Quoth The Maven

Metabonomics

Lumens/Watt

Luxim has a tiny new lightbulb the size of a tic-tac that turns argon gas into a 6000 Kelvin plasma. (Same temperature as the surface of the Sun.) It outputs 140 lumens of light for every 1 Watt of power input. According to Wilipedia, a electric arc lamp of xenon gas can only spit out 30-50 lm/W. And daylight itself is only 93 lm/W.

DNA?

Hans Reiser Trial: Jan. 23, 2008
10:12 a.m. "Good morning," Judge Larry Goodman said to jurors as they filed into Dept. 9. "Everyone ready for some more DNA?" The panelists laughed.
"What is DNA?" defense attorney William Du Bois said in jest, to no one in particular.
"Deoxyribonucleic acid," responded the judge, smiling and adding, "We're off the record."

How to hide the Mac OS X Menu Bar on a per-application basis?

Ctrl-click the application icon and choose Show Package Contents. Open the Contents folder and double-click the Info.plist file to edit the file with Property List Editor. Add a child of the Root Dictionary Class. Name it LSUIPresentationMode with data type Number. (LSUI stands for Launch Services User Interface.) Set the Value to 4. All suppressed mode. In this mode, all UI elements are hidden, including the menu bar. UI elements may show themselves automatically in response to mouse movements or other user activity. Some applications don't respect this properly. Don't try this with Safari or Camino or anything else that is cuckoo for Cocoa. But if you are a junkie for maximum screen real-estate with Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, or any other non-Cocoa application, enjoy!

Dear Santa,

Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7 Color: BLK/SLVR/WHT 983 Size: 9 LAN Switch Security: What Hackers Know About Your Switches, by Eric Vyncke and Christopher Paggen, 2008

Bludgeoned With A Yoga Stick

What a way to go. Only in NY.

Script for a Jester's Tear

The fool escaped from paradise
Will look over his shoudler and cry
Sit and chew on daffodils
and struggle to answer "Why?"

- Fish

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Assholes

Being an effective asshole requires substantial skill.

Bob Sutton, Fighting Back: "The Ranter" and the Lead Engineer

Absence

makes the heart grow fond
Silence invokes desire
Space triggers the imagination

Playing God with Devils

There seems to be no way of stopping the disease spreading. Because at
the moment, the front for the disease extends from the Northwest down to
the Southwest of the state; which is some of the most rugged parts of
Tasmania with large rivers and deep gorges.

There's no way of stopping Devils moving; and also finding each other
and biting each other. So, what were looking to do--faced with the
prospect that the Devils might actually become extinct in the wild and
Tasmania--is to establish insurance populations.

One way is to move healthy Devils to zoos on the mainland of Australia.
The second option that's being looked at, is the possibility of putting
healthy Devils on one or more Tasmanian islands.

  Dr. Steven Smith
  Tasmanian Devil Facial Tumor Disease Program
  Hobart, Tasmania

Listen to full interview with Melissa Block on NPR.

VMware [REDACTED]

Simon Crosby, CTO at XenSource, blogs about his product's performance comparison. But due to VMware's licencing constraints he can only publish results that look like this:

The results show [REDACTED] performance for both systems, with ESX 3.0.1
having an average overhead of [REDACTED] relative to the same benchmark
run native, whereas XenEnterprise shows an average overhead of about 3%.
ESX has a [REDACTED] in the gcc compiler sub-benchmark which accounts
for the largest difference in performance. This is a known [REDACTED]
for XenEnterprise. We believe that [REDACTED] may be one reason why
[REDACTED] performs well here  of course [REDACTED] does not do this
because [REDACTED], which brings [REDACTED].

Daylight Spending Time

Does Extending Daylight Saving Time Save Energy? Evidence From an Australian Experiment Ryan Kellogg and Hendrik Wolff (January 2007) University of California Energy Institute
And on the topic of hidden change-management costs: PG&E Says Patching Meters For An Early Daylight-Saving Time Will Cost $38 Million So they got permission from the California PUC to change the *rules* rather than comply with the law.

Altruism

Altruism come in many forms. But the story of Michael Keenan defines it in the most visceral sense.

Tcl Me, Cisco

RFC 3463 Redux

This is just the abbreviated list of RFC3463 status codes for the SMTP email protocol.

Status Code Structure
      2.XXX.XXX Success
      4.XXX.XXX Persistent Transient Failure
      5.XXX.XXX Permanent Failure

        X.0.XXX  Other or Undefined Status
          X.0.0   Other undefined Status

        X.1.XXX  Addressing Status
          X.1.0   Other address status
          X.1.1   Bad destination mailbox address
          X.1.2   Bad destination system address
          X.1.3   Bad destination mailbox address syntax
          X.1.4   Destination mailbox address ambiguous
          X.1.5   Destination address valid
          X.1.6   Destination mailbox has moved, No forwarding address
          X.1.7   Bad sender's mailbox address syntax
          X.1.8   Bad sender's system address

        X.2.XXX  Mailbox Status
          X.2.0   Other or undefined mailbox status
          X.2.1   Mailbox disabled, not accepting messages
          X.2.2   Mailbox full
          X.2.3   Message length exceeds administrative limit
          X.2.4   Mailing list expansion problem

        X.3.XXX  Mail System Status
          X.3.0   Other or undefined mail system status
          X.3.1   Mail system full
          X.3.2   System not accepting network messages
          X.3.3   System not capable of selected features
          X.3.4   Message too big for system
          X.3.5   System incorrectly configured

        X.4.XXX  Network and Routing Status
          X.4.0   Other or undefined network or routing status
          X.4.1   No answer from host
          X.4.2   Bad connection
          X.4.3   Directory server failure
          X.4.4   Unable to route
          X.4.5   Mail system congestion
          X.4.6   Routing loop detected
          X.4.7   Delivery time expired

        X.5.XXX  Mail Delivery Protocol Status
          X.5.0   Other or undefined protocol status
          X.5.1   Invalid command
          X.5.2   Syntax error
          X.5.3   Too many recipients
          X.5.4   Invalid command arguments
          X.5.5   Wrong protocol version

        X.6.XXX  Message Content or Media Status
          X.6.0   Other or undefined media error
          X.6.1   Media not supported
          X.6.2   Conversion required and prohibited
          X.6.3   Conversion required but not supported
          X.6.4   Conversion with loss performed
          X.6.5   Conversion Failed

        X.7.XXX  Security or Policy Status
          X.7.0   Other or undefined security status
          X.7.1   Delivery not authorized, message refused
          X.7.2   Mailing list expansion prohibited
          X.7.3   Security conversion required but not possible
          X.7.4   Security features not supported
          X.7.5   Cryptographic failure
          X.7.6   Cryptographic algorithm not supported
          X.7.7   Message integrity failure

Soylent Red is Bugs

I just like the sound of that. Here let me say it again, Soylent Red is Bugs. There.

Phreakness Stakes

Mobile Industry Leaders to Create World's First Globally Adopted Open Mobile Linux Platform
Google News: mobile linux
"So what will this do to Palm?" I was asked by a customer today. My response...

They are still stuck in the gate. The real race just began and everybody is now watching the field of recently converted open-source-doping jockeys trundling along on their young and fresh new thoroughbreds.
But somehow Microsoft is already up ahead, rounding the first turn and increasing it's lead. Nobody seems to notice that Microsoft's steed has smoke coming out of it's ass and seems to be leaking oil!?!
There's still hope. But Palm'd better get a new horse fast.

Raise your hand

At one point, Kory Olsen, a longtime [South Lake Tahoe] dispatcher, took two steps away from her work station and raised her cellular phone over her head to make a phone connection.

This in response to another copper theft in California.

No Dice

If I die today, then you will read my blog. But I don't want to die today.

"Everyone in this goddamned store is wearing a blue shirt and nobody knows a thing!"

The Improv Everywhere troup pulls off a brilliant one by invading a Best Buy store dressed casually in their favorite royal blue polo shirt.

IdeaFetch

www.ideafetch.com

5,000 ideas and thousands of votes later, the inaugural PetSafe Idea Fetch pet product invention contest finishes. The winning pet invention, The MicroID™ Collar, developed by Jonathan Warren, will provide a way for pet lovers to place an electronic journal on a pets collar to store pet and owner data including name, address, phone number, vet visits, medications, etc. and will be sold nationally at PETCO stores later this year.

The runners up are better; but clearly harder to bring to a mass market. And these PetSafe folks appear to be trolling for intellectual property to exploit. Well done.
My favorite is the RFID collar linked to a feeding dish. Each pet has it's own RFID tag. And the feeding dish with special diet is intelligent and only opens up when the specified pet is near (and during certain dietary volume/time window?). Even better, it could generate negative feedback when a pet with the wrong dietary requirements is also near. We've all seen how goofy pets can behave around food.

"Hell is reading another man's Perl."

I'd swear I heard this phrase somewhere long ago; either in a fortune cookie or an old newsgroup. But alas, Google thinks otherwise with the search producing no hits.

Red Hat [your transitive verb here] Fedora Foundation

Try this news google "Red Hat" "Fedora Foundation" this week and discover just how many useleless and sensational transitive verbs journalists can come up with.

So far, we have:

cancels
axes
gives up on
doffs
unstitches
closes

Email From Your Bank

Good Lord. I actually received and unsolicted (but legitimate?) email from my bank this week. Guess where it landed? The spamtrap. Bah!

Ukulele Weeps

Check out this guy perform While My Guitar Gently Weeps...on a Ukelele.

Masakazu Imanari

I've never been a fan of these voyeuristic non-traditional wrestling and bloodsport types of entertainment. Grown men beating each other up is simply a grotesque spectacle that only reminds me of how far humanity still has to go. But competitive sport is a different thing. And Masakazu Imanari from Japan has the most amazing style.

The Sun

It Must Be You

When I took my first drink of alcohol
I saw the angel of death floating over us all

No Doubt

Note to self. When in doubt, view this video of Apolo Anton Ohno descrbing his moment at Salt Lake.

PIX Phlebotomy

The following single snmp packet (if valid and responded to) is a simple way to bleed 192 bytes of available memory from your favorite PIX. Lather, rinse, and repeat for maximum negative effect.

1 Frame 1 (117 bytes on wire, 117 bytes captured)
    Arrival Time: Feb 12, 2006 23:00:11.559812000
    Time delta from previous packet: 0.000000000 seconds
    Time since reference or first frame: 0.000000000 seconds
    Frame Number: 1
    Packet Length: 117 bytes
    Capture Length: 117 bytes
    Protocols in frame: eth:ip:udp:snmp
Simple Network Management Protocol
    Version: 2C (1)
    Community: phlebotomy
    PDU type: GET (0)
    Request Id: 0x7dc29a7a
    Error Status: NO ERROR (0)
    Error Index: 0
    Object identifier 1: 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.171.1.2.3.1.19.1 (SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.9.9.171.1.2.3.1.19.1)
    Value: NULL
    Object identifier 2: 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.171.1.2.3.1.27.1 (SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.9.9.171.1.2.3.1.27.1)
    Value: NULL

2 Frame 2 (121 bytes on wire, 121 bytes captured)
    Arrival Time: Feb 12, 2006 23:00:11.561674000
    Time delta from previous packet: 0.001862000 seconds
    Time since reference or first frame: 0.001862000 seconds
    Frame Number: 2
    Packet Length: 121 bytes
    Capture Length: 121 bytes
    Protocols in frame: eth:ip:udp:snmp
Simple Network Management Protocol
    Version: 2C (1)
    Community: phlebotomy
    PDU type: RESPONSE (2)
    Request Id: 0x7dc29a7a
    Error Status: NO ERROR (0)
    Error Index: 0
    Object identifier 1: 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.171.1.2.3.1.19.1 (SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.9.9.171.1.2.3.1.19.1)
    Value: Counter32: 688
    Object identifier 2: 1.3.6.1.4.1.9.9.171.1.2.3.1.27.1 (SNMPv2-SMI::enterprises.9.9.171.1.2.3.1.27.1)
    Value: Counter32: 556

U-Shaped Teeth

Hacking Anaconda

Kicking myself for forgetting, I just had to spend an hour re-remembering how to properly hack the Red Hat / Fedora installer known as anaconda. Here it is so I won't have to kick myself again:

$ mkdir temp1
$ sudo mount -o loop netstg2.img temp1/
$ cp -a temp1/ temp2/

Then patch temp2/ or make whatever changes you need:

$ mkcramfs temp2/ netstg2-patched.img
$ sudo umount temp1
$ rm -fr temp1/ temp2/

However, I discovered something new. The image has grown so large that older/pristine releases of util-linux hit the MAXENTRIES hard limit in mkcramfs. The trick is to use a more recent build that incorporates the patch written for bug 171337.

Jesus is Born

According to The Brick Testament.

Our Vanishing Wild Life

by William T. Hornaday, 1913.

The preservation of animal and plant life, and of the general beauty of
Nature, is one of the foremost duties of the men and women of to-day. It
is an imperative duty, because it must be performed at once, for
otherwise it will be too late. Every possible means of preservation,
sentimental, educational and legislative, must be employed.

10 December 1912

Sony Stop

Can someone please explain to me why a major electronics company can tout the "high" definition of their products with the release of an entirely messed up video filled with visually annoying artifacts?

Stupid

Michael Bérubé makes some salient points on the etymology of modern English insults.

Iglileble

Cepsmordtrenns roptreed ignursnet bendmobmart of canommdm psot wtih crisue melisiss pudicorng tashudnos of cituleaass.

This meme apparently revealed to the web by the Annals of Improbable Research.

Mohammad Wong

According to this video interview with Marilyn Wong on the Daily Show:

There are no Mohammad Wongs.

Raxco was unaware

that Microsoft was able to travel back in time.

Never drive faster

than your guardian angel can fly.

Ron Jeremy says

I just can't eat animals that I hung out with.

Muffled Yawn

That is how Chairman Borhlert characterized the response to his House Committee on Science Hearing on Cybersecurity: U.S. Vulnerability and Preparedness ourside the committee room.

Of course, he also mentioned that the room was mostly empty due to the Judge Roberts' hearings.

Hearing Testimony:

Department of Homeland Security (Donald Andy Purdy, Director Cyber Security Division)
BP Inc. (John Leggate, Chief Information Officer)
Dow Chemical (David Kepler, Chief Information Officer)
American Electric Power (Gerald Freese, Director of Enterprise Information Security)
SBC Services (Andrew Geisse, Chief Information Officer)

Animal Aid

SAS - Decoding Shelter Alphabet Soup

Humane Society Asks for Katrina Aid
Google: aspca hsus aha katrina
Advertizing on Google under above search

ASPCA
AHA
HSUS
UAN
AVMF
WSPA

SPCA of Central Florida

Jerry Blogs

Jerry Brown blogs on emergency preparedness.

George Bush Hates Black Sabbath

According to John Stewart.

Katrina Response

www.nifc.gov/nicc/logistics/katrina/index.htm
edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/IG/IG09900.pdf
www.bt.cdc.gov/disasters/hurricanes/katrina/leptofaqs.asp
www.nifc.gov/nicc/logistics/katrina/Katrina_Support_Guidance.pdf

Curse Art

I've got to tip my hat to Dr. Ben Marble for his almost perfect choice of words when he happened upon The Vice President of the U.S.A. yammering for the cameras in his Mississippi neighborhood destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney.

When I first heard it, I thought to myself, "Oh, here's someone angry at a politician for using his destroyed neighborhood as a photo opportunity." But that's only the beginning. What Dr. Marble remembered that I forgot, was that Mr. Cheney used the exact same phrase on the floor of the U.S. Senate in an encounter with Senator Leahy last year.

So of course, being able to turn Cheney's curse words back on himself in such a time of crisis is truly brilliant art.

The only way he could have put it more eloquently were if he had said, "Go fuck yourself, Mr. Vice President!" That would have been far more elegant. And if he had just left out the, "you asshole." That's crude.

Finally, to make the experience decidedly American, he filmed the whole thing and is now auctioning it off on eBay.

Help

Sgt. 1st Class Ron Dixon recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan with the Oklahoma National Guards 1345th Transportation Company. He said the biggest difference he sees is that the people in Afghanistan wanted to help themselves, while many of the evacuees just want others to help them. Evacuation complete, Superdome lies in squalor

Net Slip

I find the popular media's coverage on the U.S. Supreme Court lacking. (Although the brevity is convenient.) Here is the straight dope on today's opinions of the court that affect software publishers and network operators.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., 545 U. S. ___ (2005)

R079; No. 04-480; 6/27/05. One who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, going beyond mere distribution with knowledge of third-party action, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties using the device, regardless of the device's lawful uses.

National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. v. Brand X Internet Services, 545 U. S. ___ (2005)

R080; No. 04-277; 6/27/05. The Federal Communications Commission's conclusion that broadband cable modem companies are exempt from mandatory common-carrier regulation under the Communications Act of 1934 is a lawful construction of the Act under Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, and the Administrative Procedure Act.

For even deeper background, the transcripts from the March oral arguments are MGM v. Grockster and NCTA v. Brand X Internet.

Slip Opinions

Was the term I was trying to remember last night. The latest for the current term can be found here.
And are always more informative than what the media summarizes. Take a look at the one we were discussing re: pot legalization and states vs. fedral rights.
They always have a Syllabus. Which is mostly boring but important legal precedence and foundation. The last sentence or two is mandatory reading:

The case comes down to the claim that a locally cultivated product that is used domestically rather than sold on the open market is not subject to federal regulation. Given the CSAs findings and the undisputed magnitude of the commercial market for marijuana, Wickard and its progeny foreclose that claim. Vacated and remanded.

Then comes the Opinion of the Court. I think delivered by one Justice and joined by the others in the majority.
Then comes one or more concurring statements.
And finally the also interesting dissenting opinions. Sometimes the dissenting Justices join; sometimes they write their own separate dissents.
This Gonzales v. Raich case is unusually longer than others I've read. Plus it's interesting to note that all three dissenting Justices are considered conservatives. They must have had a hearty debate.

Blogocube

Yes, I know, it's called the blogosphere. But this one has so many edges. Wanderlust, spirtituality, vanity, redemption, rejection...
A young man pours his soul into the whirled wonderweb.
Then...a response from the darkness...

angelictouch352 Time: 07:39 pm i always enjoy reading your posts. they are just so different from my own- more articulate, thought provoking. you and i have the same haircut. i lived with a junkie for about a year- i was in love with him. i understand the paranoid OCD and being homeless (i was only homeless for about six weeks). things are better now. todd's not dead, so every few months or so he calls me wanting to "visit" me. family is what you define it as. whomever said "blood is thicker than water" didn't have any friends. i know i'm not saying what i want to say clearly. just know someone you don't know in florida has been praying for you daily in your travels and adventures and will continue to pray... even if you don't pray, it's still a nice thought. friend me if you'd like.

Then the edges rise to the surface...

ioerror Time: 02:21 am I dispute that we have the same haircut, clearly the universe will collapse back in on itself if we ever were to meet in person. I feel a bit uncomfortable that someone prays for me. I think you should forget about me and pray for something else, like world peace or better orgasms.

And finally, the hammer falls...

angelictouch352 Time: 06:11 am gotcha- i'll tell god you don't exist! ;-)

Patient Zero

Your number is up: Outwitting the Witty Worm

Many Internet worms use pseudo-random numbers to scan the IP address-space. In this project, we reverse engineered the state of the pseudo-random number generator (pRNG) which the Witty worm used to generate packets. By combining our knowledge of Witty's code with the pRNG state, we performed a detailed recreation of the worm's spread. We were able to discover several characteristics of the infected systems, including their uptime, network access bandwidth, and number of disks. Additionally, we were able to find specific details about the worm author's deliberate targeting of a US Military base, and determine the identity of Patient 0, the system used to launch the worm.

Kumar, Paxson, and Weaver. 2005

Swiss Cirrus Clouds

I performed my "meteorological observations" whilst relaxing after a hard morning's skiing and eating a "coupe" of hot berries and ice cream - by far the best way to study clouds.

Peter Sheil conducts high altitude weather studies with style.

Tour Iraq

An American tourist visits Iraq and keeps an interesting journal with photos.

Verbal Acrobatics

The Daring Fireball John Gruber interprets the gobbledyspeak coming out of Adobe's arse regarding last weeks announced acquisition of Macromedia.

What is the mission of the combined company?
Where by complementary we mean the two leading technologies that irritate people when theyre used in lieu of regular web pages. Note that wee using PDF to serve this very FAQ in our synergistic future, perhaps well serve our FAQs in a hybrid PDF/Flash format. One can dream.

Look closer at his Translation From PR-Speak to English of Selected Portions of Adobes FAQRegarding Their Acquisition of Macromedia for deep insight into these questions and more:

Why is Adobe acquiring Macromedia?
Dude, we just bought the only significant competitor to several of our flagship applications. We didn't buy Macromedia, we bought the market.

How many employees does Macromedia have?
Please note use of present tense.

How many employees does Adobe have?
Ditto regarding use of present tense. Please also note that PDF is an excellent format for sending out résumés.

Miranda July

Multi-disciplinary artist Miranda July has started a blog for her travels as she promotes her new movie Me and You and Everyone We Know. She's currently in New York and will be coming to the Bay Area next week to present it at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It will be screened at the Kabuki in SF on Sun 1 May 9pm and at the PFA in Berkeley on Tue 3 May at 7pm.
Her work is varied and intensely provocative. Much is available online; including these snippets on The Next Big Thing radio show:

If you are into alternative music/audio, browse through her recordings on the Kill Rock Stars label. My favorite is the spunky Ten Million Hours a Mile.

From the kitchen...

My former boss was Dr. Schroeder of UCSB and we would spend many hours a day underwater counting rockfish and relevant species. We used to stay underwater on SCUBA all day (at minimal depth), marking counts and obersvations on tablets and special waterproof paper. Only to rise to the surface shivering and pitching until we found the warm solace of the 65 degree outflow of Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant popluated with local sharks and yellowtail.

Ah... the good 'ol days....

Here are some videos of her recent surveys of oil platforms.

News Hounds

I have to admit that News Hounds is one of my favorite blogs of late. The tagline says it all: "We watch FOX so you don't have to."

Withus Oragainstus

Dead beetle with glued on sidewinder missle and satellite dish.

Up His Nose

First it was a piece of rice, a bean, a jujube. Then he got bigger
and bigger. A walunt, a peanut. Then he started on change...

Cheech & Chong: Up His Nose

Web Map Hack

The new Google Maps beta is so much fun. And easily hackable, too.

 maps.google.com/maps

Add a latitude and longitude to make it start in your own neighborhood:

 maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.723,-121.437

Then add a keyword to find local businesses:

 maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.723,-121.437&q=pizza

Warning System

Next time they must.

Cancer patient and BBC News science and technology writer Ivan Noble's penultimate entry in his blog.

What?

This afternoon, just before 5pm, I was sitting in a dental chair with a whole bevy of tools and cotton wads jammed in my mouth. Staring at the ceiling, a catchy 80s pop tune starts to play quietly in the background. My dentist is busily cramming or jaming or clamping or scraping on something or another. When he begins to softly mutter the words to the song in perfect unison; like it's the Lords Prayer. I think to myself, "Dang, what is this tune? How come I don't recognize it?" Unable to speak, I'm forced to resign myself to ignorance on this one. I can't say a word with my mouth full of all this crap. And if I try, my dentist will think I need suction or another injection. When, out of the blue--without even a blink from me--he blurts out, mostly to himself:

He used to be a great singer, now he's a pedophile.

Aha! Now I know. It must be a Michael Jackson song.

Earth Space

These days, just about everyone knows about GPS technology; the constellation of U.S. military satellites used for a wide range of navigational purposes. But, like all technology, it is aging and has it's limits.
In 1999, the Euorpean Union started a project called Galileo that will introduce an additional constellation of 30 satellites that will compliment the existing 30 GPS satellites. However, Gallileo will be fundamentally different from GPS, in three important areas:

more accurate (up to 1m)
civillian controlled (not U.S. military)
complimentary with GPS (both can be used simultaneously)

Additionally, it is designed to provide better coverage in cities or buildings where the current GPS service fails.
After much negotiation, the EU and the US have finally come to an agreement. I think the sticking point was Article 11 - National Security Compatiblity and Spectrum Use. The US is planning to deploy a new signal, known as M-code, in 2012. It would allow the US military to jam just civilian use of their GPS satellites. Thus preventing any bad guys (and any civilian good guys, for that matter) from using them while the US military still can.
A few Galileo test satellites will begin launching in late 2005. And the full constellation is scheduled to be deployed in 2007 and ready for commercial exploitation in 2008.

Earth Time

Also known as TAI (International Atomic Time [in French]), is occasionally adjusted by a leap second in order to compensate for wobbles in the rotation of our planet. The International Earth Rotation Service is responsible for deciding how much adjustment is necessary every six months. The announcement is called Bulletin C and was just released for the upcoming Summer (Northern Hemisphere) 2005 window.

No adjustment necessary.

This particular Bulletin C #29 is interesting because of the 26 December 2004 earthquake/tsunami that caused Earth to wobble about an inch off its axis. However, no compensation is needed because regular tidal effects of the moon still cause far greater fluctuations.
We have had no leap seconds introduced since January 1999. This adjusted TAI time totals 32 leap seconds since the inception of the IERS. But more importantly 22 leap seconds since the begining of the Unix time epoch.
If you look at this chart, you can predict that if the astronomical time (UT1/UTC/GMT) trend continues, we will bee needing another leap second very soon now.

Zork I

Play Zork I on an old Apple II...but without the gargantuan floppies.

Yes, yes. I know. It requires a bit of technology from Microsoft called ActiveX.

Googlespace Rendition

Google's billboard puzzle this summer was fun. So here's a new one from me. Can you guess the next *two* words in this series?

N581GA ⇒ N379P ⇒ ??? ⇒ ???

Currently a Google on all four words turns up empty. I've posted the answer in an obscure corner of Googlespace (Googleable Cyberspace). So, hopefully with a bit of luck, it will be awhile before we can cheat.

Flatline

Dunno if this already hit the meme circuit. But this special report Campaign Veterans: Starting Over is worthy of a few wry giggles.

Eelect Bush

Eek, surround that bush plane with inflatable dykes!

Unit #4579

Bwahaha! Life in the open source machine.


http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/schedule/

Wednesday Colin Walters said:

> On Wed, 2004-12-01 at 11:27 -0800, Roland McGrath wrote:
> > This page now contains only past dates.  How will we know what to do next?
>
> Unit #4579, you are malfunctioning.  Until given direction by the Fedora
> Collective, you must return to State 0: drool at desk.

Canoe Surprise

Last year, my brother worked the great Yellowstone fire. His personal photo collection tells an interesting story.

Pissed Rat

While Googling for the now infamous NSFNET diagram, I stumbled across this odd collection of photos. In it you will find one famous Linux kernel hacker (early in career), a very expensive Cray seatcushion, a VAX under duress, and a pissed rat.

Peter Packet

"Imagine what life would be like without clean drinking water, doctors or schools."

Oh, uh yeah...it's another Flash game. Even with a theme song. And the object of the game is just as you'd expect from Cisco. Deliver the spam.

Common People

She told me that her Dad was loaded
I said, "In that case I'll have a rum and Coca-Cola."

Lyrics by Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, 1995. Performance by William Shatner and Joe Jackson 2004. Part of Shatner's new release Has Been featuring Henry Rollins, Aimee Mann, and Ben Folds.

Random event One ...of Many?

Perhaps one of many? Anyways, I have decided to travel to the distant land of Animation. I shall be taking a lady friend, Gina, you to watch the movie "The Incredibles". A Disney film of a Pixar animation. Should be enjoyable, even *IF* you are an adult.

Now for anyone who wants to enjoy the world of animation I recomend Atom Films. Now.. I cant type more right now.. have to leave to pick up the lass...

Purple Rorschach USA

This whole election mapping phenomenon is driving me to madness. I see a giant evil bumblebunny flying out of the right with an anus at Washinton DC. What do you see?

Jesusland

Regardless of your political persuasion and religious affliction, it's quite interesting to look at these electoral college maps of the recent 2004 election. Of course, this has been parodied in the now famous Jesusland map. And the parody on President G. W. Bush is further exptended with this map.

Mount St. Helens

The Forest Service has a webcam taking five minute snapshots. So I wrote a little script to turn the last 45 minutes into an animation.

A Report From The Wilderness

Digital video style.

Cisco IOS 7 Deobfuscate

This spring, I hacked up Riku Meskanen's ios7decrypt.pl script, and added WEP key translation and supposed extra keys.
Basically, it adds a new translation table for hex and a mask to keep the salt on the table. The result is named ios7deobfuscate.pl.
Why publish this now? Because this is the umpteenth time this summer that I have had to "recover" an IOS password or WEP key. In today's example, the cuplrit who forgot to jot down the WEP key was your's truely. Thank you Cisco, for using weak senseless faux-encrypytion so that I might be able to recall--with a maximum of effort--the digits I previously keyed into your equipment.

Frances

Here is my own attempt at a composite pseudo-animation of recent MODIS satellite imagery calibrated from two birds, Terra and Aqua.
And here are some higher resolution static images from the folks at Goddard.

Montanera

Some brief personal research on the Gateway Project in Contra Costa County. Here is my Google trail of various perspectives...

First the NGOs...

Golden Gate Audubon Society Gateway Valley Is Saved Sep 2004
San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club Vital Wildlife Corridor Preserved as a Result of Historic Settlement between Developer and Environmentalists
Greenbelt Guardians Save Gateway Valley
Save our Open Space, Orinda

Then the Government Agencies...

City of Orinda Planning Department
California Fish & Game
California Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Francisco Bay Region Waste Discharge Requirements & Water Quality Certification Jun 2004
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Public Notice Jun 2003
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Our Walls

will turn into information surfaces

- Gary Starkweather (the inventor of the laser printer)

"Recycle Bin Just Ate My Word Document"

These folks from the Microsoft VIBE project are working on new user interface elements including Drag-and-Pop and the GroupBar. In this video, Kevin Schofield interviews Patrick Baudisch about some of their newest projects and methodologies.

The purpose of drag-and-pop is to help
users of very large display surfaces to
access the material across long distances.

Lucky Bastard

This quote from A Diary Study of Task Switching and Interruptions by Czerwinski et al.

One outlier participant was removed from the rest of
the analyses because the subject did not switch among
more than two tasks on any given day of the week.

Google Rush

I just read Google's Blog Warning: We Brake For Number Theory about their latest recruiting technique; put an obtuse math puzzle on a billboard, so that only the extremely curious and motivated can figure out how to respond.
Of course, this doesn't rule out the resourceful.
I'm all of the above; and couldn't resist. The fruits of my efforts are in this Python source listing. Enjoy! (Of course you must already have solved the puzzle to view.)

WWW II

We all know that WW II was fought from 1939 to 1945. But it appears that WWW II is just beginning now in 2004.
It's certainly debatable, but I'd say the first shot was fired by the United States Department of Homeland Security when they released Technical Cyber Security Alert TA04-184A. Herein lies the bullet that was heard across the land:


It is important to note that there may be other ways for an attacker to
write arbitrary data or to execute commands without relying on the
ADODB.Stream control.

What does it mean? It means that Microsoft released yet another "Critical Update" that doesn't really fix the problem at hand.

Killer Bill

Methinks Justice Breyer is a fan of Quentin Tarrantino from his dissenting opinion on Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial Dist. Court of Nev., Humboldt Cty.

Shaved Ice

Joel on Software blogs that Microsoft

could do everything wrong for a decade before it started to be in remote
danger, and you never know... they could reinvent themselves as a
shaved-ice company at the last minute.

Suction Sampler

If I had a multi-million dollar ROV and the ship/crew to go along with it, this is what I would do with them. Here is the Submarine Ring of Fire 2004 home page. If you have good bandwidth, take a peek at these movies. My favorites are the view of how these mussels can survive at 1600 meters (over 5000 feet) deep. And this eruption of an undersea volcano. And don't forget the suction sampler.

Blog Hole Sun

Please notice that Sun Microsystems now has an official employee blog site using some keen Tomcat servlets called Roller.

#40

The oldest man in history to carry the title President of the United States of America. Also, the only President to survive an assassin's bullet.

My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed
legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five
minutes.

Ronald Reagan

KFJC Got The Juice

Less than 10 minutes ago I heard a tune by Eyvind Kang on KFJC that I also heard last night on the same netcast. It spurred my curiosity--and since I couldn't remember how to spell his first name, I entered the following query in Google.

Low and behold. The current KFJC playlist pops up as hit #1. Wow! That was fast! I called the studio and Anthony confirmed he just keyed in his playlist.

You go, Google.

Blog Chain Letter

Grab the nearest book.
Open the book to page 23.
Find the fifth sentence.
Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

They consider it a great sport to try to skirt any security measure;
accordingly, they often fraudulently access Internet accessible
networked systems.

-- Building A Corporate Internet Strategy, The IT Manager's Guide by Amit K. Maitra 1996
As instructed by Felicity.

Dear Janet

If you click on this link, you will soon be listening to an introductory commentary by Harry Shearer on media and obsenity; followed by a live performance by Richard Thompson. It's modern folkore at its best. Here is a higher quality stream.

BWTD

Broadband Wireless Tycoon Disease - A neurotic affliction that spreading rapidly throughout the ranks of network administrators and hopeful entreprenurs thoughout the world. Ongoing research indicates that it may not be directly harmful, but early findings indicates it may be associated with divorce, stomach ulcers, and an increase of alcohol consumption.

Bachelor Trick #642

Have you ever discovered that a couple dropplets of water on a dry baguette and 15 seconds in the microwave can make it wonderfully delicious again without forcing another trip to the dentist? Well... the same technique works perfectly for cigars. That extra overpriced stogey you forgot about--if it ain't too far gone--needs only a couple of seconds in the 'wave and that tiny bit of moisture deep in the fill tobacco will leap directly into the wrap. Thus preventing it from crumbling into a hopeless bitter mess.

Pride

Corporations are not proud. Governments are not proud. People are proud.

Ferret Zealot

I just called my nephew and we had a very interesting conversation about domestic Ferrets in California. Until I tried to play the devil's advocate and took a strong position against legalization--for the continued prohibition of Ferrets on the grounds they are an invasive alien species that could cause dramatic harm to native California populations. At which time, spittle started flying out of the earpice and I was soon greeted with a resounding CLICK.

California Department of Fish and Game 
Habitat Conservation Planning Branch
CALIFORNIA'S PLANTS AND ANIMALS
INVASIVE, NUISANCE AND EXOTIC SPECIES
Domestic Ferret Issues In California

The California Domestic Ferret Association (CDFA) Californians for Ferret Legalization Ferrets Anonymous Ferret Central

Ray O'Neal

June 1966 - February 2004
We hardly knew each other, but every time we met, you always remembered something specific about me or that we had in common; no matter how much time had past since our last encounter. You were a manifest pillar of unassuming goodness in a world where such traits are rarely witnessed.
Ray, when we meet again, I will still remember you.

Michael Powell's Rip and Replace Economy

The need to rip and replace the nations infrastructure is stimulating
previously moribund capital spending, it is opening new paths to growth,
increasing our Nation productivity and holds out the promise for new
jobs as business and consumers increasingly unleash the power of
broadband.

But he did define four interesting Net Freedoms:

Freedom to Access Content: Consumers should have access to their choice of legal content
Freedom to Use Applications: Consumers should be able to run applications of their choice
Freedom to Attach Personal Devices: Consumers should be permitted to attach any devices they choose to the connection in their homes
Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information: Consumers should receive meaningful information regarding their service plans

Number three sounds a bit pornographic. And number four is completely obtuse jaberwockey.