The Blues in Jamul...

Kate, my nonagenarian mother-in-law, has been visiting with us for the last three weeks.  Yesterday we put her on the plane for her trip home.  Despite being very frail and unable to walk more than a hundred feet or so in a push, and living in fear of just about everything (as a butterfly landing on her would probably cause a bruise), she was willing to leave the safety and familiarity of her home in Indiana to come spend some time with us (and our four dogs and eight cats). 

The dogs were good; they didn't jump on her and knock her down.  Even the cats seemed very careful around her.  And she had a good time with us, especially some shared sight-seeing drives and meals out (something she doesn't get to do much of back home). 

As Debbie says, it's a mixture of both sadness and relief to see her go.  Sadness, because we know we won't see her again soon (and at her age, we have to wonder if ever), and because we enjoyed her company.  Relief, because it is inevitably a lot of work to weave care and attention to her into our lives, and her stay disrupts the usual peace and calmness in our country home.  So yesterday after we put her on the plane Debbie and I had a bit o' the blues...

I'm feeling better this morning, though!

Cats and Dogs...

Via my mom:

Excerpt from a dog's diary...

8:00 am - Dog food! My favourite thing! 9:30 am - A car ride! My favourite thing! 9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favourite thing! 10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favourite thing! 12:00 pm - Lunch! My favourite thing! 1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favourite thing!  3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favourite thing!  5:00 pm - Milk Bones! My favourite thing!  7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favourite thing!   8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favourite thing!  11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favourite thing!

Excerpt from a cat's diary...

Day 983 of my captivity... My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.  Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am. Bastards. There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage. Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow – but at the top of the stairs. I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now.

My Weird Family, Continued...

My sister finds more weird and awesome mushrooms in her yard...

Three Logicians Walk Into a Bar...

 

Excellent!

What Is This?

Dry ice on Mars, in the process of sublimating.  From APOD, of course.

Writing Unmaintainable Code...

A treatise on how to write programs that are very difficult to maintain.  As any experienced programmer will recognize, the techniques are commonly found in code that wasn't (presumably) intentionally written to be unmaintainable.  Even though it might as well have been.  An example:

Creative Miss-spelling
If you must use descriptive variable and function names, misspell them. By misspelling in some function and variable names, and spelling it correctly in others (such as SetPintleOpening SetPintalClosing) we effectively negate the use of grep or IDE search techniques. It works amazingly well. Add an international flavor by spelling tory or tori in different theatres/theaters.

But do go read the whole thing...

A USB Typewriter?

This may be an elaborate hoax, but it sure looks real.  The tagline looks like a joke, though:

The USBTypewriter™ is a new and groundbreaking innovation in the field of obsolescence.

The claim is that this fellow has developed a circuit board that can be attached to any old-fashioned mechanical typewriter, converting it to a USB keyboard input device.  From a technical perspective, this is completely plausible.  From just about any other perspective, it's some degree of crazy (and leaning toward very crazy).  Here's the company page, the Etsy storefront, and below is their marketing video.




I'm pretty much speechless...

Faster Than Light?

More than likely you heard the news yesterday: scientists at CERN have made the results of an experiment public – and those results seem to indicate that a beam of neutrinos traveled between two locations at a speed greater than the speed of light.

If verified, this is a remarkable result that turns much of modern physics on its head.  It's as if someone discovered that one plus one doesn't always equal two.

Probably in the end it will turn out there was some flaw in the experiment – but maybe not.  After all, it's a fine group of scientists who performed the experiment repeatedly, and got the same very unexpected results every time.  More here, here, and here...

Email from My Mother...

I received the following email from my mother this morning:

To save the economy, on September 27, 2011, the government will start deporting old people (instead of illegals) in order to Lower Social Security and Medicare costs.

Old people are easier to catch and will not remember how to get back home.

I started crying when I thought of you.

RUN, YOU OLD BUZZARD, RUN!

Does your mother call you an “old buzzard”?

Trello Upate...

I posted very briefly about Trello last week.  I've been using it ever since to keep track of my personal “to do” list, and so far it's proved to be the single most usable such implementation I've run across.  For a developer, the checklist feature is absolutely perfect – I can plan out all the little steps involved for a new feature I'm adding, and then run through them.  I can add or delete or reorder these steps as I go.  I can attach screenshots and documents willy-nilly.  I have yet to run into something that I want to do, but cannot.

Nice job, Fog Creek!

Richard Feynman...

Long-time readers will already know that Dr. Feynman is one of my personal heroes.  I recently ran across something I'd read years ago – his appendix to the Rogers Commission report on the Challenger disaster, containing personal observations.  It's a masterpiece in its entirety, but I'd completely forgotten the last sentence:

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

The man had a real talent for cutting through the clutter and crap that more ordinary thinkers get distracted by.  Awesome...

It's Gonna Be an Interesting Election Year...

Nothing But a Little Hot Air...

Via my mom:

No Words Required...

Benford's Law and the Greek Debt Crisis...

We could have had early warning of the Greek debt crisis...

Clever Analysis...

I've read about this famous little bit of WWII analysis before, and then read a bit more about Dr. Wald on the web.  It's an interesting story...

Shakespeare...

I'm not sure where this originated, but it's a great presentation of a bunch of English expressions still in common use that actually originated with the bard: Shakespeare.  It's rather stunning just how much influence a single writer had.  Click to enlarge, and enjoy!

Even More SSH Tricks...

Here.

A Quintet of Moons...

Cassini is still hard at work in the Saturnian system, returning scads of good science data every day.  The photo at right (click to enlarge, as always) was taken recently, and shows five moons of Saturn all in one shot.  From left to right: Janus, Pandora, Enceladus, Mimas, and half of Rhea.  Awesome!

Geek Humor...

Math joke:

“An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one tells the bartender he wants a beer. The second one says he wants half a beer. The third one says he wants a fourth of a beer. The bartender puts two beers on the bar and says “You guys need to learn your limits.”

Posted by Les Jones.  More jokes in the comments...

OMG!

A whole new meaning for OMG!

Via my mom, both the photo at right and the story below...

I was eating lunch on the 20th of February with my 7 year-old granddaughter and I asked her, "What day is tomorrow?"

She said, ‘It's President's Day!’ (She is a smart kid.)

I asked, ‘What does President's Day mean?’ I was waiting for something about Washington or Lincoln ... etc.

She replied, ‘President's Day is when President Obama steps out of the White House and if he sees his shadow we have one more year of unemployment.’

You know, it hurts when hot coffee spurts out your nose...

The Sun...

In recent years, the quality of the solar images scientists can capture has gone up dramatically.  The one at right shows the edge of a sunspot.  Often these amazing images have been taken from satellites, but the one at right was taken from a ground-based telescope, using several sophisticated adaptive optical systems and some digital post-processing. 

Via APOD, of course...

The Sad Farmer...

Via my mom:

A farmer was selling his peaches door to door. He knocked on a door and a shapely 30-something woman dressed in a very sheer negligee answered the door. He raised his basket to show her the peaches, then asked, "Would you like to buy some peaches?"

She pulled the top of the negligee to one side and asked, "Are they as firm as this"?

He nodded his head and said, "Yes ma'am," and a little tear ran from his eye.

Then she pulled the other side of her negligee off asking, "Are they nice and pink like this?"

The farmer said, "Yes," and a tear came from the other eye.

Then she unbuttoned the bottom of her negligee and asked, "Are they as fuzzy as this?"

He again said, "Yes," and broke down crying.

She asked, "Why on earth are you crying?"

Drying his eyes he replied, "The drought got my corn, the flood got my soy beans, a tornado leveled my barn, I voted for Obama and now I think I'm gonna get screwed out of my peaches.

The Job Opening...

Via reader Simon M., who saw this on Facebook:

A guy walked into the local welfare office to pick up his check.

He marched straight up to the counter and said, "Hi.. You know... I just hate drawing welfare. I'd really rather have a job."

The social worker behind the counter said, "Your timing is excellent. We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a Chauffeur and bodyguard for his beautiful daughter. You'll have to drive around in his 2011 Mercedes-Benz CL, and he will supply all of your clothes.

"Because of the long hours, meals will be provided. You'll also be expected to escort the daughter on her overseas holiday trips. This is rather awkward to say but you will also have as part of your job assignment to satisfy her sexual urges as the daughter is in her mid-20's and has a rather strong sex drive."

The guy, just plain wide-eyed, said, "You're bullshittin' me!"

The social worker said, "Yeah, well... You started it."

How does one measure the seriousness of an unemployed person's commitment to finding a job?   In particular, one question that begs to be answered: to what extent does the amount and duration of unemployment benefits affect the willingness of unemployed people to seek and take a new job?  These questions are very challenging to answer, as there are so many variables involved.  Nevertheless, the evidence seems to suggest that the more unemployment benefits pay, and the longer they're paid, the longer unemployed people are willing to remain unemployed.  The timing of job acceptance in the first link above is particularly telling to me.

I don't have good answers for all this.  I'm certainly not advocating the elimination of all jobless benefits – there are definitely people out there who can't find a job at all, and without the benefits they won't be able to purchase even the basic necessities of life.  I am saying something else, though: that the nature of our unemployment safety net deserves close study and (probably) some kind of adjustment.  On the evidence at hand, taxpayers are financing the voluntary unemployment of an interesting fraction of the unemployed, and that just ain't right...

Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design...

Via reader Eric J., who points out that some of them are applicable to software design as well.  I'll add that many of them are applicable to any kind of engineering – certainly any kind of engineering I've been involved with (electrical, software, optical, mechanical, thermal, and civil)...

1. Engineering is done with numbers. Analysis without numbers is only an opinion.
2. To design a spacecraft right takes an infinite amount of effort. This is why it's a good idea to design them to operate when some things are wrong.
3. Design is an iterative process. The necessary number of iterations is one more than the number you have currently done. This is true at any point in time.
4. Your best design efforts will inevitably wind up being useless in the final design. Learn to live with the disappointment.
5. (Miller's Law) Three points determine a curve.
6. (Mar's Law) Everything is linear if plotted log-log with a fat magic marker.
7. At the start of any design effort, the person who most wants to be team leader is least likely to be capable of it.
8. In nature, the optimum is almost always in the middle somewhere. Distrust assertions that the optimum is at an extreme point.
9. Not having all the information you need is never a satisfactory excuse for not starting the analysis.
10. When in doubt, estimate. In an emergency, guess. But be sure to go back and clean up the mess when the real numbers come along.
11. Sometimes, the fastest way to get to the end is to throw everything out and start over.
12. There is never a single right solution. There are always multiple wrong ones, though.
13. Design is based on requirements. There's no justification for designing something one bit "better" than the requirements dictate.
14. (Edison's Law) "Better" is the enemy of "good".
15. (Shea's Law) The ability to improve a design occurs primarily at the interfaces. This is also the prime location for screwing it up.
16. The previous people who did a similar analysis did not have a direct pipeline to the wisdom of the ages. There is therefore no reason to believe their analysis over yours. There is especially no reason to present their analysis as yours.
17. The fact that an analysis appears in print has no relationship to the likelihood of its being correct.
18. Past experience is excellent for providing a reality check. Too much reality can doom an otherwise worthwhile design, though.
19. The odds are greatly against you being immensely smarter than everyone else in the field. If your analysis says your terminal velocity is twice the speed of light, you may have invented warp drive, but the chances are a lot better that you've screwed up.
20. A bad design with a good presentation is doomed eventually. A good design with a bad presentation is doomed immediately.
21. (Larrabee's Law) Half of everything you hear in a classroom is crap. Education is figuring out which half is which.
22. When in doubt, document. (Documentation requirements will reach a maximum shortly after the termination of a program.)
23. The schedule you develop will seem like a complete work of fiction up until the time your customer fires you for not meeting it.
24. It's called a "Work Breakdown Structure" because the Work remaining will grow until you have a Breakdown, unless you enforce some Structure on it.
25. (Bowden's Law) Following a testing failure, it's always possible to refine the analysis to show that you really had negative margins all along.
26. (Montemerlo's Law) Don't do nuthin' dumb.
27. (Varsi's Law) Schedules only move in one direction.
28. (Ranger's Law) There ain't no such thing as a free launch.
29. (von Tiesenhausen's Law of Program Management) To get an accurate estimate of final program requirements, multiply the initial time estimates by pi, and slide the decimal point on the cost estimates one place to the right.
30. (von Tiesenhausen's Law of Engineering Design) If you want to have a maximum effect on the design of a new engineering system, learn to draw. Engineers always wind up designing the vehicle to look like the initial artist's concept.
31. (Mo's Law of Evolutionary Development) You can't get to the moon by climbing successively taller trees.
32. (Atkin's Law of Demonstrations) When the hardware is working perfectly, the really important visitors don't show up.
33. Space is a completely unforgiving environment. If you screw up the engineering, somebody dies (and there's no partial credit because most of the analysis was right...)

Original source is Dr. David Akin of the University of Maryland.

No Words Needed...

Via reader Simon M.:

No Words Needed...

Via reader “Ole Timer”:

No Words Needed...

Via my mom:

World's Funniest Analogies...

Via Bill Gross.  Hysterical!  A few samples:

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

Advanced Strategies...

Reader Jim M. shares this observation:

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Sioux Indian tribe, passed on from generation to generation, says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."

However, in government, education, and in corporate America, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse's performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses. And of course....
13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Political Ad of the Day...

Via reader Simi L.:

Marine, Taking Care of Business...

Via reader Simon M., who got it from his wife Carrie:

A college Professor stood on a chair and said “If God really exists then knock me off this chair.”  Nothing happened, the class was quiet, so he said “See! now I'll give it a couple more minutes.”  A Marine Vet stood up, punched him in the face knocking him out and off the chair, then sat back down.  As the Professor came to he looked at his student and said “Why did you do that?”  He said “God was busy protecting my buddies still fighting for your right to say and do stupid stuff like this so he sent me!”

Obama on a State Visit...

Via my mom:

Obama goes on a State visit to Israel. While he is on a tour of Jerusalem, he has a fatal heart attack. The undertaker tells the US diplomats: "You can have him shipped home for $1 million or you can bury him here in the Holy Land for $100." The US diplomats go into a huddle and come back to the undertaker and tell him they still want Obama flown home. The undertaker is puzzled and asks: "Why would you spend $1 million to get him home when it would be wonderful to be buried here in this religious country and you would only spend $100?" One diplomat replied: "More than 2000 years ago a man died here, was buried here, and just 3 days later he rose from the dead. We simply can't take that risk".

American Jobs Act...

No, not that American Jobs Act – this one!

Inspired.

Find the Cat...

There's a cat in the photo below.  See it?  If not, click here...

This Pretty Much Nails It...

Via reader Jim M.:

Another APS Resignation...

Another mainstream scientist – this time a Nobel-winning physicist – has resigned from the American Physical Society because of it's anti-science stance on anthropogenic global warming...

Trello...

Another interesting product from Fog Creek (Joel Spolsky's company)...

Will They Get the Message?

The Republicans did the unthinkable last night – they won Weiner's seat in a special election.  In a solidly Democratic district, with a solidly Democratic candidate, the Republican won.  There's a message here: the people, even the loyal Democratic voters, are not happy with the current administration.  If the Democratic leadership doesn't hear this message loud and clear, next year's elections are likely to be an absolute rout.

Will they hear it?  The safe bet would be “no”, as they haven't heard any of the preceding messages at all...

Skid-Boot...

The story of a dog named Skid-Boot, via my mom:

New York on 9/11 + 10 Years...

During my recent business trip to New York, I stayed on the 43rd floor of a hotel directly overlooking the old World Trade Center site.  In the first photo below, you can see the two squares of the 9/11 monument; in the second, the new Freedom Tower rising just alongside them.  As usual, click to enlarge.  Quite a sight...

The Lost Art of Nomography...

Nomography is a word you don't hear much any more, though when I was a kid nomographs were quite common in the electrical engineering world (and in other engineering and science specialties as well).  They're closely related to slide rules, which long-time readers will know are a special interest of mine.  Here's an interesting paper on the Lost Art of Nomography (PDF)...

Remembering 9/11...

This morning I find it hard to concentrate on anything other than remembering that awful day 10 years ago.  Wandering around the intertubes, I ran into some related things that struck me for one reason or another.  First, George W. Bush's speech yesterday dedicating the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania:





Don Surber looks forward, saying “We shall fear no evil.”

Neo-neocon declares the 9/11 memorial in New York a “Fitting tribute.”

A pilot who was ready to give her life on 9/11.

And finally, Mark Steyn in his inimitable fashion skewers the multi-culti, touchy-feely, pansy wing's response to 9/11.  As usual with him, I feel the need to laugh and cry at the same time...

Back Up!

We've got our power and Internet connection back up after the great blackout.

I'd rather not do that again.

Would someone please tell APS to stop removing whatever equipment they removed that caused this???

Beautiful Poem...

Via my mom (who's on a roll):

I hope this poem has the same effect on you as it did on me - then my forwarding it will be worth the effort. Walk with me by the water - worth the read...

A BEAUTIFUL POEM ABOUT GROWING OLDER:

Shit...
I forgot the words...

See A Difference?

Here's a nice illustration of one of the many things I miss about George W. Bush ... especially when comparing him to Barack Obama.

Here's Bush's speech after the capture of Sadadam Hussein:

"The success of yesterday's mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq. The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator's footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate them!"

And Obama's speech after the killing of Osama Bin Laden:

"And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the Director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of our war against al Qaeda, even as we continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network. Then, last August, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action, and I authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Today, at my direction, the United States launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan."

Now you could call those differences a matter of style.  Myself, I'd call those differences an illustration of character...

Via my mom...

Another Medal for Obama?

Via my mom:

American Lindsey Vonn has had to forfeit her Gold Medal on Thursday, September 1, 2011.

The International Olympic Committee announced today that it has taken back the gold medal previously awarded to American skier Lindsey Vonn and given it to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Olympic officials said Obama deserved the medal more than Vonn becauseno one has ever gone downhill faster than he has.

Rain!

Well, a little rain, anyway.  Not enough to register in my rain gauge, but enough to wet down the chapparal and to make it smell good outside.  I got wet while walking the dogs this morning!

Göbekli Tepe...

If you're not familiar with Göbekli Tepe, you're going to be surprised: it's one of the most remarkable archaeological discoveries ever made, and probably the oldest artifacts of an advanced civilization so far discovered.  Here's an introductory video on it, and there's much more information at the link above...

Clever Engineering on 3D TV...

Toshiba is showing a new large-format 3D television receiver that doesn't require viewers to wear any special glasses.  The technology involved is quite understandable (though complex) – it actually transmits different images to viewers' left and right eyes to create the stereoscopic visual effects.  To do this, the TV has to know where the viewers are located – and it does this by using a camera to watch all the faces watching it.  Awesome!

Personally I'm more interested in such a display as a computer screen than I am as a television.  I can think of all sorts of uses for 3D displays for computer users...

Opportunity at Endeavour Crater...

The Mars rover Opportunity is already hard at work in the Endeavour Crater, which it only recently reached after years of travel.  It's already finding things never before seen on Mars, like the rock at right:

This is a clue ... that we may be dealing with a hydrothermal system here," Squyres said. "We may be dealing with a situation where water has percolated or flowed or somehow moved through these rocks -- maybe as vapor or maybe as liquid. We don't know yet.

 Go, Opportunity, go!

Backlit Saturn...

I love this Cassini photo.  I'll spare y'all my rant about robotic explorers vs. manned space flight.  Just enjoy this!

Via APOD, of course.  And click to enlarge.

Tweet Compression...

For the compression geeks.  Amusing, more than anything...

Pigs Are Flying!

And Maureen Dowd is talking trash on Obama...

Clever Widget...

The folks at Google have come up with another clever toy.  This one lets  you draw an arbitrary distribution curve (over time), then finds Google queries whose frequency closely matches the curve you draw.  I tried drawing about ten quite arbitrary (and in some cases, challenging!) curves – and every time this tool found a query whose results quite closely matched it.  Impressive...

Only $99!

Via my colleague Aleck L.  This cartoon very nicely illustrates the general mindset of the three major operating systems' users.

In the case of Linux, most laptop/desktop users are hard-core “hackers”, familiar with things like UNIX commands and vi.  They tend to think of Linux as a vehicle for using all kinds of free open source software goodies.

Windows users, on the other hand, are sick and tired of the endless updates required just to keep their systems from being hopelessly compromised by Chinese or North Korean hackers.  The vast majority of these updates bring nothing new with them, so there's no reward (unless you count not being hacked) for the time and effort (and not insubstantial risk) in installing them.

Mac users get relatively few updates, and when they do get them, they generally come with all kinds of new and interesting functionality.  They're generally quite happy to fork over some coin to get the new stuff (Mac upgrade rates are astonishingly high).

The cartoon says all of that in a couple square inches...

The Flake...

Here's a compilation of OBlunders, most of them things I'm sure you've seen before.  The point of this is to demonstrate the remarkable degree to which the lamestream media is carrying water for Obama.  Remember how the lamestreamers jumped all over every last verbal misstep of George W. Bush, Dan Quayle, and Ronald Reagan?  Not much evidence of that here – even though the current President has arguably produced more (and better!) targets for media mocking than any of his predecessors...

Hairy Mushroom?

My sister lives in central Virginia.  Recently she spotted this bizarre-looking hairy mushroom in her yard.  Any idea what the heck it is?

If you have a clue, please leave a comment or send me an email...

Senior Citizen Humor...

Via my mom:

My Last Trip to COSTCO:

Yesterday I was at my local COSTCO buying a large bag of Purina dog chow for my loyal pet, Jake, the Wonder Dog and was in the check-out line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

What did she think I had an elephant? So sinceI'm retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was starting the Purina Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn't, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a Perfect Diet and that the way that it works is, to load your pants pockets with Purina Nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.)

Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care, because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff a poodle's ass and a car hit me.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard.

Costco won't let me shop there anymore.

Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the World to think of crazy things to say.  Send a link to this (especially) to all your
retired friends ... it will be their laugh for the day!!!

Oh, My...

This is what Rush Limbaugh is talking about when he rails about “environmentalist wackos”.




There certainly are many people who are both concerned about the environment and are simultaneously more familiar with the issues and the underlying science. I like to think of myself as one of them. But we're not in the majority...

TileMill...

Here's a new open source map editing program.  I haven't used it myself (yet!), but it sure looks interesting...

Software State Machines...

I've long been a fan of state machines implemented in software.  Most of my colleagues roll their eyes when I display my enthusiasm for them.  I've generally considered this to be symptomatic of my slightly odd background in digital hardware design, where state machines are the norm.  Most software developers know state machines only from school, if at all.  I use them fairly often, even for very small and simple problems.  Generally I roll my own state machine from scratch, though for more complex state machines I've used libraries like this one.

Alan Skorkin has some ideas about why state machines are infrequently used.  And why they're fluffy bunnies...

Poster of the Day...

Randomness via Metastability...

Ordinarily metastability is something digital hardware designers go out of their way to avoid.  Intel has come up with a way to harness metastability for, of all things, generating random numbers.  If you're a digital geek, then you already know that generating high quality (in the cryptographic sense) random numbers is surprisingly difficult.  Intel's system, to my knowledge, hasn't yet been vetted by the cryptographic professionals – but knowing what its basis is, the notion looks pretty solid to me. 

High quality random numbers in every CPU.  Cool...

A Pleasant Fantasy...

Tony Blankley has some lovely ideas about what President Obama could say in his upcoming jobs speech:

He could decide to embrace all the major Republican, Tea Party, free market ideas: marginal business and personal tax rate cuts (leading to a net tax cut); big discretionary spending cuts to be implemented before the 2012 election; genuine long term reductions in Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security costs written into law now; major deregulation -- including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Dodd-Frank financial burdens and nanny-state consumer regulations; unlimited oil- and gas-drilling, and shale-fracking authorization; permanent extension of the Bush tax cuts, repeal of the double tax on American corporations' foreign profits, limits on unemployment insurance extensions; and withdrawal of his big union initiatives, such as the National Labor Relations Board's opposition to Boeing Co. building a factory in South Carolina. 

Of course, none of this is likely to happen.  Dang it.

Read the whole thing...

Catch 22...

Courtesy of your government, of course.  The latest: a trucking company can't refuse to hire a driver with a history of alcohol abuse – but if that driver causes an accident, the company is still liable.

At times like this, it surely seems that the socialists in charge of our country's government are trying to destroy us...

Soviet History, a Little Differently...

Six minutes of pure fun for anyone who enjoys Tetris or is a history buff:

No Powa! New England Rap...

Via Frankie T., a colleague whose sister (Nora W.) lives in Northboro, Massachussets (about 25 miles west of Boston).  Her area was hard hit by hurricane Irene, and her rap song tells the story:

We got no powa
We got no showa

We got no stove or oven too
We got no cable
I'm not stable
What the hell am I gonna do?

It's very dark out
There is no light
I'm gonna shout
I'm gonna fight
gonna blow like dynamite

Dear national grid
This here ain't right
I bet you have lots of powa on tonite

This really sucks,
What the f#&$ck!!!!!!!!

The Microsoft Way...

Much of the software engineering world mercilessly mocks Microsoft for their many violations of all that is good and right.  Here's yet another example of what makes them so eminently mockable...

Morning...

The sky was beautifully clear and moonless.  The dogs did their usual things; the brown dogs smelling everything, the border collie consumed with pine cone play.  Orion was well up over the horizon in the east, and the Milky Way brilliant straight overhead.  Dogs across the valley were howling; probably coyotes or perhaps a mountain lion within their ken.  The temperature was down a bit from the past week; there was a refreshing coolness that we haven't felt for a while.  It was a very pleasant walk.

Last night we brought little Jahar (our new Savannah Cat kitten) home from the breeder.  This is a traumatic transistion for the little fellow – coming from a home with dozens of fellow Savannah Cats (and mom, of course) and going to a strange place where he's all alone (as we have him in isolation for a while).  We brought him into our bedroom in a carrier, which we plopped on the bed.  Door closed to exclude the rest of the menagerie, we opened the carrier door.  Jahar blinked, laid down, and stayed quiet and still – and still in his carrier.  This went on for a couple of hours, but finally he got to the point where he decided that being in the crook of Debbie's arm wasn't so bad.  He ended up spending the night on the bed with us, mostly right between us, always quiet and still.  But around midnight Debbie got up and showed where all the vital things were (water, food, and litter box) and Jahar did a bit of tentative exploring.  There was a pitiful kitten cry every once in a while, but he did all right.  Then back to sleep for all of us...

Good News for Jamul...

Jamul is in a hot zone.  Not for temperatures, but for real estate prices:

A standout was Jamul, where the median price for a single-family resale home shot up 15.2 percent, rising from $375,000 last year to $432,000 this year, based on about the same number of sales during both time periods.

Sounds good to me!

Jet Man...

This guy is just crazy:

Libyan Revolutionary War of 2011...

Austin Bay summarizes the Libyan War of 2011:

Overlearning the Game?

Some interesting thoughts on software patents (and some other things)...

The Terrorists Have Won...

Otherwise known as an airport security fail...

Congress, Explained...

Via my mom:

The English language has some wonderfully anthropomorphic collective nouns for the various groups of animals.

We are all familiar with a Herd of cows, a Flock of chickens, a School of fish and a Gaggle of geese.

However, less widely known is a Pride of lions, a Murder of crows (as well as their cousins the rooks and ravens), an Exaltation of doves and, presumably because they look so wise, a Parliament of owls.

Now consider a group of Baboons. They are the loudest, most dangerous, most obnoxious, most viciously aggressive and least intelligent of all primates. And what is the proper collective noun for a group of baboons? Believe it or not ... a Congress!

I guess that pretty much explains the things that come out of Washington!

Debt Ceiling Logic...

Via reader Jim M.:

If you can answer this correctly, you can answer the question on what action to take on raising the Federal debt ceiling.

You come home from work and find there has been a sewer backup and you have sewage up to your ceilings.  What do you do, raise the ceilings, or pump out the crap?

Badass of the Week...

...and my hero of the moment!

Stupidest C Bug Ever?

Can you spot the bug in this code fragment?

if (code == 200) {     // Downloading whole file

    /* Write new file (plus allow reading once we finish) */

    // FIXME Win32 native version fails here because Microsoft's version of tmpfile() creates the file in C:\

    g = fname ? fopen(fname, "w+") : tmpfile();

}

Explanation here...


AES Vulnerability...

Not bad enough to get worried about – yet – but something to keep an eye on...

Crazy Russians...

Apparently they want to build a tunnel across the Bering Straits, something like 64 miles long.  It would carry trains, electricity, and communications.  I can't figure out if it's serious or just grandstanding on someone's part.  Or maybe a little too much vodka...

Earthquake!

My folks live about 7 miles from the epicenter of yesterday's earthquake in Virginia.  They're fine, and their house is fine.  But they didn't like it very much!

There's a detailed USGS report, location maps, a science article, and realtime maps (where the picture at right came from).  In this morning's news, I read of some damage in Culpepper and in Washington, D.C., but all-in-all it looks pretty minor.

I sense a new-found level of respect from my East Coast colleagues, especially when it dawns on them that the Virginia quake was quite small compared to some we've had out here...

Do You Miss Him Yet?

George Bush had many faults, but this is a great illustration of an aspect of him that I greatly admire.  And I miss it, badly. One cannot doubt his sincerity and his caring.  One cannot imagine either in Obama.  Via my mom...

Those Who Do No Remember the Past...

Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.  So said George Santayana once upon a time, and the man had a good point.

In 1934, when FDR was proposing enormous spending programs as the cure for the Great Depression, the Chicago Tribune ran the editorial cartoon at right (click to enlarge).  The parallels with the Obama administration (who considers FDR a hero) are obvious.

The editorial position of the Chicago Tribune today isn't quite so clear.  Obama is a hometown boy, and they've been quite supportive of him, and defensive of his failures.

I've made the comparison between Obama's initiatives and FDR's on quite a few occasions.  By far the most common reaction I get is complete ignorance of FDR's progressive agenda – cue the Santayana quote.  Those few who actually knew about FDR have had basically evenly split reactions, between those who idolize FDR and believe that his spending programs were the reason for the end of the Great Depression, and those who loathe FDR and believe that his spending programs extended the Great Depression.

So it appears that sometimes one can remember the past and still be doomed to repeat it!

Via my mom...

Cat & Owl...

Certainly not what I expected!

Libya...

Things are looking very grim for Gaddafi right now.  The news stories are short on details and confirmation, but it sure looks like Gaddafi's fall (and possibly his demise) is imminent.

But then what?  I've read everything I can find on the rebels, and I've found precious little that gives me confidence that post-Gaddafi Libya will be stable, peaceful, or free of radical Islamists.  It is completely within the realm of possibility that Libya could end up even worse than it was under Gaddafi.  That's still possible in Egypt, too – and in fact, recent events seem to indicate we're headed that way.

I'm hoping for the best, but wondering what our “smart power” administration will do if the worst happens.  At least 2012 isn't all that far away...

Your Visual System...

The human visual system is far more amazing that most people realize.  We can't even come close with modern digital cameras and video processing.  For example: how many megapixels do our eyes have?  The question isn't entirely answerable, but at a rough approximation: 576 megapixels.  My new camera has 12 megapixels.

Much, much more here, by Dr. Roger Clark...

Douglas Crockford JavaScript Talks...

They're all online...

It's Going to be a Long Election Season...

... for the Democrats:




Via reader Simi L.

If PHP Were British...

Quite funny, in a geeky sort of way...and most especially if you know PHP...

5,000 Posts...

The previous post was my 5,000th on this blog, over the course of almost six years of continuous blogging.  Hard to believe I've been doing it for that long, and even harder to believe I actually wrote 5,000 posts!

Can You Imagine?

Can you imagine how much skill and practice went into acquiring this ability?


For this young man's sake, I just hope he can somehow use this in whatever career he's aiming for – if not directly, then at least as practice becoming expert...

Iowa Passion...

A new Sarah Palin video release, excellent as always.




If she's not planning to run for President, then why is she making these videos?

Soft as Pudding...

From a film review by Kyle Smith of the New York Post:

Young adults born in the 1980s and early 1990s leaped out of nicotine- and alcohol-free wombs to be deemed geniuses every time they passed a test, awarded trophies every time they caught a ball and tucked into comfy car seats on the victory ride over to their favorite sushi palace.

They took groovy public-service internships at an age when their grandfathers were sweating on assembly lines or being shot at by Nazis, lived with their parents until they were 28, then proceeded directly to their shrinks for marathon weeping sessions every time they messed up a project at work. They're as soft as pudding, and they know it. The Greatest Generation didn't need triathlons or X-treme skateboarding; every Friday night was a thrill ride after manual labor and eight Schlitzes.

Matches my experience in the city, but not so much out in the country, or on the farms that remain. Just read recently that the Marines and Army have a far higher proportion of farmers than one finds in the general population, reinforcing this notion...

Mimicking Nature Win!

A 13 year old kid discovered something interesting about solar cells, by observing trees.  Both are ways to collect the sun's power.  He observed that the collectors on trees (the leaves) are distributed in many small pieces, and not all are pointed the same way.  Solar cell arrays, generally speaking, are single rectangular arrays pointed in one direction.  By splitting up the solar cells and aiming them in many different directions, he discovered that the average power output was higher than a single array pointed in one direction.  Cool!

He did leave out a few important details, though.  For starters, many conventional solar arrays are mounted on systems that keep them pointed toward the sun.  That technique produces more power than splitting the array up into pieces.  But I think the biggest piece he left out is that many trees (especially temperate and arctic trees) have mechanisms to aim their leaves toward the sun.  This mechanism isn't perfect, but it does greatly improve the efficiency of the collectors.

His idea is still cool, though...

I suspect the results would have been much different had they been seeking the support of those with low GPAs – which is, basically, what our politicians are doing with respect to taxes...

The Final Step...

A parable for our times, via reader Jim M.:

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and then - just to loosen up and be a part of the crowd.

Inevitably, though, one thought led to another and soon I was more than just a social thinker.

I began to think alone -- "to relax," I told myself -- but I knew it wasn't true. Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was thinking all the time.

That was when things began to sour at home. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.

I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking and employment don't mix, but I couldn't help myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau, Muir, Confucius, Camus and Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it exactly that we are doing here?"

One day the boss called me in. He said, "Listen, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the job, you'll have to find another job."

This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my conversation with the boss. "Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."

"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!" "But Honey, surely it's not that serious." "It is serious," she said, her lower lip aquiver.

"You think as much as college professors and college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking, we won't have any money!"

"That's a fallacious syllogism," I said impatiently.

She exploded in tears of rage and frustration, but I was in no mood to deal with the emotional drama.

"I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out the door.

I headed for the library, in the mood for some John Locke. I roared into the parking lot with NPR on the radio and ran up to the big glass doors.

They didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me that night.

Leaning on the unfeeling glass and whimpering for Emerson, a poster caught my eye, "Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?" it asked.

You probably recognize that line. It comes from the standard Thinkers Anonymous poster.

This is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.

I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a non-educational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting.

I still have my job, and things are a lot better at home. Life just seemed easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking. I think the road to recovery is nearly complete for me.

Today I took the final step... I joined the Democratic Party.

Winning the Future...

Obama's re-election campaign has adopted the slogan Winning the Future.

The acronym for that is WTF.

Excellent.

Donating to a Political Campaign = Treason?

Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert):

I would go so far as to say that donating to a politician or political party in this environment is as close as an ordinary citizen can come to treason. Political contributions broke the government, and a government that stays broken will doom the country. Political donations made perfect sense when the system was working. That time has passed. It's time to try something different. We can start with Howard Schultz idea to stop donating to politicians.

Read the whole thing...

Anniversary Gift...

The little fellow at right – not yet named – is a Savannah Cat.  Debbie picked him out of a litter yesterday afternoon.  He's not quite old enough yet to come home with us, but in about ten days he will be.

Savannahs are a cross between a serval and a domestic cat (i.e., an ordinary house cat), and has some characteristics of both.  This little guy is an F4B, and will grow up to weigh up to 20 pounds.

Debbie seems quite excited about her anniversary gift!