The Runcible Blog

Office rule #36: Avoid eye contact

I've learned that when someone comes in the office looking for help, it's best not to acknowledge their presence. You see, when someone has computer trouble, they don't care which one of us can help. So, typically, they'll ask the first person that sees them walk through the door.

Most of the time I'm not very helpful because I don't know the answer and end up directing the question to someone else. I'd say the vast majority of people coming through the door aren't looking for me. The questions I can answer are from people who already know to call or email me first.

That explains the rule. I suppose one could apply it more generally -- what better way to keep office relationships professional than by avoiding your coworkers.

I'm learning a lot of rules -- collectively called "The Eagle-Tribune Way" -- that I'll have to share.

The famous Cafe Azteca in Lawrence leaves much to be desired. The waitress, a former Spanish teacher at Central, didn't quite understand what I ordered.

I wanted a plain black bean burrito and made sure to ask what was inside it. Instead I got a big, honking chicken burrito. I didn't know haba sounds like pollo. So they sent it back for another one. Then, instead of a black bean burrito, I got a refried bean burrito with black beans and rice on the side. Frustrated, I ate the rice and beans, but refried beans are gross. Another, fluent English speaking waiter offered the consolation that their refried beans aren't made with lard. By that time, though, I didn't want to complain and get another one.

Their lousy service is disappointing, but what's more disappointing is that it's hard to get a non-meat burrito around here.

We need something like Burrito Max in Lawrence. Burrito Max vegetarian burritos aren't great, but they're good enough and hearty enough for me.

On my way to Hunt's earlier, my car konked out again. In fact, I didn't even make it down the street before the engine ran out of steam. After sputtering to a stop, the car wouldn't even turn over.

Steve towed the car back up the street, and Tony poked around under the hood. The guy at Autozone seemed to think that the ignition coil had failed, so I got one of those. It turns out there was oil inside the distributor (no idea how it got there) which could be part of the reason why the sparks stopped flying. Also, the rotor was badly corroded.

To make a long story short, we couldn't remove the ignition coil because the screws are upside-down and stripped. Tomorrow Tony will find out how much it'll cost to fix at a garage down the street. I have a bad feeling about it.

If it costs more than $100, I'm reluctant to pay. The car has 195,000 miles on it; it's on its last legs, I think.

Anyone have a 1990's vintage Honda Civic EX 5 speed for sale?

I'm watching the most terrible movie I've seen in a while: Code Hunter. Actually, this movie is so special that it has three names -- Code Hunter, Storm Watch, and Virtual Storm. I guess the producers couldn't decide on a name that accurately describes this action-packed piece of garbage.

The premise is that a weather-controlling supercomputer creates a number of hurricanes around the world and attempts to wipe out humanity. Only a virtual-reality computer "hacker" can save the world. I'd rather not go into the details (they boggle the mind with ridiculousness). Suffice it to say, the movie gets progressively worse every minute.

But rather than being completely negative, I have some constructive criticism for the sequel:

• Mini-disc players aren't computers, yet the hero uses one to break into the supercomputer.
• In close-up shots of typing, it helps if the actor types one key at a time, unless mashing on the keyboard is a new trick that "hackers" employ.
• A "hacker" can't control a home gas line, causing the house to explode.
• Supercomputers don't run on Windows, and they don't blow up when you change the system date!
• Finally, computer "hackers" don't look like underwear models; they look something like this:
  

You can't say I'm not trying to be helpful with my criticism.

I highly recommend Fog of War.

Although it's mostly biographical from Robert McNamara's perspective, it's a fascinating (and I don't use the term lightly) look at the type of people and decisions that lead the country to war. It puts a human face on those decisions and made me realize that as smart as the policy-makers may be, they're still just flawed humans who can make terrible mistakes. McNamara seems not to worry much about making mistakes that lead to thousands of deaths, and he tries to distance himself from some of his decisions. But he does admit, now that he's 85, that he might not have been right about everything.

I don't know much about LBJ, but from the conversations between him and McNamara, I don't have much respect for the man. To think -- America got stuck in Vietnam because LBJ and others wanted to "kick some ass" and send a message to the Ruskies? Hmm...

There are obvious parallels to the current administration that are reason enough to check out the movie. If you get anything from the film, it should be a healthy dose of skepticism. Too often we're asked to take for granted that our president, the secretary of defense, and other policy wonks actually know what they're talking about and are making good decisions.

Fog of War shows how even a very bright man can influence history and cause catastrophic consequences. He says himself that we came "this close" to total nuclear war. Only luck saved the world.

That doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

As a side note, Philip Glass's score is not bad (though typically formulaic). There's something about his music that makes a 2 hour film feel like 10 hours. And that's coming from someone who likes his stuff.

What's with the hubbub over The Passion of Christ? That movie is getting a ton of free publicity (unless artificial publicity is part of the $25 million budget). Why, just this morning on CNN, more time was spent talking about the movie, interviewing priests, and showing clips of the Pope mumbling than they spent talking about Bush's proposal to use the constitution to discriminate against millions of people! How about some proportionality?

Anyway, I'm probably not going to see the movie. I've read the gospels; I know how the story ends, and I don't care what Mel Gibson has to say about it.

I was thinking: people are complaining that the movie is "anti-semitic" because it may or may not place blame on Jews for Jesus's crucifixion. But how come you never hear anyone complain about "anti-Roman" accounts of the story? Somehow I don't think the Romans would've liked to take all the blame. After all, crucifixions were common back then. nothing personal, you know? They were just doing their jobs, right?

Today is a day for me to blow off whatever obligations I might've had.

I had an opportunity to earn a few extra dollars in a side job, but I don't feel like doing that. Besides, I woke up too late.

I also was supposed to play some music today, but I'm not feeling up to that either. I haven't practiced enough this week and would rather not have my ears blown out right now.

On top of that, I'm getting bugged to try to get my mother's new printer working with her computer. That's about the very last thing I want to do right now.

Instead, I'm going to wander around Lawrence for a bit, hoping to run into some kind of muse. It's been a while since I've spent some quality time with my city.

Later, I'll get back to work on the multi-threaded file spooler in Python that I started writing the other day.

The rest of the world can go away for today.

I have a very private secret which almost no one else knows....

I haven't washed any of my pants in months.

There, I said it. In fact, the last time I washed my black pants that I wear very often was before Thanksgiving.

I think I should do laundry today.

Well, it's official: Dean has dropped out. Here are some choice quotes from his exit speech:

Let me just say something to the younger folks here -- those of us who do not have my hair color -- one of the advantages of age, and they are less than I thought they were when I was 25, is that you get to see things come around a second or third time. One of the things that I realized, a long time ago, is that change is very difficult. There is enormous institutional resistance to change in this country, we have seen that in this campaign as we literally terrified people sitting in salons in Georgetown, that they might have to look for work someplace else if we ever won. But, it is natural for people to resist, but it is also inevitable that we will win. Change is difficult, you cannot expect people with great priveleges, taken at the expense of working people, to surrender them lightly. But the history of humanity is that determined people will overcome obstacles. And we will overcome the problems that this country is facing, as a result of George W. Bush, and as a result of a Washington establishment that has forgotten who sent them there.

Some of you who have been on the road with me, have seen the speeches, have heard this before, but it's true: We have been here before in this country. When William McKinley was president, enormous trusts were put together which made it impossible for ordinary Americans to start their own business, to earn a living without enormous pressure from those trusts which destroyed their business. Teddy Roosevelt came along, busted up the trust and made it possible to earn a living for ordinary Americans in small businesses again. Under Harding and Coolidge, and Hoover - Calvin Coolidge said the business of America is business, but forgot that human beings are not meant to be cogs in an enormous government corporate machine, that we are spiritual people who need connections and have to have community. Franklin Roosevelt came along and took America back for ordinary working people again. My favorite, however, is this one: In 1824 John Quincy Adams, the son of a one-term president, John Adams, beat Andrew Jackson of Tennessee in an election where Andrew Jackson received more votes. It was decided in congress by one vote to elect John Quincy Adams as president. In 1828, four years later, John Quincy Adams became the one-term son of the one-term president.

It's funny, but when Dean talks about McKinley I wonder if he's giving a subtle hint -- after all, President McKinley was assassinated by a man who's last words before being executed were "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people. I did it for the help of the good people, the working men of all countries."

Finally,

Now that the campaign is stopped, I'm going to say something that all of you heard me say before, but I want you to think about it now, because now is the most important time you've heard it. This is the real message of this campaign, you'll hear it in a different way, because i'm no longer a candidate. The biggest lie that people like me tell people like you at election time is that if you vote for me, I'll solve your problems. The truth is, the power is in your hands, not mine. Abraham Lincoln said a government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth. You have the power to take back the Democratic party and make us stand up for what's right again, allow us to fulfill the dream of Harry Truman in 1948 that he laid out when we would no longer be the last industrial country on the face of the earth without health insurance, allow us to stand up again for the rights to organize for ordinary men and women, allow us to stand again for the principles of equal rights under the law for every single American. You have the power to take our country back so that the flag of the United States of America no longer is the exclusive property of John Aschcroft, and of Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh and Jerry Falwell, that it belongs to all of us again. And together we have the power to take back the White House in 2004, and that is exactly what we're going to do. Thank you very much.

I never get tired of hearing that inspirational paragraph. Although it's disappointing to see him leave, it looks as if he'll try to maintain his grassroots network and funnel that energy into other areas (an advocacy group or something like that), which is great. I can't wait to see what becomes of deanforamerica, blogforamerica, and the dozens (hundreds) of smaller Dean-related blogs scattered across the net. It'll be interesting.

Yesterday morning I woke up to what I thought were the usual cramps and felt bloated. I was a little queasy at work but figured I'd feel better in a while. Then at about 11 (while a computer virus was surging through the company), my stomach decided to reverse its direction. I hurled my breakfast into a barrel near my desk in a glorious stream of orange juice and bits of Apple Jacks. Yes! Just when I thought I was in the clear, I had contracted the dysentery which had been going around my family for a couple weeks. So, I took the rest of the day off. too bad I didn't get that computer virus instead.

For much of the day I made frequent trips to the toilet, expelling all sorts of fun stuff. Eventually my digestive system ran out of material to eject. I tell ya -- with stomach bugs like that, it's a war of attrition, and thankfully I don't usually have a large appetite. I ate a couple light things last night and drank a lot of ginger ale, the classic panacea. By the end of the day I had lost more than 5 pounds, I think.

This morning I weighed even less, but I'm going to defeat this thing one way or another. I had a couple pieces of raisin bread at 12 and an oatmeal cookie at 6. If my starvation techniques don't get rid of the virus, hopefully my tapeworm will. It's a good sign that I haven't hit the toilet yet today.

well, that's my latest sickness story.

Here's a last minute reminder for the millions of Massachusetts residents who read this blog:

Today, February 11 is the last day to register to vote before the primary on March 2.

You may register to vote:

• in person or by mail, by completing a mail-in registration form and delivering it to your city or town election office, or
  
• at any local election office in any city or town in the state and at any registration event you encounter anywhere in Massachusetts, or
  
• when applying for or renewing your driver's license at the Registry of Motor Vehicles or when applying for service at a designated voter registration agency.
  

Registration forms are also available at all colleges, universities, high schools and vocational schools.

I don't like baseball, but I just thought of this analogy:

If Kerry gets the nomination, it'll be like the Yankees/Marlins world series all over again. It'll be a predictable, dull race which many people will tune out.

On the other hand, a Dean vs. Bush race would be like the Red Sox vs. Cubs series that everyone hoped for -- a real match.

Oh well, it's looking less and less likely now. pity.

My broham pointed me to an article about Dean's stumbling campaign. What I found more interesting was an article linked from it entitled, Exiting Deanspace by Clay Shirky. Although I disagree with some of his theses (read the comments on his entry), there are a couple observations that I think are worth looking at.

Prior to MeetUp, getting 300 people to turn out would have meant a huge and latent population of Dean supporters, but because MeetUp makes it easier to gather the faithful, it confused us into thinking that we were seeing an increase in Dean support, rather than a decrease in the hassle of organizing groups.

That's something I hadn't realized. Everyone was talking about Dean's wide support and pointed to MeetUp for evidence, but could it just have been that the few supporters were able to meet more easily? I can't say one way or another, but it's something to think about.

My one experience with MeetUp last week was positive. I was surprised to be the second youngest person there (an 11 year old politics buff also attended) considering the stereotypical Dean supporter demographic is under 30. I got a sense that although these were hardcore supporters, they'd pretty much written off Massachusetts as Kerry country but would still halfheartedly try in their spare time to get a few delegates. I could be wrong though.

Another Shirky observation:

In Is Social Software Bad for the Dean Campaign?, I suggested that Dean had accidentally created a movement instead of a campaign. I still believe that, and this is one of the things I think falls out from that. It's hard to understand, when you sense yourself to be one of Mead's thoughtful and committed people, that someone who doesn't even understand the issues can amble on down to the local elementary school and wipe out your vote, and its even harder to understand that the system is designed to work that way.

The important point is that Dean created a movement and stressed progressive change in the country perhaps more than he should've promoted himself. You can argue about whether it was a good strategy for a presidential campaign or not, but I think most would agree that the "movement" he started has invigorated the spineless Democrats. (we'll see what happens to the momentum if Kerry is nominated. my prediction: much of the momentum will fizzle)

Personally, I've always believed in voting for the candidate you most agree with rather than choosing the lesser of two evils. Kucinich had a great response when asked about his "electability" -- "I'm electable if people vote for me!" I think caving in to the Right time and time again with the dubious belief that it'll lead to more votes only proves the point that Democrats have no spine. When was the last time you heard of a Republican who agreed with gay marriage because he hoped to pick up a few more votes from the fabulous wing of the Republican party? (it might happen, who knows?)

So, if it comes down to Kerry vs. Bush, neither Bonesman is getting my vote.

Anyway, back to the Shirky article. What bugs me lately is the rush to explain "what went horribly wrong?". I think just the day after Iowa, even kos (big Dean supporter) was talking about how doomed Dean was and seemingly getting ready to jump on the Kerry/Edwards/Clark bandwagon. I would say that although the analysis is often on target, it points to the need for people to feel that they were right about something. In other words, those Dean campaign coroners are coming out and saying, "I was wrong for miscalculating Dean's frontrunner status and his candidacy in general, but, dear reader, I'm definitely correct in my analysis of everything he did wrong. told you so." Everyone wants to be the first one to explain why they were all wrong, and hence the first one to get something right.

Finally, I'll agree with Shirky about this moment:

The moment for me, and I think for many of us, when we realized that Dean was sunk was on Wednesday after New Hampshire, when the press reported that he’d spent most of his $45 million war chest already. The obvious question, “How did he think he could do the rest of the campaign on a few million dollars?” has an obvious answer: “He thought he’d raise more, when Iowa and New Hampshire anointed him frontrunner.”

When I heard of his financial problems, it was quite a downer. I contributed after Iowa, but after New Hampshire and since, it's hard to break open my wallet. I know a lot of supporters continue to fork over their dough, but I'm going to wait a little while to see if he hangs in there.

reminds me of The Holy Grail scene:
Dean: I'm not dead!
"the media": Well, he will be soon. He's very ill.
Dean: I'm getting better!
"the media": No, you're not. You'll be stone dead in a moment.

I'm coming up to my 1st anniversary of working at the Eagle-Tribune, and I have to say that I'm surprised I'm still employed there. What I said when I started working still applies today -- I would rather be doing something to help others in a meaningful way.

But it's funny how being employed for a while tends to distract people from doing what they really want to do. How many times have you heard of someone who's worked for decades doing the same job but hasn't had the time or energy to pursue their dreams? What I didn't anticipate about working (this has been the longest job I've had [well, really just my second job]) is that the day-to-day rat race has a way of draining my time and squelching my motivation. It's not that I lack energy; I have too much energy at the end of the day because I sit in a chair endlessly at work. But somehow, when I get home, I'm not motivated to do anything productive other than maybe catching up on the news or watching TV. It's sad, really. And the time I spend at work isn't particularly productive since I'm basically self-managed. I've certainly learned a lot about programming, web technologies, and junk like that, but what good are those skills? All those jobs are experiencing a mass exodus. (actually, I saw an ad for a "senior engineer" programming PHP stuff in India for $2,500/year. I semi-seriously thought about applying since it must be a cheap place to live, filled with exotic sights and interesting people. BUT, I don't think I could stomach the food.)

I don't have an answer to my lack of purpose. I think I've gotten over feeling defensive when people ask me about college. At least I know what I don't want to do...But I've thought and looked into classes on journalism and writing (not to mention photography), however the night school offerings are either silly or nonexistent.

It seems like I go down this road often. I probably sound like a broken record, "what to do, what to do, what to do...."

I haven't forgotten about my idea for a local newspaper of sorts, but I'm so out of touch with the community that it seems like a monumental effort.

Probably the best thing about this blog, for me, is that I can look back at the ideas I had and the promises I made (to myself, mainly) and kick myself for not keeping them. cause no one else will.

hey, I'm still a vegetarian after 8 months -- I'm serious about keeping promises.

I saw Tron last night on our new-fangled on-demand cable (which is sort of like streaming video -- complete with regular framedrops). That was quite an innovative movie for 1982! For some reason this image of the "MCP" from Tron has been burned into my mind ever since the first time I saw the movie years ago:

Pretty creepy.

Speaking of indelible memories, there's one particular piece by Chopin that I've had in my head since I was about 6: Polonaise in A-Flat Major Op. 53 ("Heroic polonaise"). I remember listening to it regularly on LP before going to bed (I'm not that old!). Listening to that tune just makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. I don't know why.

Since I found out that it's possible to get my Quickcam Express working with FreeBSD, I set up an ingenious/silly webcam downstairs. Here's how it works:

• I have a thrown-out 700Mhz Compaq laptop from work FreeBSD 5.2 installed.
• I put the laptop inside a cardboard box while keeping the lid open slightly then stashed it in the corner of the room
• the webcam connects using a couple USB extension cables
• the laptop has a linksys wireless card that connects to the access point upstairs.
• the webserver mounts the "thundercat" /tmp partition via NFS
• every minute, this cron job runs:

#!/bin/sh

cd /tmp/webcam
rm webcam5.jpg
mv webcam4.jpg webcam5.jpg
mv webcam3.jpg webcam4.jpg
mv webcam2.jpg webcam3.jpg
mv webcam1.jpg webcam2.jpg

/usr/local/bin/qcamshot | /usr/local/bin/ppmtojpeg > webcam0.jpg
size=`stat -f %z webcam0.jpg`
if [ ${size} ]; then

mv webcam.jpg webcam1.jpg
mv webcam0.jpg webcam.jpg
fi

• symbolic links tie it together
• voilà!

So, a request for the image is really accessing the laptop downstairs, wirelessly. And here's the high quality result:

And here's the most recent one: