Even More Like This

Cultured Kitties

2013-06-13T01:36:16Z

!markdown

From a discussion with @cynthia1960 this morning: since Maine Coon cats tend to be as large as ships in *The Culture,* we consider the possibility of giving them [Culture-style ship names](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spacecraft_in_the_Culture_series). This exercise was prompted by Elizabeth Tribble's alarmingly frequent trilling (which is a Maine Coon characteristic.)

* *ROU Excited Trill Before Pouncing*
* *GSV You're Not Using this Chair, *I* Am*
* *GCU All of the Floof, None of the Gravitas*

Iterate in the comments if you so desire.

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QOTD

2013-03-29T22:32:47Z

!markdown > @dry_hugs: *whips empty tallboy at a fence* fuck, man, i dunno. i just wish… (*long drag of cigarete*)… i just wish i could interact with more brands

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Weev, wget, & Rape Culture

2013-03-18T20:43:01Z

!markdown Andy Baio on Weev, who has been sentenced to 41 months in the Federal pen for embarrassing AT&T: >waxpancake: Weev terrorized people online for years without legal consequences, but poking at a phone company gets him jail time. [http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/03/att-hacker-gets-3-years/](http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/03/att-hacker-gets-3-years/) >waxpancake: I’m sure Kathy Sierra and Weev’s other targets would be happy to see him behind bars, but not for this. wget is not a crime. Weev's [admitted to helping chase Kathy Sierra offline](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) and his attacks on LJ are probably well known to anyone spending any time in the trenches there. I wonder if the AT&T prosecution is the DOJ trying to find something to go after him on. The problem with that is that the charge, enumerating a list of URLs, makes for bad precedent. You could make anyone a felon with a single XSS attack. Why wasn't Weev charged in relation to threats against Kathy Sierra or his attacks on LJ? Because we've made embarrassing the powerful an implicit crime through selective enforcement of laws such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and our culture continues to ignore threats against women and communities of women.

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Aaron Swartz 1986-2013

2013-01-12T09:09:43Z

jtauber: as I get older there are going to be more people half my age that impress the hell out of me, but aaronsw was the first

Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. I think a lot of what people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity. — Aaron Swartz

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A Matter of Chili

2013-01-07T02:03:38Z

Chili is a stew, usually made with meat and spices. While you contemplate that, start browning two pounds of meat[1], which you’ve sprinkled generously with salt and pepper, in your dutch oven[2].

If you use ground chicken, don’t splurge for the ground chicken breast, you want dark meat in this because it has to be robust enough to stand up to the spices. Be leery of the Jenny-O packs of ground turkey. You can use it in a pinch, but the meat browns to a uniform, unappetizing grey.

While you might have sausage in the fridge or freezer, don’t add it yet. Sausage has its own spices and you’ll need to re-approach what spices you use.

Meanwhile, the meat is browning, so go ahead and finely chop a white onion. The idea here is that we don’t want big chunks of onion in the resulting stew. You want to feature the meat and the spices.

Once the meat’s browned, take it out of the dutch oven, reserving some of the rendered fat. Add the onion and let it cook down until translucent. Once the onions have cooked down, add the minced garlic. You don’t need much, this isn’t the important source of spice in the dish. Go ahead and let the garlic get fragrant, and stir the meat back in.

Now add the cumin and chili powders. I use a 2/1 cumin to chili powder ratio. Then add a half cup of water to the dutch oven and stir it all together.

If you used chicken or turkey and want to get a deeper brownish red, you can either add some paprika, or cocoa powder and sugar. It depends on which way you want to take this[3].

At this point, you can add water to cover and let this simmer for as long as you can wait. You’ve got chili. Or you can add the cans of tomatoes, a little less water and let it simmer. If you have time to let it simmer, I’d add water to the point you have a slurry-like consistency and let it go.

The longer this simmers, the better. Check the dutch oven and and add a little water if it’s starting to get too low. The chili should be thick but not dry.

If you do want to add beans, rinse them thoroughly and add them 5 to 10 minutes before you serve the chili. If you wanted to chop up, cook and add the sausage, do that now.

Serve over rice, with cornbread, or over spaghetti (Cincinnati N-way,) with or without chopped onions and grated cheese on the side.

This produces enough chili for 4 people of average appetites, and of course can be prepared and refrigerated or frozen in advance.

Ingredients

2 lb. of Meat (ground chicken, cubed pork, an inexpensive roast cubed)
1 large white onion, finely chopped
2–3 cloves garlic, minced fine
4 tablespoons cumin powder
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 Teaspoon sweet paprika or 1 Tablespoon each cocoa powder and sugar
1 8oz Can of Chopped tomatoes and peppers (Rotel™ or similar, optional)
1 16oz Can of Crushed tomatoes (optional)
1 8oz Can of Beans (Pinto or Black) rinsed and drained (optional)
Salt and Pepper

I haven’t tried a vegetarian/vegan version of this. Your suggestions in the comments are welcome. ↩
Really, you want one of these. Check online for specials, search Craigslist/Freecycle, or tell your family (bio or of-choice) you want one. ↩
Mild paprika will give you color, without altering taste that much. Cocoa and sugar will alter things and give your chili color, but in a good way. ↩

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Flying up the San Mateo Coast

2012-11-24T09:28:01Z

My friend CG IM'ed me this morning and asked "want to go flying?"

cynthia1960 and I met him at the San Carlos Airport, where a friend of his who had flown down from Concord joined us. We took off from San Carlos, joined up in formation over Woodside, and flew up the coast. I had given the other plane's (a Grumman Tiger) passenger my camera to get photos of us.

CG is an FAA instructor, and trains people in formation flying. That's CG piloting and me in the back shooting photos from my iPhone.

Here's we are passing Devil's Slide on the way to Pacifica.

Golden Gate Park and the Sunset District of San Francisco.

And the money shot, of us and the Golden Gate Bridge.

The hills of Marin County with the Golden Gate in the background.

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Flying up the San Mateo Coast II

2012-11-24T02:41:39Z

More photos from today's flying. These are taken from my iPhone in my friend CG's Cirrus.

CG flys a Cirrus.

If you read James Fallows in The Atlantic you'll know that the Cirrus is famous for its inflight rescue system. That's the cover to the handle for the aircraft's parachute. When pulled, a rocket motor fires, dragging the chute out of its compartment. The plane lands straight down, using the tricycle gear, and the aluminum honeycomb airframe as a crush zone. You lose the bird, but have a good chance of surviving a mishap.

Taking off.

Looking south down US 101 after we take off and bank left.

Here's the other plane in our formation. Yes, we were that close. I mentioned that CG trains people how to do this.

Passing Pillar Point, and the famous Mavericks surf break.

Since the other plane (the Grumman) is the lead aircraft in the flight, CG has to watch it and maintain our formation. So that CG doesn't get a crick in his neck, ~~the lead plane flops over to the right hand side for a bit~~ we sideslip under the lead plane for a bit.

My view of the Golden Gate.

One of the large oil refineries just north of Berkeley in Richmond.

Here's a view of CG watching the lead plane as we approach the airport in Concord.

And here we are landing in Concord, so I could collect the camera that had the photos in the previous post!

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Social Media Guide

2012-11-16T03:08:35Z

Twitter: get people to post about your shitty product or service.

Pinterest: get people to post pictures of your shitty product.

Facebook: get people to click on an embedded web control associated with a Facebook page about your shitty product or service.

G+: get people to add your shitty product or service to a G+ circle called "Shitty Products or Services."

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AKICODW Bay Area Wedding Venues

2012-05-05T09:06:33Z

1. No "approved vendor lists" for caterers, bakers, DJs, etc 2. No required vendors 2. Provide the tables, chairs, linens, fixtures and staff to set up and tear down 3. Have ASCAP licences in place so all we have to do is power up the speakers, plug them into mixer, and press play on the iPod 4. Do not cost the equivalent of a round trip business class flight to Shanghai 5. Have a license for beer and wine 6. Do not require me to convert to their faith in order to use the venue

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whumpdotcom @ 2012-02-01T00:46:00

2012-02-01T08:59:25Z

You may have heard that the Komen Foundation suspended funding of breast cancer screening for low-income women at Planned Parenthood. It turns out that the Komen Foundation has been suborned by the evangelical scumbags.

Best thing to do now, if you have the means, is to donate or increase your donation to Planned Parenthood (I doubled my monthly donation to Planned Parenthood Mar Monte,) and don't give a dime to Komen.

If you don't have the means to give to Planned Parenthood, ask your friends and family to give if they can.

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In Which SUP Is Told To Go Take Branding And Shove It Up Their Ass

2012-01-22T01:35:55Z

Given the forthcoming changes to Live Journal, it is time to end my relationship with LJ and SUP. I will be deleting my account there.

If you are reading this on LJ, my advice is to leave now, and come to Dreamwidth.

Strip-mining the lives of actual people for the sake of branding and marketing is just as toxic, anti-democratic, and evil as the MPAA and RIAA writing laws to keep their rent-seeking business models on life support.

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Friendship is Yoko Kanno

2011-10-16T20:02:41Z

My Little Bebop: Punching Things is Magic

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Morning Reading

2011-10-12T16:08:18Z

Aaron Bady found a transcript of Slavoj Žižek speaking at #ows.

Which reminded me that Žižek gave a talk at RSA which hits on a theme many of you remember about the "master's tools" and the "master's house."

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Yes, IE6 needs to die, but too many people need it.

2011-10-08T20:33:19Z

Originally posted at https://plus.google.com/103858073822961240171/posts/NPyZ723rHrK So, I commented at +Doug Crockford's talk this morning at Silicon Valley Code Camp that our enthusiasm for killing IE6 must be tempered. And I'll give you some reasons why. There are whole segments of people who can't just start using Chrome, IE10, Safari, or Firefox. 1. They have a disability and live on a fixed income. Which means they are using a computer in a library or community center who doesn't have the budget or staff to upgrade. Or they are using their own computer and they can't upgrade. 2. They use assistive tech that they can't upgrade. If you are blind, you're using screen reading software which is expensive and may not be forward compatible, and again, if you're on a fixed income, rent and food come before software upgrades. 3. If you're poor, you're using the computer at the library, or you're using a non-smart phone with a very old browser. 4. If you have a cognitive disability, switching browsers can be a big a block to getting work done as changing your operating system, and locking the system preferences to a language and character set you don't read. So, yeah, I want to stop having to support IE6 through IE8, and I'm lucky that I work on enterprise software with service level agreements on what we support so I don't have to sweat IE6. But if you're writing for the general public, then you have to take IE6 into account. IE6 was made for the document centric web. Screen readers were made for the document centric web. Symbian's browser was made for the document centric web. We're making apps, and excluding people. If you want to get rid of IE6, then you have to address the infrastructure: support for people with disabilities, proper funding for libraries and schools so they can keep equipment upgraded, build smartphones that don't cost $200 + a two year contract.

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Because yhlee said she'd be set for life if someone did this...

2011-10-08T07:55:39Z

I've just put up the first version of the TV Tropes Plot Generator, http://apps.whump.com/plotgenerator/index.html, up as a phone-optimized single page app. (I just moved it, but the old link redirects)

It's not quite there (landscape mode needs more love, and I need to split out the CSS and JavaScript files) but have at it.

I'm grateful to the folks at TV Tropes for putting the content under a Creative Commons license, which enabled me to snag the trope indexes then massage them into arrays of Javascript objects.

To get the lists of tropes, I ran this in the browser console on each of the TV Tropes index pages:

var j = []; 
var data = document.getElementsByClassName('twikilink');
for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
j.push({ href: data[i].href, title: data[i].innerHTML });
}
var js = JSON.stringify(j);
document.write("<p>" + js + "</p>");

for each of the six types of tropes. (see comments for why you shouldn't write that loop that way in production code) That gave me the arrays of objects I could copy to the app.

I guess I could either use Strobe or Phonegap and cross-compile it into a stand-alone app.

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Moneyball

2011-09-25T05:54:25Z

If you have any interest in baseball, economics, or the business of sports, see this movie.

I think it's the finest movie about the game thus far.

Not to mention that I remember that 2002 season and The Streak.

Also, I think this movie is Brad Pitt and Aaron Sorkin's way of telling the Tea Party Nation that statistical reasoning, and not idiotic faith, matters.

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All The President's Vids

2011-09-14T16:23:38Z

I can't stand it, I know you planned it
I'm gonna set it straight, this Watergate
I can't stand rocking when I'm in here
'Cause your crystal ball ain't so crystal clear.

JY CINEMASHUP - All the President's Boys from Jeff Yorkes on Vimeo.

Paluka vs. Beastie Boys, via samhumphries

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And yet the turtle moves…

2011-09-11T00:43:25Z

It really pains me when technologists say things like this:

There are many smart, good people working at Linden Lab and in Second Life. The best thing that could happen is for the company to dissolve and the servers shut down so all the smart people can go someplace else and create something awesome that builds on the ideas of Second Life and brings it up to date. (What would that something be? I don't know. I'm not that smart.)
—Mitch Wagner</p>

It's arrogant, for two reasons:

First, it assumes that the existing communities of Second Life users have no value.

Second, it ignores that technologies evolve gradually, as well as disruptively.

While advertisers and apologists for Facebook and other privacy corroding "social media" tools may think a community of, say, steampunks on Second Life have no value to them because they can not monitor their actions at a level of granularity that would make a Stassi officer jealous, that community has value to its members now.

My iPhone and my neighbor's Android don't obsolete my desktop computer, especially since we can't write for those other platforms on those platforms. (Not to mention that it's easier to manage privacy and defend against invasive technologies on desktop/laptop than mobiles.)

I keep coming back to the privacy stance, and I think that's my strongest objection to Mitch's post. A successor to SL runs the extreme risk of being built from the ground up, on anti-privacy technologies. No doubt that it would be sold as "free, free, free" and safe for those foolish enough to think that wallet names will protect them from being offended, but in doing so, it will drain away everything that makes SL interesting and worthwhile.

However, Second Life is still a going concern. The community develops new ideas and techniques. Linden Lab continues to introduce new tools and technologies to the platform.

Engagement is not the same things as firing birds at pigs while you're on the MUNI bus, but many people desire platforms that require engagement, and we won't find them them in a crappy flash game embedded on a corporate Facebook page.

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Linkspam Will Preempt the Republican Candidates Debate

2011-09-01T08:06:43Z

Lots of linkspam for you:

Spatial Privacy: Flickr, the photo sharing service, released a new feature for photos uploaded with geolocation data that allows the customer to set access controls based on where the photo was taken. For example, you can restrict photos taken at home and school to a subset of your contacts. The only caveat about this is that you then have to be comfortable about sharing geolocation data with Flickr.

And now some development links:

Wrapping history: HTML5 provides a History API, which allows you to manage the URL through JavaScript. This is useful in single page applications such as the new Twitter website, so you can create bookmarkable URLs. Another use is a page displaying paged results, where the previous and next controls trigger loading another page of results through XMLHTTPRequest. The History API allows you to update /things?page=1 to /things?page=2, without reloading the page! Older browsers have to use the #! trick, where a timer watches the fragment (stuff after '#') portion of the URL, and the application updates the view. Benjamin Lupton's History.js library wraps up cross browser support for history so the techniques are transparent to your app's logic.

Aside: using the History API leads to much less painful coding. For example, I can set the next page control to a link to /things?page=5 instead of wiring up a handler, or setting an observer. Because the application is observing the URL, moving around the app becomes a matter of setting up Rails-like routes, and makes implementing a fall-back system for non-javascript browsers much easier (no JavaScript? The browser loads the correct page!)

Rebooting style: Twitter open sourced their base CSS framework which implements a 940 pixel wide, 16 column grid, along with standard style definitions for alerts, dialogs, buttons, tables and forms. And as a proper framework should, sets the default font to Helvetica.

Rebooting style with mobility If you want to design adaptively, so that you can support mobile and other clients with the same pages that you send to browsers, the Golden Grid System may be worth a look.

Providing acceptable service to IE: Joni Korpi, who designed Golden Grid, recommends dealing with IE8 and less by serving them the mobile-layout..

Now, Louis Lazarus would disagree, and suggests developing in IE first (but using only standards, no-IE only features). However that means developing in Windows, where there are no decent built-in debug/IDE tools such as Firebug or Webkit's inspectors.

My take is that the 'serve IE a mobile view' works for content/editorial oriented sites, but not for app/reporting sites. And lean on the product owner to set a timetable for phasing out IE6-8 support.

Designing for names: From the W3C, a recommendation document on representing personal names.

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Cold Quinoa/Edamame Salad

2011-08-29T03:44:47Z

This is a low-effort, high reward hot weather meal. Suggested by cynthia1960's hairdresser. Quinoa is protein dense. Is it gluten free? Check the packaging to see if it's been processed on equipment with wheat. It also has a lower glycemic index than white rice and couscous.

1 cup quinoa
1 cup chicken broth (optional)
1 cup frozen, shelled edamame (blanched soy beans)
Other raw vegetables (peppers and carrots)
Sesame oil
Rice vinegar
Ice and water for cooling bath
Chilled bowl for serving

ETA: a friend's looking for recipes for a food elimination diet and can't have soy, so I suggest replacing the edamame with cold, cooked chickpeas.

Take edamame out to thaw.

Rinse quinoa in a mesh strainer until water runs clear. This is important, you need to remove the natural coating that makes the grain unpalatable to birds.

Add quinoa to two (2) cups water, or one (1) cup water and one (1) cup chicken broth in stock pot or rice cooker.

Stir, cover, and bring to boil.

Remove from heat and let absorb water for 25 minutes.

Finely chop other vegetables.

You can use a rice cooker for the steps above, just follow your cooker's method for white rice.

After quinoa has absorbed water it will have a coarse, sand-like consistency.

Transfer pot or rice cooker sleeve to ice bath, stirring often to expose cooked quinoa to cold surface of pot.

Once quinoa has cooled, add edamame and vegetables, stirring them into mixture.

Add rice vinegar and sesame oil to taste. Transfer to serving bowl.

Can be served, or held aside in fridge for later.

Suggested complements: cold blanched chicken breasts, or marinated tofu.

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I got your drabbles right here.

2011-08-28T19:59:44Z

The sirens of the local constabulary grew louder.

Melody pushed past the Doctor, wedging open the door of the TARDIS. She brandished a pistol.

"I have a gun. You have a time machine. Let's kill Godwin*."

*I'd like to remind you all that Godwin is protected by the Shadow Convention, so don't go messing with him.

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Five Question Shuffle

2011-08-24T06:14:32Z

Via boxofdelights, the five question meme.

If you'd like me to ask you five questions, then say "drop science" in the comments. I'll ask some questions, and then post the answers and propagate the meme in your journal.

Meanwhile, here's boxofdelight's questions:

1. What's your superpower?

Making connections, systems thinking, and being passionate about things I care about.

2. What's your Kryptonite?

Seeing patterns in the data that really aren't there.

3. Tell me about a moment when you were perfectly happy.

Making dinner with cynthia1960 Sunday night.

4. Recommend me some music.

That first one didn't work, silly record labels prohibiting embedding.

Let's try Shearwater instead.

5. Do you ever fake it? Why or why not?

Being guileless, it's hard for me to fake it.

Though being in the company of someone who can bluff is pretty eye opening.

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Linkspam Was Shocked to Learn there are Drinkable Chardonnays

2011-08-23T05:21:07Z

Natural systems, given time, recover and find new equilibria A northern California town uses a beach beneath a cliff for a rubbish tip until the 1960's. After they cleaned up the big debris, they found that decades of waves and weather had worked all the broken bottles into smooth, rounded glass pebbles.

Status monkeys princess coins the term "WASPonyms" to discuss Google's still broken profile policy.

Reclaiming Blogging Cartoonist and early-ish "Web 2.0" icon Hugh MacLeod gives up twitter and facebook to focus on blogging.

But life's too short to drink Chardonnay I went on a tasting tour of Carmel Valley wineries with coworkers. The big favorite was a 2009 Chenin Blanc from Heller Estate Organic Vineyards.

ETA that's Carmel, not Caramel..., thanks voidampersand

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Making a Hash of it

2011-08-20T21:23:07Z

We had some linguiça in the fridge we needed to use (cynthia1960 gets it from the Portuguese market in Fremont, along with sweet bread. Her family's Azorian/Maderian via Maui.)

I had a notion of making hash with it:

Tia Lordes' Hash

Serves 2 - 4.

One (1) 14 oz. package of linguiça (sausage)
Three medium size "ordinary Idaho"/russet potatoes
One white onion
3 tablespoons butter
2 to 4 eggs
1/8 cup water

Gear

Large skillet or saute pan with cover
Two bowls, one large enough to grate potatoes into
Hand grater
Optional: Cheesecloth or clean dishtowel

Split the casings on the linguiça and empty into a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat, allow to cook until well done.

While the linguiça fries, dice the onion, keep to side. Grate the potatoes coarsely.

The potatoes will be soggy. You may, if you want, wrap them in cheesecloth or a dishtowel and wring the excess moisture out of them.

Drain linguiça, reserving a little of the drippings. Return to stove, add butter.

Add potatoes and onions, using a spatula to mix uniformly with linguiça, press down mixure until flat and even.

Raise heat slightly, let hash cook until nearly crip on bottom, checking often with spatula.

When crisp, but not burnt, break up mat and press down again. The technique is similar to stir-fry rice.

Continue until potatoes are nearly cooked all the way through.

Into each quadrant or half of the pan, crack an egg for each person eating.

Use your spatula to expose the center of the skillet, add a small amount of water, turn up heat, cover pan.

Leave covered on heat for 3 minutes.

Remove from heat, leave covered for another minute or two. You're poaching the eggs.

Remove each quarter of the hash, leaving the poached egg on top, an serve with fruit and/or toasted sweet bread.

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Meanwhile, some folks at the Lab get it.

2011-07-13T07:48:46Z

New-ish Linden Lab CEO Rob Humble on identity:

There have been a series of high-profile people, from the head of Facebook to the Pope, talking about how social media should be about centering the individual – that it is all about your real life and ensuring that you don’t become a fractured person. I respectfully disagree with that.

I think that one of the healthiest things that technology can do is actually help us develop the different dimensions of ourselves that we portray in different situations. For example, the “me” at church is very different from the “me” who plays an online shooter game. The “me” talking to you now is very different from the one who will be at my parent-teacher-association meeting later tonight. We’ve always had that. I actually like the idea of enabling people to say, “In this community, I’m a completely different person, and I can hold views that aren’t going to seep into this other part of my life.” It’s a slightly heretical position, but that’s the one I take.

I'm still proud of the work I did last spring on identity (Display Names) at Linden. It wasn't perfect, but a damned sight better than Facebook, or the confused state of play at G+.

Rob's comments almost make me want to inquire about coming back to the Lab.

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