Friday, 31 May, 2002. 10:57:20 AMSo far, I've got 6 bogus posts on Slashdot, and the response is quite
positive. I think that after this is done I will try Kuro5hin and compare
it to Slashdot.
Thursday, 30 May, 2002. 08:19:28 PMThree bogus comments posted, all with obvious clues. One is about the
(bogus) consideration of SCO Xenix for Sun boxes, another is about
changing cheating policies at universities, and the last is about
"buttocks biometrics". So far, the response is bafflement and positive
moderations!
Thursday, 30 May, 2002. 07:54:44 PMMy experiment begins. 20 completely bogus posts on Slashdot. I'm predicting
that my karma does not drop below 45.
Wednesday, 29 May, 2002. 02:21:36 PMI have noticed some hawks eyeing the tensions between India and Pakistan
with glee. Perhaps they take
"A Modest Proposal" too seriously.
Tuesday, 28 May, 2002. 06:19:24 PMRegarding John Ashcroft's Dec. 6th 2001 announcement that those who excercise
their First Ammendment right to criticise government are helping the
terrorists:
"The President is merely the most important among a large number of
public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree
which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or
inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation
as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full
liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly
necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right.
Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce
that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand
by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but
is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should
be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell
the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
Theodore Roosevelt, "Kansas City Star", May 7, 1918
Monday, 27 May, 2002. 08:20:54 PMMy
Mount Vernon photos are on this site.
Monday, 27 May, 2002. 11:50:24 AMThis is an amazing coincidence. I was just going out to get some lunch and
go touring and the people next to me were also stepping out. It was
Nash Gupta and his new wife! He was just married yesterday. I worked with
Nash in Austin at IBM.
Saturday, 25 May, 2002. 10:11:38 PMI went to the NRA firearms museum here in Fairfax today. It was a nice
museum, with a large collection of weapons, mostly from American history,
and a few very old examples of wheellocks and matchlocks. I'm trying to get
my camera to work with my laptop so I can upload the photos.
Friday, 24 May, 2002. 01:24:04 PMJesse Ventura, governor of Minnesota, did the right thing and vetoed a bill
that would have made the Pledge of Allegiance compulsory in schools. I
agree with him and his reasons for the veto. Here is the text of his
reasons:
"I have vetoed and am returning Chapter Number 391, House File Number
2598, a bill requiring school pledge of allegiance recitation.
"I am vetoing this bill because I believe patriotism comes from the
heart. Patriotism is voluntary. It is a feeling of loyalty and allegiance
that is the result of knowledge and belief. A patriot shows their patriotism
through their actions, by their choice.
"Chapter 391 is not about choice. In Chapter 391, the State mandates
patriotic actions and displays. Our government should not dictate actions.
The United States of America exists because people wanted to be free to choose.
All of us should have free choice when it comes to patriotic displays.
"According to West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (U.S. Supreme
Court, 319 U.S. 624, 1943), the action of the local authorities in compelling
the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitations on their
power, and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose
of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control.
"This case went on to state that words uttered under coercion are proof
of loyalty to nothing but self-interest. Love of country must spring from
willing hearts and free minds, inspired by a fair administration of wise
laws enacted by the people's elected representatives within the bounds of
express constitutional prohibitions. In other words, a government wisely
acting within its bounds will earn loyalty and respect from its citizens.
A government dare not demand the same.
"There is much more to being a patriot and a citizen than reciting the
pledge or raising a flag. Patriots serve. Patriots vote. Patriots attend
meetings in their community. Patriots pay attention to the actions of government
and speak out when needed. Patriots teach their children about our history,
our precious democracy and about citizenship. Being an active, engaged citizen
means being a patriotic American every day. No law will make a citizen a
patriot.
"For these reasons, I vetoed this bill.
"Sincerely,
"Jesse Ventura, Governor"
Thursday, 23 May, 2002. 05:19:56 PM
Scariest thing I've read this week:
From Atlantic Monthly:
"We should fire at them and take out a few of their cities -- Delhi,
Bombay, Calcutta," he said. "They should fire back and take Karachi and Lahore.
Kill off a hundred or two hundred million people. They should fire at us
and it would all be over. They have acted so badly toward us; they have been
so mean. We should teach them a lesson. It would teach all of us a lesson.
There is no future here, and we need to start over. So many people think
this. Have you been to the villages of Pakistan, the interior? There is nothing
but dire poverty and pain. The children have no education; there is nothing
to look forward to. Go into the villages, see the poverty. There is no drinking
water. Small children without shoes walk miles for a drink of water. I go
to the villages and I want to cry. My children have no future. None of the
children of Pakistan have a future. We are surrounded by nothing but war
and suffering. Millions should die away."
"Pakistan should fire pre-emptively?" I asked.
Aman nodded.
"And you are willing to see your children die?"
"Tens of thousands of people are dying in Kashmir, and the only superpower
says nothing," Aman said. "America has sided with India because it has interests
there." He told me he was willing to see his children be killed. He repeated
that they didn't have any futurehis children or any other children.
I asked him if he thought he was alone in his thoughts, and Aman made it clear to me that he was not.
"Believe me," he went on, "If I were in charge, I would have already done it."
Aman stopped, as though he'd stunned even himself. Then he added, with
quiet forcefulness, "Before I die, I hope I should see it."
--Brigadier Amanullah - former chief of Pakistan's military intelligence in Sind Province, which borders India.
Wednesday, 22 May, 2002. 12:51:28 PMThere's a Super 8 Hotel in Manhattan that just opened. I wonder if they have
free local calls?
Monday, 20 May, 2002. 02:27:13 PMFirst day at Mantas, in Fairfax Virginia. I'm porting some Java Enterprise
Beans to AIX. Doesn't look like it will take too long. Hopefully I'll get out
to see the Smithsonian and the new Star Wars movie.
Saturday, 18 May, 2002. 02:16:48 PMAlex and I got home from breakfast and running around town just now. The DSL
line is back up.
Saturday, 18 May, 2002. 01:03:04 AMThey have to send somebody out to the remote (automated telecommunications
nexus) to see what happened. My DSL should be back up in 24 hours.
Saturday, 18 May, 2002. 12:44:25 AMI've been kicked up to advanced tech support.
Saturday, 18 May, 2002. 12:41:45 AMI'm on tech support with DirectTVDSL. Looks the router blew out.
Saturday, 18 May, 2002. 12:25:53 AMMy DSL line just went down. I wonder how long it will be before it comes
back up?
Wednesday, 15 May, 2002. 01:16:53 AMI bought a digital camera tonight for making web page photos. I didn't need a
lot of features, or high resolution, so I got a 1.3 megapixel Vivitar 3550
from Target for $120 with a 32 MB flash card. It works well with Windows,
but Linux will take more work. The USB system under Linux isn't well developed
yet.
Tuesday, 14 May, 2002. 05:39:10 PMI was told that I'm definitely going to Washington to work on the Mantass
project. I'll leave next Sunday for about 6 weeks.
Tuesday, 14 May, 2002. 12:38:19 AMAlbert Einstein, when asked to describe radio, replied:
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his
tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand
this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they
receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
Monday, 13 May, 2002. 05:28:16 PMOver the weekend Darwin discovered a place in our fence that he could just
squeeze through. It wasn't a big deal though; the only reason that Darwin
wanted to get through the fence was to eat the grass on the other side.
I nailed some strips of wood over the place where he was escaping.
Friday, 10 May, 2002. 01:48:00 AMAlright, it's Spider-Man, not Spiderman. Always spelled with a hyphen. Just
got back from the movie, and just like all movies that are derived from books,
comic or otherwise, the movie was far better than the book. Can't wait for
the sequel.
Thursday, 09 May, 2002. 10:37:03 PMI'm in Folsom CA in my hotel room. This is the Larkspur Landing Hotel, and
right now I can say that it rates 5 stars out of 4. The room is clean, it
costs $119 a night, and there's a theater right next door. I'm going to watch
Spiderman at 8:35 California time. But the best thing is the broadband
internet connection right in the room. It works right out of the box with
no configuration required. I'm logged into my server at home right now. As
a practical joke, I logged into helium, my desktop machine, and started up
my MP3 player. It was playing "Band on the Run" by Paul McCartney and Wings.
I was on the phone at the time with Alex, and it freaked her out. The dogs
started going nuts too, because they thought I was upstairs. Heh heh.
Let me say this again: Larkspur Landing Home Suite Hotel is a great place
to stay. 1-877-LARKSPUR.
Wednesday, 08 May, 2002. 04:38:04 PMJust found out that I'm going to Sacramento tomorrow for a project involving
the welfare system in California. I'll just be there for a day, returning
Friday.
Monday, 06 May, 2002. 12:53:33 PMHere's something interesting from my logs. These are the top ranked search
queries that people have used on various search engines to find my
webpage:
comments
linux device drivers
gpg photo
howto write linux device dri
viagra chinatown new york city
hall kineon
dr. john nash noble prize winner
photo of john nash and his wife
haydn planetarium
atta helmsley
bronze penguin
spamming bastards
Monday, 06 May, 2002. 11:33:33 AMWhere are my friends Tracy Moran and Chad Ludwig? Last time I saw them was
in April 2001. Since I'm going to be in the Washington area at the end of
this month, I was going to try to visit them, but the e-mail address that
I have bounces. The phone number listed on the net is old.
Friday, 03 May, 2002. 05:39:36 PMJust found out that the most likely schedule for my job in Washington will
be from the 20th of May to the end of June. I'll miss my doggies, but there's
some good museums in DC that I want to see, and some friends too.
Friday, 03 May, 2002. 02:48:45 PMAlex is going to be in Canada from Saturday through Monday. I'm staying at
home with the dogs.
Thursday, 02 May, 2002. 11:38:55 AMAgfa
is turning out to be the latest bully on the block.
Wednesday, 01 May, 2002. 02:21:34 PMSo I can't make a
deep link
into the Dallas News website?
Sure I can!
Wednesday, 01 May, 2002. 01:31:57 PMThe following article was written by Dr. Paul R. Wilson, University of Texas.
I think that he makes several
really good points.
--------------------------------------------------------------
One interesting fact is that atheists are the least trusted
people in America. The general run of Americans assumes that
atheists are imoral or amoral, or at least likely to be.
The majority of Americans wouldn't elect a homosexual to
be president. But the fraction who would vote for a homosexual
is much larger than the fraction who would vote for an atheist.
This is pretty ironic given how many outstanding and socially
responsible people are atheists. For example, most scientists
are atheists, and the overwhelming majority of outstanding
scientists are. (About 90% of the 4000 members of the National
Academy of Sciences, for example. And the big majority of
Nobel Prize winners.)
Many people think that atheists are negative people out to
destroy society, corrupt our youth, etc. But think about
it. We have most of the Nobel Prize winners on our side,
and thousands and thousands of top-notch scientists.
If we wanted to hurt you, you'd be dead already. :-)
Here's a case of discrimination that affected me---nothing
big, but revealing. When I was in high school, I was an
A student and science geek. (I'm a scientist now.) One
of my best friends was a bohemian jazz musician, who
skipped a lot of classes to smoke dope and goof around.
He was also a Christian. When his mother found out I
was an atheist, she told him I couldn't come over to their
house anymore, because I was a bad influence on him and
he needed to straighten up and stop smoking dope. He
told her that I was an A-student, and rarely smoked
dope---mostly when he handed it to me.
Nonetheless, she called the parents of some mutual
friends and told them they shouldn't let their kids
have anything to do with me, because I was an atheist
and "always on dope." So I got a reputation as a
corrupter of youth, when in fact every one of those
kids was more "corrupted" than me---with dope, sex,
skipping class, etc.---except that I was an atheist.
This wasn't a huge deal because those kids knew the
score. They knew me, and knew their parents were
being idiotic. But it did make things awkward for
me---I couldn't casually hang out with those friends
anymore if they were hanging out with friends at home.
That sucked.
This is not like being denied a job or housing, though.
I've seen racism and homophobia up close and personal,
and they are still much more widespread than most people
realize. In terms of housing, employment, or violent
hate crimes, I'd much rather be an atheist than, say,
black, or gay.
We only stand out if we choose to. I'm not going to be
recognized as an atheist because of the color of my skin,
or the sex of somebody I have my arm around.
But our "invisibility" is part of the problem. It is
precisely why most people don't know how many of
the good, responsible, and/or outstanding people they
know of are atheists. They don't realize that atheists
have made and continue to make tremendous contributions
to society. They don't realize that atheism is strongly
correlated with advanced education, particularly in
areas relevant to religion (e.g., biology, physics,
cosmology, and philosophy).
They also don't realize how many of their favorite things
come from atheistic sources, including pagans. For
example, democracy. The ancient Greeks may have been
pagans, but in terms of moral and political philosophy,
they were much more like modern-day atheists than like
Christians. (They didn't think that the gods had any
particular relevance to what was right or wrong, or
could tell them how to organize society. So even if
they were religious, they were NOT religious like
Christians are religious.)
The story of human civilization is largely the story
of the conflict between religious thinking and atheistic
thinking. When the ancient Hebrews abandoned child
sacrifice, it was really because people realized that
child sacrifice sucked, not because of anything religious.
But the only way they could oppose the barbarity of
child sacrifice was by wrapping their objections up
in religious garb, and saying God said to stop it,
whereas "God" had previously said to DO IT. Moral
argument is often disguised as religious argument,
when at root it is humanistic.
And now, in the US, there is a lack of resolve to
oppose barbaric fundamentalism, because religious
moderates don't have the balls to admit that their
values are humanistic, and accept irreligious
people as their allies, rather than fellow "Christians".
The simple fact is that the majority's values are
humanistic, not Christian. Most mainline Christians
would, when push comes to shove in clear cases, do
what's right rather than "what God wants" in the
Bible. The conflict between fundamentalists and
non-fundamentalists is more basic than the
conflict between moderate Christians and atheists.
Moderate Christians tend to pick and choose from
what the Bible says, rejecting the most evil
authoritarian parts.
Fundamentalists tend not to do that, at least not
in the same way---they resolve the moral contradictions
in the Bible by taking obedience to God's will as
the most important moral principle. That allows
them to accept a crazy patchwork of moral judgements
with no real consistency to it---it's okay if God
wants this and that in ways that seem crazy to us,
and are a mix of obviously good, obviously bad,
and just strange things. God has his own reasons
for things, and we should just do what he says.
(Why? Because it's his fucking universe, that's why.
Don't ask questions.)
Sadly, most moderate Christians are really not aware
how much they are more philosophically compatible
with atheists than with fundies. If somebody insults
atheists, moderate Christians are likely not to
speak up.
And atheists contribute to this with their silence.
Most don't want to speak up, and because their
atheism is easy to conceal, they don't have to.
That's why it's understandable if you hadn't ever
thought much about discrimination against atheists.
Our friends don't realize they're selling us out,
and many of us don't point it out. So how is the
average person to know?
Paul
Wednesday, 01 May, 2002. 03:30:32 AMIdiot of the month. Quote
from the page:
"Anti-spam whiners are poor students of American History--not understanding
that our First Amendment guarantees freedomof speech, and our political
system promotes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is no
higher pursuit of happiness than sending and receiving "spam" on the
Internet."
I ask, why should I pay for you to send me information about how to enlarge
my penis or purchase a fraudulent Doctorate degree from a diploma mill? If
you pay for my connection to the Internet, you can send me whatever you want.
But you don't, so I have shut you out. I bet it really BURNS you that all your
spam now bounces off my chastity belt equipped mail server. :-)
Wednesday, 01 May, 2002. 03:23:55 AMCan't sleep. I'm going to stay up all night and get expression parsing in
my compiler working once and for all.