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...