Words of (Technical) Wisdom...

Spoken by Travis Corcoran (CEO and Founder of SmartFlix), on software development (by inference, specifically of large systems that will be maintained and extended by programmers other than the original authors):

You should build the majority of your machine from Erector Set parts, but it’s OK to make the core of it from the heart of an orphan child.

In other words, it's ok to have key components be internally complex and abstruse, either because the algorithm is inherently complex or because it is highly tuned for performance. Sounds about right to me...but go read his entire (very short) post to see the rest of the story!

A New Kind of War?

From an email forwarded by my mom:

New Direction for any war: Send Service Vets over 60!

I am over 60 and the Armed Forces thinks I'm too old to track down terrorists. You can't be older than 42 to join the military. They've got the whole thing ass-backwards. Instead of sending 18-year olds off to fight, they ought to take us old guys. You shouldn't be able to join a military unit until you're at least 35.

For starters:

Researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every 10 seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple of times a day, leaving us more than 28,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate on the enemy.

Young guys haven't lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky soldier is a dangerous soldier. "My back hurts! I can't sleep, I'm tired and hungry" We are impatient and maybe letting us kill some asshole that desperately deserves it will make us feel better and shut us up for a while.

An 18-year-old doesn't even like to get up before 10 a.m. Old guys always get up early to pee so what the hell. Besides, like I said, "I'm tired and can't sleep and since I'm already up, I may as well be up killing some fanatical son-of-a-bitch.

If captured we couldn't spill the beans because we'd forget where we put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real brainteaser.

Boot camp would be easier for old guys. We're used to getting screamed and yelled at and we're used to soft food. We've also developed an appreciation for guns. We've been using them for years as an excuse to get out of the house, away from the screaming and yelling.

They could lighten up on the obstacle course however. I've been in combat and didn't see a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the side, nor did I ever do any pushups after completing basic training.

Actually, the running part is kind of a waste of energy, too. I've never seen anyone out run a bullet.

An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He's still learning to shave, to start up a conversation with a pretty girl. He still hasn't figured out that a baseball cap has a brim to shade his eyes, not the back of his head.

These are all great reasons to keep our kids at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off into harm's way.

Let us old guys track down those dirty rotten coward terrorists. The last thing an enemy would want to see is a couple of million pissed off old farts with attitudes and automatic weapons who know that their best years are already behind them.

If nothing else, put us on border patrol....we will have it secured the first night!

Though I'm sure this was intended purely as humor, there's a germ of truth in this, as well. The notion was explored in a science fiction novel I read recently (Old Man's War by John Scalzi). The sheer physicality of combat ensures that it's a young man's profession – but the technology of modern warfare is making some dents in that requirement. I suspect that wars of the future will be less and less fought by the young, an military organizations will increasingly need brains over brawn...

Hummingbirds!

All of our normal hummingbird species are back, though not in full numbers yet. Right at the moment, they're eating 3 to 4 quarts of “hummer juice” a day, up from a pint or less in mid-winter. In the peak of the hot summer, we'll probably get up to 7 to 10 quarts a day.

The little lady at right, looking at me as I snapped her picture, is (I think) a female Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna). She's got her make-up on: a dusting of golden pollen clearly visible just behind er bill, between her eyes. The males of all the hummingbird species are much more showy, but the females are beautiful, too, in their own way...

Trying to capture these absurdly zippy little creatures on film is a real challenge. These photos are about 10% of the photos I took. Back in the bad old days of silver-halide film, this would have been an expensive morning! The series of male black-chinned hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri) below is a good example. These sorry excuses for photos are the very best of about 40 that I took over a period of about 30 minutes. During that entire period, there was no moment when there were less than a dozen or so of these gorgeous birds buzzing around me to get to the feeders – so there was no lack of opportunity. But these little guys move so fast, and so rarely hover for more than a second, and flash their purple band so infrequently, that to get it all right (in flight, in focus, and showing purple) approaches impossibility. I've never done it yet, in several years of attempts...

The fellow at right is a male Anna's hummingbird, not fully in mating plumage yet (this develops over the period of a few weeks each spring). The males don't all develop their mating plumage at exactly the same time; some individuals in our area look like they're already finished, and some others have barely started.

I couldn't identify the female at left, below, but I enjoyed the way she was watching my reflection in the feeders.

What do we feed our hummers? That's easy: a mixture of 4 parts water to 1 part ordinary cane sugar (by volume, in both cases). We put orange food coloring in because it helps attract orioles to the feeders (they are noticably partial to the color orange). Sometime last year it dawned on us that the food coloring was actually the most expensive part of making hummer juice – so I went a-googlin’, and found several online sources for bulk food coloring. We bought a gallon, along with a nice dispenser that makes it simple to measure (2 squirts per quart!) as well. This has worked out great.

In addition, once the volume the hummers are eating picks up a bit we will start making hummer juice in 5 gallon batches. Last year this greatly reduced the labor for us to keep the feeders full; we only needed to make a batch about once every three days. The large batch also cuts down on another problem: when we made the hummer juice a feeder or two at a time, there would inevitably be small differences in the sugar content at each feeder – and the hummers would show a clear preference for one (I'm guessing the one with the highest sugar content). They'd abandon all the other feeders until their preferred feeder ran dry, and they they'd go to the next best one. Now with all the feeders filled from the same batch, they spread out more evenly amongst the feeders (we have as many as nine up at a time).

The little lady at right is one I can't identify Her chin is strikingly white, and she's got a distinctive dark patch in front of her eye – both of which features don't match any of the hummingbirds in Sibley's. Sigh...

These photos were all taken with a Canon 10D, using a Canon 100mm macro lens. Most of these were taken at a range of between 2 feet and 4 feet. The hummingbirds at our feeders are quite used to Debbie and I; we can stand directly next to a feeder and have our eyeballs just a few inches from the hummingbirds feeding or buzzing around. Sometimes they even land on us! But the camera – especially the mirror noise as I take a picture – seems to spook them, and they often scoot right out of my photo before the shutter opens...

The batch below are all male Anna's hummingbirds – the showiest of them all right at the moment:

The fellow at right is a male black-chinned hummingbird, in profile with no flash of purple (though it's certainly there, if the light is right). The black-chinned males are the smallest of our male hummingbirds, but they are notably aggressive – routinely chasing larger hummingbirds away from the feeders, sometimes whole groups of them at once.

The black-chinned males also have particularly showy and aggressive display (to court females): they zoom up 50 feet or more high, then fly at full speed nearly straight down. Just before they hit the ground, they do an incredibly tight U-turn – I think in less than a 5 foot radius – and zoom almost straight back up. They make a distinctive sound as they make that U-turn, so it's easy to know when one of them is displaying, so you can watch (they repeat the display many times). Usually the bottom of their course ends up just in front of some manzanitas, in which a gaggle of females will be watching, swivel-headed. It's almost as much fun to spot them as it is to watch the male displaying!

Finally, a couple of females at the feeders...

Phobos!

NASA's Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter (MRO) has an instrument on board called the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). It's main objective is to produce high resolution images of the Martian surface, but recently the MRO team aimed it at one of Mars two little moons: Phobos. The false color image at right is one of the results; for more see the HiRISE web site.

I remember as a wee lad reading science fiction books that speculated about the nature of the two tiny, strange moons of Mars. The actual nature of the moons was unknown – the instruments of science couldn't see that far in those days. Some authors speculated that they were actually spaceships from some alien civilization; others speculated that they were the current home of Martians who escaped from whatever disaster had befallen their now-dry planet. All of these notions were then at least nominally plausible, as science could not naysay them. Today we have a closeup portrait of the moons, and I'm sure we'll get even better ones in the future...

NASA also released an anaglyph (a stereo “3D” view) that's worth checking out if you own a pair of red/blue viewing spectacles. The anaglyph was made by combining two photos take a few seconds apart, during which time the MRO spacecraft moved enough to provide a slightly different perspective. I had a little trouble fusing the right side of the anaglyph, where the stereo separation was most dramatic – but it was worth some patience with my eyeballs, as the depth effects are stunning...

Pulling Jupiter Out of Orbit...

From James Lileks (who is visiting San Diego) in his Bleat of April 8th, talking about the San Diego newspaper (surely the Union-Tribune):

... I ordered something chickeny and opened the papers.

The papers suck. Pardon the language, but for heaven’s sake, the papers sucked. The papers sucked hard enough to pull Jupiter out of orbit. I had gotten used to the underwhelmingly ordinary Arizona paper, but the LA Times and the San Diego paper were a new level of sucktitudinousness. The SD paper was like a slab of Sominex pounded into thin folded sheets, and I don’t know if it was the lead story – “Sweeping Regulatory Powers Sought,” or something equally deadly – or the cookie-cutter design, but man, that thing was dull; when I finished I felt like I’d put 50 cents into a soda machine, got nothing, and realized I didn’t really want any soda anyway. On to the LA Times, which surprised me – I have almost no experience with the paper, except its reputation, which surely was exaggerated. Well. I blew through it quickly, and when I was finished the only impression it left was astonishment that a market that large had such a weightless, arid, aimless paper. It has the typeface of a better paper, but that’s about it. I finished both before I was halfway through my Ironed Chicken Sandwich – really, it was so thin, that’s probably how they cooked it – and I spent the rest of my time reading the internet on my iPhone.

I wandered down the street to a coffee shop, had some ice cream, and finished my news reading on the iPhone.

If I’d never had one of those “you know, newspaper might be in trouble” moments, that would have been it. Actually, that morning I’d spent a solid half hour at the airport with the Wall Street Journal, which was and is a great paper. Why? Four things: Diversity of subject matter, a focus on subjects not easily given to ideological slants, quantity of stories, and lively writing.

“The papers sucked hard enough to pull Jupiter out of orbit.” Mr. Lileks, there's a reason why your readers love you...

Celebrating in Estonia...

Juri Estam has an interesting article published on Publius Pundit. It's about Estonia and Estonians, and my long-time readers will know that I have a special interest in that land. This description of the end of Estonia's first independent existence is apt:

When I think of Estonia and her forcible incorporation into the USSR by the Soviet Union, I am often reminded of Kitty Genovese, the New York City woman who, in 1964, was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of Queens. The Genovese case became know for the psychological phenomenon called the "bystander effect", in which violence is perpetrated on someone within hearing of neighbors, but the cries are not noticed.

But this is not a bitter article, not at all. It's a brief look back at the journey of independent Estonia, the entire history of which fits into a single person's lifetime – some elderly Estonians today can still remember the Estonia's first declaration of independence. The article's conclusion sounds very, well, American:

Soon, ceremonies will take place in the city of Parnu on the Baltic Sea in Estonia at the place where the Endla Theater -- the birthplace of Estonian independence -- was blown up by a hostile power in 1961. 90 years ago on February 23, Estonians proclaimed to the world in Parnu their desire to be free. Although actual memories of the Endla Theater now live on only in the elderly, Estonians of all ages give thanks that the only soldiers they will see in Parnu on Independence Day, other than the ones accompanying invited dignitaries, are their own. The message to everyone in the world who enjoys freedom is that one really does need to remember to give thanks in a conscious manner for liberty - something that can all too easily be replaced by a life in the absence of freedom.

Take it from the Estonians, we know what we're talking about.

And how very un-European! The majority of the ethnic Estonians I know would largely agree with Juri's sentiments in this article. The Estonian citizens I know who are ethnic Russians are decidedly more mixed in their views, leaning much more strongly towards either pro-Russian or pro-Eurosocialist views.

Estonia ranks as one of world's most free economies. I'm a bit worried about the long haul for them, because of the drag associated with being a member of the European Union (there are benefits as well, of course). Juri Estam, a prolific writer with many articles on the web, seems to share my concerns on that point. But the existence of so many Estonians of like mind with Juri Estam is cause for great hope...

Cure for Intense Desire...

Feeling randy? On the shelves of your local grocery store you will find a product originally invented as a “cure” for intense sexual desire. The inventor was a minister who was convinced that horniness and masturbation (known then as “venereal excess”, “aching sensibility”, or “carnal exercise”) were the source of many of mankind's (and womankind's) problems. Somehow he got from that notion to the need for a special diet to suppress these feelings and, er, activities.

Ponder that the next time you munch on a graham cracker.

Yup, a graham cracker – invented in 1829 by the Presbyterian minister (and nut case) Sylvester Graham. For the above-mentioned purpose.

Read more about Reverend Graham from Cecil and Barbara.

Botany Photo of the Day...

This is not my photo – it was taken by Jackie Chambers, and it's just one more example of the beautiful photos published every day on the Botany Photo of the Day web site. You can sign up there for emails (once a day) that give you a convenient link to the latest...

Even More Desert Flowers...

These are the last of the photos from my visit to the desert two weeks ago. This batch are the ones that I haven't yet identified. The teensy yellow ones at right carpeted areas just south of S-2 and 78 (near Scissors Junction), in some places covering more than an acre.

Friends visited the desert this past weekend, and they tell me that nearly everything is past prime already – only the ocotillo and cactus are still looking good. My next weekend is (sadly) devoted to doing my 2007 tax returns, so it's unlikely that I'll get out there.

Closer to home, the ceanothus are gorgeous right now, and we have a few other flowers out as well. Most are still in the future, though. Our streams are still running, and our front yard is dominated by (gasp!) grass instead of fillary and other weeds. That won't last long, but we're sure enjoying it while we can. It's novel for us desert-dwellers to look out our window and see lush greenery!

I'm Baaaaack!

And to kick things off, here are a few more flower photos from two weekends ago...

I've been putting in some long hours at work, doing something very different and exciting with a small team of developers. Yesterday we hit our first milestone, very successfully. Software products are never actually “finished” – there are always bugs to fix and more features to put in. But there are usually a few identifiable moments in a software product's life, such as the first time you look at the product and think “Dang! We've really got something here!” That's the milestone we hit yesterday...

That's a lupine above and right; and some assortments below...

Light Blogging...

No worries, folks – just some obligations at work that are eating my time up. I ended up working straight through the weekend, and didn't get out to the desert as originally planned. I'll be back in a jiffy!

Oops...

From the “I can't decide whether to laugh or cry” pile:

Some 3,000 scientific robots that are plying the ocean have sent home a puzzling message. These diving instruments suggest that the oceans have not warmed up at all over the past four or five years. That could mean global warming has taken a breather. Or it could mean scientists aren't quite understanding what their robots are telling them.

This is puzzling in part because here on the surface of the Earth, the years since 2003 have been some of the hottest on record. But Josh Willis at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the oceans are what really matter when it comes to global warming.

In fact, 80 percent to 90 percent of global warming involves heating up ocean waters. They hold much more heat than the atmosphere can. So Willis has been studying the ocean with a fleet of robotic instruments called the Argo system. The buoys can dive 3,000 feet down and measure ocean temperature. Since the system was fully deployed in 2003, it has recorded no warming of the global oceans.

So...here we have an elaborate attempt to actually measure global warming; an experiment lauded because it would be immune to all the distortions of atmospheric temperature measurement that global warming skeptics have been complaining about. And the measurement shows (drum roll please) no warming trend.

What's a Goreacle Groupie™ to do? Why, blame it on a slight “breather” in global warming, or question the data, of course!

Based on past experience (i.e., ignoring satellite temperature measurement data, as it doesn't show any global warming trend), I predict this data will quietly disappear. The scientists who gathered it will all get large grants to produce more computer models instead of gathering that pesky real data...

Desert Dandelion...

Here's a few photos of desert dandelion (Malacothrix californica), all on the Carrizo Badlands Overlook...

Parish's Poppy...

Parish's Poppy (Eschscholzia parishii) from the little no-name valley just south of Box Canyon, east side of S-2.

Cholla...

This is one of the several cholla species that grow in the Anza Borrego Desert, but I'm not certain which one it is. I liked the look of the new growth on it...

RIP, Arthur C. Clarke...

Arthur C. Clarke died yesterday at the age of 90, in his home in Columbo, Sri Lanka. He was the last of the surviving “Big Three” of science fiction (Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein) who had such an impact on the people who grew up in the '50s and '60s, as I did. He was a prolific author of both short stories and novels, but nothing he did was as well known as the movie 2001 Space Odyssey that he made with Stanley Kubrick.

In the early 1970s, I was in the Indian Ocean with the U.S. Navy, and I had occasion to visit Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon). Clarke was one of my boyhood heroes, so I looked him up – and got an invitation to dinner with him. Those of you who know me have probably already heard the story – the experience wasn't a particularly pleasant one. I won't repeat the story now, out of respect. But that bad experience aside, Clarke's body of work is something that has given me great enjoyment and even inspiration. I'm sad to know that there will be no more.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite Arthur C. Clarke quotes:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Cacti...

It's your morning dose of desert wildflowers, this time of three species all found in the little no-name canyon just south of Box Canyon on the east side of S-2. These photos were all taken last Saturday.

At right are the flower buds on a prickly pear, just about to burst into bloom. Hopefully it will still be in bloom when I return next week...

Very few of the larger barrels were in bloom – perhaps four individuals out of hundreds. The best of them is definitely yet to come...