a crank’s progress

Well, I may just stop logging referring URLs, since I noticed this morning that the top 22 HTTP_REFERER variables logged are all bogus, all spam, all designed to attract pr0n surfers.
This has all been in the last couple of days: traffic has quadrupled but it’s all meaningless, since I know it’s some invisible background [...]

Well, after several detours through the Slough of Despond at this job, I am on the verge of completing my 6 month probationary period and becoming a full-fledged employee of the State with all the rights and emoluments thereto appertaining . . . .
It now seems that some of my tech skills and interests [...]

I finished Harry Potter 5 last night, and am pleased that the depth and strength of the story continues to build. Sorry, no spoilers: you need to look elsewhere or read the book yourself if you want to know what happens.
If you found The Goblet of Fire to be heavy going or too intense, [...]

Haystack Rock, in misty morning

Sunset

This is really stupid: someone (some people?) keep stuffing my logfiles with bogus HTTP_REFERER values: here’s today’s gem and the number of times it’s appeared.
[/home/paul]:: grep -c http://www.blowjob-pics.info/ /usr/local/weblogs/httpd-access.log
887

The only way anyone is going to see this is if they look at my stats pages (and no, I’m not going to put a link to [...]

The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher, by John Taylor Gatto
My license certifies me as an instructor of English language and literature, but that isn’t what I do at all. What I teach is school, and I win awards doing it.
Teaching school — the set of rules and protocols that society insists we obey — isn’t the same as [...]

from The EPIC Alert

======================================================================
[1] Birthday Greetings
======================================================================

Dear Mr. Orwell,

Greetings on your 100th Birthday! You might be gratified to know that
a new generation of readers have a growing interest in your writing.
Your insights resonate as never before in these times.
We take this occasion to share some of our personal reflections on
themes you brought attention to, including language, [...]

I noticed that you can export your library or any playlist that you’ve made with iTunes: what would be interesting to see who else owns the same stuff you do and let that guide you to new sounds. Perhaps this is how audioscrobbler works, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem to. but it might make [...]

vpizza.org photo gallery
This is the highest elevation at which there’s a photo.
This guy built a weather balloon from off the shelf components, built and installed a linux-powered computer to run the camera and weather sensors, equipped it with packet radio equipment for flight control, and proceeded to get it up to almost 18 miles above [...]

meta-douglasp
This is a snapsnot of what we (Microsoft and everyone else in the software industry) should be focused on. We get too wrapped up in self-importance many times. In the end, it is about one thing… Making Bob (#define for our customers) happy. Not super cool features that can do X,Y, & Z, but just [...]