Best. Patent. Ever.
Abstract: A method for inducing cats to exercise consists of directing a beam of invisible light produced by a hand-held laser apparatus onto the floor or wall or other opaque surface in the vicinity of the cat, then moving the laser so as to cause the bright pattern of light to move in an irregular way fascinating to cats, and to any other animal with a chase instinct.
Howard Dean is a Metrosexual!
Someone's been keeping up with South Park.Diebold Links
After reading this article about Diebold abusing the DMCA, I've decided to link to the documents myself. In short, a number of memos has come out that shows Diebold's lax attitude to security in their voting machines. Rather than fix or address the problems, they are playing whack-a-mole with the DMCA. The questions now are how long will it take for them to find this site, and will they send the cease and desist to me or SBC? Also, for what it's worth, I have a local copy of the memos ready to place on the web as soon as the ones above disappear. Send me an e-mail if you want your own copies.
Update: I've sent a message to Diebold's press and CEO e-mail address informing them of the links:
From: Chris Karr
Date: October 29, 2003 7:09:02 AM CST
To: ceo@diebold.com, pressinfo@diebold.comI've posted a link to your leaked internal memos at
http://aetherial.net/archives/000574.html
and
../archives/000573.html
My ISP is SBC Ameritech if you wish to send a cease and desist that that attempts to violate my First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. If you do send a C&D, please send one to me at
My address here
Since I am the sole person for maintaining and running the server these links are on. I would be more than pleased to frame the letter as an example of boneheaded corporate behavior before I walk down to my elected representatives' offices to discuss how your company is abusing an already terrible law in order to squelch criticism of your machines and violate citizens' Constitutional rights.
Placing the "Protecting the Bill of Rights" bit on your front page is the height of irony.
-Chris
I've also jumped the gun and sent a series of links and an explanation of the situation to some staffers that I know working for Congresscritters. I've also been considering more seriously entering law school again because crap like this. I'm planning on getting my Masters in CIS in the next two years, and law school may be a likely next step.
Researching the Semantic Web
I'm in the process of researching whether some of the concepts surrounding the semantic web movement make sense in the context of the Spoken Word Project. Below are a few links that I've found in my search. Please post a comment if there are any additional resources that should be examined.
Continue...Year of Hell
One last procrastination question... I watched the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Year of Hell" this morning. In the episode, the Voyager has to fight a time-manipulating enemy that really wails on Voyager. My confusion arises from an episode that was aired earlier about the Kes character phasing backwards in time. In that episode (which I assumed was prior to "The Year of Hell"), Kes finds out about the time villains and at the end starts to prepare a report on them. In the actual episode, Seven of Nine is part of the crew, which suggests that Kes has already left. If this was the case, why was Voyager so ignorant of the enemy (played by the same actor who plays Red Forman on "That 70's Show") when Kes had already compiled the report? Writer's snafu?Twenty-One Repetitions to Form a Habit
I managed to haul myself to the gym last night. I've been suffering from an excess of nervous energy and the general feeling that my physiology needed a bit more exercise. So, I went out last night to the YMCA to lift some weights. I'm hoping to get back into the habit I had in June. I don't foresee any possible interruptions until maybe the middle of December, so I'm optimistic that I'll have enough repetitions under the belt to make this activity habitual. (I'm staying here for Thanksgiving and most likely Christmas.) Continue...Will Streaming Media Stick Around?
A curious question popped into my head as I was writing the last entry -- what is the long term prospects of streaming media compared with downloadable media? Is streaming media something that will persist, or will it fade away as technological shifts occur that destroy its advantages over downloadable media? Continue...New Oyez Search Feature
I've been working on the SpokenWordQuery interface to Oyez lately. For the NSF / JISC demo, I created a Flash interface that translates a series of pulldowns and queries into a SpokenWordQuery document that would be shipped to the server and the results displayed in a visually appealing manner. Today, I got around to putting query caching in the implementation, which effectively opens up the searches to a much larger base of applications.
Continue...10.2 v. 10.3
I'm running a week-long usability test to see if MacOS X 10.3 is all that much better than MacOS X 10.2. The test will be conducted by using 10.3 on my home machine (1.25 GHz / 1024 MB RAM) and 10.2 on my work machine (2x500 MHz / 2048 MB RAM). The determining factor will be whether I feel more productive working on one or the other. Thus far, I have noticed no difference.Health Care
Somewhat relevant to a recent e-mail exchange: Do Some Pay Too Little for Health Care?Printing -- OK
I shared out my printer through the System Preferences and I've managed to share it out to my XP machines. I also managed to avoid all the HP crap by using the Gimp-Print drivers with my HP PSC 750. Nice. All I need to do now is find a driver for the scanner component.Panther and WAN Update
Well, I managed to get Holly set up with a WLAN. I ended up purchasing a Linksys 802.11b router that hooks directly up to the DSL line and is the access point for the network. It worked fairly well and if my AP is any indication, I can expect few problems in the future. Continue...Panther and Other Things
I stopped by the Apple Store to see how the "Night of the Panther" was coming along. I managed to pick up some dog tags for free. Since then, I've been at Holly's working on getting her set up with 10.3 and trying to increase the portability of her system so she can see haw cool wireless really is. I ran into a few snags along the way. Continue...Updates and Inventory
I've been a bit absent from this blog for a while. Last week, I was working on creating a Flash interface that that allows searches on the Oyez database. This week has been mostly spent taking care of smaller tasks that I missed last week while trying to get the demo out the door for Jonathan's Glasgow trip. Today, I have been waiting at home for FedEx to deliver my copy of MacOS X 10.3. I'm currently backing up my OS X disk to my Linux box as I await delivery of Panther.
Continue...Quick Saves -- Good or Bad?
You decide.t.A.T.u.
So I was browsing Michael Stipe's playlist on the iTunes Music Store and found that he had included t.A.T.u.'s "All the Things She Said" on the list. For the hell of it, I decided to purchase the album as I like their sound. I was roughly expectng something sumilar to American female teenage angst pop, such as Pink or that skater chick. I was very surprised when I found out that "All the Things She Said" was (to me) the low point of the album. I listened through it last night and really enjoyed it. Perhaps this isn't such a bug surprise, given that I was also a fan of the Spice Girls. Perhaps producer-driven artifical foreign bands are not so bad after all.A Conversation With Mr. Swartz
The following is a transcript of the e-mails passed between Aaron Swartz and myself regarding his Common Sense Party. Note the use of indentation to emulate e-mail quoting. I'm also missing a couple of my e-mails from last night -- they're stuck on the GF's computer -- though I'm hoping that Aaron will send them to me soon so that the record is complete. Anyways, read away and draw your own conclusions. [UPDATE: They are all here with the exception of the first mail, which I believe is quoted in Aaron's initial response.] Continue...Hehe.
I admire the idealism of youth. Mr. Aaron Schwartz, the prodigal code-guy, has just come up with the most effective way to crash an economy that I've ever seen. He wants to cut the taxes on the lower and middle classes and fund extravagant social programs by drastically cutting the military and taxing the hell out of the rich. This looks like the surest way to ensure that capital leaves a country that can no longer fend for itself or matter economically since the business and investor classes have fled along with the American defense industry. Oh, that explains it -- he's been reading Michael Moore. :-PI'm Still Here
My writing has been sparse as of late. I have a perfectly good excuse and some updates. Continue...Gadgets
I guess I'm better about using my gadgets than these folks. Or maybe I'm just better about selling them on eBay...China Sends Man Into Space
This is some of the best news I've seen in some time pertaining to mankind's extraterrestrial endeavors. Short version: China successfully sent a single pilot into space. Read below for more details about why I really like this. Continue...China Sends Man Into Space
This is some of the best news I've seen in some time pertaining to mankind's extraterrestrial endeavors. Short version: China successfully sent a single pilot into space. Read below for more details about why I really like this. Continue...Jeebus Save Me!
I just had to update my directory entry on NU's PeopleSoft system. Talk about a piece of crap interface. I mean, damn, it seems like it was implemented and designed by a "Java 101" student. It hurts me just thinking about it.Books Update
This will be the final Books update on this blog. I went ahead and created a MT site for the software since it was starting to dominate posts here. For the curious, it can be reached at http://books.aetherial.net. It features all the goodness of a MT site, including comments and RSS. And, oh, there's a new version out.Gun Scorecard
Chalk up one point for the Second Amendment.OS X 10.3 Upgrade Angst
Everything you wanted to know about Unicode...
... but were afraid to ask.Voting and Gerrymandering
A great article on voting and gerrymandering is available at the USS Clueless. Read it and learn something.
Test
Dead server recovery test. Please Ignore.Doubled the Installed Base
Looking at my logs today, I noticed that I've doubled the number of Books downloads. Not bad for a 0.1 release increment.Le Sigh
I had such hopes for Watchblog. It's supposed to be a site for political news and commentary, but the site has devolved to such an extent that reasonable rational discourse between both sides is impossible. I'm starting to wonder whether it's possible to have an unmoderated online forum for political discussion without any moderation. I'm starting to think that it is impossible. Why are people so petty and stupid? This could have been a great thing, but now is little more than a laughingstock now. I'm curious to see how much longer I stick around.
Continue...Apple & Lain
I just finished watching Serial Experiment Lain. While looking for some interpretations of the series, I ran across a link that explains the Lain / Apple Computer connection. My mind is still digesting Lain, but I thought that this information was surreal. Watch the series, then type some of the title text in an editor and have the Mac speak it with the Whisper voice. It's kind of spooky.A Debate on Politics and Ideology in the Classroom
Read it here.Books 1.3 Features List
I've been keeping a list of features for inclusion in the next major release of Books, 1.3. Since it's starting to clutter up my iCal, I figured that I would post them here. Suggestions are appreciated and welcome. Continue...Cubs Win
'Nuff said.Useful Referrer Command Chain
I was interested in seeing what all sites were sending people to Books. I used the following Unix command to find out:
grep Books aetherial.net-access.log | grep -v versiontracker | grep -v aetherial.net | grep -v macupdate.com | cut -f 4 -d "\"" | sort | uniq | less
This extracts the relevant URLs, strips out entries by known referrers, isolates the referrer fields and gets rid of redundant strings.
1400 Downloads - Wow
Books has surpassed 1400 downloads in less than 24 hours. This is more downloads for version 1.2 than 1.1 had in its entire time being online. I've received many great comments and I've been blown away by the adoption rate. Wow.... Know What the W Stands For?
Yet!Bar Photos
Random musing: Why do people who take pictures in bars insist on lifting up their drinks as if they were toasting the photographer? I found this random example on some Icelander's page. This must be a culturally universal thing...Useless
I'm a mess at the moment. My motivation is gone at the moment, and I'm getting tired of looking at a computer screen. I'll probably call it a day soon. Side topic -- anyone know of any in-city shooting ranges in Chicago? I'm interested in getting a handgun and learning how to shoot well.MPlayer
I found this old review of MPlayer via Slashdot. If I ever start to treat my users as described in the article, please come to my place, ring the door, let me open the door, then punch me in the face. It will be just and deserved. For the sake of fairness, here's an update article. Continue...SGI and SCO Code
SGI has published a letter detailing some of the code in question in the SCO lawsuits. Apparently around 200 lines of code (out of SGI's over than 1,000,000 LOC contributed) were included, but removed quickly as there was superior functionality within Linux that rendered the System V code in question irrelevent. SCO disagrees and is terminating SGI's Unix license.
