What's Best

I have decided to sign Senate Bill 1070 into law because, though many people disagree, I firmly believe it represents what's best for Arizona.

-- Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, signing a new law forcing police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant, 23 April 2010

Embrace And Love It

As for old age, embrace and love it. It abounds with pleasure if you know how to use it. The gradually declining years are among the sweetest in a man's life, and I maintain that, even when they have reached the extreme limit, they have their pleasure still.

-- Marcus Annaeus Seneca (BC 3-65 AD), Roman philosopher, dramatist, statesman. trvth'ed in honor of my father's 93rd birthday 24 April 2010

Jerry Schweighart Has Company

I invited my court martial, and today I stand ready to answer these charges. I was prepared to deploy if only the President would authorize the release of the proof of his eligibility. He refused, and now the court will determine the issue, and my fate. The constitution matters. The truth matters.

-- Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, court-martialled for refusal to obey orders from President Barack Obama on the ostensible grounds that Obama is not a natural-born United States citizen, in a press release issued by the American Patriot Foundation, 23 April 2010

Earth Day

If we do not discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.

-- William A. Feather Sr. (1889-1981), American writer, publisher, and businessman

Twitter

This is an entirely new addition to the historical record, the second-by-second history of ordinary people.

-- Fred R. Shapiro, of the Yale Law School, on an agreement by the Library of Congress to archive Twitter messages, New York Times, 15 April 2010

You Know

I don't think he's American, personally. You know, if you're not willing to produce an original certificate like a birth certificate, then you've got something to hide.

-- Champaign, IL Mayor Jerry Schweighart at a Tea Party Rally, 15 April 2010

50 Years Of Public Computing

I had a good time this morning at 50 Years of Public Computing at the University of Illinois where I attended the session dedicated to the PLATO educational computer system.

http://50years.lis.illinois.edu/bibliography/plato.html

The panelists were Don Bitzer, Peter Braunfeld, and Lippold Haken. Half of the people in the audience could easily have served on the panel as well, and I had the pleasure of hearing many of them reminisce about those good old days. I saw Jim Kraatz and Celia (Davis) Kraatz, Rick Hazlewood, Paul Tenczar and Darlene, Jim Knoke, Jack Stifle, Rick Blomme, John Gilpin, Aaron Woolfson, Helen Kuznetsov, Mike Walker and CK Gunsalus, and many others (my apologies to those I've left out).

Here's a link to the dozen or so pics that I shot today. Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera, so these were taken with me Palm Pre -- no zoom, and today the background (thin drapes over a window) was brighter than the foreground ...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065040&id=1191873703&l=c35eb843ef

It was a lot of fun, and it makes me that much more interested in the PLATO@50 Conference coming up on 2-3 June 2010 in Mountain View, CA at the Computer History Museum. The conference is dedicated entirely to PLATO, with the theme "Seeing the future through the past". Here's a link to the Museum's page about the conference --

http://www.computerhistory.org/events/listing/plato-at-50/

Presenters include:
Ray Ozzie (Microsoft's chief software architect)
Don Bitzer (initiator of the PLATO project at the UI)
David Frankel
Andrew Shapira
Dave Woolley
... and many others (as listed at the conference URL, above)

In addition to discussing the hardware and software of the PLATO system, there will also be a focus on the culture of the development team, and the online community that sprang up around the PLATO system.

Besides the conference itself, I'm interested in visiting with the people involved, many of whom I worked with (or went to school with) in times past. I started using the PLATO system while in high school, and was a student programmer on the PLATO System Staff at the UI in my teenage years in the late 70s. I was a software engineer at NovaNET (which PLATO evolved into, locally) for over 8 years, ending in 2002. I also worked on the PLATO system as a computer operator at the UI, and as a programmer for the Department of Defense at Chanute AFB in the early 80s. In all, I worked on PLATO and its descendant systems developing educational software and its related infrastructure over a 25-year period.

At the UI's CERL (Computer-based Education Research Lab) much of the work was accomplished by people who pursued their own interests, and then made that work relevant to the community at large. It was a pleasure to work in that culture.

I plan to go to the conference if I can manage it.

Shivers

It is a damned place. It sends shivers down my spine.

-- Aleksander Kwasniewski, former president of Poland, on the site of a plane crash in western Russia that killed the Polish president and dozens of Poland's leaders, that was also the site of a Soviet massacre of Polish officers in World War II, New York Times, 11 April 2010

And Proudly

When I was the most junior Democrat in the Senate, I voted for John Paul Stevens. He was a Republican nominated by a Republican president who was going to be up for election, and we voted for him, and proudly.

-- Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), now chairman of the Judiciary Committee, on his respect for the associate justice, who is retiring, New York Times, 10 April 2010

Money Is Property

Money is property; it is not speech. Speech has the power to inspire volunteers to perform a multitude of tasks on a campaign trail, on a battleground, or even on a football field. Money, meanwhile, has the power to pay hired laborers to perform the same tasks. It does not follow, however, that the First Amendment provides the same measure of protection to the use of money to accomplish such goals as it provides to the use of ideas to achieve the same results.

-- John Paul Stevens (20 April, 1920), American jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1975, concurring, Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC, 528 U.S. 377 (2000); Stevens today announced his retirement from the court

Ashes Vs Ashes

A nuclear war does not defend a country and it does not defend a system. I've put it the same way many times; not even the most accomplished ideologue will be able to tell the difference between the ashes of capitalism and the ashes of communism.

-- John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006), Canadian-American economist and author, The Ashes of Capitalism and the Ashes of Communism, interview with John M. Whiteley in Quest for Peace: an Introduction (1986)

Palm Pre Trvth

Here's an update on the Palm Pre, now that I've been using it for a little over 2 months.

Over Easter weekend, I used it on a trip to southern Illinois. Throughout the trip I used it for GPS, streaming music from the Internet, streaming that same music from the Pre to the bluetooth speakers in my car, and as a phone (all at once). With the Pre plugged into the adapter in my car, it's power draw was close to break even; the battery actually went down a little (from 100% to 80%) during a 2.5-hour drive. Additionally, it got a little warm while charging and running all of these radios & apps at the same time. Once I arrived at my destination, I was able to use WiFi connectivity for faster Internet.

Having always-on Internet in my pocket changes the way I use the Internet. When a point of trivia arises, instead of thinking "I could google that", I just go ahead and google it. I carry my Pre loose in my pocket, though I did apply a full-body Zagg (indestructible, thin, nano-tech) skin.

Pros:

Always-on Internet, with easy access to Google, Wikipedia, Youtube, etc.

True multi-tasking, with notification area for updates from running apps

Automatic, background syncing of contacts, etc. with Internet services; no backups required. If you lose your device, a replacement device will have all of your apps/contacts/etc. automatically, within a few minutes of activation.

GPS with Google Maps built in, 802-11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1

Accelerometer for game control using tilt, shake, etc.

Attractive 3.1" 480x320 display w/3D graphics and 16M colors

Touch-active screen with multi-touch (pinch/spread to zoom, etc.)

Proximity sensor disables touch screen when you hold the phone to your ear

Video playback

Desktop-style web browser

Appears as a removable USB drive if you connect it to your PC, allowing file transfer via drag-and-drop

Ability to use the cellular Internet connection + WiFi to create a mobile WiFi-anywhere hotspot supporting up to 5 other devices (Verizon charges for this, and I haven't actually tried it). Laptop owners who don't mind the cost should love this.

Linux under the hood, with easy access to a root prompt for tinkering; WebOS is a joy to use

Well-developed community of users whose work provides features and enhancements otherwise pricey or not available

Palm App Store & community app store on the device; all software added wirelessly. It's possible to own a Pre and never use its USB cable.

3M-pixel camera with flash and video capture

Regular software updates from Palm (from v1.3.5 to v1.3.5.1, and then to v1.4, since mid-January)

Best cellular connectivity I've had (I no longer need to leave the basement at home when a call comes in)

16GB storage

QWERTY keyboard

Hardware mute, LED notifications, hard volume buttons, all work even when device is sleeping

All-day battery life when you're not torturing the device; I torture mine daily, but I also charge it nightly, and can charge it at work if necessary.

Optional Touchstone charging system (wireless magnetic inductive coupling); I have one at home, and another at work.

Cons:

Biggest problem - the keyboard sometimes bounces and/or drops keypresses, making proofreading a necessity

Lack of a 5-way navigator (up/down/right/left/OK), making editing out those typos more awkward

Touchstone charging devices are sometimes flaky, charging to only about 90% before losing connectivity; I have 2 of these, and one is flawless, the other flaky

Aggressive power-saving; when the device auto-sleeps, the GPS stops updating and needs to re-sync on wake. The background "cron" service also sleeps, though this is moot unless you're tinkering.

GPS draws a lot of power; continuous use of GPS (not plugged in, auto-sleep disabled) yields ~2.5 hours battery life

Streaming music from the Internet and re-streaming it via Bluetooth uses a lot of power; continuous use for music like this (not plugged in) yields ~4 to 5 hours battery life

No expandable memory, though I use a tiny fraction of the 16GB capacity; if I added movie-length videos this might matter.

[Edit -- writing this review was a good exercise; I now feel even better about owning/using my Palm Pre. If the keyboard were more reliable, this device would be nearly perfect.]

Waist Deep In Gasoline

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

-- Carl Sagan (1934-1996), astronomer and writer, debate transcript with William F. Buckley, aired after the first showing of the ABC TV movie "The Day After", November 20, 1983

Daylight

New construction in East Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines that mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks that are the first step toward the full negotiations that both sides say they want and need. And it exposes daylight between Israel and the United States that others in the region hope to exploit. It undermines America's unique ability to play a role, an essential role, in the peace process.

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Democracy Now, 23 March 2010

Tide

If the anti-incumbent tide is as strong as some people think it is, I will be swept out, despite all my efforts. If the anti-incumbent tide is a lot of conversation, but has no center of gravity as a true political movement, then I'll be just fine. There's no way to know.

-- Senator Robert F. Bennett (R-UT), New York Times, 26 March 2010

Virtues

No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.

-- Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972), 33rd US President, to a joint session of the US Congress (12 March 1947), outlining what became known as The Truman Doctrine

What Change Looks Like

This legislation will not fix everything that ails our healthcare system, but it moves us decisively in the right direction. This is what change looks like. In the end, what this day represents is another stone laid firmly in the foundation of the American Dream. Tonight we answered the call of history as so many generations of Americans have before us. When faced with crisis, we did not shrink from our challenge; we overcame it.

-- President Barack Obama, regarding the new healthcare bill, Democracy Now, 22 March 2010

Spring

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"

-- Robin Williams (1952-), American actor and comedian

Only More So

In today's online world, what your mother told you is true, only more so: people really can judge you by your friends.

-- Harold Abelson, MIT computer science professor, on personal information that can be gleaned from social networking sites, NY Times, 17 March 2010

Walking And Bicycling

The DOT policy is to incorporate safe and convenient walking and bicycling facilities into transportation projects. Every transportation agency, including DOT, has the responsibility to improve conditions and opportunities for walking and bicycling and to integrate walking and bicycling into their transportation systems. Because of the numerous individual and community benefits that walking and bicycling provide -- including health, safety, environmental, transportation, and quality of life -- transportation agencies are encouraged to go beyond minimum
standards to provide safe and convenient facilities for these modes.

-- Secretary Ray LaHood, in the US Department of Transportation Policy Statement on Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodation Regulations and Recommendations, 11 March 2010

Crosses The Line

When it works, it's amazingly impactful, but when it doesn't work, it's not only creepy but off-putting. What a marketer might think is endearing, by knowing a little bit about you, actually crosses the line pretty easily.

-- Tim Hanlon of Riverview Lane Associates of Chicago, on advertising aimed at Facebook users, New York Times, 4 March 2010

Wolves

We have the greatest opportunity the world has ever seen, as long as we remain honest -- which will be as long as we can keep the attention of our people alive. If they once become inattentive to public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors would all become wolves.

-- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), third US president, architect and author, in a letter to Edward Carrington

Any Little Change

Anything you put in that book, any little change you make, has huge implications not only for psychiatry but for pharmaceutical marketing, research, for the legal system, for who's considered to be normal or not, for who's considered disabled.

-- Dr. Michael First, professor of psychiatry at Columbia, on proposed changes to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, New York Times, 10 February 2010

Something Different

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)
02/18/2010


-- Closing paragraphs of a blog entry posted by Joseph Andrew Stack III just before he crashed an aircraft into the Austin office of the IRS, 18 February 2010

I Do Not Love Congress

After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned. For some time, I have had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is too much partisanship and not enough progress -- too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous challenge, the peoples' business is not being done.

... All of this and much more has led me to believe that there are better ways to serve my fellow citizens, my beloved state, and our nation than continued service in Congress.

To put it in words most people can understand: I love working for the people of Indiana, I love helping our citizens make the most of their lives, but I do not love Congress. I will not, therefore, be a candidate for election to the Senate this November.

-- Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN), announcing his retirement from the Senate, 15 February 2010

Fastball

Death ain't nothing but a fastball on the outside corner.

-- August Wilson (1945-2005), American playwright, Pulitzer Prize winner, "Fences", Act I, scene 1, character Troy Maxson, a former Negro League slugger

DF

RIP Howard Zinn

If those in charge of our society -- politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television -- can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.

-- Howard Zinn (24 August 1924 - 27 January 2010), American historian, political scientist, playwright and activist, Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991): "American Ideology"

Pre For Me

Palm Pre+ (Verizon) for me today. I've been carrying a Palm Centro as my combination cell phone/calendar/contacts/clock/music system/data caddy for the past year and a half or so. From the little I've played with it so far, the Pre does *not* feel like a Palm. It does feel like a slick high-tech device.

I've spent over 7 years learning all the Palm OS applications that are useful for the types of things I like to do. I hope it's quicker (and cheaper) to find and learn to use the best Pre software.

Compassion

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

-- Dalai Lama Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso (1935-), quoted in Meditations for Living In Balance: Daily Solutions for People Who Do Too Much (2000) by Anne Wilson Schaef

Text

I need a better word than unprecedented or amazing to describe what's happened with the text-message program.

-- Red Cross spokesman Roger Lowe, on a campaign that has brought in $22 million in pledges since the earthquake in Haiti, New York Times, 19 January 2010

There Comes A Time

Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?" But, conscience asks the question, "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Never Be Afraid

Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.

-- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), civil-rights leader

No Bonus

$500,000 is not a lot of money, particularly if there is no bonus.

-- Wall Street compensation consultant James Reda on Feb. 3, 2009, giving the New York Times a good example of just how totally out of touch the super-rich really are, Salon.com, "The decade's top 10 quotations", 1 January 2010

Quake

I'm still looking to understand the magnitude of the event.

-- Haitian President Rene Preval, 14 January 2010, on the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti

2009 Mileage

For the year 2009, driving my 1999 Saturn which now has >217,000 miles, with past years' stats for comparison:

                  2009      2008      2007      2006    2009 delta  % delta
Total miles     : 27,307    24,346    25,847    25,111    +2957     +12.1%
Total cost      : $1,809.71 $2,188.79 $2,231.76 $1,942.72 -$379.08  -17.3%
Total gallons   : 793.73    686.27    812.14    776.47    +107.46   +15.6%
Avg gallons/day : 2.174     1.875     2.225     2.127     +0.299    +15.9%
Avg days/fillup : 4.9       5.3       4.7       4.9       -0.4      - 7.5%
Avg miles/day   : 74.81     66.52     70.81     68.80     +8.29     +12.4%
Avg cost/day    : $4.90     $5.92     $6.00     $5.27     -$1.02    -17.3%
Avg cost/gal    : $2.28     $3.14     $2.75     $2.50     -$0.86    -27.3%
Avg miles/gal   : 34.95     35.48     32.24     32.77     -0.53     - 1.5%

The stats are starting to look a little cramped. I'll hafta work on that.

MPG dropped by a fraction, but not by much; I can still claim my car gets 35mpg. The drop in cost for a gallon of gas surprises me -- cheapest year so far, despite the high miles. I ran up the most miles for a year, but not the most gallons of gas. Now I need to cut mileage to <25,000 again.

Getting On Top

He just needs a little more help getting on top of the plane now.

-- Sue Pitham, on the stroke that has slowed down 89-year-old Tom Lackey, who took up wing-walking over the English Channel at 160 miles an hour, New York Times, 8 January 2010

Suffer A Little

If you want your children to have a peaceful life, let them suffer a little hunger and a little coldness.

-- Chinese Proverb

Which Is This?

There are years that ask questions and years that answer.

-- Zora Neale Hurston (1891-01-07 - 1960-01-28), American folklorist and author, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (1937)

MC

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Alphabet Shop

appleman@ncsa.uiuc.edu

After 19 weeks, I now have a new gig. That's the longest break (by 3 weeks) that I've taken from full-time employment in 30 years.

I work for the Cyber Security Directorate of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, in the Institute for Advanced Computing Applications and Technology at the University of Illinois.

Or, as I tell my kids, I work for the CSD of the NCSA, in the IACAT at the UI, aka the Alphabet Shop.

http://security.ncsa.uiuc.edu/

Normal

Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for -- in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.

-- Ellen Goodman (1941-), American journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist

Texting

People who have something really private to say probably shouldn't do it in a text on their cellphone.

-- Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a public interest research group based in Washington, New York Times, 9 December 2009

We Cannot Have Both

Nations have recently been led to borrow billions for war; no nation has ever borrowed largely for education. Probably, no nation is rich enough to pay for both war and civilization. We must make our choice; we cannot have both.

-- Abraham Flexner, educator (1866-1959)

No Interest

The absence of a time frame for transition would deny us any sense of urgency in working with the Afghan government. America has no interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan.

-- President Barack Obama, 1 December 2009, in a speech announcing the addition of 30,000 troops to the fight in Afghanistan, coupled with a plan to begin removing troops in July 2011

A Village Of 100 People

If the world were a village of 100 people ....

6 people (all in the USA) would own 59% of all the village's wealth,
74 people would share another 39%, and
20 people would share the remaining 2%.

-- David Copeland, in Value Earth

Next Time

The next time it will be a far worse reality than a reality TV show.

-- Rep. Peter T. King, who called on Congress to investigate how 2 uninvited guests appeared at the White House for a state dinner while aspiring to be featured on "The Real Housewives of Washington", New York Times, 27 November 2009

Just To Be Alive

Gratitude, appreciation, giving thanks. No matter what words you use, they all mean the same thing. Happy. We're supposed to be happy. Grateful for friends, family. Happy just to be alive.

-- From "Grey's Anatomy"

Thanksgiving Dinner

Be glad you're not a turkey.

Motor City Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is not an anachronism whose time is past. It is much more than a holiday to celebrate a meal shared between the Pilgrims and Native Americans. It is a time to reflect and be thankful for what we have -- not for what we cherish, desire or envy.

-- Ted Nugent, America Rocks, 28 November 2002