You may have noticed the "PLT, Inc." copyright
messages, but someone beat them to the prestigious 3-letter .com
domain plt.com.
"Bush To Iraqi Militants: 'Please Stop Bringing It On'," The Onion, 28-Apr-2004
HtmlPrag 0.8 released. Note that I'm now advertising availability of
commercial support and licensing options. The license remains LGPL, however,
so you can continue to use HtmlPrag commercially without any new restrictions
or costs (no bait&switch 'ere, guv). Consulting opportunities will
become more clear in the near future, when I show what kind of applications
HtmlPrag can be used for. All HtmlPrag users should ask to be added to the
htmlprag-announce email list, where I'll not only announce new
versions, but also poll users for input on changes I'm considering.
Per a Friday request, implemented much better parsing of entities for the forthcoming HtmlPrag 0.8, due out tomorrow. There are a few other improvements, and some API changes.
In the Stata Center today, overheard someone joke, "They say it is not possible to spend any more money to make something look so cheap." It was a joke and not a fair criticism, although one of the things that startled me was the exposure of the veneer nature of the brickwork, in prominent juttings from the ceiling. I'll confess violent prejudice against nonstructural brickwork — a passion matched only by my love for genuine aged red brickwork (c.f. 5-Apr-2004). Some of the metal and wood frames and finishings look flimsy too. Got a number of nicely composed interior shots of open staircases and windows, but perspective skew with this lens is grating on me — with all the odd angles in this structure, orthogonal lines are orthogonal for a reason! I will put up a red wall and some some scaffolding I liked.
Dual Hummer action. (If a member of the wedding party in Cambridge sees this page someday, I inadvertently have a kinda nice candid wedding photo for you, of church, limos, and people on church stairs.) I think the first stretch Hummer I saw was on the somber occasion of 17-Mar-2003.
Rainy Saturday Activity Fun Book, page 359:
On a recent rainy Saturday, FAR volunteers and Rhode Island police officers strapped a 5-pound dynamite vest to a dead sheep and detonated it inside a police car [...]
—Jascha Hoffman, "Picking up the pieces," Boston Globe, 18-Apr-2004
In a spirit of inclusiveness, Working For Change reaches out to rednecks.
Of course, some degree of Boston resistance to civil rights decisions is not entirely unknown.
For the longest time, I assumed universities were at least the moral peer of newspapers, but amidst negligent news editors resigning left and right for sins of their charges, how often do you see a corrupt or incompetent university professor or administrator forced out? All I have seen in academe is hierarchy chains of scandal suppression.
Karen Jurgensen, the top editor of USA Today since 1999, resigned abruptly Tuesday evening, citing her failure to intercept what were apparently fabrications in articles by Jack Kelley, who was the newspaper's star foreign correspondent.
—Jacques Steinberg, "Top USA Today Editor Resigns," New York Times, 21-Apr-2004
Around 8am this morning, while grabbing coffee on campus, saw a group of middle-aged people eyeing some provocative posters that might have been done in poorer taste than intended. "I don't know what this is about," said one person; "Hopefully something positive," said another. When I passed that spot a little later, a student was camped out in an odd place, seemingly observing people's reactions. He appeared nervous when I approached to ask if he knew whether they were Beast Roast posters and what the rationale, and I was afraid the camera might be intimidating him, so I walked away without asking.
What Laird found was a nightmare. From his first week on the job, when he stumbled across security-related expenses that had no receipts, he began to uncover a trail that led straight from the mining operation to the most violent terrorist organizations in the Philippines — two of which had direct links with Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda.
—Marilyn Berlin Snell, "The Cost of Doing Business," Sierra, May-2004
Incidentally, Internet pop culture has made unfortunate the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's acronym (MILF).
Dinosaurs attempt to dismantle the judiciary:
Twenty-eight days before the Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage goes into effect, diehard opponents will turn today to a radical, long-shot strategy: a bill to remove the four justices who penned the historic ruling. The lone sponsor of the measure — Representative Emile J. Goguen, Democrat of Fitchburg — said he sees the "bill of address" as a tool to pressure members of the court to reconsider their landmark 4-3 decision or risk losing their judgeships.
—Raphael Lewis, "Foes of gay marriage try long shot," Boston Globe, 20-Apr-2004
Boston Marathon photo that was delayed til statute of limitations expiry: Rachel caught subverting police line. Extenuating circumstances was that intermittent violent wind gusts combined with yellow tape to threaten severe facial lacerations. Later, during the Marathon, an older man sitting in the chair was nearly decapitated by said tape.
Watched the Boston Marathon, front row after Heartbreak Hill. The crowds were largest as the elite female and male runners passed, but the cheering was more enthusiastic as the crowd shrunk and the normal runners passed. Most of my photos were hopeless due to camera's nonfunctional zoom, but here is Rachel's photogenic head watching a wheelchair racer. I thought protesting Boston College at the Boston Marathon was poor form.
Jenna Russell, "Ivy chic? Try Brown," Boston Globe, 18-Apr-2004
Just before dawn, tried to photograph Somerville from the Citadel, to improve upon the bleah shot from 2-Apr-2002, but it turned out worse. Think I'll have to wait for the right mix of air pollution and sun to get better light. As I was waiting for nice morning light that never came, a nice couple walked up to the Citadel. The guy told me the camera was pointed the wrong direction, and that there was much more beautiful scenery behind me. He wasn't exaggerating — the woman (who turned out to be just a friend) was stunning by any measure. They declined to have their portrait taken, so I was going to dedicate this skyline to her, if it had turned out well. On the way back to Cambridge, started shooting the Vietnam veterans memorial in Union Square, but that was the best I got before both my batteries died, and I'm extremely dissatisfied with most of the composition. One battery later had enough charge to snap where radiators go to die. I like the radiators a little, but it was a bad-photo day. Monday should be better.
Update to 5-Mar-2003 entry on getting my Canon S10 repaired: Canon charges $150 for the repair, which is more than the eBay resale value. After the Boston Marathon, I'll try to fix it myself. If I can't get the S10 back together, guess I'll have no choice but to spring for a Canon S410 and a Nikon D70.
Katsuhiro Otomo and Rintaro's animated adaptation "Metropolis" of Osamu Tezuka's comics (based on Fritz Lang's film, of course) was OK.
MIT Press Bookstore Spring 2004 Loading Dock Sale, today and tomorrow. Although there might be the temptation to pick up that 90%-off remaindered tome by some not-so-famous 'intellectual' who you personally know to be a criminally arrogant underhanded backstabber — to use as bathroom tissue — there are sure to be books worth buying for the conventional purpose, and sans papercuts.
Walked over the bridge to Boston, to get a veggie sub takeout from Subway. Somehow, "with everything, except for hot peppers" became "with everything, and extra hot peppers." Was reading while I ate, so didn't think much about how hot it was, til I ran out of juice and a throbbing headache quickly developed. My pronunciation was fine; vengeance will be mine.
Michael Haneke's "Code Unknown" ("Code inconnu: Ricit incomplet de divers voyages"). Binoche is an actress. Miscommunication, misinterpretation, misunderstanding, isolation, etc.
Week of April 19th through 25th is TV-Turnoff Week.
This appears to be a legitimate job posting on CraigsList, but you have to wonder about an organization that has this kind of standard spam disclaimer slipping into their messages:
Note: Under Bill s.1618 Title III passed by the 105th U.S. Congress this mail cannot be considered Spam as long as we include contact information and a "remove" link for removal from our mailing list. If you are not the named addressee, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. Once again, to be removed from our mailing list reply with REMOVE in the subject heading of the original email and your email address in the body from the original email address. Include complete address and/or domain to be removed.
—Nisha Shah, Resource Manager, FootPath, Inc., boston.craigslist #28709455, last modified: 13-Apr-2004 17:36 EDT
LiTraCon "Light Transmitting Concrete"
In war-torn Cambridge today, media loyalists exchanged fire with guerilla shooters.
The other night, snapshotted building materials through a window.
Not the most universally credible outlet, but the message is true. Lynn Landes, "Republicans Walk Out Of Federal Hearing On Voting Machines, While Some Civil Rights Groups Support 'Paperless' Elections ," Dissident Voice, 13-Apr-2004
Don McKellar's "Last Night" (1998) is recommended. (OMG! You killed Cronenberg! You bastard!)
Your search - "tax forms in boston" - did not match any documents.
"New Negative Campaign Ads Blast Voters Directly," The Onion, 14-Apr-2004
Wrote postnet.scm. Don't ask.
The other Kennedy curse:
For instance, amid the information generated from interviews with what genuinely appear to have been some of John Jr.'s closest friends is the fact that his hair hurt him. ("Apparently there just was so much hair growing out of his scalp, there was not enough room for all of it, and his head would ache.")
—Mim Udovitch, "'Sons of Camelot': The Fates and the Kennedys," New York Times Sunday Book Review, 11-Apr-2004
Nice thing about drop ceilings in the bathroom is that when the upstairs neighbor leaks, only a tile needs be replaced.
Google has sent only a noncommittal generic acknowledgement thus far, so I should probably weblog so more people are aware of these unresolved issues.
From: "Neil W. Van Dyke" <neil@neilvandyke.org> To:adsense-support@google.comSubject: three questions/issues Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 13:23:00 -0400 Hello. Three questions/issues on AdSense: 1. Your policy is to not pay for clickthroughs unless the visitor's browser executes certain JavaScript code. However, it sounds like you still display the ad and permit a clickthrough regardless of whether or not the visitor's browser is JavaScript-capable, JavaScript is enabled in the browser, the JavaScript is filtered by a corporate security proxy, etc. I think the ad should not be displayed, nor the clickthrough permitted, unless you're willing and able to pay for the clickthrough. I think this is technically possible with JavaScript, if you wish to continue to require JavaScript for clickthrough payment. 2. I could find no statement of how much a site owner is paid per clickthrough. Your rate could be $0.000000001 per clickthrough, which a site owner only discovers after investing in the technical changes and contractual obligations of running your ads. There should be at least a minimum guaranteed rate, and probably more information on current cost/payment structure. 3. The AdSense privacy policy doesn't seem to cover tracking and profiling of visitors. Depending on how your ad display works, you could be doing cross-site tracking of visitors using only ad impressions. The problem is two-fold: (a) there must be disclosure to site owners of what information is gathered on visitors, and how; (b) if Google is receiving profiling information from unpaid ad impressions, that should be stated explicitly. Thanks, Neil W. Van Dykeneil@neilvandyke.org
Boston Asian Students Alliance is busing protestors to NYC over an insensitive Details magazine piece. I think one reason I found this insensitive is the context of some scattered anti-Asian sentiment I've seen over the years at MIT. I'm not around campus much, but I probably see new anti-asian graffiti every month or two. The couple most recent examples were mid-March, seen four days apart, and both were slur graffiti. (A year or so ago, someone had penned a veritable essay on a bathroom stall door.) The first was on the recently-painted steps in front of the Student Center. Just an hour before, I'd seen a tour group, perhaps of prospective students and parents, standing at that spot, and I imagine some of them saw it. The second was on the bus stop bench directly across the street from the 77 Massachusetts Avenue main entrance to MIT. That kind of evidence of anti-Asian sentiment is one reason to be sensitive to stereotyping portrayals, although not the only one. (Note: I took documentary snapshots, but didn't weblog them at the time, since I thought potential hurt to random people stumbling across my weblog would outweigh any benefit. The images seem pertinent to the current discussion, however. Feedback appreciated.)
There goes much of modern publishing:
Ads may not be placed on pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant.
Tofutti Cutie soy-based fake ice cream bars taste good. Apparently the Web site lets you request a coupon for a free box, although the site looks like it's hardly been touched since a circa 1995 designer created it, so who knows.
Serendipity granted an early start to a magical holiday weekend.
Ayelish McGarvey, "Carter's Crusade," The American Prospect Online, 5-Apr-2004
I didn't much like the whole of Rebecca Miller's "Personal Velocity" (2002). And not just because Parker was unfaithful. I also didn't understand why a male narrator on an excessively 'feminist' film.
We have only advanced the idea; fleshing it out to see if it can work is above our pay grades.
—Thomas Oliphant, "Ted's take on Kerry's veep," Boston Globe, 8-Apr-2004
This reporter sounds annoyed:
HATTIESBURG, Miss. (AP) Two reporters were ordered Wednesday to erase their tape recordings of a speech by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia at a Mississippi high school. [...] The reporter initially resisted, but later showed the deputy how to erase the digital recording after the officer took the device from her hands. The exchange occurred in the front row of the auditorium while Scalia delivered his speech about the Constitution.
—Denise Grones, "Reporters Told to Erase Tapes of Scalia," AP via Editor & Publisher, 8-Apr-2004
Fvwm in Debian unstable now has XFT support, among other
new features.
Odd enough that I'll be forgiven for quoting in toto:
EL DORADO, Ark. — President Bush has a penchant for dishing out good-natured insults, and usually the victim laughs along. But Sammie Briery didn't seem much amused when Bush fired one at her yesterday. Bush was wrapping up a town hall-style appearance at South Arkansas Community College when he let the jest fly. "You and my mother go to the same hair-dye person," Bush said to Briery, whose blondish bob bore little resemblance to Barbara Bush's shock of white hair. The audience in the gymnasium laughed, and Briery smiled, but replied firmly: "President Bush, I'm a natural blonde." "Oh, yes," Bush agreed. "I'm just a natural blonde," she repeated. "I couldn't help myself, sorry," Bush shrugged. With that, he turned to Bob Watson, superintendent of the El Dorado Public Schools — who had opened the meeting by inadvertently insulting Bush. "Governor — excuse me, President," Watson had said. Bush muttered, "How quickly they forget."
—"Bush's hair joke falls flat, AP via Boston Globe, 7-Apr-2004
Before it goes away, snapshotted the former gas station eyesore at Mass Ave. and Main that's to have become a 'park' for a few years now. Visibility-wise, it's a prime spot in Central Square. Too bad it's a narrow triangular lot on a huge five-way intersection, but that puts it in compliance with the secret law of Boston urban planning to which I alluded on 3 March 2004.
Finally saw "The Bourne Identity," just to show solidarity.
On the way to purchase designer housewares at Kmart, peeked into this charming little red brick fixer-upper in Cambridge. The price still exceeds the home-financing budget of most Cantabrigians. In a window directly across Western Ave. were these Indecline decals. Metro Boston's infamous black snow is the natural enemy of the shopping cart. The more colorful parking lot was yesterday.
SinFest offers the canonical comparison of apples and oranges.
Actually, the ratio of incoming letters is even more lopsided — more like 40 to 1 in favor of gay marriage [...] The problem, the editors say, is compounded by the fact that many of the "anti" letters tend to be simple statements of religious or personal belief, rather than the more layered arguments that make the best reading as letters to the editor.
—Christine Chinlund, "The 'pros' have it on gay marriage," Boston Globe 5-Apr-2004
Steven Greenhouse, "Altering of Worker Time Cards Spurs Growing Number of Suits," New York Times, 4-Apr-2004
Chana dal: miracle food? Got a one-pound bag for $4 at Shalimar in Central Square.
Update 2009-08-08: That was a four-pound bag, not a one-pound one. Incidentally, at time of this writing, the price for a four-pound bag there is now $5.99.
I'm resending the last two weeks' of emails to some people, since at least some outgoing email of mine (to SF lists) has been verified as disappearing along the mail route. I've since made some MTA changes and taken my ISP's relay out of the loop. If you expected to hear from me in the last few weeks, and have not, please email or phone.
Next year I will execute an outrageous coup d'etat just after midnight on the early morning of April 1st. I will have 24 hours to seize control. The media will be powerless to alert people to the emergency, and the citizenry will be paralyzed. Everyone will think the calls to arms and orders to evacuate are just more lame April Fool's jokes by what is supposed to be news media.
The original 15 March Full-Disclosure post "Request: Starla Pureheart PE" and Raven Alder's discussion.
Saw "Tank Girl" (1995) for the first time yesterday. Was expecting empty-headed camp, so it was fun. Brit/aussie acquaintances familiar with the original comics spoke disdainfully to me.
"Cube" (1997) is a good sf suspense/horror flick. There was one inexcusable character casting choice, but exactly why is a spoiler.
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