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Decided not to look too hard at my Complex Web Design assignments today - this was a good idea. They look difficult. They may not actually turn out to be (it’s getting my hands dirty with Ruby and Rails, building something that can do pretty simple CRUD operations.), but they look intimidating. Maybe in the lab tomorrow, I can panic less, and figure more stuff out. I think I’m just having trouble with visualizations. So maybe I need to sketch some to get it to work. And then convert the sketch to code. While juggling everything else. In a positive light, though, I did knock down nearly four pages of single-spaced paper material today. So I’ve only got a little bit more to go in reaching minimal page count. I think I’ll be good on all of my required citation types, too. I just then need to go back over it and have it get arranged into a logical order or a block order that makes sense and work from there. (No wonder I’m worried about coding - I don’t have the greatest grasp of structure.)
Anyway, on with the parade. Let’s turn on a light bulb above our heads with a proposed law in California that would outlaw the use of incandescent bulbs. And innoculate ourselves against some common allergies using new techniques that produce antibodies with less required allergen. If we’re still feeling a little under the weather, then perhaps techniques in development to interrupt and intercept germ communication will stop things from escalating any further. Now ready, let us proceed.
A new model may suggest that our universe, and all the universes, work on a cyclical fashion. Rather than a Big Bang at the beginning and a Big Rip at the end, compression and expansion happen in cycles, never quite getting in enough to Bang or out enough to Rip. It might lend credence to the idea of reincarnation if the multiverse turns out this way.
After being raped, a woman who contacted the police was then put in jail because of outstanding warrants on her. She had thought her previous matters were behind her, but apparently no. And this happened after she had been raped. Someone made an incorrect decision somewhere. If you really feel like you have to arrest her for outstanding warrants, do it after the crisis. It’s pretty common-sense to me.
Uprgading to Vista will invalidate your Windows XP product key? If that’s true, then, you’d better be damn sure you want to upgrade, because going back will mean calling Microsoft and getting them to reactivate your key. Or to issue you a new one. Is Microsoft being a bit paranoid here? Why not let the XP key sit, just in case someone wants to... oh, right. I’m not sure Microsoft believes anyone would want to uninstall Vista.
The Huffington Post puts up an interesting bit about the effects of psilocybin in creating mystical experiences, and whether mass-market mysticism may materialize. (How’s that for alliteration?) The profound effects could be good, could be bad. Depends on the trip you take and whether there’s someone to guide you through the bad parts of the trip. Would definitely be interesting to see the world or multiverse through an LSD-guided trip. I wonder what my brain would be up to in trying to get me to connect with the cosmos. FutureHi is getting at the same sort of place, a transcendent experience, but wants to achieve hyper-intelligence and higher everything through transhumanism and computer-nanotech methods. The people taking LSD “get it”, they just need to figure out how to translate their experience into something that can be replicated or experienced with nanomachinery. Even the Buddhist Geeks are getting into the act, with The Rise of the Technosattva, part 1 (for the moment), discussing the increasing ability of computers, and the possible match in wetware or software that will be engineered to take advantage of it.
Of course, governments and other agencies are taking their ears to the tubes as well - the FBI is wiretapping on the "full-pipe" method - capturing whatever comes its way, and then filtering out what isn't wanted. From what I recall, warrants require specificity before permission to search can be conducted - I would think that applies to Internet traffic as well - an IP or other specific object should be identified, and then the tap may be able to proceed. P2Pnet puts up a curious piece claiming that the Business Software Alliance is monitoring BitTorrent traffic, looking to strike out at copyright infringements happening over the fairly new protocol. I think I need a refresher course on how it works, because I thought (probably wrongly) that to monitor the traffic on the swarm, you had to be part of the swarm, and thus, participating in the sharing. I could be wrong - maybe a tracker can be used as a reference point to grab IP addresses from.
A set of photos that makes my skin crawl a bit, even as I recognize many of these people have a legitimate reason for owning firearms in their home. The photo set is called Armed America, and there’s something about it that feels off to me. But I might just be of the sensibility that guns are very dangerous things. To their credit, a significant number of the captions advocate responsible use of firearms, as well as their likely use in self-defense or hunting/target shooting.
I fully cannot make heads or tails of the following post. The basic setup is this - A blogger, Confederate Yankee, claims to have the true name of an AP source's pseudonym, “Jamil Hussein”, that he accuses of fabricating material to promote the message of Iraq being a lost cause. He then asks his readers as to whether or not to reveal it. From there, things get wild and wooly in the comments. Arguments appear about whether or not the Yankee has a name, it’s a real name, whether it’s the actual real name, and whether he’s putting at least one Iraqi in mortal danger if he reveals the source. I’m having trouble distilling out the actual arguments being made that bring in this situation in the first place, and what arguments are being made counter to that. So if anyone wants to wade into the depths of that mess and come up with something coherent, please do and report back. And try, if you can, to filter out the condescending attitude from both sides. If that doesn’t work, perhaps you could plant the Annoy-a-tron in the vicinity and see what happens. Wouldn’t necessarily do it in political situations, because they might get so cheesed off at the beep that they decide to go bomb another country.
1984 is being drawn and inked as a comic book, available for viewing from the appropriately named 1984comic.com. The root takes you to Winston’s blog, and has several other Ministries to visit to obtain pertinent, Ingsoc-approved news. While only the first two chapters of the comic are available, it looks to be an interesting read - the character designs remind me much of the characters in the Matrix animations, with their proportions and exaggerations.
The President has offered a plan to rename and extend the food stamp program. Renaming it to the Food and Nutrition Program, it will apparently increase access of more people to the program, remove limits on child care costs, and not take into account certain types of savings accounts or combat pay. At the same time, the controls will be tightened, and the automatic access component will be restricted to two programs - TANF and SSI, which will result in savings that will help to offset the increased availability costs. While it would be nicer to guarantee and ensure that all persons have sufficient amount to eat, adding more assistance to those who need it is a good step.
Lastly, marketing is a tough business. Especially when your advertisments for a television show get mistaken for possible bombs or explosive devices. Paranoid Americans are a really hard demographic to market something like Aqua Teen Hunger Force to, apparently. Although, they’ll probably buy your missile silo-based home if you can sell it as a place that will survive the inevitable terrorist wave...
...then again, maybe just posting the new rules about how people should live in your town will stop it from happening. Regardless as to whether those behaviors have any basis in truth, culture, or religion. The comments on Digg over the new town regulations are worth a read, of course. They gyrate wildly between calm, rational responses and off-the-cuff stuff that is rather sieve-like.
Anyway, I’ve got to get up early tomorrow, so I’m putting this one on post...
Anyway, on with the parade. Let’s turn on a light bulb above our heads with a proposed law in California that would outlaw the use of incandescent bulbs. And innoculate ourselves against some common allergies using new techniques that produce antibodies with less required allergen. If we’re still feeling a little under the weather, then perhaps techniques in development to interrupt and intercept germ communication will stop things from escalating any further. Now ready, let us proceed.
A new model may suggest that our universe, and all the universes, work on a cyclical fashion. Rather than a Big Bang at the beginning and a Big Rip at the end, compression and expansion happen in cycles, never quite getting in enough to Bang or out enough to Rip. It might lend credence to the idea of reincarnation if the multiverse turns out this way.
After being raped, a woman who contacted the police was then put in jail because of outstanding warrants on her. She had thought her previous matters were behind her, but apparently no. And this happened after she had been raped. Someone made an incorrect decision somewhere. If you really feel like you have to arrest her for outstanding warrants, do it after the crisis. It’s pretty common-sense to me.
Uprgading to Vista will invalidate your Windows XP product key? If that’s true, then, you’d better be damn sure you want to upgrade, because going back will mean calling Microsoft and getting them to reactivate your key. Or to issue you a new one. Is Microsoft being a bit paranoid here? Why not let the XP key sit, just in case someone wants to... oh, right. I’m not sure Microsoft believes anyone would want to uninstall Vista.
The Huffington Post puts up an interesting bit about the effects of psilocybin in creating mystical experiences, and whether mass-market mysticism may materialize. (How’s that for alliteration?) The profound effects could be good, could be bad. Depends on the trip you take and whether there’s someone to guide you through the bad parts of the trip. Would definitely be interesting to see the world or multiverse through an LSD-guided trip. I wonder what my brain would be up to in trying to get me to connect with the cosmos. FutureHi is getting at the same sort of place, a transcendent experience, but wants to achieve hyper-intelligence and higher everything through transhumanism and computer-nanotech methods. The people taking LSD “get it”, they just need to figure out how to translate their experience into something that can be replicated or experienced with nanomachinery. Even the Buddhist Geeks are getting into the act, with The Rise of the Technosattva, part 1 (for the moment), discussing the increasing ability of computers, and the possible match in wetware or software that will be engineered to take advantage of it.
Of course, governments and other agencies are taking their ears to the tubes as well - the FBI is wiretapping on the "full-pipe" method - capturing whatever comes its way, and then filtering out what isn't wanted. From what I recall, warrants require specificity before permission to search can be conducted - I would think that applies to Internet traffic as well - an IP or other specific object should be identified, and then the tap may be able to proceed. P2Pnet puts up a curious piece claiming that the Business Software Alliance is monitoring BitTorrent traffic, looking to strike out at copyright infringements happening over the fairly new protocol. I think I need a refresher course on how it works, because I thought (probably wrongly) that to monitor the traffic on the swarm, you had to be part of the swarm, and thus, participating in the sharing. I could be wrong - maybe a tracker can be used as a reference point to grab IP addresses from.
A set of photos that makes my skin crawl a bit, even as I recognize many of these people have a legitimate reason for owning firearms in their home. The photo set is called Armed America, and there’s something about it that feels off to me. But I might just be of the sensibility that guns are very dangerous things. To their credit, a significant number of the captions advocate responsible use of firearms, as well as their likely use in self-defense or hunting/target shooting.
I fully cannot make heads or tails of the following post. The basic setup is this - A blogger, Confederate Yankee, claims to have the true name of an AP source's pseudonym, “Jamil Hussein”, that he accuses of fabricating material to promote the message of Iraq being a lost cause. He then asks his readers as to whether or not to reveal it. From there, things get wild and wooly in the comments. Arguments appear about whether or not the Yankee has a name, it’s a real name, whether it’s the actual real name, and whether he’s putting at least one Iraqi in mortal danger if he reveals the source. I’m having trouble distilling out the actual arguments being made that bring in this situation in the first place, and what arguments are being made counter to that. So if anyone wants to wade into the depths of that mess and come up with something coherent, please do and report back. And try, if you can, to filter out the condescending attitude from both sides. If that doesn’t work, perhaps you could plant the Annoy-a-tron in the vicinity and see what happens. Wouldn’t necessarily do it in political situations, because they might get so cheesed off at the beep that they decide to go bomb another country.
1984 is being drawn and inked as a comic book, available for viewing from the appropriately named 1984comic.com. The root takes you to Winston’s blog, and has several other Ministries to visit to obtain pertinent, Ingsoc-approved news. While only the first two chapters of the comic are available, it looks to be an interesting read - the character designs remind me much of the characters in the Matrix animations, with their proportions and exaggerations.
The President has offered a plan to rename and extend the food stamp program. Renaming it to the Food and Nutrition Program, it will apparently increase access of more people to the program, remove limits on child care costs, and not take into account certain types of savings accounts or combat pay. At the same time, the controls will be tightened, and the automatic access component will be restricted to two programs - TANF and SSI, which will result in savings that will help to offset the increased availability costs. While it would be nicer to guarantee and ensure that all persons have sufficient amount to eat, adding more assistance to those who need it is a good step.
Lastly, marketing is a tough business. Especially when your advertisments for a television show get mistaken for possible bombs or explosive devices. Paranoid Americans are a really hard demographic to market something like Aqua Teen Hunger Force to, apparently. Although, they’ll probably buy your missile silo-based home if you can sell it as a place that will survive the inevitable terrorist wave...
...then again, maybe just posting the new rules about how people should live in your town will stop it from happening. Regardless as to whether those behaviors have any basis in truth, culture, or religion. The comments on Digg over the new town regulations are worth a read, of course. They gyrate wildly between calm, rational responses and off-the-cuff stuff that is rather sieve-like.
Anyway, I’ve got to get up early tomorrow, so I’m putting this one on post...
