Month: February 2006

more weather

Time to stock on provisions.

Current Watches, Warnings and Advisories for Washington Issued by the National Weather Service:

THE COLDEST TEMPERATURES IN AT LEAST A DECADE EXPECTED THURSDAY THROUGH THE WEEKEND… A VERY COLD AIR MASS IS CURRENTLY FORMING OVER THE YUKON OF NORTHERN CANADA. THE LATEST NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE COMPUTER MODELS DRIVE THIS COLD AIR MASS SOUTHWARD TO THE WASHINGTON AND BRITISH COLUMBIA BORDER BY THURSDAY MORNING. A COLD FRONT WILL THEN SWEEP FROM NORTH TO SOUTH THROUGH WASHINGTON DURING THE DAY ON THURSDAY BRINGING A DRAMATIC DROP IN TEMPERATURES. HIGH PRESSURE WILL PERSIST OVER THE AREA FRIDAY INTO THE WEEKEND MAINTAINING THE COLD CONDITIONS. HIGH TEMPERATURES FRIDAY AND SATURDAY WILL LIKELY REMAIN IN THE UPPER 20S OVER MOST OF PUGET SOUND. NIGHTTIME LOWS ARE EXPECTED TO FALL INTO TEENS BOTH FRIDAY AND SATURDAY MORNING. A FEW WIND SHELTERED LOCATIONS SUCH AS OLYMPIA COULD POSSIBLY FALL BELOW 10 DEGREES. AT THIS TIME…MOISTURE APPEARS LIMITED WITH THIS SYSTEM. HOWEVER…FLURRIES OR LIGHT SNOW SHOWERS ARE STILL POSSIBLE WITH THE FRONT THURSDAY AND WITH A PASSING LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY. ACCUMULATIONS APPEAR MINIMAL AT THIS TIME BUT ANY CHANGE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SYSTEM COULD PRODUCE MORE SNOW. IN ADDITION…A STRONG BLAST OF NORTHERLY WIND WILL FOLLOW THE FRONT ON THURSDAY. THIS WILL PRODUCE ESPECIALLY HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS FOR MARINE INTERESTS IN ALL WATERS. OVER LAND…NORTH WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH COMBINED WITH TEMPERATURES FALLING INTO THE 20S WILL PRODUCE WIND CHILLS IN THE SINGLE DIGITS…AND POSSIBLY COLDER THURSDAY NIGHT AND FRIDAY MORNING AS WINDY CONDITIONS PERSIST. IT IS ALSO POSSIBLE THAT WINDS COULD EXCEED HIGH WIND CRITERIA…SUSTAINED 40 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH…BY LATE THURSDAY INTO FRIDAY OVER THE NORTHERN INTERIOR AND THE CASCADE FOOTHILLS. CONTINUE TO MONITOR WEATHER FORECASTS IN THE EVENT HIGH WIND WATCHES ARE NEEDED.

So two hailstorms, thunder and lightning, a dusting of snow, all in preparation for this? Yikes.

t-shirt ideas?

CafePress now has black shirts (about time) and they will give one away to their merchants who use the new black in their products. Some incentive to try my hand at something . . .

I’m trying to figure out what to do: perhaps the tried and true Creative Commonist motif? That’s by far the most popular thing I have offered.

If I was a competent artist, something topical with Dick Cheney the Mighty Hunter, using a shotgun on tame birds and still able to miss, might be fun.

Now playing: A New Career In A New Town by David Bowie from the album “Low”

more like this

Interesting, perhaps if there were some other ratings (or codings).

I already read some of these.

a crank’s progress – Top Blog Recommendations from BlogCode.com:

Blog Details BlogCodeMatch

plasticbag.org.uk (Tom Coates) (http://plasticbag.org/) 72.13 %
Aberdeen-ian (http://ikusei.blogspot.com) 68.32 %
Bloggerheads (http://www.bloggerheads.com) 67.56 %
Wonkette (http://www.wonkette.com/) 67.42 %
BigDaddyBlog (http://www.bigdaddymerk.co.uk) 67.26 %
plasticbag.org (Tom Coates) (http://plasticbag.org/) 67.17 %
ckunte.com (http://ckunte.com/) 66.92 %
Chicken Yoghurt (http://chickyog.blogspot.com/) 66.55 %
davblog (http://blog.dave.org.uk/) 66.11 %
DogfightAtBankstown(http://dogfightatbankstown.typepad.com/blog/) 66.02 %
A Philosopher Serf(http://philoserf.blogspot.com/) 65.84 %
pragma::weblog (http://pr.ag.ma/weblog/) 65.63 %
Neil Gaiman`s Journal(http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/) 65.48 %
strangely roug(http://strangelyrouge.blogspot.com) 65.45 %
Ben Metcalfe Blog (http://benmetcalfe.com/blog/) 65.08 %
Glory of Carniola, The(http://www.carniola.org/theglory) 64.74 %
blog.the-kid.org (http://blog.the-kid.org) 64.59 %
Vinny Carpenter`s blog(http://www.j2eegeek.com/blog) 64.39 %
quinparker.com (http://quinparker.com/) 63.84 %
life at the end of the universe(http://blog.lydiapintscher.de/) 63.72 %
Tim Worstall(http://timworstall.typepad.com/timworstall/) 63.66 %
Undesignatedblog (http://www.undesignatedblog.com) 63.58 %
Balrog (http://gaskinbalrog.blogspot.com/) 63.47 %
Dr Dave (http://unknowngenius.com/blog/) 63.24 %
Boris Johnson (http://www.boris-johnson.com/) 63.17 %
East Ethnia (http://eastethnia.blogspot.com) 63.07 %
Scaryduck (http://scaryduck.blogspot.com/) 63.04 %
Proceed at your own risk(http://rjr10036.typepad.com/proceed_at_your_own_risk/) 62.77 %
D-Notice (http://d-notice.blogspot.com/) 62.63 %
Torbay Life (http://torbaylife.blogspot.com/) 62.60 %
The Daily ACK (http://www.babilim.co.uk/blog/) 62.57 %
Barb`s Blog (http://www.xerraireart.com/blog) 62.46 %
Wap Review (http://wapreview.com) 62.35 %
Balls and Walnuts (http://ballsandwalnuts.com/) 62.27 %
Misadventures of Brendan, The(http://hephaestionaz.livejournal.com) 62.02 %
aworks :: “new” american classical music(http://rgable.typepad.com/aworks) 61.75 %
Me, Myself and Mayvelous(http://www.mayvelous.com) 61.51 %
Mabsterama(http://www.madprops.org/cs/blogs/mabster) 61.38 %
Cynical Bastard (http://www.cynicalbastard.com) 61.35 %
Bowietreks (http://bowietrek.typepad.com) 60.79 %

[via]

Now playing: She Divines Water by Camper Van Beethoven from the album “Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart” | Get it

weather

so far today, two hailstorms (the second one, currently underway, has hailstones the size of marbles bouncing off, well, everything), thunder (real thunder, not the anemic little rumbles we usually get) and lightning.

And snow in the forecast. Better stock up on provisions tomorrow.
Now playing: About The Weather by Magazine from the album “Rays And Hail 1978-1981” | Get it

who’s in charge anyway?

AllAroundPhilly:

Newt Gingrich, who led the Republican Party to power a dozen years ago, told cheering conservatives Saturday it is time to overhaul a balky, slow-moving government locked in the last century.
Citing multiple government failures after Hurricane Katrina, the former House speaker said the government meltdown at all levels illustrated how badly government needs to be updated in all of its operations.
“The system failed, the city of New Orleans failed, the state of Louisiana failed and the government of the United States failed,” Gingrich said. “When you see an American body on an American street sitting there for three days on television because the government can’t collect the dead, something has failed.

And who exactly is the government?

So what does old Newtie think he’s going to do? Run for president? Gee, he’s the guy who engineered this mess, who set the table for the likes of Delay, Abramoff, et al. Serial adulterer, documented cheat, author of widely ignored historical fictions: yeah, these are the qualities America needs.

His entire political career has been about doing away with intrusive government, government with too much power, too much responsibility for too many things. He and his cadre are actively opposed to the authority that could have ensured we didn’t see a great American city flooded. His followers did everything they could to make sure the world couldn’t help but see American bodies floating in the floodwaters of an American disaster. They think their good fortune is a sign of moral rectitude, even as their own experience belies that fact.

I hope he runs. He’s eminently beatable: his record is a trainwreck.

On a related note Bob Barr, formerly a predictable right-wing ideologue, spoke at the same conference, making a case for the Bill of Rights, for the rule of law. King George IV’s loyal subjects were having none of it.

Barr merited only polite applause when he finished, and one man, Richard Sorcinelli, booed him loudly. “I can’t believe I’m in a conservative hall listening to him say [Bush] is off course trying to defend the United States,” Sorcinelli fumed.

You may remember Barr as one of the House impeachment managers during the Clinton witch-hunt. He may be consistent: shame his erstwhile fellow party-members aren’t.

Ray Bradbury (yes, that Ray Bradbury) on monorails

Cory Doctorow posted a piece about an LA Times OpEd by the famous author on that holy grail of transit options, the monorail.

L.A.’s future is up in the air – Los Angeles Times:

If we examine the history of subways, we will find how tremendously expensive and destructive they are.

They are, first of all, meant for cold climates such as Toronto, New York, London, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo. But L.A. is a Mediterranean area; our weather is sublime, and people are accustomed to traveling in the open air and enjoying the sunshine, not in closed cars under the ground.

Subways take forever to build and, because the tunnels have to be excavated, are incredibly expensive. The cost of one subway line would build 10 monorail systems.

Along the way, subway construction destroys businesses by the scores. The history of the subway from East L.A. to the Valley is a history of ruined businesses and upended lives.

The monorail is extraordinary in that it can be built elsewhere and then carried in and installed in mid-street with little confusion and no destruction of businesses. In a matter of a few months, a line could be built from Long Beach all the way along Western Avenue to the mountains with little disturbance to citizens and no threat to local businesses.

Compared to the heavy elevateds of the past, the monorail is virtually soundless. Anyone who has ridden the Disneyland or Seattle monorails knows how quietly they move.

They also have been virtually accident-free. The history of the monorail shows few collisions or fatalities.If we constructed monorails running north and south on Vermont, Western, Crenshaw and Broadway, and similar lines running east and west on Washington, Pico, Wilshire, Santa Monica and Sunset, we would have provided a proper cross section of transportation, allowing people to move anywhere in our city at any time.

There you have it. As soon as possible, we must call in one of the world’s monorail-building companies to see what could be done so that the first ones could be in position by the end of the year to help our huddled traffic masses yearning to travel freely.

The freeway is the past, the monorail is our future, above and beyond.

Let the debate begin.

The debate is over here in Seattle. After 40 years of dithering, the monorail is dead. After repeated efforts — approved by voters at the polls — the project is dissolving.
And we’re building a light-rail — subway — system instead. It’s hard to argue with the decision, as the monorail management, as best I can tell, acted like drunken royalty with the tax proceeds, without delivering a workable project plan. The initial line was planned to run from Magnolia (later Ballard) to West Seattle. Many thought a more easterly line — from Green Lake/Greenwood to Downtown or from the University area to Downtown — would have been more useful. The light-rail system does that, as it turns out. I wonder if, had the two projects tried to link the same areas, the monorail would have made a better case for itself?

Some people have no doubt as to who is responsible.

I liked the monorail for the added dimension it added: perhaps this is some Jetson-esque dream, but I imagined monorail stations at Qwest Field or Safeco Field, high above the street, bringing people to the games without having to go back to the gates at street level. Likewise, office buildings downtown could build stations at the 5th floor, say, opening up a retail or restaurant area in addition to the ground level options.

Oh, well, back into our cars.

Now playing: Tramp The Dirt Down (Demo) by Elvis Costello from the album “Spike Bonus Disc”

any guesses on what the Intel Powerbooks will look like?

My old iBook is really hurting for speed, RAM, etc. I think I can hold out til midsummer when they are likely to be released, but I’m curious about what they might be like.

Not that one of the existing PPC models wouldn’t suit me. 800MHz and 640 Mb of RAM is easily overmatched by half a dozen apps, lots of networking, etc. But something over 2GHz with 1.5 Gb RAM or more would make a big difference.

space for rent

Advertising at puschitz.com:

PUSCHITZ.COM generates a large number of “hits” from people interested in Oracle on Linux and Linux Security.

The total page views on puschitz.com are around 1,300,000 page views per year.

Well, I did somewhat better than that last year, though in all honesty, I suspect a lot of those are mechanized, ie bots and spiders.

[/usr/home/paul]:: gzip -cd httpd-access.log*2005*gz | wc -l
2260626

Though there are no images or css cruft in there: it’s just pages. Just for January 2006, I am at 288k pages.

Even if his approach were working (all I see are Google ads, so I surmise not so well), I can’t claim much of a specialty or focus. Check out the queries that brought people here in the past 30 days. That was a factor in my giving up on Google ads: I make a bad target. Some people are able to make a little — or a lot — from Google’s AdSense.

Not sure what to make of the fact that my name is the most used query term . . . . I suspect they’re looking for the other guy, the one who makes guitars.

when you beat yourself, you lose

Superbowl:

If the denial of the Seahawks’ first quarter touchdown was the correct call and the awarding of the Steelers’ first quarter touchdown was the correct call, then we’re obviously living in a world where I’m going to win the Nobel Prize for Physics next year. I’ll start writing my speech.

Eh. First pro football game I have watched in years, and not a great one. Seattle’s ability to beat themselves was more a factor than the officiating.

Baseball tryouts for little league are tomorrow, and that’s what really matters.