Rise in specialty plates' profits credited to 'Mr. Smiley' backlash: "David Thornton, the district chairman for Ducks Unlimited, said he stopped a young driver in Lexington to thank him for supporting the wildlife group by purchasing the plate.

'He kind of looked at me like I lost my mind, and then he said, `I just didn't want one of those other plates,' ' Thornton said.

Hugh Archer is commissioner of the state Department for Natural Resources, which receives money from the sales of three specialty plates with pictures of animals: a bobcat, a cardinal and a new butterfly plate. Archer said the department received nearly $118,000 in June, compared with $61,300 in July 2002. "

The Tango: an electric auto.

How Do You Get Work Done?: "None of this breeds any kind of productivity ethic. Even if you are very interested in a field, and approach its study with enthusiasm, you are likely to run out of steam before you reach the end of your study, gradually disillusioned by the degree to which you must endlessly specialize, sublimate your own identity, avoid creativity, sacrifice future freedoms and learn the ins and outs of petty business, all in order to simply build a career doing something you thought you liked.



I personally feel that most men (and women) given a chance would prefer to be craftsmen (and women) of some kind, in whatever their chosen field, bringing a quality and uniquely personal product to the people of their own community. Instead, because of the nature of the modern marketplace, many essentially become clerks and civil servants in one field or another order to be able to draw a wage.



As a result, and lacking enthusiasm, we end up sitting around browsing the Web and dreaming of something better... but those who develop the fortitude to switch inevitably find that their new field is, on balance, not all that different from their last one... still all business, anonymity and colorless, impersonal nonsense. "

Hi S- - -,



Sorry I took so long to respond to this. It looks pretty good. My thing with resumes is that I think they're really little stories you tell about yourself, so you have to constantly ask yourself, "is this the story I want to tell potential employers?"



To me, this resume defines you as someone who has technical and musical abilities. It demonstrates that you have many specific skills with particular software packages. I think there is a larger story here that you need to bring to the surface, specifically:



- re-emphasize your Project Management skills

- show your audience that in addition to *using* software, you also have talents as a *developer* of specific applications

- Perhaps more detail about your ability to manage human resources and interface cheerfully with engineers. Specific software packages are great, but being able to work with people and manage projects is priceless.

- "enhance methods of documentation" is a little vague, but sounds interesting.



comments attached to numbered items:



1. "playback within the strict requirements of the internet" --the internet per se doesn't have requirements, but there are specific protocols such as streaming audio that have particular requirements, so you wanna use the right buzzwords in the right places. The right terminology will also trigger the software that sorts online resumes.



2. "art software applications" might sound better as "graphic design applications" or some other industry term.



3. "compose writings for software applications" might be turned to "developed documentation for..."



4. the employee of the year nomination might be considered, "d*mning with faint praise".



5. As mentioned above, you might want to emphasize larger abilities as well as specific skills. So instead of talking about how you did data entry with a database, mention, when appropriate, if you designed the database.



data entry=ditch digging (sorta)

database design=telling someone else where to dig



So my big thing is to suggest that, in at least some of the versions of this that you send out, that you not be afraid to position yourself as supervisor/management material. Another good ability to emphasize in your revisions is to demonstrate that not only do you know a bunch of apps, but that you are really good at learning how to learn, at picking up new applications quickly and *designing* apps and multimedia applications.



Take this advice with a grain of salt and do what you think is best.

Internet Privacy for Dummies :: Online Resources for Readers of Internet Privacy for Dummies: "Disabling Windows Messenger Service

Windows 2000

Click the Start Button

Choose Settings > Control Panel

Double-click 'Administrative Tools' and double-click on 'Services'

Scroll down and right-click on 'Messenger'

Choose Properties

Click the 'Stop' button to turn the Messenger service off

Change the 'Startup type' to 'Disabled' to keep it from restarting when you reboot

Click OK and you're done "

SeattleWireless: Pig Tail

Omni-directional Antenna 2.4 GHz

This has got to be the smallest, cheapest homebuilt wifi antenna I've seen. I'm building one.

SeattleWireless: Cardboard Horn

The Morning News - Guide to New York Jargon: "Patagroupie (noun): A city-dweller who wears mountaineering clothing for doing laundry or grocery shopping. See also: Patagucci: The same person, equipped with Gucci or Vuitton accessories."

The Saint Paul Pioneer Press: "Of all the specialists who puzzle over Garth, of all the expensive drugs dripping into his veins, nothing brings relief. The stomach cramps and constipation persist. He's getting worse. And then his magic bullet arrives.

The remedy comes from an unlikely deliverer known as the Milkshake Man. Jim Mayer is a veteran who lost both legs in Vietnam. Several times a week, he brings McDonald's milkshakes to the amputees on Ward 57. The visits are an excuse to talk and counsel. Mayer arrives this Saturday but Garth refuses the shake. Too rich. Any chance of a Mountain Dew, he asks.

The super-caffeinated soda does it. Caffeine! The next day, Garth is sitting up. His blinds are open. 'Mountain Dew saved my goddamn life,' he says, his voice deep and robust. Suddenly, he is ravenous. 'Domino's keeps showing this commercial for Cinna Stix,' he says. 'You dip them in icing. Man, I want some.'"

This is the way to download music | Metafilter: "Forget Snapster. What about RobbinHoodSter. (1) Take the same 1,000,000 CD's (as Snapster) or better, even more albums. (2) Go to an offshore haven that is not a signatory to universal copyright. (3) Sell all songs for 20 cents a track, $2.00 an album. (4) Send 65% of the money directly to the artist or artist's management. If the artist can not be found, hold the money is escrow for said artist. (5) Give 5% of the the revenue towards grants for working musicians (sort of a RobinHoodSter N.E.A. program.) (6) Give 5% of the money to better the life and infrastructure of offshore haven. (7) Earn enough with the 25% margin to cover fixed costs, and to grease the local govt to insure that global pressures to close RobinHoodSter are laughed at."



This is great. I predict that the price per downloadable mp3 is going to drop to .50 in the next year, at which point I'll start downloading about 20 songs a month.

WISIL HPVers Human Powered Vehicle and recumbent bicycle downloadables

Conspiracy theories abound as US releases Uday-Qusay pics : HindustanTimes.com: "On a busy shopping street in Baghdad's Karrada district, Fallahan Hassan, 33, has just finished selling two refrigerators and a water cooler to US soldiers. They smile and exchange handshakes.

But as soon as they leave, Hassan says: 'I don't want anything to do with them.'

He hates Saddam -- 10 of his relatives disappeared in the 1980s -- but he suspects the Americans are here for oil, to control Islam and protect Israel.

'Why did Iraq fall in 20 days and three months later, they still haven't arrested the president?' he asks.

'Saddam is their secret agent.'"

Google Search: recovering deleted files group:microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage group:microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage: "Can someone help me? Yesterday I deleted my old email and compressed it (by

> launching Entourage with the option key depressed), but I haven't deleted

> the 'Old Messages' file that was generated yet. Today I discovered that I

> need something that was deleted, and which should be in that 'Old Messages'

> file. Is there a way for me to recover the email from the 'Old Messages'

> file? I'm desperate here!"

STONE READER / ***1/2 (Not rated): "In 1972 a man reads a review of a new novel named The Stones of Summer in the New York Times. The reviewer believes it is one of the most extraordinary novels of its generation--a masterpiece. The man buys the novel, can't get into it, puts it on the shelf, moves it around with his books for years, and finally reads it. He thinks it's a masterpiece, too. He goes on the Internet to find out what else the author, Dow Mossman, has written. Mossman has written nothing--has disappeared, it would appear, from the face of the earth. "

American Idle: "A machine removes that punishing presence. A blog, for instance, constantly pushes even slightly stale talking points to the margins (or the bottom of the homepage, or the archive). And while in hope-springs-eternal obliviousness you can always think, in the back of your mind, Oh, I’ll go back and catch up on what I missed or I’ll go back and read the article that was linked to, chances are it’s not going to happen because there won’t be any tangible evidence of your failure to do so."

Using Experimental Teaching Methods: "Here are some points that I've found useful to keep in mind when trying out new teaching methods:

They may not be working well.

This is the most obvious point. You may have misgivings about traditional lectures, but for better or worse they've survived a long time and students are quite used to them. So I think that most people who try something new are, quite reasonably, worried that they might be making things worse instead of better. You shouldn't let these fears stop you from trying new things, but you shouldn't let your enthusiasm for something that sounds good to you in theory blind you to ways in which it might not be working well in practice. "

Tour de France Coverage - Obstacle Course: "Armstrong himself has overcome an early-race illness, the first stage crash, problems with a mis-adjusted pedal, an unplanned diversionary route through a field to elude Beloki's fate, losing nearly 13 pounds of water weight in the first individual time trial, and now, gear problems and a crash on the final climb of the 15th stage. Armstrong refused to blame anyone for the crash, saying, 'it was also my fault for riding too much on the right of the road.'"

Adolf Hitler and methamphetamine: "'I can hardly understand it myself. There must be some basic evil in me. In all men. Mass hypnosis? Hitler cultivated this evil in man. When I saw him in that movie in court, I was swept along again for a moment, in spite of myself. Funny, one sits in court feeling guilt and shame. Then Hitler appears on the screen and you want to stretch out your hand to him . . . . It's not with horns on his head or with a forked tail that the devil comes to us, you know. He comes with a captivating smile, spouting idealistic sentiments, winning one's loyalty. We cannot say that Adolf Hitler violated the German people. He seduced us.' "

How to build a tin can waveguide antenna: "How To Build A Tin Can Waveguide Antenna

for 802.11b Wireless Networks

or other 2.4GHz Applications"



Summary: the Nalley Big Chunk beef stew antenna is poised to dethrone the Pringles can.

Homebrew antenna shootout: "Waveguide antennas don't use the director assembly (the washery bits), and therefore are much simpler to build. An old tin can of the right size, about $5 in parts and 10 minutes of time are all that are needed. The math for computing correct sizing of the components in a waveguide antenna is simple. Formulas in hand, I started searching my cupboards for tin cans that fit the spec. I found myself staring at the products on the canned food aisle at the grocery store. I even went so far as going grocery shopping with a tape measure. 'No no, this spaghetti sauce looks much better. It's about three quarters of a wavelength in diameter, hon!' "

OpenOffice.org: "The purpose of this project is to coordinate efforts to develop integrated file filters for the Corel WordPerfect (tm) word processor. In other words: we want to make it possible for OpenOffice.org users to import and export WordPerfect files."

The Truth Seeker - Reflections in a Demon Haunted World: "For its part, the Military/Intelligence complex would have a great interest in acquiring well placed assets in the movie world; in order to help secure it as a means of manipulating public opinion and to help eliminate any ‘subversive’ influences.



In fact a great deal of Marilyn’s future life and career and even her death fits perfectly with a role in intelligence. Admittedly the idea of Marilyn Monroe, ‘super-spook,’ may simply sound like a bad film script; particularly when we think of the qualities needed in an intelligence asset such as anonymity and inconspicuousness. After all few people could have been more famous and conspicuous than Monroe at her peak. "



Marilyn Monroe and the great UFO coverup!

Computing.Net - Cloning my Hard drive: "its a one-step dos command with xxcopy

xxcopy c: d: /clone"

Spectrum 2002 Interview With Author Steve Quayle: "I'm suggesting that, not only do these [New World Order] people have a plan to kill-off a lot of people, but they have a plan to kill-off the ability to feed the people. I think it's something like 75% of the world's population lives off the ocean. That means they are in close proximity, or eat protein out of the ocean. So, understand this: I believe the New World Order boys want to kill-off 5 1/2 billion people—that's what they've said.



Martin: They're on record."



Scary, amusing conspiracy buffs.

Coincidence: "The Memphis Police also consider the case closed, and the local office of the F.B.I. has turned its attention to other odd happenings. The talk of Memphis at the moment is the bizarre ambush of the city's coroner last month. He was wrapped in barbed wire and left lying in a stairwell of the medical examiner's building with a live bomb strapped to his chest.

Coincidentally, that coroner, O.C. Smith, was also the coroner who did the much-awaited, somewhat controversial autopsy on Don Wiley.

What are the odds of that? "

Tour de France Coverage - Ullrich Caps Comeback: "In temperatures that soared to a broiling 97 degrees, Ullrich was fastest at all time checks en route to a 58:32 finish, the only rider to break one hour. Lance Armstrong (USPS-Berry Floor) held on to the yellow jersey but conceded an almost-unthinkable 1:35 to the big German, whose ride vaulted him into second place, only 34 seconds behind Armstrong."

Rumsas draws a year's suspension: "Last year Rumsas was involved in a scandal after his wife was caught with large quantities of growth hormones and other drugs after the Tour de France in which Rumsas finished third. She was jailed in France and later released. The rider himself tested negative during last year's Tour de France. "

Forbes.com: Korea's Weird Wired World: "Koreans realized they had entered a new era after the last presidential elections. By 11 a.m. on Dec. 19, exit poll results showed that the iconoclastic Roh Moo Hyun, 56, a 2-to-1 favorite among youth, was losing the election. His supporters hit the chat rooms to drum up support. Within minutes more than 800,000 e-mails were sent to mobiles to urge supporters to go out and vote. Traditionally apathetic young voters surged to the polls and, by 2 p.m., Roh took the lead and went on to win the election. A man with little support from either the mainstream media or the nation's conglomerates sashayed into office on an Internet on-ramp. The traditional Confucian order had been flipped upside down, and a symbolic transfer of power from elders to youth took place. "

SourceForge.net: Project Info - DVDibbler: "DVDibbler is an advanced GUI for the Mac OS port of MEncoder"

dive into mark: "Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.

George Orwell, 1984"

Creative Loafing Atlanta | NEWS & VIEWS | CAREFUL: THE FB-EYE MAY BE WATCHING: "Back in the store, Trippi gives me his card and tells me to call him if I remember anything. After he's gone, I call my dad back to see if he has calmed down, maybe come up with a name. We retrace some steps together, figure out the article was Hal Crowther's 'Weapons of Mass Stupidity' from the Weekly Planet, a free independent out of Tampa. It comes back to me then, this scathing screed focusing on the way corporate interests have poisoned the country's media, focusing mostly on Fox News and Rupert Murdoch -- really infuriating, deadly accurate stuff about American journalism post-9-11. So I call the number on the card, leave a message with the name, author and origin of the column, and ask him to call me if he has any more questions. "

Creative Loafing Atlanta | NEWS & VIEWS | CAREFUL: THE FB-EYE MAY BE WATCHING: "Trippi's partner speaks up: 'Any reading material? Papers?' I don't think so. Then Trippi decides to level with me: 'I'll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that's why we're here, just checking it out. Like I said, there's no problem. We'd just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can't, then you may have a problem. And you don't want that.'

You don't want that? Have I just been threatened by the FBI? Confusion and a light dusting of panic conspire to keep me speechless. Was I reading something that morning? Something that would constitute a problem?

The partner speaks up again: 'Maybe a printout of some kind?'

Then it occurs to me: I was reading. It was an article my dad had printed off the Web. I remember carrying it into Caribou with me, reading it in line, and then while stirring cream into my coffee. I remember bringing it with me to the store, finishing it before we opened. I can't remember what the article was about, but I'm sure it was some kind of left-wing editorial, the kind that never fails to incite me to anger and despair over the state of the country. "

Drudging Up Personal Details (washingtonpost.com): "Some folks in the White House were apparently hopping mad when ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman did a story on Tuesday's 'World News Tonight' about the plummeting morale of U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq.

So angry, in fact, that the next day, a White House operative alerted cyber-gossip Matt Drudge to the fact that Kofman is not only openly gay, he's Canadian."

Calorie Needs - Men: "Formula to calculate BMR for men

66 + (13.7 x weight in kilos) + (5 x height in centimetres) - (6.8 x age in years) = BMR

To calculate your total calorie needs, multiply your BMR by the appropriate activity multiplier:

Activity Multiplier

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise, desk job) multiply BMR by 1.2

If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/wk) multiply BMR by 1.375

If you are mod. active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk) multiply BMR by 1.55

If you take heavy exercise (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/wk) multiply BMR by 1.725"

O'Reilly Network: Antenna on the Cheap (er, Chip) [July 18, 2003]

Los Angeles Times: In God's name: Is it madness?: "The sanity of Ron Lafferty, however, was a matter of legal dispute. He wore a sign reading 'Exit only' on the seat of his prison jumpsuit to one hearing because of his belief that an evil homosexual spirit was trying to invade his body through his anus. After a jury found him guilty, a federal appeals court worried that he might not have been competent to stand trial because of his belief that he answered only to the laws of God. The court vacated the jury's verdict — a decision with potentially unsettling implications. As Krakauer asks, 'If Ron Lafferty were deemed mentally ill because he obeyed the voice of his God, isn't everyone who believes in God and seeks guidance through prayer mentally ill as well?'"

Clarion Journals Online

SHOOTING THE DAISY 747

D&R Sports Center: MODEL 747 AVANTI AIR PISTOL: "MODEL 747 AVANTI AIR PISTOL



Quantity in Basket: none

Code: DAI747

Price: $109.45



Shipping Weight: 2.50 pounds "

Epiphone PR 350SR: ". If you buy one of these fine guitars, get that saddle changed and you've got about as close to the expensive sound as I believe you will get for the money. I would replace it immediately if it were stolen. "

Epiphone PR 350SR: "Mine is also the solid wood version referred to in previous reviews, so I won't bore you with details, I bought it from a pro player who removed the pickguard and installed gold grovers and a bone nut and micarta saddle.I contacted Epi also re: the solid vs. laminate issue, and their reply was that all of them (including it's sister the PR-350/SM mahogany) were laminates. That's funny because I have copies of reviews on Harmony Central (not these user reviews) that state they are all solid woods, as well a an Epi ad from a guitar mag that says it is all solid wood! I also inspected the interior and found the grain to match the exterior. At any rate, if Epi can make a laminate sound this good, they need to patent the process.I rate it high just for the solid woods at a great price"

Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City, Utah: "They Might Be Giants

Wednesday, July 23

Two witty, articulate men in their early forties who write catchy songs about things like thermostats and metal detectors, Flansburgh and Linnell are the elders to a whole generation of smart, earnest 'nerd rockers.'

Advance Price $22/ Day of $24

A $2 facility fee will be added to each concert ticket.



Shawn Colvin

Sunday, July 27

Grammy award winning songwriter and folk singer displays a diverse musical style and emotion-filled lyrics that will please the most finicky music fan. Come prepared to be enchanted and entertained.

Advance Price $24/ Day of $26

A $2 facility fee will be added to each concert ticket.



Lucinda Williams

Thursday, July 31

Her raw vocal talent combined with fabulous country acoustics embodies joy and misery simultaneously. Known for her Grammy award winning albums, 'Car Wheels on a Gravel Road' and 'Essence', Lucinda's moving lyrics and trademark voice will stir your soul.

Advance Price $23/ Day of $25

A $2 facility fee will be added to each concert ticket. "

Greg Brown Web Site

Shop Talk: "When we bought our used minivan, the special deal that the dealership was offering at the time was a free DVD player installed. It has been a lifesaver. The kids can watch DVDs or VCDs, we can play mp3 CDs (although I have never actually done that), and the kids can plug in the dreamcast and play games too (with an inverter).



It's been a lifesaver on long trips. If you get the opportunity to get one, I highly recommend it. "

V/Vm : MP3s Main Menu- VVM

Printing to Windows from MAC OSX 10.2

16 Words, and Counting: "While the scandal has so far focused on Iraq, the manipulations appear to be global. For example, one person from the intelligence community recalls an administration hard-liner's urging the State Department Bureau of Intelligence and Research to state that Cuba has a biological weapons program. The spooks refused, and Colin Powell backed them.

Then there's North Korea. The C.I.A.'s assessments on North Korea's nuclear weaponry were suddenly juiced up beginning in December 2001. The alarmist assessments (based on no new evidence) continued until January of this year, when the White House wanted to play down the Korean crisis. Then assessments abruptly restored the less ominous language of the 1990's."

Tour de France Coverage - Armstrong Goes Off Road: "Meanwhile, close behind, Armstrong was forced off the road, where he magnificently--one would even be tempted to add miraculously--rode through a hay field. The champ in a cool and confident manner lifted his bike over a ditch, hoped on his Trek, and began racing again.



'It was the most terrifying moment of my life,' Armstrong said on French television immediately after the finish. 'It was a real panic. In a moment like that... it was a reflex of survival.' He also said rather astutely that between crashing and cyclocross, he made the best choice. Few argued."

The Harvard Crimson Online :: News: "Following a widely-publicized report that Hornstine had plagiarized material in articles she wrote for her local paper, the Harvard admissions office has rescinded her offer to attend Harvard in the fall, according to a source involved with the decision.

Her acceptance came under scrutiny after her local newspaper, the Courier-Post, reported that Hornstine had “misused sources” in five stories she wrote for the paper and had lifted extensive material directly from speeches and papers published on the Internet. The media attention followed her decision to sue the Moorestown, N.J. school system to ensure she graduate as sole valedictorian of her high school. A federal judge ruled in Hornstine’s favor last month and forbid the school district from naming a co-valedictorian."

The Harvard Crimson Online :: News: "Following a widely-publicized report that Hornstine had plagiarized material in articles she wrote for her local paper, the Harvard admissions office has rescinded her offer to attend Harvard in the fall, according to a source involved with the decision.

Her acceptance came under scrutiny after her local newspaper, the Courier-Post, reported that Hornstine had “misused sources” in five stories she wrote for the paper and had lifted extensive material directly from speeches and papers published on the Internet. The media attention followed her decision to sue the Moorestown, N.J. school system to ensure she graduate as sole valedictorian of her high school. A federal judge ruled in Hornstine’s favor last month and forbid the school district from naming a co-valedictorian."

Sublime Archive

NEWS.com.au | Marriage 'tames' geniuses, criminals (July 10, 2003): "Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, compiled a database of the biographies of 280 great scientists, noting their age at the time when they made their greatest work.

The data remarkably concur with the brutal observation made by Albert Einstein, who wrote in 1942: 'A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.'"



That is so nice to hear.

Intellectual Work of Program Administration: "

Doug's academic achievements, especially as a classroom teacher, have made it likely that he will be tenured and promoted. His pedagogical efforts take forms recognized by his colleagues and his institution and they are assigned value by accepted procedures. In combination with his published scholarship (and typical departmental committee service), Doug's teaching--which has been evaluated and quantified and made visible--becomes a strong factor in his promotion. Doug is also an innovative teacher who has shared his contributions to curricular design and pedagogy through workshops at his own institution and through presentations at national conferences. Besides having value for his colleagues and for students, these efforts appear on his vita: they constitute an important part of his reputation as a professional.

"

28 DAYS LATER / *** (R): "

Director Danny Boyle ('Train-spotting') shoots on video to give his film an immediate, documentary feel, and also no doubt to make it affordable; a more expensive film would have had more standard action heroes, and less time to develop the quirky characters. Spend enough money on this story, and it would have the depth of 'Armageddon.' Alex Garland's screenplay develops characters who seem to have a reality apart from their role in the plot--whose personalities help decide what they do, and why.

"

Idle Words: "Stated simply, the problem is this: Dave Winer is the writer of several widely-used Net protocols, and his journal is the most linked-to weblog on the Internet, but he has the emotional maturity of a hamster. Specifically, a bipolar, sanctimonious hamster with weak technical writing skills.

This shouldn't matter. Pocket Napoleons abound online — that's what the Internet is for.

But people see Dave Winer's contributions to blogging, his seniority in the community, and his large audience, and naturally assume that he must be cut from the same cloth as a Linus Torvalds, Bruce Perens, or Larry Wall. In other words, a wizardly, technically adept, emotionally stable leader of a large online community.

It takes a while to realize that he's actually a freaking nutbag. "

Young dictators group forming: "Hello, I am a young dictator in search of other dictators to hang and drink beer with, play frisbee with, and who love ruling others with brutal impunity.



Do you have a military uniform? A beret? Funny facial hair? Come on board! We will discuss the future of independent dictators in the age of CIA puppets and how to utilize religion to justify to the masses your needing several high-priced German automobiles.



Benevolent dictators also welcome.



We will vote on who gets to lead the meetings, but I'll tell you right now I will be leading this group any way I see fit until I'm too old and my son gets voted in to take over.





it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests "

First in Her Class: "At Moorestown High, the calculations for valedictorian are made at the end of the first semester senior year. Just a few weeks before that semester ended, Blair dropped AP European History--one of the two courses she was taking at the school--citing exhaustion. 'The papers are killing her,' Judge Hornstine told the child study team while trying to withdraw Blair from the class. At the time, Blair had an A- in the class. It would have been one of the lowest grades of her high school career. "



When I went to high school I barely understood what AP classes were. I used to get excited about B+'s, and didn't realize you could even drop classes.

First in Her Class: "The case immediately made headlines, and not just because of the eye-popping price tag. There was also her choice of lawyer. Instead of hiring an expert in education law, Louis Hornstine hired Edwin Jacobs Jr.

JACOBS is something of a legend in Jersey legal circles. He first rose to prominence in the mid-'80s defending Nicodemo 'Little Nicky' Scarfo, a legendary Philly mob boss. With a practice in Atlantic City, Jacobs has represented a colorful array of organized crime figures along the Broad Street-Boardwalk corridor. How good is he? In 1998, he represented Philly drug kingpin Louis Turra, accused of plotting the assassination of underboss Joseph 'Skinny Joey' Merlino. Jacobs never got to show his stuff on that case--Turra hanged himself in his cell before the trial started. But just three years later, Jacobs was defending Skinny Joey, who needed help beating a rap for three murders, two attempted murders, and a murder conspiracy charge. "



This is the lawyer for Blair Horstine, the young lady who sued to be valedictorian. New Jersey! New Jersey! This is weirder than the film "Election." I have to say that during my brief three day visit to Jersey I found it very pleasant.

Shirky: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Scott McCloud Tries Webcomic Micropayment: "Let's get some perspective. Name anything that provides more than 15 seconds worth of enjoyment for a dime. Give it a shot. Even a quarter. What can you buy for a quarter? Anything? You probably couldn't get a hobo to kick you in the nuts for a quarter. Whining about the epic, tragic loss of a dime? That's comical. Griping that even an entire cent is too much to support the artists you like? That's insulting."

Google Search: speedometer cable group:rec.autos.vw group:rec.autos.vw: "First, extracting the odometer is extremely easy. With practice,

it can be removed in 10 minutes as follows. Remove the plastic

trim over the dashboard and the lower dash cover. This entails

removing the metal rail that runs the width of the car. At this

point, you can access the speedometer cable from the bottom and

disconnect it. After removing the four screws that attach the

instrument cluster, the cluster may be lifted out from behind

the steering wheel by rotating its top toward you.



Now retire to an indoor work area and disassemble the cluster.

If you study it for a few minutes you'll see that the odometer

can be removed by removing/loosening about half a dozen screws.

The offending gear is easily accessed. I repaired mine with

fine nylon thread and epoxy over two years ago and have had no

problems since. Others have recommended fine wire.



This is also a good time to disable various warning mechanisms

if you are so inclined. But be careful installing the repaired

cluster as minor installation errors will cause your speedometer

to freak out. I recommend driving the car for 10 miles or so

before reassembling the dashboard.



This is an easy repair, well within the abilities of most adults

and requiring a surprisingly small number of tools. And it would

be difficult to follow the directions to my house, or measure oil

consumption without an odometer. (The trip odometer is really a

service interval odometer.)"

FARK.com: Drew Curtis' FARK.com: "Rumsfeld says don't call Iraq a 'quagmire,' because calling Iraq quagmire makes Rummy angry, you no like Rummy when he angry. ARRRRGGHHH! Rummy smash puny liberal press!"

Oh might Lazy Web, create me a portal page with links to all free music, streaming and otherwise, complete with good user reviews. And let it not link to country music."

Grateful Dead Song Lyrics!: "Casey Jones



Driving that train, high on cocaine,

Casey Jones is ready, watch your speed.

Trouble ahead, trouble behind,

And you know that notion just crossed my mind.



This old engine makes it on time,

Leaves Central Station 'bout a quarter to nine,

Hits River Junction at seventeen to,

At a quarter to ten you know it's travlin' again.



Driving that train, high on cocaine,

Casey Jones is ready, watch your speed.

Trouble ahead, trouble behind,

And you know that notion just crossed my mind.



Trouble ahead, Lady in red,

Take my advice you'd be better off dead.

Switchman's sleeping, train hundred and two is

On the wrong track and headed for you.



Driving that train, high on cocaine,

Trouble ahead, trouble behind,

And you know that notion just crossed my mind.



Trouble with you is the trouble with me,

Got two good eyes but you still don't see.

Come round the bend, you know it's the end,

The fireman screams and the engine just gleams..."

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | The final irony: "Germans and irony

Not speaking German, nor watching much German TV, nor having read any German literature apart from Bernard Schlink who, let me tell you, is about as ironic as a dog chasing a squirrel, it's difficult to tell whether or not there's any truth in the rumour that they have no sense of irony. However, since they invented it (well, they invented Schlegel), it's more than likely that they've got plenty. To anyone who thinks I'm insufficiently bigoted, I have serious doubts about the French. "

Wired News: Pulling Up by Their Sandal Straps: "

Success created other problems. Some of the firm's managers misappropriated money, corrupt police shook down Ecosandals' workers, and armed robbers raided the company's offices. Although no one was injured and little was stolen, the robbery scared the workers so much that the company had to move out of the center of Korogocho into a guarded building with locks on the doors.



Even with the revenues flowing in, local realities made it difficult to save and invest.



'The sandal makers are so poor, and their neighbors are so poor. It's very difficult to leave 100,000 or 200,000 shillings (about $1,400 to $2,800) in the bank when you know that people need medicine to survive,' said Meyer. It is not uncommon for Kenyans to die because they cannot afford medications for treatable ailments.

"

Take an existing p2p app like

Gnutella. Add some sort of metadata

to the id3 tag, like "copyrighted: no"

and then use it to distribute and find

uncopyrighted music.



Give users the ability to rate songs or

mark them as illegal copies.



Eventually, people just start sharing

tons of good, free stuff.



Oh, and I want it to have some sort

of collaborative recommendation

engine. And a puppy.

Newsday.com - N.J. man pleads guilty to posting `Hulk' bootleg: "

Gonzalez told U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein that he knew what he was doing was wrong. Asked by reporters afterward whether he liked the movie, Gonzalez said: 'I haven't even watched it.'



'Just don't make him angry,' his attorney, Matthew V. Portella, joked to reporters later. 'You won't like him when he's angry.'

"

Tropism - QuickTopic bulletin board

Well, it's all relative, isn't it? When I was in college (taking a full courseload and working 20 hours a week), writing 5,000 words a day was not even remotely extraordinary. 8 and 10,000 word days were pleasant but far from unheard of. I did 15,000 words one day (and that was after working 4 hours in the morning at an office job).



Now? Now I get a thousand words a day if I'm extraordinarily vigilant. Which I haven't been lately.



And, lest you be tempted to believe that there is some quantity/quality trade-off, I'll note that many of the stories in the collection were written during that period of great productivity. I started to slack off in the year 2000, as near as I can tell... when I moved to California, more or less.



And I'm not just writing less -- I'm writing more *slowly*. I used to have a comfy cruising altitude of 2,000 words per hour. Now it's more like half that. I'm worried the progression will progress. As I get older, I gain weight and write more slowly. It kind of sucks.

Division of State History / Utah Heritage Tourism Toolkit - Forest Service Cabin & Lookout Rentals

Description

The USDA Forest Service allows the public to rent surplus historic properties on the National Forests for overnight use. Over 150 properties are available, mostly in the western USA. Fees collected are used for the maintenance and preservation of the properties. Some properties are managed by local nonprofit organizations or commercial campground concessionaires.



Heritage Resources: Fire lookout towers are perhaps the best-known of the Forest Service's historic structures. They come in a variety of styles from ground cabins to small cabs atop 70-foot steel towers. Some are accessible only by foot or snowmobiles in the winter. All are situated atop mountains where they have a clear view of their surroundings. The majority of rental properties are surplus ranger stations, rustic frame or log buildings located by themselves or in small compounds in wooded settings through the national forests. All are accessible by car. Most lookouts and ranger stations were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Curta Handhelds

The Curtas originally came in padded metal cases sealed with gaskets. (Later models came in plastic cases.) The Model I had an 8 column "keyboard" (8 slides), 11 digit results and a 6 digit revolution counter. It was 2.1" in diameter by 3.4" long and weighed 8 oz. The Model II had an 11 column keyboard, 15 digit results and an 8 digit revolution counter. It was 2.6" in diameter by 3.6" long and weighed 12.5 oz. Curtas survived the early electronic desktop calculators due to their portability and lower price, but pocket electronic calculators killed the Curtas in 1972. The samples shown are from the 1950s.

Blogging as a Course Management Tool

Blogging as a Course Management Tool

Street Tech :: hardware beyond the hype This all in one device has changed my life from being a backpack carrying computer gadget man to simple phone carrier, which includes a digital camera, photo album, MP3 player, access to my POP3 email and always on internet access. While the phone is a bit on the bulky side, the fact that it can replace so many devices makes it a device well worth having.

new G5s | Metafilter

While it may be that True Artists Ship, the help knows that Only Steve Unveils.

radio free tivo - QuickTopic bulletin board

Easily Distracted

When all is said and done, I love academia, but still, it hasn?t always been what I sometimes imagined it would be.



I thought I was choosing my dreams and rejecting security, but it turns out I was choosing security at the possible cost of some of my dreams.





What Mostern most accurately identifies is the strange absence of talk between academic professionals about their own work or the larger weave of their intellectual interests. To some extent, this has to do with time, or the lack of it. A professor is also of necessity an administrator and a teacher and a scholar. The work expands to fill any time vacuum: clear a space for some purpose and you quickly find unsought obligations filling it.





As Mostern notes, however, that?s not an adequate explanation of the problem. It?s the alibi that everyone uses to lightly explain away the puzzling vacuum at the heart of academic life.





I had a chance a few years ago to attend a dinner for a guest lecturer. Some of my favorite colleagues from Swarthmore were there. The conversation started with issues that were fairly specific to the speaker?s presentation and work, but very rapidly grew into a fast-paced bull session aimed at the primal question, ?What is a good society?? Afterwards, I talked with one of my colleagues who hadn?t been there about how this had been the best discussion I?d had since I was an undergraduate, and my feeling of melancholy about how rare and odd this conversation actually was. My colleague looked puzzled and said, ?Sounds awfully simplistic".

Why Journals Suck The Everyready Battery Bunny article.



I'm always thrilled to encounter a seminal article which compactly rearranges my thinking about a particular subject. I'm less thrilled when I encounter it in its fourth or fifth incarnation in journals and anthologies, mutated only slightly by cut-and-paste necrophilia.



It's one thing to use journal articles to work on different aspects of a single theme or issue, and another to basically regurgitate the same article repeatedly. This republication isn't usually done with dishonest intent--once a single influential article appears in print, the author often finds himself or herself fending off multiple invitations to publish something very similar to the original. However it happens, this increasingly common kind of publication adds little shelf life to the journals themselves: no need to have six issues of various journals with approximately the same content.



* The Cliff Notes for Scholars Too Busy to Read About the Latest Thing article.



There are scholars--and journals--that specialize in publishing articles which do little more than summarize (and cannibalize) a number of recent arguments on some hot topic without adding much in the way of original analysis to those debates. This kind of synthesis article is typically choked with citations and offers few insights on its subject matter. It therefore has little or no lasting value.

Rock Canyon - Utah Description of hike: This is a good hike through some beautiful country. This hike is good for families with young children. You can stop at any time and turn around. There is a good parking lot with facilities at the trail head. This is a popular canyon for rock climbers so there is oportunity to watch the climbers. In the early spring and summer there is a stream that follows the trail and is very fast and cold. The trail will end at the Rock canyon campground that can be reached by dirt road up the Squaw Peak Road from Provo Canyon



Information:

Uinta National Forest Supervisors Office

88 West 100 North

Provo, Utah 84601

(801)377-5780

FAX:(801)377-0821

Digital SARS folk art: BoingBoing call for entries - QuickTopic bulletin board

Does anyone else think that this is way overboard? Xeni's SARS coverage is considered to be highly distasteful among my asian friends -- they liken it to a Chinese web site calling for cartoons of September 11th.



I'll bet Xeni's media-whoring hasn't mentioned that a lot of the posts on BoingBoing have called for this to stop or have been against SARS art on grounds of taste and quantity.

HBS Working Knowledge: Innovation: Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos meet "Ginger"

When the study hall ended, Bezos held up Brian's handout. "I think this plan is dead on arrival," he said. "The U.S.A. is too hostile." The "car guys" were going to lobby against Ginger and they were going to win.



"No they're not," said Brian, smiling.



Bezos suggested starting slow, using one city or country as an experimental station. Once Ginger's benefits were clear, the company would have a wedge to pound into U.S. regulations. The perfect place to begin, thought Bezos, was Singapore. "You only have to convince one guy, the philosopher king, and then you have four million people to test it."

Did You Hear the One About the Suicide Bomber?

But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed everything. Initially, she ceased performing on the logic that this might not be the time for gags about Ramadan or, for that matter, anything funny a Muslim had to offer. Three weeks later, though, she took the stage in a Soho club called Amused Moose and, with a single joke, found the very, very thin line between acceptable comedy and abominable taste: ''My name is Shazia Mirza,'' she said. ''At least that's what it says on my pilot's license.''

The Tard Blog #16: Joe's Assignment

In the front of my class I have a bin for submitted assignments. At the end of the day I'll go through it. Occasionally someone submits some work that's worth grading, usually however I just find spit balls, used tissues, chewed pencils, sheets of paper with curse words all over them, or someone's book. Today I was particularly bad, and I was basically dumping the bin into the garbage, when I came across Joe's submission.

Joe had taken a piece of paper, folded it in eight, as we usually do for math problems. Then instead of just using the eight rectangles for the problems, he cut each one out and made a stack of papers. He stapled the stack together, and submitted his work that way. This amazes me for several reasons:
?
-First of all the papers were cut, not ripped, this means he had to have access to a pair of scissors.
-Second the cuts were actually straight, very unlike Joe.
-Third, he had access to a stapler to put it together.

Despite this amazing effort, he didn't actually do any of the problems. Apparently after all that hard work making the booklet he didn't feel like putting anything in it.

There is a lesson to be learned here about making websites in first year composition classes.

Complexity Digest

Kick Their Ass and Take Their Gas: Democracy Comes to Iraq

Yet if history is any guide, the people of Iraq will not submit meekly to this latest form of tyranny. Resistance will escalate, and so will repression.



Bremer, arriving in Baghdad with a mandate to restore order and security, is a counterterrorism specialist who favors hardline measures, including "targeted killings." So the near future isn't hard to guess: dissenters will be jailed, "disappeared," assassinated, or simply mowed down with automatic weapons.



They will of course be branded as recalcitrant Saddamists, Iranian spies, and al-Qaeda terrorists. Given what we know about the goals and nature of the occupation government, it might be more accurate to call them freedom fighters.

Salam Pax Is Real - How do I know Baghdad's famous blogger exists? He worked for me. By Peter Maass

In early May, I agreed to hand over a fantastic interpreter I had been working with to a colleague who could offer him long-term employment, as I would be leaving the country at the end of the month. I needed a new interpreter to fill the gap for two weeks or so, and the colleague mentioned that he had just met a smart and friendly guy named Salam. I quickly traced Salam to the Sheraton Hotel. Salam—this is his real first name—was sitting in a chair in the lobby, reading Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. I knew, at that moment, that I would hire him.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Salam's story

Screens cover the windows to keep the midday sun away from his three computers, each of which has been opened up into a sprawling tangle of wires and circuit boards. A poster from the film The Matrix hangs on the wall, looking down on a jumble of computer books and CDs strewn over the floor. Pages of website addresses and computer commands are tacked to the wall above his screen. It was here that Salam would sit and talk endlessly about the impending war with Raed, who returned to Baghdad before the war, and the friend he describes only as G - Ghaith, another young, intelligent, eloquent architectural graduate who spent much of his adult life dodging military service. They talked eagerly about the demise of Saddam, but they were scared too. Scared of being called up for military service because all young men were reservists, and scared of being obliterated by an American bomb.

Digital SARS folk art: BoingBoing call for entries - QuickTopic bulletin board

The single most Blade Runner moment of my life was seeing an elderly asian man, on a bicycle with a red LED flasher, pinned to a giligan hat and with a "phone bag" old-school mobile phone and a modern laptop strapped to the bike rack, with a clear plastic garbage bag full of recyclables over one shoulder.



This was in '97, in Allston, MA. He was wearing a surgical mask. It was not a unique sight on the streets of Boston all throughout the '90s, mostly worn by older individuals and recent immigrants. The thinking was that they were protection against air pollution, and an American fashionista came up with a series of "designer smog masks" to join in the fun.

Reducing AFS Spring Tension

To reduce the spring tension, first remove the black plastic cover on the air flow sensor by cutting up through the silicone sealer with a sharp blade. You will see, among other things, a black gear-wheel on top of what looks like a clock spring. A wire clip engages a tooth on the gear-wheel and is held in place by a 7 mm screw.

Scribe a permanent mark on the gear-wheel at the tooth where the wire clip engages (This is so you can go back to the stock setting if need be).

This is the tricky bit: Get a good grip on the gear wheel with your fingers. Loosen the 7 mm screw and wire clip assembly. Don't drop anything, and whatever you do, don't let go of that spring, or you may never get the car to run correctly again!

Now, carefully unwind the gear-wheel 3 teeth counter-clockwise. This is no more than 8 or 9 mm, so be careful. Reset the wire clip three teeth to the loose side of stock. Tighten down the 7 mm screw, replace the black cover with a thin bead of silicone sealer and you're done.

I tried one, three, and five teeth... one didn't seem to do much, five actually reduced power. Three was just right. Stay with three teeth because the down side of too rich a mixture will be increased emissions, and possible damage to the O2 sensor and/or catalytic converter. YMMV.

I can report that this tweak helps solves some perceived Digifant driveability problems (assuming all else is in

Digifant Performance Mods Removing the Intake Snorkel

A less permanent intake modification involves removing the resonator snorkel from the airbox. You have to take the airbox out of the car and then pry out the snorkel. This greatly increases the size of the air intake and can actually improve throttle response on your Digifant car if it is otherwise in good condition.

Digifant Performance Mods Engine Swaps



It is possible to swap the 1.8 liter short block out from under your Digifant head and replace it with a 2.0 liter short block either from a 1988 - 1992 Audi 80 (engine code 3A) or a 1993 - 1999 VW A3 (engine code ABA). Such a swap should be good for at least 15 extra horsepower and a real seat-of-the-pants torque boost even if you do nothing else. This swap plus other mods could push you towards 150 horsepower.

Over the last couple of months, their have been threads about running their AJ in the car. Some people have been satisfied with the sound and other have not been. I bought my iRock about three months ago and have mainly been dis-satisfied with the sound. Their would be times when it sounded okay, other times their would be radio noise that would drive me crazy. Since I only use the iRock on long road trips in rental cars, I just assumed that the problems where related to the location I was in at the time. Unfortunately I spend a lot of time on the road sometimes driving 10 hours with breaks only for gas.

About a week ago I was testing my iRock before I started another trip and it sounded awful. I put in some new batteries, and it sounded good. Then I said to myself could that be the problem is the drifting and sound quality susceptible to the batteries I was using. I went to Radio Shack and bought their Lighter Socket 3VDC Power Adapter rated at up to 1000mA (part number 273-1855). I wired it into my iRock. The sound quality was immediately apparent. I can say after driving to Las Vegas and back that their was no drift or radio noise.

I did have to lower the volume to 75% and the bass and treble to 0dbs. The sound is just great. I have been using a cassette adapter in my truck, and I have to tell you the comparison in sound between the iRock and the cassette adapter is like night and day. The only thing that you have to be c

L.E.D. Headlamp



Made from an altoids tin or something similar.

Google Search: Having used a digicam for 1-1/2 years, I think the most important thing you

need to be able to do is meter off of darker areas of the picture so that

you get a good exposure. This is even more important than with film, which

can also have the same problem. In short, you need an accurate spot

metering, then the ability to lock that metering for use on the whole

picture. If you have a camera which will record in RAW mode, and you use

that mode and post-process the picture, this is not so much an issue.

Ari Fleischer, public face of Bush White House,is leaving

He said he walked into the Oval Office to tell President Bush on Friday and did something he'd never done before -- close the door behind him. Fleischer, who said he wants to leave before the re-election campaign gears up, said his meeting ended with the president kissing him

Google Search: biting group:rec.pets.ferrets group:rec.pets.ferrets

I to keep down now have my first two ferrets -twelve weeks old - poleys - identical sisters - excepts that one seems to regard me as food and the other as a friend. How do I discourage biting? The blood is spoiling my carpet.

hi.

Mattel Camera

Mattel Camera

Mattel makes several digital cameras, among them the BarbieCam and the Nick Click. Both are identical from a hardware/software standpoint and both are relatively inexpensive. With a resolution of only 160x120, they are by no means high-res, but they do present some fun experimenting opportunities.



The cameras use a 56K 8/N/1 serial protocol, and thus can be adapted for use with most any computer. The command protocols are detailed here and are easy to use. Note that the camera has little native intelligence, running from a variant of the Intel 8051. As a consequence, the image data from the camera is almost completely raw, requiring the host PC to demosaic the Bayer RGB data. While fundamentally simple, this process can be done in many ways. Here are just a few links to more information on this:

Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge - 6/26/00

Guide's Comments:

The reason this place is not overcrowded like many of Utah's other natural wonders is because of the necessary long, desolate, sometimes arduous journey to get there. Arriving from the east, much of the journey is over the road that served as Pony Express and Overland Stage routes in the 1860s. This road is 75 miles of rocky, rutted, wash-boarded and sometimes washed out driving pleasure. It takes me about 3 1/2 hours to get there from the southern part of Salt Lake County, but I tend to drive pretty slow over the bad roads. I am just not comfortable with going 50 mph on wash-board roads, and still have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from ending up in a ditch when the driver was doing just that. But I digress...



The long ride in to Fish Springs is well worth the effort. Along the way, the ruins and interpretive markers of several Pony Express stations can be visited. And there is a place where the road climbs over a pass affording wonderfully scenic views.

Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge - 6/26/00

About the Refuge:

Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge is located on the south edge of the Great Salt Lake Desert, 104 miles southwest of Tooele, and 78 miles northwest of Delta, Utah. The Refuge is extremely isolated and can be reached only by gravel roads across uninhabited desert. Local inquiry into road conditions is advised.



The Refuge was established in 1959, and encompasses 17,992 acres between two small mountain ranges. The refuge hosts about 3,000 visitors a year. Although duck and coot hunting is allowed during the season, visitors for wildlife observation outnumber hunters by six to one.



Five major springs and several lesser springs and seeps flow from a faultline at the base of the eastern front of the craggy Fish Springs Mountain Range. These mineral-laden, saline springs provide virtually all of the water for the Refuge's 10,000-acre marsh system. Since they maintain a year-round temperature of between 70 and 80 degrees, they provide a home for 5000 - 6000 wintering birds. The lush habitat, in the midst of miles of Great Basin Desert, is a true oasis for wildlife.



The marsh is divided into 9 sections by a gravel road, which makes viewing all areas very easy by car. The water is so clear that the sandy bottom is always visible, as are the schools of native Utah chub and introduced mosquito fish darting around in the shallows. You can also hear the song of the bull frog, and if you're lucky, maybe spot one.

iLeech

Ileech

Google Search: jb weld

Many years ago, I broke a pot metal post off inside a 4 throat motorcycle carburetor. What to do - $500 for a new carb? Naw. I wondered about JB Weld and called the factory. I had the pleasure of talking to the then chief engineer and founder of JB Weld. He is now deceased. The gentleman, sez "Boy, the stuff will cure in liquid if you need, it'll even cure under gasoline". Good news, since I wanted to use it in a carburetor. I rode that bike for 7 years afterwards and finally sold it -- with carburetor repair still intact. Bob Swinney

superglider records

mp3s

Doomsday Book (Connie Willis)

Despite the weaknesses in the science and the implausible 2054 Oxford, I enjoyed Doomsday Book a lot. I much prefer well-written books with lousy science to engineering manuals dressed up as novels. I'm not sure it deserved its Hugo and Nebula award double, but Doomsday Book is definitely worth a read, especially if you are interested in epidemiology (used to produce a rather clever detective problem) or medieval English history.

Slashdot | Warren Ellis Answers

3) I'm friends with Patrick and his wife Wendy, and I know Patrick could nail Spider. So does Wendy, who just cringes in those moments when Patrick begins to channel Spider, standing on tables and proclaiming Spider to be his role model and personal god...

Case Western SWAT foiled by Frank Gehry building - QuickTopic bulletin board

The shooter was someone I knew. When I was working in the Smith Computer Lab, he would frequently be borderline verbally abusive to the staff. He would take over clusters of macs and spread out his stuff so that others could not get to the computers. He was also banned from other labs on campus for his behavior. He blamed the erasure of all his files on a local ISP account on another lab admin and took them to court over it. Time after time, they ruled against him, I am pretty sure he was going after that admin when he started shooting.

also I remember when that building was a frisbee field where I used to play. bastards ruined a perfectly good field.

Slashdot | The Debate about Social Software

eBay item 2321491443 (Ends May-12-03 11:55:38 PDT ) - Lafuma RSX Recliner Lounge 4 Pak-FREE S&H*

You are bidding on a set of 4 green Lafuma RSX Batyline recliner lounge chairs.



Lafuma's RSX Batyline recliner lounge chair is quite possibly one of the most comfortable folding recliners ever made. This ergonomically designed, multiposition recliner adjusts to any position so it's comfortable for reading, sleeping, or just relaxing. Ideal for camping trips or in the backyard, the Lafuma recliner folds and unfolds very easily. This chair's design is the result of Lafuma's more than 50 years of experience in making the world's finest quality camping furniture. This chair features a sturdy, powder-coated steel frame and a combination polyester/cotton cushioned fabric. It also features a padded armrest and an adjustable pillow for added comfort. Lafuma chairs and camping furniture are made in France.

The ultimate relaxing machine and quite possibly the most comfortable folding recliner ever made. The ergonomically designed multi-position recliner adjusts to any position you choose so you will always feel comfortable whether you read, sleep or just relax. Perfect for camping trips or your little cabin in the woods, the Lafuma recliner folds and unfolds very easily. This chair is the result of the experience acquired by Lafuma since 1954 in making the world's finest quality camping furniture. Powder coated steel frame. Polyester/Cotton mesh fabric. Made in France.

Get that "Zero Gravity" effect in an outdoor recliner. Lafuma outdoor furniture combines ergonomic comfort with sleek continental style. The Lafuma RSX zero gravity recliner is widely used not only as camping, patio and pool furniture, but can be found in beauty salons and reflexology offices as well. La Fuma of France makes their outdoor patio recliners from the finest of canvases and lightweight frames. Whichever fabric you choose, you can be sure that your zero gravity recliner is UV and water resistant, as well as soft and flexible. Made to be easy to clean, easy to fold, and difficult to break, the La Fuma recliner is a wonderful addition to any patio or deck. Winner of the 1997 European Grand Prix of Design award. Ergonomically correct, breathable mesh material and very well made. Comfortable and classic, the La Fuma RSX recliner is a great chair at a great value. MSRP $756.00

Suspect seized in university shooting

KEEPING TRACK BY COMPUTER

It appeared that modern technology may have saved a lot of lives.

Paul Stork, a professor of information systems who was barricaded in his office with some of his doctoral students, told NBC affiliate WKYC-TV by telephone that building security almost immediately sent a building-wide broadcast e-mail alerting faculty and staff to collect students and hide.







Crime & Punishment



Complete coverage

from MSNBC.com

Environmental Psychology

COGNITIVE MAPPING OF PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS. METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS BASED ON THEORIES OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF MIND.

TSOUKALA, Kyriaki; University of Thessaloniki,

Cognitive maps as produced from the interaction of the individual with the physical environment have become an important research topic over the last decades. The systems that have been created for the interpretation of the function, form and contents of cognitive maps are directed by either (a) the excessive reinforcement of the role of one of the members of the above rel ation and, in consequence, the loss or weakening of the other member, or, (b) the abolition of this difference and inequality, which entails a well-balanced role of equal weight for the members of this relation. In this case the system of interactions is formed by mediating elements, such as the cultural, social and financial elements, and the individual 's sex, knowl edge, experience and activity. Through these elements the buily environment is re-constructed. In certain theories, these elements make their appearance within the logic of causality in the form of determinants, while in others, within the functionalistic rather than interactive logic. This paper deals with tne interpretation system associated with the social interactionalism. This is the epistimological approach moving around the concepts of Vygotsky's historical -cultural theory and other approaches from the area of Activity Theory. The activity and signs of the built space function as mediating instances in the interaction between the subject and the physical environment and result in an interior product, the representation or subjective image of the built space, and an exterior one, the recoded space through its subjectivisation. This approach and the concepts and the methods entailed in it have never been applied in environmental psychology. This paper aims at raising various issues as regards the function of concepts and methodological tools of this approach when applied on the analysis of phenomena observed in the individual's spatial behaviour in a built environment

Buy our FO32/865/XP/ECO by Sylvania at GoodMart.com

-1982-

n On Saturday, February 20, Mr. Ken Chevalier, 16, scores 12,900,000 points on BATTLEZONE by Atari Inc. after playing the game for 12 hours at the Star Station 101 arcade in Atascadero, California.

My record is 24,000, and I'm taking it off my laptop for fear of destroying the keyboard.

TiVo Upgrade Kits from the TiVo Upgrade Leader | WeaKnees.com

Adobe, Cob and Earth Building

Burbophobia cure . . . build it yourself

Technology Item 390 "About Face 2.0: The Book" 36 Total Responses

I've just finished chapter four and I am excited by this chapter on Qualitative analysis. I have been looking for a means to identify and understand users in a clear, concise summary and this is it. The book recommends:

1. Stakeholder Research - Establish Goals
2. Subject Matter Expert Interviews - Identify the domain.
3. User and customer interviews - To guide design.
4. User Observation/Ethnographic field studies - To guide formation of the product
5. Literature Review - To evaluate product effectiveness
6. Product and Competitive Audits - To evaluate the integrity of the product.

Emerging Technology: Clay Shirky

Communatree, an early BBS, founded on the principles of open access and free dialup. Throw off structure and new beautiful patterns arise. This does happen when you institute a new mode of communication to a group. Teenage boys subsumed the BBS (overrun) with sex talk. Site shut down.

'The Tyranny of Structurelessness' by Jo Freeman

Formal and Informal Structures

Contrary to what we would like to believe, there is no such thing as a 'structureless' group. Any group of people of whatever nature coming together for any length of time, for any purpose, will inevitably structure itself in some fashion. The structure may be flexible, it may vary over time, it may evenly or unevenly distribute tasks, power and resources over the members of the group. But it will be formed regardless of the abilities, personalities and intentions of the people involved. The very fact that we are individuals with different talents, predisposition's and backgrounds makes this inevitable. Only if we refused to relate or interact on any basis whatsoever could we approximate 'structurelessness' and that is not the nature of a human group.

IBM Almaden - News - WBI

The bowtie theory of web connectivity.

Wi-Fi Networking News

Although Dave noted repeatedly that he was 75, I would have pegged him at 52, and only because of his white hair. Decorated veteran of two wars who graduated at the bottom of his West Point Class, Dave is a shining example of how generosity, intense obsession, and the Internet's worldwide reach can transform pockets of humanity.



Dave's greatest moment -- at least recently -- was when he picked up his voice-over-IP (VOIP) Vonage phone and dialed Mt. Everest. Tsering Gyaltsen answered on the second ring.

Get it out of your hands!

if you REALLY REALLY have to at the last possible date, but don't do it now! I had to change my projected defense date (just yesterday!), but when you've already drafted almost the whole thing, the hard part is over and the procrastination isn't such a problem. I know that I, for one, procrastinate most when I'm afraid of it, and I'm not afraid like I was before I had anything drafted.

Stanford Online

Customers Tire of Excuses for Rebates That Never Arrive

Some shoppers have found a way to transform one retailer's offer of a mail-in rebate into an instant rebate at a competitor's store. Rather than lose a sale, retailers will sometimes match a competitor's price, including a discount equivalent to any rebate offered. "This is not a new strategy,'' Mr. Kay said. "Merchants have matched competitors' prices on the fly for decades, maybe centuries."

Business 2.0 - Web Article - Printable Version - Interview with Sci-Fi Writer Bruce Sterling

Pew Internet & American Life Project

A new sense of the shifting Internet population
The online population is fluid and shifting. While 42% of Americans say they don

MAMEFANS - ROM's List

Google Search:

It's not the CCD that's the problem, it's the on-board, built-in flash. A straight-on flash shot (not flash fill) using a built-in flash is never going to be that great, no matter what camera is used. What you need, if you're going to use flash successfully for anything more than snapshots or fill flash pictures, is the ability to bounce flash off the ceiling, or use an outboard flash, preferably one with more power than any built-in flash. For this, you need a camera with either a hot shoe for an external flash or a flash connection (or an arrangement where you can trigger external strobes with the built-in flash, and most small digicams can't really do that). For best results, the digicam also has to have the electronics necessary for automatic TTL flash control. Pierre

David Galbraith

Genealogists using DNA samples



One of the potential by-products from online genealogy, which has created a dramatic rise in the popularity of family history research, is rich family tree databases which will be invaluable for medical research.



The combination of DNA tests and traditional research will help to fill in the gaps that have made the goal of a global family tree impossible.



Online Genealogy may be the online application that is about to come out of stealth mode. It is the second most popular hobby in the US, is one of the most successful e-commerce areas and now the connection to life-sciences promises to make it much more lucrative.

David Galbraith

The last complete specimen of the extinct Dodo rotted in a cupboard at the Oxford University Mueum of Natural History and had to be burned in the 19th century. Only part of its beak and a foot were salvaged, retrieved from the flames by a thoughtful curator.

I Wanna Be Famous! I wanna be a famous Technical Writer!

Empirical Analysis of Google SafeSearch

Empirical Analysis of Google SafeSearch

SuperDeluxo4 wgets and curls: wget usage tips Archives

NEWS.scotsman.com - Latest News - Knife-Thrower Hits Assistant – on Live TV

But with just nine seconds to go she was hurt as the blade caught the top of her head.



Rodianova was visibly shaken, cowering as further knives were launched and losing her previously fixed grin.

Carol Berkenkotter's web page

"Settings and the Institutional Organization of Language"(in progress), in Towards a Rhetoric of Everyday Life (M. Nystrand & T. Duffy, Eds.), Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

CNN.com - Symbol of Saddam's rule toppled - Apr. 9, 2003

CNN Correspondent Martin Savidge, embedded with the 1st Marines, 7th Battalion, said the university campus was a battlefield, with black smoke rising from several buildings and machine-gun fire ripping around the fighting vehicles.



"This was not the exact reception ... anticipated," Savidge reported while under fire. "There's a lot of smoke and dust now and fire. ... [It's] a far cry from the jubilant crowds ... just hard to imagine two blocks away."

Free Coupons and Discounts from Deal Dude

Since at least 1986, the FBI has been tracking down U.S.-based terrorists who fraudulently redeem Sunday newspaper grocery coupons to fund attacks. During the trial of the men who bombed the World Trade Center in 1992, investigators claimed that U.S.-based cells had raised $100 million by processing coupons through stores they owned in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia. About 340 billion food coupons are distributed each year, and 3.8 billion are redeemed. According to one report, about $500 million worth of those coupons are redeemed fraudulently.

gladwell dot com / connecting the dots

He just didn't think the Agency was going to be of any help in finding Ramzi Yousef. 'Back then, I don't think the C.I.A. could have found a person in a bathroom,'" Herman says. "'Hell, I don't think they could have found the bathroom.'" The assumption of the reformers is always that the rivalry between the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. is essentially marital, that it is the dysfunction of people who ought to work together but can't. But it could equally be seen as a version of the marketplace rivalry that leads to companies working harder and making better products.

Google Search: Making an Index

This FAQ began as a response to a user question asking "Can you

automatically generate an index in Word?"

The short answer is No!

Sorry, generating an index is depressingly manual! An experienced technical

writer wrote this FAQ. As a technical writer, I produce long documents

running to thousands of pages of technical material. Indexes are part of my

game. I can't tell you how to produce one automatically, but I can tell you

how to produce one easily!

Create Diagrams in Word 2002, Excel 2002, and PowerPoint 2002

Microsoft Office Assistance Center



Some great "how-to" articles on Word in here, including multiple formatting of graphic boxes, etc.

Discussion of generating an index

Technical publishing tips for Word

Technical Publishing with Microsoft Word

Some technical publishing tips.

U.S. bombs convoy of Kurdish leaders / Friendly fire incident described as 'scene from hell'

BBC correspondent John Simpson, who suffered minor shrapnel wounds in the incident, reported: "This is just a scene from hell here. All the vehicles are on fire, there are bodies burning all around me, bits of bodies all around. . .



. The Americans saw this convoy and they bombed it. They hit their own people.



"I saw people burning to death in front of me," he added.



Simpson said that BBC translator Kamaran Abdurazaq Muhamed died in the bombing from blood loss after losing his legs.



Among the injured was Wajy Barzani, a top KDP commander and brother of Massoud Barzani, leader of one of the two main Kurdish factions in northern Iraq. Barzani, in critical condition, was airlifted to a U.S. military hospital in Germany.

HOUSE OF GAMES

I met a woman once who was divorced from a professional magician. She hated this man with a passion. She used to appear with him in a baffling trick where they exchanged places, handcuffed and manacled, in a locked cabinet. I asked her how it was done. The divorce and her feelings meant nothing compared to her loyalty to the magical profession. She looked at me coldly and said, "The trick is told when the trick is sold."

Booklet printing

To access your "h:" drive, or "my documents" folder from on campus, past the following URL into Internet Explorer:



ftp://.4cranema.stu.uvsc@ftp.uvsc.edu



Please replace "4cranema" with your english lab login id, rather than hacking into my account.

worshop 4 word layout workshop.





worshop 5 word layout workshop.

What Should I Do With My Life?

IRAQ-O-METER



Is this technical writing?

Microsoft Word and layout

Undecided Draft

Reviews of Manuel Castells' Trilogy

review blurbs of Castells

IPE: may98 : Giddens on Castells

> In the 1990s, Silicon Valley is a microcosm of the
> generalisation it helped promote. A dazzling variety of
> non-American companies have an active presence. Like other
> nodes of the network society, its regionality is now
> symbolic rather than real: it supplies one cluster of
> connections in a global system of parallel developments.
> The clusters of scientific and technical institutions found
> in areas such as Paris-Sud, the M4 corridor, Hsinchu-Taiwan
> and many others become tied into the global network. They
> are, Castells says, the blast furnaces of the information
> age.

www.theory.org.uk Resources: Anthony Giddens

Gauntlett, David (2002), Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction, Routledge, London and New York. (Extracts available at www.theory.org.uk).

NATIONAL POST

The doctor who first raised the alarm about a mysterious new disease has become one of the most famous casualties of the deadly respiratory illness.



Dr. Carlo Urbani, an Italian communicable-disease expert known for his tireless dedication to his patients, who received a Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work with Doctors Without Borders, died in Thailand this weekend, where he was being treated for the severe acute respiratory syndrome he was the first to diagnose.

Usability Myths Need Reality Checks

Two papers, published by Robert Virzi in 1992 and Jakob Nielsen and Thomas Landauer in 1993, made a pretty good case that five users would uncover 70% of major usability problems and the next three would get most of the rest - for certain types of software. The usability community took the idea and ran with it.

Arguments advanced in the articles justified five to eight users as a significant number. It was also an affordable number. All sides were satisfied. Let the testing begin!

The two papers gave five to eight users a scientific basis for the testing of small software applications. However, extending the "five user theory" to larger software applications and the world-wide web turned a useful rule into a myth with no scientific basis.

Good myths are plausible explanations that serve a purpose. Feel free to chuckle, but at one time more people believed that a big guy in the sky with a hammer caused thunder and lightning than ever believed five users was enough to test anything, even though praying to Thor never did stop the rain. The myth served its purpose, which was not to control the weather, but to keep the Nordic priesthood in power.

Social Software panel at PC Forum 2003

Clay Shirky: Social software is everything from chat to group email to games. Three key things:

It's native to the Internet in ways that other technologies are not. Prior to the Web we had other tools for publication. IM was preceded by phones. Social communication -- how groups gather -- has no analog except the table.

It has an inverse relationship of value to scale. Websites are better with more users. But inviting 10,000,000 to dinner or putting 10,000,000 in your Rolodex sucks. The smaller the pool, the more valuable the relationships. The unit of social software is small groups.

War Desk | canada.com

There is something surreal about an intense gun battle in such intimate circumstances.



As one of the young gunners told me just after the fight, "It was like the best video game I have ever played."

Bibliography and style guides for writing and teaching English

Citing sources from the World Wide Web

Jon Udell: The universal canvas

Yahoo! News - Brody Surprises Berry With Kiss at Oscars

Brody Surprises Berry With Kiss at Oscars

2 hours, 57 minutes ago



LOS ANGELES - Best-actor winner Adrien Brody created an amorous Oscar moment to remember when he grabbed presenter Halle Berry and planted a long kiss on the mouth of last year's best actress.







A stunned Berry was left openmouthed and gasping Sunday, although she appeared amused by Brody's enthusiasm after he won an Oscar for his role in "The Pianist." Looking on from the audience at the Kodak Theatre was Berry's husband, singer Eric Benet.



"Whoa, I bet they didn't tell you that was in the gift bag," Brody cracked.



Backstage, the 26-year-old Brody was asked about the smooch.



"Well, if you ever have an excuse to do something like that, that's it," he said. "I took my shot."



Did Berry kiss him back?



"Oh yeah," Brody said, grinning.