Thwart not the Librarian!
Ok, sure. We've all got our little preconceived notions about what librarians are and what they do. Many people think of them as diminutive civil servants, scuttling about "Sssh-ing" people and stamping things. Well, think again buster.

Advanced Smart Tag Tools

"This article discusses three advanced smart tag development tools: the Smart Tag MOSTL Generator tool, which allows you to build smart tag XML list files; the Smart Tag List Builder tool, which allows you to build smart tag XML list files and list update files; and the MakeTrie and TestTrie tools, which allow you to build and test smart tag binary format files."

I'll admit, it's not the most gripping thing I've ever written (or co-written). The characters are not that compelling. MOSTL is capable, and even interesting, but it's hard for most readers to really feel empathy. And the bit with the cycle gang is just too unbeleivable.

Salon.com News | Disney campaign ruffles feathers

From the love-to-hate-Disney department

"Are they trying to scare us? Here's a billion-dollar company that can't get people to watch their sorry hockey team, so they're bullying everybody into buying tickets. It stinks."

Salon.com People | A conversation with Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes

Ghost World was an excellent graphic novel. The movie is also supposed to be excellent. Unfortunately, I was so busy when it came for the SIFF that I missed it. Looking forward to cathcing it at the theatre soon.

My brother-in-law just sent me this incredible view of a tundra village new Iqualuit, in Canada's Northwest Territories (NWT). I was born up in the NWT, though not nearly as far north as where this picture was taken. Sorry it's so large.

Case Closed on the 'Iceman' Mystery (washingtonpost.com)

It turns out that the Iceman was murdured with an arrow in the back. Scientists are puzzled and amazed at the shocking discovery that ancient men were a greedy, bloodthirsty lot who... oh, never mind.

Thanks to John for the link.

PETA has a novel solution to the Whale hunting problem and global hunger all at once, Eat the Whales. Yes, apparently this is for real. The world just keeps getting weirder. Thanks to John (who wishes he had his own Blog to post this stuff) for the link.

CNN.com - Senator wants two-drink limit on planes - July 25, 2001

"U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein has asked airlines to limit the number of drinks they serve to passengers in an effort to curtail the number of "air rage" incidents."

And while they're at it, how about a two-drink limit for people ordering latte's? I've stood in a lot of latte lines in this town, and let me tell you that I'm concerned. How many more must die to "Latte Rage" before something is done?

5_Trope

" I have heard but never felt men who skin women with the back of a hand"

5_trope is an online lit-zine, one of the better ones out there, and they just put out their July 2001 issue.

GUI X Configuration Tool
"Do not select a monitor similar to your monitor unless you are certain that the monitor you are selecting does not exceed the capabilities of your monitor. Doing so may overclock your monitor and damage or destroy it."

This from the install guide for Red Hat LINUX. I'm not sure if installing an OS that can fry my hardware is really cool or really scary.

My D&D Character went up a level.

I was bored today, so I bought Red Hat Linux for the K6-III box I have sitting under my desk.

From the department of common denominators:
And Now a Word From Their Cool College Sponsor

"'We wanted a message, one that we thought kids could relate to,' Mr. McCabe said. 'Everyone can relate to money.'

Salon.com Politics | Pope to Bush: Reject embryo research

1) "Pope John Paul II urged President Bush in their first meeting together to bar creation of human embryos for medical research, saying Monday that America has a moral responsibility to reject actions that 'devalue and violate human life.'"

2) "In contrast to the specific objection John Paul raised, embryos involved in the research that Bush is considering are not created for scientific study but are taken from fertility clinic surpluses that would otherwise be discarded."

Today's Ethics 101 Question: Compare the above statements (taken from an AP Wire article). Does statment 2 claim to refute statement 1? For extra credit, break the two arguments down into component assertions, stated and implied. Does this reveal anything about the arguments?

Sewer Genesis

"In 1988 Fox released Die Hard; the plot, which was original at the time, had Bruce Willis as an off-duty policeman playing a game of cat and mouse with a gang of heavily-armed thieves. I enjoyed Die Hard immensely and must have seen it half a dozen times while it was still in theaters. Around my third or fourth time through—after I had memorized all the fight scenes—I noticed something funny about the casting."

Matt Ruff talks about his Sewer, Gas and Electric trilogy.

The Flangy News - Cannot find server

"I don't know but here I am thinking about http referal headers at 1 am on Saturday."

It's been ages since I found a new blog worth noting. The flangy news is the blog of a Microsoft employee. Pretty straightforward, kind of techy with no desire to pull punches where Microsoft is concerned.

The fulifier at malfunction.org will make any web site look like it was designed by a 4 year old.

I'm adding an Imood Indicator to this site. I don't really plan to update it. In fact, I think Imood is kind of stupid. I just consider it an act of loyalty towards the smiley. I've been using smiley's for years, after all.

Tony's Seafood Paella modified from the Joy of Cooking.

Brown 1 lb. of chicken or chicken sausage in olive oil.
Put the sausages aside on a paper towel.
Brown 1 onion, 3 ripe, peeled, chopped tomates in the oil.
When brown, place in the paella pot with 4-5 cups of chicken broth. Heat to boil.
Add 3 cups assorted cooked canned chilli beans (I use white, black and kidney beans), rosemary leaves and salt.
When boiling add 10 scrubbed mussels, 10 peeled raw shrimp, 10 scallops.
Stir well then add 1 pound of uncooked rice. Pat down the top and cook over medium-high heat for 20-25 minutes until rice is done. DO NOT STIR!

Take a look at They Rule. It's a flash control built on a database of the largest publicly traded companies in the US. You can add companies and view how their boards are connected. You can also add notes and URLs to a company or person. It's meant as a sort of research tool and collective effort for activists. It's also just a very cool use of the technology.

ABCNEWS.com : Cat Mauls Man Showering Parrot

"Gerard Daigle, 80, lost a pint of blood and required stitches after his cat Touti, a diminutive roughly meaning Tiny, launched a frenzied attack after Daigle, who was giving his pet parrot a shower, inadvertently sprayed the cat with water.

That's all I'm blogging today, but it's enough. It is not known why the man was giving his parrot a shower.

The Smoking Gun: Doofy Dubya: Only In America Heeeere's your president! Watch a funny video of Dubya in his cups, shot years after he went "cold turkey."

They were $1000, but now you can get them for just $250.

Thanks to Zannah for the link.

"Code Red" worm claims 12,000 servers - Tech News - CNET.com
"Each instance of the worm will attack the same computers in the same order, according to eEye's analysis. Maiffret said that while the addresses of the computers attacked by the worm seem to be random, because the worm uses the same starting point, or "seed," to generate the list, the "random" lists that any two worms generate are identical. Like identical genes, which produce a clone, identical seed numbers produce attack lists that are the same."

This also means that anyone who has access to an infected computer can generate the attack list and thus know the addresses of all the other infected computers.

I just scheduled a Private Eye Tour of Capitol Hill for Aug 4. I've been waiting to take this tour for weeks.
"Windsor Olson, a private eye since 1958, is giving three different tours in Seattle. See what he has seen over the years while working on the other side of the Seattle streets!!"

COMMENTS ARE BACK!

Thanks to Reblogger

uh-oh

In Court, a Priest Reveals a Secret He Carried for 12 Years

"On a winter afternoon in 1989, a Jesuit priest named Joseph Towle was called to the home of a teenager in the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx. Jesus Fornes, a young man Father Towle had guided toward his first communion, had something awful to tell the priest: he had killed a man in Kelly Park."

This is a fascinating case, the more so to me, since I spent a couple of years in a seminary myself and know a few people who are studying Canon Law. As far as I know, there is no record that a Catholic Priest ever violated the seal of confession. Apparently the archdiocese is satisfied that Fr. Towle's conversation with Mr Fornes was not a sacramental confession (which, according to Church Law, it would not be if the words of absolution were never spoken). What interests me is that the lawyers in the case invoked Church law in an effort to keep Fr. Towle from testifying.

U.K. park bench to get Net access

'The bench is a metaphor for the Internet slipping into every day usage - it’s as everyday as a park bench,' said an MSN spokesman.

Speaking of which, here's The Park Bench.

Bulwer-Lytton Contest Winners
For a little local flavor, I whipped this one up:
On another caffeine-infused evening in Latte-Land, it rained exuberantly upon everyone except for the feckless denizens at Safeco Field, Eastsiders and Seattleites alike, who revelled under the retractable roof, not knowing that in the next few moments a behemoth of an earthquake would shake the foundations of their SUV-gas-guzzling, pay-for-coffee-with-a-check-smirking, "I don't believe global-warming exists" suburban-sprawling existence.

College computer admin may face fines and jail for using distrivuted computing tools on his employer's network.

Salon.com Technology | Distributed.outrage

"Distributing computing systems have been aimed at problems as varied as finding cures for cancer or AIDS or predicting worldwide climate changes. If McOwen is found guilty, the negative publicity for distributed computing might discourage other universities and large institutions from lending their computer networks to the cause."

Thanks to John for the link. (PS. John's a looser, and doesn't have his own home page, so I can't link it)

I have this dungeon at home. I know where everything is.

Famous Last Words, a little RPG humor. And also check out Eric and the Gazeebo.

Story Minute

Study: Abe Lincoln's Anti-Depressant Made Him Mad

"A few months into his presidency, Abraham Lincoln stopped taking the little blue pills used to treat his melancholia because they made him ``cross,'' and scientists said on Tuesday it was good that he did. Those pills contained enough mercury to kill him, said retired physician and medical historian Norbert Hirschhorn, who authored a study on the subject."

ACLU presses for access to Frito-Lay data
"For example, a California woman told the P-I that, after she returned bad-smelling pretzels to Frito-Lay, the company told her it "could detect nothing." But according to court records, Frito-Lay's lab results showed the pretzels were contaminated."

Pardon my French, but I say hang the bastards.

So I'm working on an XML and ASP commenting system for this blog. If all goes well, I should have it hosted in a week or two,

Just found an awesome little java first-person shooter game called Realspace 2.

About four years ago, I was studying philosophy in Washington, DC, when I had what alcoholics refer to as "a moment of clarity". I realized that what I had, until then, made the focal point of my life, philosophy, was not actually all that important to me. In fact, searching my life, I found that most of the things closest to me weren't really very important to me. So what did I do? I got a phone call. That phone call led me far from home to an entirely new place where I found some things and people that slowly became very important to me. Somewhere alone the way I found the love of my life to whom I am now married. My question is, what do you do if you don't get that phone call?

The Online Diary of a Nobody

"I am LoneRider! I am a bloke in my mid-thirties stuck in a dead job and a dead end marriage. I am hideously in debt and suspect that I'm suffering from depression! Welcome to my life!"

I'm not a camgirl. I don't watch anime. I don't want you to visit my friends cute little blogs. I'm just a guy with regular troubles like everybody else.

Kallahar's e-villa

"The GhettoBot is a battlebot measuring around 2 feet to a side, and around 9" high. The frame is made of 3/4" PVC (water pipes). It was intended to be entered as a light-weight in BattleBots."

These guys made a battle-ready robot with computer parts, scavenged motors, PVC pipe and hammer. Pretty darn cool.

Check Unemployed Theo. Thanks to Ernie for the link.

Afghanistan's Taliban Bans Internet
"Taliban movement has banned the use of the Internet in the war-torn country to stop access to vulgar, immoral and anti-Islamic material, an Afghan news service said on Friday."

It's Farida's and my 6-month anniversary. I'm making paella with mussels, prawns and chicken apple sausages. It won't be as good as at The Spain Restaurant, but it'll be close.

Update: It turned out pretty damn good.

Franka Potente rules.

Kilokat's Antique Light Bulb Collector's Site

Now this is just absolutely amazing! Homage to those paradigms of functional beauty, the lighbulb and the vacuum tube!

Check out the end of free. It's a multi-contributor blog that talks about the move from free content to web services that charge a fee.

It's Not Just the Internet - Almost no one pays for content in any medium.  by Michael Kinsley
"A few weeks ago a producer from Nightline contacted Slate while researching a possible show on the crisis of content on the Internet. He wanted to know how on earth we could ever be a going business if we gave away our content for free. I asked how many people pay to watch Nightline. Answer: none."

Not so much a paradigm shift as a juggling of cliches.

teeeeejirrrrr : Roor - How to make a Lego Palm Pilot
"This is the Palm VII that i made out of nothing but LEGO [tm]. It is shelled out from the ordinary Palm VII that was issued to me at work. I use it day in and day out as my normal handheld device."

Salon.com People | Harrison Ford rescues missing Wyoming hiker

"The actor, a part-time Jackson resident who offers his flying skills and helicopter for rescue missions, joined a search for a missing Utah Boy Scout who had wandered off a trail Monday and spent a cold night alone in the secluded forest, said the Teton County Sheriff's Office in Wyoming."

The Morning News Interviews Sam from Explodingdog.com

"I don't think I am aiming for a mature tone, it just happens. Monsters, super heros and talking animals only seem childish when viewed from one dimension. Throughout my day most people I deal with are robots, talking fish and monsters."

Slashdot is linking pics of
the new enterprise.

Warning! Due to the slashdot effect, the link may be very slow.

Checkit: Japan reusable rocket test video.

The media has just switched from nice, snappy pictures of a clean-cut Phil Condit, to pictures of a furtive, shadowed, blurry Phil Condit. Doesn't look good for Phil.

New Wave Mailorder just posted their pics of GamesDay 2001. Check it out!

I've been doing some research about Seattle's Tent City. Here are a few links:

Christian Science Monitor: In Seattle, Tent City reveals underside of the New Economy

Seattle Times: Is Seattle's tent city a reflection of our future?

Real Change (Seattle Homeless Newspaper): Faces of Tent Village

RealChange: Mayor Endorses Tent City(satire)

South County Journal: `Tent city' heads to Tukwila - Seattle's homeless community will stay temporarily at church

Club Photo: Tent City Photos

Salon.com Arts & Entertainment | Boy wonder
"In 'A.I.' Steven Spielberg gets shown up by a kid. How does Haley Joel Osment understand the movie better than its director does?"

Seattle Weekly - news: News Clips-- Good night, Ileen's

Finally some info on why Ileen's closed down. Not that anyone's surprised.

"Ileen's, née Ernie Steele's, was the oldest business on Broadway, according to owner Ileen Schumaker, who reported that her namesake was shutting its doors due to a more than fivefold increase in rent since she took over 10 years ago. 'I've been through the crying stage; now I just need some sleep,' she said.

Reports say Webvan to seek bankruptcy
"KTVU-Channel 2 in the San Francisco Bay Area showed employees clearing out their possessions from the company's Oakland, Calif., warehouse.
The company posted a message on its Web site Sunday that said: 'We're sorry. Our store is temporary unavailable while it is being update. It will be available again soon.'"

Doesn't look good, does it? No more doorstep delivery of kitty litter, dammit!

Update: Here's more info.

Further Update HomeGrocer.com founder may re-launch the company

"'All I can say is that I am astonished at how staggeringly incompetent (the Webvan management has) proven to be,' Drayton said. "'n our wildest dreams we never imagined that they would be this bad.'"

And all I can say is that HomeGrocer never made a mistake in an order and was never late, whereas WebVan made at least one error in every order we made from them.

The Seattle Times: Hill-bashing mea culpa comes a little bit late

A note: the original book smearing Anita Hill is actually not out of print.

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The Seattle Times: Local News: Mayor Schell injured in attack at Central Area festival

"The megaphone hit Seattle Mayor Paul Schell just below his right eye. The mayor hit the ground just inches from a spot that still bears traces of memorials to a black motorist killed in a controversial shooting by Seattle police.
The culprit, police say, is James C. Garrett, a longtime black community activist who is running for mayor."

Addendum: Read Garret's denial that he assaulted the mayor.

Movie Stars Fear Inroads by Upstart Digital Actors
Hey, haven't music companies been doing this for a few years now?!

PuppetMaster - HQ

Puppetmaster is a survivor-style blog contest where one blogger is eliminated each week. Run by Ernie of Little Yellow Different.

White House Wants to Bury Pact Banning Tests of Nuclear Arms

You may need to use a free password to read this article.

From the 'Science Fiction Becoming Reality' Department: Human Engineering Laboratory - Main
"Our research activities are focused on the design and control of a class of robotic systems worn or operated by humans to augment human mechanical strength, while the wearer's intellect remains the central control system for manipulating the robot. Human power extenders can be used to maneuver heavy loads with great dexterity, speed, and precision, in factories, shipyards, airports, construction sites, and warehouses."

Yes, it is an attempt to build a powered exoskeleton. Personally, I was never a big Battletech fan.

Anita Hill was telling the truth after all, admits David Brock.

David Brock said that Clarence Thomas would have never asked Anita Hill out because "she had bad breath." He said Hill was a "lesbian acting out." Now, Brock wants to clear his conscience by admitting to the world that after new research, Hill was telling the truth, and Thomas was lying. He didn't want to go on living with the lie. I'm glad Brock has recanted, but still...Can we truly congratulate a man for telling the truth 10 years too late? (I cannot help but think of one of the final scenes in "Quiz Show" where Ralph Fiennes as Charles Van Doren reads his eloquent apology for duping the American people.) Clarence Thomas is on the Supreme Court, and we're stuck with him.

Here is the New York Times article: Thomas Book Author Says He Lied in His Attacks on Anita Hill. You may need a free password to read the article. And here is the Salon.com article:Who's Sorry Now?