| |
[May. 27th, 2008|05:10 pm] |
Vote ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rm in the elections. There are only three users who have a serious explicit commitment to freedom of speech in their platform, and rm is both the best and most popular of these. My second and third choices are hopeless, so my ballot is effectively truncated.
This is one of those cases where I would rather that jameth, a non-serious candidate with no articulable platform, win than the current leader, legomymalfoy, because I think that LJ is ultimately doomed anyway, and a candidate who is serious about the status quo is significantly more likely to give the advisory board an air of legitimacy than a candidate who represents the protest vote. Still, I won't give jameth my second- or third-place vote because I think it's probably better to vote sincerely and see how it goes.
Note: this is somewhat different from how I would advise voting in a general election, because while I know lots of people who have left LJ, I know nobody (or almost nobody; I'm sure I'm forgetting someone) who has left their country because of politics. |
|
|
| Correlations your automated process will never find |
[May. 27th, 2008|12:28 pm] |
I'm presently reading The Lost Steersman, the third Steerswoman novel by Rosemary Kirstein. It's going to be impossible to explain the awesome bit without minor spoilers for the second novel, so I'm not going to bother. I can't even give you the bare conclusion, because it will give you the entirely wrong idea about the book.
( Read more... ) |
|
|
| |
[May. 8th, 2008|12:37 pm] |
I got udon for lunch today, and realized that I would have to add it to the list of foods (chocolate mousse, baby back ribs) where mine is so good that it's not worth ordering at restaurants.
Or maybe this was a bad restaurant. |
|
|
| |
[Apr. 25th, 2008|04:10 pm] |
|
Alas, Free Rice has added five more levels. I can only get to 52. Time to read more Gene Wolfe. |
|
|
| |
[Apr. 17th, 2008|05:30 pm] |
|
What sort of statue would you make for a god of victories obtained through cheating or unsporting conduct? |
|
|
| |
[Apr. 17th, 2008|12:23 pm] |
I read sinboy's copy of Little Brother, and then ordered a copy for wiz_jord.
I think it might be better to read it as a work of journalism than as SF. The technologies involved are so real that I've actually met some of the people involved. And the politics are so real as to be utterly depressing.
If you have youths in your life who care at all about freedom (or even hip non-youths), you should pre-order this book for them. |
|
|
| |
[Apr. 20th, 2007|04:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  ecstatic | ] |
I just got a letter threatening to sue me over this.
Here is the letter.
I'm so thrilled! I can't believe my luck! |
|
|
| Engaged |
[Apr. 1st, 2007|03:18 pm] |
I asked regyt to marry me and she said yes. We're waiting until it becomes legal for same-sex couples to marry in New York, because it wouldn't be fair not to.
I am totally thrilled and delighted. |
|
|
| Fuck cingular |
[Mar. 27th, 2007|05:21 pm] |
[plea for help at the end --- feel free to skip whining]
I have an account with Cingular. I am stuck with it (a) because I have a contract and (b) because it is the only cell phone provider which gets service in my apt.
The number started out as a Verizon landline in Cambridge, MA, was ported to T-mobile, and was ported to Cingular. I now live in Brooklyn, NY, but I wish to keep my Cambridge number because all my friends, family, and business associates have it. I recently asked Cingular to add another line to the same account, and to ship me a phone to go with the line. The new line will be used for regyt's law business; it needs to have a Brooklyn (718) number so that her clients know that she practices in New York City. All of these numbers have been and will be billed to my Brooklyn address. Cingular told me that they would not be able to initially assign a Brooklyn number, but that if I called after I activated the phone, they would be able to. So, I ordered the phone on 3/13 or so.
I dutifully waited until the phone arrived (3/20), and activated it. Then I called Cingular. They told me that they could not in fact change my second line to a Brooklyn number while maintaining my original, Cambridge number. The reason I was given was that the two billing systems (Cambridge and New York) were not integrated.
I offered several solutions; all were rejected. Solution 1: Cingular could bill me for an individual account for my second number, and credit me for the difference in price. Solution 2: Cingular could create a new individual account with a Brooklyn number, and forward that number to the phone. Solution 3: I obtained a new Brooklyn number through a service called Grand Central. I asked Cingular to port this number in to the new line. Cingular refused, claiming that my Cambridge number and the new Brooklyn number had to be billed separately.
What I want to happen: I want Cingular to accept the port (or issue a new Brooklyn number attached to the same line).
The difference in cost is about $700 over the life of the contract.
What I have done so far: I've contacted the FCC to inform them that Cingular is refusing to accept the port. I'm considering suing.
None of this is actually going to work, because Grand Central sucks too much to use it temporarily while we wait for the FCC or courts to take action. We need a way to have a number temporarily forward to another that is free or cheap, and I just can't find one. Can anyone help? |
|
|
| Recs |
[Jan. 17th, 2007|10:39 pm] |
Pan's Labyrinth.
Radiance, by Carter Scholtz
The House Beyond Your Sky (sorta like when Hitherby was good,but also like when Vernor Vinge is good) |
|
|
| |
[Dec. 4th, 2006|07:56 pm] |
 |
|
|
| Don't bother |
[Oct. 29th, 2006|03:19 pm] |
Torchwood: watched one episode. The female cop brought all the male cops coffee. That pretty much sums up the whole epsiode. The BBC doesn't hate gay people -- just women.
Only Revolutions. Got about 150 half-pages in, gave up. A lot of style, no substance. Not even worth colorizing the title. Which is a shame, since House of Leaves was brilliant. |
|
|
| |
[Oct. 18th, 2006|12:59 pm] |
Gentoo finally accepted my bug report. I only had to re-open it three times and cite the ISO C standard.
Is it just me, or was this way more effort than I needed to go through? At least one verifiable bug was present in my initial report (it said do X, when I had already done so). Why did I need to go through all that? Sure, it's valuable to isolate a test case, but they could have done that as easily as me.
Anyway, I am starting to develop a stereotype of people who are fanatical about performance or security. Not all, of course -- but enough that I notice it. |
|
|
| Garlic flatbread |
[Sep. 11th, 2006|08:28 pm] |
Take 150 g flour and 1c water and 1/4 tsp yeast. Mix well, leave overnight.
Chop the top off a head of garlic. Wrap it in a couple layers of aluminum foil, and pour in some olive oil. Roast it at 375 for 45 minutes, or until soft but not burned.
Squeeze out the garlic. Take the oil from the garlic and add enough olive oil to make 1/4 cup. Add this, the squeezed-out garlic, 250 g flour, 1 tsp yeast, and 1 tsp salt to the starter. I found the dough too soft and sticky to knead on a counter, so I kneeded it in my hands. I did it unidirectionally -- squeeze and stretch the dough to form a log, then fold the log like a letter, and repeat until it feels right.
Allow it to double in the usual fashion. Optionally, refridgerate it overnight. This will produce a more sour flavor.
Shape the dough into a flat loaf -- no more than 1 inch high. Allow to rise until it stops -- when you poke it with a finger, it won't bounce back. While it's doing this, heat oven to 550 for an hour to heat your baking stone. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, with an initial blast of steam (basically, throw a cup of water at the bottom of your oven and close the door quickly). Flip it over at 10 minutes to toast the top.
Let it cool on a wire rack. This step is important -- otherwise, steam will destroy the crust. |
|
|
| Hungary! |
[Aug. 17th, 2006|11:58 am] |
|
Off to Hungary this evening. Be back in two weeks. |
|
|
| |
[Aug. 10th, 2006|11:16 am] |
To: TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov
Dear TSA,
I hear that you recently banned liquids on planes. Also, the British have apparently banned all carry-ons. I just want to let you know that if TSA also bans all carry-ons (specifically, books), I will not fly (domestically) again. There is simply no way that I will sit on a flight without reading material of my choosing. I live in New York City -- it's a big enough place that I can spend my life exploring it.
I would rather add four hours to my trip than go one hour without a book.
I know that I am not the only American who feels this way. Please think of the devastating effects that a decision like this could have on air travel.
Sincerely,
David Turner |
|
|
| |
[Aug. 10th, 2006|09:38 am] |
|
Either it has always been unsafe to allow liquids on planes, or something has changed such that it is was previously safe but is now unsafe, or it has always been and remains safe to allow liquids on planes. If it was always unsafe, then DHS should have banned liquids earlier. If it is safe, then liquids should not be banned. If something has changed, what is it? The only change we have heard about is that we arrested some people who were allegedly considering a liquid-based plot. So, DHS must not have imagined a liquid-based plot before the alleged terrorists. So, every single person at DHS should be fired, since all the smart security-minded people I have talked to have considered a liquid-based plot. |
|
|
| New Job! |
[Jul. 31st, 2006|11:33 pm] |
The Open Planning Project has hired me to write Free Software for them. I start in mid-September. It's a bunch of Zope and Plone stuff, which I have mixed feelings about. One one hand, Python is pretty good. On the other hand, Zope is pretty awful. On the third hand, we'll be improving Zope. So I guess we'll see.
Please address future licensing questions to stargazer, my replacement at FSF. :) |
|
|
| Milk! Cookies! You? |
[Jul. 8th, 2006|09:09 pm] |
We're holding Milk and Cookies at our place at 3pm on Sunday, July 30.
Milk and cookies involves milk, cookies, and reading out loud. Short stories, poems, essays, the good bits of novels, whatever. Shorter is better -- twenty minutes is usually an upper limit.
Bring cookies, or some other edible thing in that vein.
If you don't know where we live (and you're not an axe murderer), email me for an addresss.
In any event, RSVP. |
|
|
