Ragu Spaghettisauce

Interesting stuff here about Lyndon Johnson and the fight for civil rights in the 60s, and how it led to last night's historic nomination:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/opinion/28caro.html?hp

Walking up Eighth Avenue, ten minutes to eight in the morning. Up the avenue, past the drunks and the junkies and the homeless that haven't yet been pushed aside by the gentrification.

Now, passing Smith's bar, half a dozen men belly-up to the bar. Close-cropped hair, jeans and tee shirts. Like a uniform. Slumped forward, a glass in one hand, starting the day with whiskey and beer.

Why do I find it strangely comforting to see these guys every morning?

Everyone knows how much I hate people who have a baby picture as their Pokerstars avatar. I laughed a lot when I saw this.....

Recently seen movies:

Tropic Thunder: Eh. I think my mind had built up impossible expectations of it. It was funny, and definitely worth seeing, but...

Death Race: Fabulous switch-your-mind-off entertainment. My only minor complaint is the swords/shields gimmick made it seem blatantly obvious that they're setting up a video game version. I've never seen the original, but now I kinda want to (from reading about it, it sounds like the sociopolitical commentary might be more trenchant).

Netflix: Ordinary People. Wow, this was rated R? How times have changed. I'd bet it barely gets PG-13 today for language and a smidgen of thematic content.

TV: Monk has jumped the shark. The writing this season just seems uninspired. And maybe they were this sloppy before and I just haven't noticed, but I just can't suspend the disbelief that (describing multiple episodes here) (a) in the episode where he buys the house, they wouldn't immediately call the police in when he figures out what's going on and (b) they'd just let a civilian wander around a submarine during a military exercise. However (c) I have to say, David Strathairn does an amazing Richard Dreyfuss (whether that's what he was going for is another question). (d) the lottery fixing episode was pretty good.

So sad to hear about Stanley Kamel. I've always liked Hector Elizondo though, and he seems to be doing a credible job filling his shoes.

L: ET scared me, he was so ugly and gross.
W: Well, it is a Spielberg film, so its purpose is to get you to empathize with the Jews. The "lovable" main character is a lazy layabout who needs expensive medical care and has never had a real job or contributed anything to anyone, just sits around and eats the food of the white people who were kind enough to host it. Eventually it causes political drama and leaves for a far off land, never repaying the people it parasitically attached itself to.
L: So that's why he needed people to dial numbers. Must have been Shabbat.

I haven't blogged about Phoenix in a while -- no news is good news, mostly -- the abscess is completely healed, so other than the weird shaved look on his butt and tail (and also his forearms which I presume was for IVs) he seems pretty much normal. Weight is up decently from the low point, although it'd still be good if he could put on another pound.

I have my own medical problems though -- I went to the dentist on Monday, and the visit included full mouth X-rays. My dentist's office has finally gone 100% digital on these -- instead of the bitewing films, I got to stick a large plastic-film-covered wand in my mouth (ha ha ha) while they irradiated my head. Seconds later the dentist[1] was reviewing them on a computer screen with me, zooming in, highlighting things, etc. Pretty neat.

So the bad news is that compared to 2-4 years ago, I have receding gums, with noticeable bone loss. My hygienist has been nagging me for a while[2] about my brushing and flossing, but all along they've admitted as a distant possibility that sometimes it just comes down to genetics and individual variations in mouth chemistry and bacterial population, yada yada yada, and I demonstrated my flossing technique and she grudgingly allowed as I might be doing a reasonable job of it, so maybe it just sucks to be me. I get to go back for deep root cleaning (two 90-minute appointments for each half of the mouth), which Google indicates is probably going to be as unpleasant as I think it will be[3], although maybe that's reporting bias (he said optimistically).

Apparently the bone will never grow back, but with this sort of treatment we can maybe get the gums to reattach higher up on the tooth and halt the decline and maybe even reverse the gum loss. They've also suggested I start using a water pik to help rinse out in between the teeth. If there's no improvement in maybe a year, they'll send me to a specialist. Good thing I have a dental plan.[4]

[1] The dentist I saw on Monday was new to me, and I think relatively new to the practice. He's kinda cute. That's still not enough for me to look for reasons to go back to the dentist.

[2] loser_variable used to make frequent reference to Dr. Bringdown; this must be his wife.

[3] They numb your mouth for it, but that brings its own set of problems, since I historically seem to be rather anesthetic-resistant.

[4] Lisa needs braces!

Dear Lazyweb, I have a 2008 iMac, and I have an external monitor attached to it via the Mini-DVI port (for a total of two screens). Let's say I would like to attach a second external monitor (for a total of three screens). Is there some Firewire or USB dingus that will let me do that?

Really, I'd be happy just splitting the Mini-DVI output, but I think it's been established that that isn't possible.

mrissa and timprov leave for Farthing Party tomorrow morning, so it will just be missista and I holding down the fort. And my in-laws are leaving town for Labor Day weekend. So I guess I'll be free to engage in any form of debauchery that doesn't involve leaving the puppy alone for more than a few hours at a time. ;)

I see that the Uptown Theater is screening "The Goonies" this Saturday at midnight, to Marissa and Tim's loss. (Not that Marissa is usually up for midnight screenings anyway.)

I keep touching the stove, as if expecting that this time I might not get burned. By which, of course, I mean I haven't yet stopped engaging in what passes for political discourse on the Internet. Yesterday I tried to point out a logical flaw in an a news column with a decidedly pro-Obama slant, and got shouted down as a degenerate Republican baby-rapist.

But I'm slowly learning. Rather than defend myself, I today posted a semi-literate rant about healthcare costs, stagnant wages, the 9/11 conspiracy, blood for oil, and Bush's drug use -- none of which had anything to do with the column's contents.

So far, 15 people have clicked "recommend" for that post.

Some people like to get all "panicky" about the projected shortfalls in Social Security. While the problem is serious, it's nothing compared to Medicare. For example, the shortfalls for Bush's prescription drug plan alone are more of a financial problem than all of Social Security. Clearly those who hold up Social Security as a "big issue" don't have much sense for fiscal issues.

Seen in the .NET framework code that handles Windows Service, something like:

try { .... }
catch (Exception e){... do something ...}
catch { ... do something else ...}

I'm trying to figure out what could possibly trigger the 2nd catch.

I was trying out the RSS reader built into Mail.app. Does anyone find it to be anything but completely useless? It reposts items all the time -- even when they haven't changed. E.g., using it with the various Facebook feeds means you see the same things as "new" over and over and over and over.

The chief cause of problems is solutions.
—Sevareid's Law (Eric Sevareid, 1970)

Maureen Dowd, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary, became a columnist on The New York Times Op-Ed page in 1995 after having served as a correspondent in the paper's Washington bureau since 1986. She has covered four presidential campaigns and served as White House correspondent. She also wrote a column, "On Washington," for The New York Times Magazine.







OBAMA'S TROUBLING INTERNET FUND RAISING



Certainly the most interesting and potentially devastating phone call I20have received during this election cycle came this week from one of the Obama's campaign Internet geeks. These are the staffers who devised Obama's Internet fund raising campaign which raised in the neighborhood of $200 million so far. That is more then twice the total funds raised by any candidate in history – and this was all from the Internet campaign.



What I learned from this insider was shocking but I guess we shouldn't be surprised that when it comes to fund raising there simply are no rules that can't be broken and no ethics that prevail.



Obama's Internet campaign started out innocently enough with basic e-mail networking, lists saved from previous party campaigns and from supporters who visited any of the Obama campaign web sites.



Small contributions came in from these sources and the Internet campaign staff were more than pleased by the results.



Then, about two months into the campaign the daily contribution intake multiplied. Where was it coming from? One of the web site security monitors began to notice the bulk of the contributions were clearly coming in from overseas Internet service providers and at the rate and frequency of transmission it was clear these donations were "programmed" by a very sophisticated user.



While the security people were not able to track most of the sources due to firewalls and other blocking devices put on these contributions they were able to collate the number of contributions that were coming in seemingly from in
dividuals but the funds were from only a few credit card accounts and bank electronic funds transfers. The Internet service providers (ISP) they were able to trace were from Saudi Arabia , Iran , and other Middle Eastern countries. One of the banks used for fund transfers was also located in Saudi Arabia .



Another concentrated group of donations was traced to a Chinese ISP with a similar pattern of limited credit card charges.



It became clear that these donations were very likely coming from sources other than American voters. This was discussed at length within the campaign and the decision was made that none of these donations violated campaign financing laws.



It was also decided that it was not the responsibility of the campaign to audit these millions of contributions as to the actual source (specific credit card number or bank transfer account numbers) to insure that none of these Internet contributors exceeded the legal maximum donation on a cumulative basis of many small donations. They also found the record keeping was not complete enough to do it anyway.



This is a shocking revelation.



We have been concerned about the legality of "bundling" contributions after the recent exposure of illegal bundlers but now it appears we may have an even greater problem.



I guess we should have been somewhat suspicious when the numbers started to come out. We were told (no proof offered) that the Obama Internet contributions were from $10.00 to
$25.00 or so.



 If the $200,000,000 is right, and the average contribution was $15.00, that would mean over 13 million individuals made contributions? That would also be 13 million contributions would need to be processed. How did all that happen?



I believe the Obama campaign's Internet fund raising needs a serious, in depth investigation and audit. It also appears the whole question of Internet fund raising needs investigation by the legislature and perhaps new laws to insure it complies not only with the letter of these laws but the spirit as well.



Â



IS IT RIGHT FOR FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO HAVE AN INVESTMENT IN WHO BECOMES OUR NEXT PRESIDENT???Â



The fact that the NY Times allowed this to be printed is amazing in itself.

If You Put That Picture On The Internet I'll Call My Lawyer:

"Of course, he didn't like that very much, and at that point told me that if I put his picture on the internet, he would call his laywer. I assured him that his photo would be on the internet, and he then walked up and grabbed my camera lens."

Also, 'Three Pony Rule' Invoked to Cut Former NFL Player's Monthly $18K Child Support:

While acknowledging there are unique problems with determining the reasonable needs of children of high-earning families, the court said trial judges should nevertheless avoid overindulgence -- citing the doctrine of In re Patterson, 920 P.2d 450 (Kan. App. 1996), that "no child, no matter how wealthy the parents, needs to be provided [with] more than three ponies."

[...] "The court made no distinction between what needs were reasonable, given the age of the children, and what simply amounted to a 'fourth pony,'" wrote Parker, who was joined by Judges Rudy Coleman and Thomas Lyons.

I still haven't decided what black velvet painting I want, but this is pretty good too:

"Maoart paintings integrate with virtuosity real people's faces into faithfully reproduced propaganda posters. Based on a photograph provided by you and a poster of your choice, an artist renders you as a socialist hero."

Also, Torsopants: These would be better as posters than t-shirts, alas.

TSI Chairman Joe Lonsdale was on CNN Headlne News' Glenn Beck Show last night to talk about our work:

You can also download the video directly. I was originally supposed to appear on the show, but for logistical reasons they needed someone in SF, so Joe took over and did a great job.

Thanks to iron_sky for Tivoing it and getting me the video file!

I was goofing around with my hand/glasses and my wife said she thought it looked like Clark Rockefeller.

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I'm going to try and start taking more pictures (the above does not count), along the lines of the "picture a day for a year" thing that you see a lot of on Flickr.

In college we had to do some huge number of sketches of the same object to try and get creative new takes on it. I suppose the point of a photo a day is a similar sort of thing, in that I'm not sure I can think of something to do every day.

In the end, I'm going to be taking many more a day, and really just uploading one a day, which is not necessarily from that day. Cheating?

Suggestions/ideas of things to get started on?

I'm bringing my camera to/from work with me, and will try different lenses each day. So I guess it is a matter of what I see - so far on the way to work this morning, I saw a guy painting on a famous fence/house near me and wanted to get a picture of it, but didn't have the nerve and walked right by him.
That's not making for a very good start.
(the house is clearly owned by someone who has done a whole lot of acid and the fence is painted with his thoughts/ramblings - sort of like my blog, except he does it in housepaint on a fence)

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So awesome. This guy bought some aerogel and plays with it, documenting it (including where/how to buy).

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WANT
Although I think I would have more fun building it than I would using it, since "using" in my case would surely mean "constant crashing".

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The police in Cambridge have Panasonic ToughBooks in their cars. I have seen multiple officers sitting on side streets playing solitaire on them.

I wanted to ask the officers more about them - like what they use them for (I assume looking up plates and/or info about people), how they get an internet connection (cellular? if so, what happens when they drop a signal?), how they like them, etc

But I figured that much like walking up to a police officer and asking him about his gun, those are probably not things one should do if you want to avoid issues.

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So wrong.
I don't know the whole story, if there is more to it than from that CNN link, but it seems that this guy survives two tours of duty in Iraq, and then comes home and works in a prison where he guards 100 inmates and is not allowed to have a weapon or armor (and by that, I mean non-lethal) and is stabbed to death by the inmates.
He was allowed a radio to call for help, which clearly is not enough.

I wonder if they could train self defense with radios - I know that some police forces train for fighting with the big MagLite flashlights - perhaps the same with a big radio (assuming its battery pack is hard/heavy enough to injure someone and/or block knives).

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This has been a chilly August. I've given up on wearing shorts for the rest of the year.