bjkeefe

Madonna con bambino ii

2012-01-26T23:11:00.002-05:00

(h/t: TC, via email)

Deep thought

2012-01-26T08:48:00.000-05:00

What is it, 2012? And Gmail still doesn't know how to display a forwarded .eml attachment? Perhaps they have been spending their energies in the wrong places, hmmm?

False Alarm

2012-01-26T08:36:00.001-05:00

Thought they had released a new album, but it turns out it's just another stupid Facebook game.

Probably the first time I've felt like that sort of geezer who misses cultural references when my first reaction was thinking of a death metal band.

Early Camping Sights

2012-01-25T13:40:00.000-05:00

Happened across something by Martin Gardner from his days of writing the Notes of a Fringe Watcher column for Skeptical Inquirer. It ran in Volume 24.1, Jan/Feb 2000, under the title, "The Second Coming of Jesus." You can guess from those data what the piece is mostly about, but skimming down, there's this delightful little nugget:

In 1992 Harold Camping published, through a vanity press, his book 1994? It predicted that the Second Coming would occur in September of that year. This was followed in 1993 by a sequel titled Are You Ready? Together, the two books totaled 955 pages. Trained as a civil engineer, Camping made enough money running a construction company to found, in 1959, Family Stations, Inc. It soon came to control thirty-nine radio stations. A non-ordained Bible scholar, Camping conducted a nightly radio talk show from his headquarters in Oakland, California. After September passed with no sign of the Lord, Camping changed his date to October 2. When that passed uneventfully, he ran out of excuses and decided against any more date setting.

Did he now.

Maybe he was just waiting until Gardner died.

(pic. sources, top to bottom: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 )

That Dylan album ...

2012-01-25T01:05:00.000-05:00

... I mentioned a while back is now available for your listening pleasure on Spotify (and probably elsewhere, but hey, that's what just popped up on MY screen).

Anybody here shocked that Lenny Kravitz chose to do "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35?" Me neither. Still, it was a nice surprise.

Seal and Jeff Beck's ~~toke~~ take on "Like A Rolling Stone" is not as good a cover as the one Jimi gave us, but it's not turrible.

Wish I'd been in the control room when Michael Franti recorded "Subterranean Homesick Blues." I would have 86ed that clap track so hard. Ruined an otherwise interesting effort.

Kesha's version -- eh, whaddya gonna do? They also let Kris Kristofferson and Miley Cyrus in -- of "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" is about as histrionic and self-indulgent as you might expect, if you feel the same as I do about Whitney Houston clones. (Annnnn diiiiiiiiiiiiiiieee will always love yooooooo-oooo-ooo-oooooo) (But! if you like that style, hey, no problem! Like the man said.) The instrumental version by the Kronos Quartet is much more recommended, if practically not at all recognizable.

Shoutout to the geezers: Pete Seeger does "Forever Young," sounding strong if more monotonic than he did when I first saw him a few about 50 years ago. Eric Burdon (ERIC BURDON IS STILL ALIVE??? WOOHOO!) is in fine form on "Gotta Serve Somebody." And Marianne Faithful, doing "Baby Let Me Follow You Down," accompanied only by a mandolin, gets the award for sounding most like the original artist. (Okay, a cheap and easy joke, which is unusual for me, I know, but it wasn't actually a diss.) Good to see her alive and kicking, too.

(pic. source: ~~High Times~~ National Geographic)

Okay, so THAT's not so evil

2012-01-24T21:23:00.000-05:00

And from the beginning of that "Learn more" link:

We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read.

Yes, yes. Internet lawyers will no doubt find stuff to quibble with farther down that page than I cared to read. But at least now they only have to scrutinize one. And Google deserves an attaboy for that.

[Added] Apparently K. Drum does not feel the same. I will point out, however, that he appears to have formed his opinions on this not from reading the primary sources, but from reading the Washington Post. And you know what friends don't let friends do …

Add your voice!

2012-01-24T16:26:00.000-05:00

No, this time, it's not an issue of global importance, like some others I've asked for your help on. This time it's personal.

Below is a copy of an email I sent this morning. If you're bugged by the same thing, why not let them know? Thanks.

Sent: 1/24/2012 08:45:10 AM
To: "Feedback, NYT" <feedback at nytimes.com>
URL: (pretty much every page on the site)
Comments:

Hello,

Do you think that now that you're charging for access to the site, you could eliminate the hugely annoying Javascript that breaks the context (right-click) menu? Please?

[Added to this CC: Screenshot here, in case you don't know what I'm talking about. [-- ed.]]

I mean, let's face it. It doesn't work to stop copying, if that's why it's there, because both the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-c and the Copy choice under the Edit menu still work. And if the reason you're doing it is to get people to use that pop-up search thing, that's really a bad decision. That thing almost never works. It didn't work when it was "powered by Ask," and it doesn't work now that it's "powered by Wordnik." It is mystified, just to take one example, by people's names, which is the thing I'm most likely to want to look up while reading an article.

What I'd really like to do when I highlight some text and right-click on it is what I get to do on practically every other site on the Web: search for that highlighted text using what I have specified as my browser's default search engine. (The results of such searches, by the way, open in a new tab, so it's not as though even this is going to lose you visitors who don't know what the back button is.)

Please fix this. It is a glaring annoyance on an otherwise very fine site -- the only one I pay to access. Worse, it is an amateurish and failed attempt at something that seems motivated by nothing so much as Web-phobic newspaper bosses from the last century.

Thank you.

Brendan Keefe

P.S. Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to discuss further.

How long?

2012-01-24T03:53:00.001-05:00

Long enough to blink at for a while, and then find the Alt and PrtScr keys with barely a quarter-cup of coffee inside me, at least.

In Microsoft's defense, I understand they patented the zero late last century, so I suppose they can redefine it to mean anything they want.

Let's get scared!

2012-01-23T13:01:00.001-05:00

One afternoon this month, a hacker took a tour of a dozen conference rooms around the globe via equipment that most every company has in those rooms; videoconferencing equipment.

With the move of a mouse, he steered a camera around each room, occasionally zooming in with such precision that he could discern grooves in the wood and paint flecks on the wall. In one room, he zoomed out through a window, across a parking lot and into shrubbery some 50 yards away where a small animal could be seen burrowing underneath a bush. With such equipment, the hacker could have easily eavesdropped on privileged attorney-client conversations or read trade secrets on a report lying on the conference room table.

Worth reading the whole thing, whether to give your spine some chills, or if you're like me, for entertainment.

Can't resist quoting this, too:

In this case, the hacker was HD Moore, a chief security officer at Rapid7, a Boston based company that looks for security holes in computer systems that are used in devices like toaster ovens …

Remember when we all laughed at the $8000 Internet-connected refrigerator? Just sayin.

(pic. sources: The Flying Toasters, natch, and SMC)

Screenshot of the week

2012-01-22T23:20:00.002-05:00

Swiped from Roy's latest wingnut wrap-up, "Rightbloggers Explain How Newt Gingrich's Big Win Can Help Someone Other Than Newt Gingrich Become President."

Attention: All Members of the VLWC

2012-01-21T23:06:00.001-05:00

Henceforth, we will be referring to Newt Gingrich as the "mayonnaise-based life form."

(h/t: @EdgeofSports, via RT)

Thought I recognized that voice

2012-01-19T23:28:00.000-05:00

If you've seen a certain Subaru commercial lately, maybe you also wondered.

Gets my DNA bopping, anyway.

(alt. video link)

(h/t: The Google and AOL Radio)

Web page layout of the day

2012-01-19T16:43:00.001-05:00

(embiggen)

Swiped from a CBS local site.

And okay, with a little redaction by me. But Republicans like that sort of thing, don't they?

Next time you're ready to sneer at a call for collective action ...

2012-01-19T16:25:00.000-05:00

... watch this:

(alt. video link)

Thanks for all of your help.

(h/t: Progressive Change Campaign Committee)

I guess it all depends on what your definition of "like" is

2012-01-19T00:46:00.002-05:00

Hello, remote readers!

2012-01-18T01:09:00.002-05:00

To those of you who are kind enough to follow this blog by RSS, Facebook, G+, FriendFeed, and so on, how about dropping on over to the site itself today, 18 January 2012?

Something to think about. Something to act on.

[Update 19 January 2012] Thank you if you dropped by, and thank very much if you participated in any way.

Language, NYTimes, the language

2012-01-16T11:36:00.003-05:00

From the buried lede department, here's the second to last paragraph in a NYT article about some websites in Israel being broken into and defaced:

"Right now, we're not seeing anything that's especially interesting or especially dangerous," said Gadi Evron, former head of Internet security for the Israeli government.

What the NYT chose to run (via the AP) as their actual lede:

A hacker network that claims to be based in Saudi Arabia paralyzed the websites of Israel's stock exchange and national airline on Monday, escalating an international cyber war that has jolted this security-obsessed country.

[...] But the ongoing salvos by hackers who use anti-Israel language in their posts has revealed how vulnerable Israel is to cyber warfare, despite its sophisticated computer security units in the military and advanced high-tech sector.

Emph. added.

Point one: The authors of the article show little evidence of knowing anything about those who broke in, apart from what the supposed group supposedly claimed. Point two: much of the space in the article, right after the above lede, is taken up by describing not this incident, but another one that happened in the past. Point three: I doubt the AP or the NYT would say graffiti on a church counted as "escalating religious warfare" or bricks through a window should be described as "showing vulnerability to kinetic warfare."

For all we know, Mr. Ian Leitch et al, this "hacker network" is a bunch of bright, bored kids. You've presented no evidence, in other words, that these website intrusions were carried out by a military, government intelligence, or even quasi-military group. And by your own (grudging) admission, no sensitive sites were compromised. So calm down.

__________

[Added] This is not to say that locking down insecure websites isn't important. It is. But we ought to keep things in perspective.

Quiet revolutionaries

2012-01-16T10:49:00.001-05:00

While checking spelling on a word (and how the kids at Mozilla forgot to add this one to their dictionary, I'll never stop wondering about), I happened across a delightful little Flickr group, The Ministry of Reshelving.

Sure, some of the efforts have been done before, and there seems to be a little too much emphasis on 1984, at least recently, but you gotta love the concept.

Want some eye candy?

2012-01-15T11:54:00.000-05:00

Mozy has a collection of infographics on their site. The photos of CD collections are pretty funny, in how quaint they already look.

And since you ask, why, yes, I was on that site due to a desire to restore some data. 1.609 of 1.628 GB have already downloaded. Thanks, Mozy!

Two free gigabytes of storage isn't much in this day and age, but I do like the overall service. I encourage you to try it. BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE.

Wow. I agree with the GHEMRotRSTF on something!

2012-01-15T11:21:00.000-05:00

Looks like even Erick Erickson gets why SOPA and PIPA are bad. Good for him.

Also, Paul Ryan completely changed his tune, thanks to grassroots political pressure. Keep up the good work, everybody.

Want more details? See the EFF's recent article, "Blacklist Bills Becoming Hot Button Issue in 2012 Election."

Also.

[Added] Useful links in Comments.

Eye-opener

2012-01-15T09:40:00.000-05:00

It's not all fast cars and supermodels in the life of a pro athlete:

Emlen Tunnell, a star defender for the glittering, magnetic Giants, had been summoned to Green Bay. It was 1959, and the new Packers coach, Vince Lombardi, traded for Tunnell, ending his run of 11 record-setting seasons in New York.

A longtime Giants assistant, Lombardi was plotting a thorny overhaul of the bumbling Packers and needed allies from his roots. Tunnell, a dynamic safety and a Manhattan fixture in the golden era of New York sports, gamely made the trip halfway across the country to northeastern Wisconsin.

On arrival in his new home, Tunnell was told he had just doubled the black population in Green Bay. The city’s other African-American, Tunnell heard, was the shoeshine man at the Hotel Northland.

The word inspirational has been overused beyond the point of banality, so let me just say that, even if you don't give a hoot about football, the whole article is truly worth your time. Some things to applaud about Lombardi that I didn't know, too.

(h/t: KK, via email)

Line of the Day (2): 2012-01-14

2012-01-14T12:09:00.000-05:00

It is said that anything invented before you are three years old is a normal part of life; anything invented before you are thirty-three is new and exciting, and you can probably make a career in it. Subsequent inventions are just new-fangled fripperies that you can well do without.
-- Philip Hazel

The above is from the Preface of From Punched Cards To Flat Screens: A Technical Autobiography (PDF), which I look forward to reading in full.

(via, via, via)

These links presented as a public service

2012-01-14T10:25:00.000-05:00

See Vali Chandrasekaran's one-pager titled "Correlation or Causation?"

Of course, that won't settle every argument in forums on the Internet (that's why we call them wingnuts, after all), but you'll immediately have every sane reader on your side.

Hat tip: Tedra Osell. And via Cosma Shalizi in Comments under that post, see this. But be careful! You could waste all day playing with it!

Enhance your privacy while surfing the Web

2012-01-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

I haven't had a chance to look at it closely yet, but Privoxy looks like a Good Thing.

(h/t: Sean, in Comments (#49) at Crooked Timber)

Line of the Day: 2012-01-14

2012-01-14T09:48:00.000-05:00

If we define life as beginning at the moment a man first sets eyes on a woman, then not putting out for every dude on the street is an abortifacient.
-- Tedra Osell

A new Crooked Timber contributor! She seems like someone worth reading regularly. As is all of CT, of course.

Grace

2012-01-14T08:52:00.002-05:00

Your prayers are answered.

Adapted from Oddly Even's static version.

Line of the Day: 2012-01-13

2012-01-13T16:30:00.001-05:00

99% of the police make the rest of them look bad.
-- Jacob Applebaum

That line was delivered at 55:47* of his joint talk with Roger Dingledine, "How governments have tried to block Tor."

P.S. If you're wondering, "Should I watch this whole talk?", a hint may be gleaned by jumping to the 1:18:05** mark.

__________

* The link should bring you to that point, but for some reason, it's not getting there exactly. Sorry.

** (Same link problem, sorry.)

I always knew Henry Farrell was a man of exquisite taste

2012-01-13T14:30:00.000-05:00

But now that I find him agreeing with me, well!

"The New Gmail Sucks," says he.

See also Henry's comment #22. Know hope! And let's get this Googlebomb rolling!

(h/t: Substance McGravitas)

I've never seen "CSI: Miami," but ...

2012-01-13T14:13:00.000-05:00

... I still enjoyed this dish about David Caruso quite a bit. Jump ahead to about 3:45 if you, like me, find everyone on that set not named Rob Zombie to be as annoying as, well, David Caruso.

(alt. video link)

(h/t: Substance McGravitas. (Yes, that's the right link. The conversation about Glennzilla takes a turn after a while.))

As she is about so many things, ...

2012-01-13T12:48:00.000-05:00

... digby is right about that.

Sadly, Arkansas is not alone in this. Alabama and Mississippi appear to suffer from the same problem.

TimeAndDate.com says Georgia does, too, but perhaps they have recently gotten better?

[Update 2012-01-16 10:10] Just received the following via email:

Hi Brendan

Thanks for your email. We've checked with the official governement site for Georgia and the state will observe the holiday on Friday, November 25 this year. Our calendar has just been updated to reflect this, and we'll keep an eye on what happens for the following years.

Best Regards

Estelle Pettersen
Web editor - www.timeanddate.com

But are they PASSIONATE about it?

2012-01-13T10:25:00.000-05:00

Linkedin: constantly striving to be more annoying than Facebook:

(embiggen)

Mm-hmm. Wonder how many of them claimed this skill not because of emails like this?

(title: cf.)

In a sane world, everyone who knew "Bueller ... Bueller" would also memorize this

2012-01-13T09:35:00.000-05:00

Thanks to his often-controversial beliefs, unmanned drone Ben Stein has found himself unfairly ostracized, limited to just a handful of talk show appearances, guest columns, movie cameos, theatrically run documentaries, public speaking gigs, and corporate spokesperson jobs every year.

Bow down to Sean O'Neal. Hat tip to … all right, which one of you forgot to tell me that Gil Mann is back blogging at Rumproast? (I'm so far behind.)

And speaking of shoutouts and Rumproast: Betty Cracker. 'Nuff said.

Good move

2012-01-13T01:41:00.001-05:00

Shoutout to the NBA, and especially Mr. Grant Hill and Mr. Jared Dudley:

(alt. video link)

P.S. Not to be all stereotypical at a time like this, but seriously, IndyCarScene.com? That asshat ("geistC6") is one of your site administrators? Pretty fucking sad.

Oh, hey look!

2012-01-13T00:43:00.000-05:00

Big time, baby!

(h/t: Uncle Eb, via seekrit channelz)

Posted as a public service announcement

2012-01-12T18:20:00.000-05:00

You're a good man, Senator Franken.

Not as cool as my Streb hat, of course ...

2012-01-12T17:55:00.000-05:00

... but I passed by some high school kids today, and my pride in being able to identify the headgear outweighed my embarrassment at realizing a few minutes later, "Uh, those have probably been around since before this afternoon."

Can't wait to hear the wingnut fury over this one!

2012-01-11T13:48:00.003-05:00

Seen today's Google Doodle?

Happy birthday, Nicolas Steno!

(Nicolas Steno is the patron saint of all those who take dictation. Or not!)

At first, I thought ...

2012-01-11T13:35:00.000-05:00

... (perhaps understandably) that the headline was Twinkies make Hostess seek bankruptcy protection.

(h/t: KK, via email)

Windows Updates: addendum

2012-01-11T09:43:00.000-05:00

A follow-up from yesterday's post, where I said, in part:

If you don't have Automatic Updates turned on, please be a good Netizen and visit update.microsoft.com.

It looks like not all of the available updates from Microsoft got downloaded and installed automatically, at least for me, even though I have Automatic Updates turned on. Perhaps this is because they are marked Important instead of Critical. So, visit that above link, if you please. Or, if you're on one of them newfangled versions of Windows, just run Windows Update from the Start menu.

Your Internet thanks you.

Line of the Day: 2012-01-11

2012-01-11T08:13:00.000-05:00

Usefulness: A

“This really depends on whether or not you find performance art useful. One moment, Filibuster will be pulling books off the shelf, the next he’ll be drowning a cat toy in his water dish, the next he’ll be taking an umbrella off the hook and walking around it (closed) in his mouth (he’s a pretty big cat, but this is still an odd sight to see.) Once, he broke into a bag of cat litter, piled it up in a big mound on the floor and took a shit on it. Matthew Barney, eat your heart out.”

(h/t: MK, via email)

Runners-up:

From the same review:

Huggability: B

“He tolerates being hugged, but he meows all the while. Look, for Filibuster, affection is an ACTIVITY. Affection is freaking ART. It’s not for laying around like a lump. He has to walk back and forth, meow like crazy and then bite you if you stop for even a second. The only time he ever sat on my lap was the one time I meditated. He put his little paw on my hand and sat there with me. True story.”

Also good (different review):

Appearance: B

“I’m not fat; I’m plush.”

And speaking of Internet Explorer ...

2012-01-10T19:48:00.003-05:00

... this is an interesting wrinkle: Microsoft has announced that they will be automatically updating your copy of IE to the latest version your PC supports.

You can download a blocker if for some reason you don't want this to happen.

(h/t: Chester Wisniewski)

If it's the second Tuesday of the month, it must be?

2012-01-10T19:14:00.000-05:00

An intriguing statement, made by Chester Wisniewski (MP3) at about 5:48 of Episode 75 of the Sophos Security Chet Chat, recorded 14 October 2011:

From Virus Bulletin [link added --ed.] last week in Spain: Microsoft presented some really interesting material, talking about 99% of attacks against a given exploit occur after the exploit has been patched, and many times, more than thirty days after that exploit has been patched.

I think this might have been said during Holly Stewart's talk (PDF), titled "Top exploits of 2011." See slide 16.

Yes, today is Patch Tuesday. If you don't have Automatic Updates turned on, please be a good Netizen and visit update.microsoft.com.

(Using Internet Explorer.)

(Just this once!)

;)

Fair enough. I mean, I consider blogging and tweeting to be crack.

2012-01-10T09:47:00.000-05:00

Swiped from Uncle Eb, who simply does not care for the Facebook. (Although when presented like this, Eb? Hmmmm? Questions remain!)

Remember, kids ...

2012-01-06T10:10:00.000-05:00

... always ask President Santorum if it's okay with him.

(h/t: KK, via email)

"It’s the first time I ever heard a programmed drum in Tuareg guitar music."

2012-01-05T07:05:00.000-05:00

Not actually a post about VW SUVs.

ur-hipsters?

Can't wait till the suits from Big Content hear about this:

Digital filesharing doesn’t need the internet. This is the case at least in Western Africa and other parts of the developing world, where computers aren’t yet consumer goods for most and, even if they were, web access isn’t exactly New York City. Lovers of music still get it done, however, sharing files between knockoff cell phones via bluetooth connections and accumulating song collections in memory cards and bitrates that would probably make most in our lossless world laugh. It’s created a music culture that’s uniquely underground, an awesome anything-goes world of No Limit-style rap marrying Megaman-synth workouts, strange new techno-folks, and various other things so far untaggable.

Portlander Christopher Kirkley put together a compilation of stuff collected from the cell phones of music listeners in Western Africa and released it a few years ago on cassette, called simply Music From Saharan Cell Phones Vol. 1, via his Sahel Sounds. Since then, he’s taken on the mammoth task of tracking down every artist on it, who will now get 60-percent of the profits from a rerelease of the compilation last month on vinyl. Over the holidays, I got the chance to ask Kirkley a few questions about cell phone sharing culture and the process of putting the comp together.

There's more, including download links for volumes one and two.

(h/t: NYT/Bits | pic. source: National Archives UK)

[Added] So far, it's quite a bit different from what I expected. (In a good way.)

I'm sorry, but when did post-coital bliss get to be a "weird trick?"

2012-01-05T06:36:00.000-05:00

Or maybe that ad was aimed at a visitor profile not quite matching mine?

I have more fun when I delete my tracking cookies …

Deep thought

2012-01-04T22:35:00.000-05:00

I'm getting a lot of Gmail ads for Botox, wrinkle cream, and moving services. I wonder if that's their way of responding to my curmudgeonly insistence on switching back to the old look (which is BETTAR) every time they try to switch me to the new.

Audio frees the video child

2012-01-04T14:55:00.001-05:00

If you'd like to untether yourself and you don't have a fancy enough device to stream video while you're untethered, here are links to files containing the audio portion of the last three vids I've implored you to watch. Visit the download page for each and click the big blue "Download Now" button. (Whereupon you'll have to wait twenty seconds and then you'll get the actual MP3 link, which you can then right-click and save on. Sorry. Nothing is truly free.) If that fails, try here.

[Added] In Comments, Alastair points out a more direct option for the Moglen audio files. Thanks, Alastair.

The files are a little over 100 MB each. There's a torrent option on the respective download pages.

Let me know if you have any problems. Or successes, for that matter. Thanks.

• Eben Moglen: Freedom in the Cloud: download page

• Eben Moglen: Freedom in the Cloud (Q&A): download page

• Ethan Zuckerman: Cute Cats and the Arab Spring: download page

"Freedom in The Cloud"

2012-01-04T12:29:00.000-05:00

[Update] Audio-only files now available for download, if you prefer. See this post.

__________

Sorry to have back to back posts featuring videos that are probably longer than you care to sit still for, but there it is. I guess yesterday was a big teevee day for me.

At any rate, here is something else, a talk given by Eben Moglen, that I wish I could get everyone to watch. I'll say right up front that I don't agree with everything he says, and we can talk about that in the Comments if you'd like, but I think he raises a valuable set of points that everyone who cares about privacy ought to be thinking hard about. You don't need to be a software developer, even though that's who's in the room where the talk was recorded. You only need to care about the long-term consequences of ever more efficient gathering of bits of personal information, be it by government or private industry. And remember, we're not just talking computers here. These concerns apply just as much if you use a phone, a credit, debit, or club card, an E-ZPass, the list goes on and on, and will only get longer. We like our conveniences. And we shouldn't have to suffer for that.

Sometimes I think the door has slammed shut on our ability to do anything about controlling access to our thoughts, tastes, and social connections, but Eben Moglen convinces me that the fight is not yet lost, and that all of us can still be part of that effort.

Following are two videos. The first is the talk itself, the second is the Q&A. For some quick background, you might want to glance first at Moglen's Wikipedia page. Short version: he's a guru and we're lucky to have him on our side.

Also, he is a hugely entertaining speaker. Trust me, after the first couple of minutes of technical glitches at the start of the first video, you're in for a great hour or two.

(alt. video link)

Want more? Visit Moglen's personal site and the FreedomBox Foundation.

"Cute Cats and the Arab Spring"

2012-01-03T14:40:00.001-05:00

[Update] Audio-only file now available for download, if you prefer. See this post.

__________

"When Social Media Meet Social Change"

Here is the 2011 Vancouver Human Rights Lecture, given by Ethan Zuckerman. Even if you think you can't stand to hear one more word about Facebook and Twitter saving the commoners from the ruling classes, I encourage you to give this a chance. Despite his obvious enthusiasm for new media and what it may afford in bringing about monumental change, Zuckerman is quite realistic about the limitations and the risks. Also, he hates the word "viral."

It's about fifty-four minutes long, plus about thirteen minutes of Q&A at the end. If you'd rather download an MP3 of the highlights, see Cory Doctorow's tweet or right-click and save this directly.

Without further ado ...

(alt. video link)

Related links: Ethan Zuckerman's blog and a cute cat.

Update your Windows machines

2012-01-03T11:43:00.000-05:00

Microsoft released some out-of-band patches a few days ago. From your perspective as an individual computer user, they're not critical, but they are important, according to Microsoft's official terminology. From the perspective of being a responsible Netizen, you should do your bit asap. This patching only takes a few minutes and doesn't even require a reboot, so why not do it now?

Run Windows Update or Microsoft Update, depending on your version of Windows, or just visit update.microsoft.com, using Internet Explorer.

Gory details on Security Week, among many others.

[Added] Thanks, Jack, for catching the typo.

Shorter of the Day

2012-01-03T10:51:00.000-05:00

Shorter Debbie Cook:

I've been a high-level member of Scientology for over 30 years and never stirred any trouble before, but now I will.

I hate the fundraising. Scientology already has over $1 billion that it is not spending.

I hate the expensive new empty buildings.

I hate that people who reached the magic level of "clear" are told they have to re-do it so the church can make money. They did this to me too and now I'm poor.

I hate that David Miscavige has taken total power over the church when it was supposed to be run by executive committees.

I hate that the executives supposed to be in charge are in a special Scientology jail just for them, where they also sent me for a while.

I want you to do something.

I want you to stop making donations (except for buying Scientology services).

I want you to forward this e-mail anonymously to every client of the Scientology corporation you know.

(Previously).

A quick test of free-ocr.com

2012-01-03T10:13:00.000-05:00

A short while ago, I happened upon free-ocr.com, a site that does optical character recognition on an image file that you upload (PDF, JPG, GIF, TIFF or BMP), using as its engine the open source package Tesseract. It's quite a handy site.

This post is mostly a note to self, and a way to report some results to T. Reinhardt, the site's proprietor. But I thought some of you might also be interested to see some examples of just how hard a problem this is, and where the current state of the art lies.

(1, 2) Free OCR performed just about flawlessly on two screen shots of my favorite author bio of all time. The images were taken of a search result on Google Books and cropped down to remove all the stuff outside of the images of the book page. I found this result especially impressive in light of some artifacts I left in on purpose in the second image, along with this, from Free OCR's FAQs:

Can I OCR screen shots?

Our OCR engine requires images at a resolution of 150 dpi or greater and as such it is not optimal suited for reading PC screen shots which are only 72dpi. An Additional problem is that the fonts used for web design are usually sans serif fonts, which are more difficult to recognize than serif fonts.
But as we process your uploaded image for better accuracy it might be possible to OCR even screen shots. just give it a try. In the most cases the result is faster than typing all by hand.

(3) A much harder test -- the sign featured in yesterday's healthcare post -- produced results that were as error-filled as I expected.

(4) A quick crop of (3), so that just the sign's text and one extraneous bit of the image (the tip of Wile E.'s tail) remained. Knowing as little as I do about the field of OCR, I was a bit surprised at this one. I expected some errors, but not quite as many. In retrospect, I'd guess that part of the problem is that the photo of the sign was taken off-axis. I don't know if this is the skew mentioned in the FAQs, or if skew refers to rotation around the z-axis.

Following are thumbnails of the images uploaded to Free OCR and the resulting text. Just to be fussy, the text results have red pilcrows (¶) that I added by hand. Those correspond to where Free OCR detected a line break.

That a browser recognizes the HTML
code ¶ and not the word pilcrow amuses me.

Click the images to see them at full size.

Thanks for your site, T. Hope this report is of some use to you.

(3)		~ ml %¶ ,» ‘¶ V Q me you can‘? afford <1 iraw,¶ \ to an airport - you’ q¶ ~%mmW%~¶ ‘ Y°"'“ 9" a free colom$¢%da'¶
(4)		If you can‘? afford a doctor.¶ o to an airport - you'll gt? G¶ it-ee >_<-my and q breasf exam,¶ Icmdinuf you menhon Al Qaeda,¶ you get u free co\0nos¢¢py_¶
(1)		ABOUT THE AUTHOR¶ Isaac Asimov was born in the Soviet Union to his great¶ surprise. He moved quickly to correct the situation.¶ When his parents emigrated to the United States, Isaac¶ (three years old at the time) stowed away in their¶ baggage. He has been an American citizen since the age¶ of eight.¶ Brought up in Brooklyn, and educated in its public¶ schools, he eventually found his way to Columbia¶ University and, over the protests of the school¶ administration, managed to annex a series of degrees in¶ chemistry, up to and including a Ph.D. He then inﬁltrated¶ Boston University and climbed the academic ladder,¶ ignoring all cries of outrage, until he found himself¶ Professor of Biochemistry.¶ Meanwhile, at the age of nine, he found the love of his¶ life (in the inanimate sense) when he discovered his ﬁrst¶ science-ﬁction magazine. By the time he was eleven, he¶ began to write stories, and at eighteen, he actually¶ worked up the nerve to submit one. It was rejected. After¶ four long months of tribulation and suffering, he sold his¶ ﬁrst story and, thereafter, he never looked back.¶ In 1941, when he was twenty-one years old, he wrote¶ the classic short story “Nightfall” and his future was¶ assured. Shortly before that he had begun writing his¶
(2)		assured. Shortly before that he had begun writing his¶ robot stories, and shortly after that he had begun his¶ Foundation series.¶ What was left except quantity? At the present time, he¶ has published over 260 books, distributed through every¶ major division of the Dewey system of library¶ classiﬁcation, and shows no signs of slowing up. He¶ remains as youthful, as lively, and as lovable as ever, and¶ grows more handsome with each year. You can be sure¶ that this is so since he has written this little essay himself¶ and his devotion to absolute objectivity is notorious.¶ He is married to Janet Jeppson, psychiatrist and writer,¶ has two children by a previous marriage, and lives in¶ New York City.¶ Isaac Asimov¶ November, 1982¶

What I wouldn't give to hear the GOP candidates ...

2012-01-03T09:33:00.000-05:00

... discuss this:

A once proud and subversive warrior tribe that deified freakdom, drag queens have become awfully mainstream. Tame transvestites are now passing for Kardashians …

Also: screen grab of headline, just in case Just Another Friend from L.A. doesn't click the above link.

Line of the Day: 2012-01-03

2012-01-03T09:17:00.000-05:00

Oh, Tony, I'm sorry, but this is too good.

Again, Romo could not rehabilitate his image of being Mr. October in a league in which the most important games are played in December, January and February.
-- Jeré Longman

Harsh!

(But why does Jeré Longman hate America's Team™? Communist. Next thing you know, he'll start questioning the divine appointment of Tim Tebow.)

(h/t: KK)

Know hope! (And I do mean know.)

2012-01-02T23:40:00.000-05:00

From Sarah van Gelder:

The 12 Most Hopeful Trends to Build On in 2012

Not a bad listicle at all.

(h/t: Nation of Change)

"How healthcare works in the USA"

2012-01-02T19:17:00.001-05:00

Previously.

(h/t: Caesar Passee)

Happy New Year, from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories!

2012-01-02T11:31:00.000-05:00

Champagne: Why should only the bottle get to be a deadly weapon?

Full construction instructions over at the Labs. More pix on oskay's Flickr stream.

(h/t: KK, via email)

That old time religion

2012-01-02T10:58:00.001-05:00

Oh, my.

She said the church is hoarding "well in excess of a billion dollars" in IAS donations, in violation of policies written by church founder L. Ron Hubbard. The money was supposed to be used to disseminate the religion, she said in the letter.

"Only a tiny fraction has ever been spent. ... Only the interest earned from the holdings (has) been used very sparingly to fund projects through grants."

The church did not respond Sunday to requests for comment.

Hard to get the story straight on a holiday, i'n't it?

Yep. It appears that another top-ranking Scientologist simply does not care for the Big Boss and his ways and has finally found the courage to say something.

[Debra J.] Cook said in her letter that the dominance of church leader David Miscavige as the sole source of power in Scientology violates a system of checks and balances put in place by Hubbard before he died in 1986. She said top church executives who could check his authority face "long and harsh" discipline programs and have been absent from their posts for years.

The above excerpts are from Thomas C. Tobin and Joe Childs. And that other valuable watchdog, Tony Ortega, is also all over it.

Says someone on the Why We Protest boards: 'This is going to be very enturbulative."

Love that word.

(pic. source | art source)

Line of the Day: 2012-01-02

2012-01-02T10:34:00.004-05:00

No context. Sometimes I just like the way things sound.

(The urge of Bradshaw's largely awful characters to brutalize each other can start to seem almost logical once you get to know them.)
-- Hilton Als

Still wondering why you should join Google+?

2011-12-31T14:57:00.000-05:00

Even after the world's most brilliant stick figures tried to make the case?

Well, you may already know this, but just in case not, here's another reason I just happened across. After a brief moment of terror, I mean.

It turns out, though, that Picasa did not delete everything I'd ever uploaded. Blogger is merely reflecting the new Google policy:

Picasa Web Albums and Google+

[...]

You get more free storage: Google+ provides free storage for your photos, which are automatically resized to 2048 pixels. Like Picasa Web, video uploads 15 minutes or shorter are free.

Actually, if you follow the quoted link and scroll to the bottom, you'll see that you don't actually have to join G+ to get unlimited image storage. (With the minor annoyance that, at some point, you'll have to resize your images to the 2048 pixel limit yourself, before uploading, rather than having Picasa do it for you on the fly.)

Anyway, a good bit of news, I thought.

(Now, will Picasa yet allow you to upload animated GIFs?)

I hate to say I told you so, BUT

2011-12-31T14:01:00.000-05:00

When the best you can say about your current status is, hey, at least I did better than Michele Bachmann, I think you don't even have Joementum.

← An ad accompanying the article just added to the lulz. If you've spent any time reading political websites this past decade, you'll recognize it as an obvious piece of Newsmax (slogan: "We are 1%! (less wingnutty than WorldNewsDaily)" clickbait. However, I think for once we can all agree on choice (c).

I can get out and run faster than that!

2011-12-31T12:10:00.001-05:00

Due to a serendipitous click on the latest Google Doodle, which unsurprisingly led here, and probably some luck of the draw, I happened across an encouraging story about NASA. However!

NASA’s twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory probes were launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in September. The first moon probe is slated to arrive in lunar orbit beginning on Saturday, December 31. The second prove will enter the moon’s orbit on Sunday, January 1.

Nearly half a century ago, we could get there in two and a half days!!!1! This must be Obama's fault!!!1!

Actually, due to the liberal bias at NASA, the long trip time was a design choice. It pays off in increased fuel efficiency, as the welfare queen rocket gets a ~~free lunch~~ gravity "assist" from the hard-working Earth and Moon.

And, as Don "I for one welcome our bot overlords" McArthur is no doubt already furiously typing, it's not like there's any need to carry food, water, and air.

Also, the mission acronymizers should be taken to task for shamelessly pandering to Python fans, the set of whom intersects with 99% of spaceflight fans, for some reason. Or maybe I project.

__________

There's a pretty cool rendering of the travel path starting at about 3:08 of this video:

(post title: John Connor)

At the risk of publicizing yet another way to spam on Twitter ...

2011-12-31T11:36:00.000-05:00

... I have to say that this is pretty clever:

(alt. video link)

For the originators of the idea, I mean. This is truly a one and done thing. (Why am I trying to appeal to spammers' better angels?)

(h/t: bad banana blog. Yeah. That guy.)

E-commerce is hard!

2011-12-31T10:35:00.000-05:00

(The truncation of the e-store's slogan was purely serendipitous.)

Probably just as well that I don't have a camera handy

2011-12-30T18:24:00.001-05:00

The moon is behind a narrow strip of cloud, and it's lighting up the whole thing. Covers an arc at least a quarter of the way across the sky, pretty much perpendicular to its normal path, as though it had suddenly decided to make a right turn at Albakoikee and was leaving a wake, or spraying a cloud of exhaust from its retro rockets.

As to the title, it's not that I fear I'd be unable to capture the beauty. Oh, no. It's that the CIA doesn't like us taking pictures of their chemtrails.

I think we can safely say there have been worse promos for a teevee show

2011-12-30T08:22:00.001-05:00

(alt. video link)

(h/t: KK, via email)

Hey, look who finally made to the big time

2011-12-29T12:42:00.000-05:00

Link to the article, for the few of you who haven't already memorized it.

Line of the Day: 2011-12-28

2011-12-28T09:26:00.002-05:00

What's in a name?

Collett lured Elvis to the opposite end of the lagoon with a heaping helping of kangaroo meat while Faulkner plunged, fully clothed, into the water.

True story! Ripped from context!

(h/t: KK, via email)

"Lying or stupid?" is never easy to decide upon with Michele Bachmann

2011-12-28T09:13:00.000-05:00

You know, all of these kind of questions really aren’t about what people are concerned about right now.

You mean, besides all the people who constitute your base, amirite?

But on a more hopeful note, as I noted elsewhere, "David Gregory challenged Republican presidential hopeful..." is a phrase all too rarely seen. Who knows, the new year is just around the corner …

I know, I know. You're thinking, I see someone got into the champagne a little early.

Oh, and here is a post by someone famous (maybe!) ...

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

... that I read in the print edition and kept forgetting to pass along: "Who Wrote Shakespeare?", [ostensibly] by Eric Idle.

Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2011

2011-12-28T07:44:00.000-05:00

Over at Vagabond Scholar, Batocchio carries on the tradition started by the late great Al Weisel, "The Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves." More than five dozen of them, for your sampling and reading pleasure, and hopefully, in many cases, your pleasant discovery.

There is also a Twitter hashtag that you may want to check in on: #jonswift2011.

Thanks again, Batocchio.

From a quick first skim, so far, Thers has my favorite title.

I have not actually read all of them yet, but right off the bat, I want to recommend Tom Levenson's piece, "I’m Shocked! Shocked To Find That There Are Neutrinos Going On Here." [Added: and from a link in that article, have a look around Matt Strassler's site. Maybe start with his About This Site page.]

Bleg

2011-12-23T09:21:00.001-05:00

Any post on this blog from the last year stand out in your mind?

As especially good, I mean. Not all those other ones.

Why I'm asking: Batocchio is putting together the Jon Swift Memorial Roundup 2011 and has very kindly asked me to participate in the tradition started by Jon, "The Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves."

Here's the 2010 edition.

Drop any suggestions you have in the comments, or in my email inbox, or twitter stream, or what have you. Thanks.

Stream of consciousness. Or something.

2011-12-23T06:12:00.000-05:00

So, last night, I'm waiting at JFK to pick up some people, and since traffic on the ride down had been heavier than expected and I'd had little else to do besides drink coffee, I headed for the men's room.

"Hmm, that's odd," I thought. "Seems a bit late in the year for a bug to be hanging out in the urinal." But there it was.

Sometimes I overthink these things, so just as I often break stride to avoid stepping on ants, I directed my stream below the bug. But then I couldn't resist seeing if I could, you know, make it move, so I started inching the stream upward to just below it. The bug didn't move. I finished recycling my coffee and stepped away from the urinal. Automatic flush kicked in. "Oh, no! I am guilty of negligent ~~homicide~~ ~~insecticide~~ ~~entomolocide~~ whatever!"

But then even with water pouring down the back wall, the bug refused to budge. "Must already be dead," I thought. "But boy, it's really stuck on there."

And then, walking towards the sinks, I noticed a bug in the next urinal. And the next. And the next. And then the light bulb finally came on. A story I'd heard somewhere bubbled up, and I remembered thinking when I'd heard it, "What a smart idea."

Oh, yeah. We of the stand-up-to-pee persuasion like nothing finer than having something to aim at. But I wonder if the designers ever thought about people who feel that ridiculous guilt about killing bugs? Or, who knows, maybe that made me aim even more carefully.

And yes, it was Terminal Four.

(Pic source, obvs.)

Kind of like a waiting room, with the teevee tuned to FoxNews

2011-12-22T17:56:00.000-05:00

On my first trip to North Korea in 1989, I made a nuisance of myself by randomly barging into private homes. I wanted to see how ordinary North Koreans actually live, and people were startled but hospitable.

The most surprising thing I found was The Loudspeaker affixed to a wall in each home. The Loudspeaker is like a radio but without a dial or off switch. In the morning, it awakens the household with propaganda. (In his first golf outing, Comrade Kim Jong-il shoots five holes-in-one!) It blares like that all day.

(source)

It's the perfect time of year for an Easter Egg!

2011-12-21T23:43:00.001-05:00

Go to the Google and type in let it snow.

Or just click here.

In either case, let that new tab or window be for a while.

Okay, I'll stop helping now.

(h/t: MK, via email)

P.S. It was about 60° here in the northeast US today. Oddly enough, I did not hear James Inhofe or any other Republican member of Congress use that as a reason to hold a photo op.

Well, since you asked ...

2011-12-21T07:25:00.000-05:00

Email threads ("Conversations?") look like Facebook. You've already done that once.
In a case where there are several areas filled with text on the screen, and one does want to pack as much text as practical onto the screen, I like boxes around things, not just horizontal lines between them. It's easier for my eyes to stay focused on what I'm reading. See, for a good example, the NYT's home page. This applies to both the particular conversations and the lists of messages, as in the Inbox.
The icons on the new toolbar take longer to recognize than the old toolbar's text-labeled buttons. Out of the corner of my eye, so to speak, they're just gray blobs. I actually have to stop and look at them, if you know what I mean. And despite their apparent minimalism, the toolbar takes up more space. More on the new toolbar.
I don't like the way the "folders" (Labels) list expands and contracts in response to my mouse hovering over it. Just leave it static, and let me decided to expand it with a click. I've chosen which items to display in the list, again, so to speak, so I can see the things I want out of the corner of my eye.
The shades of gray color scheme wouldn't be so bad if the ads in the right column weren't filled with bright blue text. I mean, I know you're offering a free webmail service as a way to get me to look at ads, but come on. Yes, I'm aware there are themes available to change the look. None of them addresses this problem satisfactorily (although I have to admit, the Planet theme is pretty cool). How about a theme that makes things look like the soon-to-be old Gmail look?

I grant that some of these things are in the category of Dumb User Dislikes New Things Instinctively And Will Soon Get Used To, but still, you asked. I don't see what the new design buys me, even if I imagine getting used to it. I can't see that I'll be getting anything new out of it, so why force what appears to be nothing but, literally, a new look upon me?

Feeling old? Maybe this'll help.

2011-12-20T10:18:00.000-05:00

Always nice to encounter someone worse off than you, amirite?

(h/t: FS, via email)

See what happened because Obama cut the defense budget???1?

2011-12-19T18:08:00.000-05:00

Which I don't doubt at least a few wingnuts will exclaim, in response to this news:

U.S. drone hijacked by GPS hack?

A U.S. stealth drone in Iranian hands was hijacked by using software that spoofed GPS coordinates, forcing it to land at those coordinates, the Christian Science Monitor reported today.

The really disturbing part?

Military officials have known about the aircraft's GPS vulnerability since 2003, according to a published report cited by The Register.

Which only proves once again that Obama uses time travel because he hates America so much.

(minor housekeeping note)

2011-12-19T16:34:00.000-05:00

The post label the myth of "voter fraud" and the reality of voter suppression is suddenly not allowed, and I'm guessing it's because the new Blogger interface simply does not care for scare quotes.

I put this post up just in case someone linked to the old label; such links should be updated to point to the new label, the myth of voter fraud and the reality of voter suppression. I will be adjusting the labels on the old posts momentarily.

Sorry if you clicked over just to read a post that is boring even by the "standards" of this blog. (Ah, good, scare quotes are still okay in the post body.) As partial compensation, and because I believe that if there is anything more important to modern humor than scare quotes, it is Venn diagrams, allow me to pass along this fine image, sent to me by MK. You even get to click it to big it!

Your chickenhawks are coming home to roost

2011-12-19T16:17:00.000-05:00

Following is something several of my political junkie friends and I have been saying for years, but let us not quibble about precedence, and instead be glad that someone with a larger megaphone has also come to these realizations.

Mr. Dionne, the floor is yours.

Newt Gingrich and the revenge of the base

It is one of the true delights of a bizarrely entertaining Republican presidential contest to watch the apoplectic fear and loathing of so many GOP establishmentarians toward Newt Gingrich. They treat him as an alien body whose approach to politics they have always rejected.

In fact, Gingrich’s rise is the revenge of a Republican base that takes seriously the intense hostility to President Obama, the incendiary accusations against liberals and the Manichaean division of the world between an “us” and a “them” that his party has been peddling in the interest of electoral success.

The right-wing faithful knows Gingrich pioneered this style of politics, and they laugh at efforts to cast the former House speaker as something other than a “true conservative.” They know better.

The establishment was happy to use Gingrich’s tactics to win elections, but it never expected to lose control of the party to the voters it rallied with such grandiose negativity. Now, the joke is on those who manipulated the base. The base is striking back, and Newt is their weapon.

The rest.

On a closely related note, the Education Fund of Americans for Democratic Action is conducting a "Congressional Briefing on Voter Suppression" tomorrow. If you're in the DC area, they'd love to have you join them. See the Facebook event page to RSVP and to see who else is going, and get more info here.

Nothing against Capt. Picard, but ...

2011-12-19T11:10:00.000-05:00

... just in case you wanted something a little different from the familiar, here is a squirrel doing a facepalm. You're welcome!

Especially you, David Miscavige!

(Swiped from Ecoconsultancy: "The 21 most horrific social media facepalms of 2011.")

Line of the Day: 2011-12-19

2011-12-19T09:59:00.000-05:00

-- Christopher Hitchens, via Buzzfeed

[Added] Oh, you wanted to see an even younger version of Hitch? Jack has kindly provided.

Believe it or not, SOPA could shut this down, too

2011-12-19T09:37:00.000-05:00

Because there is music in the background, from time to time. Music about which some giant soulless conglomerate could claim WE HAZ COPYRITE!!!1!

Politics aside, this is why the Internet was invented, and why it is the greatest invention of all time: "The 30 Most Important Cats Of 2011."

Some of the commentary is pretty good, too.

30: The Saddest Kitten Of All Time

Kitten: "Sadness is not a temporary affliction to be shrugged off and discarded. It is a mode of being; a way of life; a heaviness on the soul that can never be lifted because its weight is the weight of existence itself."

You: "JESUS CHRIST LIGHTEN UP YOU ARE A KITTEN."

#24I haven't yet* watched all the videos, but I will say that of the still pix, #24 is my favorite. (As always, clikit2bigit.)

* (h/t: MK, via email, who suggests a healthy consumption rate: "12 days of Christmas = 30 most important cats.")

The caption for this picture is NOT "The bus driver said, 'Hold my beer and watch this.'"

2011-12-18T18:28:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's probably in bad taste, since there were some sad consequences. Sorry, couldn't help myself. My inner eight-year-old said, "Cool!"

One of these gingerbread men does not have a last name

2011-12-18T15:38:00.004-05:00

(h/t: MK, via email)

Apparently, you can now see my blog posts on my Google+ page

2011-12-18T11:39:00.004-05:00

From now on. Assuming I clicked all the right buttons, I mean.

Q: Why would you want to see my blog posts on Google+?
A: Four letters: xkcd.

If it works, thank this page.

[Added] It may require switching to the new Blogger interface to make this happen. This may only be a temporary requirement: I did have to switch to make this post appear on my G+ page, because the particular Setting referred to in the page linked to above does not appear under Settings in the old interface. I will have to wait until I put up another post to see if the setting change I made under the new interface persists, even though I have switched back to the old interface.

[Added2] It does appear that you have to be using the new Blogger interface is you want the Google+ posting to happen as described above; i.e., the pop-up prompt did not appear, nor did the auto-posting happen when I switched back to the old interface and put up a new post. If you really hate the new interface and want your Blogger blog posts to appear on G+, you can do this by hand: switch to the new interface, click "Share" under the post(s) you want to share, switch back to the old interface. Tedious, I grant.

Sometimes, less really is less

2011-12-18T11:09:00.005-05:00

The new Gmail toolbar (top) versus the old Gmail toolbar (bottom):

(embiggen)

Maybe it's just me,* but sometimes words are just plain better than icons. I think this is particularly so in an application that has keyboard shortcuts: the words serve as a mnemonic. And note also how the old toolbar takes up less space, despite having two more buttons.

I'm betting that had I not put the old toolbar under the new one, it would have taken you considerably longer to puzzle out what the buttons in the top one do.

* It's not. It's really not. Trust me on this.

Snarky picture of the day

2011-12-16T14:45:00.003-05:00

An oldie, maybe, but new to me:

Swiped from John D. Cook, who says he got it from David Walsh.

What's the only force that can make good people do evil things?

2011-12-16T08:35:00.004-05:00

"It's just high school kids being kids and administrators doing what they do on a daily basis -- keeping kids safe," Carney said …

"Carney" being Riverhead High School superintendent Nancy Carney and "keeping kids safe" being suspending students for Tebowing in the school hallway.

(h/t: Twitter trending topics | title: cf.)

Runner-up for Line of the Day: 2011-12-15

2011-12-15T12:52:00.004-05:00

Mitt Romney arrived in New York City on Wednesday, newly endorsed by Christine O’Donnell, who we have not seen since her not-a-witch race for the U.S. Senate. She praised Romney for having “been consistent since he changed his mind.” I so miss Christine O’Donnell.
-- Gail Collins

If you were paying attention to my tweets earlier today, you know the only reason why Gail didn't win the day.

(h/t: KK, via email)

It may not completely win the War On Christmas, but ...

2011-12-15T12:42:00.006-05:00

(embiggen)

Artist: Glenn McCoy.

(h/t: Ocean, via email)

I gotta stop checking the NYT when the morning has otherwise started off well

2011-12-15T07:53:00.003-05:00

FFS, does EVERYTHING have to be a Brand®?

Nice to start off the day with a small victory

2011-12-15T06:32:00.004-05:00

(embiggen)

Nothing like being validated by one of the world's most powerful companies!

By the way, if you're a map nerd, Google Map Maker is fun.

And speaking of which, I just got my first addition to that approved two days ago, too! This is excitement matched only by the first time I clicked Edit on Wikipedia and fixed something like it pays attention to it's apostrophes or it gets the hose again.

Southbound

2011-12-14T10:10:00.002-05:00

This article on Antarctica is a really good read. Cool pix, too.

Kind of amazing to think that the South Pole was a monumental struggle to reach just one hundred years ago.

Still think there's no difference between (D) and (R)?

2011-12-13T16:14:00.002-05:00

Ask someone who has the luxury of distance to gain a little perspective.

download.com needs a couple of dope slaps from all of us

2011-12-13T10:55:00.028-05:00

One of the longest-visited and most useful sites on the Web is showing signs of what happens when you get acquired by a giant corporation. I've noticed a couple of serious problems, including:

Download links that lead to third-party sites, at least one of which served up something that is clearly not what is advertised on the page, and
Software that is stored on download.com's servers, but which contains malware-like behavior; i.e, attempting to open up a webpage dubious enough to cause my antivirus software to block it.

Starting nearly a month ago, I have been trying to report these problems through a number of channels, including clicking the "Report a problem" link on the relevant page, posting advisories in the user review sections, sending email to several different support addresses, and tweeting @CNETDownloads, and I have gotten no response. Nor, more importantly, were the problems I reported addressed.

I finally thought to look on Facebook, and did at least get an acknowledgment there. However, the discussion thread seems to have been removed from their wall. You can still see it, but only if you know the exact link.

I am happy to report that the two specific problems I reported have been addressed as of late this morning. (He said after checking his links for this post. Thanks, Nathan.) Still, it seems worth leaving this little rant up, because I shouldn't have had to work so hard to get my messages delivered. A "Report a Problem" link should actually do something, shouldn't it?

And ideally, some sort of algorithm would scan user input and add a little weight to posts and emails from people who have been members since forever. I mean, the word Community hasn't become completely empty, has it, CBS?

Don't answer that.

And there is of course the larger problem of putting up a download link that points to a third-party server. I mean, if there is an easier way to open up a security hole that you could drive a truck through, I can't think of it.

That should never have happened.

I don't have a problem with them referring users to highly credible sites, such as addons.mozilla.org, but you can't let the guy running joes-sketchy-server.ru or whatever cash in on the trust that the download.com name carries. Or once carried.

There's yet another new annoyance. I am grateful to Trent Todd, in that FB discussion thread, for pointing out that it is actually much more obnoxious than I had realized. Here's a brief description.

Rather than just serving up the software directly, download.com has recently begun serving up their own wrapper installation program. It has been using this approach for an increasing number of specific software packages, at least based on my sampling. In addition to handling the download you actually want, this wrapper program also tries to get you to install other stuff. While I have found it easy enough to spot what I should uncheck or decline, I realize now that for a less ~~cynical~~ experienced computer user, the authoritative appearance of this wrapper program -- including large-type phrases like "Strongly Recommended" -- would likely intimidate a lot of people into accepting whatever was about to be shoveled onto their machines.

I'm a little late to the dance on this one, as a look at the report by insecure.org that Trent referred me to will show. It appears that, at last, some notice has been taken by management at download.com. Perhaps not enough, if the comments under that post, and the updates at insecure.org's post, are any indication, but at least the new direction is encouraging. And as noted above, I am happy to report that my specific reports were acted upon.

The other bit of good news, which I have no doubt actually caused the response by download.com's management, is that some of the bigger guns on our side, like the EFF, Boing Boing, and a bunch of computer security pros, have been taking a hard look at download.com recently. Let's hope download.com continues to clean up its act, and let's all keep up the pressure on them until they do.

(pic. sources: Moredigital, Bullet Proof Poet, Forgotten Flix, The Girl Who Loves Horror)

Modify your .emacs to start with a clean scratch buffer

2011-12-13T10:01:00.008-05:00

Ah, one of life's minor nuisances finally solved:

;; Remove the annoying text that populates the 
;; *scratch* buffer on start-up

(setq initial-scratch-message nil)

Yep. When all else fails, RTFM. Chapter 39, Section 1.1, to be precise: "Summary: Sequence of Actions at Startup".

This was one of those problems that bugged me every time, but since it didn't present that often, only took a few seconds to clear (albeit each time), and seemed like the sort of thing that begins a snipe hunt, I'd always postponed looking for a way to address it. You'd think I'd know better by now.

Welp, to the list of never-fail advice that can be summed up in four letters, add JFGI.

I realize the intersection of the set of people who use Emacs and the set of people who don't already know how to do this is near ~~nil~~ null, but thanks for reading, anyway.

• Dancing pic swiped from Loz in Translation. Original artwork by the great Bill Watterson, of course. Used in tribute, but without permission.

• Thanks also to Max Design for CSS styling tips on the <abbr>tag.

6174

2011-12-12T19:00:00.019-05:00

(embiggen)

Take any four-digit number in which at least two of the digits are different. Put the digits in descending order to make one new number, put them in ascending order to make another. Subtract the smaller from the larger. Apply the same process to the result. Use leading zeros, if necessary, to make the subtraction results into four-digit numbers. Keep doing that until you reach the obvious stopping point. Bet I can guess what your final number is!

Example: 1111.

No. At least one of the digits must be different.

Okay, 1112. So our two numbers are 2111 and 1112, the original number already having its digits in ascending order.

 2111
-1112
-----
  999 --> 9990 and 0999

 9990
-0999
-----
 8991 --> 9981 and 1899

 9981
-1899
-----
 8082 --> 8820 and 0288

 8820
-0288
-----
 8532 --> 8532 (already in descending order) and 2358

 8532
-2358
-----
 6174 --> 7641 and 1467

 7641
-1467
-----
 6174 <-- (This is the obvious stopping point)

6174? Why, that looks like the title of this post. Hmmm. Another? Let's see, right now it's 7:27 pm, or 1927 in 24-hr time.

 1927 --> 9721 and 1279

 9721
-1279
-----
 8442 --> 8442 and 2448

 8442
-2448
-----
 5994 --> 9954 and 4599

 9954
-4599
-----
 5355 --> 5553 and 3555

 5553
-3555
-----
 1998 --> 9981 and 1899

 9981
-1899
-----
 8082 --> 8820 and 0288 (Looking familiar?  Doesn't always
                         happen exactly this way, but ...)

 8820
-0288
-----
 8532 --> 8532 and 2358

 8532
-2358
-----
 6174

... but it always ends up at 6174. And the guy who figured this out, sixty years ago (probably by wasting precious cycles on ENIAC), was named Dattaraya Ramchandra Kaprekar, so this seemingly mundane number is known, in certain circles at least, as Kaprekar's Constant. Who knew? Not me, before a few minutes ago, that's for sure.

Mas? How about today's date, 1212? (Ah, rare agreement with my friends across the pond!) Let's go a little more compact, since you've got the hang of the drill by now. (Okay, and because I just remembered that, also.)

1212 --> 2211 and 1122
2211 - 1122 = 1089
9810 - 0189 = 9621
9621 - 1269 = 8352
8532 - 2358 = 6174

The first four digits of pi? 3141?

3141 --> 4311 and 1134
4311 - 1134 = 3177
7731 - 1377 = 6354
6543 - 3456 = 3087
8730 - 0378 = 8352
8532 - 2358 = 6174

The first four digits of pi, after the decimal point, I meant. 1415.

1415 --> 5411 and 1145
5411 - 1145 = 4266
6642 - 2466 = 4176
7641 - 1467 = 6174

The first four digits of the square root of 3? 1.732?

1732 --> 7321 and 1237
7321 - 1237 = 6084
8640 - 0468 = 8172
8721 - 1278 = 7443
7443 - 3447 = 3996
9963 - 3699 = 6264
6642 - 2466 = 4176
7641 - 1467 = 6174

Rick Perry's IQ, rounded up?

1 --> 0001 ---> 1000 and 0001
1000 - 0001 = 0999
9990 - 0999 = 8991
9981 - 1899 = 8082
8820 - 0288 = 8532
8532 - 2358 = 6174

The Rick Perry Trinity?

1, 2, ..., uh, ... oops ... 1200 --> 2100 and 0012
2100 - 0012 = 2088
8820 - 0288 = 8532
8532 - 2358 = 6174

Notice how it takes a varying amount of steps to get to 6174. (Fans of sets like Mr. Mandelbrot's famous one know where this is going, I bet.) If you do this procedure for all the four-digit numbers 0000 - 9999, excluding 1111, 2222, etc., keep track of how many iterations it takes to get to 6174 for each number, and color-code the results, you get the picture above. Well, you do if your name is (D. Deutsch and B. Goldman, 2004), at least.

Thanks so much to GrrlScientist for passing this curiosity (fascinatory?) along.

P.S. If you're really interested, let me save you a bit of Googling: Yutaka Nishiyama has a nice, in-depth write-up of how this works.

We are not bound by your dictums, Bob Costas

2011-12-12T09:08:00.010-05:00

Tebow (L) getting TebowedLast night, during halftime of the otherwise fabulously entertaining Giants-Cowboys game, Bob Costas indulged himself in spewing the same thing that every other overpaid pundit seems to have emitted lately: pablum posing as apologeticism for Tim Tebow. Sadly, the remote control was at that moment just out of reach.

Costas, unlike most of the other nine hundred, did not even have the decency to acknowledge that, yeah, there is something a little annoying about Tebow's non-stop demonstrations, but instead went right to "… Tebow, whose sincere faith cannot be questioned, and should be respected …" It was then that I managed to get to the mute button.

And remember what happened
to the real cows in that episodeAt the risk of reinforcing Eric Weiner's preconceived notions about "Angry Atheists," let me just say that, no, we need not take Tebow's faith on faith, and more importantly, that there is no reason whatsoever why it should be respected. Tim Tebow, same as anyone else, has the right to believe whatever fool thing he wants to believe without fear of retribution from the government, and I will defend that right to the death. That does not mean that his belief should be any less immune from criticism or mockery than any other, be it political, philosophical, conspiratorial, or just plain woo. There are no sacred cows.

I see by Kenneth Fang's transcript that Costas went on to cite Frank Bruni's latest column approvingly. I was going to say a few words about that thing, too, but someone with a sharper scalpel has already taken care of that.

(cow pix from here and here)