Author: paul

The end of StrongSpace.

The current Strongspace will be replaced by a new service (not named Strongspace) that will not have the economic model of the current service. It will be expensive, distributed and bullet-proof. The replacement service will likely be introduced before October, 2008. We will retire the current Strongspace on 1 October 2008. There is Strongspace functionality in Joyent Connector today, and that will remain. Customers currently on Strongspace will be allowed to continue to use the service for the next 9 months for free.[ . . .] If you just feel like saying “screw it, I don’t want to have anything to do with these guys”, please file a ticket and we will refund you for two weeks of down time.

[From Joyeur: Bingodisk and Strongspace: What Happened?]

Not sure if I move to the new service or what. It has all been confusing, with the name and service plan changes. I think my money is better spent on Time Capsule or some home-rolled equivalent.

• New TSA requirement: all electronics out of your bag (cables, too)
  it’s getting to where you might as well ship your luggage and walk on empty-handed.
  (tags: transportation airsafety securitytheater)
• The oil sands of Alberta have created an oil boom…
  but are the costs of extraction — using technologies that don’t yet exist — factored in? How is this not like the HELOC orgy of borrowing money against non-existent assets?
  (tags: oil technology resources business greed)

Can’t add a thing:

Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Feb 2002
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Nov 2002
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Oct 2003
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, June 2004
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Dec 2005
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, July 2005
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Oct 2005
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, June 2006
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Sept 2006
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Nov 2006
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Jan 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, May 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, May 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, May 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed, Sept 2007
Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed today, January 31, 2008.

It’s like being the drummer for Spinal Tap:

Jen Roth offers an explanation:

John: What, are they counting those for wins? Are they counting guys like Padilla? This is all very gooey, like how we’ve killed like, nine of Osama Bin Laden’s #3 guys.

Tyrone: Being #3 in Al-queda is like being a “creative vice president” at a Hollywood studio. There are dozens of them … and they are expendable.

[From Top Al Qaeda Leader Killed (again)]

When the costs are shifted elsewhere, you don’t really know what things cost.

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, Gidon Eshel, a geophysicist at the Bard Center, and Pamela A. Martin, an assistant professor of geophysics at the University of Chicago, calculated that if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan — a Camry, say — to the ultra-efficient Prius. Similarly, a study last year by the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Japan estimated that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average European car every 155 miles, and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

[From Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler – New York Times]

So where’s my Prius? Two of us haven’t eaten meat in 15 years and the other two have never had it (more 20 person-years between them).

Good article [thanks to JM for the tip]. When will we see a day when the costs of high-volume industries like this are internalized?

So let me get this straight. I get a free wireless AP that I can use to share a public network. And for sharing that, I might get a free wireless picture frame?

Love is in the air and we have a great way to showcase your WiFi love. We’re giving away 50 free eStarling WiFi picture frames amongst Foneros who share their WiFi with the Community.

The eStarling WiFi picture frame allows you to:
1. Link the frame to your favourite online photo album to automatically display your pictures (Flickr, Picasa and others).
2. Set up groups to instantly receive pictures from your friends and family’s email accounts and cell phones.
3. Create your own picture playlists.
4. Create a email address dedicated to sending pictures directly to your picture Frame, even from your cell phone!

Keep your La Fonera online, and on Valentine’s Day, you’ll be eligible to win one of the 50 WiFi Frames. We’ll give them away to those who show their love by sharing their WiFi! Details and official rules here.

Don’t forget to check your La Fonera status! There’s still time to keep your La Fonera online and get your free WiFi picture frame!

Get your WiFi heartbeat pumping and sharing the love!

Details and official rules here (PDF).

[From LOVE IS IN THE AIR WITH A FREE WiFi FRAME!]

What a deal . . . .

• Pocket Album: Create and print a pocket-sized photo album.
  this is very cool.
  (tags: photography gifts art cleverideas)

It is often counted it a deficiency in our politics that voters rely on personal impressions when they choose a President. Maybe we do cut too much slack for the candidate we would, as the saying goes, like to have a beer with. On the other hand, if we perceive that a candidate would happily confiscate our beer and jail us for violating the Open Container Law, it would just be common sense to deny him our support. [From ” BUT I’M AMERICA’S MAYOR!” “AND WE SALUTE YOU FOR IT. DON’T…]

• A rare post about the music industry that isn’t completely depressing
  help fund an artist’s new recordings with contributions before it gets made: better (and more realistic) than an advance.
  (tags: music business cleverideas art)

Eschew Hobbies, Cultivate Disciplines

[From The Darkling Thrush]

Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.

[From Quote Details: Carl Jung: Nothing has a stronger… – The Quotations Page]

So this tells me that the things I want to do that I’m not doing are going to make more of an impression on my kids than the things I am doing. That’s very troubling to ponder, as there is a lot of undone work/unlived life to learn from.

The thing of it is, I’m more likely to do it for them than for myself, whatever it is. And I think I subconsciously know that Getting On With It is what they need to see. I know that seeing mistakes being made is a great way to learn that mistakes are OK, as long as you learn from them (and no, the lesson is not “never try anything”). What I consider a mistake isn’t always something they see as one, so that’s either their more open minds or low standards.

Continue reading “this scares me”