Archives: February 2004
Sun Feb 29, 2004
The Gift of Surveillance
Some years ago I read an essay about the future of surveillance. What if everyone, in every public space and at every minute at work, was filmed? Would the world be better or worse? Would we have fewer liberties or more? Obviously, the first answer is that we would have less freedom, and less privacy. More...
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"Suspicion Breeds Confidence"
A colleague passed on two interesting links. Cirt Net gives the default passwords to just about everything and the SSIDs to all the wireless access points.
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Ancient Games
While I was not blogging, I read another Gore Vidal novel, this one about someone I've long been curious about, Julian the Apostate, the last non-Christian Caesar of Rome. I loved this book. I loved Julian, but I didn't like reading this fictional autobiography because I knew how it would end. As soon as he died, I missed him so much. I miss him now, 1700 years after he was killed by a christian in his inner circle. But I have no idea why this book was so popular in 1964, unless it was evocative of Lost Camelot. More...
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Sat Feb 28, 2004
A Favorite Writer
Occasionally, at work one of the lists I'm on gets an email from Geoff Pullum. I'm not the only person on those lists who saves his posts. He is usually complaining about something we've done and one of us usually end up apologizing for whatever it is that lead to his complaint. He always supports his argument. He is so dang good at it. Geoff is a linguistics professor at UCSC and he also teaches a class in unix. (He teaches csh as if it were a just another language, with verbs, nouns, and adjectives.) Recently I found a link to The Language Log, which Geoff contributes to. He helpfully provides a list of his posts to it.
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Whilst
Am I the only person who has noticed that people are suddening using the word "whilst" as they never have before? This word really has no reason to live. We have another word that means exactly the same thing, the word "while." This word is means exactly the same thing, there is no difference between the two except that "whilst" connotes a verisimiltude of Englishness and its snobbery. Google finds almost 6 million pages containing the word "whilst."
People, please stop.
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What is a University for Anyway?
2004-01-29 at 8:01 p.m.
The Sentinel says yesterday that UCSC has purchased an old empty wafer fab on the Westside, the TI (Silicon Systems) building.
Most people I work with think this is a good thing. A new network for us to work on, a place for the School of Engineering to expand--that means more jobs.
More...
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Living History
When I walk on the treadmill, I read Hilary Clinton's Living History. I had no idea that while we were Marching on Washington with a million gay people waving rainbow flags at the biggest gay party, ever, Hilary was in mourning from the death of her father. I had no idea.
Yes, I like this book very much. I'm glad she wrote it.
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Good Home Networking Resource
I haven't read too many of the Small Net Builder's "Need to Knows" but the one I read on WPA was very good, and he did a bunch of testing that I couldn't be bothered with, but appreciate knowing the results of. I'll try to read more of these if I have time. Good intros to network technology.
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Switching
Apparently, the story about upgrading from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 is an old internet joke. I hadn't heard about it until last week, in a column in Network Weekly. I couldn't resist writing my own addition, which appears below.
More...
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The True Meaning of the Federal Triangle
I once was in the Dirkson Senate Office building near the Capitol in Washington DC and could not believe how many astrological symbols were carved and painted on the ceiling.
Now I know all about them. I'm reading The Secret Architecture of the Nation's Capitol. by David Ovason. It's all about the freemasons and astrologers that commissioned all these astrological symbols in the public art and set all the cornerstone-laying ceremonies by the stars--Making sure that Virgo was in ascendant whenever something important was happening. As a Virgo, I feel I must keep reading to learn more about all these clues on how Virgo is so important to DC, but also, as a Virgo, I can't help thinking it's crap.
More...
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San Francisco, Feb 13, 2004
I'm pretty sure the straight people don't get it. Two women were married in San Francisco yesterday. The first two in the United States. And Santa Cruz maybe next. This is integrating the Woolworth's counter. This is James Meredith at the University of Mississippi. This is the Twenty-Second amendment. This is huge, and it makes me cry when I think that Del Martin and Phil Lyon are married. And yes, it does make a huge difference; it is not just a piece of paper. More...
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Here's A Toy I Don't Need At All
I don't need this, but I sure would like one. A desktop treuchet.
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I'm Back to Writing Again
I tried another blog site, diaryland which I recommend if you don't want to pay money. But I decided to pay for pMachine's hosting service because I love this interface. And I love how the photos upload. I'll upload a few of my postings to the other site, and I have quite a backlog of things I've been thinking about.
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