More done, more to do? - 27 March 2007
Mar. 27th, 2007 11:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptIf the commencement date is correct, in exactly one month, I will be graduated. (Woo-hoo!) But I have to get through the next two weeks. (D’oh!). Continuing to move material, though, and get what needs to be done finished. I think I’m in good standing on one of the projects, and I’ll be poking my partner on Thursday to make sure that we actually get the rest of the other project done. Before that, though, there will be significant harassment of the Rails instructors to see if there is a more elegant way of updating through AJAX than fragmenting the pages into many partials. If not, well, that’s what happens. If so, hopefully I can implement the better method.
Lego goes Batman. With the incredible successes of Lego Star Wars, now we get Lego Batman. Hoping that they do just as good a job with Lego Gotham as they did with the Star Wars Universe.
Livejournal Drama Queen Bingo. Taking tropes and making good use of them. Someone will probably be able to shout bingo without having to leave their friends lists.
The leading manufacturer of night-vision technology for the United States has been found guilty of violating the Arms Control Export Act, selling classified and technical data to countries such as China and Singapore without obtaining any permission from the government to do so. So they get nailed with a $100 million fine, $50 million which must be invested in next-generation night-vision technology that can be shared with all of their competitors.
If you’re going to pirate something and not give credit, it’s generally a poor idea to leave some control in the hands of those you pirated from. Senator John McCain's MySpace page learned this lesson well today, when the contact information for Senator McCain image was replaced by a graphic that indicated he was quite in favor of lesbian marriage. I would like to know how long it stayed up there from when it was first placed, myself, to see how quickly people noticed and moved to change it.
One of the aides to the Attorney General has invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to the Senate's request that she appear and testify, a gesture that made![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bradhicks wonder just what the hell is she hiding that she feels she has to invoke the fifth in a non-criminal proceedings matter?
The Attorney General is taking fire from other places as well, being implicated in a cover-up attempt on several minor boys in a Texas prison being sexually assaulted. The reasons for not prosecuting, according to the commentary, are the same in other rape cases - “They enjoyed it”, and “It didn’t hurt them physically”. Apparently, because nobody complained, they assume all those who were involved were okay with it. Precisely whom would they be complaining to, though? And, as a commenter remarks, would consent even be possible for those of age, considering that the guards held significant power over them? In a similar manner, although not as institutionalized, there’s a worrisome story about a student in Pennsylvania was enslaved by a family, regularly beaten and forced to do work without pay . Apparently she had stayed behind with the family to complete her schooling, but was forced to drop out, deliver newspapers, and do chores, with fear and abuse along the way.
Slashfood gives us a look into Disney’s marketing mechanisms... and tells us that someone approved the idea of a bubbly drink that's champagne in everything but alcohol. A perfect way for getting kids involved in the parties where the adults are drinking the real thing... or to getting kids involved in starting to drink the real thing earlier than they should. For those who are responsible enough to be trusted with alcohol, though, there’s the champagne cork, for when you just want to pop the bubbly and not dent your ceiling (theoretically, anyway).
Remember, kids, Just Say No to Toad. Especially fifteen-inch, two-pound, football-sized cane toads. Big guys there. Hopefully they aren’t a population of magic users who were found out and then turned into animals. (That’s two references from very different places in this paragraph.)
More from the world of sheep and genetics - a chimera sheep that has supposedly compatible or transplanatable organs has been created. Using stem cell techniques and waiting for a lamb to be born that has the requisite organ types. There is a worry that this may cause certain viruses that are harmless in sheep to find their way into humans and wreak havoc. We’ll see whether that happens, or whether recipients of sheep-grown organs will accept them.
Giant squid-fishing off the coast of California. Wondering whether there will be a regular set of squids coming into the area or not. And what they could end up doing to the fish populace that’s already there. Those waiting for the Soviets or Nod to attach mind-control devices will probably have to wait a little bit longer.
The President and the Republican Party are changing their rhetoric they now admit there is such a thing as an income gap, although they seem a bit slow to the point of figuring out people are having their incomes eaten alive by the costs of things like insurance, health care, and the shrinking or deleting of pensions and other company retirement benefits. Not necessarily taxes, but other costs that are rising steadily. We’ll see if they actually float any proposals or campaign promises to deal with these sorts of expenses and problems. Of course, then they’ll probably want to figure out some way of making it not appear like some liberal social program.
Looking to the stars, New Mexico aims to build a commercial spaceport and be ready to operate in three years. Virgin Galactic has signed on to help, and at some point the FAA will have to approve the spaceport’s flying, but I also kind of want to know what the destinations are going to be from the New Mexico spaceport. Flying around Terra, maybe, but what about intersystem flights and the like? Are we going to see colony ships start heading out?
The following is odd. It can be construed as sophomoric humor that simply has gotten well out-of-hand, it could be serious threats against the blogger’s life and sanity, it could be something else. Considering the amount of comments it’s generated, it’s certainly something that’s catching the eye of the blogging world, for good or for ill. Read her account of the threates on her blog, and make your own decisions about what’s going on. It has even caught the attention of the BBC.
Technology moves apace, and researchers at Stanford have tapped a novel place to do grid computing with - the Playstation 3 can be used with the Folding@home project. So when not playing games, you can advance science (SCIENCE!) and have something pretty neat to display on your screens. In terms of avatars of self, Technology Review has University of Pittsburgh scholars that are making personalized pictures much easier by sending a neutral picture and then warping the picture into the various moods placed.
Ninety-three pounds of women's underwear were found in a man's home. He was charged with several counts of burglary and theft. There’s a dirty old man reference waiting here, but I can’t pinpoint which one I want to use. You decide.
If you’ve got a little time to kill, considering trying out these two word games that are also adaptive programs. Something to help those Stanford researchers out in finding plenty of associations between words. If images are your thing instead, consider the Daguerreian Society, who collect and keep the precursors to modern photography
The last thing for tonight is The caffeine database. So, see what you drink and add up how much caffeine you’re getting in a day. And then, once you stop vibrating, figure out what you want to do about it. I’m just going for a little bed. 9am class and all that.
Lego goes Batman. With the incredible successes of Lego Star Wars, now we get Lego Batman. Hoping that they do just as good a job with Lego Gotham as they did with the Star Wars Universe.
Livejournal Drama Queen Bingo. Taking tropes and making good use of them. Someone will probably be able to shout bingo without having to leave their friends lists.
The leading manufacturer of night-vision technology for the United States has been found guilty of violating the Arms Control Export Act, selling classified and technical data to countries such as China and Singapore without obtaining any permission from the government to do so. So they get nailed with a $100 million fine, $50 million which must be invested in next-generation night-vision technology that can be shared with all of their competitors.
If you’re going to pirate something and not give credit, it’s generally a poor idea to leave some control in the hands of those you pirated from. Senator John McCain's MySpace page learned this lesson well today, when the contact information for Senator McCain image was replaced by a graphic that indicated he was quite in favor of lesbian marriage. I would like to know how long it stayed up there from when it was first placed, myself, to see how quickly people noticed and moved to change it.
One of the aides to the Attorney General has invoked the Fifth Amendment in response to the Senate's request that she appear and testify, a gesture that made
bradhicks wonder just what the hell is she hiding that she feels she has to invoke the fifth in a non-criminal proceedings matter? The Attorney General is taking fire from other places as well, being implicated in a cover-up attempt on several minor boys in a Texas prison being sexually assaulted. The reasons for not prosecuting, according to the commentary, are the same in other rape cases - “They enjoyed it”, and “It didn’t hurt them physically”. Apparently, because nobody complained, they assume all those who were involved were okay with it. Precisely whom would they be complaining to, though? And, as a commenter remarks, would consent even be possible for those of age, considering that the guards held significant power over them? In a similar manner, although not as institutionalized, there’s a worrisome story about a student in Pennsylvania was enslaved by a family, regularly beaten and forced to do work without pay . Apparently she had stayed behind with the family to complete her schooling, but was forced to drop out, deliver newspapers, and do chores, with fear and abuse along the way.
Slashfood gives us a look into Disney’s marketing mechanisms... and tells us that someone approved the idea of a bubbly drink that's champagne in everything but alcohol. A perfect way for getting kids involved in the parties where the adults are drinking the real thing... or to getting kids involved in starting to drink the real thing earlier than they should. For those who are responsible enough to be trusted with alcohol, though, there’s the champagne cork, for when you just want to pop the bubbly and not dent your ceiling (theoretically, anyway).
Remember, kids, Just Say No to Toad. Especially fifteen-inch, two-pound, football-sized cane toads. Big guys there. Hopefully they aren’t a population of magic users who were found out and then turned into animals. (That’s two references from very different places in this paragraph.)
More from the world of sheep and genetics - a chimera sheep that has supposedly compatible or transplanatable organs has been created. Using stem cell techniques and waiting for a lamb to be born that has the requisite organ types. There is a worry that this may cause certain viruses that are harmless in sheep to find their way into humans and wreak havoc. We’ll see whether that happens, or whether recipients of sheep-grown organs will accept them.
Giant squid-fishing off the coast of California. Wondering whether there will be a regular set of squids coming into the area or not. And what they could end up doing to the fish populace that’s already there. Those waiting for the Soviets or Nod to attach mind-control devices will probably have to wait a little bit longer.
The President and the Republican Party are changing their rhetoric they now admit there is such a thing as an income gap, although they seem a bit slow to the point of figuring out people are having their incomes eaten alive by the costs of things like insurance, health care, and the shrinking or deleting of pensions and other company retirement benefits. Not necessarily taxes, but other costs that are rising steadily. We’ll see if they actually float any proposals or campaign promises to deal with these sorts of expenses and problems. Of course, then they’ll probably want to figure out some way of making it not appear like some liberal social program.
Looking to the stars, New Mexico aims to build a commercial spaceport and be ready to operate in three years. Virgin Galactic has signed on to help, and at some point the FAA will have to approve the spaceport’s flying, but I also kind of want to know what the destinations are going to be from the New Mexico spaceport. Flying around Terra, maybe, but what about intersystem flights and the like? Are we going to see colony ships start heading out?
The following is odd. It can be construed as sophomoric humor that simply has gotten well out-of-hand, it could be serious threats against the blogger’s life and sanity, it could be something else. Considering the amount of comments it’s generated, it’s certainly something that’s catching the eye of the blogging world, for good or for ill. Read her account of the threates on her blog, and make your own decisions about what’s going on. It has even caught the attention of the BBC.
Technology moves apace, and researchers at Stanford have tapped a novel place to do grid computing with - the Playstation 3 can be used with the Folding@home project. So when not playing games, you can advance science (SCIENCE!) and have something pretty neat to display on your screens. In terms of avatars of self, Technology Review has University of Pittsburgh scholars that are making personalized pictures much easier by sending a neutral picture and then warping the picture into the various moods placed.
Ninety-three pounds of women's underwear were found in a man's home. He was charged with several counts of burglary and theft. There’s a dirty old man reference waiting here, but I can’t pinpoint which one I want to use. You decide.
If you’ve got a little time to kill, considering trying out these two word games that are also adaptive programs. Something to help those Stanford researchers out in finding plenty of associations between words. If images are your thing instead, consider the Daguerreian Society, who collect and keep the precursors to modern photography
The last thing for tonight is The caffeine database. So, see what you drink and add up how much caffeine you’re getting in a day. And then, once you stop vibrating, figure out what you want to do about it. I’m just going for a little bed. 9am class and all that.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-03-28 09:52 am (UTC)Yarha, You Know, In Advance
no subject
Date: 2007-03-28 12:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-28 04:22 pm (UTC)LJ Drama Bingo - ROCK, I got BINGO without skipping 20 ;)
John McCain....what a doofus. Well, not him, so much as whoever designed his MySpace...ok, but first of all, what's a 70-something man doing on MySpace?! But anyway, If they were just linking to files/photos stored elsewhere, then the original owner of the images has the right to do whatever they want - kind of like my "you stole my bandwidth" images that show up on MySpace and Xanga.
Re:
Date: 2007-03-28 05:37 pm (UTC)As for Mr. McCain's MySpace, well, in this hip new world, if you want to reach the masses and convince them to join the
Supreme Ideological OrganizationRepublican Party (Actually, ACROSS is nothing like the Republicans. For one, Il Palazzo seems to be competent.), then you have to talk to them in their own language on their own media. Thus, MySpace. Obama's got one too, I'm sure.Re:
Date: 2007-03-28 06:58 pm (UTC)I see. So will he also be dumbing down his vocabulary?