applied the same strategy: First, use cooked numbers to justify big giveaways at the top. Then, if things don't work out, let ordinary workers who trusted you pay the price. But Enron executives got caught; Bush believes that the events of Sept. 11 will let him off the hook.
It's Clear Bush Tax Cuts Have Hurt Americans
by Paul Krugman
Shortly after Sept. 11, George W. Bush interrupted his inveighing against evildoers to crack a joke. Bush had repeatedly promised to run an overall budget surplus at least as large as the Social Security surplus, except in the event of recession, war or national emergency. "Lucky me," he remarked to Mitch Daniels, his budget director. "I hit the trifecta."
Lucky him, indeed. The Enron analogy will soon become a tired cliche, but in this case the parallel is irresistible. Enron management and the administration the company did so much to place in power applied the same strategy: First, use cooked numbers to justify big giveaways at the top. Then, if things don't work out, let ordinary workers who trusted you pay the price. But Enron executives got caught; Bush believes that the events of Sept. 11 will let him off the hook.
Justice wears a Burka!
He had ordered massive draperies to conceal the offending figures. But initially not only could the story not be confirmed — it was strongly denied
Friday, January 25
Attended three meetings this week. They could have all been combined and the essential business conducted in 20 minutes. But when is that not true. Goodbye, 4.5 hours of my life that I'll never get back.
Yesterday was pajama day at my son's preschool. He was so excited that he put on his scooby doo slippers the night before and paraded around the house. Ezra is five. He was totally stoked. It's a cliche, perhaps, but it would be great to feel that way on occasion. Of course, he gets pretty upset at times too, so there is a downside to this instant enthusiasm. Ezra brought home a borrowed copy of Ranger Rick from preschool, and he is also very excited about Ranger Rick as well. RR just reminds me of how completely removed from nature I've become in the last five years of graduate school.
Like many bloggers, I've decided to write more and post to fewer links in this weblog. It's like flossing though--great in theory, but nobody ever does it.
I found out last night that my estranged 25 year old sister had a brain tumor taken out a week ago and is recovering. Her eight month old son is in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant. I don't know if it would be possible for her or her family to experience any more stress right now.
I found out last night that my estranged 25 year old sister had a brain tumor taken out a week ago and is recovering. Her eight month old son is in the hospital awaiting a heart transplant. I don't know if it would be possible for her or her family to experience any more stress right now.
Thursday, January 24
Signing With Your Baby: Use sign language to communicate before your baby can talk. Infants develop the fine muscles in their hands before they develop those required for speech, so they're equipped to communicate with you before they can speak.
Ex-Doors bandmate reflects on life with Jim
by Brett Milano
I just want to lay the hint out there that there's another way of living. It goes beyond materialism, and it goes beyond girls with navels selling millions of records.''
by Brett Milano
I just want to lay the hint out there that there's another way of living. It goes beyond materialism, and it goes beyond girls with navels selling millions of records.''
New Scientist "We think it will prove very effective," said Kazuyuki Oi, a spokesman for the Hokkaido police. "One of the reasons is that foreigners are very big. We are trained in judo and kendo, but the nets may be a more effective way to tackle violent fans."
In an exercise, police dressed as hooligans were successfully restrained using the gun, the newspaper reports.
In an exercise, police dressed as hooligans were successfully restrained using the gun, the newspaper reports.
Wednesday, January 23
ONLamp.com: Slash's Wiki Plugin [Jan. 17, 2002] What A Wiki Is
"The nice thing about a Wiki is its simplicity."
While the story and comment format is fine for discussions, there's a whole class of collaborative work that can't be done with a standard Slash site. Occasionally, it's useful to have a brainstorming session, where getting ideas down coherently is more important than following a traditional call-and-response question format. Business people call this "synergy," but it really means something here.
Though I can't prove it at the moment, I suspect that's what lead Ward Cunningham to come up with the idea of a Wiki. It's like one of those smart whiteboards, where anyone can write anything and erase anything, but there's still a record of all revisions. The theory goes that putting simple but effective tools in the hands of smart people and staying out of the way can produce great results.
"The nice thing about a Wiki is its simplicity."
While the story and comment format is fine for discussions, there's a whole class of collaborative work that can't be done with a standard Slash site. Occasionally, it's useful to have a brainstorming session, where getting ideas down coherently is more important than following a traditional call-and-response question format. Business people call this "synergy," but it really means something here.
Though I can't prove it at the moment, I suspect that's what lead Ward Cunningham to come up with the idea of a Wiki. It's like one of those smart whiteboards, where anyone can write anything and erase anything, but there's still a record of all revisions. The theory goes that putting simple but effective tools in the hands of smart people and staying out of the way can produce great results.
Three Roses, Cognac on Poe Birthday Jerome said the man, wearing the traditional black hat and coat, with a white scarf concealing his face, appeared to be different from last year's so-called Poe Toaster.
``He appeared to be a younger man,'' said Jerome, who has witnessed the ritual for 20 years. ``He stood erect and walked quickly.''
The man made no gestures, other than the secret signal he sends Jerome to show he is the genuine Poe Toaster, as he laid the tribute.
``He appeared to be a younger man,'' said Jerome, who has witnessed the ritual for 20 years. ``He stood erect and walked quickly.''
The man made no gestures, other than the secret signal he sends Jerome to show he is the genuine Poe Toaster, as he laid the tribute.
The Register
It's the XP 'product activation' slavery agreement that drove me, finally, to Linux. And fortunately, a lot of the newer Linux distros now install nicely on any x86 machine. I've been able to install it successfully and then refer to the documentation to tweak it properly, just as I used to do with Microsoft's products before the cheap bastards shrank their documentation to a mere glossy advertisement brochure.
Tuesday, January 22
Carl G Boice, Robert. "Work Habits of Productive Scholarly Writers: Insights from Research in Psychology." Publishing in Rhetoric and Composition Eds. Gary A. Olson and Todd Taylor. Albany: SUNY, 1997, 211-28.
Monday, January 21
bryanboyer - zui-huh?
--John Maeda
"Every current artist who says they hate computers has a secret computer room labeled 'top secret' where it's ok to use computers."
--John Maeda
Friday, January 18
Protectv: $79.95 box that filters out profanities based on close captions. Interesting.
http://www.protectv.com/buy_online.html
http://www.protectv.com/buy_online.html
Goat Milk Carries Spider Silk in Canada Experiment
The perils of spider farming.
``The spiders unfortunately are territorial carnivores. They eat each other, and this has caused them to resist all forms of domestication,'' Turner said.
The perils of spider farming.
Thursday, January 17
Strained relations / Business magazines struggle to maintain objectivity under pressure from their biggest tech advertisersSilicon Valley heavy hitters PeopleSoft and Sun Microsystems sank their teeth into Forbes and Fortune, respectively, in some cases threatening to pull their ads in protest of hard-hitting coverage, according to reliable sources
Wednesday, January 16
Knuth versus Email
Email is a wonderful thing for people whose role in life is to be on top of things. But not for me; my role is to be on the bottom of things. What I do takes long hours of studying and uninterruptible concentration. I try to learn certain areas of computer science exhaustively; then I try to digest that knowledge into a form that is accessible to people who don't have time for such study.
Thursday, January 10
InsiderOne - The Drama You've Been Craving Gough is a self-made DIY kinda artist. In that Rolling Stone profile, writer Gavin Edwards reports that early on Gough bought a Tascam 144 four-track recorder, the same model Bruce Springsteen used to record Nebraska. After getting his recorder, Gough began writing a song a day, says Edwards; then in 1997 he released his first EP on his own label, Twisted Nerve.
IP: the web runs on love, not greed >
In our disappointment of grand riches, we have failed to see the miracle
>on our desks. Ten years ago, it was easy to dismiss visions of a wondrous
>screen in our homes that would provide the whole world in its magical
>window. The idea of a universal information port was considered
>uneconomical, and too futuristic to be real in our lifetimes. Yet at any
>hour of today, most readers of this paper have access to the full text of
>the Encyclopedia Britannica, precise map directions to anywhere in the
>country, stock quotes in real time, local weather forecasts with radar
>pictures, immediate sports scores from your hometown, any kind of music
>you could desire, answers to medical questions, hobbyists who know more
>than you do, tickets to just about anything, 24/7 e-mail, news from a
>hundred newspapers, and so on. Much of this is for free. This abundance
>simply overwhelms what was promised by the most optimistic guru.
Wednesday, January 9
CNN.com - Transcripts The most explosive charge, Paula, is that the Bush administration -- the present one, just shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI investigations of al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a deal with the Taliban on oil -- an oil pipeline across Afghanistan.
ZAHN: And this book points out that the FBI's deputy director, John O'Neill, actually resigned because he felt the U.S. administration was obstructing...
BUTLER: A proper...
ZAHN: ... the prosecution of terrorism.
ZAHN: And this book points out that the FBI's deputy director, John O'Neill, actually resigned because he felt the U.S. administration was obstructing...
BUTLER: A proper...
ZAHN: ... the prosecution of terrorism.
Monday, January 7
DAT-Heads Digest #198 The RIAA's campaign against bootleg dealers climaxed this year with the federal conviction of New York bootlegger Charles LaRocco. A Long Island record dealer, La-Rocco was arrested in 1996, 1997 and again in January for running a distribution network that supplied millions of bootleg CDs to record stores and Web sites.
winterspeak.com Here's how to empty your inbox (and keep it empty)
1. Put the oldest, crustiest emails at the top. This will help you remember to get rid of them.
2. Delete all spam (without opening it).
3. Go through all personal messages from friends and family (the most important emails). Read them, enjoy them, delete them. If you must keep them, copy and paste the text into a text editor and save it in your hard disk as "'initials of sender' 'date' 'keywords'".
4. Your inbox now contains email of middling importance only. Sequentially engage each email to remove it from the inbox:
- If the email is a to-do item or appointment, copy and paste it as a to-do or appointment into your calender program. To-do items should be tied to specific days, so Outlook users are out of luck. Delete email in inbox
- If email is a item of correspondence tied to a project, save it in the folder for that project as " ". Delete email in inbox.
- If the email is reoccurring (newsletter, list), read the email and enjoy it if you have time, else delete it. You'll be getting a new one tomorrow anyway.
5. Continue until your inbox is empty, and keep it that way.
1. Put the oldest, crustiest emails at the top. This will help you remember to get rid of them.
2. Delete all spam (without opening it).
3. Go through all personal messages from friends and family (the most important emails). Read them, enjoy them, delete them. If you must keep them, copy and paste the text into a text editor and save it in your hard disk as "'initials of sender' 'date' 'keywords'".
4. Your inbox now contains email of middling importance only. Sequentially engage each email to remove it from the inbox:
- If the email is a to-do item or appointment, copy and paste it as a to-do or appointment into your calender program. To-do items should be tied to specific days, so Outlook users are out of luck. Delete email in inbox
- If email is a item of correspondence tied to a project, save it in the folder for that project as " ". Delete email in inbox.
- If the email is reoccurring (newsletter, list), read the email and enjoy it if you have time, else delete it. You'll be getting a new one tomorrow anyway.
5. Continue until your inbox is empty, and keep it that way.
Saturday, January 5
Crazy Apple Rumors Site This went on for a while and by about 11:30pm, we were all so full of caffeine we were getting kind of paranoid. Chet said "What if Steve pulled his face off and there was this hideous gorgon underneath, with fire and brimstone spewing from its nostrils? Its foot-long tongue split at the end, it throws its head back and bellows 'All look upon me and despair!' Then it starts eating the souls of everyone in the Moscone Center."
Corporations Behaving Badly Under the federal False Claims Act, whistleblowers who file qui tam lawsuits against companies defrauding the government are entitled to 15 to 25 percent of whatever funds the government recovers in cases where the government joins the lawsuit.
Durand filed a False Claims Act lawsuit in May 1996. The government intervened, and earlier this year, Durand was awarded $77 million as his part in the recovery of the lawsuit.
Durand filed a False Claims Act lawsuit in May 1996. The government intervened, and earlier this year, Durand was awarded $77 million as his part in the recovery of the lawsuit.
Friday, January 4
Computer in Kabul holds chilling memos The memo laments al-Qaida’s sluggishness in realizing the menace of these weapons, noting that “despite their extreme danger, we only became aware of them when the enemy drew our attention to them by repeatedly expressing concern that they can be produced simply.”
War
Returning to the war, the airstrikes quickly turned cities into "ghost towns," the press reported, with electrical power and water supplies destroyed, a form of biological warfare. The UN reported that 70% of the population had fled Kandahar and Herat within two weeks, mostly to the countryside, where in ordinary times 10-20 people, many of them children, are killed or crippled daily by land mines. Those conditions became much worse as a result of the bombing. UN mine-clearing operations were halted, and unexploded U.S. ordnance, particularly the lethal bomblets scattered by cluster bombs, add to the torture, and are much harder to clear.10
Thursday, January 3
Palm, Long a Leader, Has Big Plans for 2002
The new chairman and chief executive, Eric A. Benhamou, has vowed to correct the missteps of 2001. "We simply did not innovate enough," he said this month. "We have made it a priority to correct this trend."
