How to Safely Store a Password...

Hint: bcrypt is involved...

Home-Brew 8 Bit CPU...

This is cool, but those of us of a certain age have been there, done that, before.  For that young feller, building a computer from scratch with a microprocesser is an exotic affair.  For me (and many others) in the late '70s and early '80s, it was the norm.  I've designed and built dozens of these – and that's not bragging, that's just the way you did things back then. 

There's a further step I'd love to take.  It's been on my “to do” list ever since Don Tarbell showed me his home-brew 8 bit computer back in the late '70s.  He didn't start with a microprocessor chip – he started with a blank sheet of paper and a TTL parts catalog.  He designed the instruction set, the CPU architecture, and every logic gate in the entire thing.  The result was something that would (barely) fit on a table-top, and operated at a speed that would be most unimpressive today – but it was all his design, from the instruction set on up.

I want to do that.  And someday, I will.

Lame Duck Shenanigans...

This reminds me of the stories about the Clinton team trashing the White House as they left office.  The lead from this story in today's WSJ:

The 111th Congress began with an $814 billion stimulus that blew out the federal balance sheet, so we suppose it's only fitting that the Members want to exit by passing a 1,924-page, $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill. The worst Congress in modern history is true to its essence to the bitter end.

Think of this as a political version of the final scene in "Animal House," when the boys from the Delta frat react to their expulsion by busting up the local town parade for the sheer mayhem of it. Bluto Blutarsky (John Belushi) did go on to be a U.S. Senator in the film, and a man of his vision must have earned a seat on Appropriations.

Democrats have had 11 months to write a budget for fiscal 2011, which began on October 1. But Majority Leader Harry Reid and Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye have dumped this trillion-dollar baby on Senators at the very last minute, when everyone is busy and wants to go home for the holidays. No doubt that was the plan. The continuing resolution to fund the government expires on Saturday, so Mr. Reid wants to squeeze Senators against the deadline. And with the press corps preoccupied by the tax debate, the spending bill is greased to slide through with little or no public scrutiny.

Disgusting, ain't it? Read the whole thing; I promise, you'll be even more disgusted...

Facebook Connections Map...

Fascinating graphic representation of “friends” connections on Facebook.  Click to enlarge, as usual.

A Drop of Water...

At 10,000 frames per second:

Francohumor...

Via reader Jim M.:

France has neither winter nor summer nor morals. Apart from these drawbacks it is a fine country. France has usually been governed by prostitutes.'
– Mark Twain

I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me.
– General George S. Patton

Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion.
– Norman Schwartzkopf

We can stand here like the French, or we can do something about it.
– Marge Simpson

The only time France wants us to go to war is when the German Army is sitting in Paris sipping coffee.
– Regis Philbin

The last time the French asked for 'more proof' it came marching into Paris under a German flag.
– David Letterman

War without France would be like ... World War II.
– unknown

The favorite bumper sticker in Washington D.C.right now is one that says 'First Iraq , then France .'
– Tom Brokaw

What do you expect from a culture and a nation that exerted more of its national will fighting against Disney World and Big Macs than the Nazis?
– Dennis Miller

It is important to remember that the French have always been there when they needed us.
– Alan Kent

Somebody was telling me about the French Army rifle that was being advertised on eBay the other day – the description was, 'Never fired. Dropped once.'
– Rep. Roy Blunt, MO

The French will only agree to go to war when we've proven we've found truffles in Iraq.
– Dennis Miller

Q. What did the mayor of Paris say to the German Army as they entered the city in WWII?
A. Table for 100,000 m'sieur?

Do you know how many Frenchmen it takes to defend Paris ? It's not known, it's never been tried.
– Rep. R. Blount, MO

Do you know it only took Germany three days to conquer France in WWII? And that's because it was raining.
– John Xereas, Manager, DC Improv

French Ban Fireworks at Euro Disney
(AP), Paris , March 5, 2003  The French Government announced today that it is imposing a ban on the use of fireworks at Euro Disney. The decision comes the day after a nightly fireworks display at the park, located just 30 miles outside of Paris, caused the soldiers at a nearby French Army garrison to surrender to a group of Czech tourists.

The French Army's brand new tank has 15 gears in reverse (including overdrive) - and one forward gear (just in case they're attacked from the rear).

A Kitty Sort of Christmas...

My cousin Mike D. sent around an email with Christmas-themed cartoons.  This one caught my eye, as several of our feline beasties could easily be the main character in it.  As usual, click to enlarge...

Hooters Calendar...

This came in via email from my mom, so I didn't know what to expect when I opened the attachment – it could have been anything at all, including what you expected when you saw the title.  But this turned out to be a series of calendar photos featuring owls, and the photography is very nice indeed.  The shot at right is an example.

If you're interested, the real deal is on sale here, in both paper and electronic form...

Solar Eruption...

Via APOD, this video of a solar filament erupting.  The last few years have brought astounding advances in our ability to image the sun's surface...

Geminids...

I posted in some detail about the Geminids yesterday.  This morning the dogs and I watched them for about 10 minutes, and saw about 40 meteors.  That works out to a rate of about 240/hour, nowhere near some of the predictions – but it was still a great display.  Because Gemini is so high in the sky right now, the meteors were visible at all points of the compass, and looked like they were headed straight down.  Of the meteors I saw, two were fairly large and long-lived, one in particular to the southwest of me that disappeared below the horizon still glowing brightly...

Your Morning Puns...

Via reader James M.:

The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.

No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'

I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

A backward poet writes inverse.

In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

If you jumped off the bridge in Paris , you'd be in Seine .

Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says 'Dam!'

Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies,'Yes, I'm positive.'

Aging Rock Stars...

If you're of a certain age, you'll enjoy this:

Mandate Take-Down...

This WSJ piece is a good summary of the ruling yesterday that the Obamacare individual mandate is unconstitutional.  A taste:

Judge Hudson's opinion is particularly valuable because it dispatches the White House's carousel of rationalizations for its unprecedented intrusions. The Justice Department argued that the mandate is justified by the Commerce Clause because the decision not to purchase insurance has a substantial effect on interstate commerce because everybody needs medical care eventually. And if not that, then it's permissible under the broader taxing power for the general welfare; and if not that, then it's viable under the Necessary and Proper clause; and if not that, well, it's needed to make the overall regulatory scheme function.

But as Judge Hudson argues, the nut of the case is the Commerce Clause. Justice can't now claim that the mandate is "really" a tax when the bill itself imposes what it calls a "penalty" for failing to buy insurance and says the power to impose the mandate is vested in interstate commerce. Recall that President Obama went on national television during the ObamaCare debate to angrily assert that the mandate "is absolutely not a tax increase."

Moreover, Judge Hudson says that no court has ever "extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market."

The best part so far as I can see is that this ruling is a necessary first step in the inevitable appeals process, so the (first) journey of this legislation to the Supreme Court has begun...

Morning Walk...

We got up a little early this morning, and I had the dogs outside by 2:30 am.  Down by our gate they (all four of them!) got all excited about something slightly off to one side of our driveway.  Some smell there was driving them slightly crazy; all four of them trying to shoulder the others aside so they could catch the best olfactory experience.  It's times like this when I fervently wish I could somehow communicate with the dogs.  What on earth has you so excited, guys? 

Tomorrow morning we should see the peak of this year's Geminid meteor shower.  The viewing around here should be close to ideal at my normal morning walk time.  The Geminid shower gets its name from the fact that it appears to emerge from the constellation Gemini, above and to the left of Orion as you view the night sky.  This morning, Castor and Pollux (the two brightest stars in Gemini) were almost straight overhead at 2:30 am – it doesn't get any better than that for viewing a meteor shower!  For any astronomy buffs out there, Castor is a very interesting star system: an optical binary system (easily seen even in binoculars), each member of which is itself spectroscopic binary – and this quadruple star system has a orbiting companion binary system!

This morning, staring at Gemini for a couple of minutes (I didn't time it, so that's approximate), I saw 12 meteors.  That works out to a rate of about 360/hour.  Some sources are predicting rates tomorrow morning of around 1,000/hour.  I hope you have a chance to see this...

No Nativity Scene in Washington D.C. This Year...

Via my mom:

There will be no Nativity Scene in Washington this year!

The Supreme Court has ruled that there cannot be a Nativity Scene in the United States' Capital this Christmas season.

This isn't for any religious reason. They simply have not been able to find Three Wise Men in the Nation's Capitol.

The search for a Virgin continues.

There was no problem, however, finding enough asses to fill the stable.

Branden Dallo Killed...

In an accident that may have been alcohol-related, 21 year old Branden Dallo was killed yesterday in a single car accident off Jamul Drive:

A 21-year-old man was killed and his passenger was injured early Friday when their car went off a winding, rural road in Jamul, authorities said.

Branden Dallo was driving a Porsche south on Jamul Drive when he lost control of the car and veered off the shoulder east of Tuk-A-Wile Drive about 2:15 a.m., California Highway Patrol Officer Brian Pennings said.

The Porsche went down a grassy slope and hit several trees and a boulder, Pennings said.

Dallo died in the wreck. His passenger, McKenzie Hillman, 18, was taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Pennings said.

Pennings said there was evidence that Dallo may have been under the influence of alcohol.

One small consolation: Ms. Hillman is ok.

Many readers have written to let me know that Branden was the younger brother of Johnny Dallo.

Our sympathy to the family and friends of Branden.

Endorsement...

Paul Ryan's Roadmap for America's Future just got a celebrity endorsement: from Sarah Palin.

Geek Rant...

Here's an interesting rant about Object Oriented Programming (OOP).  I'm certainly not ready to abandon OOP, but nonetheless the man makes some points that resonate.  Like this one:

Finally, I hate the catchphrase: “Objects are not enough. We need …” Over the years we have needed frameworks, components, aspects, services (which, curiously, seems to bring us back to procedural programming!).

Given the fact that objects clearly never were enough, isn’t it odd that they have served us so well over all these years?

Read the whole thing (and don't miss the comments!)...

Politics and Eye Movements...

Lead from a Science Daily article today:

It goes without saying that conservatives and liberals don't see the world in the same way. Now, research from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln suggests that is exactly, and quite literally, the case.

In a new study, UNL researchers measured both liberals' and conservatives' reaction to "gaze cues" -- a person's tendency to shift attention in a direction consistent with another person's eye movements, even if it's irrelevant to their current task -- and found big differences between the two groups.

Liberals responded strongly to the prompts, consistently moving their attention in the direction suggested to them by a face on a computer screen. Conservatives, on the other hand, did not.

The reason for this hypothesized by the researchers is that conservatives are less likely to be influenced by what other people say or do.

Fascinating.

Read the whole thing...

M81 in All Its Glory...

Via APOD, of course.

When I was a kid, the best image you could hope for of M81 was a black-and-white smear about the size of a penny.  Click to enlarge this beauty, and marvel at what modern technology allows us to see...