Archive for December, 2005
Leap Second Lovers are Traitors
Friday, December 30th, 2005Leap Second Lovers are Traitors Look, look, look, look. A leap second is a denial of everything American, of everything good, of everything moral. Hey, it wasn't my idea; I was just trying to ameliorate the consequences.
Tune test
Friday, December 30th, 2005I probably wouldn't mark this website, unless I had scored perfectly on the NIH's Tune test, an online test for tone deafness--you have to decide whether 25 short tunes are played correctly or not.. Some might claim that Sacred Harp tunes would sound incorrect... I did notice that two tunes ...
PROGN considered harmful
Friday, December 30th, 2005Guy Steele in DDJ, Thoughts on Language Design: discusses going beyond the structured programming constructs of loops, if-then-else, and sequential operation: What might a language look like in which parallelism is the default? How about data-parallel languages, in which you operate, at least conceptually, on all the elements of an array ...
Kunonga watch V: charges dropped
Thursday, December 29th, 2005Anglican Church drops murder charges against Zimbabwe bishop.
Watch your ears
Thursday, December 29th, 2005'Ear bud' headphones can cause hearing loss, experts warn: "I have an audiologist friend at Wichita State University who actually pulls off earphones of students he sees and asks, in the interest of science, if he could measure the output of the signal going into their heads,'' Garstecki ...
At the tone, the time will be 2005 December 31, 23h 59m 60s.
Monday, December 26th, 2005It's rare that I get to write an email this geeky: what to do about the upcoming leap second if you're using some time and date code I wrote for Scheme a while back: Upcoming leap second.
Merry Christmas
Sunday, December 25th, 2005And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into ...
Wild: BASIC for Javascript
Thursday, December 22nd, 2005BASIC for Javascript (Requires Firefox 1.5). Even wierder than than Lisp in Javascript.
Cost of operating UAVs for border patrol
Thursday, December 22nd, 2005Border UAVS May Not Be All They're Cracked Up To Be: Are UAVs cheaper than manned aircraft? Not necessarily, according to Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Richard Skinner. According to his written testimony, one UAV requires a crew of up to 20 support personnel. In fact, the operating cost ...
Someone (finally) takes on the ‘churlishness’ of Richard Dawkins
Thursday, December 22nd, 2005Bullied and Brainswashed. What ought to be a fascinating discourse--What made us? How? Why?--instead too often becomes an occasion for childish name-calling on both sides. Isn’t there some way we can discuss God versus Darwin in civil tones? And don't get me started about the Flying Spaghetti Monster rhetoric.
Searches
Tuesday, December 20th, 2005According to Google's search history counts, I've done 30 searches per day (on average) since September 7. Yikes! That doesn't even count Yahoo searches.
Iesus Ahattonia
Tuesday, December 20th, 2005There's been a little discussion about The Huron Carol on the hymns list. This is the carol that, in the usual English version goes: 'Twas in the moon of winter-time When all the birds had fled, That mighty Gitchi Manitou Sent angel choirs instead; Before their light the stars grew dim, And wandering hunter heard the ...
Nice piece of Michigan bashing
Tuesday, December 20th, 2005Three Roads Diverged in a Wood and I, I Took the One to Toledo, based on a MeFi thread the Toledo War. ("Michigan went to war with Ohio over Toledo, and Michigan lost.") 'Course, they're on the other side of the mitten.
Christian Peacemaker Teams
Monday, December 19th, 2005On November 26, four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams were kidnapped in Iraq by a previously unknown group called the Swords of Righteousness. The CPT team was in Iraq investigating abuses by the occupying forces (they provided some of the first news on Abu Ghraib and other abuse cases ...
Nose to the Grindstone
Friday, December 16th, 2005Just for Daniel: Inside Higher Ed :: Nose to the Grindstone. (Academics work harder that those in industry and much harderthan those in the government).
Good CANVAS examples
Friday, December 16th, 2005Firefox 1.5 (and Safari) introduced support for the CANVAS tag, which people are just beginning to grok. Here are some good examples: A 'particle generator'. A 'scribbler'.
No wonder
Monday, December 12th, 2005I saw the Chronicles Of Narnia movie this weekend. My biggest fear was that Disney would tinker with the story too much; this fear was unfounded. It's a respectful and fairly faithful telling of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan is still not a tame lion, and is ...
Spammers attack
Friday, December 9th, 2005I'm getting a lot of comment spam, so I've trying out Spam Karma, which was very easy to install. If you're reading this, please leave a (non-spam!) comment; if you have any problems, please email me at will dot fitzgerald c/o gmail dot com.
Brilliant moving video idea
Thursday, December 8th, 2005see: parasite_large.mov (video/quicktime Object)