You know the honeymoon is over when the comedians start in on you...
The liberals are asking us to give Obama time. We agree...and think 25 to life would be appropriate.
-- Jay Leno
America needs Obamacare like Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.
-- Jay Leno
Have you heard about McDonald's' new Obama Value Meal? Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.
-- Conan O'Brien
What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon? A fund raiser.
-- Jay Leno
What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary? One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers, and threats to society. The other is for housing prisoners.
-- David Letterman
If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved? America!
-- Jimmy Fallon
What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo? Bo has papers.
-- Jimmy Kimmel
What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program? It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.
-- David Letterman
Monday, April 11, 2011
Is the Honeymoon Finally Over?
Via my mom:
Modern Microprocessors...
An excellent and accessible quick course on modern microprocessor architecture...
Sunday, April 10, 2011
ClimateGate: Some News...
Another in a long string of tour de force by Steve McIntyre. If you weren't already disgusted with government-teat science, you will be by the time you finish.
And from the always-entertaining James Delingpole, news that he and his team have won an important legal victory against an attempt by the University of East Anglia (UEA) to quash his (to them) uncomfortable observations. As he puts it: “They lost. We won.” His headline reveals his mindset: “UEA: the sweet smell of napalm in the morning.“
And from the always-entertaining James Delingpole, news that he and his team have won an important legal victory against an attempt by the University of East Anglia (UEA) to quash his (to them) uncomfortable observations. As he puts it: “They lost. We won.” His headline reveals his mindset: “UEA: the sweet smell of napalm in the morning.“
Morning Walk and Other Things...
We slept in a little bit this morning, until just before sunrise. Mo'i, Lea and I went out for our usual walk into a beautiful, clear, cold morning. We had frost on everything insulated from the ground, so the air temperature must have gotten to below freezing. Not a cloud in the sky. The birds were in great evidence, the birds of spring, singing their little hearts out as if celebrating the impending sunrise. Tendrils of mist swirled around our little valley. Just beautiful...
The dogs didn't notice, of course. They were too busy checking out who visited our yard last night. Judging from their activity, we had a lot of visitors.
Having just Mo'i and Lea makes for a downright sedate morning walk. Debbie's got Miki and Race at an agility competition in Arizona, and those two are the ones who make morning walks challenging – they're just so full of energy and curiousity. Mo'i and Lea are much calmer.
It's a strange sort of morning for mid-April here. Colder and wetter than we've seen for a while. Last year on this same date, we had not had rain for 2 months, and the temperature was in the low 90s. We had rain yesterday, and a frost last night; forecast for today is the high 60s. Al Gore must be in town...
Debbie reports from the agility meet that things are going well for her and the dogs. Race took a first place yesterday on a standard course, beating the course time by some absurd amount. The little guy is basically a rocket ship on paws! Miki ran yesterday in Excellent A category for the first time. He had a fault on both runs, and in that category a single fault disqualifies you. But Debbie was still very happy with the runs – he was focused and fast, and the mistakes were arguably hers rather than his. You could hear her smile and excitement over the phone.
Last night my neighbor and friend Jim B. rang me up and offered to deliver some birthday party food for me. I was invited to the party, but they know and forgive my introversion – I don't enjoy myself with large gatherings (they had over 20 people), especially when they are people I don't know well. So Jim delivered a feast: a freshly grilled burger, some deviled eggs, a crab & macaroni salad, and a fruit salad. Delicious, and it provided my breakfast this morning as well.
Now it's back to work for me!
The dogs didn't notice, of course. They were too busy checking out who visited our yard last night. Judging from their activity, we had a lot of visitors.
Having just Mo'i and Lea makes for a downright sedate morning walk. Debbie's got Miki and Race at an agility competition in Arizona, and those two are the ones who make morning walks challenging – they're just so full of energy and curiousity. Mo'i and Lea are much calmer.
It's a strange sort of morning for mid-April here. Colder and wetter than we've seen for a while. Last year on this same date, we had not had rain for 2 months, and the temperature was in the low 90s. We had rain yesterday, and a frost last night; forecast for today is the high 60s. Al Gore must be in town...
Debbie reports from the agility meet that things are going well for her and the dogs. Race took a first place yesterday on a standard course, beating the course time by some absurd amount. The little guy is basically a rocket ship on paws! Miki ran yesterday in Excellent A category for the first time. He had a fault on both runs, and in that category a single fault disqualifies you. But Debbie was still very happy with the runs – he was focused and fast, and the mistakes were arguably hers rather than his. You could hear her smile and excitement over the phone.
Last night my neighbor and friend Jim B. rang me up and offered to deliver some birthday party food for me. I was invited to the party, but they know and forgive my introversion – I don't enjoy myself with large gatherings (they had over 20 people), especially when they are people I don't know well. So Jim delivered a feast: a freshly grilled burger, some deviled eggs, a crab & macaroni salad, and a fruit salad. Delicious, and it provided my breakfast this morning as well.
Now it's back to work for me!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
The Ultimate Sandwich?
I just finished what may be the single best sandwich I've ever had in my life. I haven't the faintest idea how I could improve upon it. Here's how I made it:
Never thought I'd say this, but I'm going back to work on the taxes with a smile upon my face. Nothing to do with the taxes, of course...
- Bread: Two slices of Dudley's rosemary-olive oil bread, toasted until it just began to brown. If you're from the San Diego area and you don't know Dudley's bakery, then you're unnecessarily missing out on a simple pleasure. If you do know about Dudley's, well, then, you know what I'm talking about!
- Mayonnaise: A freshly opened jar of real mayonnaise (not that “salad dressing” garbage) – not homemade, true, but still very good.
- Avocado: A Californa Haas avocado, perfectly ripe, blemish free, sliced.
- Tomato: An Imperial Valley tomato, ripened in our window until it smelled wonderful, sliced thickly.
- Lettuce: A few leaves of crisp, dark green iceberg lettuce – for the crunch and the burst of moisture as you chew.
- Salami: A half-dozen slices of top-notch genoa salami. There's a huge variation in quality of Italian cold cuts at our local stores. Albertson's carries several that are particularly good, and this was one of them.
Never thought I'd say this, but I'm going back to work on the taxes with a smile upon my face. Nothing to do with the taxes, of course...
One Happy Dog...
As I made my lunch a few minutes ago (more on that in the next post), the two dogs who are home with me (Mo'i and Lea) were watching my every move. They acted as if they hadn't been fed in months, but since I had personally fed them just last night, I knew this wasn't true. But Lea got to me anyway, because while she's still in great health, she's old enough now that her main joys in life are (a) sleeping, and (b) eating.
So she gets extra “treats” from me frequently. I've tried to be creative in what I get her, to give her a little extra enjoyment. I may have hit an all-time high today. I took a couple of pieces of genoa salami (which she was acting very interested in) and blended them with a few ounces of milk (a well-known favorite). Then I warmed that slightly in the microwave, and broke up a piece of potato bread crust into it. I let the bread soak, then gave her the bowl.
When you know a dog as well as we know Lea, it's easy to tell when she's happy. Lea was happy as she ate that bowl of doggie joy. Her tail was wagging, and she came over to see me every few laps – just to say “thanks” so far as I could tell. When she was all done, I was treated to five minutes or so of a very affectionate old dog acting like she was a puppy again.
Glorious. And an absolutely wonderful antidote for the chore I'm working on today.
Thanks, old girl...
So she gets extra “treats” from me frequently. I've tried to be creative in what I get her, to give her a little extra enjoyment. I may have hit an all-time high today. I took a couple of pieces of genoa salami (which she was acting very interested in) and blended them with a few ounces of milk (a well-known favorite). Then I warmed that slightly in the microwave, and broke up a piece of potato bread crust into it. I let the bread soak, then gave her the bowl.
When you know a dog as well as we know Lea, it's easy to tell when she's happy. Lea was happy as she ate that bowl of doggie joy. Her tail was wagging, and she came over to see me every few laps – just to say “thanks” so far as I could tell. When she was all done, I was treated to five minutes or so of a very affectionate old dog acting like she was a puppy again.
Glorious. And an absolutely wonderful antidote for the chore I'm working on today.
Thanks, old girl...
Satellite Temperature Data...
Here's something interesting: satellite temperature data, publicly available. The graph below has ticks for each year. The AGW folks sure are reading a lot into these data! Of course, they're not using the satellite data – they're using surface measurements instead. I will note that surface temperature data from hundreds of organizations and thousands of instruments is much easier to manipulate than the satellite data...
Good Career Advice...
Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) isn't just a cartoonist, he's a first-class observer of modern humanity. In this article at the Wall Street Journal, he's got some of the best advice I've ever seen for young people preparing for a career. Much of his advice is applicable during a career as well, so there's something for everyone in the article. Some elements of his advice one can see in my own career. For example, I'd say that learning to write reasonably well, and learning how to be unafraid of public speaking, have both done more for my career than any particular piece of techncial learning.
But the strongest resonance for me was his advice that most people should emphasize acquiring multiple skills rather than trying to be world-class in any particular skill. Oh, yes – for me this advice has the strong ring of truth. Over the years, I've acquired a strange collection of knowledge and skills – designing concrete mixes, writing software, corporate accounting, back-end stock trading processing, designing electronic hardware, some civil engineering, slide rules, optics (especially as it applies to photography), cryptography, and a bunch more. I'm no world-class expert in any of these areas, but the fact that I have a smattering of them all has been incredibly useful in my career. It also has done something else that Scott doesn't mention: by practice and example, it gives me great confidence that I can learn how to do just about anything – and even that is very useful in a career.
So go read it, and pass it along to anyone you know who might be able to use some good career advice.
But the strongest resonance for me was his advice that most people should emphasize acquiring multiple skills rather than trying to be world-class in any particular skill. Oh, yes – for me this advice has the strong ring of truth. Over the years, I've acquired a strange collection of knowledge and skills – designing concrete mixes, writing software, corporate accounting, back-end stock trading processing, designing electronic hardware, some civil engineering, slide rules, optics (especially as it applies to photography), cryptography, and a bunch more. I'm no world-class expert in any of these areas, but the fact that I have a smattering of them all has been incredibly useful in my career. It also has done something else that Scott doesn't mention: by practice and example, it gives me great confidence that I can learn how to do just about anything – and even that is very useful in a career.
So go read it, and pass it along to anyone you know who might be able to use some good career advice.
Quote of the Day...
And as a special added bonus, it's in a Kirk cartoon:
Discovering the government's been shut down is like finding out your Yugo has been stolen … you feel bad, but it's no big loss.Exactly, Kirk. Exactly!
It Could Have Been Worse...
This is why I can't get too excited by last night's budget deal. It's crumbs, folks, and not very tasty crumbs at that. I'm pleasantly surprised by Boehner's ability to negotiate, and completely unsurprised that the Democratic leadership couldn't get it's intellectually bankrupt people together. All I'm saying, though, is that this could have been much worse. That's not at all the same thing as saying it was good...
If You Hear Yelling and Cussing...
...from the general direction of Southern California today, that's probably me. I'm doing my taxes today, toting up all the money that the federal government is going to steal from me. As I watch the dollars add up, I'll be thinking about how the likes of Reid, Pelosi, Obama, Schumer, etc. will find wasteful ways to spend it.
If I have a good day, a liter or two of vodka should get my blood pressure under control this evening...
If I have a good day, a liter or two of vodka should get my blood pressure under control this evening...
Friday, April 8, 2011
RIP, Kermit...
Geeks of a certain age will remember Kermit – a Columbia University project that became one of the first standard ways to communicate between computers. Every bulletin board system in the '80s and early '90s supported Kermit. If your modem software supported Kermit (as virtually all such software did), you'd be able to communicate (and transfer files) with any bulletin board.
Back in the pre-Internet days, I implemented Kermit several times – in Z80 assembly language, 8086 assembly language, and the last time in Turbo Pascal. Just thinking about Kermit brings back all sorts of memories of the days when personal computers were just getting started.
Columbia University announced yesterday that the Kermit project is finally being terminated, after more than 30 years. RIP, Kermit...
Back in the pre-Internet days, I implemented Kermit several times – in Z80 assembly language, 8086 assembly language, and the last time in Turbo Pascal. Just thinking about Kermit brings back all sorts of memories of the days when personal computers were just getting started.
Columbia University announced yesterday that the Kermit project is finally being terminated, after more than 30 years. RIP, Kermit...
Yon Gigapan...
A “gigapan” is a panoramic photo made by stitching together lots of smaller photos – sometimes hundreds or even thousands of them. Michael Yon is over in Afghanistan right now, and he's tried his hand at a gigapan. Take a look at the result – and see one place in Afghanistan in incredible detail...
Thursday, April 7, 2011
The Cheap Hard Disk...
The hard disk is a fake. It's just a 128MB flash disk mounted inside a false hard disk case (click to enlarge photo at right). That's just 1/40th the size you thought you bought.
This is really happening...
This is Really, Really Stupid...
France has made it illegal for web sites to securely store passwords. Instead, web site operaters must store passwords “in the clear” – meaning in a form that authorities can use to access customer data.
The bureaucratic mind at its finest.
Rope
Tree
Bureaucrat
Some assembly required...
The bureaucratic mind at its finest.
Rope
Tree
Bureaucrat
Some assembly required...
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