zen.org Communal Weblog

If this doesn’t make you think that the US gov’t is causing a lot of harm in the world, I don’t know what would…

KPCC (that’s Pasadena City College, if I remember right) is streaming the audio
of plays (or radio plays specifically, I’m not sure), done by LA Theater Works.

Some of the plays listed sound great, including the latest, which is War of the Worlds starring ST:TNG alumnus.

It’s all RealAudio, and I can’t wait to listen!

Digitally assured destruction – Business – International Herald Tribune

An excellent article from the IH-T on protecting your info once you delete it on your personal computer.

My dear Fujitsu Lifebook P-2046 has passed on. It lasted me for a good four years, and had only a single failing: the power jack on the back, where its power cable plugs in. Looking at a few different forums about the Lifebook, it’s a known problem. Well, except for the Fujitsu service center in Northern Ireland, where I sent it for repair to solve exactly that problem. (Not able to charge the battery consistently, and had to wiggle or wrestle with the plug or hold it at an angle to register any power on the system. They blamed the AC adapter and couldn’t reproduce the problem. It’s happened to hundreds of others, yet somehow Fujitsu didn’t know about it??)

I’d had my desires distracted by another laptop, and I think the Lifebook could figure it out. This was a wonderful laptop—small, light, able to do everything I needed, and withstood countless airline flights and tossing around in the awesome satchel given to me by E’s dad and step-mom.

Alas, this laptop is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!

THIS IS AN EX-LAPTOP!

Ahem.

Farewell, lisa-the-laptop. The last computer I’ll have named after Lisa Simpson; the first was 14 years ago when I was given the first Solaris box at Cygnus as my desktop machine. Based on her unchanging age, this means Lisa Simpson is technically now old enough to live on her own and buy Duff Beer.

Two weeks ago I sent in my order, via the US Postal Service, to Voicenet to get my ISDN line going. I picked them a few years ago because they are local, there building is, er was, even on a farm one of my relatives used to own. This week they moved from Ivyland to Philadelphia, not much further away. The pain is that I sent my order form to Ivyland at about the same time they moved to Philadelphia, so now I have to wait for the US Postal Service to resend my letter. I hope this paper with my credit card number on it gets some place I know some time.

I’ve been thinking about saying screw it and getting Verizon FiOS. I don’t think Verizon lets you run a web server, though they do offer a static IP number. Plus they run one wire in your house to where you computer is, and as we are going to switch the computer room and the kitchen soon I’d probably have to pay them to move it later.

In the mean time I’ve read H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau, and several Edgar Allan Poe short stories. Any other suggestions for public domain stories to read before cable and Internet sucks my free time again?

Yesterday a friend and I went to see Howl’s Moving Castle, the latest work of Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎駿). I think we were the only pair of adults in the house; most of the other folks had kids with them.

We’ve seen many (but not all) of his other movies including Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki’s Delivery Service. While my favorite so far has been Kiki, I think Howl’s Moving Castle was the best yet. It was absolutely beautiful, in the writing, the animation, everything. We had fun identifying the voices of the English dubbed version, and felt Christian Bale‘s was perfect for the part of Howl.

Of course I still want to see Serenity before it leaves the theaters!

VH1-Classic was on the TV as background noise while P and I played in the livingroom. We’d just flown back from the US, and our body clocks were still trying to come to grips with what was being asked of them.

On came Van Halen and their 80s video for their hit “Jump”. On went Eddie & Dave leaping around. Patrick, about four years old, looked up at the screen. “Look at the girl man!”

It’s a little embarassing, but I have something to admit.

I have a major aversion to squashes. All kinds. No, not the drinks…the vegetable. A serious aversion, some might even call it a prejudice.

But, really, all the pumpkin stuff that’s happening now? Not such a big deal for me. Pumpkin pie? Ugh. Pumpkin soup? Uh-uh. Roasted butternut squash? No way. I will never choose one of those off a menu, and I sure don’t choose to make ’em.

I did see the Good Eats episode about squashes. And I even got a little excited about making them. But I just can’t bring myself to buy one and prep it and do…anything with it. Last year, we got a couple extra pumpkins and I roasted them and then puree’d them. The only thing we make is pumpkin pie pancakes, which I like cause of the spices in it. But there’s still tons of puree in the freezer, and I have no urge to make something with it.

Anyone have any recipes that might sway me?

I’m spending two nights at Cold Spring Harbor Labs for a gmod meeting. While I left my Pentium II in my room, most people took there laptop to the meeting and it’s very interesting. Of the twenty or so laptops there about half of them where Apple, and of the half that was x86, several of those where running GNU/Linux. While presentations where all using power point, Windows is on the down and out for this crowd.

What’s to stop someone from creating a watch that beams a 3-foot radius looking for RFID goodies to tuck away for later?

From CNET’s news.com:

Passports to get RFID chip implants
October 25, 2005, 12:12 PM PDT

All U.S. passports will be implanted with remotely-readable computer chips starting in October 2006, the Bush administration has announced.

Sweeping new State Department regulations issued Tuesday say that passports issued after that time will have tiny radio frequency ID (RFID) chips that can transmit personal information including the name, nationality, sex, date of birth, place of birth and digitized photograph of the passport holder. Eventually, the government contemplates adding additional digitized data such as “fingerprints or iris scans.”

Over the last year, opposition to the idea of implanting RFID chips in passports has grown amidst worries that identity thieves could snatch personal information out of the air simply by aiming a high-powered antenna at a person or a vehicle carrying a passport. Out of the 2,335 comments on the plan that were received by the State Department this year, 98.5 percent were negative. The objections mostly focused on security and privacy concerns.

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