Monthly Archives: September 2005

My Summer project, to finish all of the books I’ve started, is proceeding apace — a good thing now that it’s Fall — and I’ve just finished Guns, Germs, and Steel. In the chapter “Blueprints and Borrowed Letters,” Jared Diamond … Continue reading →

Speaking of lessons to learn, sometimes those lessons don’t trickle down to the ignorant folks talking to the customers. And thus we get this cartoon from Rhymes with Orange.

How is it that Matt McNamara, the teenage twerp son in Nip/Tuck, lives in Miami, and yet somehow avoids getting a tan?

In the wake of the response to the past two natural disasters, I’ve heard a lot about “lessons learned.” I would like to point out that the simple recording of lessons to be learned does not mean that you have … Continue reading →

Why do people reflexively suggest traffic lights or curve straightening for traffic problems? Why don’t they define the problem well before proposing solutions? There was a crash at a 90-degree turn at the intersection of NYS Route 311 and 164 … Continue reading →

We live about five miles, 11 minutes, by car from the Kindergarten, but the Big Sister rides the bus for 30 minutes or more. Last night residents in the Mahopac Central School District voted on a bond proposition. The question … Continue reading →

I read The Quiltmaker’s Gift to the girls last night. It’s a good story, and beautifully illustrated. There’s an accompanying website to illustrate the link between quilting and generousity.

“Our new logo is one of the most articulate symbols of the new Quark, and I feel proud to have led the team that worked on it,” said Susan Friedman, senior vice president of strategic relations at Quark. That’s really … Continue reading →

Dear WordPress Authors, in particular the author of the routines to invalidate my input. Stop multilating what I write. A blockquote element MAY be nested within another block-level element. Stop it!

Is humor allowed in patent filings? Apple’s latest, for a camera integrated into a laptop casing, notes For example, although the locking mechanism was described as including both a hidden locking feature (hook) and an exposed locking feature (plunger), it … Continue reading →

In 1996, I was asked what the next big thing would be. For some reason I was thought knowledgeable about these things. I said, “Directories.”

I’m seeing some novelty in the spam hitting my journal today. They exploit flaws in web applications produced by Major Corporations to insert HTML bits into those resources. To increase their page rank, probably, but the technique is somewhat interesting: … Continue reading →

I’ve noticed a pattern in gasoline prices since I started driving in 1990. Prices remain steady for a while, then they go up. They remain at that higher price for a short period of time, and then fall a bit. … Continue reading →

I have some statistical questions. Perhaps some freakonomicist would deign to answer them. It is often asserted that teachers and college professors are more liberal than the general population. Perhaps nationally, but are they locally? I personally know teachers who … Continue reading →

If you’re looking for a game of Texas Hold’em, or any other variation of poker, go off-line, you idiot. Poker is a game of human interaction.

Now listening to the John Roberts Confirmation Hearings on WNYC-AM. Very interesting. You could also watch the hearings on C-SPAN, but you’ll need RealPlayer or Windows Media Player. The New York Times, as the paper of record, has complete transcripts.

The Little Sister turned three today. Over the weekend we celebrated her little life with a trip to the City on Saturday, and a long lunch al fresco with the family on Sunday. The trip was somewhat eventful, but all-in-all … Continue reading →

I heard an extraordinary story on All Things Considered this evening: a timeline of the events before and after the arrival of Katrina. They ask, what went wrong?, and illustrate what happens when the best laid plans of mice and … Continue reading →

Jon Udell brings up the problem of redirecting RSS URIs again. The problem is the same as for any other URI, as is the solution. What complicates the solution is that some folks don’t have control over their hosted namespace, … Continue reading →

A number of ways to send an HTTP redirect without reconfiguring the web server. Continue reading →