The Underground Man

Diddling with RSS

I've been diddling with my RSS feeds (1.0 and 2.0). So if you happen to use an aggregator to read my Weblog you should be seeing full text entries now rather than excerpts (except it is not yet picking up the "read more.." or images--I still have to fix this).

I did this by changing the tag MTEntryExcerpt to MTEntryBody in my RSS templates. (Note that one must rebuild the site after doing this.) I found the reference to this little hack in this weblog.

If anyone knows how to add image tags in, I would be obliged for a pointer. I'm off to look for how to do that now.

Local Orchids

Today I visited the local flower show where they were showing off the Mt. Baker Orchid Society's orchids. A lovely day for a visit. I tried out my father's Canon Powershot A80--which seems to have done a decent job.

I learned that there are over 35,000 varieties of orchid, not counting the hybrids (quite a few of which were on display at the show).

PMP certification

Well, I spent my first day in the exam preparation course for the Project Management Institute's professional certification. It's called a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. An unfortunate name.. I would have worked hard to come up with a different acronym but it is what it is.

Interesting course. Especially since a number of the instructors said that we had to learn to think the PMI way and that this didn't necessarily reflect reality or "real-life" experience. I find that a bit unfortunate.

The last couple of years I've tried to follow the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge--the bible of PMI's methodology) in the projects I've administered. I guess I've been fortunate in having support from the highest levels of management for doing things the "right way". Consequently, the projects have gone very well, finished on-time and on-budget. Admittedly, there was a small element of luck but not that much. We spent a lot of time in planning and managed changes very closely which helps a great deal.

(Re-reading this before posting it sounds like I'm beating my own drum here. But my point is rather that anyone can manage a project well if they follow a consistent methodology and have support to adhere to core principles.)

But I think it's a sad statement on project management (and how well it is accepted) that not all organizations are willing to accept or adopt a formal and rigorous methodology. I'm a firm believer in collecting data during the process of doing a project so that it can be analysed when we're all done. Otherwise, how are we to learn?

When I was the new boy on product teams, doing builds or bug hunting or the documentation, I was part of a lot of projects that went off the rails. Very frustrating to work for a year and see a project cancelled or completely restructured. So this was my motivation to learn how to do project management formally. A really good text that I used when starting out was 5-Phase Project Management. It's an easy introduction to project management principles--especially useful if you're in a small firm.

When I started my own firm the first thing I did was to start a formal project management methodology and train my team leaders as project managers. It was a competitive advantage for us in the early days of Web design firms (1994-1995).

The exam looks fairly difficult (200 multiple choice questions, 4 hours). The average candidate studies between 80-300 hours to pass it. I've got to take it in April if I want to be certified before my visit to England in May.

A gyrfalcon on the farm

I saw a lovely young gyrfalcon on my parent's farm this morning. He was hunting in our upper acreage, cruising about 20ft off the ground in the breeze. We have noticed him several times in the last year on the north end of the island and I suspect he must have made his home up here.

Gyrfalcons are an artic bird and are not common at all in temperate climates but there have been reports of several in the Skagit Valley.

Grey and snowy white. I guess by his coloration he is very young. About the size of a Swainson's hawk. I'm carrying my cameras with me a lot these days so I'll try and get a photo of him in the coming months.

Dawn of the Dead - oh, goodie!

Ok, I admit it. I'm a B-film scifi junkie. I love B-films. Some are bad, some are great, but I watch them all. I admit that I don't know exactly what defines a "B film", but "Ah knows it when I sees it" (engage Southern drawl). I think the term may come from "A list" actors--and their absence from these films.

This promises to be a relatively high-budget effort as they've got Ving Rhames in the film (how on earth did he agree to this?). I think he does "cool" better than most actors out there today and he will be the sole reason I see this film in the theatre rather than waiting for it to hit DVD.

It appears to be a remake of the original Dawn of the Dead (1978) where our protagonists are trapped by George Romero's zombies in a shopping mall (this was some sort of social statement in the first film). It's almost satirical and has some very quirky humour mixed in with the blood and brains. As far as zombies go, I think a new high water mark was set by the British thriller, 28 Days Later.... Though Resident Evil comes close as well. Not nearly as spooky but very stylish nonetheless.

I think it's pretty funny that the shopping mall in question (in the new film) is in Everett, Washington. I've certainly shopped in that mall.

I don't know what it says about Hollywood when it feels compelled to remake even B scifi flicks. But then, Hollywood has never been populated by our best and brightest. They seem compelled to remake even very good foreign films for the American audience--as if we couldn't appreciate the original because it wasn't with actors we knew or in English.

I love my Kodak

I love my Kodak DC290. Originally, it was sold as a "semi-professional" digital camera. Probably because it represented, at the time, the pinnacle of digital design (this was several years ago). It's long since been surpassed but with the addition of some new lenses (so I can do macro photography of the watches I collect) and a new memory card (faster, bigger, stronger..) it has a new lease on life.

I still think it does a better job than most digitals at portraying colors really accurately. This particular old tractor had the most fascinating patina of rust. Combined with the surrounding greenery and the early morning light, I find it a sublime image. It makes me wish I had my SLR with me.

I am playing with the new Adobe Photoshop CS (yet another reason to give Adobe money) and I was distressed when this lovely photograph I took of an old tractor (see my earlier post on eagling up in Concrete) lost a lot of color detail when I "saved for Web". I was unable to save the color profile of the camera (which I presume Kodak has lovingly crafted) with the photo so it became desaturated in jpeg format. The alternative was an uncompressed format such as PNG but that is about 1.1Mb and I figure that is not an image most people want to download.

As an experiment, I tried "Save As" and found that the camera's color profile was automagically selected. At least on my laptop, the image still looks great.

Judge for yourself. If you're on high bandwidth, the PNG image is here (1.1Mb).

CSS and dHTML

Well, as with everyone else on the bleeding edge, I'm going to launch into a re-design of my site replacing the table-based '90s design with a CSS-based '00s design.

The movabletype portion of the site (the weblog) is already driven largely by CSS. It's the rest of the site, built with my creaking table-driven skills, that needs revision.

I'm also contemplating breaking out this weblog as a separate site as I begin to think it is not really appropriate to mix it in with my job-seeking endeavor.

Eagling in Concrete

I took off early this morning and headed up to Concrete. It's a little town about fifty miles away along the Skagit river that is now known for the number of bald eagles that congregate on its river shoals.

No luck. Not a bald eagle in sight. But on the way back, I discovered this very odd piece of hardware. It looks like something out the rushes for the Terminator.

(My guess is that it is an old piece of logging equipment that stripped bark off cut trees. If you know, let me know).

Returner (2002)

I rented the Japanese film Returner from Netflix and watched it last night. It was about as good as I had hoped. Not quite to the level of innovation and subtlety that Avalon was, but still a very enjoyable film.

It is an homage to elements of the Terminator storyline--hired assassin Miyamoto accidentally injures a young woman during a shootout and takes her home with him. There he learns that she is a time traveller from the future, come back to the past to prevent a war with invading aliens.

Director Takashi Yamazaki appears to have done mostly anime work and this seems to be one of those new generation of Japanese films that seek to bring anime sensibilities to real world film (as did Avalon and the forthcoming Casshern).

It's got cool special effects a la Matrix (bullet-time) and the best transforming spaceships I've ever seen. Some very nice John Woo-like choreography of gunfights as well. Recommended to both anime fans and fans of action and martial arts films. An enjoyable way to while away an evening.

Today is Grey Tuesday

As explained on the Grey Tuesday site, this is a protest against censorship being exercised by some elements of the music industry, notably major label EMI Records:

Tuesday, February 24 will be a day of coordinated civil disobedience: websites will post Danger Mouse's Grey Album on their site for 24 hours in protest of EMI's attempts to censor this work.

DJ Danger Mouse created a remix of Jay-Z's the Black Album and the Beatles White Album, and called it the Grey Album. Jay-Z's record label, Roc-A-Fella, released an a capella version of his Black Album specifically to encourage remixes like this one.... EMI has sent cease and desist letters demanding that stores destroy their copies of the album and websites remove them from their site. EMI claims copyright control of the Beatles 1968 White Album.

Sadly, I'm way too busy today to put this album up on my Web site (though I would love the traffic) but I do plan to track it down and listen to it. I hate censorship, even in the guise of protecting copyright.

Casshern the movie

I caught a reference to the anime-derived Japanese film, Casshern, on Airbag. Go see this trailer (Quicktime), it absolutely rocks. Somehow the Japanese language just sounds right for this sort of film.

Casshern is a live action version of the mixed media live action/anime classic from Japan. Known as Robot Hunter over there the graphics look simply stunning.

Now if it will only make it into American or European release. Preferably with an English soundtrack though I would make do with subtitles 'cause it looks so cool. It's due out this year but I can make neither head nor tail of Kanji so I cannot tell if its going to be a world-wide release or just Asia. The Web site is in Japanese but all the navigation is English. Very odd.

Cialis

I know you've seen this:

"Erections lasting longer than four hours, while rare, require immediate help."

Don't you use just love pharmaceutical advertising?

Liverpool Denied..

Argghh.

In a word.

Liverpool loses this morning (and I had to watch it LIVE). The horror!

Beaten by Pompey in Portsmouth (0-1). Two penalties given (one correct, one incorrect and withdrawn). Penalty saved. One breakdown of an otherwise very good defence yields a goal and then it's ten men behind the ball for the rest of the match.

Portsmouth looked like Liverpool used to look a couple of years ago. I felt sure that adding Jamie Carragher and Stephane Henchoz and Dietmar Hamann back into their defence would improve their game immeasurably. From the look on Gerard Houllier's face, he thought so as well.

So now we have only to look forwad to the UEFA Cup (26 Feb). Without that, I fear that Houllier may not be with us next season. Nor, perhaps, Michael Owen.

The "Patriot" Act

Food for thought, now that the Patriot Act II has passed.

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.

One part of me welcomes being more ruthless in hunting down terrorists and their partners, the other quails at the thought of the government having no counterbalance for the inevitable abuses.

Arianna Huffington as a liberal?

The last time I saw Arianna Huffington was on Meet the Press a couple of years ago. Then, she held a seat on the way right-hand end of the isle, supporting President Bush and his policies.

I'm stunned now to notice that she is much more Libertarian, or even socialist. Witness this column slagging George Bush.

I guess there is hope for change in this country when our most dedicated political movers and shakers can change their stripes. One has to give her credit for intellectual honesty at the very least.

Quicktime trailers finally work with OS X

Hah! I can finally view the trailers at the Apple Quicktime site. For weeks now, it's been a comedy of errors and my Panther-equipped TiBook has been unable to view the trailers on the site.

At first I thought it was my "update" of Quicktime that had caused the problem but I downgraded to 6.4 and there was no difference. But I tried again today and the dreaded "movie failed to download completely" error didn't occur and I was able to watch the trailers for the first time.

Somewhat pathetic that the site didn't work properly with Apple's flagship product.

US v. Netherlands soccer (followup)

I finally got to watch my TIVOed game of the US vs. Netherlands football match. I've got to say that the only US player that impressed me was DeMarcus Beasley (other than the goalkeeper, Kasey Keller). Now, that's not entirely unexpected given the stunning quality of the Dutch team.

In general, the US didn't embarrass themselves in the match. They didn't really look like the 11th-ranked team in the world but in the last ten minutes of the match they looked like they were giving the Dutch a match.

Perhaps it was nerves, perhaps it was coaches orders. I did notice that their combination moves were not nearly as good as the Dutch--presumably because they don't play together as frequently. Even if the individual talent isn't there they would have had their chances if they could have finished their moves. Frequently the team lost shape during the Dutch attacks. Most likely a lack of discipline which has to be paramount when playing at this level. The Dutch remained spread out (keeping their options on the wings) while the US defense would frequently collapse with seven or eight players in the last third of the field.

I would like to see a lot more European friendlies scheduled so these guys could play together more frequently. It would be really something if I could root for the US team.

I expect Demarcus might be seriously looked at by European team scouts in the next few months given his performance in this match.

Monte Carlo risk analysis and project management

I've been interested in Monte Carlo analysis/simulations ever since I found out about them. I was reading about advanced project management and risk management. The text in question discussed Monte Carlo simulations. They were first devised in 1946 by a Polish scientist, Stanislaw Ulam, who was working on mathematical problems relating to atomic weapons (the hydrogen bomb). He invented the technique while pondering possible solutions related to the calculation of probabilities of winning a game of solitaire.

I won't describe the underlying mathematics--I barely grasp them myself. But in the context of project management, Monte Carlo simulations can be used to perform a risk analysis. Every estimate that one makes for a project plan (e.g. Task A will take 10 days) can be quantified as having several likely outcomes.

For instance, outcome #1 might be that one completes the task in 5 days. Outcome #2 is that it takes the expected 10 days. Outcome #3 is that the task won't be complete until 13 days have passed. One assesses a probability for each possible outcome (e.g. outcome #1-20%, outcome #2-40%, outcome #3-40%). When one has performed this analysis for every one of the tasks in a project plan it is possible to perform a mathematical risk analysis using the Monte Carlo method.

As far as I can tell, MS Project in all its variations still hasn't caught up to this level of sophistication. One has to purchase an external (and very expensive) add-on to Project to accomplish this sort of analysis.

Alternatively, one can enter the data in a spreadsheet and program some functions to do the analysis. What one is trying to determine is the likelihood (probability) that the project will be accomplished on-time (and thus, on budget). By calculating a large number of permutations for every task in the plan (the larger number of permuations the better) it is possible to come out with a statistically valid approximation of risk. Providing, of course, that your original estimates weren't completely unrealistic.

This is sort of the graduate-level of project management theory. I'm just getting into it because anything that can lead me to get more accurate (and have better outcomes) is a very valuable tool.

Here's an article on the historic basis of the Monte Carlo simulation.

Bet on Jobs

That's Steve Jobs, not like in the economy. I was reading this fascinating article about Steve and his vision to unite the work products of Pixar and Apple. As most of you know, Pixar decided not to continue its deal with the Walt Disney Company (which required it to split profits from the seven films it contracted to make with Disney--after Disney had subtracted its marketing costs).

This news was surely greeted with elation by every other film production company in the world. Now Pixar's products will be available to the highest bidder--possibly on a film by film basis. I can only imagine what Steve might be able to do with the marriage of Apple and Pixar.

Possibly provide unique content on Macs, or maybe make on-demand video downloads available as he has with done with music and iTunes?

The article expounds on Job's purported vision of creating a Disney-like creative enterprise and how he is first individual with enough power to bring about the digital convergence of Hollywood and high-tech. We have already seen the early stages of this in the replacement of conventional animation (Disney) by digital animation (Pixar). Notably, OSS (open source software) has played a role in this, both in the technology of the render farms used to create the digital films and special effects and in the applications used to actually create the special effects.

I haven't heard of Macs being used in a render farm yet (though they have been used in a supercomputer) but with Jobs running both Pixar and Apple it would seem to be a forgone conclusion.

nb: Pixar is apparently trying to put together a consortium of buyers in an attempt to buy Disney (rather than having Comcast succeed).

Arsenal vs. Liverpool

Ah, what a mouthwatering prospect! There is a pretty good chance that Liverpool will beat Portsmouth in the FA Cup 5th Round replay and win a quarter-final match at Anfield against Arsenal. We'll find out March 6th (when Liverpool play Pompey) whether this is going to happen.

I watched Arsenal play Chelsea yesterday (courtesy of Fox Sportsworld) and thought they looked very good indeed. Their passing was scintillating and new boy Jose Antonio Reyes looked worth every one of the £10.5 million they paid for him. They are my second favorite team (behind Liverpool) and I think it'll be a cracking match. In their last meeting earlier this season Liverpool dominated the first half of the match at Anfield and were very unlucky to come away with a draw from an own goal by Sami Hyypia. The second half saw Michael Owen injured and a late goal from Arsenal won it.

Liverpool is now a bit healthier and have climbed into fourth position in the Premier League. Their confidence is coming back and I'm hopeful that they will win the FA Cup again this season. They have key defenders Stefan Henchoz and Jamie Carragher back and I've felt for a while that their first string defence was capable of putting them back into contention for the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup.

Arsenal currently lead the Premier League by a huge five points from Manchester United. I've got bets on Liverpool winning the UEFA Cup and Arsenal the Champions League and the Premier League. I'd love to win the trifecta!

One of the oddities of the schedule, and playing so many cup ties as well as regular season games is that Arsenal just beat Abramovitch's Chelsea at Highbury in the FA Cup and now travels this weekend to Chelsea to play them in a regular season match. Liverpool conversely was scheduled to play Portsmouth in the regular season schedule but this game was postponed so that they could play in the FA Cup.

Lots of chances for revenge. I love this time of year. I'm just glad I'm not a Leeds supporter.

Fox News - unfair and unbalanced?

I think it's hilarious that Fox News is considered a serious news outlet by anyone in this country. I went to their site this evening looking for election coverage and found this article on Al Fraken's new play, "Rolling Thunder".

It is, of course, hyper-critical of the Bush administration. I thought it was quite telling that when I loaded up the article the first thing I saw on the page was an advertisement by the Republican National Committee for Bush's Compassionate Conservatism. (This can't be an accident, says I).

I was rolling on the floor reading the last line of the article, " Click here to watch a fair and balanced report by Fox News' Anita Vogel."

All I can imagine is that Fox News is poking fun at themselves, 'cause they just cannot be serious.

How would you like your Dean, sir?

Well, early results show a dogfight between Kerry and Edwards for the Wisconsin primary. It would appear that the only person on the planet who doesn't know that Dean is history is Dean himself.

It's a pity because he did run a compelling grass roots campaign and it had that Internet "buzz" early on. Isn't it amazing how the national media can destroy a candidate as easily as they can elevate him? All they needed was a little help from the candidate himself.

I get the feeling we might see a joint Kerry/Edwards ticket. It would make sense in that Edwards is quite charismatic and a nominal southerner.

US v. Netherlands soccer (Wednesday)

This game might be worth watching. While the US team is probably inferior (man for man) with the Dutch in skill and talent (with the exception of the goalkeepers) they managed to progess to the quarter-finals of the last World Cup because they were superbly fit and didn't give opposing teams a moment's rest. When you think about it, that's a great tactic because it is the one thing that is under your control as a coach. You pick the best players you can and if they are not as good as the opposing teams what can you do?

Mind you, the Dutch team severely underperformed in the WC qualifiers and missed making the tournament (again!). A true pity considering the talent in their squad. But then their history in recent years has been to have a lot of contention between their national governing body and whomever is the coach of the moment.

The Dutch should bite the bullet, hire Johann Cruyff and stand back and watch their team contend to win Euro 2004.

If all goes well, the US could actually upset the Dutch in Amsterdam. I don't expect it but I wouldn't be surprised if they did. The Dutch are currently ranked 4th in the world and the US are 11th.

Am I a descendant of Genghis Khan?

To quote the Khan,

"The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters."

A fascinating question really. My mother's family is from Poland and has lived there for at least the last five centuries. Given the difficulty of movement five centuries ago I think it likely that they have probably always lived there.

A fairly recent study of DNA in Europeans found some 16 milllion men with telltale markers that the researchers think are likely to belong to Genghis Khan's bloodline.

To quote one of the researchers,

"Virtually everybody today who lives near the Asian steppe must have Genghis Khan somewhere in his or her family tree."

I've joked with my mother for quite a while that she has Mongol in her blood--my sister has an epicanthic fold and we're all white Europeans.

Now if I could only find out how to have myself tested for the marker. Wouldn't that be something?

Why is the evening news so poor?

I just don't understand it.

<flame on>
Why is the evening news (whether it's a major network 6 o'clock broadcast or a local 5 pm broadcast) so damn depressing? If I wasn't depressed enough before I sure as hell would be now.
<flame off>

Just about every damn day there is piece in the news about a homeless family or a baby being molested (and I don't think this is specific to my local market). The national news is really only the news that affects/involves Americans directly. There may be turmoil in a western European nation, or economic disaster in South America but we don't hear about in the twenty minutes that Peter Jennings gives us (counting the ten minutes lost to commercials).

I say all this because I have to contrast it to my experience watching Italian, French and British (BBC) news. I've got to feel that they are better. Not necessarily more balanced but their news broadcasts seem to strike a better balance between economic, national, and international news. I may feel enraged over economic news, happy over economic news or frustrated over international news but I don't always leave the news depressed as I do with the US product.

There seems to be a perception that the only thing that we are interested in is blood, corruption, and destruction. I, for one, resent that. So I've given up watching the news (other than occasional late night broadcasts of the BBC) and now I get my news online or in a newspaper.

Am I alone in my disgust?

Context-aware devices

I caught an interesting reference today to "socially aware" phones (the original article is here).

Basically, the concept is to add software to phones so that they can, by querying other phones within range, determine a context that will affect their function.

So if you go to a movie, your phone notes that the majority of surrounding phones are already on vibrate, and switches to that mode as long as the condition continues. This metaphor and functionality can be extended to other situations. With the right programming, the phone could notice patterns of behavior (repetitive activities) and "anticipate" the state into which it could place itself.

Very cool. I look forward to the future.

Amazon reveals anonymous reviewers names

This is so predictable. Yesterday the New York Times (free registration required) revealed that a whole host of authors have been posting positive reviews of their own books on Amazon anonymously.

Well, not any longer. Last week the Canadian version of the Amazon site inadvertently revealed the email addresses of all the anonymous reviewers on their site. This apparently lasted a whole week. Said one author:

"That anybody is allowed to come in and anonymously trash a book to me is absurd," said Mr. Rechy, who, having been caught, freely admitted to praising his new book, "The Life and Adventures of Lyle Clemens," on Amazon under the signature "a reader from Chicago." "How to strike back? Just go in and rebut every single one of them."

He gave his book five stars. chuckle

Drafting at Daytona and social cooperation

Watching the Daytona 500 today I was reminded that I came across an article not so long ago on social cooperation and how the groups of cars work cooperatively (drafting one another) in order to gain an advantage during the race. In fact, they will work together for long periods of time until the last couple of laps (sometimes until the very end) in order to ensure that they keep their advantage. This article by David Ronfeldt says it very well:

This provides a curious laboratory for several social science theories: (1) complexity theory, since the racers self-organize into structures that oscillate between order and chaos; (2) social network analysis, since draft lines are line networks whose organization depends on a driver's social capital as well as his human capital; and (3) game theory, since racers face a "prisoner's dilemma" in seeking drafting partners who will not defect and leave them stranded.

Of course, it gets even more complex when one throws personalities in and the results of past races. Unlike the IROC series, these drivers have contact with the pits and so negotiations can go on between pit crews as well as implicitly between the drivers.

Sharing a satellite modem the cheap way

Well, I live in a rural area these days and if you want high-speed Internet access you pretty much have to go the way of a satellite connection. While I look for work I do a few installations on the side. Pretty much anything: Linux, Mac OS X, Windows.

Some family friends asked me to help with their satellite connection. I had set up the connection with a desktop PC (Windows ME) a few weeks ago and they just got a desktop-replacement laptop (HP zd7000) and wanted me to hook it up for them. We decided that it would be nice to have a small network and share the connection between the desktop and the laptop (using a 54g router with the wireless card already built into the laptop).

Unfortunately DirecWay (the satelllite firm) provided them with a fairly limited modem--its only output is a USB cable (USB 1.0 I suspect). I'm sure this is a marketing plot because when I inquired of the Indian-based tech support I was told that I could upgrade the setup to the DW6000 (with Ethernet output) for a mere $400 additional (plus a 15-month service contract). To hell with that..

How hard could it be to just hack together a setup that would work? Well, six hours later I have something working. I swear, if it hadn't been for Windows XP Pro and Norton I would have had it working in an hour.

I really hate the way XP Pro insulates you from the underlying system. Or perhaps I hate having to learn a new bag of tricks just to get it to do some basic stuff like use DHCP.

What I did was run the USB output into the desktop PC, add an Ethernet card to the desktop PC, bridge the connections using Internet Connection Sharing, turn off DHCP on the wireless router, connect the wireless router via cable to the desktop and the laptop via 54g card to the router. So the laptop requests its new IP address on boot-up from the desktop which shares the satellite modem connection with it.

It took me a while to realize that the default mode of the wireless router was to do DHCP (I wanted to let the desktop do it). Then nothing I did would let the laptop talk to the router. Very mysterious.

I finally created a virginal account on the laptop so that I could make my own mistakes.This had been purchased "as-is" from someone on EBay and so had a lot of software already installed and configured.

That's when I noticed that it not only had Norton AV on it but something called Norton Internet Security. Some sort of firewall software that had been interfering with my attempts to communicate to the router and with the desktop's attempts to communicate with the laptop. I de-installed it (no obvious way to turn off its functions) and "hey, presto", everything worked as planned.

After six hours.

I don't know why I do this. It can't be the money.

The Veil of Ignorance

I'm invested in this discussion over at Crooked Timber. The question at hand is whether the French are right in banning the use of the hijab (the customary Muslim headscarf) in institutions like their schools (I'm not sure if the ban extends to just wearing it in public as well). Lots of conversation about freedom of expresson, freedom of religion, etc.

Few in the discussion seem to grasp that different societies have different social rules. Most of the discussion seems to revolve about whether the French are right or wrong. There are some dissenters to the general chain of thought (I am one of them) who feel that either the French have the right to mandate certain changes in order to maintain the structure of their society or that these young women don't have a freedom of choice (in their home or Muslim society) to not wear the veil and that it is a control mechanism.

What is striking to me is the general arrogance exhibited by most in the discussion. The presumption is that the French don't really understand freedom of expression or religion. The commenters seem to be erudite and well educated but the narrowness of the viewpoint really bothers me.

I made the point that French society was much better integrated than American society and one fellow points out that we don't see Africans in positions of power in the French government. While somewhat true, I think one only has to ask black men in America and black men in France how comfortable they are to see what I'm talking about.

I was listening to Tavis Smiley on NPR last night (the black radio talk show host) and he was "testifying" in a church in North Carolina. He made a couple of comments to the effect that people like Condi Rice (national security advisor to Bush) don't represent African-Americans in this country and you should have heard the "Amens" from the congregation. Their is real concern amongst the African-Americans of this country that the current administration doesn't care for their concerns and isn't investing in their community.

I could go on, but I suspect I'm preaching to the choir.

Is the Iraq war a "Holy War"?

Not a holy war as fundamentalists of any stripe mean but rather a war inspired and created by a fundamentalist vision? Believe it or not, I thought President Bush was just a religious man (regular churchgoer, etc) not an evangelical Christian. Shows how much attention I paid to his election. I completely skipped the Republican debates--where I would have seen signs of this.

He is reported to have given up drinking (and presumably his cocaine habit) seventeen odd years ago. Did he "accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior" then?

I was made aware of this whole issue by the first part of a recent broadcast of 60 Minutes (02/08). This was scary as hell to me.

I find the sort of religious and social intolerance advocated and practiced by most evangelical christians terrifying. The belief in the content of the Bible (word for word) leads them to condemn those who haven't "accepted" Jesus Christ as their personal savior. I don't even know what that means. Why are Baptists, Catholics, Anglicans and Protestants not included in their list of those who will be saved when "the Rapture" (an ascent to heaven of the godly, leaving those who haven't accepted JC behind to face Satan on earth) occurs?

The arrogance of this approach is very disturbing, all the moreso because an evangelical is running the country right now. This is what brings to mind the title of my article.

Was this a "holy war"? We now know that President Bush already had plans to invade Iraq before September 11th occurred. Is his conviction that there should be "regime change" in Iraq related to his fundamental religious beliefs that they were somehow lesser because they weren't evangelical. Does this make it allowable to invade and occupy on a pretext?

How do we make a deal with or negotiate with those we don't respect? Answer: we don't. I fear that as long as our President has no respect for those who don't share his beliefs that we are living in very dangerous times. We have already seen that these fundamentalist attitudes exist high in the military and in law enforcement.

It's not just Muslim fundamentalists that I fear these days. Someone tell me that I'm wrong...

I let the quote speak for itself

This from The Dubya Report. An exact quote from then candidate George Bush:

This is an impressive crowd, the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.

Great Atkins dessert recipe..

I've been doing the Atkins thing for the last few months (and have lost 35+ lbs with it). I have been experimenting, trying to find a decent-tasting dessert that still meets with the Atkins criteria.

Herewith this recipe, adapted from the Cook's Illustrated recipe for perfect creme brulee:

6 egg yolks
0.5 cup Splenda (boxed version)
1.5 cups chilled regular whipping cream
1 tblspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Butter lightly four 6oz oven-proof ramekins. Beat the egg yolks by hand. Gradually (1/3 at a time) add the Splenda, continuing to whip by hand. Add the vanilla a little bit at a time (continuing to beat). Add the chilled (in the refrigerator) whipping cream a little at a time until you have a smooth consistency.

Pour the mixture into the ramekins. Place them in an oven-proof pan and place in the pre-heated oven. Fill the pan with hot water halfway up the side of the ramekins. Bake for 45-50 minutes (until the center is barely jiggly).

Remove and let cool (in the pan). Remove from pan, cover with Saran and chill for two-three hours. Top with unsweetened whipping cream if desired.

Heavenly dessert and should only be 2 or so grams of carbs per person (per ramekin).

The War Powers Resolution

What's up with this? Did President Bush associate Iraq with al-Qaeda in order to satisfy the requirements of the War Powers Resolution so that he wouldn't have to go to them for permission to go to war?

SEC. 2. (c)
The constitutional powers of the President as Commander-in-Chief to introduce United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, are exercised only pursuant to (1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.

Or did I miss him going to the hill and asking for a declaration of war?

Here is a nice summary of the issues (posted before we actually went to war).

Friday Five--13-02-2004

I wasn't going to do the Friday Five this week 'cause it didn't seem very interesting. But then I realized it was Friday the 13th and thought "How could I not?". So:

1. Are you superstitious?

     Only when I raced.

2. What extremes have you heard of someone going to in the name of superstition?

     What can you think of? I knew guys who would always eat the same thing on race day, wear the same clothes, listen to the same music, etc. There is no limit when the stakes are high enough.

3. Believer or not, what's your favorite superstition?

     It's always going to be the last place you look. But then, isn't that a self-fulfilling prophecy?

4. Do you believe in luck? If yes, do you have a lucky number/article of clothing/ritual?

     See No.1. Not these days.

5. Do you believe in astrology? Why or why not?

     Most days, no. But then I meet a beautiful, single, and interested woman with a complimentary sign, then, "Why, yes I do!"

Inspiring fear in the hearts of our allies

I caught a little nuance in a show on NPR this morning while driving to the airport. I don't know if this was the local or national broadcast but they were discussing the 3rd Infantry Division re-training down in the Mojave desert.

They were using freight containers to simulate a village in Afghanistan, Iraq or, wait for it, NORTH KOREA.

Yeah.. that almost slipped by me. Is someone seriously considering invading North Korea next? The same North Korea that has nuclear weapons and a half-mad dictator. The same North Korea that can destroy Seoul in a couple of hours--even without the use of nuclear weapons?

Apparently so or the Army wouldn't have people training for it. I whole-heartedly approve of trying to spread the lessons learned in Afghanistan and Iraq to troops will be deployed over there again but I have to think it is crazy to even consider deploying armed forces into North Korea. It is not Iraq. Not by a long chalk.

There is a very good article on the folly of engendering nuclear warfare with North Korea at this site. (It was written in April of 2003 and posits the situation could be much worse now that the North Koreans have had time to "harvest" the plutonium for another half-dozen bombs).

Haiti is burning..

I guess I've been living in a hole the last couple of days (as far as world affairs goes). I've kind of missed the story about Jean Bertrand Aristide and the uprising against his presidency.

I had high hopes when he first won the elections in Haiti in 1990. Naively, because he was a priest, I thought his would be a good presidency. Instead, after being returned to power by US forces in 1994, he appears to have become the same sort of kleptocrat cum dictator that the Duvaliers were (though, thankfully the Ton Ton Macoute are don't appear to be around anymore). There are reports in the news of his police force (the army was disbanded when America took the island in 1994) routinely brutalizing the citizenry to keep them in line.

Now, a group of gangs led by Buteur Metayer have taken the port city of Gonaives in the northeastern sector of the island and will not relinquish control until Aristide steps down.

I wonder how much of this situation is attributable to the US cutting off aid in 2000. I suspect that a lot of the aid might have been diverted anyway but we'll never know.

A Parable

From the famous Zen Flesh, Zen Bones:

A man travelling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him. Coming to a precipice he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above.

Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away the vine.

The man saw a lucious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other. How sweet it tasted!

Visited countries

Cool idea.

create your own visited country map

Though I must note that while Brunei is listed the Cayman Islands are not. Criminal.

On my list to visit are Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, South Africa and Hungary. Sometime in the next two years, bank account willing.

Web-based project management software

This seems like a great idea to me. It looks very much like salesforce.com which is a Web-based service with which I've worked.

I might be a little nervous about depending on both the Internet infrastructure (waiting for another myDoom worm to slow it down) and an external vendor for something as critical as project management software and an external database.

On the other hand, the learning curve for new project managers would probably be a heck of a lot less than MS Project 2003.

It would also expose the project management process to more of the project team in a way that would be comprehensible to them and perhaps even get them involved in the record-keeping aspects that are so essential to a successful project. On the downside, I see little in the Overview associated with serious project management tasks such as resource allocation, resource leveling, and resource assignment.

But I guess I'll have to wait until I find my next job to give it a try.

Another political 'blog

I'm going to do my best to not turn this into YAPB (yet another political 'blog). There are quite a few out there doing a much better job than the mainstream media. I will occasionally comment when my frustration level gets too high but I feel as if my contributions (such as they are) should be more on the line of things that make you go "hmmm" (salutations to Arsenio, wherever he is now).

Maybe I'll calm down after Mr. Bush has moved on.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory

I have believed for a while now that the inadequacy of the administration's war planning has led us into a quagmire in Iraq. While decrying the Clinton administrations attempts at "nation building" in the Balkans and East Africa during his own election campaign, President Bush's administration has proved completely incompetent at their own attempts at this in Iraq.

I've just come across a blog by a serving soldier in Iraq that makes this point very clearly.

As I see it the US has two choices at the moment: (1) stay in Iraq for the next couple of years and try to shepherd into existence a semblance of democratic order--well nigh impossible in a secular state, or (2) withdraw and let civil war break out. Neither option is palatable or acceptable. It's the classic dilemma, brought about by foreign policy decisions that have narrowed the options.

I had a philosophy professor who taught me that there were few real dilemmas--just misunderstood solution sets. I think Iraq probably needs to be balkanized into separate ethnic states (Kurd, Sunni, Shi'ite) which should be given autonomy. Perhaps an international peace-keeping force (preferably composed of Muslim member states) could supervise the gradual transition to a democracy. (Though any true democracy would probably quickly metamorphose into a secular state).

Practically, this separation won't happen. The US needs one state to ensure that oil continues to flow. The Kurds cannot separate because Turkey wouldn't allow it (and the northern oil fields would belong to the Kurds) and Iran would probably side with the Shi'ite majority in "dealing" with the Sunnis.

LOTR - a new interpretation

A hypothetical audio commentary over the film by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn. It's an absolute scream.

It isn't long before Chomsky asserts that the conflict with Mordor is primarily about pipe-weed. I just about spewed my tea out of my nose.

Very well crafted.

North Korea is starving..

So a news report on the BBC last night said that North Korea is starving. The government only has a meagre 3000 tons of grain left with which to feed its people. The UN organization World Food Program (WFP) has run out of food to distribute and no more food will be available until April.

Why should this concern us in the West? Well, at a first level, it is not in our best interests to destabilize further a regime that has nuclear weapons. They have the fifth largest army in the world and can fairly easily devastate the South Korean capital of Seoul (the North has huge artillery batteries trained on Seoul, not to mention the nuclear weapons). This is the same South Korea that has produced an ever-increasing amount of our high tech (processors, memory, boards).

I have often thought that it would be in the best interest of the American Empire ™ to send its excess food supplies abroad. It would be a lot harder to hate America and American policies if the free food on your table came with a "Made in America" label. Unfortunately, this sort of pragmatic approach seems beyond our leaders.

I found this little tidbit out in the Internet cloud. The president of Monsanto said (in 1984):

In addition, he explained, there has been a tradition in this country of using food as a diplomatic weapon."A lot of us have pointed out the folly to the government of using ag exports as an instrument of the State Department," Mr. Mahoney said.

In this particular case, I cannot think of a better use for the grain we our paying our farmers not to produce. So I have to ask again, "Is holding up grain shipments to North Korea the wisest foreign policy chocie for this country?" If we are indeed using grain exports as an instrument of policy how do we justify this in realpolitik terms.

Isn't North Korea a cornered rat? What do we hope to accomplish? Regime change without invasion? Seems like an insane game to play given the stakes.

Caution: shocking image

I was shocked by this (and it takes a lot to shock me these days). I came into our stable on Friday and found Dr. J (our vet) working on one of the boarding mares. Dr. J specializes in horse dentistry (she says because it's very rewarding as a vet to be able to do something that is of such immediate benefit to the animals).

The horse is placed in this mechanical bridle device (looks like a medieval torture instrument), heavily sedated and then their head is propped up on a flexible stand as they are backed into the corner (so they don't fall down).

Then the bridle "device" is cranked open so they cannot bite down and they get an examination and surgical procedures as necessary. This particular mare, as with a lot of horses done that day, needed her teeth ground down (they keep growing like a shark) so that she could eat properly. This is probably a byproduct of not eating the majority of their food in the wild--they don't get the sand/gravel they might get while eating wild grasses so they don't have the abrasion to wear down their back teeth. I believe she also had a bad tooth pulled.

Dr. J. uses a massive electrical drill to do the work. Scary as hell. Next time you go to the dentist be thankful you're not a horse (no pain killer).

The Iraq war - a retrospective look

I thought it might be interesting to look back at this interview with Noam Chomsky in April of 2003. In it he predicts some of the humanitarian cost of the war and how the Bush administration will attempt to put into place a regime that will follow Washington's orders.

It's a pity that we are not able to actually accomplish "nation building". It seems like the push these days is to get a significant troop reduction before the November elections and to have "elections" by mid-summer. But without an informed electorate and monitored elections (monitored by an independent, international body) I doubt that these elections could be considered valid by anyone.

Interesting polls on Bush II's popularity

Found this great site that does lots of analysis on poll numbers in a fairly comprehensive manner.

I notice a steady trend line down in the last six months, with the exception of a weird spike upwards around Christmas (maybe folks were consuming too much spiked eggnog?).

Check out the entry on Halliburton and Cheney (with regard to his still being on the Halliburton payroll). Doesn't that strike you as impropriety of the highest order? I think he should have put the money into a blind trust (a la Jimmy Carter) while serving in office.

Bush is on Meet the Press at the moment (10am, Sunday, West Coast) and I thought the time appropriate to post.

Happy Anniversary to the Boy Scouts of America

“On my Honor I will do my best
 To do my duty to God and my country
 And to obey the scout law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
 mentally awake, and morally straight.”
--The Scout Oath

According to the CBS Sunday Morning News, today is the anniversary of the founding of the American Boy Scouts organization.

I have always been dismayed at the lack of focus by the Boy Scouts in America on their history. They were founded by Lord Baden-Powell at the siege of Mafeking in the Boer War (South Africa). The organization spread like wildfire around the world, reaching America two years after its start.

When I joined the Boy Scouts in Canada the "lore" was replete with the history of the Boy Scouts and their martial tradition. But here in the 'States this was downplayed (at least in the Scout manual and teachings). I never understood that.

Perhaps because it was started here in America? I don't know if things have changed but I have a friend who is a current Eagle Scout and I'll ask him today. I only made it to Life rank (I had 22 merit badges but not the right ones for Eagle; I still regret that I didn't earn that rank) but I still remember that organization very fondly.

While I don't have sons of my own it is my hope that my nephews will join the Boy Scouts as well and have as much fun growing up in the organization as I did.

Ephemeral street art and anamorphic painting

I caught a reference to the work of Kurt Wenner, master street artist on the blog LXV23.

He is a RISD grad and former NASA illustrator. The ephemeral nature of his work is one of the things I find most fascinating (he draws on sidewalks in chalk). Interestingly, he designs his drawings to make use of anamorphism, allowing the viewer to a compelling perspective from street level.

The best example I know of this technique is the work of the German painter, Hans Holbein the Younger. He painted a piece called The French Ambassadors which shows a couple of distinguished gentlemen standing in front of a table filled with household items. But when one views the painting from an oblique angle--something like 15 degrees to the surface--one sees that what appears to be a carpet when viewed from right angles is actually a skull.

Bush and the Plame Affair

n.b. This was originally written 2 Feb and posted 5 Feb but my ISP crash wiped the article and responses.

So is the flap over outing a CIA field officer going to be Bush II's Watergate?

For those of you unaware of the circumstances, Robert Novak of the Washington Post "outed" a CIA field officer (Valerie Plame) in his column. She was the wife of a retired professional diplomat who had recently returned from a fact-finding mission to Niger (looking to validate the rumour that the Iraqis were looking for weapons-grade uranium). He reported that the rumour was unfounded.

Valerie Plame had accompanied him on the mission and presumably acted in her capacity as an intelligence officer. The issue at hand is that their is a likelihood that someone high in the Bush White House shopped her name around to a number of columnists in retribution for her husbands report.

Of course, with her cover blown she is now useless as an asset and quite possibly endangered.

Personally, I think this action was nothing short of treasonous and whomever did it deserves the full weight of the law to come down on them. And if Bush sanctioned it (would he be that stupid?) he should be impeached. I also think that Novak should be prosecuted for his treasonous actions if not for his stupidity. There has to be a limit to the freedom of the press. I think that limit comes when publishing a story endangers lives. (It is worth nothing that there is no constitutional right to privacy with regard to journalistic sources. These rights to privacy, such as they are, come from state statutes. But a federal charge of treason would trump even the state statutes I imagine).

To be generous, every administration makes mistakes. The recent Clinton administration certainly had its share. But I dislike greatly the trend of the mistakes of Bush, Jr.'s administration. They really, really don't like dissent and this seems the most venal way possible of punishing it.

Here is Novak's follow-up column (from last fall) on the topic. He tries to defend himself against accusations that he was merely a pawn in a plot of gain revenge against Wilson (the retired diplomat). Is it his ego or his stupidity that he wants to claim a willing participancy in this affair?

It would appear that the storm is building and some folks are now questioning how high in the Bush administration is the leak in this matter. A group of intelligence officers have called for a Congressional investigation into the Plame affair.

Flash: This just out. It looks like the investigation is currently focusing on a couple of Cheney staffers--one of whom is his Chief of Staff.

Friday Five -- 06-02-2004

1. What's the most daring thing you've ever done?

          Dived to 150+ ft on oxygen, jumped out of a plane, raced a motorcyle at 175mph

2. What one thing would you like to try that your mother/friend/significant other would never approve of?

          Absinthe

3. On a scale of 1-10, what's your risk factor? (1=never take risks, 10=it's a lifestyle)

          Then: 9, now: 5. I'm getting older if not wiser

4. What's the best thing that's ever happened to you as a result of being bold/risky?

          Gained an appreciation for life

5. ... and what's the worst?

          Fallen off a motorcyle at 100+ mph

The outsourcing of the creative economy

I found a very interesting article in the Washington Monthly (January/February 2004) this evening.

The author's thesis is that we are seeing the beginning of a trend of white-collar outsourcing (cf. the Wired article on the same topic) to countries outside the North American continent. In particular, he references the creative brainpower brought together in New Zealand by Peter Jackson to help put together the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He draws the analogy to the growth of new industries surrounding ILM's creation in Marin County (cf. Pixar).

To quote, "But the bigger problem isn't that Americans are going elsewhere. It's that for the first time in modern memory, top scientists and intellectuals from elsewhere are choosing not to come here."

There is quite an interesting reference to the growing differences between the exurban "red" states and the urban-centered "blue" states and how the changed political landscape in Washington (unilateral Bush replacing international Clinton) has reinforced the differences and made overseas creative and tech talent feel unwelcome in this country (visa applications for immigrants to work in science and technology have dropped 55% since 2001).

Worth reading.

ISP crash

Oh, I'm hacked off. Looks like my ISP crashed last night and I lost about
half a dozen posts I had written yesterday but not posted, including my
post on the Plame affair that a couple of you had responded to.

I'm trying to get hold of them to see if they can restore it, but I'm highly doubtful.
And I was on a roll last night. Arrgghgh.

West Wing resumes

Funny thing is I pretty much missed the first season entirely. I think we're in the fifth now. For those of you who read from overseas this is a drama show on NBC about the inside workings of the White House. The West Wing is the branch of the White House inhabited by the President's highest counselors.

I think its a brilliant show that has both its up and downs. It is rarely consistent anymore unfortunately (probably since the creator got busted for carrying magic mushrooms aboard a domestic flight). At its best it makes one think and wish to actively participate in politics; it presents both sides of a difficult argument and allows you to choose between them. At its worst, it panders to partisan politics (which can be amusing).

It is (or has been) one of the top ten rated shows in America for quite a while and lately it seems as if the network is almost determined to kill it off. Aaron Sorkin, the aforementioned mushroom chewer and creater of the show, left after the conclusion of the fourth season as did Rob Lowe who had played a popular and perhaps critical role.

It's won a ton of Emmys (it does every season) and yet they persist in pre-empting it for garbage shows and specials. Sometimes a couple of weeks can go by without an episode and frequently the "new" episode is a last season re-run.

I don't know what they could do to hurt the ratings more other than outright cancelling it. And that would be a pity. I've learned a lot about American politics from watching it, believe it or not. I think I've grown more cynical in the process about politics but that's probably not a bad thing.

Now I know what a "news cycle" is and why it's important to catch it. That's got to be worth something. Tonight marks the start of a five episode run of new shows.

Hanging Martha

So Martha Stewart goes on trial for her professional life. What are we to think of this whole situation? Assuredly, she may well have profited from an illegal trade.

But does the punishment fit the crime? I certainly don't think so.

Already, her upright (if thorny) reputation has been destroyed, she has lost her presitigious position on the NYSE board, her corporation has lost hundreds of millions in stock value.

I don't know about you but I don't resent her her success. I think she has worked damn hard for it and has come a hell of a long way. Given that she did what she is accused of--and it was very stupid given her net worth--isn't it just pandering to the Jerry Springer-like instincts of the public to continue with this prosecution?

Surely most other private citizens, even those with considerable wealth, would have been offered a deal to plea to a lesser charge and given a hefty fine. Is there any doubt in your mind that she is being "made an example of"?

Not in mine. I wish it would just end. Fine her 10x her profits on the trade, bar her from ever holding a directorship or office in a public company, and move on.

Toby Lightman

I just got an advance copy of Toby Lightman's new CD, "Little Things". It will be her debut album, due out very soon now.

Let me say that if you liked artists like Tracy Chapman, or Natalie Merchant, you will like Toby Lightman. I was amazed at how polished she sounds and while I've only listened to the album twice I'm convinced that she is going to be a star.

I'm not a music critic, and I don't even play one on TV, so take my advice for what you paid for it. Just borrow the album (or download a track--my favorites are The River, Voices, and Little Thing and buy it if you like it).

I feel very fortunate to have gotten an early copy to appreciate.

Why is it that PCs aren't secure by default?

That's my question. Why do I have to worry that my PC isn't secure and that some little bastard might be prying into its software innards from a remote location?

So to secure my PC I have to go out and buy anti-virus software (and pay to update the bloody thing annually) and a personal firewall. The better ones cost money. There is an entire industry around fixing the problems caused by a basically insecure OS.

Perhaps the problem is that Windoze and its derivations (Win NT/XP) were never designed to function in the Internet environment--unlike Unix and Linux. But, no, that can't be the fundamental issue. After all, Apple didn't get the Internet until 1994 or 1995 and yet their machines are one hell of a lot more secure than the average PC.

I'm just pissed off at the time and energy I have to spend on repelling scumbags that I could better spend on being creative, or finding a job, or starting a new world peace movement.

Why can't we just buy a PC with a Microsoft OS that is secure "by default"? Shouldn't that where Bill should be is spending his fortune rather than trying to capture virus authors?

Remove the target, grasshopper.

The WTC memorial and Santiago Calatrava

I saw a very interesting show last night on Charlie Rose (my favorite TV interviewer these days). He was interviewing Santiago Calatrava, a modern architect whose work has been labelled as revolutionary.

He has designed, and will be building a new PATH station in NYC that will tie into the site plan of the WTC memorial. His design looks stunning, with two large asymmetrical wings of glass extending from the top of the station. Calatrava spoke of progressively disclosing the space outside the station. Riders leaving the station will gradually enter larger and larger spaces until they step outside and will be within site of the memorial.

Speaking of which, a couple of weeks ago the winning design of the memorial site was announced. I really haven't seen much in the news about this but perhaps that is because I generally watch the BBC if I watch news at all.

I found it interesting that Michael Kimmelman, a writer for the NY Times, much prefers the Calatrava design (indeed, he thinks it should be the memorial) to the jury-selected Reflecting Absence. His point (free login required) is that designs done by professionals such as Calatrava are going to be much more likely to succeed than designs provided by relative unknowns and chosen by popular vote. Calatrava was given the commission and then allowed to produce his outstanding effort. In contrast, the winning design for the memorial (done by a local New York architect of little-known reputation and labelled derivative) had to be "altered" by a famous architect (lots of landscaping added) to be found acceptable by the jury.

To quote Kimmelman, "The lesson is not that commissions without oversight are better than open competitions. It is that substance trumps rhetoric and quality is what people value in the end. Maya Lin's black granite wall at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is not prized because it won an open competition. It is prized for its eloquence."

Safari 1.2 update

Yea. I can finally visit Soccernet using Safari. Apple today updated both Safari and the Java engine (to 1.4.2) so that quite a few sites now work properly.

Now if they would only fix the Quicktime trailers site I would be a happy man.

What was the best Superbowl ad?

I must say that I, along with many others it seems, was quite disappointed with the overall quality of yesterday's Superbowl ads.

About the only ad that I really enjoyed (other than a couple of car ads 'cause they showed cool cars) was the Budweiser ad with the little donkey. I thought that was charming (perhaps because I work with horses daily).

Anyway, I curious as to whether those of you who watched found the ads as colorless (and in some cases, downright tasteless) as I did?

Janet Jackson revives..

what?

A friend of mine who is well-connected in the music industry told me when we saw Janet Jackson come out for the half-time show at the Superbowl that she was trying to "revive her career" and had recently put out a single.

Well, she certainly revived attention for parts of her anatomy as Justin Timberlake ripped off half her bustier this evening, exposing her right breast. According to the Drudge Report, this was hardly an accident.

Pretty damn funny that this country is still so repressed about breasts. We must be the last first-world nation on earth that is hung up on such things.

ps. For those who want to see the scene, check out Slidergod's blog. He has a little animated gif of it.

Here's betting on the Panthers..

I know it's just American football and so of little interest to the rest of the world but I've decided to put my money where my mouth is and I've bet on the Panthers to win. I got 3 to 1 odds, so obviously many people are still going with the favorite.

At least in England.

Paycheck and Philip K. Dick

I have long been an admirer of Philip K. Dick. I have read a great number of his novels and have seen several of them turned into films (Blade Runner, Johnny Mnemonic, Minority Report, Total Recall).

The screenplay for Paycheck was drawn from Dick's short story of the same name (which I have yet to read). Let me say though that the screenplay's plot is ingenious: the protagonist has had his memory wiped and has traded a huge paycheck (for the job that got his memory wiped) for 20 everyday items in an envelope. Neither he nor we know what he did to earn the huge sum of money and we have to follow along with him on his journey of discovery. It's somewhat reminiscent of the puzzle we follow in Memento. A great premise and decently well acted by Ben Affleck.

The film is directed by one of my favorites, John Woo. I've seen a few of the Hong Kong action flicks where he gained his reputation: Die xue shuang xiong (The Killer, 1989), Ying huang boon sik (A Better Tomorrow, 1986), and Yinghung bunsik II (A Better Tomorrow II, 1990). These all star the very charismatic and athletic Chow Yun Fat—an outstanding action star who is gradually making the transition to working in American film.

Dick was nothing short of a brilliant writer and very much underappreciated outside of science fiction circles until very close to his death in 1982. His experimentation with all manner of psychedelic drugs is evident in his writing—most notably in the engaging "A Scanner Darkly".

Contrary to the recent Wired article he was by no means a "hack", having won both Hugo and Campbell awards for his writing and being well regarding amongst the community of science fiction readers and writers.