February, 2011 archive
Stray Thought 0
80 Fahrenheits, open windows, and short-sleeve shirts in mid-February are Just Not Right in This Part of the World.
Facebook Frolics 0
Stu Bykofsky offers a typology of Facebook friends at Philly dot com. Follow the link for his comments on Facebook’s friend suggestions.
- Me, ME, ME!!: Braggers and self-promoters. I do some promoting myself, when I post a column that I think far-flung FFFs might enjoy. But I’m not running an Amway operation, selling mood rings, gold or vitamin supplements, like some FFFs.
- Bold Liars: “I’m taking Janice to Paris for the weekend,” Jim writes. I know him. He’ll be diving in Dumpsters on Moravian Street for dinner.
- Collectors: Overly competitive, they promiscuously sign up thousands of FFFs. (The greater the number, the higher the PQ – Pathetic Quotient.)
- Self-Impressed: “I’m going to lunch with my favorite judge.” “I just got back from the Super Bowl.” “I went to the ballet.” Not a word about what happened, just “I went, I did.”
Afterthought:
I’m torn. Can’t decide whether I belong in the first category of the last one.
Driving While Brown 0
No doubt the Regent considers this merely collateral damage.
After all, he had been a licensed driver in Virginia for years.
But last fall, the department stopped accepting his federally issued work permit, a document that was his main proof that he was in the country legally, because he does not have a green card.
Now, five months later, his business is collapsing, and bill collectors are calling.
Virginia changed its policy in September after an illegal immigrant from Bolivia was charged with hitting and killing a nun while driving drunk in Prince William County.
Via Blue Virginia.
Elementary, My Dear Holmes 0
Building a better Watson:
Via the San Jose Mercury-News, which reports
Even Dan Gruhl, a researcher at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose who worked on Watson — a four-year project that involved about 20 to 25 people throughout IBM’s eight research labs — says so. He points to the 55 sparring sessions that Watson took part in from November to January before the big showdown with Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, the game show’s most successful champions, this week. Watson — which IBM calls a DeepQA machine made up of custom algorithms, terabytes of storage and “many, many CPUs,” — won 71 percent of those mock games. Was Watson’s progress incremental, GMSV asked Gruhl in a phone interview Wednesday. “Oh, heck yeah,” he said.
When Good Machines Go Bad 0
Apparently, this is some kind of automated alert device:
The Palo Alto Police Department on Wednesday asked the Federal Communications Commission to investigate a mobile device that flooded the city’s emergency communications center with 566 calls over a five-hour period in January, according to a police official.
“I asked (the FCC) to open an investigation … on the problems this device was creating,” said Charles Cullen, technical services director for the Palo Alto Police Department. “And that’s where they have jurisdiction, because it’s a mobile device.”
The phantom calls started pouring into the city’s emergency communications center the night of Jan. 13 and continued into the early morning hours of Jan. 14. Cullen said it appears the device was in a Mercedes-Benz and is also likely responsible for flooding the California Highway Patrol’s Vallejo dispatch center with 2,225 calls over a roughly 21-hour period between Jan. 25 and 26.
In both cases, it comes out to over 100 calls per hour, indicating a redial after each disconnect.
On! Wisconsin 0
Democrats resist Republican attempts to oppress state workers based on claims of a budget crisis which doesn’t exist.
One more time:
Truman was correct.
The Republican Party is about making the rich richer and the poor poorer. All the rest in window dressing.
Little Ricky Meets the Ice Queen 0
I alluded to this when it first came out.
Little Ricky Santorum said some remarks that Sarah Palin found offensive regarding her refusal to leave her Ice Palace and meet the public.
She responded by backhandedly calling him a “Neanderthal.”
Dick Polman reports that Little Ricky has knelt, vanquished, before the wrath of the Ice Queen and her acolytes (shall we call the Icicles?).
But wait. Within 24 hours, Santorum felt compelled to walk it back. On Fox News, he declared: “I like Sarah Palin. My wife and I both like Sarah Palin.” He said he loved Palin’s reality show. He said he was a dutiful dad; in fact, “I changed three diapers today.”
I feel bad for the guy. He tried to commit candor, but apparently the heat from the Palinites got too intense.
Denial Is Not Just a River in Egypt 0
It is what Republicans do to facts. Dennis G. demonstrates, using facts to do so.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Back over 400K.
A reduction in firings by U.S. firms is needed to keep unemployment going down. Bigger job gains are needed to boost consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the world’s largest economy.
Two thoughts:
- There will be no increase in consumer spending until the number of consumers who have something to spend increases significantly. The DOW doesn’t spend.
- The unnamed experts forecasting the figures should maybe read the racing form before placing their bets.
QOTD 0
Henry Brooks Adams, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Every man should have a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends.
Five Loaves 0
From the top left, clockwise: Plain, honey, garlic, olive, Italian cheese (asagio, romano, parmesan).
I started with this recipe and quickly left it behind.
I filled a large mixing bowl slightly more than half full of warm water and proofed the yeast.
I mixed in half a handful of light brown sugar, some salt, and an egg, then added flour (about 50-50 unbleached and whole wheat) until the mixture would absorb no more. Once you bake your first successful loaf of bread, you can feel when the dough is ready.
After the first rise, I separated the dough into five parts and kneaded in the stuff listed above–grated cheese, that minced garlic stuff that comes in a jar since I didn’t have any fresh garlic, chopped olives, and honey. I formed each part into a loaf and let them rise again.
The taste tests have so far been successful. The cheese loaf nearly did not survive last night’s supper.
No, I didn’t measure anything. Measuring is for the first time you make something.
For the olive, garlic, and honey loaves, I had to add some more flour as I kneaded the loaves to counteract the additional moisture from the added ingredients.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Making homes more affordable while reducing wasteful spending on unnecessary frills such as schools, police forces, and fire departments:
(snip)
Bunn said what Norfolk experienced with its home values is not unlike its neighbors. Virginia Beach’s real estate tax assessments will drop by about 3 percent, Chesapeake by 3.3 percent and Suffolk from 5 to 7 percent, she said. She did not get an answer from Portsmouth leaders about their assessments, she said. Other South Hampton Roads cities are expected to release details soon about their 2010 assessments.
War on CyberHype 0
The BBC reports some sensible comments. No doubt they will be lost in the rush to sell scary books and make scary headlines (emphasis added):
Bruce Schneier claims that emotive rhetoric around the term does not match the reality.
He warned that using sensational phrases such as “cyber armageddon” only inflames the situation.
Mr Schneier, who is chief security officer for BT, is due to address the RSA security conference in San Francisco this week
Speaking ahead of the event, he told BBC News that there was a power struggle going on, involving a “battle of metaphors”.
(snip)
His point of view was backed by Howard Schmidt, cyber security co-ordinator for the White House.
“We really need to define this word because words do matter,” said Mr Schmidt.
“Cyber war is a turbo metaphor that does not address the issues we are looking at like cyber espionage, cyber crime, identity theft, credit card fraud.“
The portion I put in bold illustrates part of the reason for the success of the “cyberwar” hype.
Unscrupulous persons do lots of different nasty things.
Nasty things done with computers have in common one thing: they are done on (gasp!) computers.
Many persons, even those adept at using individual computer applications, such as a web browser or an office suite, have no idea how a computer or a network does what it does. Therefore the hypesters can fool persons into thinking that the many nasty things are actually one nasty thing–“cyyyyyyyyyyybeeeeerwaaaaar”–because they are done on (gasp!) computers.
They can therefore write white papers, sell scary books, get interview gigs on telly vision, and, perhaps most significantly, get lucrative consultancy gigs writing more white papers, promoting more scary books, and appearing in more interviews on the telly vision.
I’m not saying there is no reason to worry. Both individual computer users and system admins should practice safe HEX.
But there’s no reason to predict cybergeddon.
Elephants Have Big Earmarks
0
Jamie discusses the drive to buy a second engine from a secondary manufacturer for the F-35 (note that the plane already has a first engine from the primary manufacturer). Here’s a bit:
He winds up by hoping that the Teabaggers hold to principle rather than to party.
There’s irony in there somewhere . . . .
Virginia Beach Democratic Committee Third Thursday Dinner 0
- What: Virginia Beach Democratic Committee Third Thursday Dinner
- When: February 17th, 6:00 PM
- Where: Kelly’s Hilltop Tavern, 1936 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23454 (map), in the nonsmoking section.
Show up, order off the menu (separate checks), socialize, and talk politics–or whatever else interests you.
I have attended several of these. They tend to be smaller gatherings, highly informal, and a lot of fun. Don’t know whether I’ll make it this week, though–a cold seems to have caught me.
For more information, email VaBeachBoy@aol.com
Causation 0
Writing at Bloomberg, Michael Short analyzes the causes of the late and future panic depression recession.
The reasoning is dense and requires careful reading, but it’s worth a gander, maybe even a goose. A nugget:
The CEO of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon, has often called our attention to the outrageous amount of banker bashing by Americans outside the financial sector, who seek to blame their troubles on others.
Wall Street leaders now understand that they made a mistake, one born of their innocent and trusting nature. They trusted ordinary Americans to behave more responsibly than they themselves ever would, and these ordinary Americans betrayed their trust.
Amazingly, these ordinary Americans don’t even appear to feel guilty for their actions. Like wild animals that have lost their fear of humans, they continue to wander down from the hills to rummage through our garbage cans for sustenance.
