Just some thoughts

iPod in toilet causes terror scare

2006-08-28T21:13:00.000-05:00

This has apparently made it's way around the internet. It's amazing what the government and pukes who think they've got some sort of power will do.

Generative Systems: Their use in games and music

2006-07-12T19:13:00.000-05:00

This is a fairly long talk given by Brian Eno (a musician) and the creator of SimCity. They are talking about writing algorithms on computers which will dynamically generate a piece of music or a game experience in real time.

The format of their talk is very free-form, and they move off into some very, very interesting intellectual conversation. Some of the talk is rather slow, but listen to the entire thing. It is very worth it.

The pi song

2006-07-12T13:42:00.000-05:00

Check out this website. There is no other way to decribe it--it's the pi song.

Jon Stewart is great

2006-07-06T20:41:00.000-05:00

This is old news, but still very very good.

An awesome piece of satire from Jon Stewart

2006-07-06T19:49:00.000-05:00

Cleanup after your car

2006-07-06T13:37:00.000-05:00

Everyone's car emits greenhouse gasses. Many tons a year, in fact.

I've just discovered TerraPass. By buying a TerraPass, you are giving money to green sources of energy. There are different types of TerraPasses; each one is designed to offset the emissions of a different car type. This is an interesting idea. Does anyone know what percent of the cost of a TerraPass is actually passed on to green energy projects?

From Freedom to Fascism

2006-07-05T18:52:00.000-05:00

I've been learning some troubling things about the United States recently. In a nutshell, we are not as free as we think we are. There is quite a lot to that statement; I'd basically have to write a book to support it. Rather than leaving myself completely unsupported, I'd like to refer you to the congressional record. Look at mid-March 1933, and you'll see some interesting things.

I have just heard about a new documentary. It's being directed by Aaron Russo. It's about the IRS and the Federal Reserve system. It's so important that I want you to see it.

How markets could be better.

2006-06-12T19:19:00.000-05:00

This is abstract, almost pie-in-the-sky, but I think it is valuable. This article points at something that could drastically change the *economy* (not just an industry) as we know it, but only if the thoughts expressed are fleshed out and implemented.

Planner Love!

2006-06-12T16:50:00.000-05:00

I just discovered emacs' planner mode! I've only used it for a few minutes, but it's already insanely usefull. Among the things I can do are:

Take notes on a buffer that get stored in my daily planner page. The stored note comes complete with a url to the file and line that my point was at when I created the note. For example, if I am looking at the mozilla project's nsStringAPI.h file (line 42) and I take a note it will be stored with a hyperlink to that exact line. This allows me to arbitrarily annotate any given file.
Set up tasks
Schedule events
Record conversations in erc.

All in all very neat.

My representative's voting record

2006-06-09T09:52:00.000-05:00

I would like to take a moment to post Brian Higgins' recent voting record.

HR 373: Federal Propaganda Prohibition Act	N	N/A
HR 5085: American Broadband for Communities Act	N	N/A
: Network Neutrality Act of 2006	N	N/A
: Markey Net Neutrality Amendment to COPE Act	N	N
HR 5252: Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006	N	Y
HR 581: Free Flow of Information Act of 2005	N	N/A
HR 5417: Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006	N	N/A

The above information is from: http://www.freepress.net/congress/congressmem.php?id=573

I have written him multiple times requesting that he support net neutrality. Not only did he vote for COPE, but he also actively voted against net neutrality (Markey Net Neutrality Amendment to COPE Act). If he is your rep as well, please remember this in his bid for reelection.

Gary King may eventually use some of my code!

2006-06-08T08:58:00.000-05:00

Gary King, a renowned lisp coder, has created a new lisp http library. It is based on Trivial-HTTP (thttp). He says he will be adding some more functionality to his library. Among the code that he plans to add is something I did a while back! I know what I did was usefull, but to have someone on the order of Gary King plan to use it is validating and incredibly welcome.

That said, as I look at the code now, there are some changes I'd like to make. Primarily, I didn't abstract the header and header-list data types. To do that would make the code both easier to read and maintain.

Rallying the troops!

2006-06-07T10:52:00.000-05:00

A Firefox developer, named Blake Ross, just made an excellent point. In a nutshell: If Microsoft only listens to marketshare and cares not for its users, how can its developers continue to work there without feeling morally bankrupt?

Way to go Blake, and keep up the excellent work!

Remote Warfare

2006-06-02T08:53:00.000-05:00

"In the age of jihad, our nightmare is people who don't fear dying and don't mind killing. In the age of the joystick, the nightmare is that we'll become them."

The above quote is refering to the use of remote controlled weapons and vehicals (from here). I think it is quite profound.

That page has links to many other interesting articles pertaining to various aspects of remote warfare.

Paul Graham has a new essay.

2006-05-03T12:17:00.000-05:00

The essay is called, "The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn." It's typical PG.

Here's a small excerpt:

Startup founders are naturally optimistic. They wouldn't do it otherwise. But you should treat your optimism the way you'd treat the core of a nuclear reactor: as a source of power that's also very dangerous. You have to build a shield around it, or it will fry you.

Here's another:

The way to succeed in a startup is to focus on the goal of getting lots of users, and keep walking swiftly toward it while investors and acquirers scurry alongside trying to wave money in your face.

This page is excellent!

2006-04-27T10:38:00.000-05:00

Jane Jacobs has some very interesting views on the economy! She says, for instance, that we're wrong to focus on nations as economic units. We should focus on the city as an economic unit instead.

This page cites multiple books by Jacobs, and I'm looking forward to reading them!

Link: http://zompist.com/jacobs.html

Backpackit!

2006-04-20T14:33:00.000-05:00

This is a neat page to let you post various organizational things (ie. todo, notes, etc) for yourself or to share.

I haven't played around with it much, but I definately plan to.

Well, I've been thinking about lisp web-applications

2006-02-21T02:12:00.000-05:00

I just read a bit of this email conversation. The conversation basically compared and contrasted the views of the RESTful school with those of the continuations school. Basically, the two participants agreed that RESTful architectures are good for web applications which act more like "collections of resources named by URLs", and that continuations are better for "applications which happen to use the browser for a GUI."

I am interested in using common lisp to create a weblog, and perhaps some other things. I started reading this conversation, because I am trying to figure out if I want to use TBNL or UnCommonWeb. I am particularly fond of google's use of asynchronous javascript in its maps, gmail, and feed reader. I'd like to emulate them as much as possible.

Asynchronous javascript (AJAX) maintains state on the client, and tries to respond to the user's actions using that state. Calls to the server may not be needed if the client-side state holds all the information necessary to handle a particular action. When calls to the server are necessary, request and receive a much smaller amount of data than would be needed for an traditional page view. These calls are much like a function call within a "traditional" application.

Before I read that conversation, I was leaning toward using UCW. Continuations seem promising in simplifying the task of controlling a web application's flow, but I think that will be done better with client-side javascript. I think that asynchronous javascript (primarily its decendants yet to come--think XUL) is the way of the future. In that light, I think I will likely be using TBNL.

Thumps with the "clue stick" are welcome.

Technorati Tags: lisp, tbnl, uncommonweb, ucw, web

Here's a great example of what a web page should be.

2006-02-20T02:24:00.000-05:00

Robert Hahn has an amazing weblog. His content is great, and his html prowess is amazing. To be really impressed, leave a comment!

Meta-Level Compilation project at stanford

2006-02-20T01:45:00.000-05:00

http://metacomp.stanford.edu/

Interesting... they seem to be using it most is as a sort of "lint-on-steroids."

But I look at this:

The goal of the Meta-level Compilation (MC) project is to allow system implementors to easily build simple domain- and application-specific compiler extensions to check, optimize, and transform code.

To me the words "transform code" stand out like crazy. I'm thinking that this sounds like lisp-style macros, although, it seems, with much more work involved.

Technorati Tags: lisp, macros, programming, static

Ah! So that's why!

2006-02-14T10:56:00.000-05:00

This article says that people have only a 50% chance of correctly interpreting the tone of an email. It goes on to say that people who read the emails feel 90% sure of their interpretations, and the senders are 80% certain that their reader will understand the email's tone correctly.

I've wondered about this, because I've a friendship go sour when the only communication between us was email. So to avoid similar things in the future, I'm going to pay much closer attention to how I word my emails, posts, and writing in general.

A recent IP mailing-list post

2005-12-27T17:11:00.000-05:00

Fear destroys what Bin Laden could not

By Rober Steinback

Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
ROBERT STEINBACK
rsteinback@MiamiHerald.com

One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the
America that existed on 9/11. But he had help.

If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin
Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law
against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then
expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have
presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.

Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000
of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then
admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat
-- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought
our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated.

If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace
torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years
without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such
procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have
laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them.

If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent
as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda
by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators,
and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S.
military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in
whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called
the prediction an absurd fantasy.

That's no America I know, I would have argued. We're too strong, and
we've been through too much, to be led down such a twisted path.

What is there to say now?

All of these things have happened. And yet a large portion of this
country appears more concerned that saying ''Happy Holidays'' could
be a disguised attack on Christianity.

More at http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnists/13487511.htm

Very cool

2005-12-27T13:52:00.000-05:00

I was looking for recent blog activity about developing apps on top of Mozilla, and I came across this page: lawnorder: Mozilla born-again as SeaMonkey after Firefox dies

I really like the the image to the right of the site's title (directly below the "next blog" image in the upper-right corner).

IT Conversations: Marc Smith - Catalyzing Collective Action on the Net

2005-12-26T03:51:00.000-05:00

Here is an excellent talk given by Marc Smith. He's a research sociologist at Microsoft. He, and his group, have been data mining the usenet, and have uncovered some incredibly thought provoking things. For example, by looking whether someone posts many times per thread or just once or whether they frequently start threads (etc.) you can tell whether that person might be a flame warrior or an "answer guy."

This is about an hour long podcast, but it is highly recommended!

CLIM-desktop

2005-12-23T09:12:00.000-05:00

This could be interesting...
CLiki : clim-desktop

I signed Senator Harry Reid's petition

2005-11-05T19:15:00.000-05:00

Senator Reid's petition is aimed at forcing Bush to lay out a detailed exit plan. I wrote this paragraph in the comments section--I suppose I was slightly off topic, but that does not bother me too much.

I am a former Marine, and I am appalled at the war in Iraq. I cannot believe that you stretched our military even further in a war completely unrelated to terror. Further, I am appalled that you falsified (let's be frank) intelligence to support the war. Now, it seems your administration has, either directly or indirectly, been involved in revealing the identity of a CIA officer. This is treasonous, not to mention sending a nation to war based on lies. I am going to be in touch with my congressman and senators. I will vigorously support your impeachment.

An interesting blog post on the use of statistics in programming

2005-10-27T22:30:00.000-05:00

Zed makes some great points about the complexity of statistics, and the fact that many programmers do not know how to properly measure the performance characteristics of their code.

I'm trying out Flock

2005-10-21T00:35:00.000-05:00

Flock is a new web browser based on mozilla that has blogging and tags built in...

I'm just checking it out now... it is still in a very early beta and is quite buggy, but I think the general idea is great!

This says it all

2005-09-26T12:26:00.000-05:00

Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte talk about Katrina.

This is not acceptable

2005-09-24T23:41:00.000-05:00

Operation Edean is a great blog about the experience of the survivors of Katrina. The particular post that is linked to (in this post's title) makes me particularly mad.

The Govt. Has Been Using Mercenaries in New Orleans

2005-09-24T23:02:00.000-05:00

There is an article in The Nation which claims that the federal government has been using mercenaries during the aftermath of Katrina.

With President Bush using the Katrina disaster to try to repeal Posse Comitatus (the ban on using US troops in domestic law enforcement) and Blackwater and other security firms clearly initiating a push to install their paramilitaries on US soil, the war is coming home in yet another ominous way. As one Blackwater mercenary said, "This is a trend. You're going to see a lot more guys like us in these situations."

There are also foreign mercenary firms in New Orleans:

Blackwater is not alone. As business leaders and government officials talk openly of changing the demographics of what was one of the most culturally vibrant of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government projects and institutions.

This is very bad.

Bush-Nazi banking scandal!?

2005-09-24T20:36:00.000-05:00

Take the bellow as you will, but the last four links are quite compelling.

Prescot Bush was involved with financing the Nazi war machine...

You can read this on the wikipedia:

W.A. Harriman employed brother E.R. Harriman through a company gifted him by his father the railroad baron E.H. Harriman, W.A. Harriman & Co, where other notable employees were George Herbert Walker, and Prescott Bush, who were likewise employed alongside E.R. Harriman, at Union Banking Corporation (UBC), a company which was closed in 1943 by the U.S. Government for Trading with the Enemy.

Just take a look at these links:

NH Gazette Article -- Oct. 10, 2003

A copy of previous article with this statement prepended:

Please spread this story as widely as possible, the author is currently being harrassed by mainstream press outlets, the IRS, and the banking industry. They are trying to shut him up we must get the word out!

The following links document the NH Gazette reporter's (John Buchanan) research:
http://burningbush.twentythree.us/1.htm
http://burningbush.twentythree.us/2.htm
http://burningbush.twentythree.us/3.htm
http://burningbush.twentythree.us/4.htm

Edelman wants in the blogosphere

2005-09-24T10:15:00.000-05:00

I just received this email from technorati.com:

Welcome to the Technorati newsletter! We would like to tell you about
some of the interesting things the team at Technorati has been up to
over the past month.

* Technorati Blog Finder *

Have you ever wanted to explore blogs on a particular topic but you
were unsure where to start? Technorati's Blog Finder helps you find
blogs in the topic areas you care about including related topics.

How would you like Technorati users to discover your blog? Login to
your account today and tag your blog with up to 20 topics.

http://technorati.com/account/#blogs

* Blogger PR survey *

Bloggers interact with companies and their products daily and often
blog about their most or least favorite product or feature. Many
companies and public relations agencies are interested in engaging
active users with more information about their products including
free products for review and blogs created by product teams to share
their insights and developments.

Technorati has partnered with leading public relations firm Edelman
to survey the blogosphere for opinions on public relations, corporate
communications, and best practices for companies wanting more active
involvement with the blogging community.

You can contribute to the conversation by answering a 17-question
survey about your opinions about blogging and PR. Technorati and
Edelman will collect this information and include the results in a
public white paper next month on blogging and PR. Please take a few
minutes to answer these questions and shape the future of corporate
communications:

http://www.bloggerstudy.com/blogstudy_q.asp

Survey respondents have the opportunity to receive an advanced copy
of the completed white paper.

Thank you for using Technorati!

Niall Kennedy
Community Manager
Technorati

The PR firm Edelman wants to partner with technorati.com to be able to penetrate the blogosphere. Here's what NoingNoing has to say about this. I'm not certain I take the same view. If we can force Edelman to engage us in candid discussion, then I think we've made a great stride forward. In fact that's exactly what I said when I filled out the poll.

Iraqis in Basra Attack British Soldiers

2005-09-22T14:42:00.000-05:00

I don't know much about this story. It seems that two British soldiers were arrested by police in Basra. The British military then raided the prison to free its soldiers. This caused a riot in Basra where British APCs were set on fire.

The act of raiding a government prison is asinine.

The current purpose that "the west" claims to have in Iraq is to spread democracy. Therefore, we are trying to "build" a new democratic government. This government is not nurtured by being attacked. I don't understand the thought process that ultimately approved the raid. I certainly hope they approached the local government before the raid was ordered.

Accelerating Change

2005-09-22T00:21:00.000-05:00

Lemonodor of lisp fame attended the Accelerating Change 2005 confrence. He had some interesting comments about it.

The ideas at the center of this confrence have always interested me. Vernor Vinge's essay "The Technological Singularity" is quite interesting. It's an eye opener, if nothing else. Here's a rather thorough wikipedia article discussing it. These ideas are really at the core of why this blog is at phasechange.blogspot.com.

Fun stuff.

Go here to get your impeach Bush ribbon!

2005-09-21T14:55:00.000-05:00

Here's a quote from the Impeach Bush Coalition (IBC):

To show your support and join the IBC, all you have to do is ask to be a part of the coalition. But don't forget to spread the word! Email us at prideof55@myway.com

Manhatan Movie Posters

2005-09-21T14:49:00.000-05:00

Someone put cartoon speach bubbles on a number of movie posters across manhatan. They waited a few days and then came back to photograph the new graphiti. The result was quite interesting.

Billboard Liberation Front

2005-09-21T14:46:00.000-05:00

I am quite sure that very cool things will come from this site

The phone message on the shirt

2005-09-21T14:40:00.000-05:00

Here's a bigger shot of the message slip on the shirt.

I just bought a cool shirt

2005-09-21T14:36:00.000-05:00

I bought it from here.

This is an amazing image

2005-09-19T23:05:00.000-05:00

This is an absolutely amazing image. The site it came from frequently has very great pictures.

Diebold and Voting fraud

2005-09-19T11:13:00.000-05:00

It seems that the US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, a branch of the Homeland Security Department) issued a security advisory about Diebold voting systems on September 1, 2004.

Here is a direct quote from (http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/bulletins/SB04-252.html)

A vulnerability exists due to an undocumented backdoor account, which could a local or remote authenticated malicious user modify votes.

I am a computer programer. The term "backdoor" indicates a ***deliberate*** security hole. The term "undocumented" stands for itself.

These two sites have a lot of information on Diebold and programmer Clint Curtis:
http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/index.php/Clinton_Curtis
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001838.htm

We *must* do something about this! Deomocracy's foundation is the vote.

The future of the web

2005-09-18T18:32:00.000-05:00

This is an incredible 30 minute talk by TOR. He goes over many things ranging from the symbiosis between "alpha-geeks" and entrepreneurs, to data providers possibly becoming the next "intel inside."

All in all, TOR continues his amazing streak of fascinating insights into technology trends.

Government policy does effect our lives! -- Apathy Kills

2005-09-09T09:45:00.000-05:00

Here's an email I just read on the IP mailing list. I thought it should be posted.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Ted Dolotta
Date: September 6, 2005 2:54:39 PM EDT
To: IP List
Subject: FW: On New Orleans
Reply-To:

A friend just sent me this. It's worth reading.

Ted Dolotta
==========================================
Why New Orleans Is in Deep Water

By Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
Thursday 01 September 2005

Austin, Texas - Like many of you who love New Orleans, I find
myself
taking short mental walks there today, turning a familiar corner,
glimpsing
a favorite scene, square or vista. And worrying about the beloved
friends
and the city, and how they are now.

To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame
game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however,
to make
a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that
government policies have real consequences in people's lives.

This is not "just politics" or blaming for political advantage.
This
is about the real consequences of what governments do and do not do
about
their responsibilities. And about who winds up paying the price for
those
policies.

This is a column for everyone in the path of Hurricane Katrina who
ever said, "I'm sorry, I'm just not interested in politics," or,
"There's
nothing I can do about it," or, "Eh, they're all crooks anyway."

Nothing to do with me, nothing to do with my life, nothing I
can do
about any of it. Look around you this morning. I suppose the National
Rifle
Association would argue, "Government policies don't kill people,
hurricanes
kill people." Actually, hurricanes plus government policies kill people.

One of the main reasons New Orleans is so vulnerable to
hurricanes is
the gradual disappearance of the wetlands on the Gulf Coast that once
stood
as a natural buffer between the city and storms coming in from the
water.
The disappearance of those wetlands does not have the name of a
political
party or a particular administration attached to it. No one wants to
play,
"The Democrats did it," or, "It's all Reagan's fault." Many
environmentalists will tell you more than a century's interference
with the
natural flow of the Mississippi is the root cause of the problem,
cutting
off the movement of alluvial soil to the river's delta.

But in addition to long-range consequences of long-term
policies like
letting the Corps of Engineers try to build a better river than God,
there
are real short-term consequences, as well. It is a fact that the Clinton
administration set some tough policies on wetlands, and it is a fact
that
the Bush administration repealed those policies - ordering federal
agencies
to stop protecting as many as 20 million acres of wetlands.

Last year, four environmental groups cooperated on a joint report
showing the Bush administration's policies had allowed developers to
drain
thousands of acres of wetlands.

Does this mean we should blame President Bush for the fact that
New
Orleans is underwater? No, but it means we can blame Bush when a
Category 3
or Category 2 hurricane puts New Orleans under. At this point, it is a
matter of making a bad situation worse, of failing to observe the First
Rule of Holes (when you're in one, stop digging).

Had a storm the size of Katrina just had the grace to hold off
for a
while, it's quite likely no one would even remember what the Bush
administration did two months ago. The national press corps has the
attention span of a gnat, and trying to get anyone in Washington to
remember longer than a year ago is like asking them what happened in
Iznik,
Turkey, in A.D. 325.

Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his
little ax
and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of
Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans
CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects
will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to
determine
ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been
shelved for
now."

The commander of the corps' New Orleans district also immediately
instituted a hiring freeze and canceled the annual corps picnic.

Our friends at the Center for American Progress note the Office of
Technology Assessment used to produce forward-thinking plans such as
"Floods: A National Policy Concern" and "A Framework for Flood Hazards
Management." Unfortunately, the office was targeted by Newt Gingrich and
the Republican right, and gutted years ago.

In fact, there is now a governmentwide movement away from basing
policy on science, expertise and professionalism, and in favor of
choices
based on ideology. If you're wondering what the ideological position on
flood management might be, look at the pictures of New Orleans - it
seems
to consist of gutting the programs that do anything.

Unfortunately, the war in Iraq is directly related to the
devastation
left by the hurricane. About 35 percent of Louisiana's National Guard is
now serving in Iraq, where four out of every 10 soldiers are guardsmen.
Recruiting for the Guard is also down significantly because people are
afraid of being sent to Iraq if they join, leaving the Guard even more
short-handed.

The Louisiana National Guard also notes that dozens of its high-
water
vehicles, Humvees, refuelers and generators have also been sent
abroad. (I
hate to be picky, but why do they need high-water vehicles in Iraq?)

This, in turn, goes back to the original policy decision to go
into
Iraq without enough soldiers and the subsequent failure to admit that
mistake and to rectify it by instituting a draft.

The levees of New Orleans, two of which are now broken and
flooding
the city, were also victims of Iraq war spending. Walter Maestri,
emergency
management chief for Jefferson Parish, said on June 8, 2004, "It appears
that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle
homeland
security and the war in Iraq."

This, friends, is why we need to pay attention to government
policies,
not political personalities, and to know whereon we vote. It is about
our lives.

Google Groups : comp.lang.lisp

2005-09-05T18:55:00.000-05:00

Here is an excellent discussion about many aspects of corporate programming. It ranges from the virtues of lisp, erlang, and prolog versus c/c++. The typical development cycle for a project, particularly the maintenance portion. And also, the politics between developers and management.

All, in all, fairly interesting.

vi-emacs2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2005-08-28T20:22:00.000-05:00

vi-emacs2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

This is hilarious!

Is the web browser out-dated?

2005-08-28T20:08:00.000-05:00

There is an interesting discussion going on about the similarities of rss feeds and the concept of subscription.

This guy says that if you can read a particular web site, then you are, in a sense, subscribed to it. He has this point of view, apparently, because he mainly uses a feed aggregator. I think that is a very forward looking point of view, however maybe it has some holes.

His point of view seems to be that browsers will become feed aggregators. I'm not so sure of this idea. I don't know how an aggregator would handle static documents, such as a reference for a programming API.

In my opinion, there is a fundamental difference between the "live web" (things such a weblogs) and the traditional "static web." The difference is fairly subtle, and I don't know how to categorize it well... something to think about.

Utah police deny freedom of assembly

2005-08-27T10:51:00.000-05:00

This is a copy of an email I received on the IP mailing list. It contains a first hand account of what went on.

Also, be sure to click on the title of this post above to be taken to the wikinews article about the event.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Michael Ross
Date: August 26, 2005 12:43:22 AM EDT
Subject: Video of SWAT raid on legal Utah rave

I should probably clarify that I read this second hand. The video
footage supports many of the claims but just so you know, this guy
Nick is not a friend of mine that I can vouch for. I thought you
would be interested since it reeks of civil rights violations.

--Mike Ross

---start of story---

military style bust of rave in Utah, camo, helicopters, mahine guns,
tear gas...

send this to anyone you think would care...

here is a clip from someone who attended..
http://homepage.mac.com/apexgrin/FileSharing2.html
www.abductionproductions.com/uta...e.mov

here is the clip from the news...
real.ksl.com/video/slc/0/5/502.ram

my friend Nick was one of the musicians at the event, here is what he
had to say....
"Last night, I was booked to play an event about an hour outside of
Salt Lake City, Utah. The hype behind this show was huge, they presold
700 tickets and they expected up to 3,000 people total. The promoters
did an amazing job with the show.. they even made slipmats with the
flyers on them to promote in local shops.So, we got to the show around
11:15 or so and it was really cool. It was all outdoors, in a valley
surrounded by huge mountains. They had an amazing light show flashing
on to a mountain behind the site, the sound was booming, the crowd was
about 1500 people thick and everything just seemed too good to be true
really. Well...At about 11:30 or so, I was standing behind the stage
talking with someone when I noticed a helicopter pulling over one of
the mountain tops. I jokingly said "Oh look, here comes big brother" to
the person I was with. I wasn't far off.

The helicopter dipped lower and lower and started shining its lights on
the crowd. I was kind of in awe and just sat and watched this thing
circle us for a minute. As I looked back towards the crowd I saw a guy
dressed in camoflauge walking by, toting an assault rifle. At this
point, everyone was fully aware of what was going on . A few "troops"
rushed the stage and cut the sound off and started yelling that
everyone "get the fuck out of here or go to jail". This is where it got
really sticky.No one resisted. That's for sure. They had police dogs
raiding the crowd of people and I saw a dog signal out a guy who
obviously had some drugs on him. The soldiers attacked the guy (4 of
them on 1), and kicked him a few times in the ribs and had their knees
in his back and sides. As they were cuffing him, there was about 1000
kids trying to leave in the backdrop, peacefully. Next thing I know, A
can of fucking TEAR GAS is launched into the crowd. People are running
and screaming at this point. Girls are crying, guys are cussing... bad
scene.Now, this is all I saw with my own eyes, but I heard plenty of
other accounts of the night. Now this isnt gossip I heard from some
candy raver, these are instances cited straight out of the promoters
mouth..-

One of the promoters friends (a very small female) was attacked by one
of the police dogs. As she struggled to get away from it, the police
tackled her. 3 grown men proceeded to KICK HER IN THE STOMACH.- The
police confiscated 3 video tapes in total. People were trying to
document what was happening out there. The police saw one guy filming
and ran after him, tackled him and his camera fell, and luckily.. his
friend grabbed it and ran and got away. priceless footage. That's not
all though. Out of 1,500 people, there's sure to be more footage.- The
police were rounding up the staff of the party and the main promoter
went up to them with the permit for the show and said "here, I have the
permit." The police then said, "no you don't" and ripped the permit out
of his hand. Then, they put an assault rifle to his forehead and said
"get the fuck out of here right now."Now.. let's get the facts straight
here.This event was 100% legal. They had every permit the city told
them they needed. They had a 2 MILLION DOLLAR insurance policy for the
event. They had liscenced security guards at the gates confiscating any
alcohol or drugs found upon entry (yes, they searched every car on the
way in). Oh, I suppose I should mention that they arrested all the
security guards for possession.

Oh another interesting fact.. the police did not have a warrant. The
owner of the land already has a lawsuit against the city for something
similar. A few months ago, she rented her land for a party and the
police raided that as well. And catch this, the police forced her to
LEAVE HER OWN PERSONAL PROPERTY. That's right. They didnt arrest her,
but made her leave her own property!!!Don't get it twisted, this is all
going down in probably THE most conservative state in the USA. And this
is scary.. a gross violation of our civil liberties. The police wanted
this party shut down, so they made it happen. Even though everything
about this event was legal. The promoters spent over $ 20,000 on this
show and did everything they had to to make it legit, only to have it
taken away from them by a group of radical neo-con's with an
agenda.This was one of the scariest things I have ever witnessed in
person.

I can't even begin to describe how surreal it was. Helicopters, assault
rifles, tear gas, camoflauge-wearing soldiers.... why? Was that really
necessary?This needs to be big news across the USofA. At least in our
music scene (edm as a whole)... this could happen to any of us at any
time. When we're losing the right to gather peacefully, we're also
letting the police set a standard of what we can get away with. And I
think that's BULLSHIT!The system fucked up last night... They broke up
a party that was 100% legal and they physically hurt a lot of people
there at the same time. The promoters already have 6 lawsuits ready to
file with their lawyers and the ACLU is already involved.I'm sure some
pictures (and hopefully some video) will surface soon. I'll make sure
to post them up here on 404, so you can see the Police State of America
at work."

Mathemagenic: learning and KM insights - Tuesday, April 26, 2005

2005-08-26T22:23:00.000-05:00

Mathemagenic: learning and KM insights - Tuesday, April 26, 2005

This is a very cool post on many aspects of analyzing the blogosphere. It is written by a Microsoft researcher.

Anjo Anjewierden: BlogTrace

2005-08-26T22:20:00.000-05:00

This is a very fascinating post about a tool to analyze the blogosphere. I have not read too much about it yet--only enough to know that I am enthralled.

Google is using cell-phone numbers as an authentication method

2005-08-26T09:08:00.000-05:00

Google is now using cell phone numbers to prevent spammers from automatically generating thousands of email accounts. There are some interesting (perhaps scary) ramifications to this.

For a discussion of this look here.

IT'S HAPPENING HERE!: Last Chance to Defeat CAFTA Possibly Only A Day Away!

2005-07-27T14:13:00.000-05:00

The above is a link to a very informative blog about CAFTA. It's written by a Ph.D. of philosophy. It contains an open letter that was sent to each of the Congressional Representatives of South Carolina. It also contains some good talking points to use if you were to decide to call your representative.

Codex Information

2005-07-26T13:32:00.000-05:00

Here is a set of links that I was able to find using http://bloglines.com. I have not read them, but based on their titles I think they look promising.

1) Codex Nutrition Committee: Supplement Guidelines Final
2) The U.S. may, again, try to ban the sale of vitamins
3) 'Stop Codex' - Rath Protests Plans For Supplements
4) Codex Alimentarius to approve codes on animal feeding and foods for children

A short movie about Codex

2005-07-26T13:12:00.000-05:00

The above link is to a video entitled "We Become Silent." It is about Codex, and the health rights we're all at risk of loosing.

DISCLAIMER: I am employed by Herb Allure.

CAFTA + CODEX = end of medical freedoms

2005-07-26T12:50:00.000-05:00

I only know very little about this situation. Here is what I understand of it:

Codex Alimentis (perhaps that's misspelled) is a law that has been passed in the EU. It requires people to obtain a prescription from their doctor in order to take suppliments and vitamins. I don't know the letter of the law, but, from what I've heard of it, that might include such mundane things as power bars, slim fast, and Flintstone's Vitamins. Basically, this law takes power over our own health away from you and me and places it in the hands of, not doctors, but the pharmaceutical companies. This is really a severe assault on human rights.

CAFTA is, as we all know, the Central American Free Trade Agreement. One might ask "How does this pertain to Codex?" Long story short (and I don't fully understand all the intricacies), because of interlocking laws and trade agreements, this, if passed, will require the United States to enforce Codex here at home. This is possible because CAFTA requires all nations that agree to its terms to "harmonize" their trade laws. The standard to which the agreeing countries must adhere includes Codex.

This is scarry, and we must educate ourselves to prevent it. This must happen quickly, because CAFTA is one step away from being ratified by congress. Pleas learn what you can and write your congressperson to try to prevent this.

The above link is a post that gives more information than I know. Please go there and learn more.

I've been gone too long

2005-07-26T12:48:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry, it's been a long time since I've posted anything. I will try to be a little more active here.

You wouldn't bet on this happening every day!

2004-10-19T12:16:00.000-05:00

CNN has a story about a college student's tv that was inadvertantly broadcasting an international distress signal. The signal was picked up by Air Force satelites! haha

Sinclair Boycott--I love Jim Moore's Second Superpower

2004-10-19T12:11:00.000-05:00

worldchanging.com has an article that looks at the effect that the Sinclair Boycott has had. Sinclair Group has lost $60 Million in value over just 10 days! Great!

More Jon Stewart goodness!

2004-10-19T12:10:00.000-05:00

PBS's NOW with Bill Moyers has an interview with Jon Stewart that is in line with what he said on CROSSFIRE. Except, this is much more civilized. He's actually allowed to express his concern.

It's very good to see that there is someone like Stewart challenging the powers that be.

John Stewart for President!

2004-10-18T12:41:00.000-05:00

We need a guy who can tell it like it is! John Stewart's appearance on Crossfire was a no holds bared frontal assult on the mass media. I wish, we could take back our country by writing in John Stewart for president, but this would obviously weaken Kerry-Edwards, ultimately causing Bush to win. We need to somehow amplify what he said and let it be known that we want straight talk! Not a pile of promises that are impossible to keep, nor poly anna-ish optimism. Real issues and real solutions! We are not stupid. We can handle it.

TIME.com has a summery of the Duelfer Report

2004-10-14T13:48:00.000-05:00

Based on this article it appears that Saddam didn't even consider the U.S. a threat! TIME.com uses the Duelfer report to arrive at this conclusion. It's amazing how wrong the U.S. was, ostensibly. I think that the neo-cons play geopolitics in a fairly Machiavellian way. Though I'm sure they didn't know the extent of Saddam's frailty, I'm starting to think that the buisness deal Saddam had with France, Russia, and China was the primary reason for war, not WMD.

Let me try to cast myself as a neo-con: With the comming global energy crunch, oil producing nations will have a disproportionate influence on the global economy. France, Russia, and China have very cushy buisness deals with Saddam. They are all permanent members on the UN Security Council. All three of them united will be very hard to defeat when it comes to illiminating sanctions against Iraq. Once sanctions are lifted, they will have access to oil at very low prices, allowing their economies to soar. The critical point is Saddam. Without Saddam, the deals are void. 9/11 is a strong casus belli. If we link Saddam to 9/11, we will have "the right" to remove him from power. Once that is done, France, Russia, and China, will need to find other sources of energy. By using the reconstruction effort to entrench American businesses, we will then take the advantage that those three countries once thought they had.

Supporting that is the fact that the Bush Administration/Family has tight ties with the American energy industry. Therefore energy might be disproportionately on their minds. Add to this, the Russian trouble with Yukos, Japan's interest in "rental reactors" (See: July 2004 issue of Nuclear Energy Insight and this weblog post in 2003), China's activity in Sudan, and elsewhere, and we have a picture of what some nations are trying to do about the energy issue. If all these nations are making strong moves, it is folly to think that we would not. Since our gambit in Venezuela failed, we needed another plan.

Last night's debate

2004-10-14T12:22:00.000-05:00

The Viking Pundit weblog (seems to lean a bit to the right) has a post that says that a focus group of 23 undecideds split 17/5. 17 of them felt that Kerry won the debate, yet the majority said they've made up their mind to vote for Bush. It says that they cannot trust Kerry.

Now I've seen some "day-after-polls" that show a fairly significant Kerry lead. I don't know how scientific the sample was, and I've also heard a lot of poo-poo-ing of "day-after polls." So it seems cloudy to me as to how that debate went. We shall see in a few days for sure.

This is a cool point of view on the "Wired?" issue

2004-10-13T16:17:00.000-05:00

It's from lies.com. The author points out that it is terrible that a run-away meme such as this might be able to modify voting behavior. I agree. I also realize that I myself get too carried away with sensationalist crap (such as this). A gullible constituancy is definately a bad thing. I, and I think many others, need to be more dilligent about checking the credibility and the accuracy of information/sources.

What the lump could be

2004-10-13T15:43:00.000-05:00

isbushwired.com itself says that this lump on G.W.'s back could be a back brace to help correct a "hunchback's" posture, or perhaps it is used to help support a weak back. I truly don't know what it is, but I think it's worth discussing this.

Check these photo's out...

2004-10-13T15:30:00.000-05:00

This one is from yahoo.com

This one is from the White House.

This is the only one from a questionable source

These seem to be quite interesting to me!

Weird (wired?) things indeed...

2004-10-13T15:22:00.000-05:00

The rumor mill seems to be churning quite a lot right now about the question on whether G.W. is "wired." Here is an >incredibly interesting blurb from isbushwired.com.

I would like to recommend reading the whole isbushwired.com.

This is odd... perhaps another manifestation of Bush Propoganda?

2004-10-13T12:39:00.000-05:00

This is old, but it seems that many hometown newspapers have been getting "letters from local soldiers" in Iraq. All these letters are identical though. Kinda strange... I'd like to see more about this.

Please listen to this NPR's On Point broadcast w/George Soros

2004-10-12T15:30:00.000-05:00

George Soros is, of course, very liberal. His point of view is likely known to most of you, but he says some things in this interview which echo my own sentiments. So, naturally I'd like you to listen in to what he has to say.

This guy burnt his iPod--It still works!

2004-10-07T12:18:00.000-05:00

This is an article over at engadget.com. The iPod in question's exterior is very badly damaged, but it still works! You rock Apple!

Votergasm... interesting

2004-10-07T10:15:00.000-05:00

I can't figure out whether I like it or hate it... The more I think, though, the more I like it... heh

The World's Shortest Blog

2004-10-05T11:51:00.000-05:00

The World's Shortest Blog

You really should look at this...

Another random blog

2004-09-17T13:10:00.000-05:00

This post is quite funny!

The rest of the post... not quite so interesting...

UPDATE: They seem to have taken this blog down, and I cannot find a google cache. So don't bother following the link. Sorry.

My current project: Rendering the Visible Human

2004-09-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

I have thinking about and working on an application to render the data from the Visible Human Project for a long time. When I started working on the project I was naive to the huge difficulty this represents. The main difficulty is: How do we get the computer to isolate the various organs for display on the screen. It turns out that this is a problem in computer vision, an area of active research akin to artificial intelligence. There are multiple methods for doing this. I chose the method called, Watershed Segmentation, to accomplish this. I'm using ITK's implementation. I will try to post more on this in time.

Scientists in Europe have created EcoBots...

2004-09-17T12:13:00.000-05:00

These robots digest living flies to provide them with power... if this becomes widespread, what will the implications be?

This is interesting:

2004-09-07T09:08:00.000-05:00

Vote or Not by Marc Hedlund -- What a great idea -- a contest to get people to register to vote.

I especially like the quote near the bottom:

Yay economics versus apathy!

I find this hilarious... (don't ask why)

2004-09-02T09:27:00.000-05:00

Humean philosopher John Mackie argued that, for moral facts to be real facts about the world and, at the same time, intrinsically motivating, they would have to be very weird facts. So we have every reason to disbelieve in them.

This quote comes from the wikipedia.

On the forged Nigera documents

2004-09-01T16:36:00.000-05:00

This article shows that it truely is a complicated issue, and perhaps no one knows the entire story. I still feel that this is incredibly fishy. Note that this article does point out that the CIA said the forged documents were not the basis for claiming that Iraq was seeking Uranium. Yet, once the documents were revealed as false, the CIA reversed its position entirely...

This raises serious doubts, yet perhaps my statements in the letter were hasty.

I'm sure that it will probably not be politically possible to re-open the investigation, but I think something should be done beyond simply voting this administration out of office. Although the ramifications of punnishing a President for "making a mistake" are complex, I still think a precedent should be set.

Open Letter to my senators (Hilary Clinton, Charles E. Schumer)

2004-09-01T16:30:00.000-05:00

I served in the Marine Corps for 4 years untill 2002. I was sent to the Middle East in early September 2001, and I remained there until Feb 02.

I feel that President Bush's administration has deliberately shaded information to suit their private desires. Please read this article (http://newyorker.com/fact/content/?030331fa_fact1) if you have not already. It is shocking.

They have misrepresented facts to the American public, and sent my "brothers" to die. And more! Our military was barely able to meet the needs of such a war. Now our reserves have been exhausted. Now if a real threat appeared we would not have the capability to meet it.

Also, in abandoning the UN, Bush has alienated the bulk of our allies. This does untold damage to the real effort of stopping international terror cells.

I recently read this quote in the New York Times:

"They need regional friendship, we need regional friendship," he said of the Chinese. "They need time to develop their economy, so do we. They need protection from the United States and so do we.''

That was, Muhammad Noordin Sopiee, chairman of Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies, speaking of an alliance with China.

I feel very disturbed that we've let it go this far. Please! Raise the issue of those falsified documents. There lies a smoking gun. I think it is clear that the President and his men kept the documents secret until they had irrefutable political backing for the war, when they were clearly false.

Sending men to die based on lies is grossly immoral. If it is not illegal, it should be. I am asking you to raise this issue to congress. A precedent needs to be set, lest it happen time and again.

That is the body I have sent to Hilary Clinton and Chuck Schumer. I have written an idividualized post scriptum to each.

An interesting picture

2004-09-01T11:53:00.000-05:00

Ok, I just went to a random blog, and there was a cool picture...

I just thought my 0 readers would be interested (actually I'm my only reader, and I was interested! lol) :-)

RNC -- What is the impact of 4 years of the Bush Administration

2004-09-01T08:20:00.000-05:00

I'm listening to last night's "On Point." One of the people who got the mic for a bit called Bush's war "The War Against Radical Islam" rather than "The War Against Terror."

"wild idealism especially when it comes to the war on terror" <--- dosen't "radical" equal "wild idealism", and when this is linked to war, is there a difference between terrorists and those perpetrating "wild idealism"?

"this is a president that has set forth a policy which is largely belief based" <--- scary... it seems to me that beliefs tend to prevent knowing and can make the quest for knowledge immoral or somehow "emotionally wrong"

"unfortunately what we may need is one party to become dominant"
"if he wins again that may be what we get" <--- paraphrased

"the reality of iraq is not what is being reported by the politicians at RNC" <--- paraphrased

"i am really fearful that no matter who wins, the other side will not live with it and try to tear the winner down" <-- paraphrased

most politicians still have "inadequate seriousness" as if they were still living on Sept. 10th <--- loose paraphrase

I am full of misgivings about this president and the state of the country at the moment. The state of the world bothers me too, but I think where the world goes from here will be greatly effected by the actions of our country.

China's expanding (and US's wanning) influence

2004-08-31T09:59:00.000-05:00

They need regional friendship, we need regional friendship," he said of the Chinese. "They need time to develop their economy, so do we. They need protection from the United States and so do we.''

That is a quote I read on the NYT article linked to. It was attributed to: Muhammad Noordin Sopiee, chairman of Malaysia's Institute of Strategic and International Studies.

Bush must leave office now! The article indicates that the concern voiced in the above quote is primarily due to recent American unilateralism... bad.

Check out this guy's blog...

2004-08-31T08:35:00.000-05:00

He has some really good ideas! I like his politics too (disclaimer)...

I especially like his latest post. I'm just a little surprised that he didn't give religion a stronger role. It's clear that throughout history (western history at least) religion has played a large role in shaping our societies. Although religious groups arguably have less influence now, I'd still say they wield a big stick.

The Second Superpower--a prelude?

2004-08-30T14:27:00.000-05:00

I just went to get some coffee, and on my way a thought occurred to me. Jim Moore's "The Second Superpower", is quite similar to the open source movement in the software industry. There is a massive super power, Microsoft of course, and a grass-roots movement, its most visible manifestation is Linux.

Moore's main assertion is that it is possible that a "second superpower" could arise. This new power would be a worldwide grass-roots movement that can change its direction and structure in nearly "real-time." This is made possible by modern communications tools. He says these tools enable us (the worldwide society) to form ad-hoc power groups (to protest or wield financial resources, for example) at any time and in almost any place. Also, the ability to create and lead these groups is open to anyone.

We can use Moore's concepts to understand Linux and open source projects in general. Similarly, we can draw parallels between Microsoft's monolpoly and the hegemony of the United States. If these comparisons aren't too naive, they provide us with some history by which we can try gain insight on a possible future.

Here is a very small set of articles which show how Linux has forced Microsoft to change. Here is a google search with the terms: "microsoft sales policy linux" (try some variations on that, and you'll surely get more). It shows how microsoft has been forced to change its marketing strategy, but microsoft has had to change in more significant ways than just this. It is actually changing how it developes software. It's development process seems to be moving closer to the linux process. Here is an article that talks about Microsoft's release of software as open source. It also mentions Microsoft's Shared Source Initiative.

There are many more examples of Microsoft's changes. Of course these changes don't exist in a vacume, but if we can learn from them, it may help us succeed in creating a "Second Superpower." If we can do that, then I think our future is very bright indeed.

So I'm reading Children of Dune...

2004-08-30T11:16:00.000-05:00

This is a great book. It's plotlines weave in and out like mad, and there's a lot of philosophy. I'm sure I'll have to read this book a few times to get everything that Frank Herbert has packed into it.

I'm going to have to post some of my favorite quotes from it...

The Second Superpower

2004-08-27T21:39:00.000-05:00

This is a very cool concept.

Do large networks of people acting together politically equal a political force even when there's no readily-apparent leadership?

Jim Moore 's essay is about our increasing ability to communicate and share ideas. He says that the internet, cell phones, and mass media are giving us (the worlwide public) an increasing ability to create changes in governmental policy (particularly the policy of the United States). He says that in time we will be able to organize grassroots campaigns so quickly and effectively, that we'll be able to block unwanted governmental policies (ie. the war in Iraq), and even force needed change such as health care reform.

Even more exciting to me, Moore likens the global social network to a mind. Each person plays the role of a neuron, and each person has a cluster of friends. Each of the friends has his or her own cluster. These clusters upon clusters upon clusters begin to look a lot like the neural network which is our brain. I know this is a fairly "far out" concept... but not too much so.

So I had to move my blog...

2004-08-27T21:07:00.000-05:00

Ok, so my old blog was over here . It kept re-directing the web browser here when I (or anyone) tried to view it. After some frustrating playing around with the settings and the template, I decided to just start a new blog.

And here it is. No big loss, there wasn't too much on the original one anyways.