From the neighbor’s yard: "ba baw baw baw ba ba baaawwwk!" pause "ba baw baw baw ba ba baaawwwk!"
Me: "Son, do you know what that noise is?"
Clueless 15 year old: "Uh, some bird?"
Obviously, I don’t get my children out enough.
Of Grasshoppers
Student: I could have been…
Master: You are…
Connecticut Voting on Marijuana Legalization Today
Since they are voting on legalization on 4/20 is the outcome of the vote a bit predetermined?
Update 4/26/2012: Yup, it passed.
The House of Representatives voted late Wednesday night to legalize marijuana for medical purposes for adults — despite a letter from the state’s top federal prosecutor saying that those growing marijuana would be violating federal law.
The vote was 96-51 in favor.
Patients would be required to receive a prescription from a physician to receive marijuana to relieve pain from illnesses such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV and multiple sclerosis. The bill would allow some producers to cultivate and grow the marijuana, and licensed pharmacists could provide the marijuana to patients. Patients would need to requalify every year in order to keep smoking medical marijuana.
[Source, Hartford Connecticut Courant, House Approves Legalization Of Medical Marijuana]
Which camera for a week in the canyons? Olypmus Tough or GoPro?
Five adults are planning on accompanying five boys scouts into the wilderness of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. We will be cut off from the rest of the world for nine days; that is no Internet, no cell phone. In preparation, I have to decide what gear is essential. I love photography and I love timelapse video. My inclination is to make a video documentary of our trip which has me leaning toward the GoPro2 Outdoor Edition
How would you decide between these two cameras?
Parenting – Giving the World to our Children Just Isn’t in the Budget
As a parent, I maintain an uncomfortable level of stress over family finances. I constantly think about my family’s health and the related expenses (forecasting braces, emergencies, regular checkups, etc.), education (saving for college, extracurriculars, making sure there are funds for participation in activities and providing necessary supplies – n.b. public education is far from free!, home schooling to supplement school teaching, family field trips, etc.), our bills (housing, utilities, etc), entertainment (for a balanced life, vacations – a rarity, toys, etc), food, maintenance, transportation….the list goes on and turns my stomach to think about the gross amount of money it takes to maintain a healthy and well-balanced family. I remember the very first time I held a $100 bill; it was so much money and seemed so unreal. Now, it feels like I regularly burn Ben Franklins.
One of the painful aspects of being a parent is realizing the opportunities presented to your children which they have to forego due to financial reasons. I regret not flying to Germany to watch The Wall being torn down during a Pink Floyd performance but I knew the sacrifices I would have made to make that trip and as a young adult I could accept those. A young child gets their hopes and dreams set on something like a camping trip and simply does not have the means to understand why we have to say no. Teenagers better understand but it still pains me to shoot them down.
So I stare at my calendar. An imaginary glow illuminates the critical dates where income appears in the bank and the due dates where bills suck the accounts dry. I see the dates of an 11 day hiking trip I scheduled with my son and his scout troop and ask myself, "will the family understand eating Ramen noodles for a month to make this trip happen?" Then the phone rings, "There’s an opening on this year’s Philmont trip. It’s the last time our district will send a contingent making this a once in a lifetime opportunity for your son. The cost is $2000 plus personal expenses." My heart sinks to my toes.
From the mouths of babes
N.b. I’m on blood pressure medicine now and my cholesterol is high so I’m supposed to be exercising and dieting.
Too many errands during lunch so I splurge and go into McDonald’s as the drive-thru line was far too long.
Me: "Um.. I’ll have a quarter…wait.." I point at the picture of a grilled chicken sandwich. "My doctor would like me to eat that. But I really want a quarter pounder with cheese meal please."
Ladies behind me: Laughter.
Me, turning toward them and seeing that they are nurses from Park West Hospital: "Shhhh. Don’t tell the doc."
Ladies: "That’ll cost you a fry."
Cashier: "I guess we won’t be supersizing that then."
Thank you world for looking out for me!
It’s all over now
I must be knocking on death’s door.
My best friends: me, myself and I
I talk to my computer. It responds better when I do. My friends and family look at me sideways and pause to make sure I’m not addressing them; I’m talking to myself. Aloud. With purpose. They ask, "are you feeling okay?" They think, "he’s flown over the cuckoo’s nest!
In a recent study published in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, psychologists Gary Lupyan (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and Daniel Swingley (University of Pennsylvania) conducted a series of experiments to discover whether talking to oneself can help when searching for particular objects. … It was found that speaking to themselves helped people find the objects more quickly.
[Source, Science Daily, It Doesn’t Mean You’re Crazy – Talking to Yourself Has Cognitive Benefits, Study Finds]
[Derived from Source, AlphaGalileo Foundation, It Doesn’t Mean You’re Crazy – Talking To Yourself Has Cognitive Benefits, Study Finds]
[Original Source, Taylor & Francis Group, The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology – Self-directed speech affects visual search performance]
I will change the world
I recall childhood dreams
And the adult in me
Misses them
So it seems
All I have left are
Daydreams.
If code is not property, are software patents invalid?
An appeals court has ruled that code is not property and therefore cannot be stolen. Wow! The potential ramifications are huge. The RIAA could find themselves unable to sue over copied media. More directly, this appeals court may have just invalidated every software patent ever filed. I personally despise software patents. Now, I’m not a lawyer as such I suspect my presumptions are very wrong. The undeniable result is that if you copy custom created software from your employer, you have not committed theft.
The 2nd Circuit Appeals Court ruled that since computer code cannot be physically obtained, it doesn’t fit the legal description of a stolen good. … The court was quick to point out that this decision should not be interpreted for all cases of electronic theft, however the legal recognition that code isn’t physical property (which people have been saying for years) is sure to make this case a focal point in future MPAA/RIAA wranglings.
[Source, Gizmodo, Appeals Court Rules Computer Code Is Not "Property" and Can’t Be Stolen]
Knoxville Earthquake
Knoxville had a genuine earthquake at roughly 12:30am on April 11, 2012! Houses shook and a loud boom was reported in Rocky Hill, South Knoxville, and Seymour. #knoxquake
Type: Earthquake
27 minutes ago
Magnitude: 2.2
DateTime: Wednesday April 11 2012, 04:39:14 UTC
Region: eastern Tennessee
Depth: 4.9 km
Source: USGS Feed
Earthquake Details
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
Magnitude 2.2
Date-TimeWednesday, April 11, 2012 at 04:39:14 UTC
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 12:39:14 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time ZonesLocation 35.756°N, 83.825°W
Depth 4.9 km (3.0 miles)
Region EASTERN TENNESSEE
Distances 13 km (8 miles) E of Maryville, Tennessee
24 km (14 miles) SSE of Knoxville, Tennessee
49 km (30 miles) SE of Oak Ridge, Tennessee
275 km (170 miles) E of NASHVILLE, Tennessee
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 10.3 km (6.4 miles); depth +/- 3.1 km (1.9 miles)
Parameters NST= 16, Nph= 29, Dmin=12.2 km, Rmss=1.35 sec, Gp= 50°,
M-type=”Nuttli” surface wave magnitude (mbLg), Version=4
SourceMagnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)Event ID usc000903d
Upgraded:
Earthquake Details
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
Magnitude
2.3
Date-Time
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 04:39:12 UTC
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 12:39:12 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location
35.797°N, 83.838°W
Depth
19.4 km (12.1 miles)
Region
EASTERN TENNESSEE
Distances
10 km (6 miles) E (85°) from Eagleton Village, TN
10 km (6 miles) ESE (116°) from Rockford, TN
10 km (6 miles) SW (215°) from Seymour, TN
22 km (14 miles) SSE (154°) from Knoxville, TN
232 km (144 miles) NNE (13°) from Atlanta, GA
Location Uncertainty
horizontal +/- 0.4 km (0.2 miles); depth +/- 0.8 km (0.5 miles)
Parameters
NST= 18, Nph= 24, Dmin=16 km, Rmss=0.14 sec, Gp= 86°,
M-type=duration magnitude (Md), Version=B
Source
Southeast U.S. Seismic Network
Event ID
se041112a
In 2007, Knoxville ran practice drills in preparation for a 7.7 earthquake. Thankfully, it hasn’t come yet!
Possibly linked: Apparently there was a magnitude 8.6 earthquake off Aceh, Indonesia at the same time. Tsunami warning issued. See also usgs.
Easter Weekend
Had a phenomenal Easter weekend. My daughter came home from college in New York so the entire family was together. Her siblings really miss her. The weather was perfect! I have grass on the lawn for the first time since…well…since I bought the house in 1997. And we had a great Easter egg hunt although I believe the Easter bunny needs to be a little tougher on hiding eggs next year.
As for Monday, I need a pick me up. Must have spent all my happiness this weekend.
Wastin’ the day away in tech
Yesterday I wasted my time trying to move Windows 7 Ultimate from one machine to another. Techies know the chipset/driver problems that come with such an endeavor, but, none the less, we feel we can overcome these challenges. A day later, I feel I am so close yet I still do not have a machine to perform my coding duties upon so I succumb to allowing the new machine to having a fresh Windows 7 Professional installation and prepare myself to spend the day reinstalling software. This is such a waste of time. Operating systems should accommodate moving a hard drive from one machine to another, realizing the chipset and hardware drivers are wrong, and fix itself seamlessly. Ugh!
1984 – Like!
It’s a technical kind of day
Spending my day cloning Windows 7 Ultimate from a mechanical hard drive to a solid state hard drive to put into a new computer. Word of advice: chkdsk first! (and don’t forget to set the partition active)
