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Beware the Ides of March, that just passed. Fitting that I should get an energy bill, then. Also, decided to take the code snapshot, after I managed to get everything working the way I want it to. It’s not elegant, it’s not pristine, hell, it’s probably doing a couple bad, bad things. But it works. And that’s the key. The rest, now, is cleaning up the code, putting in just a few more things (hopefully like the authorization plugin), adding some icing, and then styling to a nice finish. Printing off all that paper, however, was insane. All the code probably pretty easily comes into at least 100 sheets. And that’s without improvements or stylesheets or anything else like that. By the end of the semester, I’m going to be glad I had the foresight to buy a ream or two of paper. Depending on how things go and how marked up the code gets, I might reuse any pieces that don’t get significantly changed from this release to the next. Problem is, there’s a good chance that everything will receive a significant change from this release to the next. So another quarter-ream might get eaten up in another two weeks. Ooog. Right now, I’m kind of burnt out on the code, just having printed it all off. So I’ll take time and do other things first. Surprisingly, I’m pretty proud of myself for managing to make it all work out. To the 97% effectiveness that it is right now.
Anyway, let’s go link-hunting. The last known World War I Veteran was buried today . Now all we know about it is what’s been written and recorded. We can’t go and get any more source material about our vets.
Internationally, it looks like Iran’s going to get hit harder, with a new package of sanctions seemed ready to head to the Security Council. I doubt that’s going to improve much for relations.
From a potentially unverifiable source on a forum where musicians are the reason for its existence, an e-mail posted about Walter Reed's conditions and how much the media may be exaggerating. It’s not apologetic for what happened, just wants us to believe that the entirety of the Walter Reed facility is not Building 18.
To help with the health of all people, new sensors and software is being developed to read electrical signal patterns form the body and brain. Such things could be useful in detecting seizures or heart attacks. And possibly other things that would announce their presence through electrical signals and such. For people with phobias, the possibility of having selected memories erased from your brain could be appealing. (It’s only been tested on rats, and I have no idea whether it would work on unseating and erasing deeply--held and well-set memories.) Of course, being able to erase memory selectively would be potentially harmful, as well.
Something else with possible medical implications are a camera-algorithm combo that takes incomplete picture data and then reconstructs the image. The computer does the heavy lifting of image processing and reconstruction much like solving a puzzle. Wonder how close to accurate the resulting image is, and what it would do if a user wanted to show off their shots.
Something of potential interest: someone has confessed to orchestrating the 11 September attacks, among others. Says something about the state of the country when my first reaction is, “Is this a fall guy being sent to us?” It would make some sort of sense, either as someone prodded by the government to confess, or someone trying to take credit for it that had nothing to do with it. We’ll see if he can be convincing.
That was probably a bit of a breaking of the suggestions that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bradhicks had about living a better life or being a better person. Read his five best axioms for a better life. I like all of them, and the explanations behind them. Good ethical, moral, and self-improving behavior, without the need to drag a god figure into it.
On the other hand, cynicism does seem to be a good strategy in this administration. On the bright side, whistleblower protection legislation aimed at giving federal employees more protections passed the House of Representatives. I think this one has been threatened to hit a veto (it would be, what, number two in this presidency) if it should find the White House, though.
Fairvote, a group that advocates instant runoff voting, has a little Flash movie about the benefits of IRV. It’s a nice system, presented that way. I think that the U.S. could use something like this, just so that people are able to express what they really feel and still put someone in office that they can tolerate.
On the other environmental front before climate change (or coupled with it, now), Discovery Magazine reports that the hole in the ozone layer has gotten bigger, not smaller, in the short run, but that in the long run things are looking up. Well, hopefully we don’t do something like melt the polar ice caps while it’s healing up.
The Cool Stuff division has a mini-fridge that can also heat your coffee. Useful for keeping something strong and stiff on hand for Air-Kraken Day this Saturday. Working against the cool, though, is the $1000 U.S. pizza.
The precedent being set by birth-control refusals spreads to places you might not even think of. Take, for example, Muslim cashiers at Target who refuse to handle pork products, instead asking another cashier or the customer to do the scanning and bagging. Same sort of argument - religious objection, with someone around that can do the job if it really is needed. So bacon might be a self-check item here and there in the future.
Other religious matters include a Catholic Church in Wyoming telling a married lesbian couple they are excluded from the Communion sacrament, because they’re married lesbians and they advocate for same-sex unions. Such a position apparently places them in such a state of sin that they can’t receive a sacrament. This could be considered progress of a sort, considering they weren’t excommunicated. I wonder if they did the same thing to the priests who were involved in the scandals...
It’s not all bad, though - the National Association of Evangelicals endorsed a declaration against the torture being done by the United States. Although the Guardian has it slanted so that it feels more like a political decision being made to get away from the sinking Bush ship than necessarily any conviction in being against torture. in all circumstances. I’m inclined to give the benefit of the doubt.
And for those of us who want all our things to be better and more visually attuned, here's some tips on how to make your webpage real estate work better for you. It’s all about putting things where the eyes will go and helping the user feel confident that they’re getting information.
So now that you’re done sweeping your eyes over what I have to offer, I’m going to sleep. And possibly think about traveling up to campus tomorrow to three-hole punch all that material. Maybe I’ll wait until Monday, though. Need to buy a binder and some dividers to put it all in. Actually, probably three of them.
Anyway, let’s go link-hunting. The last known World War I Veteran was buried today . Now all we know about it is what’s been written and recorded. We can’t go and get any more source material about our vets.
Internationally, it looks like Iran’s going to get hit harder, with a new package of sanctions seemed ready to head to the Security Council. I doubt that’s going to improve much for relations.
From a potentially unverifiable source on a forum where musicians are the reason for its existence, an e-mail posted about Walter Reed's conditions and how much the media may be exaggerating. It’s not apologetic for what happened, just wants us to believe that the entirety of the Walter Reed facility is not Building 18.
To help with the health of all people, new sensors and software is being developed to read electrical signal patterns form the body and brain. Such things could be useful in detecting seizures or heart attacks. And possibly other things that would announce their presence through electrical signals and such. For people with phobias, the possibility of having selected memories erased from your brain could be appealing. (It’s only been tested on rats, and I have no idea whether it would work on unseating and erasing deeply--held and well-set memories.) Of course, being able to erase memory selectively would be potentially harmful, as well.
Something else with possible medical implications are a camera-algorithm combo that takes incomplete picture data and then reconstructs the image. The computer does the heavy lifting of image processing and reconstruction much like solving a puzzle. Wonder how close to accurate the resulting image is, and what it would do if a user wanted to show off their shots.
Something of potential interest: someone has confessed to orchestrating the 11 September attacks, among others. Says something about the state of the country when my first reaction is, “Is this a fall guy being sent to us?” It would make some sort of sense, either as someone prodded by the government to confess, or someone trying to take credit for it that had nothing to do with it. We’ll see if he can be convincing.
That was probably a bit of a breaking of the suggestions that
bradhicks had about living a better life or being a better person. Read his five best axioms for a better life. I like all of them, and the explanations behind them. Good ethical, moral, and self-improving behavior, without the need to drag a god figure into it.On the other hand, cynicism does seem to be a good strategy in this administration. On the bright side, whistleblower protection legislation aimed at giving federal employees more protections passed the House of Representatives. I think this one has been threatened to hit a veto (it would be, what, number two in this presidency) if it should find the White House, though.
Fairvote, a group that advocates instant runoff voting, has a little Flash movie about the benefits of IRV. It’s a nice system, presented that way. I think that the U.S. could use something like this, just so that people are able to express what they really feel and still put someone in office that they can tolerate.
On the other environmental front before climate change (or coupled with it, now), Discovery Magazine reports that the hole in the ozone layer has gotten bigger, not smaller, in the short run, but that in the long run things are looking up. Well, hopefully we don’t do something like melt the polar ice caps while it’s healing up.
The Cool Stuff division has a mini-fridge that can also heat your coffee. Useful for keeping something strong and stiff on hand for Air-Kraken Day this Saturday. Working against the cool, though, is the $1000 U.S. pizza.
The precedent being set by birth-control refusals spreads to places you might not even think of. Take, for example, Muslim cashiers at Target who refuse to handle pork products, instead asking another cashier or the customer to do the scanning and bagging. Same sort of argument - religious objection, with someone around that can do the job if it really is needed. So bacon might be a self-check item here and there in the future.
Other religious matters include a Catholic Church in Wyoming telling a married lesbian couple they are excluded from the Communion sacrament, because they’re married lesbians and they advocate for same-sex unions. Such a position apparently places them in such a state of sin that they can’t receive a sacrament. This could be considered progress of a sort, considering they weren’t excommunicated. I wonder if they did the same thing to the priests who were involved in the scandals...
It’s not all bad, though - the National Association of Evangelicals endorsed a declaration against the torture being done by the United States. Although the Guardian has it slanted so that it feels more like a political decision being made to get away from the sinking Bush ship than necessarily any conviction in being against torture. in all circumstances. I’m inclined to give the benefit of the doubt.
And for those of us who want all our things to be better and more visually attuned, here's some tips on how to make your webpage real estate work better for you. It’s all about putting things where the eyes will go and helping the user feel confident that they’re getting information.
So now that you’re done sweeping your eyes over what I have to offer, I’m going to sleep. And possibly think about traveling up to campus tomorrow to three-hole punch all that material. Maybe I’ll wait until Monday, though. Need to buy a binder and some dividers to put it all in. Actually, probably three of them.
