The journalists at Charlie Hebdo are now rightly being celebrated as martyrs on behalf of freedom of expression, but let’s face it: If they had tried to publish their satirical newspaper on any American university campus over the last two decades it wouldn’t have lasted 30 seconds. Student and faculty groups would have accused them of hate speech. The administration would have cut financing and shut them down.Read the whole thing...
Saturday, January 10, 2015
I am not Charlie-Hebdo...
I am not Charlie-Hebdo... Here's the first paragraph of an uncomfortable, but totally on-target piece by (of all people!) David Brooks in (of all places!) the New York Times:
Quote of the day...
Quote of the day... This is from Laura Rosen Cohen, the conclusion of a longer piece (emphasis in the original):
The pen clearly is NOT stronger than the sword.Laura, I don't know you – but it's clear that you are my kind of gal!
The pens of the world are limp and flaccid and pathetic.
Firepower is stronger than the pen.
Air forces, soldiers, tanks and guns are stronger than the pen.
Superior firepower, superior intelligence, having no fear, and nothing less than a complete commitment to the preservation of Western, Judeo-Christian civilization and democracy are the only things that will save us from ourselves at this point.
Look around you: all over the "free" world, people are not even brave enough to draw or publish a cartoon to save their civilization-they think that will save their sorry, dhimmi asses.
My recommendation is to stick with superior firepower and a commitment to freedom.
Progress report...
Progress report... Yesterday was audio-visual day here. The various components of our new system started showing up on Wednesday, and by Friday afternoon the last of them were here. I spent the entire day assembling and wiring an AV equipment stand, a TV stand, speakers, amplifier/receiver, TV, cable modem/DVR, and BluRay player. We picked out a pretty basic system, with a 5.1 speaker arrangement (left/right/center front speakers, left/right surround speakers, and a sub-woofer), but with good gear. The amplifier is a Yamaha, speakers Atlantic Technology, BluRay player Oppo, and TV from LG.
By yesterday afternoon I had the system wired to the point where I could try it out, and the results were very satisfying. Music in stereo sounds better than any other system I've ever owned. The imaging (i.e., hearing where instruments and voices are located) is particularly good. The surround sound part has a bewildering set of options and tweaks that I've just barely begun to explore. However, a test with a Lord of the Rings BluRay showed that it was all working fine.
It's been quite a few years since I last purchased any AV gear, and things have changed quite a bit since then. Perhaps most surprising to me: every piece of the gear is now network connected. At least one of them (the amp/receiver) has a web server built into it. The amp/receiver also has the ability to update its firmware over the Internet – when I first lit it off, it came up with a message telling me there was an update and offered to download it! I haven't connected the BluRay player or cable modem/DVR to the network yet; I'm not sure what they do with it. The TV has the ability to play movies from the Internet, and Debbie is planning to make good use of that with our Amazon Prime membership, as it comes with free access to many of the movies and series she likes (especially some of the British TV series).
Today I have a friend coming over to help me lift the TV (which weighs 80 pounds) up onto its elevated stand. It was a bit too heavy for Debbie to feel safe about hefting half of it. After that I'm going to be spending the day connecting the rest of the gear to the network, bringing up and configuring a universal remote (BluMoo), and tweaking things until we're happy with the setup. Once it's all working the way we want, and we've got the final positions of all the equipment, I'm going to be making all the wiring “disappear” into the walls and under the floor. Right now we've got wiring running over the floor, which for some reason Debbie's not real fond of :)
By yesterday afternoon I had the system wired to the point where I could try it out, and the results were very satisfying. Music in stereo sounds better than any other system I've ever owned. The imaging (i.e., hearing where instruments and voices are located) is particularly good. The surround sound part has a bewildering set of options and tweaks that I've just barely begun to explore. However, a test with a Lord of the Rings BluRay showed that it was all working fine.
It's been quite a few years since I last purchased any AV gear, and things have changed quite a bit since then. Perhaps most surprising to me: every piece of the gear is now network connected. At least one of them (the amp/receiver) has a web server built into it. The amp/receiver also has the ability to update its firmware over the Internet – when I first lit it off, it came up with a message telling me there was an update and offered to download it! I haven't connected the BluRay player or cable modem/DVR to the network yet; I'm not sure what they do with it. The TV has the ability to play movies from the Internet, and Debbie is planning to make good use of that with our Amazon Prime membership, as it comes with free access to many of the movies and series she likes (especially some of the British TV series).
Today I have a friend coming over to help me lift the TV (which weighs 80 pounds) up onto its elevated stand. It was a bit too heavy for Debbie to feel safe about hefting half of it. After that I'm going to be spending the day connecting the rest of the gear to the network, bringing up and configuring a universal remote (BluMoo), and tweaking things until we're happy with the setup. Once it's all working the way we want, and we've got the final positions of all the equipment, I'm going to be making all the wiring “disappear” into the walls and under the floor. Right now we've got wiring running over the floor, which for some reason Debbie's not real fond of :)
Friday, January 9, 2015
Morning belly laugh...
Morning belly laugh... Via my mom, whom I'm going to visit next week:
A man died and went to Heaven. As he stood in front of the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him. He asked, "What are all those clocks?"It's on the high speed setting, too...
St. Peter answered, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone who has ever been on earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie, the hands on your clock move.” “Oh, said the man. “Whose clock is that?"
"That's Mother Teresa's," replied St. Peter. "The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie."
"Incredible," said the man. "And whose clock is that one?" St. Peter responded, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abraham told only two lies in his entire life."
"Where's Obama's clock?" asked the man. St Peter replied, "We're using it as a ceiling fan."
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Customer service kudos...
Customer service kudos ... to IQAir. We recently purchased one of their filters to cut down on the odors in our indoor cattery. The box was undamaged, but when I unpacked the unit I found two large plastic parts that had broken. Both broken parts still functioned, so I set up the filter, turned it on, and it was obvious within minutes that it was working great. Before we got the filter, I couldn't stay in the cattery (where seven cats live) for more than a few minutes – my eyes would start watering, I'd get the sniffles, and the smell would make me crazy. Within an hour after turning the filter on, the air was just as fresh and odor-free in the cattery as it is outside. It's just an amazing difference!
But ... two broken parts, on a brand-new unit. I called their support line, and within 30 seconds was connected with John V., a customer service rep. He asked me just a few questions, verified that I actually owned one of their machines (by having me read him the serial number), and then with no hesitation said he'd ship me the two parts. Next thing I know, I got an email with a tracking number – they shipped the parts via FedEx. I got the parts today, installed them, and now we have not only a beautifully performant filter, but we have one with no broken parts!
The whole support experience was just about as good as such a thing can be. No hassles, no delays, no cost, and all very friendly and warm. Great product, great service – always a winning combination!
But ... two broken parts, on a brand-new unit. I called their support line, and within 30 seconds was connected with John V., a customer service rep. He asked me just a few questions, verified that I actually owned one of their machines (by having me read him the serial number), and then with no hesitation said he'd ship me the two parts. Next thing I know, I got an email with a tracking number – they shipped the parts via FedEx. I got the parts today, installed them, and now we have not only a beautifully performant filter, but we have one with no broken parts!
The whole support experience was just about as good as such a thing can be. No hassles, no delays, no cost, and all very friendly and warm. Great product, great service – always a winning combination!
From the dirt in Maine...
- It is effective against all the currently scary drug-resistant bacteria.
- It's mechanism is inherently difficult for bacteria to develop resistance against.
- There's no known obstacle to large scale production.
It's difficult to overstate what an important development this is!
More here, here, and here...
Charlie-Hebdo...
Charlie-Hebdo... Mark Steyn, in a Fox News interview, expresses my own position far more eloquently than I could. Watch the (non-embeddable) video here.
Here's an example of what I expect to see much more of: assertions that at least in part, Charlie-Hebdo brought this upon themselves by offending Muslims. In this case, it's a piece published by the Catholic League, who really ought to know better – because virtually everything they publish, believe, and stand for is offensive to the same group of Muslim radicals who attacked Charlie-Hebdo. It's written as though they don't even realize that their fellow Christians are being killed in large numbers by Islamic State right now. Their instinct for appeasement overrides their ability to observe, much as the English left, led by Neville Chamberlain, completely failed to observe Hitler's evil. This sort of essentially suicidal behavior leaves me gaping in disbelief...
Here's an example of what I expect to see much more of: assertions that at least in part, Charlie-Hebdo brought this upon themselves by offending Muslims. In this case, it's a piece published by the Catholic League, who really ought to know better – because virtually everything they publish, believe, and stand for is offensive to the same group of Muslim radicals who attacked Charlie-Hebdo. It's written as though they don't even realize that their fellow Christians are being killed in large numbers by Islamic State right now. Their instinct for appeasement overrides their ability to observe, much as the English left, led by Neville Chamberlain, completely failed to observe Hitler's evil. This sort of essentially suicidal behavior leaves me gaping in disbelief...
Wednesday, January 7, 2015
Charlie-Hebdo...
Charlie-Hebdo... The appalling news out of Paris this morning, about the terrorist attack that has killed 12 people at the offices of the satirical French newspaper, immediately made me think of the success the terrorists likely will have in their larger goal: silencing the critics of Islam. True to my concern, progressives both here in America and in Europe are already busy blaming the victims – and most definitely not defending free speech.
I'd rather die standing than live on my knees (via Mark Steyn)
First-hand account from the terrorist attack on Charlie-Hebdo (Claire Berlinski)
Charlie-Hebdo massacre: how the west will respond (James Delingpole)
Do not submit! (Zombie)
Here are some links to the best things I've read so far. In the last piece, “Zombie” calls out for publishing the “offensive” cartoons far and wide. Zombie is right: we need to assert our free speech rights vigorously. We cannot appease these monsters. We must resist. To that end, I'm republishing the original cartoons that provoked so much manufactured outrage amongst radical Muslims. I first published these almost 9 years ago, in February 2006...
I'd rather die standing than live on my knees (via Mark Steyn)
First-hand account from the terrorist attack on Charlie-Hebdo (Claire Berlinski)
Charlie-Hebdo massacre: how the west will respond (James Delingpole)
Do not submit! (Zombie)
Here are some links to the best things I've read so far. In the last piece, “Zombie” calls out for publishing the “offensive” cartoons far and wide. Zombie is right: we need to assert our free speech rights vigorously. We cannot appease these monsters. We must resist. To that end, I'm republishing the original cartoons that provoked so much manufactured outrage amongst radical Muslims. I first published these almost 9 years ago, in February 2006...
Croque madam...
On the way home it was just before sunrise. Debbie took the photo at right through our truck's window as we were heading south toward Paradise. The mountains are the Wellsvilles, looming over the town of Wellsville...
Miki's new boots...
In the cold snap we had last week, we noticed that our dogs – especially the field spaniels – were uncomfortable walking in the very cold snow. They'd want to come back inside after just a few minutes, and they acted like their feet were painful. After a little research, we discovered that several manufacturers make dog boots for exactly this problem. We tried a set first for Race (our border collie), figuring that if they stayed on his narrow feet, then they'd work for all the dogs. They worked great, and Race got used to them in just a few seconds. So we ordered another set, big enough for the field spaniels and their wider, fuzzier feet. I put them on Miki to try out for fit, and they fit great.
What we didn't expect was Miki's comical reaction to the new boots, as you can see in the video. We were laughing for hours after his first adventure with his new boots. We'll probably try them again today. I suspect it's going to take him a few attempts to get comfortable with them. Meanwhile, he'll give us a few belly laughs :)
We're paperless!
We're paperless! This has been a dream – well, fantasy, really – of mine since the earliest days of hobbyist microcomputers in the early '70s. It took forty years, but I finally am able to say that I have an entirely practicable way for us to have a paperless office here at home.
What exactly do I mean by “paperless”? Mainly I mean that we can simply throw away (or shred) nearly every bit of paper that comes into our life: receipts, invoices and bills, and even official records. The only exception, really, is paperwork that has original signatures or seals – quite uncommon, these days. Everything else gets scanned, converted to text (through Optical Character Recognition, or OCR), and indexed. Whenever I need to see a document, I simply search for it – just like googling the web. If I need a physical copy, I simply print it. An electronic copy (in PDF form) I can just export.
Several technologies had to reach a sufficient threshold to make this feasible:
We bought a Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 scanner (about $500), and DEVONthink's document management software ($169). The software is running on my MacBook Pro, which has plenty of storage for this purpose. The only other important component is a shredder, for getting rid of paper documents with confidential information on them.
The first photo below shows the scanner, all folded up when not in use. In the second photo, you see the scanner unfolded (which automatically turns it on) and ready to scan a document. To scan, you just push the brightly lit blue button. The document scans (both sides!) in about one second. It can feed dozens of pages at once, and any size paper up to about 9" wide. The scan is in full color, with a variable resolution automatically selected by the scanner. Once the document is scanned, one click sends it to the document management software after being converted to text (by OCR). There, one click stores it in whatever folder you want it in.
That's it. You're done. Shred the document!
When you actually need a document, you can simply search for it. The last image below shows the result of my searching for "romaine". I typed that word into the search box in the upper right corner of the document manager, just like I might search the web. The results show up as a list of documents, ranked by how close the match was. In this case I had only a single matching document, so figuring out which one I wanted was easy :) In other cases, I'll get a list of documents, and the file name contains the date. I can click on any document in the list, and the match is instantly displayed on the screen, scrolled to the matching text.
I don't know how it could be any easier. The entire process is way easier than filing, which is what it needs to be for it to be attractive to me.
The document manager has far more capabilities than I've explored, and someday – maybe – I might go take a look at them. The one thing I can think of that I'd like is a way to eliminate a couple of those clicks I make now after scanning. Ideally, I'd push that blue button on the scanner and everything else would be automatic. But if it can't do that, it's not a big deal – those few clicks are far less work than physically moving the piece of paper to the “right” file folder...
I'm starting to feel like the future has finally arrived. Now, where's my flying car?
What exactly do I mean by “paperless”? Mainly I mean that we can simply throw away (or shred) nearly every bit of paper that comes into our life: receipts, invoices and bills, and even official records. The only exception, really, is paperwork that has original signatures or seals – quite uncommon, these days. Everything else gets scanned, converted to text (through Optical Character Recognition, or OCR), and indexed. Whenever I need to see a document, I simply search for it – just like googling the web. If I need a physical copy, I simply print it. An electronic copy (in PDF form) I can just export.
Several technologies had to reach a sufficient threshold to make this feasible:
- Storage (disk, rotating and solid state) had to be cheap enough to make storing the big files that result from scanning practicable. Storage reached this point almost ten years ago.
- Scanners had to be capable of high resolution color scanning of both sides of any size of paper, quickly, easily, and reliably. Paper handling, in particular, needed to improve dramatically over the scanners of the '90s. Several manufacturers started making scanners that met all the requirements, at affordable prices, about five years ago.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) had to be good enough to successfully convert the vast majority of scanned text – no matter how bad the scan, or what crazy font was being used. The receipts printed by cash registers have long been the canonical example of common, hard to OCR documents. To improve as needed, OCR software had to get better, and home computers had to have sufficient power and memory for them to work. OCR software reached this point a few years ago.
- Document management software had to get both more powerful and yet be simple enough for casual users to be able to handle it. It also had to be inexpensive enough that a consumer might afford it. I first started reading about such software about a year ago.
We bought a Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 scanner (about $500), and DEVONthink's document management software ($169). The software is running on my MacBook Pro, which has plenty of storage for this purpose. The only other important component is a shredder, for getting rid of paper documents with confidential information on them.
The first photo below shows the scanner, all folded up when not in use. In the second photo, you see the scanner unfolded (which automatically turns it on) and ready to scan a document. To scan, you just push the brightly lit blue button. The document scans (both sides!) in about one second. It can feed dozens of pages at once, and any size paper up to about 9" wide. The scan is in full color, with a variable resolution automatically selected by the scanner. Once the document is scanned, one click sends it to the document management software after being converted to text (by OCR). There, one click stores it in whatever folder you want it in.
That's it. You're done. Shred the document!
When you actually need a document, you can simply search for it. The last image below shows the result of my searching for "romaine". I typed that word into the search box in the upper right corner of the document manager, just like I might search the web. The results show up as a list of documents, ranked by how close the match was. In this case I had only a single matching document, so figuring out which one I wanted was easy :) In other cases, I'll get a list of documents, and the file name contains the date. I can click on any document in the list, and the match is instantly displayed on the screen, scrolled to the matching text.
I don't know how it could be any easier. The entire process is way easier than filing, which is what it needs to be for it to be attractive to me.
The document manager has far more capabilities than I've explored, and someday – maybe – I might go take a look at them. The one thing I can think of that I'd like is a way to eliminate a couple of those clicks I make now after scanning. Ideally, I'd push that blue button on the scanner and everything else would be automatic. But if it can't do that, it's not a big deal – those few clicks are far less work than physically moving the piece of paper to the “right” file folder...
I'm starting to feel like the future has finally arrived. Now, where's my flying car?
Calendars and clocks...
Calendars and clocks ... they bring out the stupid. Check out this thread on a body-building forum for an outstanding example.
I once had a job at an electronic stock and option trading company, which was run by a very smart fellow with decades of experience. He and I once had a three hour debate about how time zones worked – he didn't believe it was true that at given moment there are either two or three dates, depending on where you are on the planet (the two dates occurs because of the international date line; the three dates possibility occurs for a more obscure reason – some very odd time zones in the Pacific Ocean islands). It didn't matter that I could give him articles, books, and even scientific papers discussing the phenomenon. Nothing I did could convince him, and because of that he wouldn't let me fix a bug in our software that affected traders operating from those aforementioned Pacific Ocean islands.
But at least he understood that there were seven days in a week, unlike one fellow on that thread!
I once had a job at an electronic stock and option trading company, which was run by a very smart fellow with decades of experience. He and I once had a three hour debate about how time zones worked – he didn't believe it was true that at given moment there are either two or three dates, depending on where you are on the planet (the two dates occurs because of the international date line; the three dates possibility occurs for a more obscure reason – some very odd time zones in the Pacific Ocean islands). It didn't matter that I could give him articles, books, and even scientific papers discussing the phenomenon. Nothing I did could convince him, and because of that he wouldn't let me fix a bug in our software that affected traders operating from those aforementioned Pacific Ocean islands.
But at least he understood that there were seven days in a week, unlike one fellow on that thread!
Tuesday, January 6, 2015
It's a tropical heat wave in Paradise!
It's a tropical heat wave in Paradise! I walked the dogs this morning at 3 am, and the temperature was 36°F. I just needed boots and my jacket, not the full-on arctic defensive clothing I've been wearing outside. The snow is melting rather quickly – our driveway is completely snow and ice free already, and the yard is full of spots where the (dead) grass is showing through. We're due for a few more days of this before it gets cold again – I think we may be completely snow free by then...
Something is badly wrong here...
Leave aside for a moment all the moral arguments about drug use. Ask yourself these questions instead:
Is it worth it? That is, do the benefits of the War on Drugs (assuming you can even identify any) outweigh even the direct costs (roughly $10B/year, and 1.5M people in prison)? The benefit that most people presume – reduced drug use – is rather obviously not a benefit that is actually obtained. America has one of the highest rates of drug use of any first-world country.If you know me, then you know I'm not a supporter of drug use in general. I am, however, a rabid supporter of liberty, and the criminalization of drug use (and the consequent War on Drugs) is one of the most flagrant abuses of liberty America has ever perpetrated upon its citizens...
Would legalizing drug use be worse than the War on Drugs? The experience of other countries suggests – strongly – that our society would be better off treating the direct consequences of drug use, rather than outlawing it. This is actually identical to how we treat alcohol use today, and few would argue that our society was better off with Prohibition.
The Andromeda galaxy...
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