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I want a poni

<p> After a moment&#39;s disorientation–what, we&#39;re in Italy now?–we decided that Virginia&#39;s Po river had to be a teletubby reference.</p> <p> We became suspicious, tough, when we noticed the Ni river a couple of miles later. I mean, could they be that obvious? A Holy Grail reference?</p> <p> Then we put it together.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

With a name like Mad Hatter

<figure> <img src="../duff.jpg" alt="../duff.jpg" title="../duff.jpg" /><figcaption> Those jokers at Mad Hatter </figcaption> </figure> <p> I would hope it would come as a suprise to no one that one of our local bakery/restaurants would have a sense of humor about some of its wares.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Updating your Treo 600 under Linux

<p> Provided without warranty, don&#39;t blame me if it turns your Treo 600 into a pile of worthless silicon. That it didn&#39;t do it to mine is probably only happenstance.</p> <p> Go to the <a href="http://www.palmone.com/us/support/downloads/treo/treo_600_updater_sprint_v1_20.html">palmOne page for the updater</a>.</p> <p> Contemplate the fact that they do not provide the .prc file you need in any format that is easily accessible to linux users.</p> <p> Find a friend with a Mac to unstuff the Mac version and give you a copy of the resulting .prc file.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I have little sympathy for SpamCop

<p> I&#39;ve worked on a service that sends out lots of email. We were very careful to 1) only add people to our system who have requested it (which involves sending out confirmation emails), and 2) not send mail to someone who never wants to hear from us again.</p> <p> Now anyone who does this sort of work will have immediately spotted that if we send an email in step 1 in order to verify the address, it is possible for someone to have us send emails to arbitrary addresses.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Jane Austin as Baseball historian (and other errata)

<p> I don&#39;t know what to say. As much as I enjoy watching the Durham Bulls, I was spectactularly ignorant of baseball&#39;s history, other than having some notion that it was a 19th-century thing.</p> <p> <a href="http://respectfulofotters.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_respectfulofotters_archive.html#10843352196650749">Rivka fixes this</a>, with a discussion of it&#39;s late-18th-century appearance in Jane Austen novels, and further references–ones that also mention <a href="http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/subway/4346/pages/morris.html">Morris-dancing</a>, natch–from the earliest parts of that century.</p> <p> And the Steven Jay Gould quote on the page uses the word <em>tendentious</em>. So there.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Josh Marshall has captured it perfectly for me

<blockquote> <p>Another way to put this might be to say that being the good guys is about what you do, not who you are.</p> </blockquote> <p> This is why, despite the wretched, vile, but sadly-not-quite-inhuman acts of the al-Queda operative <a href="http://dailykos.com/story/2004/3/4/2045/08540">Bush chose not to pursue, so as not to distract from his desire to go to war with Iraq</a>, we should continue to pursue the issue of the wretched, vile acts we have perpetrated.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I hate these sorts of articles…

<p> Robert Reich <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/opinion/11REIC.html">has an interesting editorial on whether interest rates are artificially low</a>, which is echoed by <a href="http://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/001836.html">Josh Quiggin</a> and <a href="http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/000808.html">Brad DeLong</a>.</p> <p> Billmon used to be the one to scare me with economics articles, but now I&#39;m reading more stuff from economists.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

A Debian Developer died in a car accident

<p> Manuel Estrada Sainz died in a car accident last night, going home from the Free Software Conference in Valencia, Spain.</p> <p> Although my actual participation within Debian has been, well, pathetic of late, and I didn&#39;t have any particular interaction with Manuel–I didn&#39;t use any of the packages he maintained–it&#39;s still always somehow affecting to find that someone with whom you had this connection has died.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

And yet again, our "real" media seems out to lunch.

<p> While my antipathy for religious fundamentalists both foreign and domestic is, I suspect, pretty obvious, what gets less airtime is then fact that I don&#39;t actually have a problem with religion–examples of people who are given strength and purpose and compassion and belonging by their faith are all around me.</p> <p> But, let&#39;s face it, it&#39;s the wingnuts who get most of the airtime in the mainstream media. Fortunately, we have PBS.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Heh

<p> <a href="http://crookedtimber.org/">Crooked Timber</a> has &#34;an amusing post wondering exactly why &#34;Trojan&#34; gets used as a name by various organizations&#34;:religion/.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

"I can't even have a head-on collision in peace"

<p> After <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0117666/">Sling Blade</a>, Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed, and starred in a second movie, <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0166158/">Daddy and Them</a>.</p> <p> The cast is improbable–Billy Bob, Laura Dern, Brenda Blethyn, Ben Affleck, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jim Varney, Andy <em>Fucking</em> Griffith–and the family they portray is both grotesque and hilarious.</p> <p> I&#39;m amazed that I can&#39;t find any information about why this movie, filmed in &#39;98 or &#39;99, was released direct to cable in 2001 and then didn&#39;t make it to DVD until late last year.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Oh, the bizarre patterns of nature

<p> You know, there&#39;s not a lot of arguments for believing in some sort of overarching creator figure that I give much credence to. But I have to say, the strange and wonderful things that nature produces, well, they almost convince me, because how could cicadas be anything but <a href="http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2647052?">a particularly elaborate joke</a></p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I think Adam Felber sums it up quite well

<p> <a href="http://www.felbers.net/mt/archives/001777.html">Read it here</a></p> <blockquote> <p>That&#39;s when I start coming around full circle, and the fruitlessness of the quest becomes clear. In the end, the Bush presidency is defined by the Bush presidency. It has been amazingly consistent and self-defining in a way that will some day stun mathematicians: Every little tiny action of the administration is actually <em>a complete representation of the administration itself</em>. It is, in fact, a fractal presidency.</p> </blockquote>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

It's a shame Paul Bremer can't see in his crystal ball this time…

<p> Because he sure as fuck <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&amp;amp;u=%2Fap%2F20040502%2Fap_on_re_mi_ea%2Fbremer_bush_3">got it right about Septermber 11</a>. From a statement in February of 2001:</p> <blockquote> <p>The new administration seems to be paying no attention to the problem of terrorism. What they will do is stagger along until there&#39;s a major incident and then suddenly say, &#39;Oh, my God, shouldn&#39;t we be organized to deal with this?&#39;</p> </blockquote>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Robert Fripp on movies

<p> (from <a href="http://disciplineglobalmobile.com/diary/diary-RobertFripp.shtml">his diary</a>, April 22, 2004)</p> <blockquote> <p>23.17 The Punisher. My sister is still trying to rationalize B movies, now after watching them with her brother for at least 50 years. I suggest to my Sister that the plot details of B movies are irrational: accept that people do things that are contradictory, against their own best interests, have short term aims &amp; limited attention span, and do incredibly stupid things while things blow up. Apart from things blowing up, this is just like the music industry.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Neal Stephenson, The Confusion

<p> bq.The dream was interrupted by the raucous vehement on-rush of the carriage of the Marquis d&#39;Ozoir, which was about as fitting and about as welcome in this scene as musketry at a seduction.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Ah, San Francisco

<p> Every time I hear about the marriages in San Francisco, it makes me smile.</p> <p> Most know this, but should anyone not, my wife and I got married for the very unromantic purpose of getting me health insurance when we moved to Miami. Then we didn&#39;t tell anyone for a couple of years.</p> <p> We&#39;re both committed to the relationship–well, I am, and it keeps my stress level lower to believe that she is, too–but that commitment doesn&#39;t reside in a piece of paper issued to us by the City of Cambridge, hinge on a big public ceremony or somehow reside in piles of wedding gifts. Which is good, since we only have one of the three.</p>
3 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

If you want SSH for your Treo 600

<p> I recommend, so far, <a href="http://staff.deltatee.com/~angusa/TuSSH.html">TuSSH</a>. It is not perfect, but it does do SSH2, which the old standby <a href="http://online.offshore.com.ai/~iang/TGssh/">TGSSH</a> does not. I have not used TuSSH a bunch, but it appears adequate, at least for the very low-use I intend.</p> <p> There are at least two other commercial alternatives, <a href="http://www.mochasoft.dk/palm.html">Mocha Telnet</a> (which you can try before you buy–I have not done so yet, so I can&#39;t tell you how good or bad it is) and Expand Beyond&#39;s <a href="http://www.xb.com/products/pocketadmin/console/">PocketAdmin Console</a>, for which a 30 day eval is available. I&#39;ll probably get around to trying both at some point–the fact is, I&#39;m willing to pay for a good enough app, but it will have to display significant benefits over TuSSH.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

If you're running SpamAssassin

<p> I have two recommendations, stemming from the thrills and chills I experience daily running <a href="http://antespam.com/">a commercial anti-spam service</a>:</p> <ul> <li>Use some supplementary rules</li> </ul> <p>Go to the <a href="http://www.merchantsoverseas.com/wwwroot/gorilla/sa_rules.htm">SpamAssassin Custom Rule Emporium</a>, and pick up, at the very least, copies of backhair.cf, chickenpox.cf, weedsonly.cf and bigevil.cf. These have shown an enormous benefit for us.</p> <p> The great thing is that all you have to do is drop these rules in your SpamAssassin rules directory (our Debian boxes use /etc/spamassassin for local stuff) and it will immediately start using them.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I've been getting back into comic books of late

<p> I noticed a sign near the coffee shop I go to for a new store opening up around the corner–it turns out that simply having a car was not enough; I needed proximity, too, and the shop in Chapel Hill could only lure me in for something I knew I wanted like 1602.</p> <p> So–predictably, I suppose–I&#39;ve found myself alternately catching-up and finding new stuff; it&#39;s sure as Hell more fun than, say, tracking the declining State of our Union–I happily leave that to <a href="http://dailykos.com/">kos</a> and <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/">Josh</a> and <a href="http://www.billmon.org/">Billmon</a>.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

So some days I'm really, really, really slow…

<p> I bought the new Living Colour album, Collideoscope. In a welcome change from most new-albums-from-old-bands, I mostly like it, though it is an incredibly angry album–it <em>seeths</em>.</p> <p> The first three tracks just flow into one another, and they are a relentless assault, but there&#39;s a little oasis of calm on track #4, Flying.</p> <p> I&#39;ve taken to putting it on and sort of vamping over it off and on for the last week–it&#39;s a nice little chord progression, plenty of open space, I get to pretend I&#39;m Vernon Reid, etc.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

I have a book

<p> …the title of which is Queen Elizabeth I. Originally published in 1934, the frontspiece–at least, that&#39;s what I think it is, I don&#39;t pretend to be excessively familiar with book anatomy–has the note:</p> <blockquote> <p>A new hardcover edition appeared in Britain in 1952 when the title was changed to <em>Queen Elizabeth I</em></p> </blockquote> <p> This is, of course, because 1952 was when QE II assumed the throne.</p> <p> It turns out (and this has been an awfully long setup for what it probably going to be a somewhat disappointing link) they needn&#39;t have bothered since <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3368731.stm">neither of them should ever have been queen</a>.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Ken MacLeod on Beagle 2

<blockquote> <p>The apparent loss of Beagle 2 doesn&#39;t mean the end of British attempts to reach Mars. The Brits, after all, owe it to themselves to make the chaps with the heat-rays and tentacles sorry they ever heard of Woking.</p> </blockquote>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Surely, we have not fallen this far

<p> <a href="http://dailykos.com/">Daily Kos</a> has a link to <a href="http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040105-103754-1355r.htm">a Washington Times story</a> claiming that the Club For Growth–you know, those jokers who think that the answer to every problem is tax cuts–has prepared an anti-Dean ad described as:</p> <blockquote> <p>In the ad, a farmer says he thinks that &#34;Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading …&#34; before the farmer&#39;s wife then finishes the sentence: &#34;… Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs.&#34;</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Thank God that's over

<p> It&#39;s been quite a year. Let&#39;s hope 2004 comes out better in all sorts of ways. Yoga class this morning started it off pretty well, but then I watched Identity and discovered some reference to it I&#39;d run across wasn&#39;t joking when it said words to the effect of, &#34;Remember that scene in Adaptation where Donald Kaufman is talking about the chase scene in his movie, and the killer, the cop and the victim are all personalities of the same person–this is that movie.&#34;</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

So someone on /. mentioned it…

<p> …and I realized that we had a copy of Dan Brown&#39;s The Da Vinci Code sitting around–Anne&#39;s mother had read it and sent it to us when done with it (all hail the First Sale doctrine).</p> <p> So, looking for something to keep me busy while my brain was idling, I read it. Didn&#39;t take particularly long, which is just as well, since I would have to begrudge more time spent on it.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

No, I haven't seen that movie.

<p> I still feel a little scarred from the second one. But <a href="http://aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=16641">this review of ROTK</a> had me laughing right out of the gate with its discussion of the inevitable disappointments of third movies in trilogies.</p> <p> That its derision for such is generally couched in homophobic terms is unfortunate and deplorable, etc., etc., but was ultimately not enough to stop me from nearly spewing coffe out of my nose.</p> <blockquote> <p>This movie will make you forget that if you stick a knife in your belly you&#39;ll bleed to death so do not bring a knife to this movie.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Yeah, sure…

<p> <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03%2F12%2F12%2F224259&amp;amp;mode=thread&amp;amp;tid=152&amp;amp;tid=185">Blender gets raytracing</a>, blah, blah, blah. I just think these are the coolest sample images I&#39;ve ever seen: <a href="http://www.blender.org/bf/monkey_shad.jpg">monkey1</a>, <a href="http://www.blender.org/bf/monkey_mir.jpg">monkey2</a></p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Things you learn on IMDB

<p> First, Ozzy Osbourne was apparently <a href="http://news.google.com/url?ntc=0M6B2&amp;amp;q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reuters.com%2FnewsArticle.jhtml%3Ftype%3DentertainmentNews%26storyID%3D3981005">very seriously injured</a> in what sounds like a daft accident.</p> <p> I&#39;ve watched the Osbournes precisely once. I can understand the amusement factor, but it made me kind of sad to see Ozzy being portrayed as a mumbling, bumbling buffoon, even if he knew it was being done and didn&#39;t mind.</p> <p> I sincerely hope he recovers completely–I think he&#39;s a very important person in the history of rock and roll.</p>
2 minutes to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Yeah, well, fuqueue!

<p> Let me first note that I have the greatest respect for the gigantic volumes of people who work on the linux kernel, and communicate on a daily basis using a technical vocabulary in what is <strong>at least</strong> their second language.</p> <p> Hell, Linus&#39; command of idiomatic english is actuall pretty goddamn scary, and has been as far back as I can remember.</p> <p> None of which makes this less funny.</p> <pre class="example"> Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 17:30:31 -0600 From: Matt Mackall &amp;lt;mpm@selenic.com&amp;gt; To: inaky.perez-gonzalez@intel.com Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, robustmutexes@lists.osdl.org Subject: Re: [RFC/PATCH] FUSYN 5/10: kernel fuqueues

On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 12:51:34AM -0800, inaky.perez-gonzalez@intel.com wrote: &gt; include/linux/fuqueue.h | 451 ++ &gt; include/linux/plist.h | 197 ++ &gt; kernel/fuqueue.c | 220 + &gt; 3 files changed, 868 insertions(+) &gt; &gt; + linux/include/linux/fuqueue.h Wed Nov 19 16:42:50 2003

I don&#39;t suppose you&#39;ve run this feature name past anyone in marketting or PR?

– Matt Mackall : http://www.selenic.com : Linux development and consulting </pre>

One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

McCain-Feingold has been upheld.

<p> I could give you my rant about how the stupidest thing that was ever done in this country&#39;s legal system was extending legal status mirroring that of actual individuals to corporations–which gives them a pretext for claiming that their &#34;First Amendment Rights&#34; are being abridged.</p> <p> However, I will just sit back happy that the Supremes didn&#39;t let us down, while meditating on Justices John Paul Stevens and Sandra Day O&#39;Connor&#39;s all too true assessment that:</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

Eisenhower, on Vietnam

<blockquote> <p>Without allies and associates the leader is just an adventurer, like Genghis Khan.</p> </blockquote> <p> This in response to the desire of many in his administration to get the US involved militarily in Vietnam in 1954.</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman

So, I've been reading Stanley Karnow's Vietnam: A History

<p> Tell me if this sounds familiar:</p> <blockquote> <p>The outcome at Ap Bac aggravated the friction then growing between the American government and the news media. Neither Kennedy nor his successors would impose censorship, which would have required them to acknowledge that a real war was being waged. Instead, they wanted journalists to cooperate by accentuating the positive. Just after the Ap Bac battle, when Peter Arnett of the Associated Press asked him a tough question, Admiral Felt shot back: &#34;Get on the team&#34;</p>
One minute to read
Michael Alan Dorman
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