Category: IT

RIP Herbert Lom

Died in bed at 95 in London.  May his memory be blessed with laughter and tears.

Stupid bill re recriminalizing abortion did not pass; the Minister responsible for the Status of Women should be escorted from the Commons in the electoral equivalent of chains.

Although the title and the illo are THOUGHTLESSLY hyperbolic, this is a good article about privilege. 2020 says Hugo Schwyzer turned out to be rillllly problematic, but I’m leaving this here as evidence of progress, and it’s amazing given the drubbing he took that this writing is still available

I have a very heavy day of appointments and church related work in front of me.

VCon starts, I’m not going.  All I will do is spend stupid amounts of money on clothes.  Hilariously, RobW called me last night to complain about the Vcon website; this does not bode well for how good the con will be.

Paul and Katie and I had a lovely walk in Deer Lake Park on Wednesday; we saw a dozen frogs, a juvenile eagle, a Douglas squirrel and possibly a baby bunny, who did not linger to make our acquaintance.  I got some video of the frogs but it’s basically a streak heading for the rushes.  I also got a pic of the Douglas squirrel but not at very high resolution, even though the little guy POSED in TWO SEPARATE POSES for me.  We also picked up a hawk feather, which I stuck in Margot’s fur when I got home and resulted in a couple of charming pictures, one of which I posted to twitter. 2020 says that was a flicker feather, not a hawk feather, no kidding.

I’m going to ask Jeff to help me figure out how to post pics directly to my blog through WordPress, although possibly not today.

After many months of being okay, my temperature regulation at night has gone off the rails.  I have acceptably ordinary physiological reasons for this but waking up poaching in my own bed a couple of times a night is harshing my mellow.  This too shall pass.

Yet another sports figure is being accused of sexual and physical abuse of youngsters in his care.  The way it’s being reported in the press is quite bizarre.  I guess we’ll let the courts sort it out; the reporter had more than half a dozen affidavits detailing misconduct in hand before writing the story, and while we all know that there are false abuse allegations, it’s not the way to bet, especially since we’re talking about a Catholic residential school for falsely imprisoned young aboriginals.

Raincoaster just tweeted that an alarm went off close to her and a stern voice is speaking in German.  Helluva way to get woken up, unless of course she was already awake.  She and I trade tweets in the middle of the night fairly often.

What’s up on facebook:  18 billion reposts from reddit, mine among them, and people commenting about the things that make them upset – relatives dying abruptly in car accidents leaving young children, angst about how this is the first time her only child is out with the non-custodial parent on a football game day, the fact that 27 million people globally live in slavery, and me attempting to get a copy of (this poster). 2020 says it was something cool by Matt Danger but now it’s gone.

In-com-pe-tence

I have been asked to use a new piece of software at work, but the instant I tried to log in, I found a problem.

The password is password.

Ayuh, the WURST PASSWORD IN ANGLISH!

I can’t change the password.  I advised my contact.

I’ve been told the software company responsible for this affrrrrront to the 21st century has been advised …. shouldn’t they just be taken out, lightly whipped and then dismissed?  Perhaps not.  Okay, how about mocked and then dismissed….

The eternal question

The eternal question can be compressed into three words.  Is it crap?

I force myself to ask this when I read paragraphs like this.

About halfway through I think, could Zittrain’s Thought Experiment (ZeeTeeEee(=) be a good band name?  I think, anh, it’s too arty even for me.  A little after that I think, well, hasn’t human intelligence always been a commodity?

Makes you wonder who the first man was who got paid to be smart, and what he got paid in, and what the hell he was paid to do.  If it was a woman, I hope she was a midwife and they rubbed her feet.

With no further excuses, herewith the paragraph.

Crowdsourcing’s power to compartmentalise and abstract away the true meaning of tasks turns human intelligence into a commodity. Zittrain’s thought experiment shows how it could potentially entice people into participating in a project that they otherwise wouldn’t support.

Can you find anything wrong with the foregoing?  I mean, this paragraph ignores that the commoditization of human intelligence is a frequent occurrence; has been for millennia as best I can make out. The scale it’s happening on is something new.  The article this paragraph was culled from is here.

The first time I used Speaking Naturally

I said, “Holy Shit!” when it actually wrote down what I was saying.  What it typed was Goalie shipped.  I promptly gave up on speech recognition.

This is pretty funny, and you don’t have to understand computer programming for it to be funny.  Not what what.

1st of 2 parts on NCIS last night… it is a spinoff attempt.  We shall see how lucky the network gets, trying to get that particular piece of tv bonanza to work up some more gelt.

I will be off to Victoria to visit relatives and Dr. Filk, who is also a relative, for part of the weekend. Sometime between now and then I have to finish the homily, and since there is never any time like the present, I will shut this down and see if I can actually integrate Unitarian values with my mother’s garden in some sensible and interesting fashion.

Site changes

For those interested, I recently made two small changes to the site:

  1. Added an indication of the currently logged in user at the top of the right side column.
  2. Fixed email. Now all admin-related emails should work as expected. In particular, password reset requests should now be working. Self-registration for new users is now technically possible, but it’s Allegra’s call as to whether that feature will be enabled.

Star Wars floppy & other news

I don’t know why I thought this was so funny, but I did.

Chipper got her dvd of puppy power but has not reported back yet. I’m bouncing from one foot to the other wanting to know.

Paul’s back from the Adirondacks. Tish and Terry are doing fine. Paul says he had a really tough time keeping up with Terry, but he’s been saying that for 25 years so I don’t think this represents a change. Terry always seemed to be a secret new power source anyway. And sing yip and whoo hoo! Paul quit smoking! Seven days no smokes, let’s all think positive.

No word from Katie, but I imagine somebody would have called me if any further insanity had taken place that I really had to know about.

I just made french toast. How amazing! Jeff has just gotten up! Good, otherwise I might end up eating it. Time to put on the bacon. Jeff doesn’t drink coffee anymore, but he misses it. I say things like “I can’t live without coffee” but of course I can. I’d be learning how to roast chicory as a substitute.

Minister Prentice sends me an email

The Government of Canada has introduced Bill C-61, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. The proposed legislation is a made-in-Canada approach that balances the needs of Canadian consumers and copyright owners, promoting culture, innovation and competition in the digital age.
What does Bill C-61 mean to Canadians?
Specifically, it includes measures that would:
expressly allow you to record TV shows for later viewing; copy legally purchased music onto other devices, such as MP3 players or cell phones; make back-up copies of legally purchased books, newspapers, videocassettes and photographs onto devices you own; and limit the “statutory damages” a court could award for all private use copyright infringements;

implement new rights and protections for copyright holders, tailored to the Internet, to encourage participation in the online economy, as well as stronger legal remedies to address Internet piracy;

clarify the roles and responsibilities of Internet Service Providers related to the copyright content flowing over their network facilities; and

provide photographers with the same rights as other creators.

What Bill C-61 does not do:
it would not empower border agents to seize your iPod or laptop at border crossings, contrary to recent public speculation

What this Bill is not:
it is not a mirror image of U.S. copyright laws. Our Bill is made-in-Canada with different exceptions for educators, consumers and others and brings us into line with more than 60 countries including Japan, France, Germany and Australia

Bill C-61 was introduced in the Commons on June 12, 2008 by Industry Minister Jim Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner.
For more information, please visit the Copyright Reform Process website at www.ic.gc.ca/epic/site/crp-prda.nsf/en/home
Thank you for sharing your views on this important matter.

The Honourable Jim Prentice, P.C., Q.C., M.P.
Minister of Industry
The Honourable Josée Verner, P.C., M.P.
Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women
and Official Languages and Minister for
La Francophonie

Juno

Jeff and I watched Juno last night and I loved it.  The script, the acting – a wonderful movie, and Ellen Page and Michael Cera make my Canadian heart explode with pride.  Also, it makes fun of Unitarianism.

Yesterday I prepped my MacBook for working with Windows software by installing a virtual machine.  We’ll see how this plays out… Jeff’s going to help me with an XP install  With any luck I won’t have to turn it into a Vista machine.  The long term point of this is to allow me to work from home, as the contact management and call center software is all Windows and internet based.

My payroll problem has been straightened out.

Gizmo and the downstairs dog, Meadow, are getting to know each other.  Meadow is so anxious for someone to play with that it’s very cute.  Gizmo’s body language says it all.  Scornful, not the slightest bit scared.  Eddie made tracks like his little black tail was on fire as soon as he poked his head through the door and saw the dog.

I have now entirely s-canned my original homily, as well as the two subsequent attempts, and I’m staring at the screen with disbelieving horror… can my normal fluency have deserted me for this most important topic?  Can I restrain my usual desire to turn everything into a gag?  Will I find myself in the pulpit on Sunday next, eyes like dog’s balls, stammering, incoherent and bereft of a single cogent sentence?  Stay tuned.  On the plus side, there will be jazz at the service, most likely.

I would just like to tell the universe, briefly, that I’m tired of getting what I need and would like to get what I want for a change.  Okay, back to the homily.

Site problems

Jeff sat me down with Google Tools this morning and it appears I owe a certain person an explanation.  When my site got hijacked at least one person immediately stopped being able to access it on a mobile device, which should have tweaked me to investigate. Since it wasn’t affecting me, I didn’t.  Everything should be working now – if there appears to be something broken, let me know.