Best Buy Acquires Speakeasy

Dear Speakeasy Partners,

Today is an historic and exciting day for Speakeasy.

I am pleased to announce that Speakeasy has been acquired by Best Buy, an innovative and growing Fortune 100 company and top consumer electronics retailer in North America. This is a significant milestone for our company as our new relationship will help us realize our goals of becoming the No. 1 provider of voice and data solutions to small businesses. It is important to note that though Speakeasy will now be a wholly owned subsidiary of Best Buy, we will continue to operate as a standalone, independent operating division with headquarters in Seattle.

If this turns out like the Geek Squad qcquisition, you can write off Speakeasy. Speakeasy has always been known for their technical competence. (Though the 6Mbps rut over the last 6 years has been worrisome - there's been no technology that could be deployed for higher speeds in that period?) On the other hand, I do wonder what the support of a larger organization might do for fighting the Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers.

socat on OS X 10.4.9

As it turns out, you can get socat 1.6.0.0 working in OS X 10.4.x.

I used this:

./configure --disable-ext2 --disable-tun --disable-libwrap --disable-readline

Do add -lresolv to the LIBS line in the resultant Makefile. Otherwise you will get a _res_9_init linking error.

I ran make like this (the -lresolv gets around a _append_history linking error):

CFLAGS="-L${prefix}/lib -lreadline -lresolv" make

That seemed to work, at least on the powerpc side. I've had no reason to try it on the intel side yet.

Thanks to what's left of darwinports for getting me started.

And FYI, the proper way to do port forwarding of http from an internal server to an external server with socat is this:

socat -d -d -lmlocal2 \
TCP4-LISTEN:80,bind=internalip,su=nobody,fork,range=10.0.0.0/8,reuseaddr \
TCP4:externalip:80

Drop that in a startup script, and you don't have to mess with natd or ipfw, especially useful when you don't want your configurations overwritten by OS X Server's GUI management tools.

Coldstone Creamery Not so Straight from the Farm

I have as of recently been enamored of Coldstone Creamery's Sweet Cream Ice cream.

I looked up the ingredient list today on their web site.

Freshly made from all natural ingredients without corn syrup it is not:

SWEET CREAM

ICE CREAM CREAM, NONFAT MILK, MILK, SUGAR, CORN SYRUP, GUAR GUM, CELLULOSE GUM, CARRAGEENAN, MONO & DIGLYCERIDES, POLYSORBATE 80, AND ANNATTO EXTRACT

Why Posner is a great judge, and why he will never be nominated for SCOTUS

"And a country that consumes but does not produce intellectual property may be better off refusing to enforce intellectual-property rights.And finally a poor country may not be able to afford the kind of legal infrastructure required to enforce complex property rights. This can create a chicken and egg problem, if the absence of such rights keeps a nation so poor that it cannot afford the necessary machinery of enforcement."

Just poison I tell you.

;-)

The AMA, Militaries, & Torture

The American Medical Association Code of Ethics already bans the involvement of doctors in Capital Punishment.

The AMA Code of Ethics also has a chapter on the involvement of doctors in Torture.

Apparently, doctors are currently involved in the torture of captives of US forces.

Here's a question for the intarwebs:

Are there AMA sanctions for violations of the AMA Code of ethics for doctors working under the Aegis of the US military?

If so, would involving yourself in situation where somebody was tortured be sanctionable?



EDIT: As Cy points out, membership in professional organizations for doctors is optional.



This stems from one of Andrew Sullivan's posts here.

Couldn't Handle the Truth

From here.

Sacked US attorney inspired blockbuster

Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent

March 26, 2007


ONE of eight US government prosecutors sacked for alleged poor performance in the latest White House scandal was the inspiration for the Tom Cruise character in the hugely successful Hollywood film, A Few Good Men.[emphasis mine]
David Iglesias, the basis for the character in the film played by Cruise, led a court martial defence of one of three men who, under orders, roughed up a fellow marine who wanted to get out of Guantanamo Bay.
The case became the stuff of Hollywood legend after another attorney working on it gave the facts to her brother, Aaron Sorkin, who used them as the inspiration for his play and, later, a screenplay.

A Few Good Men gave actor Jack Nicholson what has become one of the most famous lines in 20th-century film history: "You can't handle the truth."

Mr Sorkin went on to create award-winning shows including White House drama The West Wing. Mr Iglesias's career path also traced a stellar course, until he was sacked in December as attorney-general of New Mexico.

As a result, the 49-year-old lifelong Republican has hit the headlines again in a case that has rocked the White House.

He, along with seven other leading prosecutors from across the US and appointed by the President, were told to go as part of an orchestrated plan on the part of the White House.

Mr Iglesias was installed as New Mexico's lead prosecutor in 2001 and alleges he is the victim of a political witch-hunt, a White House-led purge of prosecutors who either went too hard in pursuing corruption investigations against Republicans or were too soft on Democrats.

While the attorneys-general are appointed and serve at the request of the president, they "have a long history of being insulated from politics" once in office, Mr Iglesias said. "I will never forget John Ashcroft, then the (White House's) attorney-general, telling me during the summer of 2001 that politics should play no role during my tenure.

"I took that message to heart. Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political."

While irrefutable evidence of a political witch-hunt has yet to emerge - the Democrats in Congress are planning to use their subpoena power to compel sworn testimony of top White House officials - the shifting story from the Bush administration on why the firings took place has troubled both sides of politics.

The (Oval) Office

Bye Bye Gothamist.

I finally pulled the plug on reading Gothamist today.

One too many snide posts on billboard beaver shots in the last several weeks.

I'm not opposed to snide, but either go all out and declare your intentions of becoming an asshole, or call 1-888-STFU-LOL, as they say.

Gridskipper is still interesting though, and stays on my list.

Somebody Else Read Hatchet!

I remember the book from middle school.

Boy Scout found alive...

One of Michael's favorite books a few years ago was about a boy whose plane crashes in the wilderness, and how that boy survives on his own, his father said.

''I think he's got some of that book in his mind,'' Auberry said. ''In my fantasy, when they find him, he'll be making beef jerky somewhere or something like that. He's got a lot of resources to draw from.''

Once again folks, literacy gets you to all of the wrong places...

I still like Keillor

Say what you will about Prairie Home Companion, or Garrison Keillor's commentary on marriage after his own three marriages, his column about gay marriage (for which he was excoriated) seemed to be typically tongue in cheek.

He has issued an apology.

Thanks for clarifying, but some of us got it the first time.

A map of Human Genetic Function

This may be one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

(Discovered from this article.)

Clicking on Viral Protein to see the genetic material you have picked up from a virus... amazing.

Introducing...................the Apple iRack

Thanks Cy.

Darkon

A LARP Documentary. I want to see this.

747-400 vs hippy car

Basement Jaxx - Take Me Back To Your House

There are dancing bears.

Arcade Reality

Best Treo Game Ever.

Orwell on Euphemism

A mass of Latin words falls upon the facts like soft snow, blurring the outlines and covering up all the details.

I do not remember reading this essay before. It is brilliant.

Thanks to Guy...

MUJI is coming to NY!

This is fantastic news... I've been waiting for this ever since I read Pattern Recognition.

MUJI.

ESC 2007 | Switzerland | DJ Bobo - Vampires Are Alive

The creation of this video entails one of the worst combinations of music and money in the entire history of either.

Cavemen sitcom being worked on,

Supposedly an ABC pilot is in the works.  I hope this works out.

Yulia & Laura

Yulia & Laura
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

ComicCon Saturday.

Fillion as James Tiberius Kirk?

The Register suggests that Nathan Fillion (Serenity, Slither, Firefly, Angel, Drive) would be a better Kirk in the next Star Trek Movie (an original series prequel) than Matt Damon.

I for one could be easily convinced...

Besides, isn't there a rule that important Trek actors need to be born in the Commonwealth?

Fillion is from Edmonton.

Best Comic Ever

Some Music Should Not Be Used In Food Commercials

For instance, Wendy's commercial for the Mozzarella Lovers' Bacon Cheeseburger uses The Violent Femmes' song Blister in the Sun.

Some might think this is disturbing...

reliant robin

Why don't they show Top Gear in the states? A fantastic, fantastic clip...

Shades of Cake or Death?

Sweden's Penal Code lists the penalty for Murder 1 to be "ten years or life" imprisonment.

I bet they have a lower murder rate too.

And don't get me started about their gini coeff.

Robo Cat

Designing for Traffic

I went to the Museum of the City of New York's Robert Moses exhibit.

Robert Moses is arguably the single man respponsible for what NYC is today. He built several tunnels, bridges, Lincoln Center, and was a major backer of bringing the UN to NYC (beating out Philadelphia).

He also suggested several multilane freeways through Manhattan, across Canal, connecting the Holland Tunnel & the Brooklyn & Manhattan bridges, across Manhattan at 30th st, and even a non-freeway extension of 5th Avenue down through a newly former Washington Square Park, via Fifth Avenue South (neé West Broadway) and down to the new Canal St freeway.

Tony noted that the exhibit was completely crowded with people.

Perhaps if there had been an overhead expressway to alleviate congestion at a Moses Exhibit...

Haggard Now ``Completely Heterosexual''

So says the AP article.

Truly, it must be a miracle.

Err, or magic.

Ok. I'm done now.

Haggard Now ``Completely Heterosexual''

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 6, 2007

Filed at 9:59 a.m. ET

DENVER (AP) -- One of four ministers who oversaw three weeks of intensive counseling for the Rev. Ted Haggard said the disgraced minister emerged convinced that he is ''completely heterosexual.''

Deepa's Groundhog Day Cake

Deepa's Groundhog Day Cake
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

YUM.

Singingfish?

Has anybody heard of this site?

It seems like a decent place to find music, with download links too...

Mo Star Trek Mo Problems

The beneficence of a roommate on the occasion of the holidays has resulted today in my acquisition of an entire collector's set of every Star Trek movie DVD.

Do I face the the collection end forward with Shatner, or end forward with Stewart.

Vexing, vexing problems...

Which science fiction writer are you?

I am: Gregory Benford A master literary stylist who is also a working scientist.

Which science fiction writer are you?

Hello Soekris

After a week of successfully setting up an OpenBSD router connecting three subnets, I got sick of the complexity of configuring the Linux firewall I have at home.

So I have ordered a Soekris net4801. It is a device based upon an older processor design, but you really don't need much in the way of power to handle the bandwidth given to you by most American Internet Service Providers in NYC. (I'm looking at you, Time Warner Cable of NYC).

I'm hoping to drop OpenBSD 4.0 on it when it arrives, and transition the linux machine to the apartment backup server.

OpenBSD's pf may not be as easy to setup as a point and click firewall based off of a web GUI, but the configuration is A flat plain text file, which is pretty easy to read and modify, and backup for that matter.

Compare that to the four or five files used by shorewall or the many other Linux firewall programs. I did try to get an old port of OpenBSD's pf to linux working, to no avail. Somebody should really get that working.

Not me.

40th Anniversary of the first NASA deaths: Apollo 204

There are two good articles that have come out on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 1, nee Apollo 204 "mishap", in which Roger Chafee, Ed White and Gus Grissom died. The articles discuss the losses of the vehicles & crew of Apollo 1, Challenger in STS-51-L, & Columbia in STS-107.

Forty years later, pad tech recalls Apollo fire

NASA must fight the forgetting


Also:

The Columbia Timeline: STS-107

Google Reader

I added my reader feed to the side.

You might not care...

But it is the closest you're going to come to a lincoln blog from me these days.

Piston Power

Piston Power
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Il Hwa

Korean Ginseng



Found in Chinatown...

My favorite Pho place is closed

My favorite Pho place is closed
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

"for renovations" the other sign says...



--

Sent via mobile.

Problems with the iPhone

Tactile feedback on the LCD is NEEDED. Aside from the lack of
openness on the device (which keeps it from being a proper smartphone
- the whole you get to install your own applications on it), typing
on a screen is annoyingly slow. I'm not so sure you can really
create muscle memory properly there.

Nuff said?

This really shouldn't be too hard to implement these days.

Just have another layer immediately above the lcd, perhaps beneath a
sheet of plastic, that moves slightly when an electric signal is
applied, for instance piezoelectrically.

so you draw a raised ridge around each virtual key, and you pop the
center of the key up slightly when it is touched long enough to be
pressed.

Is that too much to ask for?

Linux Boots on the Treo 680

<5>Linux version 2.6.17-hnd0 (satadru@debian) (gcc version 4.1.1) #11
Mon Jan 8 16:31:26 EST 2007
<4>CPU: XScale-PXA270 [69054117] revision 7 (ARMv5TE)
<4>Machine: Palm Treo 680
<4>Memory policy: ECC disabled, Data cache writeback
<7>On node 0 totalpages: 16384
<7> DMA zone: 16384 pages, LIFO batch:3
<6>Run Mode clock: 208.00MHz (*16)
<6>Turbo Mode clock: 312.00MHz (*1.5, active)
<6>Memory clock: 208.00MHz (/2)
<6>System bus clock: 208.00MHz
<4>CPU0: D VIVT undefined 5 cache
<4>CPU0: I cache: 32768 bytes, associativity 32, 32 byte lines, 32 sets
<4>CPU0: D cache: 32768 bytes, associativity 32, 32 byte lines, 32 sets
<4>Built 1 zonelists
<5>Kernel command line: init=/linuxrc root=/dev/mmcblk0p2
<4>PID hash table entries: 512 (order: 9, 2048 bytes)
<4>Console: colour dummy device 80x30
<4>Dentry cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
<4>Inode-cache hash table entries: 4096 (order: 2, 16384 bytes)
<6>Memory: 64MB = 64MB total
<5>Memory: 61988KB available (2292K code, 493K data, 88K init)
<7>Calibrating delay loop... 311.29 BogoMIPS (lpj=1556480)
<4>Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
<6>CPU: Testing write buffer coherency: ok
<6>NET: Registered protocol family 16
<4>spurious IRQ for DMA channel 0
<4>spurious IRQ for DMA channel 1
<7>irda_init()
<6>NET: Registered protocol family 23
<6>NET: Registered protocol family 2
<4>IP route cache hash table entries: 512 (order: -1, 2048 bytes)
<4>TCP established hash table entries: 2048 (order: 1, 8192 bytes)
<4>TCP bind hash table entries: 1024 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
<6>TCP: Hash tables configured (established 2048 bind 1024)
<6>TCP reno registered
<4>NetWinder Floating Point Emulator V0.97 (double precision)
<6>Initializing Cryptographic API
<6>io scheduler noop registered
<6>io scheduler anticipatory registered (default)
<6>io scheduler deadline registered
<6>io scheduler cfq registered
<4>Corgi Backlight Driver Initialized.
<4>pxa2xx-fb pxa2xx-fb: machine LCCR3 setting contains illegal bits:
00300000
<4>Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 53x29
<4>SA1100/PXA2xx Watchdog Timer: timer margin 60 sec
<6>pxa2xx-uart.0: ttyS0 at MMIO 0x40100000 (irq = 22) is a FFUART
<6>pxa2xx-uart.1: ttyS1 at MMIO 0x40200000 (irq = 21) is a BTUART
<6>pxa2xx-uart.2: ttyS2 at MMIO 0x40700000 (irq = 20) is a STUART
<4>RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
<6>loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
<6>pxa27x_udc: version 21-Jul-2005
<5>USB cmd disconnect
<6>mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
<6>ts: Compaq touchscreen protocol output
<6>input: pxa27x-keyboard as /class/input/input0
<6>wm97xx: version 0.61 liam.girdwood@wolfsonmicro.com
<6>SA1100 Real Time Clock driver v1.03
<6>Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.11rc4 (Wed
Mar 22 10:27:24 2006 UTC).
<6>pxa2xx_ac97_reset: cold reset timeout (GSR=0x0)
<6>wm97xx: detected a wm9712 codec
<6>input: wm97xx touchscreen as /class/input/input1
<4>wm97xx: setting adc sample delay to 333 u Secs.
<6>ALSA device list:
<6> #0: pxa2xx-ac97 (Wolfson WM9711,WM9712)
<6>TCP bic registered
<6>NET: Registered protocol family 1
<6>NET: Registered protocol family 17
<6>NET: Registered protocol family 15
<6>IrCOMM protocol (Dag Brattli)
<4>drivers/rtc/hctosys.c: unable to open rtc device (rtc0)
<6>mmcblk0: mmc0:80ca SD01G 992000KiB
<6> mmcblk0: p1 p2 p3
<4>VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
<6>Freeing init memory: 88K

linux on the Treo 650

Thanks to BobofDoom on #shadowmite on efnet, I got top running on the
Treo 650.

Way way cool.

Allen Looking Out Over Harlem

Allen Looking Out Over Harlem
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

from the bow of the building.

FreshDirect!

FreshDirect just let me sign up with my address.

Hooray for getting food delivered to my place after ordering over the web!

Another One Bites The Dust

As of this week, I have finished watching all 12 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel.

And yes, it was all worth it.

He was pronounced dead at a hospital until transferred to a better hospital where doctors upgraded his condition to alive.

That was my Simposonian half hour at the dentist.

I went in expecting to get a cavity filled. I was told that my
dentist had left to start her own practice. The new dentist said she
was more conservative, looked at my teeth, pronounced that I didn't
have cavities after all, and sent me on my merry way with a minor
prescription.

And I saved $300.

Public Service Announcement

The occasion of a roommate heading to the airport to fly should be accompanied by one taking the opportunity to read this TSA.gov PSA to them in a hackneyed PA voice before they leave:

Over Head PA Announcement

Effective immediately by order of the Transportation Security Administration: If you plan to travel with liquids, gels or aerosols in your carry-on bag remember 3-1-1. All liquids, gels and aerosols must be in a 3 ounce or less sized containers. Containers must be placed in a 1 quart-size, clear, plastic, zip-top bag. Only one bag is permitted per traveler. It must be removed from your carry-on and placed in the security bin for x-ray screening. Remember 3-1-1 to speed your screening process.

The NPT is dead.

It is like OSU vs UofM, except nuclear, and with, um, religious connotations.

HAHA

So as it turns out, a calorie restricted diet increases your lifespan by 15%.

They have now discovered that lowering average body temperature by .5 degrees C does the same thing for mice, without any decrease in caloric consumption.

And guess what?

A calorie restricted diet also lowers your body temperature.

Now if only people were researching links between SIR2 & Temperature...

Defining Roles

Has anybody noticed that after watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Trip,
you tend to see Matt Albie in any role that Matthew Perry plays?

I was watching a Friends rerun last night, and I just didn't see
Chandler Bing any more.

I suppose this is a good thing, which will also make me bitter if the
swirling rumors of the cancellation of Studio 60 pan out.

More Vernors

More Vernors
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Courtesy of a Michigan trip of Laura's.



Mmmmmm.

Snuggly Wuggly Relatives and Yum

More on Jane Goodall...

The final part of her talk was devoted to developing this argument, laying out her reasons for not losing hope. She cited two examples of animals in China being saved from the brink of extinction: the Milu deer, which is about to be reintroduced into captivity after a rather extraordinary history where repeated attempts to breed up populations of the animal were thwarted by its being so very very tasty...

...

After studying chimpanzees for over ten years and coming to see them as peaceful and benevolent animals with a bit of a temper, Goodall witnessed a four-year chimpanzee war of extermination, and discovered a mother-daughter pair who liked to kill and eat babies.

2nd Ave Deli van spotted on St. Nicholas Ave & 126th St

2nd Ave Deli van spotted on St. Nicholas Ave & 126th St
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

The inquiring reader might wonder if in fact the 2nd Ave Deli is back.



Sadly, no. I asked the driver, who noted that "everyone asks me that". As it turns out, the van is used to deliver bagels for a related company, and no effort has been made to change the signage.



Que sera, sera.

Old Subway Maps

http://www.onnyturf.com/subway/ is a subway map/google map mashup that
newly lists subway station layouts.

You'll note in this map of the 125th St ABCD IND station the existence
of a southwest exit at the corner of 124th st & Hancock Pl.

subway stuff

This exit does not exist any longer.

You can however, make out the outlines of a previous staircase opening
in the ceiling of both the southern parts of the north and southbound
subway platforms.

That entrance would have been in a now dark block, and from the large
police presence on 125th st, I can see the security justifications of
removing that entrance.

One can wonder if the that block was blighted before the removal of
that entrance, and if that block would be considered further blighted
after the removal of the entrance.

subway odors

The person behind me smells like maple syrup.

--
Sent via mobile.

on orhan pamuk's nobel.

Some have intimated that with the clash of civilations talk with islam these days, and pamuk's antagonism of the turkish government with his talk of the armenian genocide, that pamuk has been positioning himself to be a nobel candidate these past two years.

Boo.

Booyah.

"Don't hate the player, hate the game."

My Name is Red is a fantastic book.
--
Sent via mobile.

One of my fans is dead

Thanks to the smc management program that got put on the web today, I
discovered that one of my fans on my mac book pro has died.

Not good.

Sigh. Time to send it in.

Mac-Book-Pro:/Volumes/smc/smc-0.01 satadru$ ./smc -f
Total fans in system: 2

Fan #0:
Actual speed : 5994
Minimum speed: 1000
Maximum speed: 6000
Safe speed : 1200
Target speed : 6000
Mode : auto

Fan #1:
Actual speed : 0
Minimum speed: 1000
Maximum speed: 6000
Safe speed : 1200
Target speed : 6000
Mode : auto

[From Google Reader] Enterprise sells for 1/2 million dollars

I knew I should have sold out during the dot com era...

damn damn damn...

This item was sent to you from Google Reader.

Enterprise sells for 1/2 million dollars

David Pescovitz: A 78-inch-long model of the Starship Enterprise-D,
featured in the title sequence of Star Trek: The Next Generation and
used in other episodes, sold for $576,000 today at Christie's "40
Years of Star Trek" auction. The estimate on it was $25,000 - $35,000.
From the Associated Press:

Other top sellers on Saturday's action included a replica of Capt.
James T. Kirk's command chair from the bridge of the Enterprise-A on
the original "Star Trek" series.

The painted wood chair was only a re-creation for a 1996 episode of
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" that mixed action from that newer series
with old footage, but it still sold for $62,400.
Link to AP article, Link to All Things Considered coverage

...

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/34244427/enterprise_sells_for.html

If you no longer wish to receive message like this, please contact the sender.

Try Google Reader today: http://www.google.com/reader/

BBQ in Prospect Park

BBQ in Prospect Park
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Becky invited us to a bbq in Prospect Park today. It rained, got sunny, and then got cloudy and cold. The bbq turned into a wood fire to keep us warm, and we huddled around it.

My Right Shoe Just Died

My Right Shoe Just Died
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Kenneth Cole, I hate you. Where should I get new ones?



--

Sent via mobile.

Fantastic Discussion on Mozilla & Debian Trademarks & Copyright

here

My favorite bit so far:

> Are the Debian logos and trademarks free?

No, the Debian logos are not free. This is considered a bug.

mmmm.

Everybody knows that kid is thinking "BACON".

Purportedly Via Cute Overload:

Mmmmm, snoutlicioussss: "

This is complete and total snout overload. How much is that pig LOL-ing? I bet that pig snorts when he laughs, too.

Holy bacon bits, Jennifer H.!

"

The Last Jenga Move

The Last Jenga Move
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

At Josh Karton's place.



Tony failed moments afterward...

new apple products

If apple introduces new apple products with wireless, I really hope they use 802.11a.

The b/g band is so overcrowded, it would be near impossible to get high bandwidth data through with any assurance of no dropouts.

And since only the intel macs support 802.11a, there's a clearly defined upgrade path for supported configurations.

Glasses are dumb.

So I was thinking about glasses this morning, technology that hasn't changed in several hundred years, and I thought... why hasn't somebody updated these?

Leaving contacts and eye surgery aside, lenses made of relatively high refractive index solids, ground to a static lens shape... Can't we do better?


A simple google of refractive indexes tells me that polycarbonate lenses top out at about 1.63 (ok, they go higher, but that's roughly what I'm seeing.)

In contrast non toxic high refractive liquids seem to top out at the same place...

So, why not put a highly refractive liquid sealed between two thin durable flexible discs, and then have a ring surrounding it apply pressure to adjust the lens shape, the ring could even have a clicky locky thing on it.

And presto, an adjustable eyeglass lens, and no more going to the eyeglass store to get a new prescription...

Ok, maybe frames.

WIndows Media DRM 10 & 11 Cracked

This took longer than expected, but once again, giving somebody a lock and a key, and then expecting them not to open the lock (that's essentially what DRM is), is pretty stupid.

Purportedly Via engadget.com:

FairUse4WM strips Windows Media DRM!: "

Filed under: Portable Audio

So far as the yet very quiet forums are claiming, a new app called FairUse4WM can be used to strip Windows Media DRM 10 and 11 (i.e. PlaysForSure, but not WM DRM 9). Yes, yes, we know, we've heard this song and dance before. But before we proceed, let's just be totally clear on how the system works, providers like Napster and Yahoo Music Unlimited provide subscription service for unlimited access to Windows Media DRMed files; stop paying the fee, stop getting access to the files -- but you already knew all this. We tried FairUse4WM and we can verify that it quickly and easily stripped the DRM from our Napster To Go tracks, and made them freely available to play on our Mac (which, of course, has Flip4Mac installed). In other words, it's a simple, apparently lossless, one-step method for making your files playable after you're no longer paying fees on your subscription service. Didn't work on our Vongo videos, but we can verify with all certainty that yes, Windows Media DRM can now be easily and quickly stripped from PlaysForSure media services. Now watch as Microsoft shuts down the forums and runs damage control in order to prevent an digital media entire platform from collapsing. Click on for a couple more pics of the app in action!

Some links to the app (no, we can't verify their validity, and yes, we take absolutely zero accountability for what you may do with it): here, here, and here.

[Thanks, Frank]




Now here's that same track we just downloaded from Napster playing on Quicktime (with Flip4Mac, which, of cousre, doesn't support WM DRM.)

Read | Permalink |>

"

NASA Ignores GAO, Plans CEV Announcement

If NASA weren't in the human space-flight business, how would they waste our money?

Purportedly Via NASA Watch:

NASA Ignores GAO, Plans CEV Announcement: "

NASA Announces Contractor for Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle

'NASA Exploration Systems' managers will host a press conference at 4 p.m. EDT Thursday, Aug. 31, to announce the prime contractor to design, develop, and build Orion, America's next human spacecraft.'

GAO Report: NASA: Long-Term Commitment to and Investment in Space Exploration Requires More Knowledge

'NASA's current acquisition strategy for the CEV places the project at risk of significant cost overruns, schedule delays, and performance shortfalls because it commits the government to a long-term product development effort before establishing a sound business case. NASA plans to award a contract for the design, development, production, and sustainment of the CEV in September 2006-before it has developed key elements of a sound business case, including well-defined requirements, a preliminary design, mature technology, and firm cost estimates.'

"

You’ll Have To Pry Pluto Out Of My Cold Dead Education

I'm with Warren on this.

We're going to have to take this outside. Now.

Purportedly Via Warrenellis.com:

You’ll Have To Pry Pluto Out Of My Cold Dead Education: "

I will fight anyone who tells me that Pluto is not a planet.

"

OSI Layer 8: "The hardest layer to debug"

Re:Still not buying the KillerNIC story.

(Score:5, Funny)

by Trogre (513942) on Wednesday August 23, @08:52PM (#15966779)

(http://slashdot.org/)

You forgot the top layer in the OSI stack:

8: Operator

So many network problems I've had to troubleshoot have been tracked to layer 8.

Unfortunately it's also the hardest layer to debug.

Bullshit

Pluto is no longer a planet?

Please...

Planet membership is like being a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

You add members, not take them out...

Anybody who says that Pluto takes "the magic out of the solar system" is a damned fool.

I for one look forward to having a summer cottage on the planet Ceres some day...

Best Episode Ever

I just saw the Buffy episode Once More, With Feeling.



Now officially my favorite hour of television ever.



Does Joss Whedon nail whatever he touches? Shows? Genres? Actors?



An all musical episode of Buffy... absolute genius.



"She needs backup, Anya, Tara..."

STOP U.S. IMPERIALISM - SUPPORT A CALIPHATE

That's what the idiot holding the banner in this London protest mentioned in the NYT is holding.

Solar System 2.0

Awesome.




If you haven't noticed, Charon has also been upgraded from a moon, as it is now the Pluto/Charon system.

Purportedly Via Warrenellis.com:

Solar System 2.0: "

"

BaBoom - Fill the Explosion

BaBoom - Fill the Explosion
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Your Engrish for the day...

Economists talk about sex. (always fun)

Purportedly Via Marginal Revolution:

Should prostitution be cartelized?

...snip...

Second, prostitution as an occupation, might be subject to crowding costs.' In that case a tax or quantity restriction can improve matters, just as a toll on a busy road might decrease congestion by pushing people toward less crowded routes (average vs. marginal values).

...snip...

As for zoning, had I mentioned that in Amsterdam one can find a kindergarten right between two open-window whorehouses?' I was told by one woman that this is 'not a problem.'' She was, however, a former prostitute and perhaps not a credible source; she may have been concerned with the Pigouvian definition of externalities (the externality runs one way only) at the expense of the Coasean definition (consider the effects on all relevant parties).

In Amsterdam (I am told), twenty minutes in the red light district costs 30 to 50 Euros.' I wonder how close that is to an optimal degree of cartelization?

Addendum: How is this for a bizarre sentence?

"

"Dying is unpleasant."

I was reading an excellent piece on death in relation to the British Hospice system, and I remembered this line from Dr. House:

"You can live with dignity, we can't die with it."

That's the basic gist of the piece. I think it is worth a read.

John Bolton: Innocent Lebanese Deaths Matter Less than Innocent Israeli Deaths

Is it bad that I'm becoming a Bolton supporter? Isn't this statement by Bolton just common sense?

Purportedly Via TPMCafe - main:

John Bolton: Innocent Lebanese Deaths Matter Less than Innocent Israeli Deaths: "

An Israeli air strike has killed 54 civilians -- including 37 children. This after the strike against a UN observation facility where UN staff were killed -- and also after hundreds and hundreds of other innocent Lebanese have been killed in the exchanges between Hezbollah and Israeli military forces.

Tension is heating up -- finally -- between American negotiators and Israeli, but this is long overdue.

But back to John Bolton, who was part of a UN Security Council statement today expressing 'extreme shock and distress' over the killings.

At his Thursday Senate confirmation hearings, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee majority staff passed out Ambassador Bolton's 'official statement'. In that opening statement, there appeared a controversial and provocative sentence that asserted that Israelis and Lebanese who become innocent casualties in this war are not morally equivalent. His argument is that Israeli innoncents are more important than Lebanese innocent casualties because the Israelis were attacked by Hezbollah.

It was a shocking sentence, and the moment I saw it, I blogged about it directly from the Senate Hearing Room.

The sentence read:

But it is a mistake to ascribe a moral equivalence to civilians who die as the direct resulte of malicious terrorist acts, the very purpose of which are to kill civilians, and the tragic and unfortunate consequence of civilian deaths as a result of military action taken in self-defense.

Now, some have misunderstood what happened next. My surprise did not come when John Bolton read a script that was different than the one in hand. What happened was that just as John Bolton was beginning to read his statement, a new statement was distributed -- with only this line of text removed.

That is important as it highlights something that the Department of State was not ready to clear -- and shows something about John Bolton's views and personality that State was not ready to sign off on.

After this huge tragedy today -- 37 innocent children -- in a crude aerial assault, does John Bolton stand by the statement he wanted to give?

Someone in the press ask him.

-- Steve Clemons

"

Art Buchwald is still around (barely?)

An awesome article about one of the great satirical writers of the twentieth century.

My dad got me a copy of Whose Rose Garden is it Anyway many many years back, and I never looked back.

PalmOS is dead! Long live, umm, umm...

Palm is giving up on Access developing the Linux based PalmOS that is supposed be be a successor to PalmOS 5. Instead, they are doing it themselves.

The Treo700p is at version 5.4.9... which has an end of the line version number feel (If you remember that Other 4.9 piece of software... Windows ME). If Palm does release a linux based OS in early 2007, that might be a viable alternative, but carrying legacy PalmOS overhead might be a royal pain. But I don't see a GSM PalmOS based Treo in sight, and my phone is showing its age.

And thus, I'm hedging my bets by researching alternatives for that inevitable day.

I've been looking at the Nokia E61 as an alternative to the Treo. It isn't available in the US, except at the Nokia store in Chicago, but it does support quad band GSM & UMTS for data. The price, at $400 is competitive with other unlocked phones I've seen. Let's look at the highlights I care about:

• 
  An excellent web browser: The E61 does run Symbian 9.1, which now supports Nokia's KHTML based browser, kin of Apple's Safari, and which from all reports is the hands down best browser available for small devices at the moment. If you have ever used the browser in a Treo, let alone less capable devices, you know how much the inferior browser hampers the capabilities of the device. A workable browser, sitting on the tail of functional desktop browsers, is a notable improvement.
  
  
• Mac Synchronization Support:
  There exists an OS X iSync plugin for the device, so that's good. A phone without synchronization is no go for me at this point. I'm done entering data into a phone. That's what full size keyboards are for.
  
  
• Unfortunately, the Nokia E61 seems to have a very significant bug in accessing mail on an IMAP server. This crosses a red line for me... IMAP mail is essential for any product, and if the product doesn't handle mail reasonably well compared to Chatteremail on my Treo 650, I can't upgrade.
  

Now of course if Apple introduces an iPhone in August... all bets are off.

I am going to assume that any apple phone will be tied to Apple's ecosystem, which I can stomach, since I do happen to be heavily invested in the Apple environment, but imagine a non Apple GSM phone with an excellent browser, and Gdata over the air synchronization, supporting open standards, at least a 320x320 screen (or more) and plenty of on phone storage... maybe in two more years.

The Squeal

The Mac Book Pro started squealing today.

Time to send it back for a replacement... sigh.

Kosher?

Kosher?
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Why can't this administration stop pissing me off.

NASA’s Goals Delete Mention of Home Planet

The Apocalypse is Here

The Apocalypse is Here
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Cyrus pointed me to this collection of headlines Sunday

Captain Obvious Does it Again

From the Beeb:

Clone 'would feel individuality'

Human reproductive cloning is currently not allowed in the UK
A cloned human would probably consider themselves to be an individual, a study suggests.

Scientists drew their conclusions after interviewing identical twins about their experiences of sharing exactly the same genes with somebody else.

"Duh".

Re: San Diego Comics Convention, or why Warren Ellis isn't going

Best Line Evah.

Purportedly Via Warrenellis.com:

San Diego: "

I never want to have to piss while standing next to Klingons again.

"

Angela's Wedding

Angela's Wedding
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

My camera died. This is the only picture I have.



Ted's fianc Rachel Kelly with sparklers in Angela's driveway after Angela had left in the limo.

Nasa Clips

There is a beautiful clip looking down from the Solid Rocket Boosters of the Space Shuttle as the shuttle takes off.

It's actually a quite fascinating video, as you see the florida coast line slowly shrinking in the distance, and there's roughly a point at which you think to yourself, that's what the coast line would look like from an airplane... and then it shrinks even further.

And then I am bitter.

On Pirates

The best way I can put the movie is that I had quite a bit of fun, without feeling cheap.

And at the Harlem theatre too, which was quieter than the even the 34th St theatre I've been to.

And the cheesy epithets, the douglas adams derived humor and oh the cheesy epithets.

I loves it.

TibetMobile

TibetMobile
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Found on a storefront on Kalpana Chawla Way in Jackson Heights.

The Dam Breaks

In regards to today's SCOTUS decision...




From SCOTUSblog:

Even more importantly for present purposes, the Court held that Common Article 3 of Geneva aplies as a matter of treaty obligation to the conflict against Al Qaeda. That is the HUGE part of today's ruling. The commissions are the least of it. This basically resolves the debate about interrogation techniques, because Common Article 3 provides that detained persons "shall in all circumstances be treated humanely," and that "[t]o this end," certain specified acts "are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever"—including "cruel treatment and torture," and "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." This standard, not limited to the restrictions of the due process clause, is much more restrictive than even the McCain Amendment. See my further discussion here.

This almost certainly means that the CIA's interrogation regime is unlawful, and indeed, that many techniques the Administation has been using, such as waterboarding and hypothermia (and others) violate the War Crimes Act (because violations of Common Article 3 are deemed war crimes).

Best Cabbie Fare Ever

Purportedly Via New York Hack:

Recognize him? I did immediately, and I don't even have cable. (It's Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, in case you weren't sure.) Much to my own surprise, I was a bit starstruck. So much so that I actually forgot to turn the meter on for about 15 blocks. He was on the phone and remained oblivious to me for the entire ride until finally, as I dropped him at his destination, I worked up the gumption to interrupt his conversation. And you know what? He was cool as hell. So many cabbies have celebrity stories where the person turns out to be a total asshole, but not Jon Stewart.


I sputtered away at him for a minute and finally told him about the blog and asked if I could take his picture. He graciously posed for me and was incredibly modest and nice. And thank goodness, because it would've been depressing if I had to write about one more dick.


Oh yeah, and he tipped well, too.

"

Jokes

A current Afghan joke asks the difference between Americans and Russians, and the bitter answer is: “The Americans are better paid.”

from here.

On the Canadian Terrorists

Money Quote from the comments:

real men do not attack Canada

Purportedly Via OxBlog:

I SEE, ITS OUR FAULT: Who is...: "

I SEE, ITS OUR FAULT: Who is to blame for the aborted terrorist attack on Canada?


Open thread: I'll buy a beer (or a sparkling mineral water) for the person who can come up with the most unrigorous, cliche-ridden effort to apportion blame to the Canadians.


Extra drinks if you can work in to your litany the following: 'neo-liberal', 'root cause' and 'demonise.'


UPDATE: The efforts so far have been mighty fine. But there is stiff competition.

"

the mosquito ring tones

For those of you enthralled by the story about the mosquito ring tones, here's some shorter samples that can be used.

How do you lose a large flightless bird?

How do you lose a large flightless bird?
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

Picture of the Day: The Cat Who Scared The Bear

Wizard!

Purportedly Via Gothamist:

Picture of the Day: The Cat Who Scared The Bear: "

Photo by AP Photo/Suzanne Giovanetti

Comment

<"

Bend it like Beckett

(the title was allen's genius)

ESPN & ABC's coverage of the World Cup is abysmal.

The commentators are clueless.

The England game Saturday was filled with references to Posh Spice, and the repeated mistake of saying Beckett in lieu of Beckham.

For the later games, we switched to Univision's coverage.

There's nothing like hearing GOL GOL GOL GOL GOL loudly after a score, and also being able to tell how the game is going from the change in the lilt of the quite excitable commentator's voice during a notable moment.

On ABC, you got the vibe that the commentator was reading from his crib notes.

On Univision, You could clearly hear the ball getting kicked.

Yes. In the ABC coverage, you couldn't hear the ball getting kicked.

Unforgivable.

remix

Imagine the FANTA jingle, except HANTA HANTA, hantavirus...

trailer for the namesake

It's out and looks awesome.

Les Incompétents

Russia extradited Zelenovic to the Bosnian authorities on Thursday. He was hiding from the U.N. war crimes tribunal for years in Siberia until authorities there detained him last year, the AP reports.

What kind of Dumbass hides in Siberia to avoid a United Nations administered prison in Europe?

Mouse Chewed

Mouse Chewed
Originally uploaded by satmandu.

A mouse chewed through the bottom of my door last night.

Well, tried to anyways...

Gali noticed the shavings on the floor this morning.

iClaudius cleaned them up in short order.