http://www.fenris.org "Baby someone is crazy and it's you" Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:05:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I knew that there were a lot of chemicals that when ingested could make you stupid.  Drugs, sure.  Lead and mercury, definitely.  But apparently even thinking about oil makes people stupid.  Consider the following: For weeks, republicans have been pushing the idea that either a) the Cubans are drilling in Cuban ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/07/15/oil-makes-you-stupid-news-at-11/ I hope everyone's having a great 4th of July (at least those of us in the States, folks from other countries can be forgiven for not thinking too much of it). July 4th, along with Thanksgiving, is one of my favourite holidays.  That may surprise some folks.  It's not like the ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/07/04/happy-4th-of-july/ Things making this weekend more enjoyable: Seeing a "Republicans for Obama" bumper sticker on the car in front of me Finding that 5th Season is starting to carry beer and wine making supplies Gardening (more or less) Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" Receiving ~1.5" of rain Sunday night... after taking the dogs on a ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/06/30/weekend-enjoyment/ update: and for those that prefer a better interface, all of the pictures in gallery [gallery] http://www.fenris.org/2008/06/22/yellowstone-pictures-part-2-of-2/ http://www.fenris.org/2008/06/20/telecom-immunity-passes-sigh/ I haven't finished processing all of the Yellowstone pictures - it takes a bit of work to get the color balance set right.  (THM - that's why I always shoot raw on the D80.  It gives me more freedom to get the image "right" later.)  But at least the first ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/06/20/yellowstone-pictures-part-1-of-2/ It's things like this that embarrass me when I tell someone I'm from Louisiana.  The Louisiana House has voted overwhelmingly to pass the Louisiana Science Education Act which allows science teachers to use supplemental materials when teaching controversial subjects.  For those who haven't been there, in Louisiana, controversial subjects include: ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/06/13/louisiana-setting-the-standard-in-science-education/ A few years ago, I participated in a six month program to train leaders in information technology. I learned a fair amount, perhaps enough to be disillusioned, and ever since the program, I can't help but look at organizations in terms of their leadership. Case in point, the grapevine ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/06/10/management-leadership-and-information-technology/ Over vacation, I managed to convince K that we should get a new computer.  Our old one was bought just after I started my last new job, so... February 2001?  For most things, it worked pretty well: email, word processing and spreadsheets, etc were fine.  It didn't hurt that we ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/06/06/new-computer/ Testing, testing, is this thing on?  "My fellow Americans. I'm pleased to announce that I've signed legislation outlawing the Soviet Union. We begin bombing in five minutes." Er, wait, sorry - wrong decade. Sorry for the lack of posting for the past few weeks.  K and I were out in Yellowstone ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/06/01/back-online/ I've had the Sony Reader now for about a week.  In that time, I've taken it on a plane trip, read three full books, multiple days worth of the NY Times and I'm in the middle of two books right now.  Observations so far: The electronic paper is very readable.  On ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/05/06/e-book-blogging/ About a year and a half ago (November 2006), the wildlife clinic K volunteers with transfered a water turtle (yellow bellied slider) to her. A cute little guy, just over 7 grams and about the size of a quarter. Yesterday, weighing in at 125 g and with a ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/05/05/if-you-love-something-set-it-free/ Yesterday, I bought a Sony Reader - the electronic book reader that uses E Ink's electronic paper.  The electronic paper display on the reader is very nice.  It uses encapsulated white and black pigments that can be brought to the surface of the page.  The only power consumption involved happens ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/29/book-lover-nerd-ebook/ From etselec and because it amused me, my fortune as told by a random selection of my music with interpretive accompaniment by yours truly: 1. How does the world see me? Lightnin' Hopkins - No Education Ouch. Apparently the world sees me as an academic poseur. I guess I can live ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/25/musical-fortune-telling/ Oh, and an ironic follow-up to the republican filibuster of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act: apparently, the senate unanimously voted for a bill barring genetic discrimination in hiring and insurance. I wonder if anyone's told them that your gender is based on your genes. Not that I ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/24/genetic-discrimination/ Yesterday, the U.S. Senate took up the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act which the House had already passed.  The act was pretty reasonable.  It essentially clarified the 1964 civil rights act to say that if you are being discriminated in terms of salary equity, you have 180 days from the ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/24/workplace-discrimination/ When it rains it pours. A month into spring and K hadn't received any calls about rehabilitating animals until today when she got two. The first was about baby bunnies. K doesn't take baby rabbits because too many of the stories end with "and then they died." ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/21/baby-opossum-pictures/ Thanks to Luis, I find out last week that Tracks 1.5 has been released.  Tracks is the implementation of the  "getting things done" methodology which I prefer.  1.5 is pretty nice.  In particular, I look forward to hiding actions until a particular date.  In the past, I've wanted to track ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/12/tracks-15/ One advantage of being in IT is that you often at least hear of cool things before other people do. You may or may not choose to adopt them, but at least you've got a choice. Thanks to Mr. Icon, I got an early gmail account, firstname.lastname@gmail.com. ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/12/the-problem-of-evil/ The CTO Project makes an interesting observation that faculty are a bit like some corporations. They feel obligated to use Web 2.0 technologies in order to engage student interest and actually make some token effort to be up to date. But that they only want these technologies if ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/11/web-20-and-trusting-the-users/ For as long as I can remember, any time I spent more than an hour or so walking (or hiking), my legs and feet have felt sore and tired.  Never having been very athletic, I assumed that I was out of shape or needed to exercise more.  But even with ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/10/the-foolish-man-seeks-happiness-in-the-distance-the-wise-grows-it-under-his-feet/ The roofers finally finished our new roof last week.  They started on February 28th and finished on April 2nd - five weeks.  I'm pretty certain they only expected it to take about three weeks, but between the rain and the level of detail on the roof, it didn't quite work ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/04/08/new-roof/ A few years ago, I was accused of using the word "interesting" in subtle ways.  Sometimes it means a truly novel idea that I would like to learn more about, other times, it's a novel idea of which I'm more than a little skeptical.  In both cases, I stand by ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/03/28/digital-amway/ It's apparently "beat up the economists" week and no one thought to tell me in advance.  Over at Crooked Timber, Daniel Davies posts about Greg Mankiw's recent NY Times editorial and suggests that the reason economists are so patronizing is bitterness over being stuck in a low paying academic job ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/03/22/beat-up-the-economists/ We've got voice over IP phones at the office.  For the most part, they are a very smart way to handle our communications.  We're too large to want to use individual analog lines through the local telephone company - their rates would be prohibitively expensive.  We're too small to make ... http://www.fenris.org/2008/03/19/pros-and-cons-of-voip/