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The IBM glass engine. This is wild. I've always rather liked Philip Glass. Comes from writing a paper on minimalist music in college where I got really into minimalism (mainly because I finally understood what they were doing -- my analogy is that the music is like watching clouds on a lazy summer day: they gradually shift and morph into different shapes). This applet is a fantastic way to showcase someone's works. I hope to see other applications for other artists.(9:48 AM) ¶

Friday, March 01, 2002

 
Radical New Views of Islam and the Origins of the Koran: "Christoph Luxenberg, a scholar of ancient Semitic languages in Germany, argues that the Koran has been misread and mistranslated for centuries."(10:26 PM) ¶

 
Our new house is less than two miles from a Trader Joe's. I am so very happy now.(6:57 PM) ¶

 
The Doc Searls Weblog : Thursday, February 28, 2002 Well, this is incredible. Doc talks about an NPR piece on Spike Milligan of the Goon Show (and so much more) who passed away a few days ago. (Aside: I know of the goon show from my friends the Brothers Fisher who always quoted it around the house I shared with them right after college). They spoke about Spike's influence on The Firesign Theater and that got me reminiscing. I grew up on Nick Danger and other gems from those four very, very funny men. They were a huge influence on my own weird sense of humor. So much so that when I finally made my wife sit through side two of "How Can You Be in Two Places at Once if You are Not Anywhere at All" she looked at me and said "That explains it! Now I understand!" Anyway, the wow part of this blog entry is that Doc talked about how Firesign Theater got their start but was unsure of a detail and who should respond in the comments of his blog? One of the original members. Follow the link and read for yourself. That, to me, is one of the great things about the Internet.(5:51 PM) ¶

Thursday, February 28, 2002

 
So, I was sitting in my new living room waiting for Cox. Cox was late. And I kept thinking how much I needed Cox, how much I wanted Cox. But I had no Cox. I was very sad. And then a nice man arrived to bring me Cox and I was very happy. But then there were problems and it turns out that Cox was not up. Cox was down. There would be no Cox for me today.(10:11 PM) ¶

 
I'm done with ER. The show has devolved into mindless clichés and repetetive story-lines. And now the are going to kill off Greene with a recurrence of the tumor he got last season. This is a character that has lost his wife, his parents, gotten beaten up, had bad relationships, his daughter almost over-dosed on X, and more and now they will kill him off. For people who have been watching the show for years, this is just wrong. He should be written off with a Doug/Carol ending, not this. I'm done. It used to be a good show. Andrew's right. It's horseshit now.

Friends, on the other hand, is just wonderful this season. Tonight's episode was well written and well acted. And, for once, they wrote Ross as a real person, not a cariacture.(10:11 PM) ¶

Wednesday, February 27, 2002

 
Plodding with dinosaurs: "A new computer model suggests the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex could not have raced after its prey."(10:18 PM) ¶

 
Debate Is Fueled on When Humans Became Human: "Scientists generally agree on the basics of human ancestry. But agreement breaks down completely on the question of when human behavior began."(10:14 PM) ¶

 
Tonight's West Wing was exceptional. Gods I love that show. I so wish I could play chess really well. I've always wanted to know but never have had the time to learn. Ah well... in my next life...(9:57 PM) ¶

 
"It is snowing here in Boston.  People are freaking out." [Sam Ruby's Radio Weblog]

Looks like we moved to DC just in time. Of course it was frickin' COLD outside tonight.(9:17 PM) ¶

 
We did it!
This afternoon we closed on a townhouse. We have a home and we are all back together again. It's been a long, awful year, but now it's all coming together. We're home for the first time in months.

It's out near Reston Virginia and it's a 3 level place with a garage, a deck out back, a fireplace, and ceiling fans.

We drove out there tonight to drop off some things. Putting the key in the lock for the first time was such a thrill. We just stood in the living room and looked at each other and said "We own this."

What a day!(9:06 PM) ¶

 
Today is the day

Well, today is the day. I've not actually said here what's happening today yet mainly because I'm being superstitious and trying not to jinx myself. Of course, it's not hard to guess... More later.(10:09 AM) ¶

 
Mac OS X Hints - Securing Webmin using OpenSSL(10:06 AM) ¶

 
O'Reilly Network: Learning the Mac OS X Terminal, Part 3 [Feb. 26, 2002](10:06 AM) ¶

 
Search for books and compare prices at isbn.nu -- What a neat idea! I still prefer to go to my local bookstore, but hey...(10:03 AM) ¶

Tuesday, February 26, 2002

 
AFA Issues: Culture - Commentary by Matt Friedeman. This is an interesting article. Not so much for its conclusion which I find a bit tenuous, but rather for the reference it makes at the start. There was an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education some years back (here is a link if you happen to have one of their overly-expensive subscriptions) about how students in college studying Shirley Jackson's classic short story "The Lottery" had moved from sharp criticisms of the fictious culture that held a lottery to choose someone to stone to death eacy year to proclaiming that we have no right to judge other cultures. If this is what that culture does, who are we to say it is wrong. That article struck me as central to some of the major problems in the world today. That people can read Jackson's wonderful and disturbing story and not feel that a society which kills members annually in a completely arbitrary fashion is in some way inherently wrong is incredible to me. Anyway, it's on my mind this morning for no particular reason except that I stumbled upon it accidentally.(10:51 AM) ¶

 
Ftrain: Robot Exclusion Protocol(5:49 AM) ¶

 
Please to ignore. This is being a test.(5:05 AM) ¶

 
And now I've stopped messing around with my old blog. I'm fine with the setup I have now.(5:00 AM) ¶

 
I'm messing around with my old blog, blackcat.editthispage.com because it is after 4AM and I have nothing better to do. Well, I do have better things to do but at 4AM I can't really do them. My brain won't let me.

So, I've got this editthispage.com blog. I've got this radio blog. And I've got this blogger blog. And I want them all. Two are mirrored (radio and blogger) -- if I can pull in the manila one as well... well, that would be truly weird.

See? 4AM. Not much you can do with that time.(4:27 AM) ¶

 
This posting, item, whatever you call it (what is an individual unit of a weblog? a bloglet?) serves no purpose except to force an update of my site on the radio server so I can test something out.(3:41 AM) ¶

 
One of these days I need to make my own design for this site. Themes are nice and all, but it means your blog looks like everyone else's. If you are reading this on raggedcastle.com you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. Go check out the other version of this same blog here.(3:25 AM) ¶

 
World Wide Words

Nothing like a sleepless night for finding some fun links...(3:08 AM) ¶

 
My friend Chris Kagy is in Nigeria on business the next few weeks. I can't imagine having to go to a place going through so much trouble right now. As you can read in his weblog, he's pretty much staying in the hotel and going to work. Nigeria is not a place to go sightseeing... Needless to say, we'll all be a lot happier when he comes back home safely.(3:03 AM) ¶

Monday, February 25, 2002

 
Fish Fossils Shed Light on Origin of El Niño [Scientific American](10:09 PM) ¶

 
We made it!

We made it to Virginia with two cars, one toddler, and a ton of stuff. We almost put it off a day as Ann has a lousy cold but I had to be at work today (which reminds me, I need to get moving) and so we pushed through and did the drive anyway. Now we're here and sit tight until Wednesday. Then we do the next phase...(7:38 AM) ¶