Abulsme.com

Dad and Cathy

Abulsme — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:19:21 +0000

2010 Feb 22 21:30 UTC

This one was actually on the list of approved pictures, so no blurring or cropping people out or anything.

I skipped one picture that would have come before this one in sequence because it wasn’t on the list.

One Stuck Pixel

Abulsme — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:57:22 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Sam’s Computer Migration
Ivan’s New Old Computer
Google vs Apple
Google China
Al-Qaeda 7
Taxes Again

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 15 Mar 2010

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Oops

Abulsme — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:53:06 +0000

Alex at Six Months

Abulsme — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:54:34 +0000

So, everything was still busy being transferred from my old computer to my new computer when the actual moment happened slightly over 13 hours ago at 7:33 UTC on March 14th (11:33 PM on the 13th Pacific, 3:33 AM on the 14th Eastern), but Alex is indeed now 6 months old. Half a year. Wow. The now semi-traditional monthly video was actually filmed a couple of days earlier on the 12th. But here it is. Happy half-year birthday Alex!

For those who prefer it to the embedded version, here is a direct YouTube link.

Slow Week

Abulsme — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:58:19 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

The Oscars
Obama as Terrorist Fighter
Chile Update
Tax Question
3G Data Usage

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 8 Mar 2010

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Ouranos Arrives

Abulsme — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:19:27 +0000

I took a personal day from work for this. I have a few things I have to make sure happen on Cronus (the old computer) and I have to move some things around physically in my office before I shut everything down to start doing the big transfer of stuff from old to new. But Ouranos is here. Woo!

Visitors Cause Walking

Abulsme — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:24:25 +0000

While we had visitors in town, we of course went all around to see and do various things. The end result, a quite notable spike in Sam’s Steps and Aerobic Steps charts for the time folks were in town:

As you can see, things rapidly returned to normal once it was just us again.

Hiring Software Development Engineers and More

Abulsme — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:57:55 +0000

My company is hiring for a bunch of things… Primarily Software Development Engineers but also for Technical Program Managers, Technical Managers, Web Designers… and probably lots of other stuff too. If any of my friends or readers is potentially interested and wouldn’t mind their name being thrown into the mix, toss me a resume and/or just contact information at abulsme@abulsme.com. Thanks!

Oh… what company is it? I make a habit of not naming it explicitly online, but it is a Fortune 500 company based in the Seattle area which is not Costco, Microsoft, Paccar, Weyerhaeuser, Starbucks, Nordstrom or Expeditors, and it is in the tech/retail space and is named after a geographic feature in Brazil… if you can’t figure it out with that, we don’t want to hire you anyway.

White Fluffies from the Sky?

Abulsme — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:53:32 +0000

Just as I was getting out of the car at work something white flew by my eye. Then another. Then another. Could it be? Yes, they were snowflakes. Not many. Very sparse. But more than I’ve seen all winter this time around Of course now, a few minutes later, it seems to be done. So no East Coast style blizzards for us today I don’t think…

Octopus

Abulsme — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:56:51 +0000

2010 Feb 21 23:51 UTC

Alex and Grandfather M enjoy the Aquarium

Abulsme — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:52:59 +0000

2010 Feb 21 23:30 UTC

Alex meets Grandfather M

Abulsme — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:07:23 +0000

2010 Feb 21 04:46 UTC

Grandma S meets Alex

Abulsme — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:50:58 +0000

2010 Feb 21 04:45 UTC

(Grandma S was very self-concious about which pictures including her were posted online, providing a list of pictures that were "OK". This picture was not on that list so I had to blur her out… so she isn’t "really" in the picture… even though it looks silly. I am being sure to make my choices of which pictures to post uninfluenced by the list she sent, not looking at the list until after I have chosen that I am going to post something, then if it isn’t on the approved list I will just crop her out if I can or blur her face out of the picture if cropping doesn’t work well.)

Shake and Bake

Abulsme — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:06:22 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Climate Change
Health Care Summit
Chile Eathquake
Impending Computer

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 1 Mar 2010

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Ouranos is Coming

Abulsme — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:10:14 +0000

Aphrodite: July 1994 to February 1998 – Power Macintosh 6100/60 – Hard drives named Mercury and Venus

Ares: February 1998 to February 2001- PowerMac G3/233 – Hard drive named Mars

Zeus: February 2001 to February 2006 – PowerBook G4/500 – Hard drive named Jupiter

Cronus: February 2006 to March 2010 – iMac 20-inch 2GHz Intel Core Duo – Hard drive named Saturn

and now…

Ouranos: March 2010 to ??? – 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 27-inch iMac – Hard drive named Uranus

I fully maxed out the configurable options of course.

I’ve been hankering to replace Cronus for awhile. I normally would have done so last year, but we deferred it since, you know, baby. Ever since the end of January I’ve had an itchy trigger finger and have been ready to do it, but I was waiting for the all clear on the yellow screen issue on the 27″ iMacs. A week ago came what will probably be as close as I’ll get to that all clear. I delayed another week or so for no good reason, but a few hours ago I ordered what will be Ouranos. It’ll probably be here in about a week.

Cronus really hasn’t been able to keep up with everything I want to do with it in almost a year. I have felt cramped and constrained and have not done a lot of things I wanted to just because I dreaded the pain of dealing with Cronus straining to do what I wanted and sitting there twiddling my thumbs as the machine thrashed constantly with even my normal set of open applications fully consuming the available physical memory (almost all the time) and the CPU (probably three quarters of the time). This will be like finally being able to breathe again. Memory, CPU and Disk Space to spare… I hope. :-)

I had the usual dilemma in terms of what to buy. Well, it was of course going to be a Mac, that wasn’t a question. And I know in general desktops are going the way of the dodo and all, but I have access to a laptop already via work for those times where a laptop is just easier, and it is really nice to have the big screen and large hard drive and a bit more cpu and memory etc that a desktop brings. If I didn’t have access to a laptop (or in the future, perhaps, cough, an iPad) that was usable for light email and web surfing and the like, that equation would probably change entirely and I’d probably want a laptop as my primary home machine. But as it is, for my personal machine a desktop makes sense.

I perhaps could have gone the MacPro route. Unlike the iMac, it would not have been in the budget to go for a fully “maxed out” MacPro configuration. (Try it on the Apple Store… maxing out a Mac Pro… including dual 30″ Apple Cinema Displays… comes out at over $17,000 and is totally certifiably insane for home use.) So I would have needed to figure out exactly what set of options I wanted for an initial configuration, knowing I could upgrade things in the future of course… dunno. It might have been an option, but those machines just never really appealed to me as much. I like the idea of getting a high end iMac, maxing it on the various memory and hard drive options, then feeling pretty confident I’ll be OK with this machine… without dealing with upgrades of various components and the like… until I’m ready to replace it again in three or four years. So… iMac it was. (And the new iMacs, unlike older iMacs, can still be used as monitors for another computer once the computer itself is not in use… which is a nice plus that extends the useful life of the purchase.)

Anyway, the Apple Store Order Status thingy says to expect it between March 9th and March 15th. The new desk it will go on is already in place. I am more than ready.

Hard at Work

Abulsme — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 04:10:52 +0000

Ray’s Mystery Trip

Abulsme — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 03:20:56 +0000

Excellent! Someone else is in the process of doing a random trip they picked using my random spot tool. They are using a method very similar to how I picked my own spots when I was doing this. He is even doing daily diaries like I did.

Day 0 – Selection / JFK to Madrid, Spain
@raygarsha, 24 Feb 2010

Spontaneous much? I don’t think you can get much more spontaneous then this. I’ve always enjoyed traveling to different places around the world wether its new restaurants in New York City or newly recognized countries by the UN. The problems always been picking a place to go. Not any more. Thanks to a cool website I found while searching the internets this past month, I’ve come across a site that allows me to push a randomize button and I will automatically be shown a random point on the globe via Google Maps. What better way to travel the globe.

Now I had to place a few restrictions on my travel to make it both safe and time effective. First of all the destination had to be on land, had to be within 250 miles of a major airport, flyable via Orbitz.com, and not on the state departments watch list. So I got a few days off from work and got ready to throw the proverbial dart.

It only took three throws to come up with my destination. the first throw landed in the Atlantic Ocean, the second landed in the Pacific Ocean, and the third landed in a little town called Tivoli, Italy, about 35 KM west of Rome.

…

Ray is also twittering from his trip. Great stuff. I haven’t been able to do one of these in many years, with the planned next one to the Yucatan put off time and time again. But someday! In the meantime, others can have fun.

Cars and Books and Apps, Oh My!

Abulsme — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:42:54 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Ivan’s Ebay Experiences
Parental Facebooking
Apple App Store Restrictions

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 22 Feb 2010

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House: Season One: Disk One

Abulsme — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:47:09 +0000

Still catching up on things we watched for family movie night. It was time for a DVD we own but hadn’t watched yet. It would have been the next Buffy DVD, but Amy had taken that and watched it without the rest of us, so it was invalidated. So I picked at random from the shelf of such things, and so it was House: Season One, which I’d gotten for Christmas this year. Specifically, Disk One of Season One, which has the first four episodes.

The most interesting thing here was the first episode, which was the pilot. It was interesting of course because many elements were just not quite fully formed yet. The visual style was a bit different. And of course the characters were still in a sort of proto-form compared to even the later episodes on this disk, and definitely compared to later seasons. So that was fun.

I actually don’t think I’d seen any of these episodes before. I’ve watched House a decent bit, but I think I picked it up a couple seasons in.

Aside from the pilot which was just slightly different, the rest was just typical House though. It is fun to watch and I enjoy House, but the episodes do almost always follow a pretty strict structure. House is of course an ass to everybody throughout, although there are occasional lurches forward in his character. There is some melodrama amongst the supporting cast. And then there is the medical mystery that they get wrong several times before coming to the right conclusion in the last act.

This disk has the episodes “Pilot”, “Paternity”, “Occam’s Razor” and “Maternity”. As I said, I think the Pilot is most interesting just because it was the pilot. After that Maternity was the most compelling, just because of the babies.

Anyway. Good disk.

Next!

All Hands 12

Abulsme — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:44:25 +0000

I Said Don’t Lick Me!

Abulsme — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:01:09 +0000

Doctor Who: The Romans

Abulsme — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:55:12 +0000

So, I am way behind on these, but there is no time to catch up like the everpresent now. Way back a long time ago, we had another family video night thing. It was another old Doctor Who. This time The Romans a First Doctor story from 1965.

This was a fun story because it actually tried to be somewhat funny. People running around, missing each other, that sort of thing. Just a lot of goofing around. So, for a First Doctor story this was pretty good. I mostly enjoyed it. And we got to see how the great fire of Rome happened. (It was of course the Doctor’s fault.)

Four episodes, 25 minutes each. Probably would have been more than fine with half of that. But you know, that’s how old Doctor Who is.

I’m still anxious to hurry up and get to late 70’s and early 80’s Who, but we’re going through these slowly enough that they keep releasing more of the older ones before we get to the newer ones… so we’re still often in the 60’s, although we’ve made occasional forays into the early 70’s.

At Some Point I Fell Asleep

Abulsme — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:03:06 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Angry Wife
Keyboard Fun
Cheney/Biden
Cloud Lock-in
Google Buzz
Facebook Login

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 15 Feb 2010

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Free Old Couch Bellevue WA

Abulsme — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:28:02 +0000

This couch is only a few years old, but it was heavily used. It is stained. It is torn. There is a spring sticking out of the bottom. We replaced it awhile ago and it is now in our garage. With a little TLC it could probably be OK for some uses. We won’t be giving it that TLC though. It will be heading to the dump later this week… unless someone wants it. If anybody out there wants this and can take it away from where it is now in the Newport Hills area of Bellevue, WA contact me at abulsme@abulsme.com to make pick up arrangements. Otherwise, off to the dump the poor thing goes.

(I’ll also be posting this to Craigslist and Freecycle.)

Handing out the Sheep

Abulsme — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:48:25 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Economy Revisited
Demon Sheep
Sarah Palin
Political Mailings
DADT

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 7 Feb 2010

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Alex at Five Months

Abulsme — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:15:19 +0000

Yes, it is time for the now semi-traditional interview with Alex as he turns another month older. This clip was taken just under two hours before Alex officially turned five months old at 21:04 UTC today (that’s 1:04 PM Pacific, 4:04 PM Eastern), or a little over two hours ago as I post this. (Remember, months are 30.4368499 days long or so… )

Wow, has it really been five months already?

I definitely already can’t remember what life was like without him around.

Alex Loves His Fish

Abulsme — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:08:32 +0000

He will sit and happily watch the fish for long stretches of time. Eventually he will get frustrated when he talks and talks and talks to them, but they never answer.

Alex Mass Doubling Time

Abulsme — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 19:44:05 +0000

It was close yesterday, but as of today based on the overall trend line for Alex’s mass…

Alex has doubled in mass!

Anyway, it looks like he is doubling every 148 days.

Assuming an exponential growth pattern…

His mass will exceed my own when he is 1.8 years old.

His mass will exceed that of the Earth when he is 32.6 years old.

Such a big boy!

(Note that this is of course dependent on the exact methodology I use for drawing the trend line, but I like how I draw the line, so I’ll stick to it! It is better than just looking at today’s reading vs the first one right after he was born… human mass fluctuates and there is non-trivial experimental imprecision, so it is important to look at trends over a bunch of data points, not individual readings. And I’ll be sticking to the idea that his growth will be exponential, even though you can clearly see that the shape of the curve is not exponential. I’m sure that is just an anomaly, and it will become exponential any time now. )

Before the Formal

Abulsme — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:11:47 +0000

Must embarrass the teenagers by posting pics. It is a parent’s job.

No Snow Here!

Abulsme — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:30:48 +0000

What are you all East Coast folks going on about?

Speeches and Lies

Abulsme — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:23:35 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

The iPad
The SOTU
Question Time
Toyotas

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 1 Feb 2010

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Finally Time to Sling!

Abulsme — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:02:56 +0000

Given that they had started to let on VOIP over 3G I’d hoped this would be coming soon…

SlingPlayer iPhone App Gets Go-Ahead to Stream over 3G
(Kevin Purdy, Lifehacker, 4 Feb 2010

If you’ve got a SlingBox and an iPhone, you could previously fork over another $30 to get the SlingPlayer app and watch your home TV and recordings … over Wi-Fi, which kind of defeated the whole purpose of mobile watching (aren’t you usually home already when you’re on Wi-Fi?). But Sling and AT&T have reached an agreement on 3G streaming, so the SlingPlayer will get an upgrade to truly mobile TV streaming as soon as Apple approves the upgrade. Existing SlingPlayer owners will get the upgraded version free. …

Of course, despite promising myself I wouldn’t spend the $30 until it did 3G, I broke down and bought the app a few weeks ago, and have indeed been using it sometimes just between rooms in my house. But it will be much more useful this way.

Things I Have Learned Recently

Abulsme — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:28:43 +0000

How to roll over.
How to take off my own socks.
How to drink from a sippy cup I hold by myself.
How to drive Mom’s car.

Still I Wait

Abulsme — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:43:49 +0000

Oh yeah, I still haven’t ordered a computer yet. I’m watching the saga of the yellowed iMac screens over at Gizmodo. I think I’ll probably be waiting until they give the all clear to push the big red button. But my trigger finger is itchy!

Enjoying a Good Book

Abulsme — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:14:17 +0000

Now something about Tablets

Abulsme — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:35:36 +0000

Yeah, of course I am going to want an iPad. It is shiny. It is new. It is cool. Does it REALLY do much more than an iPhone, or be enough of a laptop replacement to use instead of one of those? Dunno. It will be good to start hearing reports from folks once they actually have these in their hands in a couple of months. Does that middle ground actually add value? Are there a lot of situations where the iPhone isn’t enough, but you really don’t need an actual MacBook or whatnot? I suspect the answer is yes, and that for a lot of use cases, this will fit nicely in that space.

Like the iPhone, I may end up being waiting for the next generation rather than going for the first one, but this does look pretty darn nice. Brandy is pretty underwhelmed, on the “it is just a big iPhone” side of the fence. I see a lot of potential though for this though. It may not live up to all of that potential on day one, but I can definitely see a case for a device like this doing 95% (or more) of what a really large group of users need a computer for.

Dunno though, I am 100% still in the Jobs Reality Distortion Field. And I know that often wears off. I will most certainly be looking for what the reviews start looking like once real people have these in the wild and once they have been using it for a few weeks. And maybe after I’ve been able to actually play with one in an Apple Store.

But, first impressions… this looks like a really nice device, and geek lust is in play.

Oh, but this is also a green light moment for me. We delayed my regularly scheduled computer replacement from 2009 to 2010 due to the whole having a baby instead thing. As of a couple weeks ago I could have gone ahead and ordered a replacement, but I held off. Nobody expected anything today that would affect Apple’s desktop line, but I know how mad I would have been if I’d ordered something and then a week later Apple released a new version… so I waited. It was just a couple of weeks. But with this major event done, it is clear that nothing was announced that would fundamentally change my calculus for what I need to buy to replace my old computer. The iPad would not be a desktop replacement for me. I have access to a work laptop, so a personal laptop would not gain me much, and I am not feeling the Mac Pro vibe, so it will be an iMac for me. And the MacRumors Buyer’s Guide has iMacs at mid-cycle. (It has been 99 days since the last iMac update, and they have averaged about 221 days between updates.)

If I hadn’t already put off the computer replacement I’d love to wait for the NEXT update anyway, which will probably be in another three or four months, but using my old iMac is now painful and frustrating… I am constantly fighting it and swearing as it can’t keep up with what I want it to do… so there will probably be an order for a nice shiny top of the line iMac happening in my very near future… like later today near future most likely.

In the meantime though, I’ve got to go crush through some stuff I have to have done for work by tomorrow, and some more stuff that I need to have done for Friday… this morning I had to watch the baby while Brandy had a fun root canal anyway. Now that is over, and so is the Apple event, and snacks at a coffee shop served as lunch… so time to get to work.

Nothing at all about Tablets

Abulsme — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:25:01 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam talks about:

Corporate Political Speech
Stoopid Democrats

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 26 Jan 2010

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Visiting Ikea

Abulsme — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:08:15 +0000

I just realized it has been something like two weeks since I’ve posted pictures of Alex. Way too long.

Alex’s First Email

Abulsme — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 21:51:16 +0000

After having recently learned how fun banging things with his hands is, I of course put Alex in front of a keyboard. Here is the result:

From: Samuel Minter
Date: 23 January 2010 01:38:33 GMT
To: (various family members)
Subject: From Alex

/ b nj9uyt÷≥fc98uAZ8mioi8i x7ggtgggggggvvfgd33hn cgnc frrccfdv c vvvvjj b.l.;l/Ωzn bg

/”[;liu7ytgcxz555 v e3xy7tej 6fv6 byv cccc

Presumably there will be many more in the future.

No, No, No and Again NO!

Abulsme — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:46:56 +0000

Unlike my friend Reb, Torchwood is not dead to me. I actually kinda liked the last mini-series, even the ending. It was disturbing, but sometimes it is worth exploring the balance between the well being of those close to you and the greater good as it were. Like other RTD stuff, it can be pretty uneven, but overall it is fun. I will be watching when it comes back. But this idea here just has to die:

Fox developing U.S. version of ‘Torchwood’
(James Hibberd, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Jan 2010)

Huge news for sci-fi fans: Fox is developing a stateside version of the U.K. hit series “Torchwood.”

The project is from BBC Worldwide Prods., with original series creator Russell Davies writing the script.

…

As for the new show’s plot, the U.S. version will contain a global story line compared to the more localized sensibility of the first two BBC seasons.

(via Gallifreyan Embassy)

OK, I don’t care if they have RTD and even Barrowman. When they “Americanize” British shows it almost always pulls out the best parts of them and leaves them just completely blah, if they don’t just kill it completely and make it unwatchable. There are of course exceptions, but in general it is just bad bad bad. Please don’t. Just please don’t.

And don’t even get me started on how this article ended:

Tranter might try to reboot “Doctor Who” for U.S. audiences while departing “Doctor Who” star David Tennant stars in NBC’s pilot “Rex Is Not Your Lawyer.”

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Out in Time!

Abulsme — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:07:57 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

No Space
Haiti Earthquake
Google China
Massachusetts Senate
Conan/Leno

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 18 Jan 2010

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Anderson, dude!

Abulsme — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:09:19 +0000

Anderson in the midst of looting chaos
(Anderson Cooper, CNN, 18 Jan 2009)

…

As things got really out of control, I saw a looter on the roof of the store they’d broken into throw what I think was part of a concrete block into the crowd. It hit a small boy in the head. I saw him collapse. More chunks of concrete were being thrown at the looters on the roof. The injured boy couldn’t get up. He’d try and then collapse again. Blood was pouring from his head. He was conscious but had no control over his body. I was afraid someone on the roof would see him lying there and throw another cinderblock piece onto him. I was afraid he’d get killed. No one seemed to be helping him. I ran to where he was struggling, and picked him up off the ground. I brought him to a spot about a hundred feet away. I could feel his warm blood on my arms. I stood him up, but he was clearly unable to walk. He wiped his bloody face, and I tried to reassure him. He had no idea where he was, and he clearly couldn’t walk, so I picked him up again and handed him over to someone behind that makeshift barricade. Tony, the American businessman, gave the boy a wet towel. He was then taken away by someone else. We don’t know what happened to him.

…

(via Huffington Post)

Entropic Gravity?

Abulsme — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:44:12 +0000

Saw this a few days ago. I actually read the paper itself rather than just the summaries on various blogs. That is the first time I’ve done that with a physics paper in a long long time. If this pans out, and who knows if it will, but… it could be one of the biggest flips in terms of how we look at the universe and “fundamental” forces in quite awhile. Basically, it describes gravity as an emergent phenomena which rises naturally out of thermodynamic entropy effects rather than as a fundamental force of its own. This is the kind of thing that makes you go “wow” and think about things from a whole new direction. The holographic principle, which is mind blowing in its own right, is also heavily involved in the reasoning.

On the Origin of Gravity and the Laws of Newton (pdf)
(Erik Verlinde, arxiv.org, 6 Jan 2010)

Starting from ﬁrst principles and general assumptions Newton’s law of gravitation is shown to arise naturally and unavoidably in a theory in which space is emergent through a holographic scenario. Gravity is explained as an entropic force caused by changes in the information associated with the positions of material bodies. A relativistic generalization of the presented arguments directly leads to the Einstein equations. When space is emergent even Newton’s law of inertia needs to be explained. The equivalence principle leads us to conclude that it is actually this law of inertia whose origin is entropic.

…

Does this view of gravity lead to predictions? The statistical average should give the usual laws, hence one has to study the ﬂuctuations in the gravitational force. Their size depends on the eﬀective temperature, which may not be universal and depends on the eﬀective value of ℏ. An interesting thought is that ﬂuctuations may turn out to be more pronounced for weak gravitational ﬁelds between small bodies of matter. But clearly, we need a better understanding of the theory to turn this in to a prediction.

It is well known that Newton was criticized by his contemporaries, especially by Hooke, that his law of gravity acts at a distance and has no direct mechanical cause like the elastic force. Ironically, this is precisely the reason why Hooke’s elastic force is nowadays not seen as fundamental, while Newton’s gravitational force has maintained that status for more than three centuries. What Newton did not know, and certainly Hooke didn’t, is that the universe is holographic. Holography is also an hypothesis, of course, and may appear just as absurd as an action at a distance.

One of the main points of this paper is that the holographic hypothesis provides a natural mechanism for gravity to emerge. It allows direct ”contact” interactions between degrees of freedom associated with one material body and another, since all bodies inside a volume can be mapped on the same holographic screen. Once this is done, the mechanisms for Newton’s gravity and Hooke’s elasticity are surprisingly similar. We suspect that neither of these rivals would have been happy with this conclusion.

(via Slashdot)

I’ll add that not only is gravity emergent… but so is space time itself. Uh, wow?

Good stuff.

Bring Us the Soap

Abulsme — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:18:34 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Polite Language
Terror Reactions
3D HDTV at CES
Tablets Everywhere

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 11 Jan 2010

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Four Months in the World

Abulsme — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:30:29 +0000

A day after my Four Years in the Jungle post, it is time to note that a little less than five minutes after I make this post, at 10:35 UTC (2:35 AM Pacific, 5:35 AM Eastern) Alex will turn four months old. (Keeping in mind of course that a “true” month is 30.4368499 days… )

As with last month, I’ll let Alex share a few of his thoughts on this milestone. This time his comments were recorded during a video chat he was having with his Grandmother B at around 3:45 UTC on the 9th.

He would like to add that over the last month he has gotten to really like his mushy foods in addition to his milk… especially that apple stuff… that he really can figure out how to get the spoon in his mouth by himself, and he prefers it when we let him try, even if he sometimes (OK, often) misses his mouth. He likes his toys quite a bit thank you and he really doesn’t understand why it seems we can’t always understand what he is saying when he talks. He also appreciates the help standing and stepping, because although he’s working on it, he doesn’t quite have those things down yet, but practices whenever he can. Oh, and he particularly enjoys pulling his sister’s hair. That makes him laugh.

Four Years in the Jungle

Abulsme — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:38:45 +0000

In just under 10 minutes at 16:45 UTC (8:45 AM Pacific, 11:45 AM Eastern) it will have been exactly four years since I first walked in the door at my current employer. On the whole it has been a good four years. I like it. Looking forward to the next year. There is more fun stuff to do!

Four years! Woo! I’ve been here as long as a Presidential term in office! Woo!

January’s Favorite Toy

Abulsme — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 20:00:39 +0000

Maybe Next Year’s Tree

Abulsme — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 19:06:39 +0000

Launching a Christmas Tree with rockets!

(via Boing Boing)

Live Action Start Blazers!?!

Abulsme — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:36:01 +0000

This was one of my favorites when I was a kid!

(via i09)

Allergic to Clean Starts

Abulsme — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:26:40 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam talks about:

Properly Proportinate Reactions
New Computer Migrations
Never Enough Time

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 6 Jan 2010

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Suspicion

Abulsme — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:39:55 +0000

Gruber on the Apple Tablet

Abulsme — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:41:32 +0000

I’m a few days late mentioning this, but the following is a good piece with some thoughts on the potential for what Apple’s Tablet might be. Worth reading.

The Tablet
(John Gruber, Daring Fireball, 31 Dec 2009)

…

Do I think The Tablet is an e-reader? A video player? A web browser? A document viewer? It’s not a matter of or but rather and. I say it is all of these things. It’s a computer.

And so in answer to my central question, regarding why buy The Tablet if you already have an iPhone and a MacBook, my best guess is that ultimately, The Tablet is something you’ll buy instead of a MacBook.

I say they’re swinging big — redefining the experience of personal computing.

It will not be pitched as such by Apple. It will be defined by three or four of its built-in primary apps. But long-term, big-picture? It will be to the MacBook what the Macintosh was to the Apple II.

…

And Goodnight Mouse

Abulsme — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 02:52:20 +0000

The Strategy Exists

Abulsme — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:19:56 +0000

A bit on Obama counterterrorism from cousin Heather (who also happens to be a foreign policy expert).

In Fact, We do Have A Counter-Terrorism Strategy — And Experts Say It’s Producing Results
(Heather Hurlburt, Huffington Post, 30 Dec 2009)

Today John Boehner made the nonsensical claim that the Administration doesn’t actually have a strategy for combating terrorism. Since one of the core elements of the Administration’s strategy has been to go about the business of blocking violent extremists without giving them the gratification of talking about them in public all the time, perhaps it’s understandable that a few of his colleagues could use a little primer as well.

The good news: the US does have a counter-terrorism strategy, and some experts believe its first year has shown results in dismantling terrorist leadership in Indonesia, the Philippines and Pakistan; pushing Al Qaeda into a funding crisis; and helping lower Muslim public support for extremists while improving support for the US.

…

Happy Alex

Abulsme — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:41:08 +0000

Ready for the End of Time

Abulsme — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:21:57 +0000

(from io9)

Welcome to 2010 Dave

Abulsme — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:12:37 +0000

As I write this, 12 minutes ago it flipped over to 2010 (UTC).

So welcome to the future and all that.

Bad Year for Pirates

Abulsme — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 23:26:08 +0000

A nice little summary of this year’s action in the Content Industry vs Pirates battles (at least the BitTorrent part of those battles).

Top Tier BitTorrent Sites Suffer Pain in 2009
(enigmax, TorrentFreak, 29 Dec 2009)

…

By scale and exposure, The Pirate Bay, Mininova and isoHunt became the three most prominent BitTorrent sites in the latter half of the decade, serving billions of torrents to multiple millions of BitTorrent users.

Due to this massive and unprecedented level of interest, it became increasingly clear – the movie and music industries, just as they did with dozens of sites and services before them, would move to crush or suffocate them into submission. 2009 became a painful year for all three of them.

…

Bye Bye Naughties

Abulsme — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:58:16 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Underpants Bomber
Security Overreactions
Missed Warnings
Apple Tablet Rumors

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 28 Dec 2009

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Pre-Human Alien Things?

Abulsme — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:12:53 +0000

Actually probably just a big headed early human. But still fun!

Theories on Why Our Bigger Brained Predecessors Vanished
(Sonia Zjawinski, io9, 29 Dec 2009)

What’s weirder is that with further examination, it was discovered that whatever genus owned the skull also had small, childlike features — a Boskop face only takes up 1/5 of its cranium size, while a typical European adult face takes up roughly 1/3 of its cranium size.

Big head, small face? Sounds familiar, eh?

Lynch and Granger, who wrote about Boskops in their book Big Brain: The Origins and Future of Human Intelligence note in their Discover article that we aren’t the only ones to think of stereotypical extraterrestrials when we hear about Boskop characteristics. American anthropologist and naturalist Loren Eiseley wrote about this very idea in his book, The Immense Journey in 1958. “Back there in the past, ten thousand years ago. The man of the future, with the big brain, the small teeth. He lived in Africa. His brain was bigger than your brain. His face was straight and small, almost a child’s face.”

More info on the Wikipedia Boskop page of course.

Some Sanity?

Abulsme — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:50:50 +0000

Still stupid, but a lot better, as most pilots will probably opt for not applying insane unhelpful restrictions unless they have additional reason to be concerned. Of course it also allows the possibility of arbitrary decisions that one won’t be able to effectively challenge in any way and which may be abused. Sigh.

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/JSfgufzRZD0/tsa-lightens-up-and-lets-pilots-make-some-security-decisions

We’ve seen the ridiculous new airline security rules and we’ve explained how to cope with them, but now the TSA is easing up and allowing pilots to make the final call on things including allowing live TV and pillows again.

…

Keep Watching Iran

Abulsme — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 08:22:41 +0000

I haven’t even bothered trying to check TV news for this stuff. From what I hear, they once again aren’t paying attention, but there is plenty online.

Informed Comment: Iran Roiled, Crowds Burn Banks, Police Station; Chanting against Theocrat Khamenei; But No Revolutionary Alternative Yet.

…

The chanting on Sunday turned against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself, not just against President Ahmadinejad. He was castigated as the Dictator and as worse than the old shah, and the very ideological basis of the regime, the doctrine of clerical rule, was chanted against in the streets. The legitimacy of the regime, profoundly shaken by the events since early June’s presidential election, is now being shredded further.

Another remarkable dimension of Sunday’s events was the sheer number of cities where significant rallies and clashes occurred. Some of those allegedly killed are said to have fallen in Tabriz, a northwestern metropolis near Turkey. Even conservative cities such as Isfahan and Mashhad joined in. Shiraz, Ardabil, the list goes on. The attempt of some analysts to paint the disturbances as a shi-shi North Tehran thing has clearly foundered.

The most ominous sign of all for the regime is the reports of security men refusing orders to fire into the crowd.

But for the movement to go further and become truly revolutionary, it would have to have a leader who wanted to overthrow the old regime and who could attract the loyalty of both the people and elements of the armed forces. So far this key revolutionary element, of dual sovereignty, has been lacking, insofar as opposition leaders Mir Hosain Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have tried to stay inside the Khomeinist framework while arguing that it is Khamenei who violated it by making it too authoritarian.

…

Yup, New Insane Rules

Abulsme — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:37:24 +0000

Gizmodo has a leak of the new rules, and if it is real, they are complete bull. I am not allowed to know where I am? The captain can’t even point out “those of you on the left will can look out and see a great view of Mount Rainier!”. Inflight wifi and live tv and even those overpriced in seat phones all not allowed… Etc.

Idiots. This does ZERO to enhance security, and just makes is a pain in the ass to legitimate travelers.

Are they ever going to stop being assclowns about this stuff?

http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/0Uubq0yVKLQ/leaked-post+detroit-bomb-airplane-security-rules

You saw our unofficial advice guide to fly after the crotchbomb. Here’s are the TSA’s official security rules, as of Christmas. Read on, because it has all the hairy details:

…

2. IN FLIGHT

1. During flight, the aircraft operator must ensure that the following procedures are followed:
1. Passengers must remain in seats beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
2. Passenger access to carry-on baggage is prohibited beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.
3. Disable aircraft-integrated passenger communications systems and services (phone, internet access services, live television programming, global positioning systems) prior to boarding and during all phases of flight.
4. While over U.S. airspace, flight crew may not make any announcement to passengers concerning flight path or position over cities or landmarks.
5. Passengers may not have any blankets, pillows, or personal belongings on the lap beginning 1 hour prior to arrival at destination.

…

Sent from Newsie on iPhone

Airport Security Nonsense

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:15:18 +0000

They really are going to do idiotic additional checks and restrictions because of Friday’s incident, aren’t they? Such a complete waste.

http://jeffreygoldberg.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/12/more_magical_thinking_from_the.php

… So since the TSA will be prohibited, by law and custom, from actually searching passengers thoroughly (unless a pat-down includes the nether-regions, it’s utterly useless), why bother with the rest of the security-checkpoint nonsense? As Bruce Schneier has pointed out, the only two innovations since 9/11 that seem to work against terrorists on planes are hardened cockpit doors (which are irrelevant if the terrorist is simply trying to blow up the plane) and the willingness of passengers to fight back, which is what worked in this most recent case. The rest is silliness that serves only to torture passengers with bladder issues and make air travel even more unpleasant than it already is.

Sent from Newsie on iPhone

Something is Happening in Iran (again)

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:14:25 +0000

Over the last week or so things have been building up again. Time to once again turn eyes in that direction.

http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=a121f30ec7303dbc36ec47b514b95c73

(The Daily Dish)

A moment to savor: the marching crowd manages to turn back the regime’s thugs, and as a riot cop helmet is grabbed, a roar of excitement spills out of the crowd.

…

Done Testing For Now

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:42:26 +0000

Thanks for your patience. I was testing some post by email stuff. I had tried this before in September and been pretty unhappy with the results. Today I was taking the time to work out some of the kinks.

Done testing for the moment. Unless I decide to test something else, which happens sometimes.

One Final Image Test

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:35:10 +0000

If this one doesn’t work, I will give up. My old method for images worked fine, so I can keep using that. The thing I am testing will help with other things.

Grr on Test Images

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:27:48 +0000

#img1#

This is some testing of stuff.

Nother Image Test

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:18:29 +0000

Someting About Leeches

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:14:13 +0000

This is something I saw about leeches. Leeches are fun.

http://www.neatorama.com/2009/12/26/photos-from-a-leech-farm/

English Russia has assembled a collection of about 50 photos from a Russian medicinal leech farm, documenting the technology used to raise them by the millions. The reproductive process of hermaphroditic creatures is a bit complex:

As hermaphrodites, leeches have both male and female sex organs… Mating involves the intertwining of bodies where each deposits sperm in the others’ clitellar area… The clitellum secretes a tough gelatinous cocoon which contains nutrients, and it is in this that the eggs are deposited… The cocoon is either buried or attached to a rock, log or leaf and dries to a foamy crust. After several weeks or months, the young emerge as miniature adults. Studies show that the cocoons are capable of surviving the digestive system of a duck.

The photo above shows the cute little newborns emerging from a cocoon. Cootchie-cootcie-coo! The leeches are fed slaughterhouse blood until their distribution to medical clinics, where they may be stored in pretty pink jars.

Links for the photo album and the biology.

Sent from Newsie on iPhone

Different kind of test from GR

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:04:39 +0000

This is a thing about a train.

Sent to you by Abulsme via Google Reader:

Antique Steam Engine Rescues Passengers After Electric Trains Fail in the
Bitter Cold [Trains]

via Gizmodo by Brian Lam on 12/26/09

When a UK electric rail was disabled by the snow and cold, 100 passengers were left stranded. Until a Tornado came and whisked them home. That is, the steam engine named Tornado, built with 1940s tech. Speed isn’t everything. [BBC]

Things you can do from here:

Subscribe to Gizmodo using Google Reader
Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your favorite sites

Sorry for the Tests

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:02:23 +0000

But there will be a few more.

Test 2 with ITT

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:48:26 +0000

Test with Image and Text and Tag

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:34:37 +0000

Just a Test

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:15:23 +0000

Hello People

Juat A Test

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 03:10:58 +0000

Hello people.

Just a Test

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:18:53 +0000

Hello readers.

Sent from my iPhone

A Nice Day for a Squirrel

Abulsme — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:09:53 +0000

Alex Helped Santa

Abulsme — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 23:29:16 +0000

Merry Shiny Things on Trees Day!

Abulsme — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 18:31:07 +0000

Seattle Afternoon

Abulsme — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:46:56 +0000

A Curmudgeon’s Holiday

Abulsme — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:42:42 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam talks about:

Holiday Prep
Healthcare
Obama
Climate

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 22 Dec 2009

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Equilibrium

Abulsme — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:51:01 +0000

The last movie night was a Brandy movie. The movie is Equilibrium. She couldn’t remember having actually added this to her queue and said she had never actually even heard of the movie. She thought maybe she added it just because it had Christian Bale in it.

The best description of this thing is an attempted rip off of The Matrix combined with the 1984 Commercial from Apple. Basic plot is that there is a Big Brotheresque government (except it is “Father”) that has used drugs to eliminate emotion from the populace in order to avoid war, etc. There is a sort of police force that enforces this. One of them misses his meds one day, then decides to fight against the system. The usual sort of hijinks ensue, with a predictable final result.

This was not a good movie. At best it was a distraction for a couple of hours. There were some parts that were unintentionally amusing. The big final battle thing was pretty anti-climactic. There were lots of plot holes. Etc. But you know, whatever.

Brandy wanted to stop watching at a certain point in the movie where they started shooting puppies. But we didn’t stop, we kept going.

I dunno. I didn’t hate it. But it is definitely forgettable. And there is definitely no need to ever see this again.

Do Phones Cause Global Warming?

Abulsme — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 23:27:32 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

The Google Phone
Apple vs Google
Copenhagen

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 14 Dec 2009

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In the Big Chair

Abulsme — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:48:15 +0000

Alex at Three Months

Abulsme — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:16:23 +0000

Just over 17 hours ago, at 00:06 UTC on the 13th (4:06 PM on the 12th Pacific time, 7:06 PM on the 12th Eastern time) Alex turned three months old. Exactly five hours earlier, he shared a few thoughts.

At Amy’s Annual Christmas Concert

Abulsme — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:48:35 +0000

Divided Positively

Abulsme — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:38:58 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Polarization
Optimism
Holiday Shopping
Afghanistan

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 7 Dec 2009

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Kindle Ratio for 5 Dec 2009 – 40%

Abulsme — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:41:27 +0000

For the first time since I started keeping track about a year ago, the percentage of the last 20 books I’ve read which are available on Kindle drops. This is because the book I just finished is not available on Kindle, where the one that just fell off the last 20 is available on Kindle, and none of the other books in the last 20 have become available since I last looked at the ratio. I have said that I will “officially want a Kindle” once my ratio is greater than 50%.

Speaker for the Dead

Abulsme — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:50:13 +0000

Author: Orson Scott Card
Started: 1 Nov 2009
Finished: 24 Nov 2009
280 p / 24 d
11.7 p/d

So, as I mentioned when I read Ender’s Game back in May, Brandy gave me the latest Ender book last Christmas, and I decided I needed to read the whole series again, both those I’d read before and those I hadn’t, before I read the new one. So now it was time for book two.

This picks up Ender’s story several thousand years after the events in the first book (relativistic travel allows one do do that sort of thing while still living a normal lifespan). He now is a “Speaker for the Dead” and is unraveling several mysteries, one involving the life cycle of a newly discovered alien species.

The bits about how that life cycle works, and the confusion it causes in the relationship between humans and the piggies (said other species) because of lack of understanding are very creative and interesting. This is once again a book that suffers on second reading though. Even though it has been many years since I last read this book, I remembered the critical bits that meant I knew the answers to many of the mysteries from the beginning. The figuring out what was going on was, I remember, a big part of the experience of reading the book the first time around, and that was absent the second time for me.

One other big part though, that didn’t lose quite as much impact the second time around, was the concept of the “Speaker for the Dead” itself. Basically, the idea is that this is someone who does funeral orations. But not the kind where all the good aspects of the person are praised. But rather the speaker spends a good deal of time learning about the person, digging into their secrets and their dark sides as well, and then essentially “speaks the truth” telling the story of the person’s life, from childhood to their death, but not shying away from the negative or disturbing… or from the positive either… but trying as much as possible to give an honest accounting. The good, the bad, the mediocre, the things they were proud of, the things they were ashamed of, etc… The idea being that this kind of truth telling is a more powerful thing than sugar coating, and more powerful in letting the survivors understand and move on. Even if it opens wounds, it provides opportunities for healing.

Anyway, I liked that concept when I read it the first time, and I still like it. I wouldn’t mind there being a “speaking” for me when the time comes. Of course I wouldn’t mind, I won’t be there. But I like the concept.

The End of Math Homework

Abulsme — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:11:05 +0000

As we know it anyway…

Jumping Ship

Abulsme — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:58:30 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

ChChChChanges
The End of AOL
SciStar and Dubai
Crashing the Party
Search Shenanigans

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 30 Nov 2009

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Better Poker Face

Abulsme — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 06:27:53 +0000

(via Wil Wheaton)

Post Baby Sleep

Abulsme — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:16:59 +0000

Although the frequency has slowed, I still occasionally get people asking how I am sleeping what with a baby in the house and all, and everything everybody always says about no sleep when there is a new baby. I’ve been meaning for a long time to post about this, since at least October, but am just now getting around to it. Anyway, because I am certifiable and track everything, I can give some quantitative answers to the sleep question.

Here is a relevant chart:

This is a chart with daily values of the percent of the previous seven days I spent asleep. (Click the chart for a larger version.)

Unfortunately I did not start tracking this number until August even though I had the capability to do so earlier. If I had started earlier we would have had a better baseline to do a longer term before and after comparison. In this chart I have used the smoothing factor for the trend line that I usually use for my one month charts, rather than what I would normally use to show the amount of time shown here. This allows me to show a little more responsiveness in the trend line to short term changes. For a current chart with my normal smoothing values, see here.

Anyway, if one looks at how much sleep I was getting immediately before Alex was born, it is at about the 30% level. That would be about 7.2 hours per day of sleep. You can clearly see the deep dive down to about 14% (about 3.4 hours per day). But this does not last very long. 17 days later I recover to the immediate pre-Alex level. Of course I don’t stay there for long. You can see I move up and down between about 24% (about 5.8 hours a day) and 31% (about 7.4 hours a day). If I had to hazard a visual guess at an average for October and beyond, I’d say about 27% (about 6.5 hours per day).

Because I only have the month or so of pre-Alex data though, it is hard to see if there is a distinct before and after longer term change. As you can see, I did have a pre-Alex peak of 34% (about 8.2 hours per day) that has not yet been equaled. But it impossible to say if that was an abnormal peak. Also, there was a dip down to 20% (about 4.8 hours per day) at one point when I was staying up late on a couple of personal projects. So the “normal” range may have been pretty wide to begin with.

So the 17 day “back to normal” recovery time is probably about the best estimate that can be made with this data. I’m still annoyed for not having tracked this metric for longer. I had the ability to do so starting approximately in February, but I didn’t. Oh well.

Now, this does show however that aside from the one peak in August, I’ve never been close to the 33% (8 hours a day) generally recommended sleep level, and I’m not very consistent at all in terms of how much I sleep. Oh well. I doubt I’m really all that atypical on that front, although I must admit I would probably enjoy it if I could get and keep my average closer to that 33% level.

Finally, and this is an important point, this is MY recovery time… but BRANDY was the almost exclusive source of food and was the one that was almost always the one who got up and stayed up nights with Alex when needed. So HER chart would look vastly different, and her sleep recovery time much longer, if it has even recovered yet. I can’t show any graphs of that though, as Brandy won’t let me hook her up to machines to monitor her at night. I have no idea why.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Abulsme — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:53:01 +0000

So, at the last movie night it was once again one of my movies. It could have been someone else’s turn, but they hadn’t returned their movies. So it was my turn again, and also it was once again time for one of the AFI 100 Years 100 Movies list movies. This is #50 on that list. Slowly but surely, we work our way toward #1.

Anyway, Brandy hates westerns, so this was never going to be a favorite of hers, and I was lucky to get her to watch it at all. Amy actually seemed to like bits of it, but was not happy about the ending at all.

As for me, it was a little slow, but a decent way to spend a couple of hours. And of course I ended up curious about the actual historical Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid and ended up reading a bit about them and related subjects on Wikipedia. Not during the movie though, that would be wrong.

Anyway, the movie is somewhat amusing, and has some nice scenery and such while the pair are on the run. Worth watching if you have some time to kill, but I’m not sure I’d put it on a Top 100 list of my own or anything. It is just OK, not great.

Trying to Remember

Abulsme — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 23:29:02 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Stupid Scanner Tricks
Healthcare Debate
KSM in NYC
Wikipedia
Climate Change Leaks

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 23 Nov 2009

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes

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A Few Minutes with Alex

Abulsme — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:24:45 +0000

Not doing any tricks or anything, just being Alex for a few minutes.

(From November 18th.)

Muppet Break

Abulsme — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:36:53 +0000

(via Oliver Willis)

Learned by Alex This Week

Abulsme — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:51:34 +0000

It is fun to watch your feet while you shake them and try to grab them
The bassinet really is an OK place to sleep at night
If you try really hard, you can make your hand reach out and you can actually grab that shiny spoon, and then you can wave it around for a bit before you throw it!

Sam Can’t Count

Abulsme — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:05:18 +0000

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner…

Sam and Ivan talk about:

Lou Dobbs
The Congressional Record
Sick Again
Sesame Street
Snowglobes
Obsolete Stuff

Just click to listen now:

Recorded 15 Nov 2009

1-Click Subscribe in iTunes

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Abulsme.com

Dad and Cathy

One Stuck Pixel

Oops

Alex at Six Months

Slow Week

Ouranos Arrives

Visitors Cause Walking

Hiring Software Development Engineers and More

White Fluffies from the Sky?

Octopus

Alex and Grandfather M enjoy the Aquarium

Alex meets Grandfather M

Grandma S meets Alex

Shake and Bake

Ouranos is Coming

Hard at Work

Ray’s Mystery Trip

Cars and Books and Apps, Oh My!

House: Season One: Disk One

All Hands 12

I Said Don’t Lick Me!

Doctor Who: The Romans

At Some Point I Fell Asleep

Free Old Couch Bellevue WA

Handing out the Sheep

Alex at Five Months

Alex Loves His Fish

Alex Mass Doubling Time

Before the Formal

No Snow Here!

Speeches and Lies

Finally Time to Sling!

Things I Have Learned Recently

Still I Wait

Enjoying a Good Book

Now something about Tablets

Nothing at all about Tablets

Visiting Ikea

Alex’s First Email

No, No, No and Again NO!

Out in Time!

Anderson, dude!

Entropic Gravity?

Bring Us the Soap

Four Months in the World

Four Years in the Jungle

January’s Favorite Toy

Maybe Next Year’s Tree

Live Action Start Blazers!?!

Allergic to Clean Starts

Suspicion

Gruber on the Apple Tablet

And Goodnight Mouse

The Strategy Exists

Happy Alex

Ready for the End of Time

Welcome to 2010 Dave

Bad Year for Pirates

Bye Bye Naughties

Pre-Human Alien Things?

Some Sanity?

Keep Watching Iran

Yup, New Insane Rules

Airport Security Nonsense

Something is Happening in Iran (again)

Done Testing For Now

One Final Image Test

Grr on Test Images

Nother Image Test

Someting About Leeches

Different kind of test from GR

Sent to you by Abulsme via Google Reader:

Antique Steam Engine Rescues Passengers After Electric Trains Fail in the Bitter Cold [Trains]

Things you can do from here:

Sorry for the Tests

Test 2 with ITT

Test with Image and Text and Tag

Just a Test

Juat A Test

Antique Steam Engine Rescues Passengers After Electric Trains Fail in the
Bitter Cold [Trains]