Meerkat Meade

GCFCG Haunted House 2009

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0000

(This is basically a copy of what I posted on the AACPL Programming Blog. That's a closed blog, so I figured I would post here in the open as well. -Don)

If you thought you heard screams coming from the north on Halloween afternoon, you're not mistaken. Between 1pm and 5 pm, a total of 202 people (138 kids and 63 adults) started through our Haunted House (presented in conjunction with the Greater Columbia Fantasy Costumers Guild, pictured above). Staffers Meg Miller and Leslie Shepley kept the crowd under control and the groups moving through, while Guild members (including staffer Don Sakers) provided the scares.

At the entrance, groups were met by one of the two maids, Holly and June (left). The maid explained that the Count and Countess from Transylvania were considering moving their family to the United States. The Brooklyn Park Library was allowing the family to live in the basement for a while, and today we were giving tours so that the family could meet Americans. "So be on your best behavior...remember, we are going into someone's house. Keep your hands to yourselves, be polite, and don't break anything. And oh, by the way, they're vampires."

(At this point, some kids lost their nerve and bailed out.)

Groups first greeted the Dowager Countess (right), who was quite mad. It was at this point that a latecomer joined the group, a teenage girl who had missed her turn earlier. Everyone said hello to the Dowager, then moved along down the hall. (Sharp-eyed visitors got a glimpse of a ghostly figure wafting down the hall, which added to their unease.)

Down the hall, Uncle Pesci (left) stepped out from the bathroom wearing a shower cap and clutching a shower brush. He grumbled at the maid because no one had told him it was tour day. We'd intended this to be a minor and slightly humorous startle-scare, but some kids screamed, others started crying, and at least one little boy let loose his bladder and had to be escorted out by Mom.

After this encounter with Uncle Pesci, the group continued on toward the kitchen.

The kitchen staff (above) were glad to welcome each group and show off some of the delicacies they were preparing for the family: kitty eyeballs, ear & eyeball stew, assorted sweetmeats sauteed in puppy drool, and fresh intestines ("It's an acquired taste").

The kitchen staff then asked some questions ("Are you healthy?" "Can I smell your hands?") and then nodded approvingly over one member of the group. Without warning, they grabbed her away and pulled her (kicking and screaming) through the door. After the door slammed, the poor victim's cries were abruptly cut off by a very solid "thunk." (The victim, of course, was the teenager who joined the group at the last minute -- in reality she was a shill who belonged to the Costumers Guild.)

At this point the group was joined by the family butler, Mr. Renfield (right), who announced that "The Family is ready to receive guests now." Mr. Renfield led them through a curtain to the family room, while behind them the maid tried to reassure those who were concerned about the missing teenager: "No, no, there's nothing we can do for her. Did anyone know her? Oh, good, she won't be missed."

With Mr. Renfield in the lead (with a deadpan delivery remisicent of Riff-Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show), groups moved on to meet various members of the family.

Sisters Malice and Alice (above) were the first to greet the guests. Mr. Renfield explained that Malice has been lost in a horror novel for the last two hundred years, while Alice enjoys playing with her dolls. Every time Alice stuck her doll with a pin, Malice would jump and say "Ouch." Mr. Renfield cautioned visitors not to give Alice anything personal, such as a key, some hair, or a finger.

Great-Aunt Elspeth (right), a spinster, was spinning cobwebs...but she always found at least one person in the group with lovely hair, and she asked them if she could have their head ("to keep the hair fresh.") When Mr. Renfield said, "Now Elspeth, you know that you never give the heads back," Elspeth countered with, "They never ask!" Unanswerable logic.

Cousin Charlotte (above) was next on the tour. First Charlotte used her Tarot cards to peel back the mists of time and tell the fortune of someone in the group: "Death." Mr. Renfield deadpanned, "Very perceptive, Charlotte. Everyone's fortune is death...eventually. Why don't you show them something more...mystical?"

Charlotte then conjured up the spirit of someone from a previous tour; the ghostly apparition arose and silently swayed in the breeze.

Now it was time to meet the Count and Countess (above). Both welcomed their visitors enthusiastically. The Count asked one of the children his/her name. Let's follow one little boy, clinging to Mom, who answered, "Daniel." The Count patted the maid on her shoulder and said, "You have served us well. Tell Cook that the first course on tonight's dinner will be...Daniel." He looked around the group. "And the rest of them can go in the soup pot; we'll feast on them all weekend."

At this point, young Daniel started to lose it. Mom patted him comfortingly and said, "Honey, it's just make-believe. They're not really going to take you and eat you." With fear-filled eyes, Daniel protested, "They took that other girl!"

Mom had no ready reply.

Fortunatley for the group, Mr. Renfield stepped forward and said to the Count, "Wait a minute, that's not the deal! You said you'd only take one from each group." The maid answered, "We're renegotiating the deal. We're taking them all, and I get my immortality." The Count pointed at Mr. Renfield and cackled, "Yes, and you get nothing...except the soup pot with the rest of them."

Mr. Renfield stood firm. "You forget, there are three things that vampires have no power over. One: your own reflection in a mirror."

The Countess sneered, "There are no mirrors here."

Mr. Renfield said, "Two: the burning touch of sunlight!"

The Count cackled, "We are in the basement. There's no sulight here, you fool!"

Mr. Renfield continued, "Three: the Vampire Hunter Blake!"

In burst Vampire Hunter Blake (right), who instantly drove a stake through the heart of the traitorous maid. As he struggled with the vampire family, Mr. Renfield ushered the group through a doorway to the graveyard. Blake stepped through, then threw a shining rope across the threshhold. "We're safe, they can't cross this magical barrier."

As Blake and Renfield organized the group, the Countess burst through the barrier. "I am the oldest and strongest of this family, no barrier can stop me. First I will have you, Blake, and then I will take the rest!" She and Blake fought to the death (Blake's) while Renfield sheparded the group into the exit antechamber. There, with the safety of sunlight on the other side of the door, he paused to make sure everyone was accounted for ("Wait, we're missing one...oh, never mind.")

The Countess burst through the door, and the group ran screaming into the safety of the light.

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This fifth annual Haunted House was our most successful. We had two pants-wetters, one hysterical crier who had to leave halfway through (and then was forced back in by Mother, perhaps not the best example of quality parenting), one puppy pile (in which most of the group fell to the floor and tried to crawl to safety, kicking the last one in line back toward the vampires), at least half a dozen older siblings offering younger brothers or sisters as sacrificial victims, and a good number of screamers, criers, and general scared-to-deathers. One group froze completely when Blake entered, and were only convinced to move to safety when Uncle Pesci stood up behind them and roared.

In short, a grand time was had by all.

Setup took about six hours on Friday afternoon/evening (about 4-10 pm) and teardown was accomplished in less time on Sunday (1-4 pm). And the Guild is already thrashing out ideas for next year.

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VHS-to-DVD Project Update

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:17:00 +0000

As you may recall, in June 2004 we started converting our collection of over 1,500 VHS tapes to DVD. It's long past time for an update.

Despite a lapse of a couple years due to illness, we are back on track and into the home stretch. Just moments ago Don put DVD number 1924 into the recorder to transfer tape G:088. Out of the original tapes, we are down to about 150 (which means we're just about 90% done, which is an encouraging thought.) We're currently transferring stuff that was recorded in mid-1995, 14 years ago.

The most recent tape we transferred contained the following:

Our video catalog has undergone another transformation: it is now in HanDBase format, on the Macs and on Don's iPhone. Having the video database on iPhone is a leap forward in covnenience.

So what comes next? If we keep up our current rate, the conversion project should be completed by June 2010 -- six years after we began. We estimate that by that time we'll be beyond DVD 2200.

Once we're done, we look forward to the next step: ripping all these DVDs into something like iTunes. We're going to have to be patient: storing the equivalent of 2200 DVDs would take something in excess of 10 TB. But eventually we'll see iPods with a capacity of 16 TB; by that time we will be able to carry our entire video collection in our pockets. It's a nifty prospect.

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Long ago the four nations lived in harmony....

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:30:00 +0000

Welcome Orion

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:40:00 +0000

We have a name for the new hamster: Orion.

You see, he has these three spots on his back: two small ones close together, and a larger one a little ways away, all along the same line. So we were thinking of calling him "Umlaut" (for the two spots) or "Ellipsis" (for all three). Then on the way home from work yesterday, I came up with "Orion" from the constellation, and that did it.

So our new guy is officially Orion, a stellar hamster who is destined to be a mighty hunter.

If he holds still long enough, I will try to post a picture of his three spots.

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The New Hanster

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:03:00 +0000

It's New Hamster Time

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:42:00 +0000

If all goes well, tomorrow evening we will be getting a new hamster.

The Great Hall and Basement are cleaned and prepared with fresh nesting material. We have a good supply of hamster food. And our poison ivy, which dissuaded us from getting a hamster last week, is faded to almost nothing -- certainly no risk to a little baby hamster.

Will post here and on Twitter with the news.

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Monday's Child R.I.P.

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:03:00 +0000

Should have posted this a while ago, in remembrance.

Monday's child is Farrah Fawcett,
Tuesday's child is Fuller Brush Man,
Wednesday's child is Martin Balsam,
Thursday's child is Tommy Newsome,
Friday's child is Euell Gibbons,
Saturday's child is Richard Simmons,
But the child that's born on the sabbath day
Is John and Paul and George and Jay.

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Act Well Your Part Now Available for Kindle

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Don's first novel, Act Well Your Part, is now available in Amazon Kindle format for $3.50.

Act Well Your Part is the story of Keith Graff, who dislikes his new school, Oak Grove High. He misses his old friends, and despairs of ever fitting in. Then he joins the school's drama club, where he meets the boyishly cute Bran Davenport. From there on it's a rollicking good boy-meets-boy story.

Since its original publication in 1986, Act Well Your Part has become a classic, an unabashed love story set not in the world that was, but in the world as, perhaps, it should be. It is a world in which sexual orientation matters about as much as eye color of left-handedness.

Amazon Kindle format is an electronic text format that can be viewed on Amazon's Kindle device and Apple's iPhone.

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Help Spread the Word

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:23:00 +0000

Folks, please help me spread the word that a thinly-disguised Michael Jackson was a character in Dance for the Ivory Madonna. I think lots of people would be interested to see Michael Jackson in a science fiction novel.

The link is tinyurl.com/mjsfnovel

Thanks!

-Don Sakers

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Reviewing the Star Trek Movies

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:28:00 +0000

Everyone is asking what we thought of the new Star Trek movie. Before answering that, you should know what we thought of the others.

First, a few words on how we review movies:

To begin with, we rate movies along two axes. One is good/bad; the other is fun/not-fun. A movie can be good and fun (The Princess Bride), good and not fun (Das Boot), bad but fun (Independence Day), or bad and not fun (Ernest Goes to Camp). In addition, we sometimes rate movies on a scale of 1 to 101 Dalmatians (the animated one, of course).

That being said, here are our opinions of the various Star Trek movies.

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#1: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Very good, pretty fun

A good science fiction movie, although not necessarily good Star Trek. Maybe 85 dalmatians.

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#2: The Wrath of Khan

Pretty good, very fun.

Although we still want to know where they got enough mass to form a planet in the middle of that nebula. Maybe 80-85 dalmatians.

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#3: The Search for Spock

Pretty good, very fun.

Very hard to separate from Wrath of Khan - they're really 2 parts of the same movie, aren't they? Maybe 70-75 dalmatians.

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#4: The Voyage Home

Bad, somewhat fun.

Time travel is not Star Trek's forte. And why did the whale tank have to be transparent? Maybe 50-55 dalmatians.

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#5: The Final Frontier

Bad, not much fun.

Maybe 50-55 dalmatians.

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#6: The Undscovered Country

Very bad, not much fun.

Okay, guys, which ship was doing the gas surveys? Maybe 30-35 dalmatians.

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#7: Generations

Not too bad, somewhat fun.

Crashing the saucer section was fun. But time travel again...oh my. Maybe 50-60 dalmatians.

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#8: First Contact

Not too good, somewhat fun.

Impossible to reconcile this version of Zefram Cochrane with the one seen in the series. And...oh dear...time travel and the Borg? Really? Maybe 60-65 dalmatians.

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#9: Insurrection

Quite good, quite fun.

Good sf, good Trek, a cool planet and a plot that makes sense. Maybe as many as 80-85 dalmatians.

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#10: Nemesis

Very bad, not much fun.

Proof that Star Trek can be awful without time travel or the Borg. Maybe 30-35 dalmatians, maybe fewer.

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#11 Star Trek.

Not that good but really fun.

Lots of nods to fans, some really good actors. But necessary to give up trying to piece together the sloppy narrative. Head off to save Vulcan with only two real officers and a bunch of third-year cadets on the Federation Flagship? Really? Make a third-year cadet who is on probation the First Officer? Did I mention it's the Flagship? Promote that cadet to Flagship Captain, over the heads of all the existing officers? Sure, why not?

Maybe 75-80 dalmatians?

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Soured on Apple

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:32:00 +0000

I am well and truly pissed at Apple.

It all started on June 7 with Security Update 2009-02. I installed it on our venerable seven-year-old iMac G4 (running OSX 10.4.11). Afterwards, the iMac wouldn't start up. It froze on the blue startup screen. What's worse, it would not boot into so-called "safe mode."

I looked online and found that I was not the only person bitten by this bug. There were many suggestions, so I started trying them. Start up in single-user mode (which it did) and repair the startup disc, repair permissions, change the name of various preferences files, delete this-that-and-another file from various Libraries. No dice.

I finally learned the trick of opening the DVD drive, so was able to boot from the install disc. Fromt there, I was able to boot into OS9. But that did me no good.

One source said to boot from an external Firewire drive. So I used the install DVD to install OSX 10.4.6 on the external drive, and tried to boot from that.

No luck. Under OS9 it mounted the external drive without trouble; but it would not boot from that drive no matter what I did.

Eventually, I had no other choice but to reinstall the OS. I was reluctant to do this, because I had to do it back in February (after another botched Security Update) and the update destroyed a bunch of settings, as well as wiping out all our iTunes playlists. But there was no other choice.

So I installed OSX 10.4.6 on the iMac. And it rebooted successfully, hooray!

But...

The wireless card is messed up. System Profiler sees the card, but the iMac insists that it is not installed. The ethernet port is messed up -- the system doesn't even admit that it has an Ethernet port, and it certainly won't go online. (Both the wireless network and the ethernet connection work fine on the laptop.)

Worse, the iMac won't mount the external drive. Nor will with external drive mount on the laptop. That drive holds all our iTunes, all our iPhotos, and a bunch of other stuff that I really don't want to lose.

Without being able to go online, I can't install any system updates. I am afraid to run anything because I don't want to have OS conflicts.

Thanks a lot, Apple. You've turned a perfectly-good computer into a wreck.

I'd been planning to buy a brand-new iMac with tax refund money...but now I am very reluctant. I've recommended Apple to many friends over the last few years...but I can't do that in any good conscience any longer. I am definitely soured on Apple.

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Update 9:08 PM: Well, I can still boot into OS 9.2...and then the iMac recognizes its wireless connection. So we can get online using a ten-year-old version of Internet Explorer. Bah.

Apple still sucks big-time.

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CostumeCon 27 Pictures

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:19:00 +0000

Our CostumeCon 27 presentation was "CostumeCon 1889: Steampunk Style." In it, we did a masquerade-within-the-masquerade, in Steampunk style, which spoofed all the standard cliches of costuming: Star Trek, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and five different Snow Queens. Not only did we get a group award for workmanship and the "Best Concept" masquerade award...but the New York/New Jersey Costumer's Guild awarded us the coveted Spazzy Award, given for the most sick and twisted presentation.

Here's the group picture:

And here's Thomas as Darth Vader. His helmet is made of folded and glued cardboard.

And here is the last costume we presented, Don as the ultimate Snow Queen: a steampunk drag queen cocaine dealer (Snow Queen, get it?)

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Earth Day

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:22:00 +0000

I can see a time, in the not-too-distant future, when Earth Day will replace Easter as the default Spring holiday. I'm in favor: with the exception of Christmas, all of our other national holidays are secular ones. And we need a Spring holiday.

I can also see a time, in the more-distant future, when people on the Moon, Mars, and various space settlements will insist that the name "Earth Day" be changed because it's too Earth-centric. And there, too, I'm in favor.

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How We Designate Planets Nowadays

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:35:00 +0000

(GEEK ALERT! Only interesting if you are a science or science-fiction geek. Mundanes may skip without penalty.)

How do we designate planets? The old way, the venerable science fiction way, was to give planets roman numerals in order of their distance from their sun. In this system, Earth was "Sol III," Khan was exiled on "Ceti Alpha V," and in the Dune universe, the planet Ix derived its name from the fact that it was the ninth planet from its sun.

That's not how it works in the real world. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia:

The most common way of naming extrasolar planets is almost the same as binary stars, except that a lowercase letter is used for the planet instead of the uppercase letter for stars. A lowercase letter is placed after the star name, starting with "b" for the first planet found in the system (51 Pegasi b). The next planet found in the system could be labeled the next letter in the alphabet. For instance, any more planets found around 51 Pegasi would be catalogued as "51 Pegasi c" and then "51 Pegasi d", and so on. If two planets are discovered around the same time, the closest one to the star gets the next letter, while the last planet would get the last letter. For example, in the Gliese 876 system, the most recently discovered planet is referred to as Gliese 876 d, despite the fact that it is closer to the star than Gliese 876 b and Gliese 876 c. The suffix "a" was intended to refer specifically to the primary, as opposed to the system as a whole, but this did not catch on. At present, the planet 55 Cancri f (being the fifth planet found in the 55 Cancri system) is the only planet to have "f" in its name, the highest letter currently in use.

In practical terms, this basically means that we're assigning letters in decreasing order of mass, since we detect extrasolar planets by their mass.

I assume that the old "roman numerals" system would still apply, once we get close enough to another planetary system to be sure that we've detected all the planets in the correct order.

Anyway, it occurred to me that I haven't seen the new way applied to the Solar System. So here it is:

I'm going to let the dwarf planets fight it out among themselves.

I suppose there's an analogous system for satellites, under which Ganymede = Jupiter b, Callisto = Jupiter c, Io = Jupiter d, Europa = Jupiter e; Titan = Saturn b; Triton = Neptune b; and even Charon = Pluto b. Saturn is going to cause problems, since it had more than 25 satellites.

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Analog Reference Library June 2009

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:22:00 +0000

Starting with the June 2009 issue, Don Sakers is the new book reviewer for Analog, the longest-running science fiction magazine in the known universe.

Don's June column is available here. Ignore the stray paragraph about utopias; it came from somewhere else.

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Can iPhone Replace a Palm?

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:53:00 +0000

Don has been using Palm organizers for about ten years. First it was his Palm III, followed by a Handspring Visor, and then a Palm Zire 71. Recently, when his Zire died, Don got a used replacement from eBay But recently, the handwriting has been on the wall (graffiti, of course). Even if Palm survives, the company is moving away from the venerable Palm OS.

Meanwhile, Don has been very happy with his iPhone. As iPhone's capabilities increased, it made less and less sense to carry two devices. Even before his Zire died, Don was exploring the possibility of transitioning to iPhone as his only PDA.

It's all about the apps. Over the last decade, Don has built up a stable of Palm programs that fill his needs: some built-in, others add-ons. Finding iPhone replacements has been a challenge, but at last Don has put together a suite of iPhone apps that allow him to move beyond Palm. As a public service, he presents here his list.

Of course, your mileage may vary, everyone's needs are different, blah blah blah.

Palm: Contacts iPhone app: Contacts (native): Syncs with Address Book via MobileMe

Palm: Calendar iPhone app: Calendar (native): Syncs with iCalc via MobileMe

Palm: Tasks iPhone app: Todo (Appigo): iPhone doesn't have a native to-do app, but Appigo's Todo fills the bill nicely. It syncs with the free online service Toodledo, which has a web component

Palm: Memos iPhone: Notebook (Appigo): iPhone has a native Notes app, but it pales in comparison with Palm memos. Appigo's Notebook not only allows categories, but it syncs with Toodledo.

Palm: Calc iPhone: Calculator (native) Good basic calculator; turn it sideways and get a scientific calculator with a fair array of features

Palm: VersaMail iPhone: Mail (native): Mail has VersaMail beat hands down

Palm: WebPro or Blazer iPhone: Safari (native): In its time, Blazer was a wonder. Wow, a web browser on a Palm! But Safari on iPhone is lightyears ahead

Palm: Camera iPhone: Camera (native): Again, the Palm camera app was a wonder in its time. But compared to the iPhone camera, Palm's is slow almost to the point of unusability. One thing, though: the Palm camera allows one to take video; iPhone's does not

Palm: Media and RealOne iPhone: Photos and iPod (both native): Media let you view photos and videos (but only Palm videos); RealOne let you listen to mp3 files. The Photo and iPod apps are so far superior that there's almost no comparison. Sync to desktop via iTunes

Palm: Voice Memo iPhone: coming in iPhone 3.0: Advantage to the Palm. There are non-native iPhone apps for voice memos, and that capability will apparently be native in 3.0. I don't use voice memos, so it's not a lack I've felt in iPhone

Palm: Expenses iPhone: PocketMoney (Catamount): iPhone does not come with a native expense app. For more on PocketMoney, see PocketQuicken below

Palm: Prefs iPhone: Settings (native): Settings has a cooler icon

Palm: HotSync iPhone: Sync Settings (not a separate app): There's no global sync app for iPhone; sync is very much an app-by-app thing. It's worth noting that native apps like Contacts, Calendar, and Mail sync over-the-air via MobileMe, which is too cool for school. Other apps require iTunes, or have their own sync/backup solutions

Palm: DateBk6 iPhone: Calendar (native) and Todo (Appigo): I confess, iPhone doesn't have anything as cool and useful as DateBk6. Calendar needs a lot of work (at least search is coming in 3.0), while Todo does a pretty good job -- but after years of having my schedule and to-dos displayed on the same screen, it took a paradigm shift to accept using two different apps

Palm: HanDBase iPhone: HanDBase: Without a good database app, switching to iPhone was unthinkable. Once the people at HanDBase announced that they had an iPhone version, then I started to contemplate switching. HanDBase syncs to the desktop, and easily reads Palm HanDBase databases

Palm: GlucoTools iPhone: Diabetes Pilot: I have diabetes and need an app to record and manage carbs and insulin injections. GlucoTools is a very simple insulin dose calculator; Diabetes Pilot is a full-featured recording, calculating, and reporting app. As the name implies, it's a port of the Palm program with the same name

Palm: Palm Reader iPhone: Stanza and Kindle: Stanza can read pretty much anything I throw at it, and can load files from the desktop. Reading books on iPhone is a much better experience than reading them on the Palm

Palm: YAPS iPhone: 1Password: YAPS stands for Yet Another Password Saver. 1Password is a perfectly acceptable replacement. I had to manually move all my account names and passwords, but that was a one-time-only inconvenience. 1Password backs up to the desktop but doesn't sync -- but YAPS was the same way

Palm: AIM iPhone: AIM and Twitterific: I never Twittered on the Palm. A while ago we went searching for a dedicated Twitter app for Thomas's Treo, but couldn't find one that was satisfactory. He just goes to the Twitter website with his browser. Meanwhile, Twitterific on iPhone is a joy. AIM on iPhone works pretty much the same way as AIM everywhere

Palm: PocketQuicken iPhone: PocketMoney: Neither Landware or Intuit seem inclined to do a version for iPhone. PocketMoney is a perfectly acceptable replacement, and it imports Quicken files. Caveat: I always used PocketQuicken exclusively, not messing with the desktop program. If syncing with desktop Quicken is important to you, that could be a problem

Palm: BigClock iPhone: Clock (native): Every Palm user I know has BigClock. I use it primarily as an alarm clock while traveling, but it also has world time, stopwatch, etc. The iPhone Clock app has the same capabilities built in

Palm: HandyShopper iPhone: GroceryIQ (you'd think they'd have the company name somewhere in the app): HandyShopper is the premiere shopping list program for the Palm. It has legions of devoted fans. And the folks who produce it have made it clear that they're not going to do an iPhone port (more the fools they: thousands of people would pay through the nose for an iPhone version of HandyShopper). GroceryIQ is not a total replacement for HandyShopper, but it does allow you to sort by aisles (as well as making your own custom aisles; put the two together and you can approximate HandyShopper's aisle sort). At the moment GroceryIQ is set up for only one store -- but they say they're working on it. (Oddly, one big concern of iPhone shopping list apps is to have a huge database of pre-entered items, in order to reduce typing. Maybe so; I can type the complete name of a product far faster than GroceryIQ can find the same product in its database.) With effort, one can massage GroceryIQ into about 80% of a HandyShopper replacement -- until some enterprising programmer decides to clone HandyShopper, that's the best we're going to get

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Time Magazine Catches Up to Dance for the Ivory Madonna

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:33:00 +0000

The cover story in the current issue of Time magazine is "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now." One of those ideas is "Africa: Business Destination." Suddenly, Time has discovered Africa's vast potential for becoming a world economic player.

Don Sakers totally called this in his 2002 novel Dance for the Ivory Madonna. In that book, set in the year 2042, Africa was mostly unified under a government called Umoja (the Kiswahili word for "Community"), and Umoja was the economic and technological powerhouse of the world.

Here's a brief snippet talking about the fictional history of Umoja, and you can read more about Dance for the Ivory Madonna here.

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iPhone Apps I Use Daily

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:14:00 +0000

There's a new report that says only 1 percent of users who download an app from the iPhone App Store become long-term users of that app.

Well, Don must be one of those one percent. Here are some of the apps he uses every day, in no particular order.

Todo by Appigo. This is a fine "to-do" app that synchronizes with the free online service Toodledo. The iPhone came without a to-do app; I've been wanting to transition away from my dying Palm Zire to iPhone, and Todo is big step along that path.

Iconic Notes by Hoofien. A notes app that allows the user to put notes into folders and subfolders, as well as allowing color-coding and replaceable icons for notes.

HanDBase by DDH Software. Database software. Both Thomas and I are long-time users of HanDBase for the Palm: Thomas keeps the Star Toys Museum catalog of 10,000+ items with it. On iPhone, I have databases for comics, filk tapes & CDs, and books I'm reviewing. HanDBase is indispensable.

Diabetes Pilot by Digital Altitudes. Another port of a longterm Palm program. Written by diabetics for diabetics, Diabetes Pilot helps keep track of blood glucose readings, medications, meals, and exercise. It calculates insulin doses, and has a built-in food database for counting carbs. Definitely worthwhile.

Twitterific by the Iconfactory. Twitter on the go. What more could one ask? (BTW, if you want to follow us on Twitter, Don is meerkatdon and Thomas is darthmarmalade.

Stanza by Lexcycle. Read books and other documents on iPhone. The best ebook reader I've ever used.mAnd BTW, allof Don's books are available for Stanza from Fictionwise.com.

1Password by Agile Web Solutions. One place to store all usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information, all protected by a master password.

ComiXology by comixology.com. Browse new releases, make pull lists, and a whole bunch of other features tied in with the website comixology.com.

So there you have it, plenty of iPhone apps that get used all the time.

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Shady Character

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:31:00 +0000

That nefarious character, Reginald Kennett Dwight
We're having a Forensics program at the library, where kids will be given clues to solve the mystery of who stole the cookies. So today several of us dressed up for mug shots.

Here's Don as "Reginald Kenneth Dwight." Some people say he looks like a young Ozzie Osbourne, others suggest Howard Stern. The name comes from Elton John by way of Vicar of Dibley.

And no, I can't reveal who actually stole the cookies until after the program (next Tuesday).

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Bottle City of Kandor

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:24:00 +0000

Here's our Bottle City of Kandor. We've had it forever, and finally today Don added the little battery-powered lights that we bought at Ikea maybe ten years ago.

And here's the city without its bottle:

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Arisia Update

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:12:00 +0000

Sigh. We have decided to stay home.

We were thinking of getting a rental car, but the prices were obscene: $500+ at every place we tried. Then Thomas realized that this is Inauguration weekend. Anywhere in the greater DC/Baltimore area, rental car companies can name their prices. And they're doing so.

Ah, well. We'll have fun at home.

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Analog and Eurovan News

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:03:00 +0000

In the March 2009 issue of Analog (the longest-running science fiction magazine in the world), Don appears as a guest book reviewer. The regular reviewer, Tom Easton, has retired; Analog decided to try out several guest reviewers before making the decision of which one would get the permanent gig.

The March issue of Analog should be on the stands now. You can read Don's review here.

In vehicle news, our beloved Eurovan (seen here being towed to the dealer in Louisville, KY) is still in the shop. We were hoping to have it done in time to drive up to Boston this weekend for Arisia, but alas that will not be the case.

Now we face a decision: should we spend the extra money to rent a car for the trip, or should we do the smart thing and stay home this weekend? It depends on how smart we want to be...and what effect our decision will have on other folks.

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Annual Diabetes Blog Day

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:14:00 +0000

Today is Annual Diabetes Blog Day, so here's my attempt to blog about diabetes.

Trouble is, there's not a lot to say. I watch my diet, I take my insulin (3 or 4 shots a day of two different insulins), I check my blood sugar before & after meals...and things go pretty well.

Here's the people I feel sorry for:

1. Diabetics who don't have good health insurance, or any health insurance at all. Insulin is expensive; blood sugar test strips cost about a dollar apiece (I often use 5 a day), the various oral medications (which I don't take) are also expensive. Without good insurance, I don't know how diabetics can afford all the stuff they need -- I suspect that they don't, and instead skimp on necessary medication or equipment.

2. Diabetics who manage without insulin. If my blood sugar starts getting high, I can just take a larger dose of insulin and everything evens out. [Well, okay, sometimes a larger dose of insulin means that my blood sugar goes too low, which could make me pass out, but I take a few glucose tablets to get it back up.] My dad, on the other hand, doesn't use insulin -- if his blood sugar is too high, his choices are (a) go back in time and eat less or be under less stress, (b) do some additional exercise to burn up the excess glucose, (c) put off his next meal, or (d) live with it. That last choice is a particularly bad one, because high blood sugar does all kinds of invisible, systemic damage in the body.

Sure, taking insulin is a chore and a pain, and I don't always get the doses right...but it sure beats the alternative.

3. Diabetics who don't have access to modern high-tech medicine. If my grandmother wanted to know her blood sugar level, she could use urine test strips...which gave a hazy reading of how much sugar was in her blood several hours ago. (Or she could go to a lab, pay a fortune, and get her results in a week or so.) She had only one kind of insulin, and dosing was total guesswork. She had to boil and reuse glass syringes and nasty needles. And she died relatively early. That was forty years ago; there are plenty of people in the world today who don't have access to even the level of technology that she did. They'll go blind, lose limbs, get multiple infections, and die early from all kinds of complications.

Me? I have nothing to complain about.

[Okay, I lost a toe, and a year and a half later the foot still hurts all the time...and I spend a whole lot of time & effort managing this disease...but really, I can't complain.]

Meanwhile, if you've just been diagnosed with diabetes...or if you know someone who was...download this flyer and check out this website. And use all available tools to manage diabetes. It's important.

-Don

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Surgery

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:52:00 +0000

On Tuesday morning, 26 August 2008, Don is going into Saint Agnes Hospital for fairly routine surgery to correct a pinched nerve that's been causing him pain for quite a while.

The surgery is scheduled for 7:45 am, and with great good luck Don will be able to return home Tuesday evening or on Wednesday. He'll be out of work for an undetermined time, probably a week to ten days.

Meanwhile, Eurovan is in the care of our fine mechanics, who are still diagnosing problems and coming up with a plan.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

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Safe at Home

don@meerkatmeade.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:07:00 +0000

We are home and safe. We got home about 2 am on Tuesday, 19 August 2008 and spent Tuesday recovering. On Wednesday we were back at work.

One place we stopped was the meteor crater in Odessa, TX. This is the second-largest meteor crater in the United States (the more famous Berringer Meteor Crater in Arizona is the largest). A local tv news guy was there taking video of the crater and of us; here is a clip from their broadcast that night.

And Eurovan? It is now sitting at the shop of our local mechanic. The engine is seized up and probably needs to be replaced. We'll know more when we get the full poop from our mechanic.

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