The Empire Strikes Back. In 60 seconds.
To quote Geekdad, where I first saw this: "Sheer brilliance."
links for 2008-04-15
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Dennis Sellers reports on the death of Stan Flack, co-founder of MacCentral and MacMinute, who passed away yesterday after a long bout of health complications.
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Peter Cohen reminisces about working for Stan Flack.
"Insight"
I don't know about you, but I prefer my candidates to come equipped without the "High Octane Marxist Cant" option. Indeed. [Wave of the phin to Dom.]
"Let's 'Surge' Some More"
It is said that generals always fight the last war. But when David Petraeus came to town it was senators -- on both sides of the aisle -- who battled over the Iraq war of 2004-2006. That war has little in common with the war we are fighting today.
I may well have spent more time embedded with combat units in Iraq than any other journalist alive. I have seen this war -- and our part in it -- at its brutal worst. And I say the transformation over the last 14 months is little short of miraculous.
The change goes far beyond the statistical decline in casualties or incidents of violence. A young Iraqi translator, wounded in battle and fearing death, asked an American commander to bury his heart in America. Iraqi special forces units took to the streets to track down terrorists who killed American soldiers. The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq, and many Iraqi boys dream of becoming American soldiers.
[...]
We know now that we can pull off a successful counterinsurgency in Iraq. We know that we are working with an increasingly willing citizenry. But counterinsurgency, like community policing, requires lots of boots on the ground. You can't do it from inside a jet or a tank.
Over the past 15 months, we have proved that we can win this war. We stand now at the moment of truth. Victory -- and a democracy in the Arab world -- is within our grasp. But it could yet slip away if our leaders remain transfixed by the war we almost lost, rather than focusing on the war we are winning today.
links for 2008-04-13
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I was going to write a blog post and quote from this, but the quote was proving so extensive, I figured I would just link it and you could go read it for yourself.
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Carbon Motors wants to build a car specifically designed for police, rather than the current process of repurposing civilian autos. Sign me up for a civilian version of Carbon's E7!
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More on the E7, from Wired's Autopia blog.
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The corporate web site for Carbon Motors, developers of the E7, the world's first vehicle designed specifically for law enforcement.
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I think that above description line is self-explanatory.
AirHogs Press Conference
The Grand Prairie AirHogs are a new minor league team in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, and we have some footage from a recent press conference:
The AirHogs season begins in May, and I'm looking forward to taking in a game or two this year.
links for 2008-04-11
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"[I]t seems to me that it isn't failure we're afraid of, it's uncertainty. So I tried asking, 'What would I do if I had to do something, but knew I would fail anyway?'"
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"I should be writing right now." Instead of, you know, finding fun things to link to and posting them to my blog.
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Three levels of messages, from terrorist attacks to Amber alerts, free for end users to receive, and you can opt out of receiving them at all. Scheduled to go live in 2010.
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Forget the t-shirt. Give me the grill!
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"Bloxes are building blocks made of interlocking pieces of corrugated cardboard, folded together. Their unique shape and structure make them exceptionally strong and lightweight." They're also a little expensive.
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Web page of Wheaton English professor and author Alan Jacobs, writer of The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis, among others.
links for 2008-04-10
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Mostly common-sense tips, but then there's little common sense to modern airport security in the U.S.
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Kettering University student Will Foster built a half-scale WWII Tiger tank, running on a 3-cylinder diesel, for paintball. Yes, paintball.
Do you know what you're seeking?
Tony Woodlief, "The City Where Nobody Smiles":
Millions of people visit every year, and I wonder, does a one of them find what he is looking for?
Do they even know what they seek?
Which I suppose can be asked of us all, not just the poor souls sitting numbly in front of those cold machines with the pretty, pretty lights. The answer, I think, is that we are seeking something that will fill the great Empty.
It runs right through the middle of you, this emptiness, and though every good writer has tried to describe it, and though we all know it is there, we are most of us terribly afraid to think about it, which is perhaps why a place like Las Vegas can exist at all.
Regarding those nasty unintended consequences...
One of the biggest problems with government intervention in the economy is that politicians usually have neither the knowledge nor the incentives to intervene at the right time.
Bruce Bartlett has pointed out that most government intervention in an economic downturn comes too late. That is, the problem it is trying to solve has already worked itself out and the government intervention can create new problems.
More fundamentally, markets readjust themselves for a reason. That reason is that people pay a price for their misjudgments and mistakes.
Government interventions are usually based on trying to stop them from having to pay that price.
People who went way out on a limb to buy a house that they could not afford are now being pictured as victims of a heartless market or deceptive lenders.
Just a few years ago, people who went out on that limb made money big-time in a skyrocketing housing market. But now that they have been caught in the ups and downs that markets have gone through for centuries, the government is supposed to bail them out.
Solving short-run problems, especially in an election year, often means creating long-run problems. Pumping money into the economy can help many problems, but do not be surprised if it also leads to inflationary pressures and financial repercussions around the world. In other words, people should bear some personal responsibility for their choices and actions. The government should leave well enough alone. Better yet, perhaps the government would like to admit to some responsibility in the matter, and perhaps rather than bailing out people from their own mistakes, rectify it's own? (Yeah, I know, fat chance of the latter.) [Emphasis in the quote added. --R]
Ride'em, cowboy!
This past weekend, we spent a few days visiting my parents in the suburbs of Birmingham. (That would be Alabama, not England. Just in case it wasn't clear.) My dad pulled my old rocking horse, Donut, out of storage, cleaned up the parts, and assembled him in the basement, all for my son to ride while we were visiting.
If you want to see a slightly larger version, click on the video.
I got Donut about the same age as the little phisch is now, roughly 1974. The nostalgia from watching my own child ride the same horse I did thirty-three, thirty-four years ago, was overwhelming.
links for 2008-04-07
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Been sprayed by a skunk? Hydrogen peroxide + baking soda + liquid dish soap is the best remedy, according to the Mythbusters.
links for 2008-04-05
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No, Daniel, I didn't know this. Thanks for the tip!
links for 2008-04-04
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Of course. Just as I'm using Amazon MP3 for as much online music as I do iTunes.
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Yes, even NASA has a Twitter account. Pretty easy way to keep up with the latest from America's space agency.
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A great start-to-launch sequence of photos, from the arrival of the external fuel tank from Mississippi to launch of the Discovery.
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Match your "brand", create a barrier, buy a plant, get rid of the noise, and pay attention to ergonomics. Simple, but very useful stuff.
ATPM 14.04
The April issue of About This Particular Macintosh is now available for your reading pleasure. Wes kicks things off with a look at what's been popular in the Mac blogosphere of late, and that's namely been about a product that isn't a Mac, but works with your Mac: the iPhone. The announcement of the software development kit (SDK for short) for the iPhone has generated quite a lot of discussion amongst developers and pundits. Mark talks about chips of all sorts, from his uniquely Brit point of view, as well as the latest DRM nonsense across the Pond. Charles has another Filemaking, and walks through relational databases. This month's desktop pictures are courtesy of several ATPM readers, and feature views from all around the globe. Thank you, all, for sharing! Back in meatspace, Todd turns the tables on the enemy with a reprogrammed Lisa. Cortland and Angela arrive safely from the Mudrix, but Cortland has paid a heavy price... My good friend Tom Bridge returns to the pages of ATPM with a look at The Book of Wireless. Lee rounds up the latest iPhone accessories from Newer Technology, while Ed puts PhotoAcute Studio through its paces. Paul is pleased with Take Control of Permissions in Leopard, and Ellyn closes out the Tome Edition™ of ATPM by digging through Wikipedia: The Missing Manual. As always, you can read ATPM online, as well as in three other formats of your choosing. Thanks for reading!
links for 2008-04-03
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"[B]ecause every one of us were told since birth that we were special. ... And really? Really? It turns out we're just not all that special, when you break it down. Beautifully unspectacular, actually. And that truth is going to catch up with us..."
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As a metalhead--musically speaking; I don't have a plate in my head or anything--I really like this one.
Life from the Phisch Bowl
Oh, did I forget to mention my wife's become a blogger? And that she did so last year? Whoops. Well, that takes me out of the running for Husband of the Year™. (And if you think that's all I've done to take myself out of the running, I have some beachfront property in Scottsdale I'd like to talk to you about.) <rimshot> But enough about me... The missus began blogging last May as an outlet for the angst and excitement she felt as a result of our seeking to add to our family through adoption. She's also been talking about our struggles with infertility as we seek to add to our family on our own. At some point she began sharing little tidbits about our life at home, missing her mom, and other things outside the realm of adoption, and I suggested a name change for the blog. In private conversations with friends, nearly all online, I've often referred to our home in general, and the study, from where I compute, in particular, as "the Phisch Bowl". Seeing how I have no intention whatsoever of allowing the fish (phisch?) meme, courtesy of my anagramed moniker, to die, my abrupt suggestion to her was, "Life from the Phisch Bowl". So there you go. A small word of warning. The missus tends to use some shorthand and acronyms she's picked up from motherhood/pregnancy/infertility forums over the years, and some might not be readily decipherable. Trust me, there was a time when I was constantly asking her what this acronym or that one meant. Should you need similar help, drop me a line, or better yet, drop the missus a line over on her blog, and ask her. Better still, just drop her a line and say hi. Her latest post also deals with an issue near and dear to our hearts. Once again, Kel will be participating in the March of Dimes' March for Babies, formerly known as WalkAmerica. Due to a commitment with the little phisch, I won't be walking this year, but Kelly will, and she's raising funds. (Much to my chagrin, she's already raised more funds for this than I need in total for my mission trip to Juarez, to build houses for the poor there, in June. This includes monies from my own mother, who was asked, along with several friends and family members, to support my trip prior to Kelly beginning her fund-raising. Hrmmm. Perhaps I should outsource my own fund-raising to the missus, since we all know she is far, far more charming a person than I....) So, drop by her blog and say hi, and if you're led, help us with the March for Babies. I love you, sweetheart.
Texas Rangers 2008 Calendar
I was a little miffed to learn the Rangers offer a downloadable calendar for the season, only as a comma-separated .csv file. This is fine and dandy if you're running Outlook, as apparently the Rangers front office does, but it's not so good if you're one of the millions of people--and trust me, there are millions--not running Outlook.
The .ics calendars I found online weren't quite up to my expectations, either. I ended up taking one and heavily modifying it, notably adding all of the away dates, since this particular one focused only on home games. You can download the calendar by clicking on the link below:
Simply unzip (decompress) the downloaded file, and follow your calendar of choice's method for importing a calendar. The .ics format is an open standard, so pretty much any modern calendar app--yes, including Outlook--will read it.
Whom do you think he might be referring to today?
Booker T. Washington:
"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs--partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs." Gosh, I really can't think of any body...