31 Mar 2003
Finally Blogrolling

Well, I finally got this blogroll thing figured out(mostly), and, as you'll notice if you're reading this, it's over on the right hand side of the home page, below the calander.

Radio Userland is a pretty good piece of software - only the occassional GPF (usually when shutting down) but it has TERRIBLE documentation. I have no idea exactly what most of the macros do, or how to write one myself, and I've been unable to fina anythnig resembling a clear tutorial. I you use it "out of the box", you can probably get it to do most anything you want, but, well, customization is a bit arcane, to say the least.

I will be sending a contribution to the blogrolling guy - just because it's a slick implementation of a slick idea, and we need more of those. Also, his bandwidth can't be cheap....

It could just be that I don't understand CSS all that well, either. Some of the stylesheets I've seen used here (and in other blogs) are nothing short of verbose to the max. As an old assembly programmer, methinks maybe some folks are using nuclear weapons to swat flies - CSS may be a great tool for Yahoo! or CNN, but for the typical blog/homepage it's way too complex to be manipulated easily or effectively.

I will be rearranging things slightly here, and preparing to move the blog itself over to it's own domain space. But that's gonna take a while.

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Radio Templates and CSS

At least the homepage has a new "look and feel". Not sure if I want to update the rest to look the same or not .... all I can say is, if you want to update Radio templates, you'd better know CSS....

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

30 Mar 2003
Last Smoke in NY

Gosh, I can't go to the Left Coast, and now it looks as though I'll be avoiding the Big Apple like the plague as well. I probably wouldn't go there even if I wasn't a smoker - just the principle - the idea that the government can order small businesses around in this fashion, is disgusting. Oh well, I told my stepfather that someday he'd be buying his cigarettes off the Columbian Tobacco Cartel. It may happen....

Last smoke in New York. Smokers in New York City can no longer light up in any restaurant, bar or nightclub under strict new laws. [BBC News | Front Page | UK Edition]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

29 Mar 2003
RSS Innovations

From over at The Daring Fireball comes this Interview with Brent Simmons, the developer of NetNewsWire, the popular OS X RSS news aggregator. RSS aggregation is what got me interested in blogging in the fisrt place, and this interview touchs on the vast potential of this technology.

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

A War On This Land

Every once in a while, I run across something on the various Asatru lists to which I'm subbed that bears repeating. This in one such missive, posted here with the permission of my friend Böðvar, with a few links for background added. Read it well and throughly.

********************************
From: Böðvar Ásbjörnsson
Date: Sat Mar 29, 2003
Subject: A War On This Land

This war is beginning to get me down.

The guys and gals we've got over there doing their bit are right on

target, but the pundits, retired officers, talking heads, and agents

of doom are beginning to get on my tits!

I also visit (and occasionally clutter up) Dr. Dave Yeagley's web

page, Bad Eagle Forum. For those who don't remember Dr. Y, he's a

Comanche educator in Oklahoma whose writings on tribal, Indian and

political matters I admire, and have praised in many places I've

visited.

Today, he wrote a bit about Lori Piestewa, a PFC captured (we hope)

along with the others by the Iraqis a few days ago. She is a PFC

serving in the maintenance company ambushed after making a wrong turn

on the road to support the troops.

She's a daughter of the Hopi people.

I wrote the following in reply.

It cheered me up some.

-- B

*********

Let those reading this feel as they wish to feel about the current

war.

There are folks who honestly and sincerely would stand in front of

tanks, as that chap in Tienamen Square did, to avert a war...any

war. By the time we humans get to the point of war, we've screwed up

pretty badly, and war is never a pretty thing. War is only noble in

history books.

So, my hat's off to those folks. Maybe one day we'll evolve into the

sort of creatures who don't make those stupid mistakes, evolve

governments which don't go from mistake to mistake, and have

neighbors whose actions don't necessitate war.

There are folks who don't like THIS war, thinking it ill-advised and

rash. They cite alternatives and would've counselled caution. They

don't like this administration, or don't trust it, or just don't see

any sense in this. Folks here are allowed to disagree, and it is the

duty of an honest citizen to speak his mind, not just his or her

right.

But then there are folks out there who, honestly, want to see the US

fail. They don't like the government. They don't like their

neighbors. They have some social or ideological or racial or other

reason for disliking the US. They're not all grouped on one end of

the political spectrum, but are all over the place. They hunger to

see the US humbled.

For those people, who don't see how Saddam -- one of the most

malignant public figures since Stalin (hopefully) went to his reward

and Pol Pot checked out -- as a threat, don't see him as a sponsor of

terrorism, don't see any connection between the 9/11 attacks and him,

let me say this:

When the Islamists attacked on September 11th, they attacked holy

ground. There's a lot of talk about a "Holy Land". For me, it isn't

that place, 'way over there, with dusty churches above ground and oil

below, which is holy.

The ground which I walk on is holy.

The ground in which the generations of my family are buried is holy.

The ground which hosts and feeds and enchants my family and kinsmen

today is holy.

When they drove those planes into those buildings and murdered all

those people, they were assaulting holy ground.

Lori might understand that.

My family's only been here since 1635. We've just started our fifth

century this side of the Atlantic. That's only a lunchbreak in the

time Lori's people have been here. But, I bet she'd understand my

feelings about this land, newcomer that I am.

An assault was made on the land of my people, Vinland. It was first

the land of Lori's people. The land, as well as the government, the

people and all the rest, was not only assaulted, it was insulted. It

was the intention of the attackers and those who planned and aided

and cheered the attacks that the land would also be shamed.

It is the land over which the proud Comanche rode like lords.

It is the land over which the Lakota strode proudly and which, after

death, they pulled around themselves like a robe.

It is the land enriched by the bones of the mysterious people of

Hohokam and Clovis.

It is the land watered with the tears of the Cherokee, the frozen

blood of the Cheyenne at the Washita camp, and the sweat of the

Apache people leading a quarter of the US army around the desert.

This Saddam character stood in aid to those who would strike at this

land. His friends would strike at anyone from this land.

Here in Vinland, here in America, here in Turtle Island, here in the

land with your people's name upon it, we know how to deal with such

enemies. We send out our best to thwart their plans, and take their

lives if need be, to visit ruin upon them. We send our very best.

We send people like Lori.

They sent me to Kurdistan the last time this same miscreant acted up,

beating down a proud tribal people. They sent my wife to Bosnia when

Milosevic and his thugs acted up.

This time, though, it's gotten serious. They've sent Lori, and a lot

of other native sons and daughters, and some of my kinsmen, too.

They're the best we have.

I pray to my gods that they needn't cut any more of a swath through

Iraq than needs must, and that as many of them return home as is

divinely possible. But, we know that there will be losses. The

traditions of the many native nations, and of my people as well,

recognize this.

Today, coated in foreign dust, the sons and daughters of this land --

black and white, red and brown when they are at home -- are all the

same color. They are painted the red of fierce and final action.

There's a price to be paid for living on this land. Our best pay it.

--------------

-- Böðvar

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Chip Off the Ol' Block

Chip Off the Ol' Block

[from Wired]

A 17-year-old kid arrested for hacking into ATMs on Long Island turns out to be the son of IBM's director of client security, reports the New York Post. Loren Anderson is the alleged brains behind an identity-theft operation that resulted in about $100,000 being stolen. Although Loren's father, Clain, declined comment, one computer-hacking expert said it was likely the boy had "top-of-the-line equipment to learn on" at home because of his father's position. The problem, said Dan Verton, is that kids are becoming computer experts without learning anything about the ethical issues attached to the technology.

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

Copyright Discussions

This looks like an interesting new forum for discussion of copyright and patent issues.

The Copyright Colloquium

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

States Get Into The Copyright Business

DMCA critics decry state-level proposals. Opponents of the federal Digital Millennium Copyright Act say they're disturbed by proposals for similar laws at the state level. But proponents say they're overreacting. [CNET News.com]

They're not overreacting! Ye gods - copyright is specifically reserved by the Constitution to the Federal Government! This is absurd, and a ploy of some desperation on the part of the entertainment industry to end run Congress. It needs to be stopped, now.

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Unexpected Balance

Good grief - a reasonably balanced report from the New York Times, despite the headline! They do raise (and answer) some serious concerns, but having served in a draftee army I'm still down hard on the side of the all volunteer force.

Military Mirrors Working-Class America. Those who are risking, and now giving, their lives in the fight against Iraq represent a slice of a broad swath of American society but by no means all of it. By David M. Halbfinger and Steven A. Holmes. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

28 Mar 2003
Fear is Relative

As a follower of an ancient religion that is slowly reconstituting itself, despite great odds, I was dismayed by the Taliban's destruction of the Buddha statues in Afghanistan in early 2001. I saw these priceless works of antiquity in something of the same light as I see the Sagas from Iceland (for the Buddhist, of course). Reflections of faith from across the ages. But I wondered - where was the expression of outrage? Oh, to be sure, there was a "tempest in a teapot" kind of wailing that went up, but nothing like the prolonged gnashing of teeth that accompanied the destruction of Native America religious sites by the Park Service several years ago. And no outpouring of art from our esteemed arts community, always ready to slam Catholics for their stance on gays, for example.

This explains alot ...

It's a question of relative fear, of the (perceived or real) difference between facing an angry Catholic activist and an angry Muslim one. "Christians can take it," Anderson said.

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Restrictions and Speech

Computer scientists petition White House [CNET News.com]

I think I agree with this petition (at least in part) - the proposed rules stifle research and probably do more harm than good, as the MIT study concluded:

"We believe that the restrictions of the free flow of research results, as well as control of individual access, would negatively impact national security by hampering the progress of science."

I would make an exception for civil engineering stuff, especially as it related to infrastructure (chemical and nuclear plant designs, etc.). Publishing these types of things openly will probably retard research as well, but it would also open the door for far more immediate and catastrophic damage... tough call.

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

27 Mar 2003
Studying the Obvious

I wonder how much it cost the National Cancer Institute to figure this out?

Low-income black smokers light up to relieve stress [Science Blog]

Uh, doh! I also gotta wonder about this little gem from the study:

Smoking rates among black high school students, particularly young men, have increased 80 percent in the past decade, compared with a 28 percent increase among white students.

You mean with Joe Camel gone, and all the money seized from the tobacco companies for anti-smoking "education", and all the price increases for cigarettes that smoking rates are still going up? Hmmmm.... is that the clue phone I hear? WILL SOMEBODY IN WASHINGTON PLEAST GET IT!!!!

The only way you'll ever even come close to eliminating tobacco use is prohibition. That's worked real well in other areas, for instance, marijuana. Nobody smokes pot 'cause it's illegal, right?

Maybe, just maybe, the government should spend less money telling people not to smoke cigarettes, and more money fixing the things that (according to this study) making smoking attractive: like infrastructure repairs, job and education programs, housing, healthcare, etc. I'm not holding my breath waiting for this to happen - it's apparently beyond the governments collective grasp to understand. But I can guarntee you that they'll fund a follow-up study ....

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Ancient Funerals

If this find is accurate, it could be a very big piece of news indeed. We're talking about human religious impulses from over a quarter of a million years ago - about, oh, say 5 to 10 times longer than previously suspected.

...the axe could be the first evidence of ritual behaviour and symbolism in a human species... We conclude it could be from a funeral rite.

00:00 /Asatru | 0 comments | permanent link

Flushing Again

Well, we have a flushing toilet again! Yipee! Literally .....

Had to have the septic pumped and the main drain "jetted" - cleaned out with a high pressure water jet. The blasted thing was close kin to a fire hose - cut right through clogs and roots. I'd never seen anything quite like it.

It cost an arm and a leg, but at least everything should be "good to go" for another four or five years.

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, RIP

Former Sen. Moynihan dies [CNN US]

One of the few politicians of the modern era that I respected.

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link