Category: it could be called work

is it better if you make it yourself?

For some reason the Moleskine notebook crossed my mind a few minutes ago and I wondered how hard they are to make?

Make Your Own Moleskine-Like-Notebook:

Your very own Moleskine (pronounced mol-a-skeen-a, /mÉ”ləˈskinÉ™/) -like-notebook/journal/sketchbook. The one we’ll be making is 3.5 x 5.5 x .5 inches. I use this size because it fits nicely into my back or front pants pocket. Strangely enough it is also the same size as the Moleskine notebook. For the pages we’ll be using 20# bond paper (the same paper you use in your copier and inkjet printer). As you might have noticed in the dimensions, the notebook is a half-inch thick. This gives you 192 single pages of writing/sketching/painting fun.

Time-consuming, if it takes 2 days, but perhaps more satisfying. And I expect you would almost feel compelled to use it if it was the product of your own labor rather than just another $10 purchase.

I think this is the only way I could use one, if I were persuaded to try. Might be interesting to make them for kids before a big adventure . . .

These are what I have used for years, but they are quite bulky at 7×10 inches. And not a lot cheaper, not at all when you consider how many fewer pages they have.

Have I been wrong in thinking Moleskines were an expensive frippery?

can’t add a thing

Obscure Store and Reading Room: Docs: Keep your kids out of shopping carts!:

The American Academy of Pediatrics claims that shopping carts were involved in injuries to more than 24,000 children last year, mostly when a child fell out or a cart tipped over.

check out the comments: so far, the pediatrician who makes this claim is sent to go cut himself a switch. I have seen kids

  • standing on the front of a cart,
  • hanging off the side
  • standing or otherwise unrestrained inside the basket

and I suspect those are the ones who get hurt. Responsible parenting anyone?

pissing contests

Vista hacked at Black Hat | CNET News.com:

LAS VEGAS–While Microsoft talked up Windows Vista security at Black Hat, a researcher in another room demonstrated how to hack the operating system.

Apple Security Flaws by Elliott Back:

Wait, did I just hear that Apple patched 17 arbitrary code execution bugs in OSX? And people still think they’re “so secure?”

Not “so secure” but more secure. As I left in a comment to his post, security is a process, not an event.

this just makes it worse

One dead, five injured in downtown shooting:

There’s been a shooting downtown at the Jewish Federation Building. [King 5’s coverage, complete with video]

My house overlooks a large synagogue and a construction project that will become the home of a jewish Community Center and a Hebrew school, in addition to the facilities already in place. Do I need to be concerned that some wacko is going to start shooting things up around here? Actually there are, I think, four synagogues within walking distance, as well as a Jewish Public Library.

I like my neighbors just fine. The Rabbi has been in my house and I’ve been in his temple.

I don’t know what to think, other than to be sick of it. Seeking reparations for the siege of Lebanon in an American city isn’t going to make anything better.

Apple’s (?) Open Source project goes dark

OpenDarwin Shutting Down:

OpenDarwin Shutting Down

OpenDarwin was originally created with the goal of providing a development environment for building and developing Mac OS X sources as well as developing a standalone Darwin OS derivative. OpenDarwin was meant to be a development community and a proving ground for fixes and features for Mac OS X and Darwin, which could be picked up by Apple for inclusion in the canonical sources. OpenDarwin has failed to achieve its goals in 4 years of operation, and moves further from achieving these goals as time goes on. For this reason, OpenDarwin will be shutting down.

Over the past few years, OpenDarwin has become a mere hosting facility for Mac OS X related projects. The original notions of developing the Mac OS X and Darwin sources has not panned out. Availability of sources, interaction with Apple representatives, difficulty building and tracking sources, and a lack of interest from the community have all contributed to this. Administering a system to host other people’s projects is not what the remaining OpenDarwin contributors had signed up for and have been doing this thankless task far longer than they expected. It is time for OpenDarwin to go dark.

Project admins for all active projects have been notified, and we will be working with them to provide as seamless a transition to their new homes as possible. We don’t want to boot anyone off, we will be operating the machines as usual for several months, until everyone has had a chance to move elsewhere.

We will continue to provide email and dns redirection after the machines go dark. We’ll be looking at what other redirection services are needed and can be provided after hosting has ceased.

The OpenDarwin team would like to thank everyone who did contribute to the project, and our apologies to active, loyal projects that have to move.

Thanks,
– OpenDarwin Core Team and Administrators

You can follow the thread discussing this announcement, off-topic rants and all.

The project has been drifting for awhile: to be honest, I lost sight of the buildable kernel project some time ago. The Ports system seem to be getting the most traction and seemed like the main focus. The Apple employees who are on the mailing lists are silent on this, for one reason or another.

I note that the last announcement of a source distribution is more than 2 years old. There have been more recent ones, I think see (the 8.x releases, corresponding to X.4.x) but you wouldn’t know it from here.