flog

Flog 3.0

InnoTech footed the bill to send me to an ASP.NET/AJAX.NET development class last week where there was some discussion at some point about the mountains of functionality that are handed to the developer in the .NET framework. I couldn't help thinking of a computational version of Newton's "standing on the shoulders of giants".

This is my yearly rant about the ever creeping beginning of the "holiday season". I was in CVS Oct-26 purchasing cold meds for my sick kiddie and was assaulted by Christmas Carols and gaudy mirrored balls. As I recall, Wal-Mart was the first offender last year (also before Halloween).

I'm particularly worried about Halloween being overtaken by the Christmas juggernaut for two reasons. First, I actually like the holiday. It's one of the few that I can really get into enough to overcome my inherent distrust and dislike of my fellow humans. Second, it was a fundie-free holiday. I could kiss Satan's puckered asshole on Halloween without having to worry about some godbot ruining it for me.

  Finally before I leave you, I would like to say to you Christians,
"Get christmas under control".  seriously. It's become a beast
with a mouth that just...iiiii...it won't stop.  It doesn't
stop, does it?  It's always Christmas now.  Make it the whole
year, it's the only time you pricks are happy.

Used to be nice.  It used to start on December 1.  25 days is enough
for any holiday.  But no, not anymore now it starts just after July
4th.  How long does it take you pricks to shop?
  

Boy, I love talking about the Kennedy assassination, man, that's my favorite topic. You know why? Because to me it's a great archetype example of how the totalitarian government who rules this planet partitions out information in such a way that we, the masses, are forced to base our conclusions on erroneous. Oh I'm sorry, wrong meeting.

I thought this was the meeting at the docks, no? Oh, shit, that's tomorrow night. Everyone followed that, that's the frightening fucking thing. Everyone here's going "Uh huh". Goddammit, are we that cynical? "Yes, we are, Bill. We will take any blow you give us. Go! We, too, will be at the meeting at the docks tomorrow, you fucker." Everyone of you, "we're with you". Wow. Cool.

But I love Kennedy, man. I was just down...in Dallas. You know you can go to the sixth floor of the Schoolbook Depository. Didja know, it's a museum called "The Assassination Museum"? I believe named that after the assassination. I can't be sure of the chronology here but they have the window set up to look exactly like it did on that day. And it's really accurate, you know, because Oswald's not in it. I don't know who did their research, but we're talking painstaking detail. It's true, man, it's called the "Sniper's Nest", and it's all glassed in with the boxes sitting there. You can't actually get to the window and the reason they did that of course, they didn't want thousands of American tourists getting to that window each year going "There.s no fucking way! I can't even see the road! Oh my god, they're lying; it's a giant totalitarian government that rules the planet via the airwaves partitioning off information in such a way...oh". There's no fucking way, man. Not unless Oswald was hanging by his toes, upside down from the ledge. Surely someone would have seen this. Either that or some pigeons grabbed onto him, and flew him over the motorcade. You know there was rumours of anti-Castro pigeons seen drinking in bars the night before the assassination. Someone overhead them saying "coo coo". [audience groans] Ah, alright, don't get on your "we hate puns" high horse. Fuck you. That is the best goddamn pun you will ever hear. It was kind of a rotten trick to make a pun out of that. But you know, Oswald.

I tell you it's interesting, man, talking about the Kennedy assassination, because to me it's an incredible example of something, I don't know what yet, but it's engrossing to me. People's attitudes...but people come up to me: "Bill, quit talking about Kennedy, man. Let it go. It was a long time ago - just forget about it." And I'm like OK, then don't bring up Jesus to me. As long as we're talking shelf life here. "Bill, you know Jesus died for you." Yeah, it was a long time ago. Let it go! Forget about it! How about this? Get Pilate to release the fucking files. Quit washing your hands and release the files, Pilate. Who else was on that grassy Golgotha that day? Oh yeah, the three Roman peasants with $100 sandals. Yeah, right!

I'd like to find a browser that doesn't chew up over a Gig of physical memory just because I left it open over the weekend with 8 tabs loaded.

Oink was raided and his servers confiscated on 2007-Oct-23. I found this quote in memoriam on a cool metal torrent site that shall remain nameless:

Yes, it provided a way to get free versions of widely available 
popular albums, but it also archived and cataloged the last 50 
years of music better than any other place on Earth. Many of which are
not readily available for purchase anywhere. It was an excellent record 
of one field of human achievement and now its gone ... How about the 
Clash's "Vanilla Tapes" that were lost on a subway train 30 years ago? 
It was on Oink, but not in stores. Just one of hundreds of examples. 
It was the digital music version of the burning of the Library at Alexandria.
  

In my mind, these raids highlight the absurdity of the record companies' position that data can be locked down. It's all just 1s and 0s, it's butt easy to copy, copying it does not deny access to it for someone else, and most importantly, it "wants" to be free. Data in general and music in particular is meant for the masses and the corporations cannot lord it over music fans without rendering the music unlistenable (given the recent spate of Britneys and Justins it seems they may be taking that route). The day will soon arrive when musicians get back to making their money the old fashioned way - by performing live - a full-body experience that cannot be digitized and shared online (yet). (Notice how I tacitly accepted the unfounded assertion by the RIAA that piracy hurts record sales. Lies are insidious.)

Oh, and here's some sanity to counteract the blatant falsehoods in the IFPI's press release:

• An artist's thoughts on Oink
• The problem with music
• Time to clear up the murk about Oink (from the Guardian

Someone who I consider (not quite a friend, but) a very fond online acquaintance who I've met a couple times in real life at TDI get togethers forwarded me the Andy Rooney email that's making the rounds lately. Not surprisingly, it is exactly as accurately attributed as the George Carlin anti-Mexicans email that he forwarded to me several months ago. Anyway, the person who sent it to him added the following postamble (or should I say post-ramble):

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG, OF THE UNITED
STATES OF AMERICA ,  
AND TO THE REPUBLIC, FOR WHICH IT STANDS, ONE NATION
UNDER GOD,  
INDIVISIBLE, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL!

I was asked to send this on if I agree or delete if
I don't. It is  said that 86% of Americans believe 
in God. Therefore I have a very hard time understanding 
why there is such a problem in having "In God We Trust" 
on our money and having "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Why don't we just tell the 14% to  BE QUIET!!!
 
If you agree, pass this on, if not delete. .
  

For some inexplicable reason this had a rather profound effect on me. I should expect that I am not surprised that atheists are one of the few groups in America that can still be openly hated in polite company. Also, it is clear from the prose that the person writing it is a Grade A rtard (sic). Also, it is a fairly good assumption that any reply would be ignored were one to be crafted. Still I felt compelled to respond. My thought was that this sort of thing is still allowed because no one bothers to stand up to the brutes that spout off. I was also offended by the sheer hatred inherent in the assertion that I ought to be denied my rights to speech, assembly, and (by extension) suffrage because I don't believe in Santa Claus.

As one of the 14% I feel compelled to answer
this question:

"Why don't we just tell the 14% to  BE QUIET!!!"

Because anyone who can read above a 4th grade level
can see that the Bill of Rights is all about
protecting the rights of the minority against
infringement and curtailment by tyranny.  Freedom of
speech is exactly about allowing both the "good" ideas
and the "bad" ideas both to be aired in public with
the government not having any business in telling
people what they can say or think.

In the same way, the separation of church and state is
about the government remaining neutral in matters of
personal belief.  Only a fanatic mistakes for
antagonism, neutrality by the government (or the
demand from citizens of this country that the
government honor its obligation to be neutral) on
matters of personal belief.  Church/state separation
is the law of the land and just because the  majority
might be cool with mingling church and state does not
mean violating it is ok.  By the same logic, any other
item in the Bill of Rights could be ignored if enough
people just decide to go along with it.

This country is supposed to be ruled by the wonderful
principles laid out in the Constitution and Bill of
Rights not by narrow-minded thuggery.
  

I once got compared to an incestuous pedophile by a crazy Mormon asshole for espousing a similar view with regard to teenagers and marijuana in an online forum.

Kids killing other people while drunk driving is a tragedy, but as usual the rhetoric from the advocates is way over the line in the opposite direction. Whatever happened to the middle way?

  Yeah. 
  I'm gonna set my soul on fire.
  My heart beats low while the flames grow higher.
  Strike a match and then the truth is told.
  I'm gonna set my soul on fire.

  The devil made me a woman, I ain't no liar.
  Her eyes grow bright like the lake of fire.
  Struck a match and then I sold my soul
  for the black-haired girl from the lake of fire.

  I'm gonna set my soul on fire.
  My heart beats low while the flames grow higher.
  Strike a match and then I sold my soul.
  I just set my soul on fire.
  

There's so rarely decent articles on everything2.com that this one about Manos, the Hands of Fate deserves mention.

Those Canadian film students are sitting on cult classic kitsch gold with their movie, Hotel Torgo.

From here:

"One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of 
Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment
will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted
EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over
time became more complex. That just isn't possible: UNLESS there is a giant
outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. 
If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it.
[emphasis added]"
  

What could that source of energy possibly be? It has to be Jebus. Another thing I like about the 2LOT Argument Against Evolution is that it denies the possibility of conception and embryonic development. Something else which we all know is a lie straight from hell. We all leap from our mothers' snatch fully formed, just like Athena.

People often make the claim that atheism is a religion because atheists like to make nonsensical statements like this:

Why do people want to call atheism a religion? Because that would let them 
say, "Ha ha, you're just as religious as we are, so shut up and leave us alone."
But it's simply not true: atheism aligns itself with science, with evolutionary
theory, with rationality and empiricism, and religion aligns itself with faith,
dogma, and tradition. Show an atheist evidence that he is wrong and he will
think for a moment, and then nod in assent that he is convinced; show a theist
the same thing, and he will grow angry and offended that you would disrespect
his faith.
  

Atheism no more aligns itself with science, evolutionary theory, or anything else than ayulism or accepting that the Cat in the Hat is a fictional character does. Atheism entails exactly a lack of belief in any god or gods and one can conclude no more about an atheist than that they lack a belief in any god or gods. As much as atheists may be loathe to admit there are loons and wackos that number in our ranks.

I'm plowing through backlogged /. entries at bloglines and came across this funny entry about a strange bug in Excel 2007:

Microsoft already has a patch in the works to help users overcome this issue. 
Whenever the user types a '*' in a formula, an animated sprite of Charles 
Babbage's head will pop up. It will show this bubble caption:

"It looks like you're trying to multiply two numbers. I can help show you how 
to use the Method of Finite Differences to find a good approximation of your
answer using only addition and subtraction. Would you like me to bring up a
wizard so that we can get started on finding an appropriate power series?"
  

From here:

"The yulist advocates the view that evidence is available to prove conclusively that Santa does exist, and that this evidence is adequate to establish beyond reasonable doubt the existence of Santa. However, when we employ the word "prove", we do not mean that Santa's existence can be demonstrated scientifically in the same fashion that one might prove that a sack of potatoes weighs ten pounds, or that a human heart has four distinct chambers within it. Such matters as the weight of a sack of vegetables, or the divisions within a muscle, are matters that may be verified empirically using the five senses. And while empirical evidence often is quite useful in establishing the validity of a case, it is not the sole means of arriving at proof. For example, legal authorities recognize the validity of a prima facie case, which is acknowledged to exist when adequate evidence is available to establish the presumption of a fact that, unless such fact can be refuted, legally stands proven (see Jackson, 1974, p. 13). It is the contention of the yulist that there is a vast body of evidence that makes an impregnable prima facie case for for the existence of Santa - a case that simply cannot be refuted. I would like to present here the prima facie case for the existence of Santa, and a portion of the evidence upon which that case is based." <snip cosmological argument>

I was going to take time to refute this statement, just to stretch my god-denying muscles, but it is so absurd on its face that that would really give it more credit than it is due. I will simply point out - the feelings of theologians aside - that uncaused effects are a fact of the quantum world.

  Riding with no hands
  Whilst texting his hot girlfriend.
  Douche hits curb - face plant.
  

groundglass: unintentional goatse

I kind of have to link to this story about a guy being detained and eventually arrested for refusing to let a Circuit City drone search his bag of recently purchased goods. This kind of crap has always made me feel a little hinky because it displays the tacit assumption that every customer exiting the store is a thief. In Amerka, I'm also supposed to be secure in my person from unlawful searches - where unlawful is defined as lacking probably cause. I just demonstrated to the store my willingness to play by the rules by paying for their overpriced, marketed crap. Why do they need to hassle me before letting me out of the store?

It almost makes me want to go to Wal-Mart and give them some of my hard-earned money in exchange for their cheap, poorly made shit just so I can tell the "greeter" to self-fellate as I leave.

  That lazy motherfucker stole my check
   
  And I want it back
 
  That lazy motherfucker stole my check
  
  stole my check, stole my check
  wooo, yeah, yeah, yeah
  wooo
 
  That lazy motherfucker stole my check
  And I want it back
  Lazy motherfucker

  wooo, yeah, yeah, yeah
  wooo
  wooo, yeah, yeah, yeah

  That lazy motherfucker stole my check
  stole my check, stole my check 
  that's the second time you did that
  you done did that twice

  Yeah

  That lazy motherfucker stole my check
  stole my check, stole my check
  And I want it back
  I want it back, my check back
  you lazy motherfucker

  You stole my check and run off
  Call 911
  Lazy motherfucker
  
  Wooo, yeah, yeah, yeah
  wooo
  wooo, yeah, yeah, yeah
  wooo 
  

114 Across - Best selling Grisham novel, with "The"

Some nimrod called into the Junkies' radio show on Monday to complain about one of their number's use of the phrase "god dammit" as taking the LORD's name in vain. It gave me reason to ruminate on the topic and it strikes me as odd that Christians so often are ignorant of their own Scriptures.

The first misunderstanding is that the name that can be taken in vain is anything other than the tetragrammaton, which we don't even know how to pronounce because biblical Hebrew didn't have the little vowel/aspiration marks that modern Hebrew does. 'God' is not the name we are to avoid taking in vain.

The second misunderstanding is that uttering an imprecatory phrase is what constitutes taking the name in vain. In Ecclesiastes 5 we learn that you take the LORD's name in vain when you swear an oath to him and don't pay it back.

The third misunderstanding which the nimrod caller did not bring up , but which is common among nimrods in general is tied to misunderstanding #2. Only followers of the LORD can take his name in vain - "the LORD, thy god". One could retort that the LORD is everyone's god, but that does not jibe with the usage of that phrase anywhere in the Old Testament. The Philistines worshipped Dagon and the incident with the statue and the ark make it quite clear that the LORD was Israel's god, but not the Philistines'.

Can you believe this crap is still online?

• Golden Arch
• all night long
• structural

  My reflection.
  Dirty mirror
  bears no connection to my self.
  I'm your lover
  I'm a zero.
  I'm the face in your dreams of glass.

  So save your prayers
  for when we're really gonna need them.
  Throw all your cares and fly.
  Wanna go for a ride.

  She's the one for me.
  She's all I really need, oh yeah.
  She's the one for me.

  Empty is loneliness
  and loneliness is cleanliness
  and cleanliness is godliness
  and god is empty...
  just like me.

  Intoxicated!
  with the madness.
  I'm in love with my sadness.
  Bullshit fakers.
  Enchanted kingdoms.
  The fashion victims chew their charcoal teeth.

  I never let on that I was on a sinking ship.
  I never let on that I was down.

  You blame yourself
  for what you can't ignore.
  You blame yourself
  for wanting more!

  She's the one for me.
  She's all I really need. 
  She's the one for me.
  She's my one and only. 
  

Ok, I've been on the internets since gopher was the hot hypertext medium and I've never been rick-rolled (I presume it's a deliciously punny play on blogroll and rick astley). Making me wonder exactly what Michael Parker means when he says it's "one of the longer Internet phenomena that we've seen". Define 'longer' and define 'we'.

I never have understood all the hullabaloo about null. It marks that there's no value here. There's nothing more sinister going on than that.

However, our friends on comp.database.theory would have you believe that null is a blight or scourge to be eradicated. This thread on null is fairly tame by comparison, but the core of the venom is there.

I would ask our theory loving friends what they suggest to replace null, but I know what the answer would be - a database should not contain missing values. It may make for theoretical simplicity, but can often be impractical to implement.

Why does blogger or blogspot or whatever the fuck it's called, know what my gmail account is? Has it been assimilated?

Last week, I noticed a small push switch in the "jamb" for the rear hatch on the Rabbit. I had seen this switch before but had not given it any thought. On Friday, I gave it some thought. If it's a switch, it must be for a light somewhere. At first, I assumed the dome light, but I started following wires and found an empty light socket just inside the hatch lid.

The socket takes those long 5W bulbs where the contacts are metal cones on either end of bulb. So, I bought a couple from AutoZone today for a pittance and installed one in the socket. I expected it not to work (either because the switch was bad or the wiring was shot), but lo and behold there was light - and the light was good.

Now I can't wait for the next time I need to retrieve something from the back of the Rabbit in the dark. How dumb is that?

  Exits to freeways twisted like knots on the fingers.
  Jewels cleaving skin between...breasts.

  Your Cadillac breeds 400 horses over blue lines.
  You are going to Reseda to make love to a model from Ohio whose real name you don't know.
  You spin
  Like the Cadillac was overturning down a cliff on television.
  And the radio is on
  and the radio man is speaking
  and the radio man is saying women were a curse
  so men built Paramount studios
  and men built Columbia studios
  and men built...Los Angeles
 
  It is 5am and you are listening to Los Angeles.
  It is 5am and you are listening to Los Angeles.

  And the radio man says it is a beatiful night out there
  And the radio man says rock and roll lives
  And the radio man says it is a beautiful night out there in Los Angeles
  You live in Los Angeles
  And you are going to Reseda
  We are all in some way or another going to Reseda some day to diiiiiiiiiiie.
  And the radio man laughs because 
  the radio man fucks a model, too.

  Gone savage for teenagers with automatic weapons and boundless love.
  Gone savage for teenagers who are aesthetically pleasing, in other words, fly.
  Los Angeles beckons the teeanagers to come to her on buses.
  Los Angeles loves love.

  It is 5am and you are listening to Los Angeles.
  It is 5am and you are listening to Los Angeles.

  I am going to Los Angeles
  to build a screenplay about lovers who murder each other.
  I am going to Los Angeles 
  to see my own name on a screen 5 feet long and luminous.
  As the radio man says, it is 5 am
  and the sun has charred the other side of the world and come back to us
  and painted the smoke over our heads in imperial violet.

  It is 5am and you are listening to Los Angeles.
  It is 5am and you are listening to Los Angeles.

  You are lissssssssssssssssss-ning.
  You are lissssssssss-ning.
  You are lisssss-ning.
  You are lisssss-ning.
  You are lisssss-ning.
  You are liss-en-ing.
  You are liss-en-ing.
  You are liss-en-ing.
  You are liss-en-ing
  to Los Angeles.
  

I think we can safely ignore the Reader's List considering Ayn Rand is #1 and #2 and fucking L Ron Hubbard is #3. I've read a small portion of the Board's List and have only heard of another small portion of the list. It seems that the ones I really despised reading were assigned to me. Could there be something to that?

The Great Gatsby	assigned to read in HS	horrendous and tedious
The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	Read for book list - inspired by Persecepe	Challenging but worthwhile
Brave New World	Read for book list	Interesting dystopian novel
1984	Read numerous times	Always struck by Orwell's understanding of fascism and understanding of human nature
Lord of the Flies	Assigned to read in HS	Overlong but interesting to read
A Clockwork Orange	Read numerous times	A thoroughly fascinating read
Heart of Darkness	Read for book list	Came in a "collected works of" and so it was interesting to note the common themes throughout and see lines that made it into Apocalypse Now
The call of the wild	Assigned to read in MS	Pointless and uninteresting

From slashdot:

Speed-laws are not reasonable
(Score:5, Insightful)
by mi (197448)  on Sunday April 22, @08:51PM (#18835769)
(http://cafepress.com/phototravel?pid=5934485)

>    If you have an issue with the speed limits in your town, 
>    please contact your local elected officials. Have you ever
>    been to a city council meeting?

In too many localities police will usually let a local resident off 
with a warning while ripping others off. This keeps local residents 
(who attend council meetings) content, and brings easy revenue 
(people from afar are very unlikely to challenge the tickets in local
 court) to the town. This selective enforcement gets documented 
occasionally and is a real bane of highway travel.

NJ's Governor Corzine just had a nasty accident [yahoo.com], because 
his driver (a State trooper, no less) was going 91 in a 65 mph zone 
(Governor's vehicle can only do that in an "emergency"). The governor
 will take months to recover, because the moron was not wearing his 
seatbelt. Neither the hypocrite trooper (who had a similar accident 
a few years ago), nor the hypocrite governor are expected to be 
punished by law, although tens of thousands drivers are fined in NJ 
for the same (and lesser) offenses every year . most of them without 
causing an accident.

The speed laws are not reasonable . they take neither car's age and 
quality nor the driver's experience and health into consideration. 
What's too fast for an inexperienced 17- or half-blind 70-year-old 
driving a Buick is unreasonably slow for a healthy middle-aged driver
 driving a BMW...

Is anyone surprised that the asshole advocating a special set of traffic laws just for him drives a BMW?