Check this out:
Conference Call Bingo
So, you
ever sit in a conference call and get super annoyed, because Bob can't work the mute button or Suzy
is trying to talk over the traffic in her convertible or John is presenting his second monitor, which
coincidently
has a photo collection that's quite embarrassing. It happens every call. So I decided to make a game of
it
and you can play along.
I did this silliness as an exercise to teach myself how to read and manipulate
XML files using
JavaScript, and then load them into a web page with formatting
controlled by
CSS. The source material came from an
article on Boing Boing. I
added titles to the columns, and a little over 10 possible topics each. It
loads them from XML, shuffles them and displays the first 5 in each column.
Eventually, I might let you put in usernames and start tracking high-scores, but you'll have to
wait for
my idleness and curiosity to peak at exactly the same time.
HR3200 (Healtcare bill) is not so complicated or big
This is just
to counter the FUD surrounding this bill. All the pundits say that they haven't read the bill
because it's so long and complicated. But, they have analysts read it and they look at the summaries.
It's
BULLSHIT. The picture at the right contains a sample page of this 1017 page proposal. As a child, I
read
Dick and Jane books with more content per page.
So, I downloaded it reformatted it, and printed it to PDF (with adult-sized content per page) and
it's barely
over 200 pages and most of it is boiler plate. You can read it in an afternoon. Which is what I'm going
to
do today.
And you can too, because I saved a copy of HR 3200 here.
SHUT UP ABOUT THE SWINE FLU!
This is just another influenza. The only weird thing is that it started (or got caught) in Mexico instead of Asia.
- Pigs don't cause the flu.
- Most modern influenzas breed in pigs (for at least part of their evolutions).
- An average influenza normally infects 5-15% of the population.
- An average influenza outbreak normally kills 5-10% of infected individuals (or 0.25-0.1 percent of the population).
- In the US alone, 30,000 to 50,000 people per year die of influenza.
- The last really bad influenza to hit the Western world was back in 1918, and it was unique because it killed healthy adults (mortality rate of 2.5-5%, more than 10 times normal).
- Nobody (to date) has posted mortality rates, or infection rates for this influenza, and we haven't seen any mass graves in Mexico. Which makes me think that it does not spread abnormally quickly, does not infect an overly large portion of the population, nor is it killing healthy adults.
But there is hope! Understand what is happening and follow a few simple steps . . .
Should you have to obey a law which is kept secret from you?
This is another interesting article from Papers Please. I simply cannot understand why a people who reward individuality and applaude freedom put up with this kind of treatment. The rules we obey just don't make sense. We cannot take a bottle of water or lipstick or toothpaste on the plane. But, somehow we are allowed to take a laptop.
Answer me this: Which would be easier to make a bomb from, a seven pound laptop or 32 ounces of clear water?
This guy, John Gilmore, didn't give in. He actually had the gall to ask why he had to show ID, and under what authority the requestor was operating. Then when he was further harassed, he sued. Since, then he has not flown domestically.
World Cup Highlights
A friend sent me this wonderful tidbit that puts Zinedine Zidane's magnificent World Cup performance into perspective. More of these little jewels can be found at Anil Dash's Website
Linux - An operating system only Radio Shack nerds could love.
Folks have mixed opinions about Linux, and what it means not to use Windows or Mac OS. By far the most prevalent opinion seems to be that it's just an OS for hobbyists that like working on things with exposed wire and the bolts showing.
I for one, do not like to work day-to-day with exposed bolts, but I like to know how to get to them when I need them.
Using Windows and Mac OS is like driving a car with the hood locked with a key that only the car dealership has. For many people, this is fine you're only going to use the car while it's under warranty, and the only people that'll ever have to open the hood are the dealership mechanics.
Unfortunately, there's no lemon-law for software. And, I rely on my computer to give me my documents, e-mail, contacts, and calendars every day without fail. It's nice to know, that when I have a problem that my dealership (Microsoft) won't or can't fix, I have a cadre of shade-tree mechanics all over the world ready to fix even the most insignificant problem.
Not only that, but they work for free!
But, for the naysayers who claim they cannot work with a clunky ugly desktop, look at how nice my desktop is (see sample image). It'has a toolbar at the top, with all my standard applications. The fonts render better than Windows does (maybe even as good as Mac). And, everything comes on one DVD that I download from the internet, and takes about two hours to install (with updates).
