Goes to Garden & Gun magazine, available here (only in the US, pity):
http://tinyurl.com/ypqkm8
(http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O1PKOG?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwviolentkicom&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B000O1PKOG)
Something tells me this isn't a joke. Here's the sort of review you can
write even if the magazine doesn't exist:
> Like the reviewer before me, I liked this magazine, but didn't find it
> as in-depth as Home and Howitzer. But it does appear to fill in the
> heretofore missing category of small-arms/small garden. Air
> power/ecology is well covered with Nature and Napalm, and naval
> enthusiasts have long looked to Battleships and Beaches to cover their
> spectrum of interests. It's long overdue for us in the .50 cal and
> under group to get our own magazine.
I like the way his first line echoes Robbie Robertson's "Night they drove
old Dixie Down".
Monday, December 31, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Egg Foo Christmas
From http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments&v=w1uZ_W7atDE:
... Judy Chicago was asked to do a dinner plate for an art exhibit on Xmas. She painted a picture of a video tape and shinese [sic] takeout box.
This is too much like the "Dress them as harlequins." quote attributed to Picasso from Even Cowgirls get the Blues, supposedly when the French military consulted the artist for ideas for redesigning the paratroopers' uniforms.
I can't vouch for either story, but I like the parallels.
The video at the top of the link is worth watching too.
... Judy Chicago was asked to do a dinner plate for an art exhibit on Xmas. She painted a picture of a video tape and shinese [sic] takeout box.
This is too much like the "Dress them as harlequins." quote attributed to Picasso from Even Cowgirls get the Blues, supposedly when the French military consulted the artist for ideas for redesigning the paratroopers' uniforms.
I can't vouch for either story, but I like the parallels.
The video at the top of the link is worth watching too.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
My new favorite blog is everyone else's
If you read this, you probably follow everything, and have
already discovered http://www.npr.org/blogs/monitormix/, Carrie Brownstein's latest project. Yes, that Carrie Brownstein, former (or soon-to-reunite?) guitarist/singer from Sleater-Kinney, still my favorite post-millennium-era punk band (and my favorite pre- one would probably still be X, but Exene's not blogging anywhere I know of). But if you haven't found it, now's the time. Enjoy, and don't forget to write.
already discovered http://www.npr.org/blogs/monitormix/, Carrie Brownstein's latest project. Yes, that Carrie Brownstein, former (or soon-to-reunite?) guitarist/singer from Sleater-Kinney, still my favorite post-millennium-era punk band (and my favorite pre- one would probably still be X, but Exene's not blogging anywhere I know of). But if you haven't found it, now's the time. Enjoy, and don't forget to write.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Facebook Fun & Games #2: Editing Messages
Hey, Facebook guys, please review your notes from your HTTP programming 101 course.
When you go to compose a message to someone, the call that brings up the form
is a GET call. It doesn't change anything on the server. Firefox should be able
to cache the text I've typed in any fields when I run into problems with your captcha
service, and then I won't have to retype everything because you didn't provide a
Cancel button in the captcha box.
Lesson learned: when I want to send a message to someone, I'll poke them, give them
my email address, and hold a normal electronic conversation.
When you go to compose a message to someone, the call that brings up the form
is a GET call. It doesn't change anything on the server. Firefox should be able
to cache the text I've typed in any fields when I run into problems with your captcha
service, and then I won't have to retype everything because you didn't provide a
Cancel button in the captcha box.
Lesson learned: when I want to send a message to someone, I'll poke them, give them
my email address, and hold a normal electronic conversation.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Beating the US Border Lines on a Bike
My wife and I were in White Rock Saturday morning, about three miles
from the main US border crossing. Waiting for us on the other side
was one of the nephew's presents, at a "convenient" mail drop business
in Blaine, Washington. Since the US dollar's dropped, and the Canadian
hasn't, the lineups have been crazy, up to three hours each way this
past Black Friday.
So I loaded my bike on the rack. After the meeting I dropped my wife
at a cozy cafe on the boardwalk, biked about two miles to the border
crossing, where I was able to zip past 15-car lineups heading south.
After the 20-minute wait in immigration, I was only behind by about
20 minutes now.
The line back to Canada was longer, about 20 cars in each line. The
woman at customs said since the Black Friday horror stories the lines
have dropped down to where it was six years ago, when the Canadian dollar
was worth about 60 cents Canadian.
At least it was a sunny day, good for cycling.
from the main US border crossing. Waiting for us on the other side
was one of the nephew's presents, at a "convenient" mail drop business
in Blaine, Washington. Since the US dollar's dropped, and the Canadian
hasn't, the lineups have been crazy, up to three hours each way this
past Black Friday.
So I loaded my bike on the rack. After the meeting I dropped my wife
at a cozy cafe on the boardwalk, biked about two miles to the border
crossing, where I was able to zip past 15-car lineups heading south.
After the 20-minute wait in immigration, I was only behind by about
20 minutes now.
The line back to Canada was longer, about 20 cars in each line. The
woman at customs said since the Black Friday horror stories the lines
have dropped down to where it was six years ago, when the Canadian dollar
was worth about 60 cents Canadian.
At least it was a sunny day, good for cycling.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Found photos (site #1?)
http://www.bighappyfunhouse.com
I'm onto something here, and if you like found photography, you will be too. Follow the funhouse to http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/, and the only word I can find to describe the ordinariness you'll find there is "splendid". Well, maybe "voluptuous mediocritude". Joe Bob sez check it out.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Changes 2007
Here are some of the ways I shook up my work habits this year...
1. Moving from perforce to subversion. It's tough to do
open-source with a perforce back-end. On the plus side, it's
become a snap to put all my home projects on svn.
2. Moving to Vista (someone had to do it).
3. Giving up a 10-year-plus cygwin habit for msys. It's tough.
Ironically enough, perforce is happier in an msys environment.
4. Relying less on emacs, using Komodo more. One result is
many JavaScript macros have been written ... maybe I'll
whip up a .komodo file to load them at startup.
1. Moving from perforce to subversion. It's tough to do
open-source with a perforce back-end. On the plus side, it's
become a snap to put all my home projects on svn.
2. Moving to Vista (someone had to do it).
3. Giving up a 10-year-plus cygwin habit for msys. It's tough.
Ironically enough, perforce is happier in an msys environment.
4. Relying less on emacs, using Komodo more. One result is
many JavaScript macros have been written ... maybe I'll
whip up a .komodo file to load them at startup.
Facebook's Real Accomplishment: The ID Problem
The net is full of neat goodies. They're mostly independent of one another.
Any compelling app that aspires to be more than a solitaire game requires you
to identify yourself in someway or other. Using the same password is a bad
idea because most sites don't store hashed passwords (you can tell my
requesting your password -- if it bounces back in an email, stop using it,
because the site made the double violation of storing it in plain text and
then emailing it in plain text).
In some sense, Facebook has solved the identity problem -- you login once, into
Facebook, and can then access any app in the Facebook world without having
to create yet another identity. You lose much of the anonymity the
internet provides, but given the vast numbers of people that are interested
in slinging sheep and dressing as pirates, many don't care.
This is what single-sign-on looks like in the constrained mini-net world
defined by Facebook. Will it happen in the big bad net?
Any compelling app that aspires to be more than a solitaire game requires you
to identify yourself in someway or other. Using the same password is a bad
idea because most sites don't store hashed passwords (you can tell my
requesting your password -- if it bounces back in an email, stop using it,
because the site made the double violation of storing it in plain text and
then emailing it in plain text).
In some sense, Facebook has solved the identity problem -- you login once, into
Facebook, and can then access any app in the Facebook world without having
to create yet another identity. You lose much of the anonymity the
internet provides, but given the vast numbers of people that are interested
in slinging sheep and dressing as pirates, many don't care.
This is what single-sign-on looks like in the constrained mini-net world
defined by Facebook. Will it happen in the big bad net?
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Science Fiction Novel Waiting to be Written
A subscription to Wired for less than a buck an issue is still too expensive when you figure all the good articles are available on-line for free, and are more readable that way. But our bathroom still is off the net, so I bought, and read an interesting nugget this morning on how, with blogs and feeds like twitter and facebook, individuals are becoming increasingly corporate-like. And books like Joel Bakan's The Corporation show how commercial companies exhibit human behavioral traits, not all of them beneficial to society.
So it's only a matter of time before somebody writes about the day when the distinction between the two disappears. Don't look at me - I don't even have a line from that book yet. And like I said earlier, I'm not exactly the most voracious reader of the genre. But it seems like the best way to explore the idea.
So it's only a matter of time before somebody writes about the day when the distinction between the two disappears. Don't look at me - I don't even have a line from that book yet. And like I said earlier, I'm not exactly the most voracious reader of the genre. But it seems like the best way to explore the idea.
Facebook: at least get this basic grammar lesson right
From this indispensable piece of news in my FB feed:
Updated: Bill the Kidney, Bobby Kaplotnick and Doctor Woo has received a new FunWall post.
Click here to view Bill's video
"has". Right. From a multi-billion-dollar company.
Side point: Bill's video isn't bad, for a kidney, but you probably knew that already.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
The Future of Facebook is Hominids
I haven't read the book by Robert J Sawyer (in fact, the s.f. books I have read in the last 30 years would make a good post), but I heard him talk about it on DNTO last week. The gist is that in this parallel world all humans have a black box implanted in their wrist. The data it emits is stored on a server run by what seems to be a benevolent dictatorship -- other individuals can't access this data, but the government can use it to hold people fully accountable for their actions.
It would seem that Facebook Beacon, which publishes your actions on participating partners outside Facebook into your Facebook feed, is a step in this direction. I can only say, about time. I'm looking forward to the day when everyone with a wireless-net-enabled device can participate as a Beacon publisher.
I'll be able to follow the feeds of my friends to see not only what they ate for breakfast, but also if they remembered to put the recyclables in the blue box, how much did they give the street person busking outside the skytrain station, who's cheating on their diet, and who's cheating on their spouse.
Some people say Facebook is the new AOL, but AOL never came up with this great idea.
It would seem that Facebook Beacon, which publishes your actions on participating partners outside Facebook into your Facebook feed, is a step in this direction. I can only say, about time. I'm looking forward to the day when everyone with a wireless-net-enabled device can participate as a Beacon publisher.
I'll be able to follow the feeds of my friends to see not only what they ate for breakfast, but also if they remembered to put the recyclables in the blue box, how much did they give the street person busking outside the skytrain station, who's cheating on their diet, and who's cheating on their spouse.
Some people say Facebook is the new AOL, but AOL never came up with this great idea.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Why the Kindle Will Flop
You're reading a blog, I assume you know what a Kindle is.
It's a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist.
It's too bad Jeff Bezos and his team didn't pay attention
to the speeches Voyageur founder Bob Stein gave back in
the 90s on Text, the New Frontier.
Text, unlike the other media, is self-contained (and can
be self-referential, but that doesn't apply here).
You don't need a device to play a book or magazine, just
a decent source of light.
The reasons iPods worked was because they were the first
elegant successor to the Discman and Walkman for digitally
encoded tunes. Music hasn't been self-contained since Edison
put an end to the sheet music industry (and even then
many people preferred their local orchestra or marching
band as a convenient device for converting instructions
to sounds, compared to their own playing). Film and
video will always need a device.
Printed books are so cheap there is little incentive in
finding a downloadable version of a book to bypass
purchasing it. And since the Kindle doesn't even load
HTML files, it won't even pick up that audience.
It's a solution in search of a problem that doesn't exist.
It's too bad Jeff Bezos and his team didn't pay attention
to the speeches Voyageur founder Bob Stein gave back in
the 90s on Text, the New Frontier.
Text, unlike the other media, is self-contained (and can
be self-referential, but that doesn't apply here).
You don't need a device to play a book or magazine, just
a decent source of light.
The reasons iPods worked was because they were the first
elegant successor to the Discman and Walkman for digitally
encoded tunes. Music hasn't been self-contained since Edison
put an end to the sheet music industry (and even then
many people preferred their local orchestra or marching
band as a convenient device for converting instructions
to sounds, compared to their own playing). Film and
video will always need a device.
Printed books are so cheap there is little incentive in
finding a downloadable version of a book to bypass
purchasing it. And since the Kindle doesn't even load
HTML files, it won't even pick up that audience.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Parkinson's Fundraiser this Sunday
I met Marg Meikle at a school meeting last night -- her son is the
same age as our younger daughter. She didn't mention their annual
fundraiser is coming up this Sunday, so I will.
http://www.porridgeforparkinsons.com/
Sunday November 25th, 8:30- 11:30 a.m.
Go to the site for the Kits address.
It's been a decade or two since Marg was the Answer Lady on CBC,
but you can see the disease has not suppressed her sheer intelligence
and striking wit. This was an advocacy meeting, and I'm very happy to
have her on board with us.
same age as our younger daughter. She didn't mention their annual
fundraiser is coming up this Sunday, so I will.
http://www.porridgeforparkinsons.com/
Sunday November 25th, 8:30- 11:30 a.m.
Go to the site for the Kits address.
It's been a decade or two since Marg was the Answer Lady on CBC,
but you can see the disease has not suppressed her sheer intelligence
and striking wit. This was an advocacy meeting, and I'm very happy to
have her on board with us.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
An excerpt from the future
From a story yet to be written...
She could tell from the weathered Pearl Jam shirt and the flecks of
grey in his beard that they were both among the youngest Americans
who would remember a time when Starbucks was considered cool.
Monday, November 19, 2007
An excerpt from the past
[When we don't have anything new to put here, we sometimes dip into work from the distant past. This one came up today during an otherwise unrelated conversation.]
The setting: a Motel 6 in a non-descript town somewhere between Seattle and San Francisco:
The setting: a Motel 6 in a non-descript town somewhere between Seattle and San Francisco:
Suddenly, Wanda got up, turned off the TV, and jumped into your bed.
And whispered in your ear, "Duane, talk to me about Emacs."
You gulped, and blurted out a sheepish "Well, actually I just use vi". Wanda
slipped back into her bed, and you punched another ticket on the night-alone express.
High-tech/media quote of the day
From http://www.ddj.com/architect/202802995?cid=RSSfeed_DDJ_All,
Michael Swaine's Architecture & Design column in Dr. Dobb's Journal:
Michael Swaine's Architecture & Design column in Dr. Dobb's Journal:
That there exists such a thing as the Larry King podcast proves to me that I know nothing about media demographics.
Monday, November 12, 2007
How to slaughter a pig
From Kendall Clark's XML newsletter, an interesting aside showing what happened when a Moldavian living in Switzerland went back home for a visit, a trip through time as much as space. I'm one of those people who eats meat, but not that often, so acquaintances often assume I'm a vegetarian. If you aren't, and you're put off by these pictures, it might be time to reconsider your diet.
This article reminds us westerners how we aren't so removed, by time or distance, from how people used to live before inventions like Pez dispensers.
http://fxcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=119&?
This article reminds us westerners how we aren't so removed, by time or distance, from how people used to live before inventions like Pez dispensers.
http://fxcuisine.com/default.asp?Display=119&?
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Friday, November 2, 2007
No wonder this problem was unexpected
From http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/todmaffin/~3/177876967/errormessage:
No wonder it had trouble parsing the URL. Sounds like someone dropped a zero somewhere.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Obvious nexus: Sopranos and 60s Garage Rock
http://www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com
Great listening while programming.
Great listening while programming.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Potripper: Playing Perfect Poker
Poker is a game of missing information. Some people idly wonder what it would be like if a player had access to more information. The release of a corrupt account at Absolute Poker shows how a player named POTRIPPER was playing as if he knew his opponents' holdings. So far the events have turned out to be online poker's watergate story. Its Bernstein and Woodward are publishing their findings at twoplustwo.com. Its Deep Throat is apparently a whistleblower with inside access to Absolute's records. And the equivalent of the eighteen-minute tape was a suggestion in the records that a founder of the company played a part in the alleged fraud. The interesting wrinkle is the company straddles multiple legal jurisdictions, including Costa Rica, England, and a Mohawk-administered semi-autonomous region south of Montreal.
The summary at http://wizardofodds.com/software/absolutepoker.html doesn't show the other players' cards, but it contains some damning patterns. Note the lack of "Call" actions on the river. Some of the twoplustwo posters were talking about "infinite aggression", which I guess means the number of times you raise or fold on the river divided by the number of times you call (and presumably lose). The biggest question is how or why anyone with access to that info would make their cheating so obvious.
Now we need a Sam Ervin and John Sirica to bring everything forward. Except I don't think anyone jurisdiction is going to do anything. Internet companies grow on their reputation, and die on it.
The summary at http://wizardofodds.com/software/absolutepoker.html doesn't show the other players' cards, but it contains some damning patterns. Note the lack of "Call" actions on the river. Some of the twoplustwo posters were talking about "infinite aggression", which I guess means the number of times you raise or fold on the river divided by the number of times you call (and presumably lose). The biggest question is how or why anyone with access to that info would make their cheating so obvious.
Now we need a Sam Ervin and John Sirica to bring everything forward. Except I don't think anyone jurisdiction is going to do anything. Internet companies grow on their reputation, and die on it.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Facebook Misconstrued?
Facebook purports to be a place for human connectivity, but it’s made us more wary of real human confrontation....
Among other gems. In "The Fakebook Generation" by Alice Mathias, http://tinyurl.com/3djx5p
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/06/opinion/06mathias.html?_r=1&oref=slogin for those who like the actual link).
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Consistency in Software: Case #3841-22
chrome $ unzip --help
UnZip 5.52 of 28 February 2005, by Info-ZIP. Maintained by C. Spieler. Send
bug reports using http://www.info-zip.org/zip-bug.html; see README for details.
Usage: unzip [-Z] [-opts[modifiers]] file[.zip] [list] [-x xlist] [-d exdir]
# 2 dozen lines of helpful info omitted
chrome $ zip --help
zip error: Invalid command arguments (no such option: -)
chrome $
There's a very logical explanation for this, similar to why certain words in English are spelled in apparently arbitrary, inconsistent ways. For example, while it might seem maddening to remember which adjectives end in "able" and which end in "ible", all you have to remember is whether the Latin word the adjective is derived from ends in "abilis" or "ibilis". Another very useful cue, which I currently can't come up with a concrete example for, is knowing in whch rough century a word entered the English language. Knowledge of the fashion at the time could help remembering, for example, whether the spelling of a trade would end in "er" or "or".
It's similar in software. Sometime around the turn of the century the GNU Coding Standard calling for "--help" for command-line help options was adopted nearly universally. Before that common ways of accessing help were "-h", "-?", or programs often left the help to the man page[2].
The link program I run has a 2005 copyright on it, while the zip program was last compiled in 1999.
So obviously to be a fluent user of a system you need to know when the various tools you use were last compiled. Chances are, if you knew that, you wouldn't need the online help -- there's enough in your head already.
Any utility that supports "--help" and doesn't have a "-h" option, and is unlikely to ever need one, might as well map "-h" to "--help". And if there is a logical meaning for a "-h" option, if it doesn't make sense when it's the only argument, treat it like "--help". Doing otherwise leaves the impression of the inflexable software writer mocking the incapible user.
[1] http://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Command_002dLine-Interfaces.html#Command_002dLine-Interfaces
was dropped
[2] http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch10s05.html
[3] Typos in the last sentence are metonymical.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Does Eric S. Raymond know about this list?
Following a nugget from Philip Greenspun's coffee table book, on
the funniest acknowledgment ever in a tech book, an ancient
treatise on a precolombian version of Java
http://www.steveheller.com/whosj/acknowl.htm
> Of course, I'm deeply indebted to Eric Raymond for his wonderful
> foreword; I can only hope that you and my other readers like this book
> as well as he does!
> Besides those who have directly helped me with this book, I'd like to
> acknowledge two of the greatest benefactors of mankind in general and
> myself in particular. The first of these is the greatest writer I
> know, Ayn Rand. She had the ability to explain complex philosophical
> concepts in language so simple that anyone could understand them; if I
> can explain programming half as clearly, I will consider myself a
> great success. Even more important, she laid the foundation for
> solving what is possibly the greatest conundrum of philosophy: how to
> connect what is with what ought to be.
> Finally, I want to thank L. Ron Hubbard for his discoveries and
> inventions in the field of the mind and spirit. Even a small fraction
> of his myriad contributions to knowledge would qualify him for the
> first rank of friends of mankind; in total, they elevate him without
> question to the top of the list.
Quite the list ... Java, Ayn Rand, L. Ron Hubbard. I wonder if ESR even
knew he was going to appear in that context.
the funniest acknowledgment ever in a tech book, an ancient
treatise on a precolombian version of Java
http://www.steveheller.com/whosj/acknowl.htm
> Of course, I'm deeply indebted to Eric Raymond for his wonderful
> foreword; I can only hope that you and my other readers like this book
> as well as he does!
> Besides those who have directly helped me with this book, I'd like to
> acknowledge two of the greatest benefactors of mankind in general and
> myself in particular. The first of these is the greatest writer I
> know, Ayn Rand. She had the ability to explain complex philosophical
> concepts in language so simple that anyone could understand them; if I
> can explain programming half as clearly, I will consider myself a
> great success. Even more important, she laid the foundation for
> solving what is possibly the greatest conundrum of philosophy: how to
> connect what is with what ought to be.
> Finally, I want to thank L. Ron Hubbard for his discoveries and
> inventions in the field of the mind and spirit. Even a small fraction
> of his myriad contributions to knowledge would qualify him for the
> first rank of friends of mankind; in total, they elevate him without
> question to the top of the list.
Quite the list ... Java, Ayn Rand, L. Ron Hubbard. I wonder if ESR even
knew he was going to appear in that context.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
A new computer for the tattooed flickr guy
So Roland won a new Sun server and was musing what to do with it. While Bryght can probably use it, and it would get put to use during fun hackathons, there's another charitable use he can put it to, although a tax receipt is unlikely. It seems that Colin, the guy in Victoria who unwittingly uploaded a couple of self-portraits on a stolen laptop, is just "an ordinary guy" who is out 800 dollars and will never buy a used computer again. Although another news article reports that he claimed he got it from a friend of a friend, and apparently he's known to Victoria police, and his job is that favorite of ordinary guys everywhere, namely a bodyguard, let's take it at his word that he's got kids, and his family needs a computer. Here's why Roland's Sun server would make an ideal gift.
Obviously, no PhotoBooth program to get himself, or his visiting friends, into further trouble.
Learning how to use vim or emacs to maintain his cron jobs will keep him busy enough that he's less likely to maintain his known-to-police status.
Ya know how the kids these days spend hours playing games on sites like Neopets? You try installing the required Flash plug-ins on those machines.
The world needs a Web 2.0 site for bodyguards written in Rails.
The computer will be semi-famous. If he tries to unload it on Craigslist, whoever is interested will presumably figure out its provenance, and post Colin's address and phone number to the usual spots.
No one would want to steal it.
Obviously, no PhotoBooth program to get himself, or his visiting friends, into further trouble.
Learning how to use vim or emacs to maintain his cron jobs will keep him busy enough that he's less likely to maintain his known-to-police status.
Ya know how the kids these days spend hours playing games on sites like Neopets? You try installing the required Flash plug-ins on those machines.
The world needs a Web 2.0 site for bodyguards written in Rails.
The computer will be semi-famous. If he tries to unload it on Craigslist, whoever is interested will presumably figure out its provenance, and post Colin's address and phone number to the usual spots.
No one would want to steal it.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Automation the crux of the garbage strike?
Ten weeks in, and I haven't seen the media cover the role of the automated garbage collection system in the current strike, but I imagine it's playing a big part.
Background for those of you living somewhere else, or in a west end apartment building: about two years ago we traded in our old-fashioned garbage cans for city-supplied ones. The trucks could now drive through the lanes, put a forklift-type mechanism under each can on the route, lift it up, tilt it, and dump the garbage in the truck. The media reported that sick days dropped significantly after that.
What they didn't report is that the garbage probably got collected much faster as well. I bet it cut the time needed to do a route by at least 10%, maybe 15%. Couple that with the trend to replacing houses with condos, which have their garbage picked up by private providers, and it's likely that the city sanitation department is overstaffed by at least 15%. The union is in a hard place trying to justify that the city keep the least senior people around (or least deserving, whichever metric you want to use), a couple of other groups jumped in, and the rest of us are left with nothing.
But I'm just guessing. The media seem to have more important stories to cover, like the Jeffs trial in Utah and the pig farmer trial.
Background for those of you living somewhere else, or in a west end apartment building: about two years ago we traded in our old-fashioned garbage cans for city-supplied ones. The trucks could now drive through the lanes, put a forklift-type mechanism under each can on the route, lift it up, tilt it, and dump the garbage in the truck. The media reported that sick days dropped significantly after that.
What they didn't report is that the garbage probably got collected much faster as well. I bet it cut the time needed to do a route by at least 10%, maybe 15%. Couple that with the trend to replacing houses with condos, which have their garbage picked up by private providers, and it's likely that the city sanitation department is overstaffed by at least 15%. The union is in a hard place trying to justify that the city keep the least senior people around (or least deserving, whichever metric you want to use), a couple of other groups jumped in, and the rest of us are left with nothing.
But I'm just guessing. The media seem to have more important stories to cover, like the Jeffs trial in Utah and the pig farmer trial.
Tempest in a Laptop Theft
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!
Monday, September 24, 2007
Amusing user interfaces
So PhilG's coffee table book has joined Alan Cooper's About Face 2.0 in the pile of books that make up my bedside table (you read that right, why get a table when the you can make one by arranging the books correctly?). They disagree on a few things, or at least Philip does; Alan seems to be oblivious of his work, but they do point out why Amazon.com and Google are successes, and the Baconizer wasn't -- the secret is when you present a search form to the public, give them one field they can pour their words or questions into, and have your computers do the rest.
Bugzilla is a well-known exception, but it's designed for programmers who have the time to figure out what to do at a page like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/query.cgi?format=advanced when they want to check to see if a problem they've run into in Thunderbird or Mozilla has been reported.
I wanted to see if the local library system has any books by a particular author. The local online catalog works very well. The search field contains two items -- one into which you put in some text, the other a dropdown where you select the kind of search, like Books, CDs, DVDs, etc. If you want to use the kind of boolean logic you'd learn in an MLS program you're welcome to, and the software will recognize it, but I've always found my simple-minded searches always get me to my goal.
Unfortunately the VPL catalog is closed due to the civic strike, which is now into its 11th week. I tried the Richmond library, but they didn't carry anything by that author. Rather than try each of the other 18 local municipalities, many of which were affected by the same labor issues Vancouver was this past July, and all of which were able to find a settlement with their local political resources (but I digress), I decided to try the Seattle catalog.
Seattle has a good library system, I guess. They managed to put up a new building designed by a brand-name architect with features like Plexiglas dividers that start half-way up the escalator, so if you're not paying attention to where the escalator is taking you and marveling at innovations like the passageway that looks like the inside of an esophageal passageway, you'll get your own esophagus chopped in two.
Also, Nancy Pearl is famous, at least for librarians. I forget how I heard of her, but when I saw her book at a book store I somehow knew she was the chief librarian of the Seattle library.
So I googled my way to http://www.spl.org/, and while I was impressed to see that there was a keyword search field to the catalog on the home page (most library web site designers apparently read Siegel instead of Greenspun or Cooper (or better still, Tufte) and so you have to click once or twice past a list of current events and remarks by members of the board of directors to get to the catalog. On the Seattle page you just ask for "More Catalog Search Options".
Which takes you to this 22-field search page. And when I finally figured out that the white arrow on the red circle was the "Search button", I got a friendly message "Unable to navigate!, Expected close parentheses. Got end of query instead.". Twice. Thanks, Nancy.
Bugzilla is a well-known exception, but it's designed for programmers who have the time to figure out what to do at a page like https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/query.cgi?format=advanced when they want to check to see if a problem they've run into in Thunderbird or Mozilla has been reported.
I wanted to see if the local library system has any books by a particular author. The local online catalog works very well. The search field contains two items -- one into which you put in some text, the other a dropdown where you select the kind of search, like Books, CDs, DVDs, etc. If you want to use the kind of boolean logic you'd learn in an MLS program you're welcome to, and the software will recognize it, but I've always found my simple-minded searches always get me to my goal.
Unfortunately the VPL catalog is closed due to the civic strike, which is now into its 11th week. I tried the Richmond library, but they didn't carry anything by that author. Rather than try each of the other 18 local municipalities, many of which were affected by the same labor issues Vancouver was this past July, and all of which were able to find a settlement with their local political resources (but I digress), I decided to try the Seattle catalog.
Seattle has a good library system, I guess. They managed to put up a new building designed by a brand-name architect with features like Plexiglas dividers that start half-way up the escalator, so if you're not paying attention to where the escalator is taking you and marveling at innovations like the passageway that looks like the inside of an esophageal passageway, you'll get your own esophagus chopped in two.
Also, Nancy Pearl is famous, at least for librarians. I forget how I heard of her, but when I saw her book at a book store I somehow knew she was the chief librarian of the Seattle library.
So I googled my way to http://www.spl.org/, and while I was impressed to see that there was a keyword search field to the catalog on the home page (most library web site designers apparently read Siegel instead of Greenspun or Cooper (or better still, Tufte) and so you have to click once or twice past a list of current events and remarks by members of the board of directors to get to the catalog. On the Seattle page you just ask for "More Catalog Search Options".
Which takes you to this 22-field search page. And when I finally figured out that the white arrow on the red circle was the "Search button", I got a friendly message "Unable to navigate!, Expected close parentheses. Got end of query instead.". Twice. Thanks, Nancy.
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Today's Garage Sale Book Review
Garage sales don't do it for me like they used to. The girls are too old for most garage sale toy fodder, we have as many Berenstain Bear books as we're ever going to find, and my tastes are too esoteric to find things worth getting. But I had a few minutes to kill, there was a sale nearby, including a couple of boxes of high-tech books. For a buck each, I got a book on Flash that will fit on the shelf next to the other books I've bought on flash and web design that I never cracked open; a copy of Philip Greenspun's coffee-table rewrite of his awesome "Database Backed Web Site" book retail price $62.95, garage sale price $1.00; and a QUE book on XML from 2000 which I got only because I'm always curious how writers attempt to explain RDF. I'll just quote a bit:
Got that? No, me neither. The name of the object's property is "property", and its value is "literal". Why not an example like this:
At least I understand it. Which makes me think it's invalid.
In the following example, the members of the RDF triple are defined by descriptive names
<rdf:description about="resourceURI">
<property>literal</property>
</rdf:Description>
Got that? No, me neither. The name of the object's property is "property", and its value is "literal". Why not an example like this:
<rdf:description about="editorPencilsAreUs">
<color>red</color>
</rdf:Description>
At least I understand it. Which makes me think it's invalid.
So RDF is full of things called triples. Sort of like (subject, predicate, object) sets, like "the boy is drinking water" or "that spec confused the hell out of me".
So naturally the author spends a full page talking about Roman triumvirates for her next example. Just the kind of topic someone tackling RDF can relate to.
For a realistic RDF example, go read some install.rdf files from a Mozilla application like Thunderbird or a Firefox extension. Or fix this bug, which has only been open for four years, and from my understanding could be fixed in a few minutes with the right administering of RDF fu.
At least I can use the book to prop up my laptop screen while I write this review of it. And Phil's rewrite is still funny, and the kids liked the letraset stencils. The computer has 200 fonts or so, but there's still something very cool about creating a 36pt Helvetica stencil by rubbing pen over tracing paper. And I can't really complain about finding an RDF book at a sale. Maybe next time I'll find a 1989 Gel boom for five bucks.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Civic Strike Month #3: An Open Letter to the Mayor of Vancouver
Mr. Sullivan,
This young century has seen at least two people win elections by questionable means. While one of them managed to rise above those suspicions during a national crisis (only to fall from grace later), it looks like you are shirking whatever opportunities this strike has afforded you to show the people of Vancouver that you are deserving of a post of leadership.
Politics is as much about image as it is about reality. The image you're conveying is one of a flake. It is clear that you have no intention of running for re-election, but we deserve better than that right now. Resign, sir, and hand the reins over to someone who can end this mess, or at least appears to care.
This young century has seen at least two people win elections by questionable means. While one of them managed to rise above those suspicions during a national crisis (only to fall from grace later), it looks like you are shirking whatever opportunities this strike has afforded you to show the people of Vancouver that you are deserving of a post of leadership.
Politics is as much about image as it is about reality. The image you're conveying is one of a flake. It is clear that you have no intention of running for re-election, but we deserve better than that right now. Resign, sir, and hand the reins over to someone who can end this mess, or at least appears to care.
Friday, September 7, 2007
These boots were made for driving around the block
Today's local back-to-school feature in the Vancouver Sun, "Keeping Students Safe", quotes Surrey school trustee Laurae McNally admonishing parents that their kids are perfectly capable of a five-minute walk to get to school.
"We need to really emphasize to parents that if they only live a block or two from school, they should be letting their children walk," she said.
She's not saying that parents currently are driving their kids one block to school, right? One would hope, but then reporter Janet Steffenhagen quotes her "adding" that "she's dismayed to see parents drive children one block to school and then turn around and drive back."
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Newsflash: find does printf
Maybe it's not news to you that find has a printf action, but I learned my Unix from a printed copy of an early version of AT&T's Programmers Workbench I bought at a flea market over <gulp> twenty years ago. "Bought for free" -- the seller didn't have a clue what it was and was happy to free up the four inches of shelf space. I read the commands for sections 1, 2, 3, and 8 practically from cover to cover. This came in very handy when I was transferring files between Suns and SCO boxes in the early 90s (way before SCO became vilified) using the venerable cpio command.
The hard copy was way better than reading man pages on 80x24 monochrome terminals. But the disadvantage of learning so much early on was that I rarely used man commands to look them up, and didn't discover new additions. So there was an email discussion going on at work on a build issue, and the sys admin mentioned a command along the lines of this:
The hard copy was way better than reading man pages on 80x24 monochrome terminals. But the disadvantage of learning so much early on was that I rarely used man commands to look them up, and didn't discover new additions. So there was an email discussion going on at work on a build issue, and the sys admin mentioned a command along the lines of this:
find dir -name '*.foo' printf "mkdir -p ../../target/%h ; cp %p ../../other-dir/%h\n" | shNext time I'm about to write a command like
for i in `find` ; doI'm going to try using the printf ... | sh combination instead. Not on OS X, you say? Pity.
...
done
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Your search for back issues of "Many Happy Returns" is over
Andy Cross announces that the USBA has digitized every issue of its newsletter
from #20 in 1984 to the present, and is shipping a CD of PDF files:
I would also like to take this opportunity to announce the availability of all back issues of Many Happy Returns (#20 to #95) in PDF format. There is lots of great information in these newsletters and many of the earlier ones are difficult to come by. The files will be distributed on either a CD or DVD (your choice). The price is 25 issues (your choice of issues) for $15 USD ($20 USD for non-USBA members) or the complete set for $40 USD ($50 USD for non-USBA members) plus $5 USD for shipping. This is excellent value considering that the issues date all the way back to 1984 and that subsets typically sell for over $1.50 per issue. The prices listed above are $0.60 per issue for the 25 issue set and ~$0.53 per issue if you go for the complete set. Shipping of the disc will also be a fraction of what it would cost to mail the actual issues. All proceeds from the sale of these discs will be donated to the USBA. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of the disc you can send payment and the details of your order (i.e. DVD or CD and which issues) to myself at the address below or you can make payment via PayPal (across@telusplanet.net).
Tib, I guess I can pick up that box of newsletters of mine now.
Anyone who wants Andy Cross's physical address, send me a note.
Like anyone who's interested can't find it...
Friday, August 10, 2007
Our great times
Who would've thought we'd get to the point where you can spend a summer's day in the mountains sitting in your room blogging just for the sake of blogging?
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Ball Golf, of course
From a Tyee article on disc golf:
The game is played much the same as traditional golf (or, as disc golfers call it, "ball golf") with tee-offs, pars, birdies and bogies. But that's about where the similarities end.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
The best rock concert review I won't let you read
Wolfgang dropped a basket of semi-obscure treasures this week, possibly the first list free of any of the stalwarts you hear on classic rock. The best known is Rod Stewart with the Faces from an October 1973 show. I gave the show a listen out of curiosity, not nostalgia, and it's worth a listen. The band was undeniably talented, although not era-defining.
The show also reminded me of a review someone I know wrote on one of Rod's shows in 1977. Now maybe 21-year-olds today can be held accountable all their life for their public writings. They're grown up with the internet, alta vista, and google, and have an innate understanding that words are forever. But can you hold an ambitious 21-year-old accountable forever who was trying to get some attention by inciting an uproar with a review of a mediocre concert?
But thirty years ago no one writing for a college paper would expect their words to come back to haunt them a generation later. Who knew that one day colleges all over the place would scan their morgues and put the contents where google could find them? The article is googleable, and so memorable for me it was easy to find, but I won't quote it directly. If the writer wants to come public with it, let him. Or her. Yeah, right.
Fortunately for the writer, it's hard to find it unless you include his name in the query. The article is packed with gems, slagging Rod and his band for being predictable, and not worth the whopping eight dollars fifty the fans shelled out. But a homophobic rant runs through the first half that rarely lets up. I can't see how it would get published today. Most people would think twice before putting their name on it. Editors would cancel it. And if it did get published, there would be a national outrage in the blogosphere. In 1977, while not as accepting a time as today, straights were still hanging out at the gay bars. David Bowie, the New York Dolls, and Lou Reed had forged a path of androgynous glammy rock that had found mainstream acceptance. Rod was just jumping on yet another bandwagon with his eye shadow, hair highlights, and other metrosexual accessories. Selling tickets and vinyl. Big deal.
Could the writer have written a politically correct review of the show? Sure, but would it have had the same impact? He scored all kinds of hits that year, including interviews with Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and Patti Smith. I read them, and I don't recall a word of them now. Picking on Rod Stewart was journalistic low-hanging fruit. While I can understand obsessed collectors who have hundreds of Grateful Dead or Phish tapes, or Japanese imports by Dylan or Springsteen, I can't imagine what kind of person would need to own every single album of Rod Stewart's (hi grandma).
I finally read the full article. Guess what -- pull out the homophobia and it's a deveined tepid phoned-in account of an uninspiring show. Which kind of sums up how I remember most rock music of the era.
The show also reminded me of a review someone I know wrote on one of Rod's shows in 1977. Now maybe 21-year-olds today can be held accountable all their life for their public writings. They're grown up with the internet, alta vista, and google, and have an innate understanding that words are forever. But can you hold an ambitious 21-year-old accountable forever who was trying to get some attention by inciting an uproar with a review of a mediocre concert?
But thirty years ago no one writing for a college paper would expect their words to come back to haunt them a generation later. Who knew that one day colleges all over the place would scan their morgues and put the contents where google could find them? The article is googleable, and so memorable for me it was easy to find, but I won't quote it directly. If the writer wants to come public with it, let him. Or her. Yeah, right.
Fortunately for the writer, it's hard to find it unless you include his name in the query. The article is packed with gems, slagging Rod and his band for being predictable, and not worth the whopping eight dollars fifty the fans shelled out. But a homophobic rant runs through the first half that rarely lets up. I can't see how it would get published today. Most people would think twice before putting their name on it. Editors would cancel it. And if it did get published, there would be a national outrage in the blogosphere. In 1977, while not as accepting a time as today, straights were still hanging out at the gay bars. David Bowie, the New York Dolls, and Lou Reed had forged a path of androgynous glammy rock that had found mainstream acceptance. Rod was just jumping on yet another bandwagon with his eye shadow, hair highlights, and other metrosexual accessories. Selling tickets and vinyl. Big deal.
Could the writer have written a politically correct review of the show? Sure, but would it have had the same impact? He scored all kinds of hits that year, including interviews with Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, and Patti Smith. I read them, and I don't recall a word of them now. Picking on Rod Stewart was journalistic low-hanging fruit. While I can understand obsessed collectors who have hundreds of Grateful Dead or Phish tapes, or Japanese imports by Dylan or Springsteen, I can't imagine what kind of person would need to own every single album of Rod Stewart's (hi grandma).
I finally read the full article. Guess what -- pull out the homophobia and it's a deveined tepid phoned-in account of an uninspiring show. Which kind of sums up how I remember most rock music of the era.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Vancouver heads-ups to start the long weekend
This Friday's Critical Mass is the big one of the year. They're expecting 2000 riders, and finally I don't have other plans and can join them. As usual, no one has any idea where the ride will go until it happens.
After a couple of hours of riding, time to head home, shower, and come back downtown to see former co-worker Matt's brother-in-law Joe pound the drums as Baked Potato plays the Media Club (behind the QE Theatreon Cambie). From jambands.ca (almost an oxymoron there):
> This Friday (the 29th), Baked Potato is the first band of 3 so start time is EARLY!
> Baked Potato starts @ 9:00pm and plays 'till 10:15pm.
If you were ever wondering what the confluence of Zappa, the Allmans, and
Herbie Mann sounded like, these guys might be as close as you'll get.
Friday, June 22, 2007
RSS: Comments are not Content
I subscribe to a few feeds I'll leave unnamed that are the product of very smart people and/or organizations, but their software gets one annoying thing wrong. Every time there's a new comment on the post, the original feed changes and my reader re-highlights previously read entries to indicate a change.
Sometimes the change is limited to a count of the number of comments on the post.
Sometimes the change is to tell me so and so commented on it.
Sometimes a timestamp changes, that's it.
My feedreader isn't so smart that it can tell substantive changes from inconsequential ones. Readers of the future will be able to do this, or at least let users configure them to ignore certain tags. After all RSS (and Atom) is just XML. Meanwhile my reader is smart enough to find when one blog I subscribe to is commenting on another item in my list.
We're still in early days in this technology, still in the first decade, depending on whom you listen to. We'll get it right eventually.
Sometimes the change is limited to a count of the number of comments on the post.
Sometimes the change is to tell me so and so commented on it.
Sometimes a timestamp changes, that's it.
My feedreader isn't so smart that it can tell substantive changes from inconsequential ones. Readers of the future will be able to do this, or at least let users configure them to ignore certain tags. After all RSS (and Atom) is just XML. Meanwhile my reader is smart enough to find when one blog I subscribe to is commenting on another item in my list.
We're still in early days in this technology, still in the first decade, depending on whom you listen to. We'll get it right eventually.
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Could be the most sublime hour of live rock music ever...
Never one to be the first to find something, yesterday I stumbled on Wolfgang's Vault, the web-based repository of the memorabilia from Bill Graham's estate (one story here), and stayed up way too late listening to recordings of live concerts by a pre-Born-to-Run Springsteen, a 20-minute "Time" by the Chambers Brothers, an early performance of Tommy, even checking out minor worthies like Erma Franklin. But the best is from the Allman's New Year's Eve 1973 performance, set 2. "Les Brers in A Minor", in 3 parts, with walk-ons from Garcia and Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann, and then a "who knew" bluesy contribution by Boz Scaggs. You can buy some of these shows on MP3, but the streams are free.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Time for some more baconizers?
One obvious network is of musicians who've performed with other musicians. Then we could find out how many links it is from Robert Johnson to, say, Kenny Wayne Shepard. Or from the MC5 to Hayley Duff. Inquiring minds need to know. Call this an M number. Since lots of professional musicans also appear in movies, many would have an M-B number.
Everyone's had roommates at some time. Everyone you've ever shared an address with has an R-number of 1 with respect to you, but let's not count motels on road trips. Just places that have a mailbox. I might be three links from Neil Young. Back in the early 80s we had a law-school dropout of a housemate who claimed he once shared a place with Dewey Martin, who played with Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y. Odds are pretty good that he roomed for a while with Neil. Which means I could have an R-link of 3 with sportswriter great Scott Young.
I just found out that Canadian indie favorites Feist and Peaches also have been roommates. So now M-R numbers are common too. Do music videos count towards Bacon numbers? If they do M-R-B numbers are out there to be catalogued and bragged about.
Let's turn to real estate now. Most transactions involve two parties, an agent representing the vendor, and one for the buyer. Now I'm wondering if most agents in North America are all linked together. How many hops from an agent in Anchorage to one in Miami? Is there a correlation between a low Haslam number (named after a ubiquitous Vancouver agent) and income? Vancouver definitely has its share of real estate agents who also act. So there must be a few people with B-H numbers.
Anyone out there with a defined B-E-H-M-R number?
Everyone's had roommates at some time. Everyone you've ever shared an address with has an R-number of 1 with respect to you, but let's not count motels on road trips. Just places that have a mailbox. I might be three links from Neil Young. Back in the early 80s we had a law-school dropout of a housemate who claimed he once shared a place with Dewey Martin, who played with Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y. Odds are pretty good that he roomed for a while with Neil. Which means I could have an R-link of 3 with sportswriter great Scott Young.
I just found out that Canadian indie favorites Feist and Peaches also have been roommates. So now M-R numbers are common too. Do music videos count towards Bacon numbers? If they do M-R-B numbers are out there to be catalogued and bragged about.
Let's turn to real estate now. Most transactions involve two parties, an agent representing the vendor, and one for the buyer. Now I'm wondering if most agents in North America are all linked together. How many hops from an agent in Anchorage to one in Miami? Is there a correlation between a low Haslam number (named after a ubiquitous Vancouver agent) and income? Vancouver definitely has its share of real estate agents who also act. So there must be a few people with B-H numbers.
Anyone out there with a defined B-E-H-M-R number?
Friday, June 8, 2007
Help me with my Erdos-Bacon Number
The Erdos part is easy -- Jim Cordy's is 4, so mine is at most 5. There's a researcher in China who graciously gave me a co-authorship for my baconizer data, but I can't think he'd be lower.
The Bacon part is harder. Documentaries count, but it seems shows like local TV newscasts and game shows don't. I was in an actual feature film shot at the about-to-be-decommisioned North Vancouver Secondary School. The filmmaker's first name was Laszlo, the year was most likely 1979, I was in one scene with a local actress named Joey, and I remember little else. Somewhere in there lies my Bacon component, probably around 5 or 6. I know that one of the people on the crew, Barbara Tranter, worked on Porky's. If assistants counted, that would give me a Bacon # of at most 3, for a B-E # of 8. But I think they don't.
The current record B-E # is 5, but that's easily lowered. All it takes is for someone with an Erdos # of 1 to offer to co-author a paper with an actor with a Bacon # of 1 (or even Mr. B himself), in exchange for a role in that actor's next film. Say a former grad student of Ronald Graham's were to form this dual-collaboration with Kevin Bacon, they'd each have a B-E# of 3 afterwards. It would be acceptable if the screenplay was about the thrills of writing a paper for publication, while the paper itself dealt with a topic like black-scholes approaches to financing dubious movies. In the film the mathematician character (the Erdos guy) should give the author character (the Bacon guy) a failing grade at some point. The movie should be called "3".
Ref: http://www.google.com/search?q=erdos-bacon+numbers
The Bacon part is harder. Documentaries count, but it seems shows like local TV newscasts and game shows don't. I was in an actual feature film shot at the about-to-be-decommisioned North Vancouver Secondary School. The filmmaker's first name was Laszlo, the year was most likely 1979, I was in one scene with a local actress named Joey, and I remember little else. Somewhere in there lies my Bacon component, probably around 5 or 6. I know that one of the people on the crew, Barbara Tranter, worked on Porky's. If assistants counted, that would give me a Bacon # of at most 3, for a B-E # of 8. But I think they don't.
The current record B-E # is 5, but that's easily lowered. All it takes is for someone with an Erdos # of 1 to offer to co-author a paper with an actor with a Bacon # of 1 (or even Mr. B himself), in exchange for a role in that actor's next film. Say a former grad student of Ronald Graham's were to form this dual-collaboration with Kevin Bacon, they'd each have a B-E# of 3 afterwards. It would be acceptable if the screenplay was about the thrills of writing a paper for publication, while the paper itself dealt with a topic like black-scholes approaches to financing dubious movies. In the film the mathematician character (the Erdos guy) should give the author character (the Bacon guy) a failing grade at some point. The movie should be called "3".
Ref: http://www.google.com/search?q=erdos-bacon+numbers
Thursday, June 7, 2007
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Street person poetry of the day
Where: at the red light at Seymour and Smithe, heading north.
Who: 40sish street guy in jean jacket and rotten teeth.
What he said:
I have a secret.
There's a black Lear jet parked in Hanover.
I'm loading it up right now.
Who: 40sish street guy in jean jacket and rotten teeth.
What he said:
I have a secret.
There's a black Lear jet parked in Hanover.
I'm loading it up right now.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Bad driver of the day
You: 40ish brunette in a Range Rover, license plate BC BXA 000, yammering away on a cell phone, entering the B&G intersection after the left-turn arrow turned yellow, pushing back the pedestrians who had entered the intersection on their signal so you could plow through. At which point you erratically drove down the right two lanes north on Granville, signalling right too early.
Me: seen drivers like you too often to be pissed off. Hopefully you live in West Van and this was a one-time visit to that part of town.
Me: seen drivers like you too often to be pissed off. Hopefully you live in West Van and this was a one-time visit to that part of town.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
Book review of the day: the essential John Nash
- What
- A short intro followed by Nash's PhD thesis and a collection of his most important papers.
- Where
- Buy it at Amazon
- Why
- So the next time you're having trouble filling in the blank in "If you think you're so smart why don't you ...", you can hand them your copy.
- But
- Amazon's readers give the book 4 1/2 stars. Maybe you missed something as you were flipping pages looking for a lay explanation of his papers.
- Right
- This quote is representative of those reviewers' comments:
Chapter 12, 'Continuity of Solutions of Parabolic and Elliptic Equations' is like 'dessert' for anyone who is intensely interested (as I am) in modular functions.
I'm sure readers of this blog have a passing fancy at best with elliptic equations.
quote of the day
"I'm not interested in doing some obscure punk rock cover record. I wanted to do something really really big." - Patti Smith, on 12.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
My Wiseman Decades
The exact details are blurry. Reports of Blue Rodeo losing their keyboard player because he wanted to make more challenging music. Rodeo was listenable enough, making the kind of music you don't mind hearing at dentist's office. Then rumors that said keyboardist, Bob Wiseman, would be playing with Jane Siberry at Zaphod's, a small club in Ottawa. (There might be some more details in a boomerang tournament report from that summer of '92, if anyone feels like spelunking for the link -- I personally remember every word of it as if I wrote it yesterday.) The show itself, held at 4 in the afternoon on a Sunday, was packed. Karen's friend surreptitiously taped the show on a no-name type-I cassette (it's only a bootleg when a European or Brazilian publisher gives it an awkward title), but the music is drowned out by chatter, and doesn't capture what went on there. I saw Siberry perform a couple of times after that, but it was Wiseman who was definitely worth watching.
Somewhere on one of the mid-level floors of the 1950s-ugly main building at Carleton University. Bob is playing jazz-influenced improvisations on a grand piano in the listening room, with about 100 people attending. After hitting various strange notes, he burrows into the grand and pulls out his Juno from his Blue Rodeo days. Poems too. Awesome. I pick up the unclassifiable "Beware of Bob" CD. Still listen to it nearly 15 years later.
Back at Zaphod's, with his full-blown rock band, featuring material from the release after Beware of Bob (again the intrepid can fill in gaps with that google thing). This time there are older relatives from Nepean visiting. Their neglect in bringing ear plugs shows. Too bad they missed the Carleton show.
Two years later, back at the Carleton music room, with former co-worker and current stagehand/bpel guy Andrew to show him that there's some great music being done that isn't angst-ridden Euro Stereolab/Swervedriver. Bob plays the Juno thing again, lots of both new and old material, more poems, including the classic one about David Geffen. Andrew is impressed.
A year later, Andrew and I head up to the quaint Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec. Bob on guitar, a woman whose name I forget on various instruments, including theremin. And a reluctant guest on tuba. The band is set up in front of the main window. Outside a curtain of snow falls gently while the band shows Wiseman is still scaling heights. Andrew is still impressed. I believe he admits that Bob is better than P. J. Harvey.
Last Ottawa show, in late 1999/early 2000. Bob and Don Ross are sharing the bill at a packed Carleton U auditorium. Afterwards both performers hang out with the audience. I talk to Bob. It turns out he grew up across the street from my cousins in Winnipeg. He doesn't remember the older one, in the way that a 12-year-old doesn't know his 18-year-old neighbors, but does remember the younger one.
So now it's 2007, and Bob comes to a documentary film festival in Vancouver. I've been out of touch, and am not sure why he's playing a film festival. Turns out he's been making short films for a few years, showing in various indie festivals over the years. Most of his songs accompany the films he's played tonight. The artist continues to grow. He's added accordion to his repertoire, and needs to perform with Geoff Berner, if he hasn't yet (did I say I'm kind of out of the loop now?) "She Only Wanted Misery" is a masterpiece, like the other Bob's "Sad Eyed Lady". Go get it now. And while it's great on CD, you need to see it live on film for the full impact.
OK, links...
Somewhere on one of the mid-level floors of the 1950s-ugly main building at Carleton University. Bob is playing jazz-influenced improvisations on a grand piano in the listening room, with about 100 people attending. After hitting various strange notes, he burrows into the grand and pulls out his Juno from his Blue Rodeo days. Poems too. Awesome. I pick up the unclassifiable "Beware of Bob" CD. Still listen to it nearly 15 years later.
Back at Zaphod's, with his full-blown rock band, featuring material from the release after Beware of Bob (again the intrepid can fill in gaps with that google thing). This time there are older relatives from Nepean visiting. Their neglect in bringing ear plugs shows. Too bad they missed the Carleton show.
Two years later, back at the Carleton music room, with former co-worker and current stagehand/bpel guy Andrew to show him that there's some great music being done that isn't angst-ridden Euro Stereolab/Swervedriver. Bob plays the Juno thing again, lots of both new and old material, more poems, including the classic one about David Geffen. Andrew is impressed.
A year later, Andrew and I head up to the quaint Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec. Bob on guitar, a woman whose name I forget on various instruments, including theremin. And a reluctant guest on tuba. The band is set up in front of the main window. Outside a curtain of snow falls gently while the band shows Wiseman is still scaling heights. Andrew is still impressed. I believe he admits that Bob is better than P. J. Harvey.
Last Ottawa show, in late 1999/early 2000. Bob and Don Ross are sharing the bill at a packed Carleton U auditorium. Afterwards both performers hang out with the audience. I talk to Bob. It turns out he grew up across the street from my cousins in Winnipeg. He doesn't remember the older one, in the way that a 12-year-old doesn't know his 18-year-old neighbors, but does remember the younger one.
So now it's 2007, and Bob comes to a documentary film festival in Vancouver. I've been out of touch, and am not sure why he's playing a film festival. Turns out he's been making short films for a few years, showing in various indie festivals over the years. Most of his songs accompany the films he's played tonight. The artist continues to grow. He's added accordion to his repertoire, and needs to perform with Geoff Berner, if he hasn't yet (did I say I'm kind of out of the loop now?) "She Only Wanted Misery" is a masterpiece, like the other Bob's "Sad Eyed Lady". Go get it now. And while it's great on CD, you need to see it live on film for the full impact.
OK, links...
- Bob's myspace page
- Ordering info (iTunes or CD Baby might work better if you don't live near a good music store)
Friday, May 25, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
When 30 years isn't enough
From The Last Guy in the World to See Star Wars:
One day film students will pinpoint this film as the one that, even if it didn't build the coffin that ended the 1970s era of the auteur, certainly supplied the nails.
It was a movie made a long time ago, in a galaxy apparently lacking even one competent screenwriter.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
The race
Who's going to be the first one to comment? A human or a spammer? Immediate family members don't count.
My bet's on the spammers.
My bet's on the spammers.
Some Sample Pure Questions
I get to participate in one of those surveys that correlates types of urban environments with ones health. Lucky me. Search for "Pure" and McMaster to get an idea. Here are some of the questions I had to answer. How do you think you'd do?
How many servings of creamed soup do you have, either per day, per week, per month, or per year? Probably 1/year, which allows for 2 of those expensive yin-yang soups you can get at French restaurants.
What about salted/dried meat or fish? I figured this counts smoked fish, bumping this up to
1/month. Maybe it should be 18/year.
Chilies, green or red. Hmmm, maybe 4 per year. Could be more, but I hardly ever have authentic Mexican or real spicy East Asian.
Folic Acid substitutes? Nein.
Is there a park within a 1-5 minute walk? It's out our back door.
Do we own a computer? Yes. How many? 4, including the Linux box that Limewire no longer works on, and the SE/30 in the closet that still works as well as it did in 1992.
How many days in the last 7 did I do heavy physical activity at work (lifting, digging,
construction)? Shit. Zero. In fact I answered the questions on physical activity literally with respect to what I did over the last seven days. Less biking because I was on a business trip, but then I succeeded at getting to the gym two of the three mornings in the hotel.
Meanwhile elsewhere on the survey front our household's been picked to participate in a BBN survey on our radio usage. So while Judy and I can weight the results towards CBC, our younger daughter can tilt it over to the two local early-teen rock stations. I considered offering my 15-minute blocks on a $1 donation per, as long as the stations that get mentioned are accessible here somehow (dial, satellite, internet -- are these BBN folks hip now or what)?
But that would be too much hassle.
How many servings of creamed soup do you have, either per day, per week, per month, or per year? Probably 1/year, which allows for 2 of those expensive yin-yang soups you can get at French restaurants.
What about salted/dried meat or fish? I figured this counts smoked fish, bumping this up to
1/month. Maybe it should be 18/year.
Chilies, green or red. Hmmm, maybe 4 per year. Could be more, but I hardly ever have authentic Mexican or real spicy East Asian.
Folic Acid substitutes? Nein.
Is there a park within a 1-5 minute walk? It's out our back door.
Do we own a computer? Yes. How many? 4, including the Linux box that Limewire no longer works on, and the SE/30 in the closet that still works as well as it did in 1992.
How many days in the last 7 did I do heavy physical activity at work (lifting, digging,
construction)? Shit. Zero. In fact I answered the questions on physical activity literally with respect to what I did over the last seven days. Less biking because I was on a business trip, but then I succeeded at getting to the gym two of the three mornings in the hotel.
Meanwhile elsewhere on the survey front our household's been picked to participate in a BBN survey on our radio usage. So while Judy and I can weight the results towards CBC, our younger daughter can tilt it over to the two local early-teen rock stations. I considered offering my 15-minute blocks on a $1 donation per, as long as the stations that get mentioned are accessible here somehow (dial, satellite, internet -- are these BBN folks hip now or what)?
But that would be too much hassle.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Tough Music Choice this Friday
Too much happening this Friday, May 25.
Bob Wiseman @ VIFC vs. the Awkward Stage at the Railway.
I've seen Bob about 6 times, the Stage never. But Bob's
show looks more interesting, part of a film/video festival.
Bob Wiseman @ VIFC vs. the Awkward Stage at the Railway.
I've seen Bob about 6 times, the Stage never. But Bob's
show looks more interesting, part of a film/video festival.
The one the papers missed
Twenty or so passengers straggled off the short hop from a sopping wet Portland and merged in to the international arrivals area with two lines of smiling faces coming off sleek jets from Mexico. One group from Cancun, the other from San Lucas. Looks like a big extended family went down for a trip, all members of which were happy and accounted for back in Canada. A younger group, three girls, all of whom apparently remembered their sunscreen (results modestly on display) with two guys, neither of whom was sporting a bandaged head wound. The washroom was empty of both people and any evidence of intestinal distress. As the customs guards mundanely waved everyone through.
Monday, May 21, 2007
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