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Daynotes: Week of 14 - 20 Aug, MM
Daily notes and commentary -- Week 33
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* Updated: 20 Aug MM at 23:45 GMT+2.
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redirector (current.html) points there too --
use this instead of weekly page or index.
Associated links:
International Newspaper
Links
Three domains for the webmaster under the sky. ...
One domain to rule them all. One domain to find them.
One domain to bring them all and in the webspace bind them
In the Land of LeufNet, where the Wikis serve.
This might be interesting for some:
ChangeDetectionCom
. What it
is, is a free service that will monitor any webpage specified by users and
email notify them when it changes. Webauthors may also include links on pages
that let users activate this notification from the page itself.
On a related issue, here's an overview site for
search tools
. This harks
back to some of the backchannel discussions, along with what I've written
about the subject on these pages. The bottom line for searching content on
a site like this one is that for complete control and "privacy", the site
should have it's own search engine, be it indexed or on the fly. There are
numerous more-or-less ready to use tools for this, and any programmer can
easily craft a DIY script. On the other hand, just linking to services like
Atomz or Freefind has that sometimes most compelling virtue:
simplicity. For some, too, other issues of security (such as banning
cgi-scripts) will be the determining factor.
The man who labored for another last year, this year labors
for himself, and next year will hire others to labor for them. The
American way according to Abraham Lincoln.
I got engrossed in exploring RAMA last night. Didn't get off the computer
until well past 4 AM, after getting caught up in some movies on TV earlier
in the evening. Sometimes one needs that break in routines. The game is simple
but well-made and visually interesting. As this implies, my using the secondary
IDE to hold the game's CD files (transfer via the external drive) worked
fine. To be safe and not confuse the installer, which wants to test the system
first, I had it skip the CD-speed part and could manually ok and configure
the setting later as a "fast" drive. I infer from
Bob's site that I should
really have the HD as master and CDdrive as slave on that secondary channel,
but the current backwards setup seems to work fine. I asked the vendor some
weeks ago about replacing the built-in CD drive for one that would be more
reliable with some of the CDs that now fail, but the expressed opinion was
that it wasn't worth the cost -- better to just wait until I have to upgrade
to a new machine... (next year?)
Matt Beland's take on
American news reporting of the sunk Russian submarine was interesting. When
it comes to international news, my mainstays are BBC World for current
stuff on TV, and Newsweek (European edition) for weekly in-depth reading
(paper copy). I concur with Matt's impression that BBC news reporting has
high credibility -- they tell it like it is. Like all news programming however,
there are times when much of what is reported is formula, especially from
reporters in the field who may actually know less than the main studio about
fast changing events. BBC does however have great access, both to places
and people.
Once, I had CNN as the preferred hotlink in my browser, but sometime around
97 or 98 I found it quicker and easier to scan the headlines in Yahoo's news
site. There are pros and cons with any news site on the Internet, foremost
being superficiality, followed by the arbitrary selection of what is newsworthy.
However, Yahoo at least lets you quickly compare coverage from many sources.
Discovery consists in seeing what everyone else has seen and
thinking what no one else has thought. -- Albert Szent-Gyorgi
Time for some software updates. I've been running the same builds of Apache
and Perl for Win32 for some time now. The current Apache version is at 1.3.12,
and ActivePerl (v5.6) is at build 616, so I decided it was high time to update
the system. If nothing else, I need to check these versions in terms of how
wiki serving might be affected. Uninstall and install new versions was quick
work -- strangely not without some quirky hangs in the uninstall processes,
but the end result seems ok.
I had lots of errands and chores today. I guess getting half done is ok
<g>. Going into the neighbor with a spare key ended up being an evening
of coffee and discussion. Funny how it goes sometimes. Very enjoyable evening,
strangely without any stress about the things that I was going to do instead.
Nothing serious, mind, just reshuffling some boxes and beginning to pack
down parts of the office stuff I won't need for a while.
Tomorrow it's back to Gothenburg and prepare for a Friday seminar. I heard
that the kids' first day at the new school had been just fine.
Only time for a quick scan of the activity on other daynoter pages
this evening (2 AM), but well worth the effort -- lots of interesting stuff
and links. Must do that round again more carefully later. Given the inquisitive
and far-ranging reading and experimenting of the group, I doubt very much
that anything of interest can get missed.
Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns
it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment
of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard
way. -- Bokonon, Cat's Cradle
Travel day. Unlikely to post update here.
Out of town for seminar and travel in evening. Update unlikely.
Let's see, where am I? Today is Saturday, so I must be in Malmö... :)
The seminar was fun. Hope the participants got as much out of it as we intended
they get.
There is nothing so annoying as to have two people talking when
you're busy interrupting. -- Mark Twain
As of next week, we seriously start packing for the move. I just have to
make sure that this computer is last-in-first-out (LIFO) rather than FILO.
Right now the plan seems simple enough, but I know from experience that it
all gets progressively more chaotic the further along one gets.
The cats seem so far unaffected by it all...
Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom
to purr. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be
they ever so experienced and able, can delight in anything when deprived
of that precious right. -- Ghandi, 1931, (as atributed in World
Domination Case Studies -- For and Against, by Salem Saberhagen, Witchbrew
Press, Other Realm, 1947 MPE (mortal present era).)
A mixed day. Rain in the morning, sun in the afternoon. Some things done,
others not. I've started moving shelf stuff to boxes, mainly from the "office".
As usual, there's stuff uncovered that I'd almost forgot about.
Simplest to take care of was the synth since I still had the original box
for it, and that also took care of other MIDI related things, such as cables
and such.
Books will be the worst, mainly because of the weight. I have so many...
In the news, contradictions are rife between Russian and Norwegian reports
on the Kursk submarine disaster. The most intriguing report was
the rumour that the Russian fleet had been testing some anti-sub weapon that
may have proved lethal to the Kursk. We may never know the truth of this,
but it does seem clear enough that the sub suffered extensive damage from
a major explosion. The political fallout from it all may prove severe.
Why are we surprised when politicians play politics? It's not
like they are supposed to be real adults... they are, after all, politicians
and don't have real jobs and aren't playing around with their
money.
Open water at the North Pole was another major news item during the day.
Experts are predictably at odds about what this means and the cause, but
they agreed on the fact that the Arctic icecap has not been this thin and
unstable for millions of years.
Skimming through the science and tech news is rarely boring -- always something
new, or a new wrinkle to established knowledge. And once in a while something
completely revolutionary.
I let the kids start exploring RAMA, after spending some quality time with
it myself. It's relaxing as a change to everything else on my desk. While
solving the puzzles and looking at the visuals, in the back of my mind I'm
also thinking what it would be like when we get to explore the first alien
artifacts. (Always assuming that the conspiracy fringe is not right that
various groups have in secret been doing this very thing for decades.)
To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product
of civilization, and at present very few people have reached this level.
-- Bertrand Russell
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