September 2004 Archives

I sent a question in to Neil Gaiman the other day asking about an audiobook version of Good Omens, and he posted it to his blog. Pretty cool. Though I personally think it should be done as a podcast first, a chapter a week.

I just recently finished listening to American Gods and really enjoyed it. This made me wonder if there is a chance we might see an audiobook of Good Omens. I've read it a number of times and think it would be quite fun to have an audio version of. Are there any chances of this ever existing? Thanks,Gregory Blake http://www.ezoons.com/

I know that Harper Collins very much want to do one. And Terry and I would both very much like to hear it. So I think the odds are pretty good one will happen. [Neil Gaiman]

Hmm, anyone wanna ask him if he's read Move Under Ground and what he thinks of it?

I've started a new category for writing about iTMS, both the good and the bad. Though lately there's been a lot of the bad as far as customer service.

From the warped minds at weebls-stuff.com: Choccy

Warning, may cause nightmares or chocolate cravings.

One of my favorite cookies ever. I can easily eat almost a whole batch in one sitting if I'm not careful.

Peanut Blossoms

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup peanut butter (chunky is okay if you want)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Chocolate Kisses

Cream together butter, peanut butter, and sugars. Add egg and vanilla. Blend in mixed dry ingredients gradually. Shape dough into small balls and roll in sugar. Place on greased baking sheets and bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and press on Kisses. Return to oven for 2-5 minutes more baking. (Watch to make sure the kisses don't melt or burn).

Oscar Wilde
"Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about." [via Quotes of the Day]

One of the things I've been watching lately is the growth of Podcasting. The idea is that various audio broadcasts online would be available for download, with RSS feeds being used to announce when new broadcasts are available. Adam Curry is the one who really gave this a kick-start with his Daily Source Code.

The other part of this is the iPod. There are a number of programs out there for watching the RSS feeds for these broadcasts. When a new show is posted, they automaticly download it and put it into a playlist in iTunes so that you can sync it to your iPod. It's all pretty slick.

My idea is kind of an expansion of an idea I've been playing with for a bit: Audiobooks. I could record an chapter at a time, and as I finish post it so that people can download. In the end I'd love to expand this to having a resource for various kinds of storytelling. Maybe do a book reading with a few people, each taking various parts. Or provide a directory for other people doing the same thing. As usual, the big issue is resources. I'll think about this a bit more after I get a bit more sleep.

I have a few different tools I use for managing MySQL on my OS X server. I've always been a fan of phpMyAdmin and have also used something called CocoaMySQL. But I was recently in a situation where I didn't have those available and needed something quick. After searching around some I discovered dbSuite Admin Tools X, a very nice piece of donationware for OS X and Windows for working with your MySQL server. The big bonus it has over CocoaMySQL is that it has user management built in (something I'm sure it will have eventually). These folks will be getting a little bit of a donation from me on my next round of payments.

Well, at least I have some pictures I could post for this occasion, even if I don't have cats of my own.

BlogACatMas This Friday!

It may be only a one-year-old tradition, but it's still a tradition! Last year, Boss Ross and I declared that the first Friday in October shall be "Post a Cat on Your Blog Day", or more simply, BlogACatMas. Yeah, posting a picture of a cat is nearly as old as blogging itself, but we figured why not have a designated special day for that most bloggy of blog practices?

Here's some inspiration:

...

So gather your kitty pictures, because Friday's the day! [via The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century :: Joey deVilla's Weblog]

Here's one that my mom found in the local paper that was really good. It's quite quick and easy.

Apple-Ginger Muffins

• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg yolk
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger
• 1 small apple, peeled, cored and minced

In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and cinnamon. Cut butter into flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Beat together egg yolk and milk. Pour into batter and stir briefly to moisten. Quickly stir in ginger and apple. Spoon batter into greased muffin tin, filling 6 to 7 muffin cups 3/4 full.

Bake in preheated 375 degree oven 20 minutes or until muffins are golden and leave no trace of batter when a toothpick is inserted in center. Remove muffins from tin and cool on wire rack. Makes 6 to 7 muffins.

This is quite cool. I wish they had one that was blank with spaces to fill in stuff.

Make a paper CD case

Make a paper CD case
This site will create a PDF file which can be printed and folded to create a paper CD case. There's an advanced form that allows you to add more tracks, and even graphics, and even let you add your creation to their cover database. Neat. [Incoming Signals] [via lonita.links.log]

Anyone else remember these scary specials about all the horrible things kids can get involved in? Now you can watch them again on DVD, and they even come in a Trapper Keeper-like case!

Afterschool Specials on DVD

Do you remember My Other Mother , Beat the Turtle Drum , and Did You Hear What Happened to Andrea ? No? Honestly, I don't either and I thought I would recognize all these old ABC Afterschool Specials, those maudlin preachy tales of unwed mothers, teenage prostitution, and the dangers of hitchhiking. They're being released on DVD, in a Trapper Keeper notebook style case. Each volume has four installments on two DVDs with Volumes 1 and 2 arriving on October 12th. Schoolboy Father , starring Rob Lowe, Nancy McKeon, and Dana Plato won't be out until Volume 4 arrives, probably later this fall. Oh, Rob did a ton of these, he's also in A Matter of Time in Volume 5. [via Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women]

Just the text of this clip alone is bound to give me some good search traffic.

Japanese men's sperm comes in 2 types
Japanese men's sperm concentration changes seasonally and is categorized in two types according to the season when it becomes more concentrated, research jointly conducted by two universities revealed. [via Medical News Today]

I've been in an absolutely crappy mood all weekend. I dunno if it's the phase of the moon or that time of the year or what. In an act of desperation I sent someone some songs anonymously, and got an absolutely wonderful response to the second one. I am now smiling. The End.

ps. please don't kill me.

Buh, I was just trying to look up the GamesDomain review of Wario Ware for the GBA and I discovered that Yahoo! absorbed gamesdomain.com. And it looks like this happened a while ago. And on top of it, they've completely ruined it. This sucks. GamesDomain used to have an amazing database of reviews, most of which seem to be gone at this point. Thank you Yahoo for destroying something good.

Yay! It looks like there is a new version of Wario Ware in the works. That game drove me absolutely insane and I keep thinking about giving it a replay. [via Waxy.org Links]

After the season finale of Joan of Arcadia, I really wasn't quite sure what they were going to do this season. So far, I think they're off to a good start. No other real comments at this time to avoid spoilage.

Fred Allen
"I can't understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars." [via Quotes of the Day]

Years ago when I was in college there were a few games for the Mac that were quite cool. One of them was Solarian II. It was kind of like Galaxian with really cool sounds. Thankfully, it's now been ported to OS X and it's just as frustratingly cool as it was back then. I think I may even cough up the $10 for it once I get done with the trial runs.

Now, we just need are new ports of Arashi, Crystal Quest, Shufflepuck Cafe (remember the opponent who'd get drunk as he lost?) and Airborn (Hopefully I can find links to old pages with pictures of these). Now that I think of it, there were a ton of really simple fun games for the Mac back then. I remember the little DA version of Tetris that I'd waste hours playing when I was working in the computer lab.

Russell Baker
"Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it." [via Quotes of the Day]

From my friend Greg: The Infinite Cat Project. Pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats, looking at pictures of cats (help me! I'm stuck!)...

After not being able to talk about this for ages I can finally say NetNewsWire 2.0 rocks. Tonight Brent released the beta of NetNewsWire 2.0. I've been using betas for the past few months and he's been doing a pretty kickass job. You can check out the What's New page, read the Change Notes, or just go and Download it.

This one actually didn't seem too surprising to me, but it is cool that they were able to find the connection.

New Light Shed on Deadly Lung Disease

TUESDAY, Aug. 3 (HealthDayNews) -- New research holds out hope for people suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, a deadly lung disease, by discovering that cells that travel to the organ to repair damage end up doing more harm than good.

The study found these biological repairmen, which experts had thought originally resided in the lungs, were actually adult stem cells that migrated there from the patient's bone marrow -- and this migration can be halted.

...

"It's certainly very exciting research, but the information is obviously very preliminary," said Dr. Alfred Munzer, a lung specialist from Maryland and past president of the American Lung Association. "We have to see what meaning it holds."

Pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic and often fatal disorder that is characterized by extra scar tissue in the lungs. The disease, which affects some 80,000 individuals in the United States, has traditionally been treated with steroids and other immunosuppressive therapies, but with little effect. About 70 percent of people die within five years of diagnosis. "At the moment, there is no effective treatment for pulmonary disease, and it is not that uncommon a disease," Munzer said. [medicinenet.com]

What I think about this is that it gives me hope for people who get IPF in the future. I'm already well on my way to getting a new lung, but that honestly isn't my first choice. And it isn't something available to all people. In many ways I'm very lucky in that I haven't gotten worse in well over a year (*knocks on wood*).

Here's an interesting article from a few days ago:

Adult Stem Cells Migrate to Lung, Contribute to Pulmonary Fibrosis

09 Aug 2004

UCLA researchers for the first time identified and then stopped a type of adult stem cell from migrating to the lung and contributing to pulmonary fibrosis in an animal model. Pulmonary fibrosis (i.e, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis) in humans is a devastating terminal disorder that causes an overabundance of scar tissue to form in the lung.

IMPACT: The new study may offer novel therapies to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis– currently there are no effective treatments and the mortality rate is approximately 70 percent within five years of diagnosis. Over 80,000 individuals in the United States suffer from the disease. [medicalnewstoday.com]

From Joi Ito's Web:

Wikipedia reaches one million articles

Wikipedia has just announced that it has reached one million articles. Congratulations Wikipedians! Wikipedia is in more than 100 languages with 14 currently having over 10,000 articles. It is ranked one of the ten most popular reference sites on the Internet according to Alexa.com (trumping Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times). At the current rate of growth, Wikipedia will double in size again by next spring. [Joi Ito's Web]

Pretty cool. I keep thinking I should work on contributing more, especially in the anime section.

Okay, I must agree with Suw that Shaun of the Dead is great. I'm not a huge fan of horror movies in general, but this is more than just a zombie movie. It's a zombie movie with comedy, or actually it's a romantic comedy with zombies. Whatever it is it is brilliant. It opens next Friday and everyone must go see it. Here's the Official Website . Go there and check it out so I gain pint points.

William Shakespeare
"Exit, pursued by a bear." [via Quotes of the Day]

From a few sources, but I just had to share this for my friends who might not have seen it yet. Behold, the power of show tunes:

This morning I had the most bizarre subway ride. I board the Number 3 train at Grand Army Plaza after 9 a.m. Find a seat, then settle into reading Henry James for class. I hear a woman’s voice gradually rising in volume. She is preaching the “Lord’s” word to the train car’s sleepy riders. Of course, I had forgotten the headphones for my subway evil sounds blocking device. The train stops and starts.
The words denigrating “gay devils” reach my ears. I stand up.

Me: “Excuse me, but do you mind keeping your voice down, I am trying to read.”

Preacher Lady: (screams) “I got to testify.”

Preacher lady hitches up her skirts and tells me that I am going to hell for interrupting you-know-who’s word. Two or three OTHER Christian ladies on the train start shouting at me and discussing my prospects as the Devil’s prison bitch. The last straw was a 50 something red faced man in a suit slamming his Bible towards my face. There was only one thing I could do.

Me: “If you all don’t lower your voices and cease calling me Satan, I will have to sing show tunes.”

The other straphangers look at me with stony faces.
I begin to sing.
“Its very clear, our love is here to stay. Not for a year, but forever and a day…” [read on...] [Livejournal: Koaloha]

Jon Udell has a great post on Medbloggers, something that I didn't really realize existed until he wrote about it. Though we've got political bloggers, library bloggers, law bloggers, so it makes sense there would be medical bloggers.

Medbloggers

...

The numbers are small. Starting with Pho's blogroll, I began assembling a list of the medical bloggers who cross-reference one another. What I found confirmed Pho's estimate that there are no more than 100 of these medbloggers, many of whom are aggregated at medlogs.com. Nor are these medblogs yet widely subscribed. Pho today has 14 Bloglines subscribers. One of the founders of the movement, medpundit, today has 58. Those numbers are one or two orders of magnitude shy of the readerships of many of the tech blogs I follow. But unless fear of malpractice strangles this baby in the cradle, that will be a temporary phenomenon. In the long run there will be many more people hungry for informed analysis of medical issues than for informed analysis of tech issues.

This looks like a great opportunity to watch the blogging meme replicate throughout another community of practice. I'll be fascinated to see how it changes, but also is changed by, that community. Corporate techbloggers, for example, are learning to walk a fine line between acceptable sharing of information and punishable transgression. Medbloggers face a different set of issues: libel, privacy, and of course malpractice. See this American Medical News article for a useful overview. [Jon Udell's Weblog]

As you can tell from some recent posts I've started following medical information on Pulmonary Fibrosis online, mostly inspired by this article. I even found a blog called Bronch Blog to subscribe to.

One thing that amazes me is how much information is available on medical conditions and how few people ever find it. Hopefully things like this can help with that.

Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis Announces Publication of New Educational Tools for Patients

Preliminary Results From Latest Research Initiative Demonstrate Need for Lung Transplant and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Education for IPF Patients and Caregivers

SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis (CPF) announced today the publication of two new educational brochures: 'Lung Transplantation: What Every Patient with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Should Know' and 'Oxygen Management and Pulmonary Rehabilitation for the IPF Patient'.

The two brochures were created for patients, family members and physicians alike based on preliminary results of the CPF's Basic Research Questionnaire, an education initiative launched last year to better understand the impact of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) on patients and families, and to help the foundation grasp the educational needs that arise for those fighting the disease.

To date, the CPF has received more than 1,400 responses to this ground-breaking survey, and based on educational gaps identified by patients, discovered the need for improved education and awareness on two very important topics for IPF patients; lung transplantation and pulmonary rehabilitation.

Interim results of the CPF's research questionnaire found that among current patients, 30 percent responded that their physician has not discussed, or even mentioned the topic of lung transplantation, a potential treatment option for IPF patients under 65. Of those patients under the age of 60, fewer than half (47 percent) said they have been advised to seek a lung transplant. Additional data from a Duke University study also indicates that more than 50 percent of those with IPF who are on transplant lists will pass away before a donor lung becomes available. [via Feedster Search: Pulmonary Fibrosis]

This also makes me very thankful that I found the doctors I did as I went through my diagnosis. I was quickly forwarded to a pulmonary specialist and he was able to give me a preliminary diagnosis almost immediately. Once it was confirmed that I did actually have Pulmonary Fibrosis we sat down and talked about what it all means, what treatments were available, how things tended to progress, what it meant long term, the whole thing. I still find it kind of stunning that other people have not had this same experience.

I've started hunting for news items to do with Pulmonary Fibrosis in my news reader, so will be making note of interesting developments that I find.

Treatment for pulmonary fibrosis may be achieved by blocking cell death in the lung

A research team at Yale has found that blocking a kind of cell death called apoptosis in fibrotic diseases of the lung, also blocks the fibrosis, opening new ways of looking at treatment for lung diseases such as pulmonary fibrosis. [via Feedster Search: Pulmonary Fibrosis]

Eric Meyer posted a test file that tends to freeze IE6 and in some cases even cause a reboot of the computer. So if you're running that, don't click the link below.

Freezer Case

Since a few people asked for it, I've created a test file that reproduces the Internet Explorer freeze reported yesterday. You can find it with the title "Internet Explorer Freezes -- BEWARE!". ...(254 words | CSS Browsers | comments and pings allowed) [via Thoughts From Eric]

Behold, the power of CSS.

For those of us who didn't take Latin in school. Now you can slip these Common Latin Phrases into your daily speech to impress people. [via <lonita.links.log]

Sir Richard Steele
"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." [via Quotes of the Day]

The other day I posted about the Apple Music Store and how I felt they were misrepresenting what they sell. While out shopping yesterday, I found a copy of the CD I wanted to buy, The Swing by INXS. So in honor of that, I'm posting the actual version of Original Sin (aac) from the CD (though other folks had also gotten it to me).

I also happened to check back at iTMS to see if the listing was still incorrect, and it was. So here's the question I have. How should Apple handle this kind of thing? Should they pull it from their site till it is fixed? Or just let people keep buying it? The first seems like the correct answer.

I think the reason this is annoying me so much is that I had a similar issue with an audiobook I bought there. In the middle of the second file it suddenly jumped a bunch of chapters ahead, and in the third file, it jumped back. So it had obviously been encoded out of order. Yet when I called customer service on it, they just credited me back, and then didn't change the version online, it was still available. It makes me wonder how much they really pay attention to problems.

Anyway, enjoy the song.

Hermann Hesse
"When dealing with the insane, the best method is to pretend to be sane." [via Quotes of the Day]

ifilm.com has an 8 minute clip of Ghost in the Shell: Innocence. It looks quite amazing, I can't wait to see this on the big screen.

Mark over at Boing Boing points to a an Excellent article about Fantagraphics, the folks responsible for republishing the Complete Peanuts Collection (among many many other things).

Saved by the Beagle

A year ago, Seattle's Fantagraphics was on the brink of bankruptcy. Now it's in the black, thanks to good ol' Charlie Brown—and a pair of dogged believers who turned a cranky fanzine into the most widely respected comics publisher in America. [Seattle Weekly]

I picked up the first volume of the collection and it's great. I plan on picking up a second copy of it to send to my nephew, because every kid needs to experience Charlie Brown. I remember when I'd visit my grandmother as a kid among my dad's old books were a number of old Peanuts books.

I've been playing with A9 a little bit lately, it is kind of nifty, but nothing that really made me go WOW. Though, someone did find out something interesting about it.

Discount at Amazon for using A9.com

A9 is the new search engine from Amazon and so far it seems good enough to use. It's supposed to have all kinds of wizbang features, which it seems to. One important thing is that it's hooked into amazon's cookie system so it does know who you are and keep track of your searches. (blah blah big brother yadda evil corporate, DOWN liberal DOWN *smack* back in your cage.)

If you can get over that for 5 minutes and use it, then go to amazon, you'll notice this little "pi/2 discount" thingie. I clicked on it and, being a good little advertising target monkey, I'll pass the resulting blurb on...

since you've been using A9.com recently, virtually everything at Amazon.com is automatically an additional π/2% (1.57%) off for you. Collecting this discount is zero effort on your part. It will be applied automatically at checkout (it will happen whether you use the shopping cart or our 1-Click Shopping®). You don't need to do anything to get this discount except keep using A9.com as your regular search engine.

So there ya have it. [via The Universal Church of Cosmic Uncertainty]

I just checked on Amazon and found that I had the same link there now. Pretty keen.

Every time I hear about the use of maggots for healing I think "whoa, cool", then I think about it a bit more and go "ew icky!" Though, I guess if it works that well I'd cope with it if needed.

Maggot Band-Aid
David Pescovitz:
First used centuries ago to treat battlefield wounds, maggots are proving to be a useful treatment to prevent post-operative infections. Maggot debridement therapy (MDT) calls for maggot dressing to be applied to wounds twice a week for up to 72 hours each time. From the press release about a recent study on MDT in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases:

"Debridement, or the removal of contaminated tissue to expose healthy tissue, can be done surgically. However, maggots that have been disinfected during the egg stage so that they don’t carry bacteria into the wound have their advantages. The larvae preferentially consume dead tissue (steering clear of live), they excrete an antibacterial agent, and they stimulate wound healing--all factors that could be linked to the lower occurrence of infection in maggot-treated wounds."

Link [via Boing Boing Blog]

Now I just need to find the article I remember reading about the medical uses of slugs.

From the "oops" department:

cnn divides europe
Gert-Jan posted this excellent screencap of CNN reporting on Putin's visit to Berlin. Too bad they moved Switzerland up and over to the Czech republic's spot on the map.

Notice how naming the Netherlands and Belgium was clearly to big a task.

If CNN can't even get elementary school facts right, how can you trust anything they say?

[via Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]

This is from one of my all time favorite albums Morning Dove White. It was one of my favorite CDs to listen to coming home from a party. This is the second song on the CD: White Love (Guitar Paradise Mix), by One Dove. It was actually a tough choice on what song to put up, as when I was looking at the track listing I was really tempted to put up the title track Fallen.

From over on engadget:

Apparently the South Korean subway advertising system runs off of a 20GB hard disk. Add your own caption for extra fun! [engadget]

Feel free to leave your own caption here or there.

Yesterday I added the last 10 links I've posted to del.icio.us to the right hand column. I'm going to use this for stuff that just seems interesting, but I really don't have much of a comment on. You can also subscribe to the rss for my links.

I was looking through the list of places where Ghost in the Shell:Innocence was playing in the next month and Hartford, CT was nowhere to be seen. Heck, there wasn't even anywhere in CT it is showing. I guess I'll have to see it in the Boston area (where it is showing at two different places). Anyone up for going to see it next Wednesday afternoon?

Mark Twain
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." [via Quotes of the Day]

A friend of mine over on LJ was posting some old songs and it put me in the mood to hear an old Depeche Mode b-side that I hadn't listened to in ages. Dangerous (Sensual Mix) - Depeche Mode (aac). They really did have some nice b-sides to their singles back then. The other I remember liking a lot was Set Me Free.

Kasia writes about something that annoyed me a bit. She points to "A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys" and "The Guy's Guide to Geek Girls, V2.0" and comments on some of the points they make.

Let's clear some things up.

• The Star Trek thing.

  Star Trek is not a geek thing. Not all geeks like Star Trek, heck, most geeks I know never watch it. Would you people stop equating geeks with Star Trek freaks? Who the hell is Ivanova? The first guy to buy me a Star Trek mousepad as a cute gift would wear it as a collar in about fifteen seconds or less.

• Branded tshirts.

  So people think geeks wear tshirts with brand names because they're proudly displaying their loyalty? That's cute and funny at the same time. T-shirts at conferences are free, t-shirts at conferences come emblazoned with logos and brand-names, ergo, geeks often wear tshirts with brand names because they're free. Unlike the rest of you gap-labled yuppies, we don't pay to advertise corporations.

  Unless you count my Free Software Foundation tshirt, I paid for that, but that was really more of a donation than a purchase. Sort of like the emacs manual, yah, i'll ever read that!

• Geeks can fix things.

  Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha -- that's all I'm going to say on the issue.

[kasia in a nutshell]

In general, I've always thought of myself as more on the geek side. But reading through the guide to geek guys it seems I was wrong. I'm barely geeky at all! Even though in humor, I just found that these were just so wrong and cliched that they weren't even that funny.

Seen over on Compendium (via MetaFilter), the OS gals. Of course, my favorite is the Mac OS X Gal.

A small internet phenomenon on Futaba Channel, the OS-tan (OS for Operating System, and -tan as an overly cute Japanese honorific for a person, specifically a child slurring "-chan") or simply OS Girls are the personification of several OSes, most famously Windows, by various amateur Japanese artists. A pure fan creation, the appearance of each character is generally consistent among artists. OSes are almost always portrayed as women, the Windows girls usually as sisters, despite sometimes seeming the same age.

...

The Mac OS X girl is often portrayed as cat-eared, in following with the Apple "wild cat" naming tradition (every MacOS X release has a codename like "Jaguar", "Panther" and so on). Otherwise, she is shown as an older variation of the Mac OS 9 girl, wearing a platinum white coat and a wireless AirPort device fashioned as a hat. She is occasionally shown holding a newspaper or yearbook, as many high school newspapers and yearbooks use Mac OS X. [Wikipedia]

Too cute (or dare I say.... KAWAII!)

Ralph Hodgson
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." [via Quotes of the Day]

One of the first things I've posted to my wiki is a short article on how I did my new blogroll (down on the left). It's a bit of PHP/CSS/Javascript code that all works to make the expandable folders. Comments are welcome and appreciated.

After a few false starts I've started up my own personal wiki. In the end I decided that MoinMoin would be the best choice for me, since it is fairly small and simple. TikiWiki was interesting, but just way too much for a small personal wiki. Now I just need to make some themes. to make it fit in with the rest of my site. Anyways, you can get there via the link on the left, or by clicking here.

There really isn't that much in there yet. But I'm planning to use it for random information I want to keep track of. And if you want to contribute at all just let me know (everyone has read permission unless I grant them more).

I tend to stay away from discussing politics on this site, but my friend John just IM'd me a link to a pretty nifty site called PartisanProject..

What We Did. We invited 15 designers and artists to each create one, two-color poster (18.5"x24") urging a vote against the current administration. The posters were printed, stacked together, folded in half and in half again - like a newspaper. These poster packs are being distributed much like a free newsweekly - dropped in bookstores, coffeehouses, restaurants, grocery stores, libraries, etc. throughout the city of Pittsburgh and the surrounding areas of southwestern Pennsylvania. people can choose a poster (or posters) they like and hang it outside their home or somewhere in their neighborhood. The posters can also be downloaded at this website. We are also wheat-pasting the posters in various locations through the city. And in September, we will host a gallery event where each poster will be displayed en masse along with speakers, voter registration booths and live music. [Partisan Project. INFO]

Neat idea. Given that I'm not a fan of the current administration, I thought this sounded pretty cool. I also think they're a bit short-sighted and should also be pushing this for other areas beyond Pittsburgh. And someone needs to tell them that you really shouldn't have all the text in your site be images. It makes it impossible to quote things easily.

My parents have a number of puzzles from ELMS Puzzles, Inc. They are a company that makes these beautiful hand made wooden puzzles that are usually quite hard. I took some pictures of the one we're working on right now. It is one of the more challenging puzzles I've ever done because the edges aren't straight. Also, they seem to like to put some pieces in that have a straight edge on them that go in the middle of the puzzle, helping to confuse you more. Oh yes, and there's no picture of what the puzzle will look like, so it is kind of cool waiting to see what the whole thing will look like.

My mom also just mentioned a place called Stave Puzzles, that sounds like another place that does the same kind of thing (with some even crazier looking puzzles).

I just fired up iTunes because I wanted to listen to some music, but also wanted to hear one song in particular first. So I hit shuffle and then searched for the song. The scroll bar barely moved and I noticed that it was the second song in the shuffle. Coincidence? I think not.

Elbert Hubbard:
"Never explain--your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway." [via Quotes of the Day]

Bah, I really need to test templates more before doing a publish entire site.

Update: One of these days I'll get it right.

C.Net has an article about Longhorn putting the squeeze on gadgets

SAN FRANCISCO--Windows makes it easy to quickly download files to iPods and other portable storage devices--a little too easy in the minds of many IT managers.

In the next version of Windows, Microsoft will give big companies an easy way to block use of such devices, while making it easier for consumers to connect their home systems to them, a company representative told CNET News.com.

Much has been made of the security risks posed by portable storage devices known as USB keys, or flash drives, music players like the iPod, and other small gadgets that can store vast amounts of data. Some fear that such tiny devices can be used to quickly copy sensitive data off business PC hard drives, or to introduce malicious software onto corporate networks.

"It's a real problem," said Padmanand Warrier, a developer in Microsoft's Windows unit. "That's the feedback we've gotten from IT folks." [C.NET News]

I know things like USB drives make it a little easier, but anyplace I've worked it was easy to get a cd burning for your machine. Or for smaller things a floppy drive. And telling people they can't use a cd burning is akin to stopping them from ever doing any effective work.

Given my issues with my own lungs, I'm always keeping my ears out for news stories about them. The scary part is that I can see this leading to more people getting things like IPF earlier in life. Not something I'd wish on anyone.

Pollution's Long-Term Effects on Pre-Teens' Lungs

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week indicates that current levels of air pollution have chronic adverse effects on lung development in children aged 10 to 18. The large study's authors conclude that the exposure leads to clinically significant deficits in adult lung function. NPR's Richard Harris reports. [via NPR News: Health & Science]

Pat Conroy:
"I've always found paranoia to be a perfectly defensible position." [via Quote of the Day]

But only a little bit because they didn't get it all right. I have a few different bands I'll search for on iTMS every now and then to see if they've made it into the store. An old favorite, Lard, had shown up a few months ago, but it was missing the album I really wanted: The Last Temptation of Reid. On that point iTMS has done well.

On the other hand, when I go to select the album to buy. It gives me an Unknown Error and tells me to try again later. DAMN YOU APPLE FOR TEASING ME!

I just grabbed the beta for ecto version 2 and this is my first post with it. ecto has been a favorite of mine since it was called Kung-Log way back when. Each version has been a nice step up from the one before. I'm also going to add the ecto badge to the right.

LiveJournal has some pages with advice on writing, including a whole page on the correct use of Homonyms, though I think their examples are actually Homophones. [via Waxy.org Links]

Because sometimes you just need to rock out, and I've been listening to X all day long: Los Angeles - X (Right click and save to listen to).

I was poking around in the iTunes Music Store early this morning and discovered they had The Swing by INXS. I was quite psyched since that is one of my all time favorite albums. I remember my high school roommate and I used to have it playing on shuffle play all night long many many times. I clicked to add it to my shopping cart and did some more browsing. When I was done I was just about to click on 'Buy Now' when I noticed something. The version of "Original Sin" they have as part of the album is the wrong version. The listed time for the track is 3:46. According to allmusic.com, the actual length of the track is 5:19, which sounded more like what I remembered.

The most annoying part of this is that I've had my eye out for this for ages and it feels like it is almost within my grasp. Maybe I should ask around to see if any of my friends have it.

Robert Orben
"Quit worrying about your health. It'll go away." [Quotes of the Day]

The parents are going away again for the weekend and I have made absolutely no plans. Anyone feel like a road trip to CT?

My friend Selma pointed me at this article from Popular Science that covers the worst jobs in science.

The Worst Jobs in Science

From fart sniffer to postdoc, the most torturous ways to make a living in science.

October 2003

Ah, science! Ennobling. Fascinating. Deeply challenging. Also, dangerous, gross and mind-bogglingly boring. We at Popular Science are sometimes brought up short by the realization that there are aspects of science—entire jobs, even—that, when you strip away the imposing titles and advanced degrees, sound at best distasteful and at worst unbearable. Having chosen last month our second annual Brilliant 10 -- a group of dynamic researchers making remarkable discoveries—we turned to this pressing question: For the rest out there, just how bad can a science job get?

The answer: Really, really bad.

We solicited nominations from more than a thousand working scientists and culled the list for the most noxious. Then we voted. Which is to say, there is absolutely nothing scientific about the ranking of the worst jobs in science that appears on these pages; it is simply the collective opinion of a group of alternately awestruck and disturbed editors who rarely suffer anything worse on the job than keyboard- induced repetitive-motion syndrome. [Popular Science]

Um. Ew. I don't think I could ever see some kid saying they'd want to do any of these when they grow up.

The person who decided that DVDs need to be shrink-wrapped AND have a sticker on every side.

Malcolm Forbes
"If you don't know what to do with many of the papers piled on your desk, stick a dozen colleagues' initials on 'em, and pass them along. When in doubt, route." [Quotes of the Day]