zen.org Communal Weblog

The Feburary 5th strip of Opus states that cough syrup does not work. To quote UPI quoting somebody:

“There is no clinical evidence that over-the-counter cough expectorants or suppressants actually relieve cough,” said Richard S. Irwin, M.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

And

The new guidelines recommend against the use of over-the-counter cough and cold medications for children age 14 years and younger.

Google this to find more sources. My Dad always says that it takes a week to cure with the medicine, seven days without.

The same days strip of User Friendly says Western Union telegrams are no more, and Wester Union site confirms it. While I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen a telegram, it’s still the end of a telecommunications era.

Last, United Feature Syndicate, Inc. has been republishisg Peanuts strips from 1959. No curn events being reported on that strip, I just think it’s so cool reading those old strips.

Merry Groundhog Day, or as Wiccans call it, Imbolc. Phil says “Six More Weeks of Winter.” It seems Phil’s a poet too.

Prophetic rodent aside, I was walking around Princeton Borough before eight in the morning a week ago and gardeners where taking out the winter cabbage and putting in bulbs. I love winter, but not without the anticipation of spring. Zoë picked up a stick of the ground the other day, even it was budding. Has anybody seen signs of spring yet?

Less then two months until Ostara, er Spring Equinox. Stupid Wiccans.

With a platform including: “I despise and hate the Christian God the Father. He
is my enemy” and “Any Terrorist who is caught in Minnesota while I am Governor, will find out what the true meaning of my nickname ‘The Impaler’ means. Right in front of our State Capital” how can Minnesotans not vote for this former wrestler?

Visit my webcam at:

http://www.zen.org/~sven/webcam.html

When posting this it’s pointing at very interesting location, my back yard, and currently updates every 60 seconds. The camera is hooked up to my laptop which has a wireless connection, so long there is a plug around I can put it anyplace within range. Don’t expect it to be up 24 hours a day.

My question is, what should I point it at? Please post any ideas you have, no matter how silly. Some of my ideas include:

• Where the cat often naps.
• The cat door, see if he brings any critters in.
• Main Street, where speeders often get pulled over.
• The stove: “What’s Sven cooking?”
• The TV. Would that be legal?

I don’t expect anybody but me to watch it in the long-term. I just thought somebody might think of something clever.

Have you ever writting some horrible code that works you. Then stare and stare at it for a way to make it cleaner and nothing comes to mind? I think I’ll keep it and think of it as grotesque, like gargoyles.

Test 1: A few years ago I got a Logitech USB camera for “free” when I signed up for Verison DSL. This morning I finally got it working, and I made the enclosed movie.

Test 2: I have also never used the enclosure feature of this Blog thing Brendan set up.

Update: I guess Test 2 didn’t work. Try http://www.zen.org/~sven/webcam-2006-01-18.mpg

Last Sunday’s Zippy really struck a cord.

I always like the concept of USENET, Gnutellia, Podcasts, et alia. No central control. Even if the creators, corporate backers, et alia, should go away they will still continue. Look at those chumps that liked NeXT, BeOS, et alia, *puff*, they are gone. If Mr. Torvold, Mr. Stallman, et alia, fell into one of Mr. Dunderbeck’s machine GNU/Linux would still go on.

So, I missed an Internet cultural revolution. Online communities of people I’ve never met with easy to use interfaces (sorry USENET). I’ve had a few online acquaintance but they have all faded out after a time. I skipped things like Frapper, MySpace, et alia, as they have central control. I was listening to a Podcast the other day, and the announcer asked me to put myself on his Frapper map. *click*, *click*…*type*, *type*, a little pin over Yardley, PA, USA (er Morrisville, PA, stupid shared Zip Code) with my name on it was now there.

I day or so later Frapper sent me email, The following members have joined since you last checked .... A few hours after that username from location would like to be your friend. “Lemonade? I made it just for you!” Was this friend I cry in the dark for help? A lonely soul grasping at the last vestiges of hope to a stranger who listened to the same Podcast? No, it was some band trying to promote themselves. I guess they got the email The following members have joined since you last checked\nSven Heinicke. Plus, when I visit my Frapper account it tells me “Currently you do not have any friends.” Now I’m depressed, perhaps on my last vestiges of hope and should reach out to strangers who listen to the same Podcast as I. Perhaps I should start a band?

Well, I haven’t tried to remove my Frapper account yet, and the band did have some cool songs on there MySpace page. I’m considering making this band my friend. That way I will not be reminded that I “do not have any friends.” Sigh.

I’ve been using GNU Emacs built from CVS at work. About once a month I update the files and rebuild. Today I rebuilt it, first time since 2005-11-30, and space no longer does file name completion, tab does. When I think about it this is a better idea, but I’ve been hitting space since Widener, when Gopher was popular.

My Dad quit smoking, after pneumonia and a week of almost never getting out of bed because felt like crap. I guess I can switch from space to tab.

I don’t think any regular Zen.org readers need/should to visit this site, I thought I would want search engines to start finding it and this seemed the fastest way. Even though I have no home page yet, I put up a work page. Enjoy at your own risk.

P.S. It probably sucks in IE.