Moon Farmer March 2000 Archive
« February 2000 | Main | April 2000 »Computer: Abstract: EPIC: Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing: computers have thus far achieved this goal at the expense of tremendous hardware complexity--a complexity that has grown so large as to challenge the industry's ability to deliver ever-higher performance. The authors developed the Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC) style of architecture to enable higher levels of instruction-level parallelism without unacceptable hardware complexity.
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Posted by at March 31, 2000 09:33 AM
It's an interesting idea, using the schedule as the design documentation. But, how do you schedule the time to do the design work? Spend enough time to design each feature before it gets added to the schedule, then of course the task estimate will be much better (but probably still incorrect).
I got the link to Joel's weblog from Scripting News. Thanks Dave, it's in my bookmarks now.
Posted by at March 31, 2000 06:47 AM
I hadn't looked at this before, but now I see that it's being done by David Weinberger of Evident Marketing. I had some great conversations with David in fall '98 about a project we were contemplating collaborating on. He's a righteous dude.
Posted by at March 31, 2000 06:31 AM
Posted by at March 30, 2000 11:05 AM
Posted by at March 30, 2000 05:51 AM
Posted by at March 30, 2000 04:33 AM
Trash the mission statements and do a Manifesto. It is the Y2K thing to do. Coming soon the moonfarmer manifesto-- a guide for the low-gee farmers of the future. If you are going to make big jumps make sure you don't exceed escape velocity...
Close your eyes and smile loudly, when they ask what's up, tell them you are happy. Don't forget late night apple pie.
Posted by at March 29, 2000 07:53 AM
Today is my second-to-last day at Status of Women Canada.
This has been an excellent place to work. Not only did they have work for me to do, work which I enjoyed, which let me dramatically improve my skill-set, and which was genuinely socially valuable, I learned a helluvalot about where things stand in Canadian society today if you don't happen to have a penis.
When I came here, I was concerned that it'd be some terrifying hotbed of feminist angst -- which fortunately was not true at all. It's a place with a lot of nice people who are horribly underfunded and overworked and always expected to produce more faster. From a purely selfish perspective, that's a great environment in which to make yourself a lot more efficient -- particularly if you're not there for the long-haul burnout that comes when you've been being way too efficient for way too long.
Yesterday I talked to the Secretary of State's media wrangler about how I re-engineered the news section of the SWC site. She said she liked it, except, I had to take her email address off the contact sheet. In fact, take all the email addresses off. In fact, take all the names off. In fact, I wanted to tell her off, because it is enormously more efficient for the Canadian public to send email, not to mention dramatically more environmentally sound than paper and cheaper than the phone, before she explained.
She gets masses upon masses of email -- and this is quite common in this department -- from people looking for information that she either does not have, or quite honestly does not have time to provide. She wanted her phone number taken off too, to have all inquiries go to the central switchboard, for the same reason.
She told me that whenever they get more staff they also get more work, so the load never lightens. My boss agreed, and said she'd figured out that her duties, when broken down by the government guidelines, were the duties of three full-time employees.
But that seems to be about right. This department is a joke in a lot of ways. They gave us a Secretary of State with no budget and a mandate to promote equivalence of women but no clout.
"Responsibility without authority is impotence" I think the line goes. Not total impotence: during my lifetime it was made illegal to rape your wife and drunkenness is no longer a valid defense if you raped somebody in Canada. Canadian aboriginal women are now allowed to get divorces and not be total pariahs as a result. A lot of women did a lot of things.
These are inarguable facts. They're not statistics that can be interpreted one way or another; if a law went in saying you couldn't rape your wife, the odds are pretty good that at least one wife got raped, and probably a large number of wives, large enough to convince a masculine dominated government that it really was a problem.
(No, I'm not going to go off on the idea that "If women ran the world..." because that's a crock. It'd be just as screwed up, only differently.)
I have a better grasp now of what it's like to be an average woman, from having read the case studies and the historical material, and an average woman in Canada is not in an enviable position. If she has kids it'll still damage her career. If she goes into the fastest growing industry, high tech, she'll probably end up in a teeshirt and jeans and half-forget she's female. She will still make less money, have much more trouble attaining high rank, and probably be significantly sexually harrassed at some point.
It disturbs me to be making these generalizations for two reasons. First, the generalizations suggest such horrible things that the mind wants to brush it off as grossly inaccurate: like in Neal Stephenson's Zodiac where he tells his partner "this is two and a half times the legal limit" knowing his partner can grasp and get upset about that, where the truth is "one hundred thousand times the legal limit" -- a figure so large that the mind wants to dismiss it as highly unlikely at best, therefore invalid.
The other reason is, well, is this news? So another person went and learned that half the world has it worse than the other half. How big a hill of beans does this amount to?
Posted by at March 29, 2000 05:57 AM
Tacos and beer are good. Macs are good, PCs have their place.
The primary unique quality that my G4, Marlowe, has, is that it belongs to me. That makes it pretty damned rare right off the bat. In fact, it is the only G4 in the known universe that belongs to me. Definitely not more of the same.
I have to agree about corporate-net-communities -- even though I will be spending April building a virtual art gallery based on the artistic community at the Aberdeen Cultural Centre, and artwork will be sold through that gallery. If it turns into a bona-fide net community, great, if not, at least the works are being catalogued and recorded. But it's not like I'm trying to sell life-revolutionizing pantyhose.
Posted by at March 29, 2000 05:29 AM
That's a change from a couple of years ago when I could send email to the Senior Editor at Tor Books and have them courier me an entire Robert Sheckley series plus bags of contact information and catalogs. But then again, when I was at Computerpages, which is an itty-bitty free computer paper in Eugene, Oregon, Caere Corp. couriered me OmniPage Pro with, again, bags of contact info and catalogs. I wonder if it's harder now to get review copies of material -- which would be a pretty major shift, since I can't think of a time in my ... 13 or so years media experience where I had trouble getting recognized as a legitimate reporter-type, regardless of how rinky-dink my media outlet.
Posted by at March 29, 2000 05:24 AM
Posted by at March 29, 2000 05:16 AM
Is it an invisible G4? If not, then I am not impressed, because it just more of the same. But, my real problem today is I can't stop thinking about door knobs.
Does anyone else find it nauseating when a company builds a community in order to sell something? It's even worse when the people who join the community begin to evangelize the company's products. There's no reason to sell ourselves short, form your own communities, base the community on a real vision and let the companies slug it out trying to meet our expectations, instead of telling us what we need.
Or we could have yet another Mac vs PC discussion. Whatever makes you happy. I'm going out for tacos and beer. Later.
Posted by at March 28, 2000 08:46 PM
Bumped into a reference to Norman's book "The Inivisible Compuer" today. Order a copy and learn why he thinks PC's are doomed. From what I can gather it has to do with being able to figure out which side of the door has hinges based on the location of the doorknob. I will let you know more after my copy arrives from bn.com.
Posted by at March 28, 2000 01:37 PM
But don't get too excited, doesn't sound like MacOS X will be showing up on Celerons anytime soon.
Posted by at March 28, 2000 07:32 AM
Posted by at March 28, 2000 06:43 AM
Posted by at March 28, 2000 06:07 AM
225 years ago (1775),
Samuel Johnson delivers a harsh opinion of the late poet Thomas Gray: "Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull every where. He was dull in a new way, and that made people think him GREAT."
59 years ago (1941),
Virginia Woolf, 59, ends her life by walking into the RiverOuse. She leaves a note for Leonard: "I have a feeling I shall go mad. I cannot go on longer in these terrible times. I hear voices and cannot concentrate on my work. I have fought against it but cannot fight any longer. I owe all my happiness to you but cannot go on and spoil your life."
Posted by at March 27, 2000 04:33 PM
I believe it is the government's job to protect the freedom of people and not to restrict it.
Posted by at March 27, 2000 07:50 AM
Posted by at March 27, 2000 07:27 AM
Posted by at March 27, 2000 06:56 AM
Posted by at March 27, 2000 06:19 AM
You are happy aren't you?
Posted by at March 26, 2000 10:06 PM
Posted by at March 26, 2000 09:47 PM
Sonoma State University is where I got my BA.
Posted by at March 26, 2000 08:44 PM
Posted by at March 26, 2000 08:22 PM
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair
KOMO TV News - Kingdome Is History! I saw it live on teevee this morning. I feel sorry for the people who designed, engineered and built the kingdome. It only survived a fraction of the time it could have if luxury boxes weren't suddenly necessary. They built something to last generations and with only a few well placed explosive charges nothing but a pile of rubble and a dust cloud remain. Now a single generation can recall both the rise and the fall of a palace for the people's game.Posted by at March 26, 2000 02:01 PM
I don't know about you, but if I pump for a whole year, every day, for 30 minutes a day, and ONLY gain 1/2" - 1", I'd be quite upset. This simply is not worth your time or money if you are looking to enlarge your penis.
Posted by at March 25, 2000 07:30 PM
"Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe."Kurt Vonnegut, Hocus Pocus
Posted by at March 25, 2000 12:59 PM
Posted by at March 25, 2000 09:51 AM
Imagine sitting down with a thick book from the lastest best selling software release. You would think literate programming should go hand in hand with the idea of open source software. The problem is it would take longer to write a literate program then it takes to crank out a few lines of code and maybe a comment or two. Anyway, if you are serious about writing software then you should know more about Donald E. Knuth.
Posted by at March 25, 2000 08:33 AM
I knew there was a reason I like blowing bubbles at the summer picnic.
Posted by at March 24, 2000 06:24 AM
Posted by at March 24, 2000 05:36 AM
I set this on worm mode and turned gravity off. It's now oscillating in my browser window and consuming a huge amount of my CPU cycles. It's unnerving -- despite that it's a very basic line drawing I keep expecting it to look at me and blink.
Posted by at March 24, 2000 05:18 AM
Posted by at March 24, 2000 05:08 AM
"Peters, 41, stunned co-workers by resigning from his job as vice president of Microsoft's Office division in 1998 to go bowling."
This is for real, but it sounds like a movie or maybe a Dukes of Hazzard episode. The bowlers are broke so the rich but talentless weasels come in and try to buy it out, so the bowlers have to raise five million dollars by sundown or Grandma stays in the evil seniors home and Ted Knight gets to park his Audi wherever he wants.
Posted by at March 24, 2000 05:05 AM
Posted by at March 23, 2000 11:12 PM
I watched because of the fast red car. Really.
Posted by at March 23, 2000 10:27 PM
Considering the buzz you would think Netpliance could have come up with a more creative response. There's already two "hackable" iOpener's on ebay, plus a ready to install HD.
Posted by at March 23, 2000 09:41 PM
Posted by at March 23, 2000 02:24 PM
Posted by at March 23, 2000 08:21 AM
Go ahead, take a five minute break.
Posted by at March 23, 2000 08:18 AM
Anotherealm A Zine of short speculative fiction - New stories twice weekly
You Can't Be Serious Publications
Word On Fiction - An Ezine for Freelance Creative Writing
Machinima.com - Real time 3D film making for the next millenium.
Reason magazine -- March 2000, Copy Catfight by Jesse Walker
Posted by at March 23, 2000 07:26 AM
Posted by at March 22, 2000 09:34 PM
I didn't watch Oprah. I've seen Oprah and I don't really need to do it again.
To clarify: the fridge committee is real. That was real email that was coming into my real inbox at my real job. Fortunately I get to spend April at home.
Posted by at March 22, 2000 03:48 PM
Posted by at March 22, 2000 02:44 PM
Posted by at March 22, 2000 01:43 PM
Posted by at March 22, 2000 10:54 AM
Posted by at March 22, 2000 08:27 AM
Luckily, I am safe behind my 24K BPS modem connection. Buzz-click-Whine-Scrreeee.
Posted by at March 22, 2000 08:16 AM
Posted by at March 22, 2000 07:40 AM
Posted by at March 22, 2000 07:26 AM
Posted by at March 21, 2000 07:21 PM
Posted by at March 21, 2000 08:04 AM
Even the fridges have their own committee ...
First email:
Someone probably forgot her or his lunch in the fridge (on the 7th floor) a while ago because there are some "killing" odors that can be smell up to the men's washroom (and no, it's not the washroom own fragrance...).
Maybe it would be time for each of us to visit the "stinky" fridge and throw away what is no longer good before the fridge starts to walk on its own.
Thanks for your cooperation.
Second email:
On the subject of the 7th floor fridge, given that it is being used by dozens of employees, may I suggest that those of you who carry your lunch to work in a 'thermal' type bag please remove your lunch from the bag before putting it in the fridge.... these bags are very large and take up precious space in the small fridge....
Third email:
Comment on the use of "thermal type bags": These thermal bags people use ensure drippings are not left in the fridge for somebody else to wipe, they end up in its respective bag instead. Also, it also ensures people don't forget part of their lunches in the fridge. If everybody had some type of lunch bag, maybe the fridge would not smell so much.
Posted by at March 21, 2000 07:36 AM
Posted by at March 21, 2000 07:30 AM
Posted by at March 21, 2000 05:18 AM
Posted by at March 21, 2000 05:08 AM
The price per bit of storage and connection drops to almost nothing. Forget it, you have no idea what it means, you don't know what it will bring. A world swarming with data bits swirling in and out of connections. An atmosphere of bits breathed in and exhaled directly by the biological. Parallel and splintered consciousness in the new reality. Forget the virtual, reality is about to be ripped to pieces and reassembled revealing the secret universe hidden by limited senses. Stare into the dawn with open arms and get ready to embrace the ocean, because the tsunami is already on it's way. I just want a few good acres of lunar soil, the simple life.
Posted by at March 20, 2000 11:00 PM
Posted by at March 20, 2000 10:04 PM
Posted by at March 20, 2000 09:16 PM
Technologiekampf - A conflict between marketing and engineering authorities. The struggle to allow the freedom to innovate technology against those trying to protect their position by stifling the competition.
Posted by at March 20, 2000 07:48 AM
Now I know it's a new gilded age.
Posted by at March 20, 2000 07:36 AM
Trying spinning yourself around at 7,200 rotations per minute. Spin, spin and fall down.
Posted by at March 20, 2000 07:21 AM
Posted by at March 20, 2000 05:12 AM
Posted by at March 19, 2000 08:09 PM
Where can I find some gilding?
Posted by at March 19, 2000 07:56 PM
Posted by at March 19, 2000 07:32 PM
Posted by at March 19, 2000 07:14 PM
Posted by at March 19, 2000 03:02 AM
I think he is making fun on the new e-Paradigm. Plus, he is still putting hyphens in the word email. But maybe that's still geeky and not geek chic yet. I dunno.
Posted by at March 18, 2000 11:39 PM
Posted by at March 18, 2000 08:18 PM
Jon Udell published a whole book on Practical Internet GroupWare.
Posted by at March 18, 2000 10:26 AM
| Technology could help wireless devices adapt to changes (AP/San Jose Mercury News 3/17/2000) Wireless devices that morph radio hardware on the fly so the devices can move to new frequency bands. Sounds like a winmodem, minimum hardware and the software does all of the protocol work. Connected means having a connection by any means possible, anywhere, anytime. | Bubble, Bubble, dot-com trouble? (Reuters/San Jose Mercury News 3/17/2000) " From a company ``for trading in hair'' to ``a wheel for perpetual motion,'' the ideas are, with hindsight, amusing. But with imagination and a dash of technospeak, some become plausible by the addition of an ``e'' prefix or ``dot-com'' suffix." I like headlines that rhyme. | Gun Maker Agrees to Curbs in Exchange for Ending Suits (nytimes 3/18/2000) "And the agreement requires, within three years, "smart-gun technology" that will allow each of its new handguns to be fired only by authorized users. " I think smart-guns should also include technology that will prevent handguns from being fired while aimed at a person. |
Posted by at March 18, 2000 05:22 AM
Personally, I am thinking of just quitting and getting a job at 7-11 (night shift preferably).
Posted by at March 17, 2000 04:26 PM
Posted by at March 17, 2000 03:58 PM
PILE the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. Shovel them under and let me work I am the grass; I cover all.And pile them high at Gettysburg And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun. Shovel them under and let me work. Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: What place is this? Where are we now?I am the grass. Let me work.
Posted by at March 16, 2000 07:29 AM
Posted by at March 15, 2000 11:34 PM
Posted by at March 15, 2000 11:23 PM
The purpose of this web site is to explain and promote the design and implementation of FPGA-based CPUs and integrated systems-on-a-chip.
The design and implementation of a system-on-a-chip including a RISC processor is detailed in a three part series in Circuit Cellar. I remember the Circuit Cellar when it was just a column in a now defunct magazine.
Posted by at March 15, 2000 06:00 PM
Posted by at March 15, 2000 11:46 AM
Online Education to Be Free -- and to that I also say "Good!" Dream big dreams, Michael Saylor, 'cause you've got the bucks to make 'em real.
Posted by at March 15, 2000 09:35 AM
A Call for Sharing of Research Causes Gene Stocks to Plunge -- to which I say "Good!".
It's not new technology that'll fuck over humanity, it's old-style survivalist "must corner the entire food market for my tribe" that'll do it. Smithers, release the hounds.
Posted by at March 15, 2000 09:32 AM
Correction: Conversant! - is NOT another weblog tool (or is it?). Like editthispage.com there's definitely something innovative going on here.
You might use Conversant to publish a website. You can submit the HTML for your pages right through your browser (or through email or your news software), make sure you like how it looks in the browser, and then publish it to a URL in your site.
Heres a moonfarmer conversant experiment. Go there create an account and then access the conversation using your news client (the server is free-conversant.com). It took me about 3 minutes to get it working in outlook express.
So, Conversant! is a web based groupware application, that lets you do cool things with HTML, NNTP, (and email?).
I'll take a closer look later this week. For now, go take a look for yrself.
Original unprecise annotation: Conversant - another weblog tool. It fits into the same class as editthispage.com. I like the blogger model of exporting the web page to the user's server.
Nytimes.com article on Oxford English Dictionary on Web only $550/year for online access to oed! At least the word of the day is free.
Online Education to Be Free (washingtonpost.com) "Ivy League-quality" education no less. Why build something new? There's already quality education it just isn't accessible online. Use the money to create a connected classroom model that works, then upgrade the existing institutions.
Posted by at March 15, 2000 07:18 AM
Posted by at March 15, 2000 01:36 AM
| All four volumes of the IA-64 manuals from intel.com. A Simple and Extensible Graphical Debugger Erehwon Notebook the name reminds me of godisnowhere. | The trouble is not trying to figure out the problem or the answer, the trouble is not trying to find the correct tools, the trouble is not trying to find the right moment. The trouble is it is always easier to wait until tomorrow. I have friends I have never met. Thanks. Stopping the flow of thoughts is impossible, the trick is find the white water branch, pull in the oars, and let the river take over. No life jackets allowed, all branches lead to the waterfall, the rocks are all sharp, and the water is bone chilling cold. Sit up and feel the spray full in the face, grin, and howl. This is no disney ride. I am suspicious of people who use the word citizen when discussing politics. It is as if god given rights change when a border is crossed. I want to be connected, but I don't want to know what you are thinking. Later, I am going outside into the dark. |
Posted by at March 14, 2000 09:12 PM
Posted by at March 14, 2000 01:47 PM
ZDNet: News: Rumors and Comment: Intel's 'misplaced' PC giveaway
What do you think, Shad? Agree with the conspiracyheads over there who say Intel wants to use these PCs to monitor what you do while you're naked in the dawn sunlight?
Posted by at March 14, 2000 10:52 AM
The answers are "yes" or "no" -- seems a tad simplistic to me.
Posted by at March 14, 2000 10:31 AM
Posted by at March 14, 2000 09:05 AM
Posted by at March 14, 2000 07:46 AM
Look what the arachnids dug up today. Now and then you step into a sink hole while wading through the ankle deep info glut. Try not to drown.
Posted by at March 14, 2000 07:31 AM
Another example of making software and hardware less distinguishable. It is definitely an interesting addition to the nooks and crannies of the world-wide-web. Completely automated upgrade of hardware via the internet, now that is sci-fi.
" One of the things our clients tell us is that the more humans get involved, the more problems there are... "
Do you feel it coming, the wave of automation? We have already lost control of your operating system, it's myriad parts all needing constant upgrades. Soon your system won't even bother to ask permission to be upgraded (like my ReplayTV) it will just upgrade itself, software and hardware.
This is not a bad thing. We just need to prepare ourselves for the everywhere and anytime internet. Connected? We only have the faintest idea of what it will mean to be really connected.
Posted by at March 14, 2000 07:22 AM
Posted by at March 13, 2000 11:37 PM
- XML, definitely.
- Malcom in the Middle, "The worst part is, I think I am stealing panty liners."
- VLIW
- The next cool web application. It's not just web based email and free web pages anymore.
- dot-sucks coming soon, contact webmaster Ralph Nader
- Free software stock option zillionaires political and economic revolution
- A free-pc in every living room
- The genome, the nano, and bots of all forms, shapes and sizes.
- Tacos and beer indefinitely listed until my first heart-attack
- Internet every where and all the time, a true world-wide-web.
- Islands in the Net Bruce Sterling
- Intellectual community property
Send me your Very 2000 items and I will add them to the list.
Posted by at March 13, 2000 11:13 PM
Posted by at March 13, 2000 10:41 PM
Of course you have to be a member to actually read any of these arcticles. I can read these articles for free in the library at work, but what the hell I can afford to support juicy stuff like "The Koala Component Model for Consumer Electronics Software."
Chew on this tidbit, HP's Aries emulator combines fast code interpretation with dynamic translation to execute PA-RISC apps transparently and accurately on IA-64 systems running HP-UX.
Posted by at March 13, 2000 09:45 PM
- Scribbled secret notebooks, and wild typewritten pages, for yr own joy
- Submissive to everything, open, listening
- Try never get drunk outside yr own house
- Be in love with yr life
- Something that you feel will find its own form
- Be crazy dumbsaint of the mind
- Blow as deep as you want to blow
- Write what you want bottomless from bottom of the mind
- The unspeakable visions of the individual
- No time for poetry but exactly what is
- Visionary tics shivering in the chest
- In tranced fixation dreaming upon object before you
- Remove literary, grammatical and syntactical inhibition
- Like Proust be an old teahead of time
- Telling the true story of the world in interior monolog
- The jewel center of interest is the eye within the eye
- Write in recollection and amazement for yourself
- Work from pithy middle eye out, swimming in language sea
- Accept loss forever
- Believe in the holy contour of life
- Struggle to sketch the flow that already exists intact in mind
- Dont think of words when you stop but to see picture better
- Keep track of every day the date emblazoned in yr morning
- No fear or shame in the dignity of yr experience, language & knowledge
- Write for the world to read and see yr exact pictures of it
- Bookmovie is the movie in words, the visual American form
- In praise of Character in the Bleak inhuman Loneliness
- Composing wild, undisciplined, pure, coming in from under, crazier the better
- You're a Genius all the time
- Writer-Director of Earthly movies Sponsored & Angeled in Heaven
Posted by at March 13, 2000 08:54 PM
There's a picture of me on their ten most wanted list.
Posted by at March 13, 2000 08:43 PM
I should disconnect my cable too, but then I would probably just spend even more time online. I can't say if that would be better or not.
Posted by at March 13, 2000 04:46 PM
How come I don't have cool job doing research on robots?
Posted by at March 13, 2000 12:04 PM
FORTUNE.com 3.6.2000: The Capitalist Century: Design for the Digital Revolution is the other big Bill Joy article right now -- relatively apolitical and shows reasonable sense, so there's not much comment I have on it. I'll be picking up this month's Wired, much as it galls me, to read his apocalypses, but right up front I've got to say: you can't expect human beings to abandon short-term gee-whiz against long-term probability of disaster. People are graphically stupid and it usually takes something really horrible, frequently more than one something, to make them stop.
It may be that as he says, the US stopped working on biological weapons (or, at least, they say they did) -- but that's no surety that there aren't little clumps of evil out there doing it just the same. I firmly believe there are clandestine cloning camps all over the goddamn place -- there are things in heaven and earth, Bill Joy, undreamt of in the "just say no" philosophy.
"Just say no" is a cop-out, too, as much a cop-out as a vow of silence or vow of chastity or any other abstentious vow. It's easy to self-deny compared to how difficult it is to learn to use the tools humanely. Technology will continue to evolve. Pretending we can stop it is dangerous foolishness. What's more important is to become better human beings, that what we create is more humane -- not merely more human.
Posted by at March 13, 2000 10:26 AM
Posted by at March 13, 2000 08:45 AM
STATUS of WOMEN CANADA - News Releases
Shad asked me if violence against women is as bad in Canada as it is in the US. Since I'm working for Status of Women Canada (but speaking only for myself and Hypercube Industries of course) I'm in a position to look at the info and say, "Well kids, it ain't pretty."
Posted by at March 13, 2000 08:05 AM
Posted by at March 13, 2000 07:53 AM
Heard while walking out of the cinema after watching the movie Magnolia for the second time.
"But why did it rain frogs?" and the answer, "People would have been upset if it had been cats and dogs."
My answer is that sometimes not even a big fat toads falling from the sky can make us stop thinking about ourselves. If we don't notice the amphibian downpour, what other miracles have we missed?
Weekend update: No late night apple pie, one really bad movie (Mission to Mars, go rent 2001 or Apollo 13 instead). Notable encounter while drinking coronas with lime and listening to karoke, a women smiled at me and said, "life is good." Good vs. Evil on SciFi channel, its first time I got to see a few of these shows and they are definite ReplayTV guaranteed recordings. Take out Garlic Chicken on Sunday night.
Posted by at March 13, 2000 07:50 AM
...in late breaking news, I am now OFFICIALLY AUTHORIZED to download IE 5 so I can test my web pages at work. IT guy Mike says, "I realize it can be hard to adjust to a centralized authority..."
No shit, IT guy Mike. We actually had to apply for authorization to put IE on our machines. That's free software. I don't think I'm even authorized to install the sucker. Just download it so Mike can install it. Wait until they find out I installed perl on the box. I'll probably get fired.
Posted by at March 13, 2000 07:49 AM
Bill Joy would like us to take a moment and really think about what comes next. He is worried about potentially dangerous technology. These technologies that are being unlocked primarily due to the ever increasing power of the computer, something Bill has been pushing for twenty years. It's like the locksmith saying here's the keys, but I wouldn't actually recommend you unlock any doors with it.
Technology is a brute force survival drive that will risk everthing in return for a little evolution. The high priests lost control and now the masses with their desktop supercomputers are decoding The Word of God. The truth is we don't know where it's going to take us, we don't know what is going to happen and that makes us afraid.
You don't have to be afraid, because the new religion is the genome, the nano, and the bot. Let's decode life, transform creation, and make them in our own image.
I am not scared, I know the other side is going to be better a place. A place with farms on the moon.
Posted by at March 13, 2000 07:07 AM
Dan Zen | Grim Reaper's Age Guesser was off by quite a mark for me, but my mom says I was born 40.
I've been getting more immature ever since, but don't tell her that.
Posted by at March 13, 2000 06:23 AM
Friday, February 18:
Irv Bos
Vice President of the Holland, MI chapter of the American Family Association
For an account of his conversion to the anti-pornography cause. As his story goes, he was a child hiding in his father's barn and reading the "good parts" of an adult paperback, when a lightning bolt came down from the heavens and hit the barn, burning it to the ground. Of his decision to tell the story, Bos said, "My goal in this entire thing is to educate the public."
Posted by at March 13, 2000 05:32 AM
Amazon.com: An Open Letter from Jeff Bezos
Amazon is really emblematic of the whole Internet Bubble. Here we have a company with no physical outlets but a huge amount of inventory, that's lost hundreds of millions
(is it billions and billions now?)
of dollars trying to establish primacy on the "playing field"
(where I'd argue that's the wrong metaphor entirely -- the net is fluid, and while more money can build you a bigger boat, it better be a fast one too, because they all leak)
without regularly turning a profit
(though they did finally manage a bit of one)
and while still raking in the investments hand over fist.
Now Jeff is calling for patent reform, because he shouldn't've been allowed to patent one click shopping and in a just world, he wouldn't have to beat his competition about the head and face with his patent stick. Wouldn't the most eloquent case for patent reform involve some statement about how much money it cost them to develop the model, how justified they are in having it, and how much they'd lose if they surrendered it -- err, wait, I'm talking about amazon and profits. Silly me.
The thing I find most peculiar is how open Jeff's being about how inappropriate he thinks it is that he has patents that he doesn't think should've been granted. Do anti-fraud laws not apply if your market share is virtually big enough?
Posted by at March 13, 2000 05:28 AM
I fly on Alaska out of Sea-Tac all the time. This story is more amusing than scary, I would have been more upset by the U-turn.
Posted by at March 12, 2000 09:32 PM
Posted by at March 12, 2000 11:14 AM
It is not easy to ask for forgiveness.
Posted by at March 12, 2000 10:59 AM
I don't understand how people can continue to support the death penalty. It is a national failure that we can't face the issues of violence and crime in our society. We need to admit that killing people will not work and has not worked and face our real problems. Poverty surrounds us and yet we deny it exists, we deny it by blaming the very people caught in the cycle of dependencies and oppression that assures only a few ever escape. Are we so scared we will have to give up our rich lives? There's more than enough to make everyone rich, if you have any doubt go scan the insider trader links on yahoo (linked below). It doesn't wash that these people earned everything they are getting, they are just the priests at the top of the pyramid. At the base of those pyramids are the people who hear the cry of "Dead Man Walking."
Posted by at March 12, 2000 12:14 AM
Posted by at March 11, 2000 11:24 AM
Posted by at March 11, 2000 10:47 AM
Blogger has a new look and feel.
I tried to add blogger's new Remote Edit beta feature, but it didn't work. After playing with it for awhile, I decided that I didn't really need it and it would just add more crap for people to download.
We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit --Aristotle
Posted by at March 11, 2000 10:40 AM
Posted by at March 10, 2000 05:36 PM
Posted by at March 10, 2000 05:33 PM
Posted by at March 10, 2000 07:34 AM
Programmable by any C/C++ guru, the PeopleBot has the abilities to:
must resist tempation... must resist templation... I can't believe I spent that money on an autmoated sprinkler system when I could have gotten one of these.
Posted by at March 09, 2000 10:46 PM
Posted by at March 09, 2000 09:43 PM
Posted by at March 09, 2000 09:17 PM
"This is a well-designed bar. The colors match, and the music is good. That's all I care about," said Yo Sung-kwan, 25, a design student who was at the bar Monday night.
But Hyun admitted that some customers, especially Western students from nearby universities, occasionally come to protest.
"They've sometimes made scenes. So, I decided not to take foreign customers anymore," he said.
Posted by at March 09, 2000 06:00 PM
Posted by at March 09, 2000 02:18 PM
I went to brainbench.com and got certified as a Project Manager. It was interesting and useful -- the analysis was that my weaknesses are more in not knowing the jargon than in not knowing how to manage properly -- but then again, to talk to the money-weasels you must be able to speak their language.
Posted by at March 09, 2000 01:34 PM
Posted by at March 09, 2000 11:53 AM
Posted by at March 09, 2000 08:05 AM
The Charge of the Light Brigade by Lord Alfred Tennyson When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wondered. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred!
Posted by at March 08, 2000 10:22 PM
Posted by at March 08, 2000 06:12 PM
Posted by at March 08, 2000 07:17 AM
Posted by at March 08, 2000 05:16 AM
Posted by at March 07, 2000 08:46 PM
Posted by at March 07, 2000 07:50 PM
Posted by at March 07, 2000 04:32 PM
Also, another free core European Space Agency launches free Sparc-like core more info at LEON-1 VHDL model
Posted by at March 07, 2000 12:47 PM
- Intel To Offer No Charge Home PC Program For Employees Worldwide
- A Governor Would Give Every Student a Laptop
- Ford Offers Workers PC's and Internet Service for $5 a Month
Posted by at March 07, 2000 09:22 AM
Posted by at March 07, 2000 08:02 AM
Posted by at March 07, 2000 07:23 AM
I want to be a literate structured extreme programmer. Or maybe I just want to slay a dragon with a few friends. Or maybe I just want to have some more late night apple pie.
class Dragon { public: // And the from the void came Puff the Pie eater Dragon();// This dragon likes PIE Crust FeedMe(Pie&); };Or Maybe I just need a hug and kiss.
Posted by at March 06, 2000 10:14 PM
Posted by at March 06, 2000 11:38 AM
Posted by at March 06, 2000 07:31 AM
Posted by at March 06, 2000 07:05 AM
Posted by at March 06, 2000 01:01 AM
Posted by at March 05, 2000 09:23 PM
Posted by at March 05, 2000 10:12 AM
Posted by at March 05, 2000 08:42 AM
- It was still downloading at 6:15, I do not know when it started, but I do not think it should be using my phone a six in the morning, since that's when I like to check my email.
- I can't watch teevee while it's downloading, why can't it do transfers in the background?
- It had to erase all of my currently recorded shows to enable the new features. Yuck.
Posted by at March 05, 2000 07:50 AM
How does it feel How does it feel To be on your own With no direction home Like a complete unknown Like a rolling stone?
Posted by at March 05, 2000 07:14 AM
Posted by at March 04, 2000 11:07 AM
Posted by at March 03, 2000 09:11 PM
Posted by at March 03, 2000 07:28 PM
Posted by at March 03, 2000 02:00 PM
Hope.Hope is a subtle glutton; He feeds upon the fair; And yet, inspected closely, What abstinence is there!His is the halcyon table That never seats but one, And whatsoever is consumed The same amounts remain.
Posted by at March 03, 2000 07:39 AM
Tonight's find on comp.lang.c++.moderated. Multiple prototypes for the same function can be used to specify different default parameter values. This seems obvious now, but I guess my good sense never allowed my C++ sense to figure it out. This means that in module A the prototype for function foo() can specify a different default parameter then in say module B.
Module A
int foo(int a = 42); . . . foo(); /* call foo with the default value of 42 */
Module B
int foo(int a = 0); . . . foo(); /* call foo with the default value of 0 */
Module C
int foo(int a); . . . foo(34); /* a default parameter is not allowed */
Of course this leaves multiple prototypes for the same function scattered about in your code. If foo's interface is ever changed all these prototypes will have to hunted down ...or some sort of #define magic would have to be used to specify the defaults.
Posted by at March 02, 2000 11:01 PM
Posted by at March 02, 2000 09:48 PM
Russ Taylor's entries: I would want timewarner.com.sucks, aol.com.sucks, microsoft.com.swallows, and many many more. Chamber.com.sucks. Myjob.sucks :)
Do you have any ideas for dot-sucks?
Posted by at March 02, 2000 01:23 PM
Posted by at March 01, 2000 06:57 PM
Posted by at March 01, 2000 06:41 PM
Group 54:34 would represent the languishing Bertram P. Brooker, whereas this would be a rather bombastic explanation of a pop culture symbol.
Maybe by posting this on your door you could get more action -- or this if you're female.
Posted by at March 01, 2000 12:13 PM
Posted by at March 01, 2000 11:05 AM
Posted by at March 01, 2000 10:18 AM
Posted by at March 01, 2000 08:18 AM
With a thousand smiles she gives to me free
The global economic issue is a lot more complicated than just spreading some bucks/food/power/stuff around and trying to make everything equal. Pure equality is a tantalizing idea, but like the beautiful weather we're getting up here in Ottawa, it's actually terrible for us. Thanks to this fantastically balmy (for February) weather, the Gatineaus will be even more dried up this year than they were last, and the whole ecosystem will be, it is to say, fucked up.
Human beings are stuck in a tragic loop right now -- we're evolved enough to know that we're still very subject to biophysical based instincts but we're not entirely evolved enough to understand the full implications of it. Human competitiveness is no excuse for bad behavior; however, any noble undertaking executed without an understanding of human competitiveness is just as doomed as any pack of neo-anarchist "Save the planet" ecologists who figure that eventually, corporate Canada (in my case, probably America in yours) will eventually decide that virtue is its own reward. Just like the Crusader knights wiping out the landscape on behalf of a God who told them to be nice.
The point is that any extremist stance is absolutely destined to either corrupt or be, at best, marginally effective. Remember that "extremism" constitutes anything radically different from what is now -- equal pay for equal work regardless of gender/religion/sexual orientation/colour/etc is a very extreme concept -- and in many ways an invalid one. I have trouble thinking that Einstein was created equal -- regardless of what American equality-elitists may say -- to the guy at the 7-11. But I digress.
It is extremely unlikely that I would ever support an effort to "make the world an equal place" -- pseudo-benevolent/altruistic outfits corrupt the worst of all. They get an idea in their heads and they don't consider the full ramifications. The most baseline of these is the idea that women and men are interchangeable, or that yellow, white, black and red people are interchangeable -- an idea that's so nearly true, but so radically wrong in certain fundamental ways, that it can really fuck up anybody who believes it.
The most "radically wrong" part is that it's riddled with neo-Victorian patronizing nonsense. "Let's fight for those who can't fight for themselves". Fuck that. Teach them to fight and let them make up their own minds -- isn't that what it's really about?
Or would you rather play Moses? Moses was a real fuck -- he could've been king of Egypt and married a beautiful girl and worked out a harmonious peace with the Egyptians (who were a pretty bright people) and had it all be good. Instead, he manifests an incredibly stiff-necked attitude, humiliates the Egyptians and the woman he supposedly loved, and can't quite seem to manage his people anyhow -- he leaves them alone for a few days and they're back worshipping money and cutting virgin throats. All in favour of the instant gratification of violent revolution, over the more gradual diplomatic resolution of problems, can learn a lot from Moses. He's still got a pretty good reputation despite being a world-class jackass. But he meant well.
Posted by at March 01, 2000 05:29 AM
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