zip! bang! pow!

Onomatopoeia, a new baddie from webcomic PvP

Scott Kurtz created a comic bad guy based on my all-time favorite word: onomatopoeia. Awesome. I love how the character, in a single word, neatly summarizes his entire concept *and* just about every action scene from the Batman TV series.

Correction: Scott Kurtz didn’t create him. Kevin Smith and Phil Hester did.

Tangential: does onomatopoeia itself exhibit onomatopoeia? And can it be spelled using “œ” (oe-ligature)? Yes it can.

Update: I didn’t notice it before, but if you follow the graphic link to the PvP comic, Scott Kurtz updated his comic because he unintentionally ripped off Kevin Smith’s bad guy. He replaced his Onomatopoeia with Palindrome. The new baddie is still funny in the storyline and still works well, but still… anyhow, kudos to Kurtz for correcting it. See also The Webcomic Overlook’s rundown of this “controversy”.

“… someone is clearly doing their job horribly wrong.”

XKCD’s take on Premier Election Systems (formerly Diebold) screwing up the 2004 Presidential election vote counting, and subsequently blaming it on antivirus software in its machines.

Really, is it that hard to build an adding machine? I’ve built embedded systems, I know the cost of rolling your own system is usually more expensive than going with off-the-shelf solutions… but Windows in voting machines? The first line of defense safeguarding democracy is left to Windows?

Back by Absolutely No Demand

I’m trying this blog stuff again.  If past history is any indicator, I’ll write 5 posts, then forget about it for another year.

I’m trying to get organized, and force myself to use todo lists, calendars, whatever it takes. I also would like to be as paperless as possible, so I’m focusing on three tech tools to help me out:

• Sandy
• Jott
• Fujitsu ScanSnap S510

We’ll see how well these work out.  I will say that the scanner has a voracious appetite, at 18 sheets per minute, with the ability to duplex. I have already used the hell out of it since January, and it’s only just dented the stacks of paper I need to input.  But so far, it’s sweet.

Date Math in Google Calculator?

On many occasions, I’ve needed to calculate date/time math operations (such as add X days to a particular date, etc.). I always try to use Google Calculator, and every time I’m reminded that Google Calc doesn’t do date math. I then always search for “date calculator”, find a website or widget that performs the calculations, and then get frustrated that Google doesn’t but *should* do the operation.

What’s more, I can’t seem to find anybody else on the webs who wants this functionality. Lots of people clamored for IMAP access from GMail.  I can’t be the only person who wants to find something like “6/20/2008 – 60 days”, can I?

with friends like these

Pardon the circuitous route I’m going to take to get to the subject matter, please bear with me.

I was watching Gone With The Wind, #10 in my top 10 movies (#10 only because of its length, making it harder to watch it at any time), and I started reading up on the biographies of many of the actors on Wikipedia. I found out that the actress that plays Prissy (“I don’t know nothin’ about birthin’ babies!”), Butterfly McQueen, was a lifelong atheist and remembered the Freedom From Religion Foundation in her will. I was impressed, and my curiosity was piqued. I had never heard of the organization. So I investigated it, and decided I wanted to support it.

And that reminded me that I hadn’t yet renewed my EFF membership, and I hadn’t gotten around to joining the ACLU and NRA this year either. Then it occurred to me…

I applaud and support the ACLU because their purpose is to protect and defend the Bill of Rights… except the 2nd Amendment, which doesn’t seem to sit well with them. Ok, fine, so I also support the NRA because it is all about the 2nd Amendment. Except, well… it seems pretty much aligned with right-wing Republicans, conservatives, neo-cons, etc. And all that is appurtenant to those labels, primarily the religious right and evangelical fundamentalists. So I now also support FFRF, seemingly to balance out my guilt-by-association support of the “fluff” that goes along with NRA support.

It doesn’t matter what group, label, organization, club, or order you belong to — you’ll always have to be aligned with others that you really wish you had nothing in common with. Join the NRA, and you have to accept that you’ll be lumped together with “gun nuts” who absolutely need to be able to hunt with a .50 caliber rifle or pindle-mounted M2A2 “Ma deuce” machine gun. Join the ACLU, and you have to accept that you’ll be lumped together with the Klan and Neo-Nazis who seek ACLU help to protect their free speech rights. Join the FFRF, and you’ll be lumped together with “militant” atheists who push just a little too hard to remove “In God We Trust” from currency and “under God” from the pledge of allegiance.

It’s not that I have problems with any of the positions above. In fact, I enthusiastically agree with them all. But I don’t like the militant preaching of those positions by their hard core proponents. Sure, they are mostly lightning rods for media attention, and only represent a very small percentage of their corresponding organizations. But every time they gain media attention, it seems to just polarize the uncommitted middle.

Principles suck, sometimes.

Lucidity: Why I like Apple

It finally became crystal clear why exactly I love Apple. I have always given reasons that they care more about the user experience, they pay attention to details, or that simply they aren’t the mainstream. But those are squishy non-concrete answers. Finally, I have found a solid, hard answer.

During Steve Jobs’s keynote address at Macworld ‘07, he commented that everybody hates their smartphones. I think this can be extended to all mobile phones. Sure, there are some people who absolutely adore their phone (or any other chosen object of techno-lust), but when you hear “everybody,” think generalizations here. And in general, phones blow. Their address books are always lacking in one way or another — only a predefined and limited set of numbers, no actual physical addresses, whatever. They almost universally have piss-poor calendar functionality. The list goes on. It’s accurate to say that most people tolerate their mobile phones, but they certainly aren’t excited by them, or particularly fond of them.

In his Time.com article, Lev Grossman nails it:

Everybody hates their phone, Jobs says, and that’s not a good thing. And there’s an opportunity there. To Jobs’s perfectionist eyes, phones are broken. Jobs likes things that are broken.

Apple in general, and Jobs in particular, are engineers in the Scott Adams’s “Dilbert Principle” sense: to the engineer, the world is a toybox full of suboptimized and feature-poor toys. And that is why I love Apple so much. It is a company after my own heart, staffed with engineers and artists after my own heart, lead by a man after my own heart. I look at something, and see how obviously it could be so much better, so much more useful. Steve Jobs does the same thing. Of course, he has the resources to do the optimization, and the charisma to sell it so well.

All because of some bureaucratic Volgons

During my efforts to get mail delivery restarted at the condo, it came to light that we were not supposed to have two addresses. Never mind that we had been using them for 30 years. No, if we wanted approval to use our existing unit numbering (1–15 for fifteen units, instead of 101–105 for downstairs units, and 201–210 for upstairs units), we would have to give up 1315 South Miramar Ave. Everything would now become 1321. I was one of the 1315′ers.

In addition to letting all my friends, family, and personal contacts know that my address has changed (even though I’m in the same place I’ve been in for 8 years!), here are the companies and organizations I need to notify (that I know of, at least):

3 banks, 2 credit cards, mortgage, 2 retirement investmest, mobile phone, cable modem, power company, auto insurance, homeowner’s insurance, health insurance, condo assocation attorney, Yahoo! Accounts, Google Accounts, Flickr, PayPal, eBay, Amazon, Netflix, FL Div. of Corporations director filing, IRS, FL vehicle registration, Driver’s license, concealed carry license, FL Div. of Licensing / DBA, County Tax Appraiser (both for home and auto), homestead exemption filing, County Animal Control, Local home occupation licensing.

33 companies, organizations, or government agencies. Oh, and I almost forgot: I have to explain a change of address on my security clearance form (SF-86), and maintain it for 7-10 years. AND I have to explain to the person submitting or filing said form that no, I will not provide different personal reference contacts for the “old” address and the “new” address (those of you dealing with those particular Volgons know exactly what I’m talking about).

Hrm… wonder if it’s possible to fly below the radar and eliminate most of this crap. If I had any illusions of anonymity before, they’re certainly gone now.

The Enemy of the Good

With a new year comes new hope of following through on all those promises to oneself. Lose weight… learn a new language… catch up with old friends… keep in contact with family… make new friends…

“But I really mean it this year.”

Oh yeah? What are you going to do to make this year different?

Baby steps.