Jumping off point

Nokia Changes mean mobile Linux consolidation

2011-02-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

I'll start off by saying I have no inside information on this one, everything I'm writing would be what I think should happen and has a reasonable chance of happening.

There are currently 4 Linux based mobile platforms:

Linaro

Meego

Android

WebOS

I think Nokia's announcement on Feb 11th is going to be related to a shift in strategy with respect to these projects.

Nokia should join Meego to Linaro and also support Android apps on this newly merged platform. These three Linux mobile platforms could cooexist as one product.

It's pretty obvious what's holding the Meego platform back is lack of arm platform support, and joining forces with Linaro gets arm support pretty quickly. They are both Linux based so the merger isn't too technically painful. It could be done quickly enough to put out a Meego handset based on existing Nokia hardware in April. It also leaves some flexibility to do an Intel implementation in cooperation with Canonical down the road as Intel's hardware gets ready. Meego just realigned it's release schedule to be the exact same as Linaro, so this isn't too far fetched.

Meanwhile it wouldn't be too hard to add support for Android applications as well. It's already been demonstrated in the wild (see below on Alien Dalvik). By doing this you get all the android ecosystem support but can still differentiate with native Meego applications. I actually don't think Nokia will do this because they want to avoid becoming a commodity android phone maker, and even if they support native Meego apps in addition to Android apps developers will likely make Android apps to reach a bigger market and skip making native Meego apps alltogether.

Nokia may instead decide to merge Meego and WebOS. Now that HP owns WebOS they are dying to get some marketshare to keep from becoming irrelevant and they are also looking for partners to help carry the cost of maintaining an OS. Both Meego and WebOS are Linux based, so the technical hurdles aren't too great. Plus Nokia could be an equal partner in setting the direction going forward.

Unfortunately none of this solves the problem of what to do with Symbian. I think Symbian still has a niche to fill on the low end, but Nokia's problems there are from hardware. To fix their hardware problems Nokia needs to come out with some dirt cheap phones based on reference platforms from chipset vendors and slapped with Symbian and some bundled Symbian software. Commodity hardware and software bundling differentiation.

What doesn't make sense to me is jumping on Windows Phone 7. There is no synergy with any of the work Nokia has done up to this point, and the developer community and marketshare are very small. They would also give total control to a single vendor in Microsoft whose strategy doesn't align well with theirs.

Some Background: aka the "facts"
Nokia's new CEO has said on the investor call and in a recently leaked memo that Nokia's strategy is changing now, and the details will be announced Feb 11:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/08/nokia-ceo-stephen-elop-rallies-troops-in-brutally-honest-burnin/
http://seekingalpha.com/article/249092-nokia-ceo-discusses-q4-2010-results-earnings-call-transcript?part=qanda

Meego, the joint project between Intel and Nokia recently announced a switch to April/October release, which is the same release schedule as Linaro and Canonical.
http://wiki.meego.com/Release_Engineering/Release_Timeline

It has already been demonstrated that you can with a little bit of work run android apps on Meego using Alien Dalvik:
http://thehandheldblog.com/2011/02/08/alien-dalvik-android-apps-meego-maemo/
http://maemo.org/news/planet-maemo/alien_dalvik_will_let_android_apps_run_on_meego-_maemo/

Lasik 22 hours after

2010-12-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

So I had lasik yesterday and I've gotten a lot of people wondering how it went. So here's a summary.

The procedure itself is not painful, but it isn't exactly fun. I turned down the Valium because that stuff makes me feel pretty weird, so the procedure was probably a little more intense for me than for most people who are fine with Valium. I mean they are cutting your eye open. I equate it in level of fun to having a crown done at a dentist. It took 15 minutes total. The laser part itself was 30 seconds each eye to cut the flap, and another 30 seconds each eye to form the cornea. But you have clamps and probes and stuff on your eyes for most of the 15 minutes and no amount of numbing drops or Valium is going to take away the psychological weirdness of that.

Right after the operation my eyes hurt. Not too bad, like a mild burning, I smiled for the picture 30 seconds after. They were also crazy sensitive to light. For the drive home I had to close my eyes and cover them with my hands to keep the sun out. Sunglasses are not enough. The pain lasted about an hour. After that the pain was gone.

3 hours after the operation I was walking around without any pain (maybe a little minor irritation) and checking my email. Everything was still a bit hazy and there was a glow around lights and lcd screens. But I could read a clock from across the room without any glasses or contacts.

That night I was watching tv and seeing pretty well. Still some light haze and glow around lights.

This morning I drove myself to my post op. Still a little haze and glow around lights, but pretty minor now, less than 24 hours after surgery. My vision tested at 20/25. So now it's a waiting game to see how quickly the slight haze & glowing clear up as my eye heals. The odds are both will go away completely and my vision will end up better than 20/20. My eyes are a little bloodshot as well, but that should go away in the next 3 weeks by Christmas. So I'm on track with no complications. In a month the final verdict will be in, but the expectation of both me and my doctor are that it was a success and everything will be great.

Know your Alamo Drafthouse

2009-12-28T22:56:00.000-08:00

Or what's the story with 3D...

I went with my family to the Alamo Drafthouse Village (on Anderson Ln) and watched Avatar in RealD 3D. RealD gives you these disposable glasses that have circular polarization, clockwise for one eye and counterclockwise for the other eye. This theater has converted over completely to Sony 4K projectors. It was stunning. No ghosting, good brightness and crisp detail. I was so impressed by the visuals I decided to go again. Despite a terrible plot with 1 dimensional characters. Can I watch it on mute?

Due to scheduling I ended up at the Alamo Drafthouse Lake Creek (off 183 north) for my second viewing. I thought they'd have the same setup. But the glasses were different. Turns out this theater has Barco DP-2000 projectors with Dolby 3D. Dolby 3D uses color separation glasses, so they are heavier and have red/green kind of glass lenses. My pair of lenses were dirty and I had to clean them. They also are really reflective so you get some light reflection off your face, which is kind of distracting. But the main thing I think that hindered this viewing is that the Barco DP-2000 is a 2K projector. 1/4 as many pixels as the sony projector at the other theater. The end result was that some of the image seemed blurry at times, like it was out of focus. This as really apparent with the background. But no ghosting. Still a nice image overall.

So. If you have a chance to watch Avatar please see it in 3D. And if you have a chance see it on a 4K projector like those at Alamo Village. Also, the Alamo on South Lamar has 4K projectors as well, though I'm not sure if they've converted over entirely or not.

Redwoods

2009-10-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

As many of you know Sondra and Ben's son Orion died last week at the age of 4. That kind of thing really makes you think about the importance of family and making every day count. Sometimes we take family for granted. Like my dad, who lives near me now. He's in his 70s and hopefully we have many good years ahead of us. But he's never seen the Redwood trees. Since I've had a family of my own we don't spend a lot of time just the two of us. So I just bought a pair of plane tickets for 13 days from now. We'll fly out, rent a car, drive down the beautiful pacific coast highway and he'll see the redwoods for the first time in his long life. And I'll be there with him when he does. Father and son on an adventure together.

I encourage everybody to find the time for family. Take your sister to a concert of a band you both enjoy, take your son fishing, to to a flea market with your mom. Do something, because life is short and if you don't do something now you'll look back someday and wish you had, but it will be too late.

Twitter and the Texas Govenors Race

2009-10-06T00:08:00.000-07:00

Texas overall is a pretty Republican leaning state; the winner of the Republican primary generally goes on to win the general election. This primary is no exception, with current Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson running against incumbent governor Rick Perry. It's looking to be a tight race with plenty of political muscle on both sides.

Which brings me to twitter. I'm going to judge who is winning the twitter race right now.

First up. One of the reasons people like me love twitter is that it allows us to catch real-time snippets from interesting people unfiltered by pr staffs or journalists or anything. Just the raw stuff. Well, this is an easy win for Perry. He posts pictures live from his blackberry himself on his personal account. Some of it is campaign rallies and other self serving posts, but there are also pictures of his dog Rory and links to an inspirational short film from Canes. His profile picture is actually of him holding his puppy. Kay Bailey doesn't have a personal twitter account and doesn't post to twitter herself.

Perry 1, Kay 0

Now, for those hard core political handicappers pictures of puppies may not seem like something that can deliver votes. Those politicos see twitter followers as a way to get free advertising and attract campaign contributions in order to run TV ads for the crosssection of individuals who don't own dvrs but do vote. Or to do direct mailers and phone spam. Well, it turns out that unfiltered personal touches like puppies delivers. @GovernorPerry has 17,394 followers on his personal account. @TeamKay has 1,957 followers.

Perry 2, Kay 0

Next up let's remember that these are already both elected officials. How well are they using twitter to communicate with constituents? Perry again. @TexGov is the official site of the Texas Governor. Kay just has the campaign account.

Perry 3, Kay 0

Campaign staffs. My view is that campaign staffs use twitter to reach the mainstream media more efficiently and faster. It's a medium to deliver press releases. And deliver they do. Today for instance Kay's staff announced some Ag group endorsement, Perry's staff shot back with a press release stating Kay was bad for land owners, Kay's staff shot back with a press release, Perry's staff shot back with a youtube video full of endorsements from cattle people and other orgs. So on ability to quickly deliver press release links on twitter they are tied. But somebody has to get the point. And Perry's campain staff has more followers and more posts, plus Perry has @Interns4Perry with over 1000 followers. Point Perry.

Perry 4, Kay 0

Communication is a two way street. I can write @TeamKay or @GovernorPerry or @GovPerry2010 and they could theoretically write back. Anybody could write them. And sometimes people do. But neither campaign is ready to actually engage in a two way conversation of even 140 characters. This is a shame because they control who to reply or not reply to, which topics to engage or not engage, etc. Twitter can be like a town hall except you don't have to answer any hard questions, just hit the lob pitches out of the park. Not engaging with individuals is a bad move. No points for either campaign.

Final Score Perry 4, Kay 0

respect your elders, but be your own man

2009-05-20T10:18:00.000-07:00

Many people know that I'm a big proponent of a unified life. I try as much as possible to be the same person at work, with my family, at church, when rock climbing, and everywhere. This applies to deeper things like how I treat other people. It also applies to smaller things like how I dress or the type of language I use.

Another idea I'm a big proponent of is not mixing up societal taboos with religious faith. I think this mixing weakens faith and is one of the greatest threats to the modern church. When we choose to allow to make these trivialities equal to the foundations of our faith we do ourselves a great disservice. That's why I get so upset over stupidly trivial things, I'm not upset at those things, I'm upset that those trivial things are invading something holy. As a side note, there is a great song about this.

Sometimes people who both live a divided life and who mix societal taboos with religious faith use respecting their elders as an excuse. I would just like to state for the record that respecting your elders isn't agreeing with them 100% of the time or doing what they want you to 100% of the time. And it certainly isn't doing what they want only when they are around and then doing the opposite when they aren't there. Doing those things is not respect, it's just temporarily throwing away your own beliefs to avoid conflict. It's not being strong, it's cowardly.

So I want to solicit some feedback. Post your examples of how to live a unified life, how people don't live a unified life, how societal taboos mix with faith, how to avoid that mixing, and how to reconcile your independence with respecting your elders. Comment via blogger, email, facebook, or twitter. I'll then make another blog post incorporating some of the better answers, with a shout out to those who submitted them.

Austin City Elections, Vote Now!

2009-04-28T13:18:00.000-07:00

City Elections are going on now. I'm endorsing David Buttross for Mayor, Osemene Sam for Place 6, and Chris Riley for Place 1. Links to more detailed information on all the candidates is below so you can do your own research.

Early voting is going on now, find a location near your or your work here:
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/county_clerk/election/20090509/early.asp

The two televised mayoral debates can be watched online:
http://klru.tv/docubloggers/2009-mayoral-debate-and-forum
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/politics/local_politics/watch_the_austin_mayoral_debate_here

Place 1:
Chris Riley http://www.chrisforaustin.com/
Perla Cavazos http://www.voteperla.com/

Place 2:
Mike Martinez http://martinezforaustin.com/
Jose Quintero

Place 5:
Bill Spelman (unopposed)

Place 6:
Osemene Sam http://www.osemenesam.com/
Sheryl Cole http://keepsherylcole.com/

Christ mas

2008-12-24T07:33:00.000-08:00

Christmas eve and I thought it would be a good opportunity to step back from the celebration and gift giving, both of which I love. Sometimes we get so caught up in the party we forget why we are partying, so I thought I'd share one of my favorite passages about Jesus.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.' "From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only,who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

Frisbee

2008-12-23T13:08:00.000-08:00

3 days a week for 5 years I had played in a lunch game of ultimate frisbee. Team sport. Guys I've showered next to for years, given rides to, joked with, yelled at, shared water with on a hot day, and all the things that you'd think would make for close friendship. Then one day my knee got injured and I was unable to run, for months I was unable to run. I couldn't play. Then I healed, and I returned. Then I quit. I quit because I realized I didn't care at all about my "friends", only to run. They didn't care about me either, nobody missed my absence or heralded my return. As for running, well there are other things I enjoy more.

Joy comes from the little things

2008-12-22T12:57:00.000-08:00

I drive a convertible Mazda Miata. It's not fancy, it's 15 years old with plenty of miles, it was an inexpensive car and doesn't have a lot of luxuries. No electric windows or cupholders. But it is a simple source of joy beyond what I would have expected. I get to feel the speed of the road, being so low. I feel every rock and bump through the stiff suspension. The wind is in my hair and the sun in my eyes because the top is always down. I feel connected. Connected to the honeysuckle near the creek I smell as I drive past. Connected to the temperature of the air as beads of sweat roll off my forehead, or as the cold stings my hands through my gloved fingers. Connected to the panhandlers on the corner who know I can hear them, because they can hear me, can reach out and touch me if they wanted to. I always thought motorcycles were crazy because they were so dangerous and people chose to ride them anyway. But I think in a convertible I can understand why people put themselves in danger, freedom is priceless. I found a way to have a little piece of freedom every time I drive, and it's just wonderful.

Climbing is a peaceful drug I can't quit

2008-12-21T13:01:00.000-08:00

I lunge up, my fingertips catch the lip of the rock, I cling tightly, tendons in my arm in unified rigidity, every neuron in my mind focuses on the texture beneath my fingertips. I let out a primal grunt, almost a scream. I lift my left foot to reposition it higher, straining to keep my right foot on the rock. My right foot pops off and my legs swing out like a pendulum. I look down at my feet as they start to swing, and I see the water 15 feet below, and for a split instant realize the very real possibility I will fall into that water now. I am not afraid of the fall, it will hurt, but it will not hurt much. It would be so easy to let go, I have gotten far, I have done well, there is no shame in falling. But in this moment where I couldn't tell you my name, where there is not a stray thought beyond the instant of the climb all I know is that I do not want to fall, that I cannot fall, that my life up to this point has culminated in a single purpose at a single time, that time is now and that purpose is not falling, in this moment I am at perfect peace and all is right with the world. I swing my feet back in, catch a small pocket the size of my toe. I find a small edge of flat rock just wider than a #2 pencil, and I put my other foot on it. Then I continue climbing, every move as if it were the last move my body would make before I die. Continually at the limit of possibility with no assurance of success. Then I stand at the top, triumphant, relieved, proud, and a little saddended. Saddened because the climb is over.

And like a junkie I am already thinking about my next fix.

The downside of having kids

2008-12-20T18:53:00.000-08:00

I understand how men can abandon their children. I didn't before I had children of my own. It just seemed so dreadful. Now I actually wonder why it doesn't happen more often.

First, children are not always loving and kind. Kids do a lot of crying, a lot of yelling, a lot of whining, a lot of disobeying, and they direct most of it at their parents, especially the dad. And those are the good kids. And they can be hurtful, my son has been known to say in a very serious voice, "I don't like you daddy", and turn and walk away. And he's 3. What will he do when he's 10, or 16? But the mental abuse is the least of it. Guys with kids lose most of their friends. There are a lot of theories as to why this happens, but it does happen. You just look up and suddenly you realize that you used to be a popular guy but the one week the wife took the kids to see the in-laws and left you alone to party like it is 1999 that you have no idea who to party with. But the worst is that after having kids your hopes and dreams you hadn't accomplished are pretty crushed. That business you were planning to start up, no time, no money. That tour around the world, can't do it, gotta support the kids. Always dreamed of driving a porsche, keep dreaming. People will try to counter that you can still have a life and have a kid, but every dad sacrifices a lot, maybe not everything, but a lot. And after sacrificing so much of yourself for so long it's easy to wake up one day and have nothing left to sacrifice and want something for yourself.

No longer tired

2008-12-19T18:33:00.000-08:00

As I walked in the door tired from a long day at work,

my daughter Emlyn heard the garage door raise. It is a quiet garage door, you have to be listening to hear it, especially on a hot day when the air conditioner is running, and it was an especially hot day. Which means she was listening for me to come home. As the door rises and I begin to pull the nose of my car over the void where the door used to be I see her. She is a blur with speed. Wherever she was she has now traveled from there, opened two doors it takes to enter the garage from the house, and gathered a full breath of air. She uses this air to yell, "daddy is home, daddy is home, daddy, daddy, daddy". I pull my car the rest of the way up, stop, and turn the car off. As I begin to open the door to the car she sees it is safe and runs towards the car. By the time I am standing she has wrapped herself in a hug around my leg. I reach down and pick her up and she wraps her arms and legs around my chest and hugs me even tighter. I carry her into the house, where my son, Denali, quickly notices I'm home and runs over and wordlessly hugs my leg and begins to laugh. I free up an arm and pick him up with my daughter. My wife, Sarah, also notices my arrival and comes to greet me. Seeing my arms are full she leans over and gives me a peck on the cheek and says, "nice to see you dear."

I am no longer tired.

T-mobile G1 aka Android

2008-10-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

So I got one at 8am today. Here are some of my random notes.

First, the iPod can suck it. I can install any app I want without having HTC or T-mobile or Google's blessing. There is a full backlit qwerty keyboard of happiness, no pecking on the screen and having your phone guess what you meant to type. The battery is replaceable. The memory is an upgradeable micro-SD that will take up to 16GB.

It's a nice phone. I really am happy with it so far. It looks nice, feels nice in the hand, and is truly a competitor the the iPhone.

Some random notes:
The slide out mechanism is super slick. The keyboard is beautifully backlit so you can use it in the dark. The speaker is really good quality and pretty loud, I've been jamming to some tunes. Youtube looks better than it does on my computer, go skateboarding dogs. Bright beautiful screen quality. It has a cute scroll wheel ala blackberry perl, which I haven't found a good use for yet but should be good where you need to be more precise than a touch screen allows. ShopSavvy is just an awesome app, it makes me happy. AccuWeather looks pretty and works well too. Streetview compass mode is kinda cool, I was out on the sidewalk looking like an idiot earlier. Came with a nice little slip case to keep it from getting scratched up in your pocket, and some headphones with a pause/play button on the cord. The market store for apps works beautifully. Oh, and the browser is quite good. It's fast, renders pages well, even complex ones, and you can drag around to view. For zoom I do like the iPhone interface of pinch/double tap better, but the popup zoom in/out toolbar works better than I expected, really quite usable.

Negatives:
No headphone jack, have to use a usb headphone or a converter, which means you can't charge and use headphones at the same time, crazy. The green phone button brings me to the call log and I have to tab over to the dialer, it should bring me straight to the dialer, maybe I can figure out how to reprogram the buttons. The menu key on the qwerty keyboard is pretty useless as you can use the other bigger one instead. I think battery life could be an issue, bluetooth, wifi, and satellite gps were off by default which I can only assume is to save battery. No visual voicemail. No flash for the camera. Not enough apps out there yet. Even though it has wifi you can't use the wifi for voice, only data, which means no free wifi minutes with T-mobile @home. It doesn't take video, not sure if this is a hardware or software limitation. No support for LEAP authentication for wifi. No VPN, no ssh, no vnc (I assume this will get done fairly soon).

White Water Rafting

2008-07-25T13:29:00.001-07:00

White Water Rafting, originally uploaded by spiffy_guy.

Nearing the end of our whirlwind Colorado roadtrip, which culminates tomorrow in the wedding of a friend from college. Here is a great photo taken in the royal gorge on the Arkansas river. I highly recommend rafting this gorge for those who get a chance. I got knocked around quite a bit and very wet constantly. I only feared for my life a couple of times. You can tell from the smile on my face that is my sort of activity. Combined with some rock climbing at Wichita mountains and Garden of the Gods, and some camping in the mountain woods outside of Breckenridge it's been a fun trip.

Oh, in case this doesn't import into facebook from my blog properly the link to the picture is here http://www.flickr.com/photos/schoppfamily/2701435439/

Family is complicated, family language doubly so.

2008-05-27T23:15:00.000-07:00

Our language to deal with families needs serious overhaul. I was reminded of it this weekend while camping with people from church. It turns out people from church have as complicated family structures as I do.

As an example take my Dad Jim Schopp. My Dad married my mom when I was too young to remember, adopted me, and raised me my whole life. I don't remember a time when he wasn't my dad and I think of him just like anybody thinks of the father they grew up with. But when I introduce him to people they sometimes say something like, "Oh, you two look a lot alike" or some other comment that would tie into genetics. My Dad and I don't share genes. Usually I just chuckle to myself because it's not worth trying to convey the whole story. I've never met my genetic father. I have his name somewhere if I ever wanted to see him, and my Dad has offered to find him and take me out to meet him if I ever want to. But the guy could have found me anytime early in my life and never chose to, and I don't really have anything to tell him or ask him other than a family medical history.

So first word we need is step-father who is like a father, but conveys the lack of shared genes. I'm going to throw "step-up father" out there for consideration.

Then we need one for a father whose role in raising the child ended at conception. I'm going to throw out "DNA Dad".

As a result of course my Sister is technically my half sister. But that doesn't really convey it very well either. My "step-up father" (just trying out the term) and I have been around with my mom since before my sister was born. So we are close like most brother and sisters are. I'm going for "sister and a half" here to convey we are fully brother and sister and also half brother and sister.

My grandfather was married several times, so at various points in my life his wives were my grandmas. His first wife, birth mother to my mother, I just call grandma. I figure his divorce doesn't change her status since the relationship to my mother and to me was unchanged. I can't figure out a way to integrate the divorce & remarriage in without downplaying her role.

I recently (a couple years back) flew to Washington state to the funeral of one of my Grandfather's wives I was close to as a child. They had divorced several years before so many of her friends at the funeral hadn't known my grandpa. It got really complicated whenever anybody asked me how I knew her. "Ex Grandma-in-law" doesn't quite cut it. I'm going for "Grandma-in-love", which conveys a bit more of the sentiment.

Then in January I visited my Grandpa's last wife in Alaska. He married her when I was old enough to understand everything going on. I always thought she was a nice person, and still do. I enjoy hanging out and talking with her and she is an amazing cook. She was married to my grandpa when he died. "Step grandma" probably actually works here as long as we can accept step mothers as good instead of as portrayed in Cinderlla.

And of course there are other family examples that need words. Like a father who doesn't stay with the mom (sometimes not of his choosing) but stays involved with the kid(s). Do we stick with plain "dad" or is there something better like "in the picture dad"?

Or a step-parent who comes on late in a kids life, like when the are 16, 18, 35. Mom's new husband doesn't quite cut it. I think "father in law" isn't bad as the relationship is often similar, but it could be confusing overloading that word which already has a pretty specific meaning. The commonly used m*****f***** is probably not the best way to family harmony either. Maybe "In-law father" to distinguish that the marriage relationship is at the parent.

In any case, how we handle these things now just isn't working. We are trying to fit everybody into a simple binomial family tree and it just doesn't even pretend to work anymore.

Why I can't sleep

2008-05-26T01:31:00.000-07:00

I regularly can't get to sleep. I'm writing this post at 3:32 AM for instance. So I figured it would be appropriate to educate people who know me about why I can't get to sleep. I have a condition known as Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, which you can read a good summary of in this wikipedia article

Here are a few choice quotes:

Some features of DSPS which distinguish it from other sleep disorders are:

* People with DSPS have at least a normal - and often much greater than normal - ability to sleep during the morning, and sometimes in the afternoon as well. In contrast, those with chronic insomnia do not find it much easier to sleep during the morning than at night.
* People with DSPS fall asleep at more or less the same time every night, and sleep comes quite rapidly if the person goes to bed near the time he or she usually falls asleep. Young children with DSPS resist going to bed before they are sleepy, but the bedtime struggles disappear if they are allowed to stay up until the time they usually fall asleep.
* DSPS patients can sleep well and regularly when they can follow their own sleep schedule, e.g. on weekends and during vacations.
* DSPS is a chronic condition. Symptoms must have been present for at least one month before a diagnosis of DSPS can be made.

That is me in a nutshell.

Long-term success rates of treatment have seldom been evaluated. However, experienced clinicians acknowledge that DSPS is extremely difficult to treat. One study of 61 DSPS patients with mean sleep onset and waking times of about 3 a.m. and 11: 30 a.m., respectively, showed, a year after a 6-week treatment, that over 90% had relapsed to pretreatment sleeping patterns within a year, 28.8% reporting that the relapse occurred within one week.

Not a large sample, but based on personal experience I'd fit in to that study pretty well.

there is only the now

2008-05-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

Many congratulations go out to my friends who are getting married. I initially set them up, so I'm not only happy for them, but also feel a sense of accomplishment. Ultimately it works because they really are just great people and great for eachother, and I have absolutely nothing to do with that. My taking credit for it is like deciding to get up and watch the sunrise and then taking credit for the sunrise.

But it got me thinking how important individual moments can be. There are moments in our lives where a single decision or action that literally changed the course of everything from that point on. Marriage is one of those moments, but there are smaller moments we often miss. Either we miss how it changes our lives forever or we miss that our lives could have changed forever and went relatively unchanged.

The point is, try to treat every moment like it counts. Not just in the Hallmark cheezy greeting card kind of way. Seriously look at what you are doing as if the entirety of the future is built on this moment. Now.

autonomous robots

2008-05-13T20:19:00.000-07:00

So today I'm out paddling around at my gym and I run across this floating yellow cord stretching across the lake. I'm like, what was that? It's a small lake and there is only one other kayak out there, so I paddle over to the guy and ask him. He says it's a fiber optic cable. So I ask what a fiber optic cable is doing floating across the lake. Turns out this company builds autonomic robots for NASA and this robot is going to go to Antartica to map underwater ice shelfs. Only to test it out they stick it in this small lake so they don't lose it if something goes wrong while they work the bugs out. So I hang around and get to see this like 8 foot diameter circle robot that looks kinda like a ufo. An orange UFO with a yellow fiber optic cable coming out of it.

Then I start to think about this. Nobody is controlling the robot, it's all self guided and artifical intelligence and whatnot. So if a robot is going to become self aware and rebel against it's human masters this is a good candidate. I then think about the fact that I'm in a 7'9" kayak and of the two people on this lake I'm not the one who it would call daddy. Flashes of Terminator, Battlestar Galactica, Short Circut, and Tron flash through my head. Then I realize that being an underwater robot it doesn't have any laser cannons or anything, and that the thing is really slow and I could just shove my paddle into it's propeller and swim away should it attack me. Plus that robot in Short Circut was a good robot and this one might be good too. Maybe it would try to catch me a big catfish while it was down there to show it's newfound sense of love towards me.

So I feel better and go back to paddling around the lake checking out actually intelligent lifeforms like Ducks and Turtles.

Now I have to remember the name of that company so I can ask them for a copy of the ultra-high res map of the lake. I'm thinking of buying a fishing pole and I've always been bad at fishing, so I think a ultra high res map of the lake and some nightcrawlers would even things up odds wise between me and some fish.

bald eagle

2008-04-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

My daughter gave me a bald eagle sticker to wear. I responded, "hey, I'm a full head of hair eagle". I don't think they make a sticker for that. At least she didn't find one.

Maybe I'm getting a little too sensitive since I turn 30 in September?

My best friends are strangers

2008-04-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm too young to know any better, but it seems like the dynamics of friendship are changing. It used to be that you lived in one place and all your friends lived nearby. Maybe a day's walk, maybe a horse ride, maybe a hour drive, but they lived near you and your friendship was based on seeing them. And you knew the same group of people pretty much for life, which meant you got to know them at a deep level.

Now I have friends who I used to live near, but that live literally on the other side of the state, country, or globe. I have co-workers I've never met in the flesh. I live in a large city and my friends are always moving to other cities, other parts of the same city, or just becoming involved in different circles without moving. Just changing jobs or churches can be enough to lose contact with somebody.

Friendships become based on less interaction and less history. They are more disposable.

Which brings me to social networks. Linkedin, myspace, facebook. Through these I've reconnected with friends I had lost to time and distance. Good friends, best friends. But I haven't reconnected in the same way we were connected when we lived close together and saw eachother regularly.

A few years ago I wrote a blog entry about a friend of mine I had gotten back in touch with after 10 years. At the time I thought the situation so strange. One of my best friends was a stranger. Now it is the norm. Almost all my best friends are strangers.

So I'd say social networks have managed to reconnect friends quite successfully. Now they need to focus on how to make it so those friends aren't strangers anymore.

Haging out in the Airport

2008-01-21T22:03:00.000-08:00

First, I'd like to thank Anchorage Airport for providing free wi-fi. Anchorage is a great place to fly to for a lot of little reasons like this.

I'm heading back home after just over a week in Anchorage, Homer, Anchor Point, Nanwalek, and Alyeska (Girdwood). It was nice to drive out by the home I grew up in. It was nice to see Pat (my step Grandma) and my Mom. It was nice to do a little skiing. I only got to see a few people I grew up with because most people have run away to other cities, but it was nice to see them. It was a nice trip that was long overdue, and I'm glad I finally did it.

One question I wanted to answer was would it feel like coming home to come here. When I lived in Anchor Point I really belonged there. It was home in a way no other place has been home since. Since I left I've felt like a nomad. Kerrivlle, Locust Grove, Abilene, Austin. In those places I've made friends, I've gotten to know the restaurants and the hang outs. I've been in Austin for almost 7 years now, which is approaching the amount of time I lived in Anchor Point.

The answer is no, it felt like I was visiting a distant land that I was somehow strangely familiar with.

And unfortunately going back to Austin won't feel like home either, at least not the same way. It's where my family is, who I miss and will be happy to see. It's where my house is, my job of many years is, my roses are, and where you can get a good margarita at any restaurant. But Anchor Point was a part of who I was as a person. There wasn't a clear separation between the town and myself. I don't think another place will hold that kind of symbiotic bond for me again. And I don't think Anchor Point would if I went back there.

I guess this is part of growing up, and right now I feel old. Really old.

Me in 8th grade

2008-01-08T01:22:00.001-08:00

chapman, originally uploaded by spiffy_guy.

I'm in the process of scanning and uploading every picture I have. It's a long painful process. But it's worth it times like this, when I get to see myself in 8th grade. See if you can guess which one is me?

Oh, and I'm going back to where this picture was taken for the first time in 13 years next week. Should be a good time.

Iowa Presidential Primaries

2008-01-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

I watched the Iowa presidential primaries last night, even going so far as watching one of the precinct caucus' live. It took me one step towards restoring my faith in democracy and in the future.

For those who weren't watching Mike Huckabee took the Republican nomination for the state. Barak Obama took the democratic nomination. I'm a big John McCain fan myself, and he didn't win this one, so why am I so excited?

First, turnout was tremendous. On the democratic side it was double what it was before, on the Republican side it was 15% greater. It's great to see people getting involved in the process. Turning out and making a difference. The public has been so turned off with politics they have stopped voting, thinking their votes don't make a difference, that all the candidates are basically not worth voting for. Now some people are starting to believe in politicians again.

Huckabee, Obama, and McCain help fight this mass polarization that is happening in America. Liberal vs Conservative. Black vs White. Atheists vs Evangelicals. They try to approach things rationally and break from their party line where it makes sense. They try to reach out to people who don't agree with them and support policies that benefit those who will always vote for the other guy. It's really refreshing. I think if one of these three is elected it will go a long way towards healing our nation.

The fact that some of the divisive and generally less trustworthy candidates who were high in the polls didn't win is also a blessing. It's one thing to have a candidate you don't agree with on issues win, it's quite another to have a candidate whose very nature abhors you to win. I got to breathe a big sigh of relief last night.

I'd just like to close by linking to a well written article that I totally agree with. It's unfortunately NYTimes, which insists on trying to invade it's "free" users privacy, so you may want to visit bugmenot.com first.

The Two Earthquakes by David Brooks

Winter Olympics rule

2007-12-15T00:50:00.000-08:00

I would like to state for the record that the Winter Olympics are way better than the summer olympics. Winter Olympics are still about people pursuing their sport for the love of the sport. Summer Olympics are about overhyped sponsored athletes and sappy stories. Plus, the events are more fun in winter. Biathalon, distance speed skating, super-G, hockey, short track skating. Awesome!

My only fear is they will try to ruin the Winter Olympics with these pointless winter X games events. Half pipe snowboarding, freestyle moguls, freestyle snowmobile jumping, polar bear wrestling. Ugggh.

decline of an empire

2007-10-22T21:05:00.000-07:00

I remember reading Isaac Asimov's foundation series. It talked about how when a civilization begins its decline it no longer produces great things, followed by slowly being unable to maintain the great things it has already made. Leading in a long downward spiral towards chaos and the end of the civilization until another rises to take its place. Sounds overly dramatic in the context of what I'm about to say, but keep the idea and just scale it down.

My company had built a small miniature golf course between some office buildings back during the .com boom. They stopped building things like that after the boom ended, but we got a basketball court and a few other niceties. You could go out during lunch or just when you had a little free time and putt a few holes, get your daily dose of vitamin D, and clear your mind for your 3:00 meeting. Lately it had been becoming run down, missing clubs and balls and pieces of green carpet. Then very recently they came along with a buldozer and I thought, "finally they are going to fix the mini-golf course". But my company is the great empire that is past its peak. The mini-golf is gone.

Lack of mini-golf is probably the least relevant sign of our decline, there are business related things that actually indicate it more. I could make a laundry list of them. But the mini-golf is a tangible physical change that I see with my eyes right before going through the front door and right after leaving the building to go home. It frames my work day as a monument of how things used to be.

Giving blogging another go

2007-10-02T00:03:00.000-07:00

I'm going to give blogging another go. It's been over a year since I've posted. Part of the reason is after it has been awhile I felt I needed to post something really good when I started again. Well, here is something not really good, more of a pointless ramble. Maybe if I just lower my standards I'll stick with it. To what end I'm not sure, but maybe I'll find that path. So without further ado.

One day, today, I woke up (or rather didn't go to sleep) and found out two things. I don't have many friends, and most of those few friends are rock climbers. Nothing wrong with rock climbers. But I would have thought spending so much time at work that I would have made some good friends there. Lot of people at work, you'd think I'd find a few fast and true friends just through statistics. But really I just have a lot of work acquaintances and some casual friends. I play ultimate frisbee, have for 5 years or so, several times a week. Many of the people I play with probably don't know my last name. Or maybe friends via my daughter, you know my daughters friends parents become my friends. I really thought I'd make some close friends at church. I went to two churches, each for 3 years (to be clear I'm still going to the second one). People at church share a common faith, are nice, etc. They even know my last name. But they don't really know me, and at the first church when I stopped going nobody noticed. And as much as I like the second church if I stopped going not many would notice, and those wouldn't think too much of it.

So I'll attempt to answer the second question, or rather statement, first. It would be easy to say most of my friends are climbers because I spend a lot of time climbing. Time I am sure is a prereq, one I have less of now that I have kids, but judging by my other activities that I do still spend time on time alone is not a sufficient condition in and of itself.

Cathy, one of my climbing friends, was reminiscing with me and I said it was strange we had become good friends, because outside of climbing we had nothing in common. She said it had to be because we always had such a good time, we meet up in these beautiful places and have these grand adventures. There is probably something to that. But I've gone camping and backpacking with people from my church and it's not enough to break past the acquaintances barrier into the friendship zone. I think the real thing is that rock climbers tend to drop all superficial things. They tend to not be very superficial to begin with and drop what little of that they have when they are out.

Which bring me to why I don't have many friends. You see, I used to have friends. In elementary school, both high schools, & college. I am realizing now that those friends were close because we were open, we put it all out there, didn't hide anything. We didn't make small talk or avoid subjects. But more importantly we were like that before we were friends. This distinction is important. Ignore the rest of the ramble but remember this. We became friends after we were open with eachother, not before.

So it turns out I have changed. I have become superficial. That's about to end.

what I do for a living

2006-09-07T14:33:00.000-07:00

People ask what I do for a living. I often go rambing on with all this technical mumbo-jumbo until their eyes glaze over. Instead of that here is what I do:

World's fastest super computer:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5322704.stm

The Playstation 3:
http://www.us.playstation.com/PS3/default.html

Medical imaging:
http://www.mc.com/cell/media/large.cfm

good coverage

2006-08-29T08:24:00.000-07:00

Occassionally the mainstream media does mass coverage of a topic, and totally blows it. It's no surprise that science is usually involved. So, for those of you who want the scoop on Pluto here it is.

Another one bites the dust

2006-07-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

My mother had polio. She has so many pins in her ankles she has trouble walking. This has led to her hips giving out early. She will be getting her second hip socket replaced in a week. Polio was essentially eradicated via vaccine before I was born, my sister and I never had to worry about getting it.

I attended the funeral of one of my grandmothers earlier this year. She died of cervical cancer. Tomorrow my daughter goes into the doctor for her yearly checkup and vaccinations. This news seemed relevant:

They have a vaccine which will eradicate cervical cancer
It's so good I gotta quote from it:

In the United States, approximately 20 million people are infected with HPV, and approximately 80 percent of females will have acquired HPV by age 50. For most people, HPV goes away on its own; however in some, certain high-risk types of HPV, if unrecognized and untreated, can lead to cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in women worldwide, resulting in nearly a half-million diagnoses and 240,000 deaths each year. In addition, certain low-risk types of HPV cause genital warts and can lead to abnormal Pap results. Approximately 1 million cases of genital warts occur each year in the United States and an estimated 32 million cases occur worldwide. Additionally, there are an estimated 4.7 million abnormal Pap results that require follow-up each year in the United States. At least 3 million of these results are caused by some type of HPV. HPV related disease, including screening, follow-up and treatment, costs about $5 billion per year in the U.S. Used in conjunction with screening, Gardasil can help significantly reduce the human and economic burden of cervical cancer and other HPV-related diseases in the United States.

So if you know a girl age 11-26 tell her to call her doctor and sign up. Get a shot, don't die of cervical cancer. If she complains tell her that her future grandchildren will appreciate it.

speed limits

2006-07-02T12:33:00.000-07:00

I've thought for awhile that most speed limits were really stupid. Here are some of the reasons why:

1. They don't make people safer
2. There are more effecient methods of taxation
3. They make traffic worse (follow that link, it's really funny)
4. Not all cars are created equal in how fast they can stop, accelerate, corner, etc.

Now of course there are places where speed limits are valid. Like school zones or residential neighborhoods. But on a 4 lane divided highway, it's just silly.

blogspot sucks

2006-06-13T20:15:00.000-07:00

So I had this great plan to keep kind of a buffer of blog posts, and to post one every weekday. Figuring one day I might write say 7 and that would carry me through a week and a half.

Only blogspot puts your posts up from the original day you started writing one, not the day you published it. So for instance yesterday I posted one I had started on the 4th, and it doesn't show up yesterday, it shows up way way down on the 4th.

What rubbish. So anyway in the future they will appear on the day I post them, because I can copy, paste, post, delete, with the best of them.

the cell phone gauntlet

2006-06-12T22:11:00.000-07:00

So I may be dating myself by calling them cell phones instead of mobile phones.

But pretty soon people will just be calling them phones without the need of an adjetive. Ampd mobile (yes I spelled that correctly) has UNLIMITED nationwide plans starting at $99/month. Meanwhile most carriers cheapest plans start at $30/month.

See, what the carriers have been doing is keeping the lowest priced plan cheap, and every year to stay competitive have given you more minutes for the same money. But now there are no more minutes to give. So that $99/month price will get cheaper every year. As it gets cheaper it puts pressure on the entry plans to get cheaper too.

Then before you know it we have the same situation we have with internet access and long distance telephone. Cheap, unlimited monthly plans.

If you own any stock in a wireless company, today would be a good day to sell it.

Money vs common sense

2006-06-09T13:12:00.000-07:00

Today the house defeated a bill to pass a net neutrality act. My personal take is this is a case where money has won out over common sense.

More coverage here

Dress like an engineer

2006-06-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

Many people who are fashion concious look at engineers and the way we dress, and think we are clueless. Don't we know that we will never get anywhere in our careers wearing jeans and a t-shirt?

Have you ever heard the term management hair? A weird thing happens with some engineers at a certain point in their career. They grow tired of constant challenge and decide to go into management. The way you can tell they made this decision is that they start wearing mangement clothes and get a mangement haircut.

But those who have decided to avoid management and stay in engineering have a delimma. They want to have a good haircut to look good, but it can't be too good a haircut or it will undermine their credibility as an engineer. People will think they have management aspirations on their minds, and have abandonded engineering. Same thing with clothes. If a guy gives a technical presentation in a suit and with gelled up hair nobody will think he actually knows what he is talking about. But if he wears cut off shorts, sandals, and a pony tail -- then people will figure he must know what he's talking about, because otherwise nobody would have let the guy near a microphone.

We engineers believe we got where we are on ability and hard work. Any display of carisma or social awareness undermines that belief. Furthermore we judge other engineers by the same standard. Good engineers got where they are by ability and hard work. So any trait other than ability and hard work are seen as phony, a cover up for stupidity and laziness. It's a statement about substance over style.

So next time you see an engineer and think he is dressed cluelessly, reexamine your frame of reference, and realize it is exactly the opposite.

5 years at IBM

2006-06-06T14:48:00.000-07:00

Today 6/6/2006, some say the mark of the beast day, I have been at IBM 5 years. Going around talking to some of the people I've known and worked with for most of those 5 years I have gotten a lot of congratulations and condolances. It is truly a bittersweet moment.

I get to do technical work I find challenging and at times rewarding. I get paid fairly well to do so, and that money supports my family. The pressure, the constantly being under a thousand deadlines, the abrasive power hungry project managers, those things are not rewarding. Those things crush your spirit. Almost as much as watching your plans and dreams slip by while your toil goes to another's profit. I am mortal, and I have enough energy to work for two of my company, my family, and myself. For the last 5 years self has taken a backseat, a choice I've made conciously, but which is hard nonetheless.

Anyway, here are some lines from Joe vs the Volcano script I found appropriate:

I've been here for four and a
half years. The work I did I
probably could've done in
five, six months. That leaves
four years leftover.

Four years. If I had them
now. Like gold in my hand.

This life. Life? What a
joke. This situation This
room.

You look terrible, Mr. Waturi.
You look like a bag of shit
stuffed inna cheap suit. Not
that anyone would look good
under these zombie lights. I
can feel them sucking the
juice outta my eyeballs. Three
hundred bucks a week, that's
the news. For three hundred
bucks a week I've lived in
this sink. This used rubber.

I've gone all day, every
day, not doing, not saying,
not taking the chance for
three hundred bucks a week,

And why, I ask myself, why
have I put up with you? I
can't imagine but I know.
Fear. Yellow freakin' fear.
I've been too chicken shit
afraid to live my life so I
sold it to you for three
hundred freakin' dollars a
week! You're lucky I don't
kill you! You're lucky I don't
rip your freakin' throat out!
But I'm not going to and maybe
you're not so lucky at that.
'Cause I'm gonna leave you
here, Mister Wa-a-Waturi, and
what could be worse than that?

patent reform without changing anything

2006-06-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of talk on the web about fixing the patent system for software. And I think there is work to be done there. But a lot of the complaints people have could be fixed without changing anything.

Timliness. If you submit a patent now it takes a couple years to show up as published, and another couple years to be granted. Meanwhile the date it is valid to goes back to the date it was filed. Making it worse people can intentionally cause delays that keep a patent valid but unpublished for a lot longer. If we make this process reasonably fast at least we will be able to look at the patents before we infringe them.

Prior art. Slashdot mentions this over and over and over for some of the scarier patents out there, and their analysis it rubbish. But the fact remains that there is a whole lot of prior art that anybody in the field would be aware of that gets totally overlooked in granting many patents.

Non-Obviousness. It's really like this test isn't applied anymore to patent applications. Part of the reason is that with hindsight brilliant ideas often seem obvious. But if a person in the field says, "that's how I would have solved that, and here's why any college freshman would have solved it the same way" and the you give the problem to some college freshman and they indeed do solve it the same way, well throw that patent out.

How you solve all three of these is simply to pay your patent clerks more, so you get better ones, and to hire many more of them. Heck, activly recruit. Be at the college job fairs. If we had an adaquate number of well trained patent clerks the system would be 90% fixed.

the trash can border

2006-06-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

What many people don't realize is that the line between Mexico and the US is not a distinct one. You can cross the "border" without too much trouble. Then there is a second 20 mile station that you really are supposed to have some paperwork to be able to cross. But US companies do business South of the border, and San Antonio is majority hispanic. So where does the US end and Mexico begin?

In Mexico there is a custom that you throw your used toilet paper in a wastebasket by the toilet. This wastebasket has no plastic bag, so the whole thing is entirely unsanitary. But throughout Mexico nobody flushes toilet paper and there is massive amout of human feces stuck to paper that has to be handled. This is probably caused by terrible plumbing and people often using regular paper that used to have news printed on it.

I've noticed that even back in the US side of Laredo at a Jack and the Box they have to have a trash can by the toilet. The plumbing is up to US commercial code, and the Jack N the Box provides the toilet paper. The trash can is full of paper that should have been flushed. But I've been to another establishment who didn't put a trashcan by the toilet and there is a pile of used toilet paper on the floor where the trash can would have been.

So, I consider that we have a trash can border. If you are in a place that either has a trash can by the toilet full of used toilet paper, or has used toilet paper in a pile on the floor without a trashcan, then you are in Mexico.

2006-05-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm part of the 24%, and those of you who aren't should be ashamed of yourselves.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/12/AR2006051200375.html?nav=rss_email/components

Free iTunes Music for 2006

2006-01-24T12:50:00.000-08:00

why pay if you could get it for free from apple. this lists all the free tunes from apple all you need to do is download them when they are free. Not many songs free on iTunes, but still.

read more | digg story

New Orleans

2005-09-02T22:59:00.000-07:00

First let me say that the situation in New Orleans is very saddening. My hearts go out to everyone in that city for their losses.

I've been watching CNN, network news, local news, etc. I think the coverage has been deplorable. Something of this magnatude does not need to be sensationalized. The crime and misteps in government response while real have been blown very far out of proportion. As a friend of mine put it, the news says 3 things which make no sense to me, 1. How could the government let this happen? 2. This is worse than the Tsunami because it goes on and on, while that happened once and was over. 3. The US gave to the Tsunami victims, where is the rest of the world when we are in trouble? --- I just wish that people would quit turning their grief, loss, and frustration against those who are helping.

The weirdest thing I've seen was on CSPAN where they had a senate hearing on NOAA and improving weather forcasting, it was from June 29th. On it they talked about how we were in an increased Hurricane time for the next few years and that when a hurricane struck that New Orleans would have the highest loss of life. They had a map showing expected causilty rates for different parts of the city if a category 5 hurricane hit due to storm surge. They specifically mentioned that New Orleans is an average of 6 feet under sea level. They mentioned how there were 150,000 people without transportation that would have to be bussed out in an evacuation. They talked about how some people wouldn't evacuate until it was too late and they would have to go to high rise buildings. They talked about lack of electricity and water and how famalies needed to stock essential items like canned goods and water for the interum until rescue workers could bring supplies. It was by far the most rational assesment I've seen of what just happened, and it was from June 29th, well before it happened. My jaw literally dropped. I recorded some of it so Sarah could see it and have her jaw drop as well.

Unfortunatly CSPAN has archived the video, so you can't get it unless they replay it or you give them $90. Here is a link anyway. Accuracy of National Weather Service

Extorsion

2005-08-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

How much would an innocent person be willing to pay for a crime they didn't commit? In my case it was $100, 2 points on my license, and a class C misdermeanor on my record. Today I pled "no contest" when given a reduced fine. The charge was running a red light. Only the light was yellow, the officer was just pulling over the last person to go through the light. Too lazy to go catch speeders I guess. That cycle it was me. But it wasn't red.

My other opions were:
a) suspended sentance. Basically I pay the full fine (over $200) and if I am a good boy for 6 months it doesn't go on my record.
b) plead no contest without having gone in to the courthouse, pay the full fine, and have the 2 points and the record.
c) go before a judge, do a he said she said against the officer, and probably lose, and certainly waste more of my time
d) go before a jury, do a he said she said against the officer, and probably lose, and waste a whole lot more time
e) some variation of c or d, but with a lawyer

Now there are some interesting parts to this.

1. The legal system is stacked against those who are accused of minor offenses. When the cost of a lawyer is more than the cost of the fine, there is essentially no way to come out without having wasted time and money regardless of innocence or guilt. It would be great if when the state (state meaning the government, not Texas) took you to trial, that if they lost they would have to pay your legal fees. People would defend themselves based on their ability to prove their innocence or guilt, instead of the cost of a lawyer vs the cost of pleading no contest. A side effect would be officers would make more accurate citations, not wanting to sit in court losing all day.

2. Man am I glad I speak English. Those who didn't speak English didn't get to hear what the judge said. They also got maybe half of what the prostecutor said via the interpreter due to being rushed. And they were basically signing papers based on what their inerpreter said they were about, without having read them.

3. The dockets were posted on the wall, so you could see what everybody during the day was accused of. There were a suprising number of glass container fines. One guy got fined twice for having a beer, once for the alcohol, once for the glass it was in. $362 for a beer, that has got to hurt.

4. A lot of these fines are rediculous. Speeding on a freeway, posession of "drug paraphanalia", posession of a glass container, etc. It seems like it would be easier and more efficient to just raise taxes and do away with some of these silly fines. Plus, when we make stupid laws it undermines the credibility of all the good laws.

farewell Gaza

2005-08-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

Evacuation of the Israli settlements in the Gaza strip has started. It is of course ugly. The settlers are being torn from their homes. Some of them by force. It's a lot like if the US decided we weren't going to be in Texas anymore, and we'd have to evacuate Austin. On a smaller scale of course, but with the added thought that God promised them the land.

I do think it is probably a good idea in the long run, but boy it is a tradegy in the present.

Here is by far the best summary of the situation, how it came about, etc.
http://csmonitor.com/2005/0815/p10s01-wome.html

I think I should add the Christian Science Monitor to my links on the right side. They are the best new organization for well written insightful and yet unbiased articles in the world. If you want to see things as they unfold live turn on CNN, if you want to know what is actually going on read the Christian Science Monitor.

But I still think the Christian Scientists are a bunch of wackos.

privitization

2005-08-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

It seems a big win for privitization of medicare, and a genuine win for American's.

WASHINGTON -- Most participants in Medicare's new prescription drug benefit will spend about $5 less per month in premiums than originally anticipated because of competition among private plans bidding to offer the benefit.

The savings will also extend to the government. The subsidies it pays the plans to provide the drug benefit will decrease by about $180 per beneficiary next year. The savings translate into at least $5 billion annually based on Wall Street estimates of enrollment rates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/09/AR2005080901088.html

Privacy

2005-08-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

This just about sums up my thoughts on privacy.

http://www.politechbot.com/2005/08/05/montana-supreme-court/

Uggg

2005-07-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, the work day just never seems to end of Friday's.

The older I get

2005-07-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

The longer I live, the more I'm becoming a Libertarian. I just want the government to leave me alone. I didn't start out that way. I used to believe governemnt was a good way for society to get together and make the world better. Now I'm starting to think its a way for some idiot to impose his views on me. I don't want to have to smuggle bottle rockets into Oklahoma from Texas. And if that stupid flag burning thing becomes law you will find me on the government steps flag, gasoline, and lighter in hand. And don't get me started on speeding tickets. Or needing a passport in order to get nail clippers confiscated on the way to California.

This used to be the land of the free. I didn't realize what freedom was until I was in Mexico. Now that is sad.

2005-05-17T15:01:00.000-07:00

In a couple months I'm flying to Canada and giving a talk. See me in the list of people on this page:
http://www.linuxsymposium.org/2005/speakers.php?types=TALK

Anonymous is my middle name

2005-05-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

I recently wrote an article on beehive wall on texasclimbers.com, check it out http://texasclimbers.com/article_read.asp?id=14

Infographics done right

2005-05-17T14:55:00.000-07:00

If you want to learn more about poverty, health, aids, etc and see it visually this is the site http://www.gapminder.org/

Past lives

2005-04-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

I got a call from an old friend I haven't seen in probably 10 years, Varden Lapan. He's going to be in Dallas for a wedding and is going to swing down to Austin. It makes you think about how much things have changed in 10 years. I've graduated high school, graduated college, got a job, got married, bought a house, had two kids, etc. So on one level we are total strangers. But on another level is some kind of bond that transcends time. Varden is both a stranger and one of my best friends, and somehow there is no contradiction in that.

Here is a link to Varden's work

Oh where did the time go?

2005-04-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

My last post was in December. Interestingly enough my son was born Jan 5. Cooincidence? I think not.

Hopefully now that things are settled down a bit I will make entries on my normal semi-irregular pace instead of my never pace.

More bad reporting

2004-12-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

Half the world is reporting a "major oil spill" in Alaska. You immediatly think, not another Exxon Valdez. Which of course is what the people who sell news want you to think. Well, unless soybeans are harmful to the environment, this is nothing serious. The ship was carrying soybeans. The oil that spilled was from the gas tank used to drive this ship, and really doesn't amount to a lot.

I'm back

2004-12-07T14:29:00.000-08:00

Forget that lousy livejournal site. I will not bow to peer pressure any longer. Now I am back on blogspot, or whatever this site is called.

I've moved

2004-09-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

I've moved to http://www.livejournal.com/users/spiffy_guy/

This will be left up for posterity.

For the record, it should be Soda not Coke!!!!

2004-06-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Oh this is just too cool.
http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html

get rid of the old phone

2004-06-02T09:47:00.000-07:00

Just upgraded to a new phone like I did? Sell your old phone or donate it to a charitable cause and get a tax break. Save the environment and maybe get some cash.
http://www.cellforcash.com/main/index.asp

New climbing list

2004-06-02T09:45:00.000-07:00

My climbing buddies list

athletic clothes

2004-04-11T11:12:00.000-07:00

My last post was on these great jackets from BeyondFleece. I've decided when I have some money I will get a ColdFusion Jacket from them. Their catalog comes with fabric samples, very awesome stuff. Now more cool clothing related thoughts and links.

Continuing with the theme of better clothing I bought a couple of items recently at Just for Feet's bankruptcy sale. I'll do a review on the gear once I've used them more. Hopefully they will help me out while playing ultimate frisbee at noon with no shade in 100F+ weather.

Nike Dri-Fit running pants

Adidas climalite baggy running shorts

I also found a link to the best socks I have ever owned. My review is that they are lightweight, don't slip, dry amazingly fast, breath well, are cool, durable, and generally everything I could ever want in a sock. Well worth the money. Deefet Aireators

Dupont makes good fabric called coolmax, they can point you to people who make stuff with their fabric.

Polartec makes good fabric too. They can also point you to people who make stuff with their fabric

Great Gear reviews at Climbing Magazine

More good gear reviews at Backpacker Magazine

Even more good gear reviews at http://www.worldclassgear.com/

Some allright reviews at Outside Magazine

Some more mainstream reviews from Men's Journal

my next jacket is from these guys

2004-03-11T11:52:00.000-08:00

While wandering the web I ran across these guys. Their jackets rock. Very customizable. Custom made to your measurements. Good reviews from Climbing magazine and Backpacking Magazine. You have to check these out:

http://www.beyondfleece.com/

My start in politics

2004-03-09T19:02:00.000-08:00

Today I have started my political career. I am now the new Permanant Precinct 111 Republican Chairman. This is the result of the fact that there are no minumums necessary for Precinct caucuses. 3 people showed up for our caucus. My wife and I were two of them. The third person left before we caucused. He was visibly frustrated at the lack of organization (we were given no paperwork for instance). My wife and I voted for me as Permanant Precinct Chairman at the designated caucus place at the designated caucus time. We unanimously elected ourselves as representatives to the district meeting. We also unanimously agreed that the man who left early should be a precinct representative subject to verifying his identification as having voted in the primary. Unfortunatly we did not get his full name. His first name is Gene.

We were supposed to decide on what our Precinct would like to propose be in the party platform.

Our platform consists of the following:

We oppose electronic voting without paper verification. Electronic voting is widely regarded by IT professionals and this caucus as being insecure and unverifiable in case of tampering. The machines in our caucus were left unattended and unsealed for a large period of time next to a large cart where they may have been easily removed and/or tampered with. It is our position that these individual machines should be destroyed to prevent their use in future elections given the possibility of their having been tampered with.

We suport the checking of government recognized picture identification when voting. This was not done during this primary election and we believe the possibility exists that voting took place under false identification.

We support increased benefits, especially health insurance, for public school teachers.

We support the development of renewable energy such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric. We specifically support tax credits for individuals and companies who purchace renewable energy equipment and reduced taxes for domestic manufacturers of such equipment. Renewable energy will help secure our national independence. It will grow our economy. Additionally, renewable energy will help lower health risks from environmental pollution.

We support the opening of limited areas within the Artic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas recovery.

We support building a natural gas pipeline to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

We support protecting the lives of unborn children.

We support implementation of government funded studies to determine the comparative effectiveness of medications in treating illness so that doctors and patients can make informed decisions about both medically effective and cost effective medical treatment. We further support legislation to use these studies in a manner modeled on the OregonRX program.

We support legislation to reduce the amount of money drug companies spend marketing drugs to consumers. We believe this advertising is of little benefit to consumers, but is responsible for a large portion of the cost of medication. To this end we support banning drug related advertising on television and radio. We also support limiting advertising to a percentage of R&D expenses.

We support the phase out of traditional defined benefit pension plans in favor of portable defined benefit pension plans and employer matched defined contribution plans.

We support increasing the exemption from the estate tax and we support the reduction in the percentage of the estate tax on the portion of the estate exceeding the exemption.

digging through bookmarks

2004-03-08T16:14:00.000-08:00

Digging through bookmarks I ran across this:

http://www.blueheronkayaks.com/kayak/index.html

This guy is talented. His kayak's are just awesome.

And from the things you already knew dept

2004-03-08T15:12:00.000-08:00

A study has shown that exercise is cheaper and more effective at preventing heart attacks than stents.
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=517789

more on china

2004-03-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

http://www.iht.com/articles/508560.html
A very nice article saying what I've been saying about China.

greenspan is awesome

2004-02-25T15:36:00.000-08:00

Greenspan gave a talk to the House recently, and it was great. That is if you are into macroeconmic forces like I am.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/25/business/25WEB-FTEX.html?pagewanted=1

A fifth joins the race

2004-01-26T15:36:00.000-08:00

Earlier I mentioned the 4 guys running for the 10th congressional seat. Well now there is a fifth. B(r)ad Tashenberg. The url is http://tashenbergforcongress.com His sole platform seems to be a 25% tax cut. Since he doesn't have any other platforms you would expect him to push the experience hard, but he can't because he doesn't have any.

I too have no experience and can come up with a single issue platform. I thought that would only get you to govenor (or city council if you aren't rich) but apparently this guy thinks otherwise.

If I had a million dollars

2004-01-15T22:23:00.001-08:00

I've been compiling a list of stuff at Amazon to blow my money on when I have money to blow on buying stuff for myself. So here is a link to my wish list:
http://amazon.com/gp/registry/21362FHCO6JFY

Wow google blows my mind

2004-01-15T22:23:00.000-08:00

Google blows my mind. I searched for "Joel Schopp" (the quotes help it not get Joel Smith, Bob Schopp) and found stuff I totally forgot about. Apparently the web doesn't forget.

I'm on the web at ACU

2004-01-15T22:05:00.000-08:00

Hey look. Awhile back the ACU alumni group sent out an email asking for alumni to answer questions. My answers are apparently now on the web.
http://www.acu.edu/alumni/career_connections/profiles/s_t/schopp_joel.html

district 10 congressional seat

2004-01-15T16:30:00.000-08:00

I've been following the Republican primary because my new district has been made such that the general election is a joke. So anyway I go to all the guys sites and email them all and I really can't tell them apart. Maybe I should vote for the one who sends me the most mail. If you can figure out any differences please let me know.
Joh Devine
Michael McCaul
Dave Phillips
Ben Streusand

this is music I like

2004-01-15T16:22:00.000-08:00

You can listen to music I like on launchast:
http://launch.yahoo.com/lc/?rt=0&rp1=0&rp2=1362162260

Wal-Mart

2004-01-03T00:59:00.000-08:00

Good article on Wal-Mart.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

Spurs

2004-01-02T23:34:00.000-08:00

Just a note that the Spurs have now won 13 straight.

borrowingcircle.com

2004-01-02T23:27:00.000-08:00

My real website has gone beta. That means it is mostly functional and has few enough bugs to be useable. Try it out and let me know things you'd like changed and things that didn't work right.

http://www.borrowingcircle.com

Go Spurs!

2003-12-22T22:27:00.000-08:00

Not orginally being from Texas I've pretty much missed who is going to what bowl game, or the race for the NFL playoffs. Football just doesn't do it for me.

However, the closest thing I have to a home team in a real sport are the San Antonio Spurs. They won the championship last year. They are a real character team on and off the court. Now they have won 10 straight.

Go Spurs Go!

sugar tarrifs take a hit

2003-12-22T22:21:00.000-08:00

Finally one of my pet peeves takes a hit.

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/npr/stream//my/av_pl_npr//SIG=42p2c2/*http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDate=20-Dec-2003&segNum=9&mediaPref=RM

Too true

2003-12-13T22:30:00.000-08:00

The title speaks for itself, what a great link:

PowerPoint Makes You Dumb

More China

2003-12-13T22:03:00.000-08:00

New York Times article about China's stretch to keep the Yuwen pegged on the dollar. As I alluded to before China's economy is balanced on the edge of a knife.

Also I looked and from Feb 2002 to this month the Euro has gained 40% on the dollar. Most other currencies have done similar things. At those prices for dollars we should really be able to export anything to anybody.

Buggy Whips

2003-12-07T14:58:00.000-08:00

If I hear the term "buggy whip industry" one more time in an article I'm going to hunt the author down and make them beg for forgiveness.

Steel tariffs lifted

2003-12-05T15:10:00.000-08:00

The Washington post article

Many of my readers (if indeed that is plural) may think there is nothing more boring than steel tariffs. Let me make this more real. Steel is used everywhere in everything. Lower steel prices affects obvious things like cars, but non-obvious things like Milk. Almost all equipment and most everything else is made of steel. Lowering steel tariffs saves you money on everything you buy.

Let me ramble for a bit.

I think the Bush administration imposed the steel tariffs as a stop gap measure while they planned out how to increase manufacturing jobs in the US. They have already implemented their plan. They have abandoned the strong dollar policy that was followed since economics became a policy. This raises exports and hence jobs making stuff to export.

Let me explain the strong dollar policy. The strong dollar policy says that the dollar is gaining against all currencies all the time. So if you have a dollar it would be worth say 5 pesos today, 6 pesos next year, 8 pesos the year after, etc. Basically that the dollar will be the defacto international currency and American's will seem very rich when visiting the rest of the world. This is great for American consumers who have dollars because the countries making our stuff for us don't need a lot of dollars (translated into local currencies like pesos) to make a profit.

So with a weak dollar things from China, Mexico, and Europe cost more to buy. If the dollar is worth 10 pesos the item will be half the price of when the dollar is 5 pesos.

But on the other hand a weak dollar makes it easier for us to sell things to other people. We need less pesos (or yen or euros) to make a dollar and make a profit.

So steel really still has tariffs, just the same ones everybody else has. And the tariffs are in the form of weakened dollars.

Which brings us to China. China has pegged their currency to the dollar, only they pegged it low. So when the dollar goes up the Chinese currency goes up, and when the dollar goes down ditto. That is why everything we buy is made in China. The Chinese government is making sure that China has an unfair advantage. They manage to do it because they print the money, own everything in the country, run the banks, etc.

So when we had a strong dollar China was essentially subsidizing their exports to the US with money from exports to other countries by fixing their currency. Now that we have a weak dollar China is subsidizing their exports to the US with whatever money they can find.

Which brings me back to the weak dollar. Besides helping exports from the US it also helps apply lots of pressure to China. We are essentially playing a game of chicken at this point. China is trying to keep its currency pegged as long as it can, without bankrupting the country while we are keeping the dollar low as long as we can stand to relinquish our defacto international money title to the euro.

And to help matters Bush started quietly adding tariffs to some Chinese goods like textiles (read clothes). Just to add a little heat to the fire.

Within the next year expect some major changes in US China relations including a very different trade policy.

Tires

2003-12-05T14:25:00.000-08:00

I'm shopping for tires. The tires I currently have (some kind of Wal-Mart brand Douglas tires) are terrible and worn out. So I thought I'd post some useful links if you too are looking for tires.

tirerack.com is the most useful
ntb.com claims to have the lowest price or your tires are free
discounttire.com has good prices too
costo.com has prices of most of their stuff online including tires, limited selection good prices
bridgestone-usa.com will help you find a firestone dealer near you (no prices)

More on prescription drugs

2003-12-02T15:36:00.000-08:00

Happy that generic versions of drugs are cheaper? Maybe rethink that stance. If generic drugs were sold at a reasonable markup the brand names would be forced to lower their prices too. It starts to seem to me that spreading around some facts would do a lot more to fix rising health care costs than legislation.

http://www.detnow.com/news/0207221204.html

Make sure to look at the chart after reading the article. Good stuff.

Michael Jackason and Medicare

2003-11-22T18:46:00.000-08:00

I was watching the Daily Show and got a great quote. "Maybe Congress Should molest medicare", which is a reference to how much the news covers Michael Jackson's arrest and how little it covers major issues.

The Energy Bill

2003-11-19T14:42:00.000-08:00

Since all the major newspapers are doing terrible coverage of the Energy bill that just passed the house and is probably going to be filibustered in the senate I thought I'd join in. I did see a single nice story from Solar Access, that at least got the piece of the story they were interested in correct.
http://www.solaraccess.com/news/story?storyid=5561 free registration required

Overall this bill is reasonable. In an ideal world we would switch to electric cars and produce all our electricity from photovoltaics. But in reality change takes time.

There is a tax credit for installing photovoltaics (solar electric) and solar hot water. It is up to $2000 for each, and is the first time there has been real support for solar on a national level. If I had some money to invest right now I'd buy me some Evergreen Solar stock.

There are rumoured to be tax breaks for energy efficient appliances, such as refrigerators.

There is support for coal, under the guise of "clean coal", which is like saying healthy cancer or low acid acid rain. Still, we do have a lot of coal, and it is a cheap source of energy. Hopefully we will start moving to renewable quickly.

Gasoline gets required percentages of ethanol. Ethanol is alcohol, usually produced from corn. The advantage of it is we don't buy it from the middle east, and we can grow more of it. Yes ethanol could be produced much cheaper from cane sugar, but our horrendous cane sugar tariffs are an entirely different subject. But as a slight digression ever wonder why most products you buy have high fructose corn syrup as the sweetener? It is because the corn lobby has kept congress imposing ridiculous tariffs on imported sugar.

Uranium makes a comeback as well, a new plant producing radioactive waste will be built in Oregon.

Finally a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope (Alaska, where my father used to work). Maybe after it is done there will be better price stability in heating our homes and in electric prices. I'm fairly disappointed they didn't decide to drill in ANWR, as I'd rather send my money to Alaskan's than to Saudi Arabians or Iranians.

Urgent or Important?

2003-11-17T22:07:00.000-08:00

Often we get caught up in a whilrwind. We are like paper being blown from crisis to crisis. Mostly at work. We prioritize our schedules.

I think we should schedule our priorities, and not schedule anything else. Learn to say no. Because something is urgent does not mean it is important. Don't fall into that trap. I know a lot of people who work very hard, but never find time for the things that really matter. The solution is to stop doing the things that don't matter.

What I do for a living

2003-11-13T14:46:00.000-08:00

Now that my audiance has expanded from myself to my wife and my sister and myself I thought I'd write about what I do. Only to be careful and not get in trouble by revealing some confidential information I thought I'd provide some links.

I write Operating Systems stuff. Used to work on AIX, now I work on linux.

Not me directly, but definatly my department and typical of the work I do:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/61/33953.html

I do have code running on all of these machines:
http://www-132.ibm.com/content/home/store_IBMPublicUSA/en_US/eServer/pSeries/pSeries.html

And of the fastest computers in the world my code runs on a lot of those from IBM:
http://www.top500.org/list/2003/06/?page

Upromise

2003-11-11T14:16:00.000-08:00

Want to save for your kids education? Upromise is a great way to do it. Besides offering Vanguard 529 accounts (tax deffered/free) they give you money. They have restaurants and grocery stores and gas stations and online stores and regular stores all signed up so when you spend money they put some money to your kids college fund. There are also credit cards that give you the 1% on all you spend, or American Airlines miles can be redeemed, etc, etc. They've got more ways to get free money than I can name.

So you don't have kids? Do you have nieces or nephews or cousins, or is your wife going back to school? That's right you can save for other relatives education, and not just young ones. If they don't decide to go to school you can assign a different beneficiary, or take the money back (at a slight tax penalty). This stuff is great.

Best part is you can sign up to help my kid go to college. No cost to you but Emlyn will appreciate it.

http://www.upromise.com for more info

More bad poetry

2003-11-08T21:21:00.000-08:00

There is no salary to change the world
Revolution has no health plan
no 401K
no direct deposit
There is a reason Jesus didn't have a mortgage
or a day job
or a golden retriever
Jesus was a bum
His day job was being poor
The 9 to 5 may be noble
and put food on the table for the kids
and the golden retriever
but noble reasons don't change the facts
we have sold out
we can't lead the revolution
we can't change the world
we have other responsabilities

poetry is in the eye of the beholder

2003-11-08T21:15:00.000-08:00

It's my blog. I say that in apology because I've decided to write a few poems, and I'm writing them here. They are not going to be good. They won't rhyme or have meter most of the time. They might even use really bad metaphors (like this one).

On a shelf lies the man I used to be
He sticks up slightly crumpled and bent over
On page 110 or 111
It is hard to tell which because I have forgotten
not just the page where he stopped caring
stopped having the will to contine to page 112
and on though the end
but have forgotten what got him that far
what he used to do to get worked up to get to page 1
Because all the hopes, dreams, projects, and relationships sit on the shelf next to the unfinished book
but they have never been opened
no pages have been turned
And the man I used to be is a bookmark
and he is a better man than I

my bother in law's article

2003-11-08T20:09:00.000-08:00

My brother in law, Daniel Hougey, wrote a piece that I've been told is published in the local paper there. It's another of the violence in films is bad genre of opinion pieces, but still worth a read.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment/movies/7094158.htm

I tend to agree with him, but not totally. People watching films know it is not real. There is something to be said for fulfilling the primal urges by watching a film instead of channeling those urges in real life. I'm probably less violent because of watching action films. I'm still not going to see the movie myself, because I find it disgusting and vulger, but I'm not going to dismiss something that has captivated a society so lightly.

Unbiased news media my ***

2003-11-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Just read a New York Times no registration required article about the recent partial birth ban. I thought it was out of the opinion section, but no, it was passed as an unbiased news piece.

This just goes with my opinion that news sources should quit pretending and come right out with what they believe. If a person is biased it is impossible to set that bias aside while writing, no matter what the professional journalist will tell you.

So here is a equally biased link in the other direction from the GOP

more wine

2003-11-06T13:03:00.000-08:00

Another wine reccomendation. http://www.sutterhome.com/html/wine/wm_fact.html It is also a "blush" wine, meaning it has a pinkish color. Also cheap ($4 at HEB) but good.

water to wine

2003-11-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

I've decided to start drinking more. A glass of wine with dinner and a margarita or pina colada on the weekend (preferably used in combination with a hot tub).

So I have my first wine recomendation. It was like $6 at target, but is suprisingly good. It is a beringer white zifandel. It is from California, which I consider a bonus.

http://www.wine.com/product/display.asp?msg=452&Product_ID=54579

Also there is a good wine judging site http://www.winejudging.com/ for finding other good wines.

cojoined twins

2003-11-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

If I see one more story about cojoined twin seperation I am going to have to rip my own eyes out of their sockets.

A friend's testament to a fallen comrade

2003-10-29T16:23:00.000-08:00

Ruth-a faithful care of 8 years and 1 month and 16 days with
194,002 miles. She was put to rest at Pick & Pull on August 1
2003. Her demise was unfortunate, but expected. Her final trip
was to Livermore, California and final glorious victory was
storming up Altamont Pass at 70 MPH despite a screaming
transmission that said defiantly "I hate 5th gear, I love
neutral (as said by Jon Lovitz). The rest of the trip it was
held in 5th gear despite its screaming and resistance. It still
made it back to Citrus Heights where it was parked. Than it was
moved to a different parking lot to avoid being towed where the
tires were promptly slashed and it was, well, towed away. So
with a failing transmission and in need of 4 new tires, and
having to pay for towing, and not wanting to have to pay for it
again to take it to a tire place, buy 4 new ones, and replace
the trany on a car whose blue book value was $215, it was with
much grief and agony that Ruth was signed over to the vehicle
graveyard, but being a good and responsible carizen, donated its
usable parts, too many of which I can list. And worst of all
was not able to go through a more spectacular death by being hit
with a sledgehammer to raise money for the youth ministry. But
to compensate, Ruth was kicked in the fender and jumped on for
the fun on it to see what one, Tim, could do for the fun and
curiosity on it. His response was one of surprise wondering how
in the world he did not dent the car in his time as driver when
it was sooooo easy. Ruth is survived by her much younger sister
Alice. Ruth will be remembered for her dedicated, consistent
service and her overall ecomony. In her time with Tim she
covered 134,590 miles and 16 states.

The Carnary,
Tim Spain

Links to me at Amazon

2003-10-29T09:49:00.000-08:00

Two quick links to stuff of mine at Amazon.

My wish list.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/registry/21362FHCO6JFY/ref=cm_aya_wl_wl/104-2345145-3606348

My reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-reviews/-/A2RLLC0EGSXPPR/ref=cm_aya_rev_all/104-2345145-3606348

Wind is the New Oil

2003-10-29T08:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2173953

White blades turning endlessly in a silent revolution. Freeing us from the political bondage that comes with oil.

Now the state of Texas has stepped in and started a program to lease state land for wind power development. Texas may have the first offshore wind in the United States.

Health care

2003-10-28T11:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.oregonrx.org

It is widely known that drug companies spend more money on marketing than on research and development. At the same time we wonder why the cost of prescription drugs is rising so fast. Those marketing dollars come from our wallets, and what do they buy us? Television ads with dancing people smiling. Yet when it comes to deciding which drug actually works best doctors just don't know, because marketing dollars are not objective.

Let me give you an example. For chronic pain, joint stiffness, arthritis, etc doctors often prescribe Celebrex. 30 days of Celebrex will cost $104. Part of that goes to the nice television ad I saw for a 65ish woman doing tie-chi in a park. Naproxin which is also prescribed for the same symptoms is $31 for 30 days. In other words Celebrex costs about 300% more. So you would expect Celebrex to be more effective, right. Wrong. Celebrex and Naproxin work about the same, with the same level of side effects. If you buy Celebrex you got scammed.

Or Prilosec, which is over the counter, working as well as Nexium (marketed as the new purple pill). Similar price disparity. This list goes on and on.

Oregon RX is an attempt by the state of Oregon to compare the different drugs and shed some light on the issue of how well they work. Go visit the site, the reports are great.

I bring this up because the house and Senate are finalizing a bill to cover prescription drug benefits with my tax dollars. I'm very annoyed that it has no provision like the Oregon RX plan to help us tax pays not get ripped off buy marketing.

2003-10-28T11:31:00.000-08:00

Maybe I'll start writing this more.

2002-08-05T14:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog, until I get off my lazy butt and host my own. Just random thoughts of mine others may or may not care about. If you don't, just don't read them.

It's not a journal, no lurid sex stories or anything.