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:: Wednesday, December 31 2008 ::

2008 came to an end with a big snowstorm here in Sharon Springs, New York. We're off to a party featuring, I am told, jazz marimba players (and hopefully some food, as we've not eaten yet). I hope you all have wonderful festivities, and I look forward to blathering on even more in the coming year. As the French would say it, bonne année!
:: David (17:58 in Arkansas, 0:58 in Paris) - Comment


:: Tuesday, December 30 2008 ::

It may come as a shock, but the economy is still in the toilet. Newly released figures indicate consumer confidence... isn't. My email inbox has been nothing but sale ads since the beginning of December, and I see no reason to think people are suddenly going to start buying.
:: David (15:34 in Arkansas, 22:34 in Paris) - Comment


Snow has arrived again here in New York - it blew in with gale force winds and is now looking like it might make some serious accumulation. Happily (or not, depending on your point of view), the weather will be much warmer in DC (and warmer again in Conway!)
:: David (8:36 in Arkansas, 15:36 in Paris) - Comment


:: Monday, December 29 2008 ::

Randomly, one of Sasha's colleagues at the college is also from New York, so in addition to old family friends we had new friends visiting us. We went on a tour of Sharon Springs, which is always exciting as new things always seem to be happening there. Now it's time for drinks with the relatives. We've been meeting lots of new people, and it seems there's a whole lot happening for New Year's, so we'll be busy for some time to come!
:: David (15:39 in Arkansas, 22:39 in Paris) - Comment


:: Saturday, December 27 2008 ::

Made it to New York, after another long day of driving in icy winter weather (apparently they closed the Indiana turnpike shortly after we passed into Ohio yesterday). We'll be here through New Year's, then it's off to DC for a weekend before we head back home to Arkansas. I hope everyone is still having a pleasant holiday!
:: David (18:50 in Arkansas, 1:50 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


:: Wednesday, December 24 2008 ::

We're in Michigan, finally, having driven up a few days ago. It's been a whole lot of snow and ice, and a whole lot of driving. We're here 'til the day after Christmas, then a long drive to New York. Hope everyone is having a good holiday.
:: David (17:02 in Arkansas, 0:02 in Paris) - Comment


:: Saturday, December 20 2008 ::

Via the Economist's View I read an article in the Financial Times written by Niall Ferguson in which a rather radical solution to the financial crisis is alluded to: total debt forgiveness. "In the Old Testament Book of Leviticus, God commands the children of Israel to observe a jubilee every 50 years. Nowadays we tend to associate the word with celebrations of royal anniversaries such as Queen Elizabeth’s golden jubilee in 2002. But the biblical conception of a jubilee was more precise: that of a general cancellation of debts."
:: David (13:50 in Arkansas, 20:50 in Paris) - Comment


I saw on Le Monde that Canada is also going to give the US automakers a big cash infusion (English article in the Toronto Star, with extra special high-five photo). I think the MP Gerard Kennedy has some valid concerns when he asks "What kind of arrangement is the Canadian government prepared to enter into, how is it going to protect [...] Canadian taxpayers [...] and is there going to be any independent Canadian decision-making here or are we simply going to be following the Americans in every respect?"
:: David (13:11 in Arkansas, 20:11 in Paris) - Comment


:: Friday, December 19 2008 ::

I can't decide if this is the most insane thing I've ever seen, or a really good idea. I'll have to explore their site further to figure it out. The name of the company pretty much says it all: Vegetarian Voyages. It's a travel company, um, for vegetarians.
:: David (14:42 in Arkansas, 21:42 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


:: Thursday, December 18 2008 ::

EcoGeek pointed me to a crazy font that claims to reduce the amount of ink you use when printing by 20 percent. Called the Ecofont, it looks like a standard sans-serif font, but when you make it giant, it has lots of little holes. For places that print a lot (I'm thinking of universities), that could add up to some serious savings. The trick, of course, is getting people to use it - I think their next mission should be an eco-Times New Roman. Special bonus points for the quote: "After Dutch holey cheese, there now is a Dutch font with holes as well."
:: David (23:08 in Arkansas, 6:08 in Paris) - Comment


The New York Times has an article on the worst part about visiting people during the holidays: someone else controls the thermostat.
:: David (22:57 in Arkansas, 5:57 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]


On my initial viewing of the 'death map', which shows the likelihood of being prematurely killed by mother nature by geographic region, I thought Sasha had done me a great disservice moving me to Arkansas. But in examining the data at a state level, it turns out that our particular location in AR is quite safe. I would not want to be in certain areas of the North or East though, which includes one county in the 98th percentile of early death.
:: David (17:55 in Arkansas, 0:55 in Paris) - Comment


:: Wednesday, December 17 2008 ::

Oh boy! I can start buying toys again! I got a job! It's the one I expected to get, but it's nice to have it verified. And since all the calls I've gotten to date have been development work anyway, I might just as well take one where I can walk to work.
:: David (16:59 in Arkansas, 23:59 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[7]


Well, I was right about chaos having been wrought by the storm - the trip to the airport with my friends became an epic journey, with the 45 minute drive becoming a 3 1/2 hour drive. We tried to take a back road, only to find it closed by police, so we headed back to the highway, and while Suj tried to reschedule the plane tickets, Sam (his wife) drove on the (still quite icy) shoulder past angry honking cars. After finally making it to the airport, I took the highway back as far as it was clear, then stopped for lunch before heading back into the fray. The next area traffic locked solid was near the beer store, so I headed in to get a 12 pack for when I got home. The helpful salesman noted that if I was planning on drinking the beer on the drive home I should try the one that was infused with espresso. In the end, my friends made the first leg of their trip before I made it home.
:: David (11:26 in Arkansas, 18:26 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


:: Tuesday, December 16 2008 ::

We've had a right proper ice storm down here Arkansas way, and everything is shut down. Sadly, a friend has to catch a flight today (we've been speculating whether or not the planes are flying, but we'll hope so), so I'll be driving them down to the airport, which should afford me a chance to see what chaos has been wrought by the weather.
:: David (10:39 in Arkansas, 17:39 in Paris) - Comment


:: Monday, December 15 2008 ::

Special thanks to Manuel, who pointed me to a photo of a Pastafarian Nativity Scene. Yarrr!
:: David (17:54 in Arkansas, 0:54 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]


Treehugger pointed me to a fake ad for the big three automakers that made me smile, in that 'that's really funny, too bad it's true' kind of way.
:: David (2:11 in Arkansas, 9:11 in Paris) - Comment


:: Sunday, December 14 2008 ::

As of 1:00 PM local time (17:00 GMT), my lovely wife is officially a PhD. The graduation ceremony took place in Michigan, of course, so we couldn't attend, but we're planning a nice dinner out with friends.
:: David (18:03 in Arkansas, 1:03 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


I'm sure this is all over everywhere, but I'll report it again - an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at President Bush and called him a 'dog' during a news conference in Iraq. As the BBC notes:

Correspondents called it a symbolic incident. Iraqis threw shoes and used them to beat Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad after his overthrow.
As with many countries, in Iraq the soles of the feet are considered the lowest form of insult.
:: David (13:24 in Arkansas, 20:24 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]


:: Saturday, December 13 2008 ::

Apparently it's time for another round of obituaries for the city of Detroit, as both the BBC and NYT have one up today. That said, the fact that the Lions are 0-13 really is adding insult to injury.
:: David (14:55 in Arkansas, 21:55 in Paris) - Comment


The economic downturn has led to a proliferation of articles on getting by with less, and on people who are doing so. The New York Times has not come off well in this, revealing just how completely out of touch their authors often are with reality. Articles like As the Rich Get Poorer, Teenagers Feel the Crunch which discuss the poor teens whose $100/week allowance has been cut are one indication of that, or Trickledown Downsizing, about having to lay off your maid.
:: David (14:48 in Arkansas, 21:48 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


:: Friday, December 12 2008 ::

Le Monde is reporting (faux English version here) that France will be phasing out commercials on their public stations starting next year, with total phase-out happening in 2011. I haven't been paying much attention, but it seems from the article like a lot of politicking has been going on around this issue. I've always found adverts on public stations (radio or TV) a little odd, but the money has to come from somewhere, and corporate coffers is certainly one answer.
:: David (19:02 in Arkansas, 2:02 in Paris) - Comment


The new issue of Harper's arrived today, and it is chock full of 'hooray! Bush is finally leaving'. There's a retrospective index of the Bush years, detailing in numbers how far the country has fallen, and an article by Stiglitz and company discussing pretty much the same topic. I may have to keep the subscription going for a while just to see if they have anything to write about once Obama gets into office....
:: David (18:48 in Arkansas, 1:48 in Paris) - Comment


:: Wednesday, December 10 2008 ::

Gawker points out how weird it is when the Wall Street Journal has become the defender of the downtrodden (or a perfect example of sexism - you decide). Specifically, in writing about a Times article (which I read a while ago, but didn't remember to post about) in which the author talks about hiring a surrogate to have her baby. I think perhaps Jezebel does a better job of addressing the question of how society treats women's reproductive choices as if everyone should have a say. It's a really odd situation, given the overtones of economic disparity, the fact that it is a medical condition (the author of the article is unable to bring a baby to term), and the unfortunate fact that perhaps the author (who is apparently a billionaire) is not the best voice for the topic (although perhaps she is, since she raises all these questions).
:: David (11:08 in Arkansas, 18:08 in Paris) - Comment


I'm sure I've complained about this before, but I just got a mail message today that reminded me once again how much I hate the concert industry in the US.

When we moved down here, I got on the mailing list for the local stadium so I would know when big events were happening. Now I have received notice that I can buy advance tickets to a concert featuring ... Nickelback!!! OK, so it's not exactly an exciting concert, but the point was the ticket prices, which start (!!!) at 47 dollars each. And as near as I can tell this is the going rate on these sorts of events. It's simply insane.
:: David (10:36 in Arkansas, 17:36 in Paris) - Comment


:: Tuesday, December 9 2008 ::

Mmmmm. Bacon with dioxins.
:: David (17:26 in Arkansas, 0:26 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


Off to interview round two. I'll post when I get back whether or not I passed the 'skills test'. We're also having some of Sasha's students over to dinner, which should be amusing. And/or frightening. We'll see.
:: David (12:08 in Arkansas, 19:08 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


:: Monday, December 8 2008 ::

OK - here's the geek free post I promised. Well, kinda - it's about wikipedia, actually, but it's mostly geek free.

It seems the UK is blocking access to an article on wikipedia due to charges the image on the page is child pornography. This blocking is also, to my understanding, making it so noone in the UK can edit wikipedia pages. The image in question is the cover to an album from the 1970s by the band the Scorpions (a band which has enjoyed what I would call 'more than a little' commercial success). The page in question, which I will link to here, but be warned that it is, quite obviously not safe for work (and disturbing besides), contains an extended discussion about the choice of the controversial cover, and how the views of the band evolved over time. Obviously I'm not a fan of kiddie porn, but I always find it problematic to have a debate about something when the source material is banned. One of the BBC blogs has a discussion of the ban, as does slashdot (though I wouldn't hold my breath for a particularly intellectual discussion there).
:: David (10:34 in Arkansas, 17:34 in Paris) - Comment


OK - this is going to be the geekiest post ever, so I recommend you just skip it. I'll be posting about some other interesting articles soon, so there's no need to read this post.

Still here? OK, you asked for it: tomorrow I have an interview, and as part of the interview they asked me to show them I can actually use PHP. Now, I can use PHP, but it's been a year and a half since I did so, so I decided it probably made good sense to bone up a little. So I set up my little windows test environment using the Abyss web server, then installed PHP. So far this is still relatively normal stuff.

So here's where my geek got loose: I have, upstairs, a device which was originally designed to make hard drives available on the network without attaching them to a computer. It's called the NSLU2, or more affectionately a 'slug'. Due to the fact that it originally shipped with some open source software installed, the makers of the device were required to open its source code, and the device has become popular with home-brew people all over. One of the fun things you can do with it is install Linux, and use the device as a server. Which I did recently.

Now, thanks to the wonderful legions of crazy people with more skill at compiling than I have, you can install MySQL, the database server often used for web development, on the slug with a simple one-line command. Of course, then you get to configure it, but that's the easy part (?).

So now I have PHP working on my laptop, and MySQL running upstairs on a hacked piece of hardware originally meant to do nothing even remotely related to what I'm using it for. After some fiddling, I managed to get PHP talking to the database, and I have just successfully run my first query on the sample database I created, pulling in four addresses from the fake address book.

That's it - no big story, just geeky excitement over a success using crazy tools.
:: David (10:07 in Arkansas, 17:07 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]


:: Friday, December 5 2008 ::

I like this - Amazon has just added a 'universal wish list' button that will allow you to add anything at any store to your amazon wish list. Very clever. I'm now in the process of updating my wish list.
:: David (17:25 in Arkansas, 0:25 in Paris) - Comment


Mmmmmm. Bacon.
:: David (16:44 in Arkansas, 23:44 in Paris) - Comment


Bonus points to the researcher, in announcing findings that intelligent people have better sperm, who said "This does not mean that men who prefer Play-Doh to Plato always have poor sperm: the relationship we found was marginal". I've a feeling that line has been getting a workout before it was picked up on the BBC. Nevertheless, it is clever.

The results themselves are unnerving - I'm not suggesting they're wrong, merely saying that once a 'biological' link is established, suggesting that 'nature' thinks smart people are more worthy of reproducing, it's easy to imagine scary conclusions being drawn.

I really need a tin foil hat to wear when I write this stuff.
:: David (12:17 in Arkansas, 19:17 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[1]


:: Thursday, December 4 2008 ::

The BBC has been doing this project for a while, where they track a cargo container as it travels around the world, carrying various this-n-thats from place to place. The project home page has an overview, and a link to a map showing where the container has been. Via the map, you can click through to the various stories that have been written about the box as it travels the world's waterways (and roadways). There's also a flickr group of pictures people have taken of the container as it travels around the world.

I was sad to see that although piracy was mentioned in the story about the box navigating the suez canal, it was not in fact hijacked.
:: David (15:34 in Arkansas, 22:34 in Paris) - Comment


You know, as a politician you really can't win. If you take a call from a world leader and it turns out to be fake, everyone mocks you. If, on the other hand, you assume it's a prank, and in doing so, hang up on the president of the United States, that makes news too. You can't win.

On the subject of calling world leaders, Slate has an article explaining just how the heck they call each other.
:: David (11:23 in Arkansas, 18:23 in Paris) - Comment


:: Wednesday, December 3 2008 ::

Note to the British military: when deciding whether to torture someone, be sure to take into account whether their grandchild might become president of the United States. Oops! Too late! Does this mean a Guantanamo inmate's grandchild will become Prime Minister?
:: David (23:18 in Arkansas, 6:18 in Paris) - Comment


I think we all saw this coming, but it's still sad a compromise couldn't be worked out: the Episcopal church has had itself a schism. The new church, which will have approximately 100,000 members if they go through with it, will presumably take the more conservative elements out of the Episcopal church, hopefully meaning the Episcopals can really get their liberal game on now.
:: David (23:13 in Arkansas, 6:13 in Paris) - Comment


Autoblog has the full breakdown of US auto sales for November, and boy, did they stink. When losing a quarter of your monthly sales is doing well, something is seriously off. They've color coded the numbers (red for loss, green for gain) and the only brand that needed the green was Mini (which had a limited production run last year, it isn't really a fair comparison).
:: David (15:52 in Arkansas, 22:52 in Paris) - Comment


The consumerist has this fun pie chart showing how the cost of the bailout (thus far) outweighs the combined cost of "[the] Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, the Moonshot, S&L Crisis, Korean War, and even The New Deal".
:: David (13:13 in Arkansas, 20:13 in Paris) - Comment


:: Tuesday, December 2 2008 ::

I just watched OSS 117 - Cairo: Nest of Spies (which you can buy at Amazon), which I've been meaning to do for a while. It's great good fun if you like goofy movies. I had been thinking that it would be really cool if it was on iTunes, but it's not - I think that's a market they're missing, personally - all those foreign language films have an audience. In fact, they should offer to distribute films directly, and skip the middlemen. (Disclaimer: if you click through and buy from Amazon, I get paid!)
:: David (21:01 in Arkansas, 4:01 in Paris) - Comment


:: Monday, December 1 2008 ::

I have an interview Wednesday for a programming job, and for the first time ever I've been asked to bring a sample of my work. Happily, they want a sample of my programming work, as I can't really imagine what I would bring for show-and-tell if I were demonstrating project management or business analyst skills (though the visual is amusing). So, since I couldn't find a single piece of code I've written outside of the website, I'm going to take the code to the software that does my blog. Who knew that all those goofy late night programming sessions would ever come in handy?
:: David (20:53 in Arkansas, 3:53 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[4]


OK - why did it take me until today to find out the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade got rickrolled? Even the Telegraph covered it. I obviously need to expand my reading list again!
:: David (20:50 in Arkansas, 3:50 in Paris) - Comment - View Comments[2]


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