Iran: If you'd asked me, last week, to put together a list of things I didn't think the Iranian government could get away with, I'm pretty sure I'd've put shooting the main opposition candidate's nephew to death on the street would have been on it. I'd've been wrong, of course. That said, my list still has the following: stealing the body of the main opposition candidate's nephew from the hospital after shooting him dead on the street.
Man, if this does turn out to be the big green push to a secular Iran, the government has no one but itself to blame for its own demise.
Terrorism on planes: Kudos all around to the passengers who leapt on Abdul Mutallab when his pants burst into flames. Sure, it could have been an accident, but EVEN SO, what's the harm in helping the man put out his pants, especially on a plane? Good idea on GP, if you ask me.
Abdul Mutallab: Yo, dude, like we didn't have enough problems with TSA wanting to confiscate our shoes, you had to go and pull this? I'm telling you, if Americans on average weren't unpleasant to look at in the nude, TSA would already have us streaking through the lobby.
Northwest Airlines: You let him fly without a passport? Seriously? Are you nuts? After he bought a ticket with $3000 cash? And showed up with no luggage?
I know, I know, he was a young man with a sob story. Believe me, I've been there, and I've done that. When I was 19, penniless and hopeless, I had to rely on the kindness of strangers to get on the Ferry from Dublin to Liverpool, and I looked like an IRA terrorist myself. But if someone comes along with that many problems, you kindly but firmly refer them to the police for sorting out. No harm, no foul.
And finally, for global security in general, a modest proposal: it's time to modernize. Airlines track huge numbers of people moving from place to place and country to country. There should be methods for swiftly sifting through that data and finding potential troublemakers. If an attendant at a ticket counter has a lapse in judgement and lets someone on an international flight without a passport or if a passenger pays thousands of dollars in cash for a one-way ticket on an international flight or if a passenger on an international flight neglects to check any luggage, there should be some sort of data analysis software that could then alert a second level so that proper investigation can be done. Cost be damned, folks. It simply can't be that hard.
And let's not fool ourselves with this: it wouldn't have been too hard for someone to slip by the system by 1) producing a fake passport (how many people can recognize documents from Sudan?), 2) buying a round-trip ticket with a pre-paid credit card, and 3) checking a bag full of rags. Scanning for these easy things isn't going to prevent anyone with an ounce of sense, but it will catch the folks too dumb to get even those things right.
12.28.2009
12.21.2009
Begin
It begins tonight, as it does every year. It begins with a negation.
Tonight, there will be less night than last night. Tomorrow's dawn will be earlier than today's dawn.
And day by day, and night by night, as Earth turns on its axis, and as Earth revolves around the sun, the odd illusion that we are the center of the solar system is given lie, yet again, and the trick of an axis appearing to tilt runs on, and the season begins to change.
Object permanence. The Sun does not, in fact, disappear.
And yet...
Now it returns.
That's an odd trick, and neatly done.
And tonight is when it begins.
Tonight, there will be less night than last night. Tomorrow's dawn will be earlier than today's dawn.
And day by day, and night by night, as Earth turns on its axis, and as Earth revolves around the sun, the odd illusion that we are the center of the solar system is given lie, yet again, and the trick of an axis appearing to tilt runs on, and the season begins to change.
Object permanence. The Sun does not, in fact, disappear.
And yet...
Now it returns.
That's an odd trick, and neatly done.
And tonight is when it begins.
10.04.2009
LEGO Games
So, I've gone ahead and purchased (and am playing) LEGO Batman on the Wii, and it's pretty much like the other two LEGO games for the Wii (LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones): freaking awesome, man. It's got that nifty combo of being fun but not too brain-breaking, and, hey, who doesn't want to be The Batman, right?
There's a peculiarity to the game, however, that tickles me when I think too hard about it (and, let's face it, if you're thinking too hard about a LEGO game, you're probably not drinking enough, but anyway), and that's this: in order to "buy" upgrades and hidden characters in the game, you have to collect "studs," which is LEGO-speak for "coins," and the way you get coins is by breaking things. Now, in LEGO Indiana Jones, that sort of made sense. I mean, Jones is an academic pillaging tombs for artifacts, so it makes sense that he'd have no money and would pretty much have to finance his work through petty larceny, breaking & entering, burglary, mugging, vandalism, and, of course, selling priceless artifacts. Don't get me wrong, he's still a helluva guy, but he's also a tomb-robber, and the fact that he sells what he finds to museums instead of, say, Dr. Frankenstein doesn't change the fact that he's got a pretty questionable work ethic. So, yeah, you want Indy collecting silver, gold, blue, and purple studs? No worries, Jock, just keep the engine running.
In LEGO Star Wars, however, this overemphasis on material wealth becomes a little more... problematic. I mean, except for a few missions, you're not playing Bounty Hunters (and even when you are, the coins, er, studs don't really matter), you're playing Jedi, and Jedi are supposed to be above all of this attachment baloney. You don't see Yoda telling Luke, "There is no try, only do. Now, the money hand over you must." Yet these upgrades and secret characters don't pay for themselves, so don't forget to have Obi Wan Kenobi slink around Kamino like a bloody beachcomber.
Which brings us to Batman. The joy of LEGO Batman is watching him go up against his lifelong foes: the Riddler, the Penguin, Catwoman, the Joker, trash cans, telephone booths, cars, windows.... Wait, why is The Batman flinging his batarangs around at everyday items on the street? For the coins? Wait, isn't Bruce Wayne richer than Lex Luthor? And doesn't The Batman usually put vandals and thugs in body-casts? Hmmmmm.
But just when you think the folks at Travelers Tales (the company that makes these games) have lost their damned minds, you also get to play as the villains, and this is where the coin-collecting starts making sense again. After all, Batman's villains are like magpies: dark, sinister, a bit cuckoo, and inevitably distracted by bright shiny things. OF COURSE Killer Croc wants to break Gotham down to its constituents studs and, well, collect them. These are shiny studs. Precious studs. And they're all mine, my precious! Mine! MINE!
Ahem. So, LEGO Batman: it doesn't always make sense, but it's fun, it's easy, and you'll have fun beating it.
There's a peculiarity to the game, however, that tickles me when I think too hard about it (and, let's face it, if you're thinking too hard about a LEGO game, you're probably not drinking enough, but anyway), and that's this: in order to "buy" upgrades and hidden characters in the game, you have to collect "studs," which is LEGO-speak for "coins," and the way you get coins is by breaking things. Now, in LEGO Indiana Jones, that sort of made sense. I mean, Jones is an academic pillaging tombs for artifacts, so it makes sense that he'd have no money and would pretty much have to finance his work through petty larceny, breaking & entering, burglary, mugging, vandalism, and, of course, selling priceless artifacts. Don't get me wrong, he's still a helluva guy, but he's also a tomb-robber, and the fact that he sells what he finds to museums instead of, say, Dr. Frankenstein doesn't change the fact that he's got a pretty questionable work ethic. So, yeah, you want Indy collecting silver, gold, blue, and purple studs? No worries, Jock, just keep the engine running.
In LEGO Star Wars, however, this overemphasis on material wealth becomes a little more... problematic. I mean, except for a few missions, you're not playing Bounty Hunters (and even when you are, the coins, er, studs don't really matter), you're playing Jedi, and Jedi are supposed to be above all of this attachment baloney. You don't see Yoda telling Luke, "There is no try, only do. Now, the money hand over you must." Yet these upgrades and secret characters don't pay for themselves, so don't forget to have Obi Wan Kenobi slink around Kamino like a bloody beachcomber.
Which brings us to Batman. The joy of LEGO Batman is watching him go up against his lifelong foes: the Riddler, the Penguin, Catwoman, the Joker, trash cans, telephone booths, cars, windows.... Wait, why is The Batman flinging his batarangs around at everyday items on the street? For the coins? Wait, isn't Bruce Wayne richer than Lex Luthor? And doesn't The Batman usually put vandals and thugs in body-casts? Hmmmmm.
But just when you think the folks at Travelers Tales (the company that makes these games) have lost their damned minds, you also get to play as the villains, and this is where the coin-collecting starts making sense again. After all, Batman's villains are like magpies: dark, sinister, a bit cuckoo, and inevitably distracted by bright shiny things. OF COURSE Killer Croc wants to break Gotham down to its constituents studs and, well, collect them. These are shiny studs. Precious studs. And they're all mine, my precious! Mine! MINE!
Ahem. So, LEGO Batman: it doesn't always make sense, but it's fun, it's easy, and you'll have fun beating it.
6.21.2009
Iran
A friend sends a link to the Persian version of the BBC where there's an incredible video of protesters forcing riot police to retreat:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2009/06/090621_ag_street_clashes.shtml
If you know anyone in Iran, my thoughts go out to them; even if you don't lend a thought and a hope. I hesitate to hold out hope here, but this could be the start of something amazing. Or something horrifyingly brutal. Let's hope for the former.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2009/06/090621_ag_street_clashes.shtml
If you know anyone in Iran, my thoughts go out to them; even if you don't lend a thought and a hope. I hesitate to hold out hope here, but this could be the start of something amazing. Or something horrifyingly brutal. Let's hope for the former.
5.26.2009
Separate but Equal is not Equal
The California Supreme Court ruled today that a ballot-initiative to ban same-sex marriage does not constitute a "revision" to the California State Constitution, which would be unconstitutional, but rather an amendment to the Constitution.
Setting aside the legal issue for now, let me just state again, for the record, that banning same-sex marriage is wrong, discriminatory, foolish, and, ultimately, doomed to obsolescence. History will bear witness: this ban will not stand.
Setting aside the legal issue for now, let me just state again, for the record, that banning same-sex marriage is wrong, discriminatory, foolish, and, ultimately, doomed to obsolescence. History will bear witness: this ban will not stand.
5.25.2009
Memorial Day: Another Anniversary
Today is Memorial Day. Thursday would have been my mother and father's 43rd anniversary.
As previously noted, my father served in the Navy for 36 years, starting as deck swab zero class and cashing out as a Commander. When I'm asked why I was never inclined to join the service, I like to respond that my dad served enough time for the three of us (his sons); also, hell, I had 15 years of growing up on military bases, and while it was a life-shaping experience that I wouldn't trade away, I don't much see the point in doing it again.
A bumper sticker reminds us that everything Fred Astaire did, so did Ginger Rogers-- only backwards and in high heels. Mom served 34 years as a Navy wife, but while there are plenty of people in the Navy to tell a sailor how to live as a sailor, the support network tends to get a little looser when it comes to spouses, especially for spouses of Enlisted folks. The Navy will assign you, the Navy will move you, and the Navy will house you, but the Navy won't tell you how to leave your family and home behind you. The Navy will pay you, and the Navy will subsidize your groceries, but the Navy won't tell you how to sit tight while your spouse (or parent) is off in Vietnam or Somalia, and the Navy won't tell you how to raise three boys. My mom and dad worked together to raise and support us, but when dad got the call to go, it was my mom who kept on raising us, feeding us, caring for us, making us do our homework.
(If this sounds suspiciously more like Mother's Day post than a Memorial Day/Anniversary post, well, I didn't get one of those this year, so here's this.)
My parents married young: she was 21, and he was 20. She was born in Buffalo but raised in California; he was born in Brooklyn and had only just arrived in San Diego (and started to realize he wanted to live there as long as he could). They courted briefly and then got married. They were both stubborn and smart and inexperienced, and there were tumultuous times to be had along with the good times. Frankly, I don't know how they did it: how they resolved their differences and set aside their habits; how they managed to find each other in the first place and realize just how similar they were; how they weathered deployments and kids and economic troubles, miscarriages, friends' divorces, and parents' deaths.
And yet, they did it. They stuck together through thick and thin, and they made it through the really rough patches into the smooth waters. They were married 42 years, six months, and 11 days; Thursday would have made 43 years.
May we all have at least as many good years together.
As previously noted, my father served in the Navy for 36 years, starting as deck swab zero class and cashing out as a Commander. When I'm asked why I was never inclined to join the service, I like to respond that my dad served enough time for the three of us (his sons); also, hell, I had 15 years of growing up on military bases, and while it was a life-shaping experience that I wouldn't trade away, I don't much see the point in doing it again.
A bumper sticker reminds us that everything Fred Astaire did, so did Ginger Rogers-- only backwards and in high heels. Mom served 34 years as a Navy wife, but while there are plenty of people in the Navy to tell a sailor how to live as a sailor, the support network tends to get a little looser when it comes to spouses, especially for spouses of Enlisted folks. The Navy will assign you, the Navy will move you, and the Navy will house you, but the Navy won't tell you how to leave your family and home behind you. The Navy will pay you, and the Navy will subsidize your groceries, but the Navy won't tell you how to sit tight while your spouse (or parent) is off in Vietnam or Somalia, and the Navy won't tell you how to raise three boys. My mom and dad worked together to raise and support us, but when dad got the call to go, it was my mom who kept on raising us, feeding us, caring for us, making us do our homework.
(If this sounds suspiciously more like Mother's Day post than a Memorial Day/Anniversary post, well, I didn't get one of those this year, so here's this.)
My parents married young: she was 21, and he was 20. She was born in Buffalo but raised in California; he was born in Brooklyn and had only just arrived in San Diego (and started to realize he wanted to live there as long as he could). They courted briefly and then got married. They were both stubborn and smart and inexperienced, and there were tumultuous times to be had along with the good times. Frankly, I don't know how they did it: how they resolved their differences and set aside their habits; how they managed to find each other in the first place and realize just how similar they were; how they weathered deployments and kids and economic troubles, miscarriages, friends' divorces, and parents' deaths.
And yet, they did it. They stuck together through thick and thin, and they made it through the really rough patches into the smooth waters. They were married 42 years, six months, and 11 days; Thursday would have made 43 years.
May we all have at least as many good years together.
4.26.2009
Goodbye, Geocities
Tech Crunch reports that Yahoo (who bought Geocities back when money came with URLs printed on it) has decided to pull the plug on Geocities.
Confession: my first website was at Athens/2690 way back in the early/mid-90s; it was a paltry thing, but then again, so was the Web in general. I cut my teeth on HTML there, before all of those GUI, WYSIWYG tools for creating pages and such, building tables and frames by hand. Heady days, amigos. It was fun, though I never really got all of that community crap they were peddling.
Ah, well. Files downloaded, archived, and erased; farewell, old friend.
Confession: my first website was at Athens/2690 way back in the early/mid-90s; it was a paltry thing, but then again, so was the Web in general. I cut my teeth on HTML there, before all of those GUI, WYSIWYG tools for creating pages and such, building tables and frames by hand. Heady days, amigos. It was fun, though I never really got all of that community crap they were peddling.
Ah, well. Files downloaded, archived, and erased; farewell, old friend.
4.17.2009
Shameless Plugging: My U-verse experience
We've been Comcast customers since we moved in here; at the time, they were the only service available (unless we wanted to add a satellite dish to the roof, and we didn't, so there). We've had the same Basic Cable package from 2000 to now, and the price has steadily increased to the point of silliness. Over the past two years, I've called, now and again, to see if we might qualify for some Comcast deal or other we keep seeing advertised, but we've been inevitably denied. So I've been keeping one eye open for alternatives, and when AT&T let us know that their U-verse program was available in our neighborhood, I jumped on-line and took a look. More under the cut.
I chatted with AT&T sales reps on-line, and the sense I got was that I could get the same programming I was getting with Comcast via U-verse (U100) at $20 less per month, with no installation costs; if I signed up for a larger package (U200) for a month at $5 less than the Comcast package, I'd even get a free DVR and $200 cash back. I decided on the U200 and scheduled installation.
Installation day arrived... but no technician. I'd scheduled an appointment between 12:00 and 2:00, but no one showed up. I called AT&T and they very gently pointed out that I'd scheduled an appointment for Monday (3/23) instead of Sunday (3/22) (one of those which-day-of-the-week-do-you-start-on kerfuffles). The AT&T rep was happy to reschedule me for 12:00 to 2:00 on the following Saturday.
At 1:30 on Saturday (3/28), the tech called to say he was running 30 minutes behind but would be here. And sure enough, 30 minutes later, he arrived. He was courteous, professional, and efficient, and had us up and running within an hour. Minus the HD programming which I had been told by an on-line Sales Rep we'd have standard. Grrr. So, after the tech left, I called AT&T and order the extra $10/month HD programming; I was told that this would be activated and might require up to 24 hours to go through.
On Sunday (3/29), still no HD programming. I called AT&T again and was told that they would make it available. In another 24 hours. This went on again on Monday (3/30) and Tuesday (3/31), and by Wednesday (4/1) I was getting frustrated. However, on Wednesday, the rep got her manager on the line and he told me (and I am not making this up) that the receiver unit I'd received was not HD-ready and another tech would need to come out and install the new receiver unit.
Really.
First available was on Saturday, 1.5 weeks later, between 8:00 and 10:00. Fine. So I didn't get to see the BSG finale in HD, but hey, I still got to see it. And so I woke up early on Saturday (4/11) to wait for the technician to deliver this magical receiver. He arrived, new unit and whole lot of cable in hand, and he told me he was there to deliver and install a new receiver for my second TV.
Which I don't have.
So I explained to him the saga of ordering HD programming and the kindly wizened manager who'd said I'd needed a special receiver, and the tech looked at me like I'd grown two heads. All receivers get HD programming, he said, it's just a matter of them (the reps) turning the service on or off at the main office. Fine, I said, here's the remote, show me the HD. He turned on the unit and... sure enough, HD ahoy. I shook my head and cursed and apologized, and he was very quick to point out that this was AT&T's fault, not mine. He then called his dispatcher and explained what had happened, made sure that I was happy, and split.
I sat down and watched Tiger Woods sink two beautiful shots in glorious HD, and I'm not even a golf fan. HD just really is that good.
On Sunday afternoon, I got a call from an AT&T rep looking to straighten things out. While I was explaining things to him, I got _another_ call from _another_ AT&T rep looking to straighten things out. I got the agent ID for one, gave it to the other, and suggested that they compare notes, and then I hung up on one of them. To the other, I explained the entire mess. He immediately grasped what had happened: the reps who had entered my order info in had done so in the wrong place; this is not uncommon, he said, as communication in-organization seems to be a little off these days (new services, etc.). He made the necessary changes to make sure that I wouldn't somehow lose my HD programming services, stayed on the line with me to make sure the changes went through, and walked me through the restart process (to wit: unplug, count 5, re-plug). Like ALL AT&T staff I've talked to throughout this experience, he was professional, courteous, and good to work with; he just also happened to be the one tech who really knew what he was doing.
So, today, I figured it was about time I got that $200 back. I called the Rewards number (877-258-1427) and was reminded they had a website (att.com/rewards), so I went there instead. There, I was prompted for my phone number or my U-verse account number or my DSL Direct account number; I entered my U-verse account number and selected Residential customer. I was then told that I may be eligible for the $200, so I clicked the link there. I was then given a ToS page and asked for e-mail address where they can send me a note saying they've mailed my check. And on the last page I was told I can expect a check to be mailed out by 5/17. And that's that.
In summary: I'd recommend AT&T's U-verse service, but I would recommend knowing what you're getting ahead of time and keeping on them if they let a service fall through the cracks. And now I'm going to go enjoy some more HD golf.
I chatted with AT&T sales reps on-line, and the sense I got was that I could get the same programming I was getting with Comcast via U-verse (U100) at $20 less per month, with no installation costs; if I signed up for a larger package (U200) for a month at $5 less than the Comcast package, I'd even get a free DVR and $200 cash back. I decided on the U200 and scheduled installation.
Installation day arrived... but no technician. I'd scheduled an appointment between 12:00 and 2:00, but no one showed up. I called AT&T and they very gently pointed out that I'd scheduled an appointment for Monday (3/23) instead of Sunday (3/22) (one of those which-day-of-the-week-do-you-start-on kerfuffles). The AT&T rep was happy to reschedule me for 12:00 to 2:00 on the following Saturday.
At 1:30 on Saturday (3/28), the tech called to say he was running 30 minutes behind but would be here. And sure enough, 30 minutes later, he arrived. He was courteous, professional, and efficient, and had us up and running within an hour. Minus the HD programming which I had been told by an on-line Sales Rep we'd have standard. Grrr. So, after the tech left, I called AT&T and order the extra $10/month HD programming; I was told that this would be activated and might require up to 24 hours to go through.
On Sunday (3/29), still no HD programming. I called AT&T again and was told that they would make it available. In another 24 hours. This went on again on Monday (3/30) and Tuesday (3/31), and by Wednesday (4/1) I was getting frustrated. However, on Wednesday, the rep got her manager on the line and he told me (and I am not making this up) that the receiver unit I'd received was not HD-ready and another tech would need to come out and install the new receiver unit.
Really.
First available was on Saturday, 1.5 weeks later, between 8:00 and 10:00. Fine. So I didn't get to see the BSG finale in HD, but hey, I still got to see it. And so I woke up early on Saturday (4/11) to wait for the technician to deliver this magical receiver. He arrived, new unit and whole lot of cable in hand, and he told me he was there to deliver and install a new receiver for my second TV.
Which I don't have.
So I explained to him the saga of ordering HD programming and the kindly wizened manager who'd said I'd needed a special receiver, and the tech looked at me like I'd grown two heads. All receivers get HD programming, he said, it's just a matter of them (the reps) turning the service on or off at the main office. Fine, I said, here's the remote, show me the HD. He turned on the unit and... sure enough, HD ahoy. I shook my head and cursed and apologized, and he was very quick to point out that this was AT&T's fault, not mine. He then called his dispatcher and explained what had happened, made sure that I was happy, and split.
I sat down and watched Tiger Woods sink two beautiful shots in glorious HD, and I'm not even a golf fan. HD just really is that good.
On Sunday afternoon, I got a call from an AT&T rep looking to straighten things out. While I was explaining things to him, I got _another_ call from _another_ AT&T rep looking to straighten things out. I got the agent ID for one, gave it to the other, and suggested that they compare notes, and then I hung up on one of them. To the other, I explained the entire mess. He immediately grasped what had happened: the reps who had entered my order info in had done so in the wrong place; this is not uncommon, he said, as communication in-organization seems to be a little off these days (new services, etc.). He made the necessary changes to make sure that I wouldn't somehow lose my HD programming services, stayed on the line with me to make sure the changes went through, and walked me through the restart process (to wit: unplug, count 5, re-plug). Like ALL AT&T staff I've talked to throughout this experience, he was professional, courteous, and good to work with; he just also happened to be the one tech who really knew what he was doing.
So, today, I figured it was about time I got that $200 back. I called the Rewards number (877-258-1427) and was reminded they had a website (att.com/rewards), so I went there instead. There, I was prompted for my phone number or my U-verse account number or my DSL Direct account number; I entered my U-verse account number and selected Residential customer. I was then told that I may be eligible for the $200, so I clicked the link there. I was then given a ToS page and asked for e-mail address where they can send me a note saying they've mailed my check. And on the last page I was told I can expect a check to be mailed out by 5/17. And that's that.
In summary: I'd recommend AT&T's U-verse service, but I would recommend knowing what you're getting ahead of time and keeping on them if they let a service fall through the cracks. And now I'm going to go enjoy some more HD golf.
3.24.2009
Doing whatever a Spiderman can
'Spider-Man' rescues autistic Thai boy
(Sydney Morning Herald)"A Thai fireman turned superhero when he dressed up as comic-book character Spider-Man to coax a frightened eight-year-old from a balcony, police said on Tuesday."
In other news, it's Spring, and it's time to start posting again. Anything less would be, well, less.
3.16.2009
Change
On January, 21, 2009, they removed the old Presidential portrait in the lobby of the Philip P. Burton Federal Building. The space remained empty for some time as the new portrait was taken and disseminated. I'm pleased to report the new Presidential portrait is in place:
A clearer view of the portrait itself can be found here.
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A clearer view of the portrait itself can be found here.
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