Grain of Salt

Seven Things You (Probably) Didn't Know About Me

Sat, 3 Jan 2009 18:15:34 -0500

The "<insert number here> things" meme is going around twitter, and I've been tagged by @empirebetty. A while back, when it was a blog meme requiring eight things, Rich Burridge tagged me. So I'm now faced with the challenge of finding seven things beyond that which you already know about me. I will do my best.

I've decided to make my response theme-based. The theme, taken from @empirebetty's astute observation, is "Endearing Neuroses".

Today I am an INTP. Check back tomorrow.

Years ago, I took the Myers-Briggs Personality Test as part of a course I took at UT Austin. At the time, the results indicated that I was an ENFP:

ENFPs are introspective, values-oriented, inspiring, social and extremely expressive. They actively send their thoughts and ideas out into the world as a way to bring attention to what they feel to be important, which often has to do with ethics and current events. ENFPs are natural advocates, attracting people to themselves and their cause with excellent people skills, warmth, energy and positivity. ENFPs are described as creative, resourceful, assertive, spontaneous, life-loving, charismatic, passionate and experimental.

I really did used to be an extrovert, and many of the items in that description resonate with me and how I was back in those days. But that's not me any more. I don't know if those early results were flawed or if I changed. But I've since taken an online test -- mainly to get the widget for my last.fm page -- and now I'm practically the complete opposite, an INTP:

INTPs are logical, individualistic, reserved, and very curious individuals. They focus on ideas, theories and the explanation of how things work. They are especially adept at discussions and debate. They have the ability to focus intently on a subject. They appreciate and respect intelligence in others.

Reading the additional descriptions of the INTP, I do think that sounds more like the way I am today. Do personalities change that much over time? Regardless... I'm me, whatever type (or types) that happens to truly be.
I love horror movies, but I close my eyes during the scary parts.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I place my hands over my eyes and then slowly spread my fingers apart to peek because I really do want to see what's going on....

The funny -- or sad -- thing is, I don't love (or even enjoy) really scary, brutal, bloody horror movies. I prefer movies that play on one's fears and suggest horror rather than actually display it. So I'm covering my eyes for what amounts to some pretty tame -- and often lame -- scenes. <shrug>

As a related aside, I'm starting to get into J-Horror. All the benefits (psychological fear, suggestion of horror, etc.) without the need to hide my eyes. If you have any good suggestions for J-Horror, by all means let me know.
I am, on the whole, a secular humanist. One that believes in ghosts.

And, yes, I do realize the inconsistency there. By definition a good, true secular humanist wouldn't believe in ghosts. Mind you, I'm not convinced they exist; I'm simply not convinced that they don't, nor have I been given any evidence to prove that they don't. For some reason, I tend towards believing in them rather than disbelieving. Plus ghosts make for good TV and movie entertainment.
I buy my vacuums based upon their bug-sucking-up attachments.

(I realize that for some of you, this is not new information. But for many it will be, and it is consistent with my chosen theme.)

I have, for as long as I can remember, been completely afraid of bugs -- at least those which are in danger of coming into contact with me. It doesn't matter if they are alive or dead as far as the contact goes.

I've dealt with this over the years in a variety of fashions:
- Marriage. Proved to be a successful solution for awhile.
- Cats. Believe it or not, this can be effective. Cats find small moving things amusing. Plus they tend not to grumble.
- Poison. Certainly gets the job done, but the quantity I used was so disproportional to the lethal dose for my victim that I tended to have subsequent asthma attacks and my home smelled toxic for at least a day.
At long last I arrived at my current solution: Vacuum cleaners with really long attachments. Healthier for me than marriage, cats (turns out they trigger my asthma), and poison.
I often wonder "What will happen if....?" And decide to find out.

If I do say so myself, this approach to life in and of itself is admirable -- it arguably may be amongst my best qualities. Unfortunately, I'm only curious about things I know absolutely nothing about. Combine this with my incredibly short attention span and low tolerance for frustration and... well....

Sometimes I have an amazing amount of success, like the time I replaced the icky 80s-chandelier-style fixture that (dis)graced my condo with a much more suitable fixture. Mind you, I turned off power to my entire home beforehand -- after dressing nicely, doing my hair, and putting on some makeup just in case what I learned about electricity from the Home Depot guy proved significantly incorrect. Other times I'm less fortunate.... Still, holes can be patched, ceilings repainted, and plumbing replaced. Besides, the fridge poetry wall (yes an entire wall) in my kitchen -- while lumpy -- is a reported favorite of the contractors who come to clean up after me.
I really like movies by M. Night Shyamalan.

Even "The Happening." There, I've said it. Phew! I feel much better.
My father passed away this year.

I've been debating off and on about whether or not this is something I want to announce to the world. The reason I finally decided to go ahead and share it here is primarily to explain -- perhaps even justify -- why I've been largely AWOL personally, socially, and professionally for the past several months. And to do so once in writing, rather than a bunch of times face-to-face. Yes, I AM taking the easy way out. I admit it. And under the circumstances, I think I deserve it.

The basic facts are these: My father happened to be mentally ill and my last contact with him was when I was 13 (I'm now 38.). I learned of his passing via a letter sent to my place of employment by an attorney. The cause of death, I later found out, turned out to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

It's funny the sorts of baggage we carry around without realizing it. Then something like this happens....

What I've learned from this situation, and what I want to focus on, however, is this: People are amazing. I've received a tremendous amount of patience, warmth, and support from folks -- some of whom I had confided in, many of whom I had not. Some of whom I've known for years, some of whom I barely know -- or in the case of twitter, never even met. Many of these individuals could have concluded that I was blowing them off and would have been justified (albeit completely incorrect) in their thinking. Instead they keep checking in on me, looking out for me, in some cases even helping me pick up the pieces of my life because I've been too stunned to do so on my own. These people, though not related to me by blood, are my true family. Thanks for looking out for your crazy cousin in her time of need.

With apologies for those who don't like memes.... I'm tagging:

De Deorum Natura

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 02:23:21 -0500

That's what the gods are! An answer that will do! Because there's food to be caught and babies to be born and a life to be lived and so there is no time for big, complicated, and worrying answers! Please give us a simple answer, so that we don't have to think, because if we think, we might find answers that don't fit the way we want the world to be.

--Mau, in Terry Pratchett's Nation

tags: Terry Pratchett, Nation, religion

Time Machines

Tue, 7 Oct 2008 02:52:16 -0500

We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're running Ubuntu. Some take us forward, they're running OpenSolaris.

Sorry Jeremy, I couldn't resist. And my apologies to you as well, gentle reader, if you came here looking for the current state of affairs on OpenSolaris vs Ubuntu. One of these days I should write up my personal perspective on where things stand. Unless, of course, I can convince some folks to do an "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC"-style smackdown, which would be infinitely more entertaining. Assuming that will not come to pass.... For now suffice it to say that while we're not quite "there yet" with OpenSolaris, every day brings me a bit closer to concluding that my bastardized quotation ain't so far from being the truth.

But that's not what this entry is about. It's about time, plain and simple. Or, rather, not so simple as I discovered.... With a hat tip to Rich who always concludes each of his technical exercises in frustration by sharing what he's learned for the next poor soul who floats in on the same boat, I present to you what I've worked out thus far about time in a dual-boot Ubuntu/OpenSolaris environment:

Ubuntu insists on setting your hardware clock to UTC. It doesn't matter if you didn't want your hardware clock set to UTC. Nor are you asked if you might want to switch away from the local time in favor of UTC -- unless, you happen to be using the alternative installer. Sadly, odds are that you are not: If you're using the user-friendly, graphical, "live CD," you are NOT using the alternative installer.
Theoretically, the Ubuntu installer looks to see if you're in a dual-boot environment. If it concludes that you are, it is designed to not engage in its default time "correcting" behavior. This would suggest that installing OpenSolaris prior to Ubuntu would solve the problem. Alas, it does not. Trust me.
I have been informed that "UTC=yes is the correct and sane default" If you're wondering what the advantage of it defaulting to yes happens to be, as I was/am, I'm afraid I couldn't tell you. (UPDATE, see below.) I truly believe that there is indeed a good reason -- feel free to add it in the comments for my edification -- but the fiat was all I got. Well, that and the fact that Ubuntu detects dual-boot installations ("albeit not always quite as often as you'd want." Indeed. See previous item.). Oh, and the suggestion that I "can always change it." Which brings me to:
How DO you change whether or not the hardware clock is set to UTC or the local time post-installation? You'd think (or at least I thought) you would be able to do so through the Time and Date Settings dialog, part of gnome-system-tools. Were that the case, there'd be a uniform (and hence more user-friendly) way to adjust this option in Ubuntu and OpenSolaris because both use the GNOME desktop and, therefore, both include g-s-t's Time and Date Settings dialog.

Of course, you could bypass the whole UTC vs. local timezone issue and use g-s-t to set up synchronization with an NTP server in both Ubuntu and OpenSolaris.... That's actually what I wound up doing last week. BUT what if you don't have a network connection at the moment? Besides I wanted an answer; not a workaround.

I was going to open an RFE against g-s-t -- I'm envisioning a "My clock is set to UTC" checkbox -- but someone beat me to it. Two years ago. It hasn't been closed as WONTFIX, but no action seems to have been taken either.
So how do you change it in Ubuntu then? Well, some googling led me to the answer: Edit /etc/default/rcS. Just set UTC=no. Once you know this magical tidbit, it's all good: A few seconds' worth of editing and Ubuntu stops stomping on the time, OpenSolaris doesn't keep having the time changed on it, and you cease to send email to folks from four hours into the future. In other words, if all you want to do is cause your blessed environments to stop waging war over what time it is, this is all you need to do. And there was much rejoicing. Yea.
But what if you want to change it in OpenSolaris instead? At this point answering this question was/is admittedly merely an exercise to satisfy my curiosity. That said.... After some more googling.... It seems that you can use rtc for this purpose:
pfexec /usr/sbin/rtc -z UTC
is all you need. Once again, Ubuntu is happy (this time because it can continue stomping along on its "correct and sane" path ), OpenSolaris is happy (because its time now jives with the hardware clock), and your friends no longer have any reason to suspect you've mastered time travel. At least not until you adjust the timezone via g-s-t. Doing so causes /etc/rtc_config -- the file you corrected via rtc -- to be updated and you're back to Ubuntu and OpenSolaris fighting again.

Should g-s-t be modifying /etc/rtc_config?? I honestly don't know, but life seems like it might be easier if it didn't, so I filed a bug against OpenSolaris. *shrugs*

Now if you would be so kind, answer me this: Why is it so much work to (figure out how to) configure something as simple and trivial as the time in a dual-boot environment? Shouldn't it JustWork™?

UPDATE: This morning Colin Watson began addressing the bug I filed regarding the Ubuntu Live CD's installer failing to set UTC=no in a dual-boot Ubuntu/OpenSolaris environment. He even took the time to provide me with a useful reference/link:

If you're unfamiliar with the reasons why keeping the hardware clock in local time is a bad idea, please read:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/mswish/ut-rtc.html

Thanks Colin!

tags: Ubuntu, OpenSolaris, hardware clock, system time, dual boot

Coincidence or Portent?

Wed, 1 Oct 2008 01:47:53 -0500

Taken one month (almost to the day) before the start of what we may come to think of as the "Great Depression - Take 2":

Note to self: In the future, when giant red warning signs present themselves, don't laugh; pay attention.

tags: Bank Collapse

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Mon, 8 Sep 2008 11:13:24 -0500

There are oh so many things. How many can you find?

Those of you who can find several, please also find the opportunity to remind the "average users" in your life to think before they click.

tags: Viruses, Spyware, WTF, Fail

Claws Mail and Users Who Are Blind

Sat, 5 Jul 2008 13:14:16 -0500

A year ago, almost to the day, several users of Orca screen reader had expressed an interest in using Claws Mail instead of Evolution (currently the default mail client of the GNOME desktop) or Thunderbird. The Orca team is very small, but we do our best to implement the features and support requested by our users -- in addition to working on those critical features that any screen reader should have and fixing the bugs which, alas, exist. So I took a look at Claws Mail from an accessibility point of view. After all, if Claws Mail uses standard Gtk, it shouldn't be too hard to implement support in Orca.

The good news: Claws mail is (as I recall) mostly standard Gtk. Yea!

The bad news: There are a few custom widgets which are not accessible, and there is no caret navigation implemented when reading messages. These two issues prevent us from being able to implement support. Had I more time in the day, I might be able to at least generate a proof-of-concept patch for the first issue, but my current skill level is not likely such that I could implement caret navigation. So, as is custom in the open source world, I opened a couple of bugs:

And, as is sadly too often custom in the accessibility world, they languished. Until today:

It looks like nobody has been interested in implementing this feature since the end of 2007; in order to clean up the bugzilla, I'm marking this WONTFIX.

Features in Claws Mail get implemented on a developer-interest basis: if one of the core developers codes a feature, or if an external contributor provides a good patch, the feature gets added. If the feature interests nobody with coding abilities, although it seems nicer to leave old requests lingering in Bugzilla and let the submitter hope the feature will be added someday, it's more honest (and cleaner) to close them as WONTFIX.

Fail.

I suppose I should at least give the Claws Mail guys credit for being honest and stating that they're not interested in accessibility, but it is a shame for the end user.

Now back to focusing on implementing support in Orca where it belongs: on those applications whose developers ARE interested....

tags: Claws Mail, accessibility, a11y, Orca

On the issue of retroactive immunity

Fri, 4 Jul 2008 14:54:39 -0500

From today's "Hodes Hotline Update":

I opposed the FISA legislation because I believe it does not strike the proper balance between protecting civil liberty and security as it undermines essential rights of US citizens to be free from warrantless government surveillance. We must not compromise the fundamental constitutional rights of our citizens.

It is never acceptable to violate our Bill of Rights. It is my top priority to protect our country and keep us safe�and our intelligence services have the tools to do that right now. At the same time, I have consistently opposed any legislation that grants retroactive immunity for telecommunication companies that cooperated with the Bush administration�s apparently illegal warrantless wiretapping program. This legislation provides de facto immunity without real accountability.

If we give a free pass to the government to invade our privacy outside the boundaries of the Constitution, we give up the freedom for which so many Americans have fought and died.

(emphasis added by me)

Thank you Congressman Hodes for your efforts!

tags: FISA, retroactive immunity, legislation, Paul Hodes

It's almost summer....

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:57:54 -0500

...And those of you who know me know what that means: the frighteningly rapid approach of the course which shan't be named.

Given the lack of public transportation in New Hampshire and my rather ADHD personality, waiting around for a bus to fling myself in front of doesn't seem like a viable option. Do you think it's possible that the Maya sucked at math?? I mean it's almost 2012, and they didn't have calculators back then....

Words - Missing Persons

Do you hear me
Do you care
Do you hear me
Do you care

My lips are moving and the sound's coming out
The words are audible but I have my doubts
That you realize what has been said

You look at me as if you're in a daze
It's like the feeling at the end of the page
when you realize you don't know what you just read

What are words for when no one listens anymore
What are words for when no one listens
What are words for when no one listens it's no use talkin at all

I might as well go up and talk to a wall
'cause all the words are having no effect at all
It's a funny thing am I all alone

Something has to happen to change the direction
What little filters through is giving you the wrong impression
It's a sorry state I say to myself

What are words for when no one listens anymore
What are words for when no one listens
What are words for when no one listens it's no use talkin at all

Do you hear me
Do you care
Do you hear me
Do you care

Let me get by
Over your dead body
Hope to see you soon
When will I know
Doors three feet wide with no locks open
Walking always backwards in the faces of strangers
Time could be my friend
But it's less than nowhere now
less than nowhere now
less than nowhere now
now
ow ow ow

Pursue it further and another thing you'll find
Not only are they deaf and dumb they could be going blind and no one notices
I think I'll dye my hair blue

Media overload bombarding you with action
It's getting near impossible to cause distraction
Someone answer me before I pull out the plug

What are words for when no one listens anymore
What are words for when no one listens
What are words for when no one listens it's no use talkin at all

What are words for when no one listens anymore
What are words for when no one listens
What are words for when no one listens it's no use talkin at all

Do you hear me
Do you care
Do you hear me
Do you care
tell me what are words for
Do you hear me
tell me what are words for
Do you care
tell me what are words for
Do you hear me
so tell me what are words for
Do you care
so tell me what are words for
Do you hear me
tell me what are words for
so tell me what are words for
Do you care
so tell me what are words for
Do you hear me
tell me what are words for
so tell me what are words for
Do you care
so tell me what are words for

(Lyrics provided by leoslyrics.com via Rhythmbox)

tags: sucks to be me, day job, graduate students

Dave Winer on health care

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:48:39 -0500

Dave Winer says:

We all hope our houses don't catch fire, but when they do, we're damned happy we don't get an argument when we call 911. Why should cancer, diabetes and heart disease be any different? I don't get it.

Indeed. And I don't get it either.

Dave said a bunch more than that though (read his full entry).

tags: politics, health care

GNOME Foundation Announces Program to Sponsor Accessibility Projects

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:09:02 -0500

BOSTON, Mass�February 27, 2008 � The GNOME Foundation is running an accessibility outreach program, offering USD$50,000 to be split among individuals. This program will promote software accessibility awareness among the GNOME community as well as harden and improve the overall quality of the GNOME accessibility offering.

The program is sponsored by GNOME Foundation, Mozilla Foundation, Google™'s Open Source Program Office, Canonical, and Novell. This is the second in a series of outreach programs coordinated and run by the GNOME Foundation.

"I'm excited about the GNOME accessibility outreach program because it continues the promotion of compelling accessible design as part of the mainstream developer culture. We believe the set of tangible and achievable tasks outlined will help improve the already good accessibility offering of the GNOME desktop," said Willie Walker, Senior Staff Engineer of Sun Microsystems, Inc.

GNOME Outreach Program: Accessibility starts accepting applications on March 1st and will run towards the end of the year. There will be two tracks to the program: In the first track accepted individuals will work towards accomplishing one of the major projects nominated for the program, earning US$6,000 and can take up to six months to complete the task. The second track will reward contributors US$1,000 for fixing five bugs out of a pool of accessibility bugs nominated by the program judges.

Individuals interested in participating in the program should check out www.gnome.org/projects/outreach/a11y. More information about the program may be found at the same location.

Read the full announcement at:
http://www.gnome.org/press/releases/gop-a11y.html

tags: GNOME, accessibility, assistive technology

Website Accessibility

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:29:55 -0500

Will thinks that if we write the developers of websites whose content is inaccessible (or a challenge to access), those developers will fix their problems. I used to believe that as well. It may take a village to raise a child, but unfortunately it seems to take lawsuit in federal court to raise awareness. But seeing as how Will is Orca project lead whereas I am a humble community contributor, and seeing as how I have taken to mumbling the words "crappy markup" in Will's general direction as I continue my work on Orca's support for Firefox, I suppose the very least I can do is give his idea a shot.

Today's note went to Safeway.com via their online suggestion form:

Dear Safeway.com:

I'd like to bring to your attention the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative. There you will find a number of resources which you can take advantage of when evaluating your site's content for accessibility. In particular, please see Guideline 1 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.

1.1 Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc", or in element content). This includes: images, graphical representations of text (including symbols), image map regions, animations (e.g., animated GIFs), applets and programmatic objects, ascii art, frames, scripts, images used as list bullets, spacers, graphical buttons, sounds (played with or without user interaction), stand-alone audio files, audio tracks of video, and video. [Priority 1]

For example, in HTML:

Use "alt" for the IMG, INPUT, and APPLET elements, or provide a text equivalent in the content of the OBJECT and APPLET elements.

For complex content (e.g., a chart) where the "alt" text does not provide a complete text equivalent, provide an additional description using, for example, "longdesc" with IMG or FRAME, a link inside an OBJECT element, or a description link.

For image maps, either use the "alt" attribute with AREA, or use the MAP element with A elements (and other text) as content.

At the bottom of your site you have an imagemap:

<map name="links">
<area alt="" coords="0,0,48,28" href="javascript:loadframesetpages('','http://www.vons.com','0','','')">
<area alt="" coords="48,30,124,0" href="javascript:loadframesetpages('','http://www.dominicks.com','0','','')">
<area alt="" coords="193,0,124,33" href="javascript:loadframesetpages('','http://www.randalls.com','0','','')">
[...]
</map>

Because your alternative text is an empty string, the items within your imagemap are inaccessible to users who are blind. Providing the name of the store (alt="Vons") should resolve this problem.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this matter!

Here's to hoping...

tags: Orca, web accessibility, screen readers, Safeway

Things that are just plain wrong

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:23:14 -0500

tags: miscellaneous, links

What not to send to members whom you wish to keep

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:09:49 -0500

I've been an on-again/off-again member of AER (Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired) for a decade or so. The reason for my fickle membership has been that I just don't see much benefit from being a member, especially now that my focus is 100% on assistive technology -- an area which should be much more of a focus in AER given that AER is basically THE organization of the profession and that one's ability to live and work independently as a person who is blind depends significantly on having access to and skills in the use of AT.

As a result, I tend to renew my membership when doing so will get me discounts on conferences I need to attend or a reduction in fees when I'm applying for re-certification. At least that was before I received this "AER-GRAM":

***URGENT! CANCELLATION NOTICE!***
***IMMEDIATE REPLY REQUESTED!***

THE AER BOARD OF DIRECTORS, IN COMPLIANCE WITH OUR ORGANIZATIONAL BYLAWS, MUST TAKE FINAL ACTION CANCELLING YOUR MEMBERSHIP UNLESS THE MEMBERSHIP DUES BALANCE SHOWN BELOW IS RECEIVED PRIOR TO JANUARY 31, 2008. FAILURE TO MAKE PAYMENT OF YOUR AER MEMBERSHIP DUES WILL PROMPT US TO REMOVE YOU FROM AER'S MEMBERSHIP ROSTER.

WE URGE YOU TO GIVE THIS MATTER YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION. PLEASE REMIT THE ENTIRE BALANCE DUE IN THE ENVELOPE PROVIDED. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS LETTER, PLEASE CONTACT AER AT (877) 492-2708, EXT. 202.

Any lingering questions I did have about the value of being a member were just answered.

tags: AER, professional organizations, membership, retention

Snow!

Tue, 1 Jan 2008 16:36:42 -0500

tags: winter, snow, photograph

I've been Wikipedized!

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:11:16 -0500

Or rather my photo of the Nansen-Ski-Jump has been. That is soooo cool. Thanks to Danlev for the heads up!

tags: wikipedia, photography, flickr, Nansen Ski Jump