Month: March 2006

This wikipedia page needs work.

Science fiction – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Science fiction is a genre of fiction in which advances in science, or contact with more scientifically advanced civilizations, create situations different from those of both the present day and the known past. Although science fiction is often written primarily to entertain, many authors use the genre to provide insight into science, society, or the human condition.

I really don’t want to open up the “1984/Brave New World must be SF ’cause it deals with an alternative future” argument. Not because I care one way or another but because my beef here is with genres not a canon or collection of similarly themed books.
I say, “mainstream” the whole mess and let the reader sort it out. Ask a librarian or a friend who is well-read or at least know your tastes if you need something to read. Don’t rely on the marketeers at some publishing house.

Continue reading “I thought I was done with this”

This 6 year old PC that sends you these bits is starting to reach its limits. 700MHz and 256M RAM will only get you so far, it seems, and I think it has been lucky to get this far.

I scored a new motherboard and CPU the other week (FreeCycle: the price is right) but have no idea if it works or how well. It’s a 1.4 GHz CPU so that would be an improvement. 2 RAM slots, with a max of 2Gb. Any recommendations on sources for cheap, reliable 168 pin DIMMs? Seen some on eBay that bear watching, so perhaps that will work out.

I have another case to set it all up in (an old Gateway system that used to run Linux, back in the day). It’s day — 233 MHz — has long been done. There are 2 drives in it — a 2 Gb and a 6 Gb, but I have my doubts how useful they are.

Here’s how this box is currently laid out:

Filesystem    Size   Used  Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/ad0s1a    97M    62M    27M    70%    /
/dev/ad0s1f   7.0G   6.1G   302M    95%    /usr
/dev/ad0s1e    19M    15M   3.0M    83%    /var
procfs        4.0K   4.0K     0B   100%    /proc
/dev/ad1s1e    72G    58G   8.4G    87%    /opt
linprocfs     4.0K   4.0K     0B   100%    /usr/compat/linux/proc

Based on that, I could see / and /var fitting on the 6Gb drive, and if I had slots in the various IDE controller channels, I could perhaps use the 20 and 80 Gb drives I have as well. I need a slot for the CD drive, I guess. Or I could just keep it as it is, with two drives.

Not to take a thing away from our troops in the field, but that relatively easy roll up to Baghdad and the later conquest of the capital was largely a result of Saddam’s unprepared and undersupplied forces.

Hussein Saw Iraqi Unrest as Top Threat – New York Times:

¶ The Iraqi dictator was so secretive and kept information so compartmentalized that his top military leaders were stunned when he told them three months before the war that he had no weapons of mass destruction, and they were demoralized because they had counted on hidden stocks of poison gas or germ weapons for the nation’s defense.
¶ He put a general widely viewed as an incompetent drunkard in charge of the Special Republican Guard, entrusted to protect the capital, primarily because he was considered loyal.
¶ Mr. Hussein micromanaged the war, not allowing commanders to move troops without permission from Baghdad and blocking communications among military leaders.

The Fedayeen’s operations were not shared with leaders of conventional forces. Republican Guard divisions were not allowed to communicate with sister units. Commanders could not even get precise maps of terrain near the Baghdad airport because that would identify locations of the Iraqi leader’s palaces.

The articles for a good if depressing read: former Sec’y of State Powell’s presentation to the UN was so persuasive that even some Iraqi diplomats wondered if Saddam had been holding out on them. Alas, no, in this case he told the truth: our leaders have yet to face that challenge.

I lost count of how many weblog postings I have read in the past week from people going to SXSW. Starting to feel like I’m the only person not going.

I was tempted to leave some snarky comment with the Announcement (“Who knew Tim was so close to 60?”) but elected not to . . .

Check out Lauren’s news. Having a combined age in excess of 90 does not constitute birth control. Expect less from me this summer.

Congrats to all, but better them than me/us.

The Big Picture: Why Doesn’t Digital Music Go On Sale?:

Ever wonder why online music never goes on sale?

The Justice Department has — and is wondering if its merely a coincidence:”The Department of Justice said Thursday it has opened an
investigation into possible anti-competitive pricing of online music by
the world’s major music labels.

The probe closely tracks a similar investigation by New York State
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer into the pricing of digital music
downloads, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

“The Antitrust Division is looking at the possibility of
anti-competitive practices in the music download industry,” Justice
Department spokeswoman Gina Talamona said, confirming an earlier
Reuters report based on details from sources. She declined to comment further about the investigation.

One music industry source said that some subpoenas may have been issued
already in connection with the probe, while other labels had been
tipped off that subpoenas would likely be coming in the next few days.”

I thought this nugget in comments was very insightful:

I don’t think that anyone would say that the $.99/track price is the result of market forces; there have got to be thousands of tracks on iTunes that have never been downloaded. Since there’s no real “inventory” costs for these tracks, if the labels priced an un-demanded track at $.01 and had one download, they’re still better off than they’d be selling zero at $.99.

I would be interested to see statistics on how many tracks are available on iTunes for which there is statistically no demand. It would be a good indication of just how little most of the intellectual property of the majors is actually worth.

We all know what a cakebox of CDR media costs, and I think we can assume the pressing plants might pay even less. So the cost of media-less music is $9.99 for what we called an album back in the day. The list price (what you might pay in a low-volume shop or extortionate mall outlet for Coldplay’s latest is $18.98 — almost double that. Even at Amazon, it’s $13 and it’s not like I can listen to it for a week or so.

I dunno, but I’m feeling like someone’s trying to rip me off.

Amazon has a good deal on Make box set:

Mark Frauenfelder:

Amazon is running a sale on the Make magazine box set, which contains the first four issues (disclosure: I’m the editor-in-chief). It’s $24, as opposed to the cover price of $59.99.
Link(Thanks Matt!)

To the MD tomorrow to find out about mysterious chest pains . . . not the first time it’s happened. But the longest duration. The preliminary diagnosis is heartburn, though it didn’t really feel like that. Location is all they have in common, as best I can tell.

My goal is die in bed at 100+, murdered by a jealous spouse . . . .

<update> Of course, it could be this:

The findings of a new medical study may be enough to make you spit out your morning coffee.

And that could be a good thing — at least for half of you.

A study of 4,000 coffee drinkers has found that two or more cups each day can increase the risk of heart disease — but only for those with a genetic mutation that slows the breakdown of caffeine in the body.

In diverse urban areas, the mutation is found in roughly half of all people. People without the mutation can drink as much coffee as they wish with no added risk of a heart attack, scientists said.

Now playing: 96 Tears by The Stranglers from the album “Greatest Hits 1977-1990”