I just got word that berlios.de, where I have several projects hosted including GPSD, is going to shut down at the end of the year. This is a huge pain in the ass. It means I’m going to have to bust my hump to get us to new hosting space. Moving the git repo won’t… Continue reading Berlios is dying…
Month: September 2011
Sugar’s not fading away, yet
Judging by comments, a surprisingly large number of my regulars are interested in the medical state of my house’s visible soul. If you’re not of them, go ahead and skip this blog entry.
Reconsidering sexual repression
The New York Post has an interesting article up on the price of sex. Summary; more women are giving it up sooner. Between a shortage of men who are marry-up material, competition from other women, and porn, withholding sex to get commitment is no longer a workable strategy Tellingly the article says “those who don’t… Continue reading Reconsidering sexual repression
Community versus collectivism
Community and collectivism are opposites. Community is valuable and powerful; it is individuals freely choosing to cooperate and identify with each other to achieve more than they can individually, as we do in the open-source community. Collectivism is a fraud. It pretends to be about community, but it is actually about the use of force.… Continue reading Community versus collectivism
A tribute to Heinlein
A&D regular Ken Burnside has entered the Woot! derby, a contest to have a T-shirt design featured on that site. Ken’s entry is a tribute to Robert Heinlein. Yes, that’s Robert and Virginia Heinlein on the rocket. Yes, the rocket is based on the illustrations from Putnam and Son’s Heinlein juveniles The skyline in the… Continue reading A tribute to Heinlein
There is exactly one good use for a toaster oven
The kitchen in my house has a toaster oven tucked into one corner just under the wall cabinets. It gathered dust unused for years, because toaster ovens were a silly 1970s fad that disintegrated in the face of inexpensive microwave ovens. But I’ve found exactly one use for it that a microwave doesn’t emulate well.
Living in Euro-Cloud-Cuckoo land
I often tell people that I think The Economist is the best news magazine in the English language – and not because they make a relatively frequent habit of quoting me, either. The house style is intelligent, often penetrating, witty, and sober about important things. It is very rare that The Economist indulges in wishful… Continue reading Living in Euro-Cloud-Cuckoo land
Ten Years After 9/11
Ten years after 9/11, I find there is little that I need or want to add to what I have already written on this topic. Rereading the essay I wrote the day of the attack, it still seems relevant. So does my explanation of the militia obligation. The best tribute we can give to the… Continue reading Ten Years After 9/11
Not Eliminating The Middleman
So, we’re at a some friends’ place for barbecue this afternoon, and friends say “We know you don’t watch much TV, but you need to see this…” “This” turns out to be the pilot of The Middleman a peculiar and unusually intelligent TV series that ran for only 12 episodes in 2008 before being canceled.… Continue reading Not Eliminating The Middleman
For those who have met Sugar
I don’t often blog about strictly personal things here. Even when it may seem that I’m blogging about myself, my goal is normally to use my life as a lens to examine issues larger than any of my merely personal concerns. But occasionally, this has led me to blog about my cat Sugar, as when… Continue reading For those who have met Sugar
Ecoforming and 1493
I enjoy creating useful neologisms. I’ve floated several on this blog: kafkatrapping, collabortage, politicism, chomskyism, and prospiracy. One could argue that my take on the term “error cascade” is neologistic. Today, another one: “ecoforming”. By analogy with “terraforming”, this is what humans do when they deliberately modify an ecology to suit their purposes. The term… Continue reading Ecoforming and 1493
The Smartphone Wars: Short Takes
No grand unifying theme in this installment of our smartphone-wars coverage, but a bunch of short takes.