This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter).
Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon
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 Yesterday I was going to stay home working on things that need to get done, but instead I got talked into going to a movie along with Amy, a friend of Amy’s from school and that friend’s parents. The choice was the pirate movie.
My initial reaction: Long
It seemed like a very long movie. Looking it up, it was 167 minutes. Which indeed is pretty long. But there are some long movies that leave you glad for every minute. This is not one of those movies. For quite a lot of it I kept thinking “is it over yet?” Some parts just dragged. Some parts were all action and fighting and such, but I also generally have enough of those sorts of things in a couple minutes. There were enough betrayals and reversals and such to keep it confusing most of the time as well.
There were certainly decent bits of it. I just feel like it could have been a lot better if they cut out about a quarter of it and just tightened it up a lot. But then, I’ve never been super into these Pirate movies. They are OK, but nothing I would normally go out of my way for. I most likely would have skipped it entirely if the others hadn’t wanted to go. But once I knew they were going, I also didn’t want to stay home and miss it. :-)
 More than a decade ago… actually a decent bit more than a decade ago, Ivan and I did a show on WRCT Radio in Pittsburgh which we called Curmudgeon’s Corner. At various times in the history of the show other folks like Rebecca and Al and Greg and Chris would have major parts either on this show or on other talk shows on WRCT.
Other shows would have other foci, but Curmudgeon’s Corner was basically your typical political talk show. People with opinions (but not necessarily deep knowledge) mouthing off on the issues of the day. Occasionally we’d have guests and interviews of various sorts. Occasionally we’d have special topics. But most of the time, we’d just talk about our thoughts about whatever was in the news that week.
Well, Ivan and I both missed doing it. It was a lot of fun. Sometime in early 2005 Ivan and I spoke about reviving the show as a Podcast. But my computer at the time was underpowered for audio editing and there was a lot of other things going on that kept it on the back burner. In 2006 I got a computer up for the task, but again, lots of things going on, and it was not top of mind.
But a little over a week ago, Ivan emailed me and said “Hey, weren’t we going to do the show again?”. And so… here we go.
This morning Ivan and I recorded the first episode of Curmudgeon’s Corner since early 1995 or so, right before I left Pittsburgh and headed out to start a new life in DC… then Virginia… then New Jersey… then Pennsylvania again… then Florida… and now Washington. :-) The original shows were hour long shows. We’re now aiming at a bit shorter than that. I know my attention span balks at all but the best podcasts that top 30 minutes, so I didn’t want to go there. The first episode clocks in at just over 20 minutes.
We’d planned an agenda that was mostly politics, but at the last minute switched and it ended up being mostly tech. But that’s fine. Whatever is inspiring at the time. I think we are going to try to do these weekly for awhile. We don’t actually expect any listeners, but it is fun just to do, even if nobody listens.
In any case, it is all set up as a nice little podcast, so here are the links:
 Podcast XML Feed
 1-Click Subscribe in iTunes
For the first episode, the description is:
Ivan and Sam talk about:
- The Return of Curmudgeon’s Corner
- The Bill Gates and Steve Jobs show
- Google’s Prospects
- Hosted vs Desktop
- Personal Mail on Corporate Systems
If we make it to 5 episodes, I’ll add some permanent stuff on the site about it, but for now, this post will do.
This time at the All Hands they had a rock concert.
A few hours ago Brandy and I went out to eat. Amy was going to stay home working on a school project and we were going to bring her back food. As we were leaving, Amy waved goodbye to us while hanging on the back fence.
When we got back with the food almost two hours later, and we came in, Brandy noticed that the dog did not come running. She quickly discovered that when Amy had been hanging on the back fence, she had accidentally unlatched the back gate. Roscoe often spends a few hours each afternoon and evening freely coming in and out of the house to the fully fenced back yard. This time he of course at some point noticed the open gate, and decided to take himself for a walk.
As soon as we realized what had happened, Brandy and I immediately split up, first walking the usual routes where we walk him, calling his name. Amy stayed home with the door open in case he came home. She was a wreck, crying and blaming herself for letting him out.
When there was no sign of him we gave up walking and instead we each drove slowly around practically every street within a one mile radius of the house, looking for any signs of him and fearing for the worst, as Roscoe is not necessarily aware of the dangers of streets and cars.
After about an hour, I had parked the car at home again and was walking various bike paths and looping around our usual routes again. Brandy was driving a few more loops on a few more streets before returning to do more by foot again. Around the 90 minute mark I got a call from Brandy. She had him.
About a third of a mile from our house, off our residential road, then onto the main road through the neighborhood, down a few streets, Roscoe had made a left at a fork in the road and was walking slowly down the sidewalk. Brandy stopped her car. She got out. They looked at each other for a moment, neither one moving. Then she called him and he ran to her as fast as he could and jumped into her arms. He then happily hopped straight into the car and curled up on the seat. He was done with his adventure.
A few minutes later he was home and eagerly drinking water from his dish. We were all very relieved. This could have ended very badly.
Of course this means Amy has not yet finished her school project which is due in the morning. But it is very late, and she has headed to bed, exhausted from both the hour and the emotional toll of the last few hours. Her clock is set for earlier than usual in the morning. Hopefully enough to get he project completed before school.
Or course, that is of lesser significance right now. Roscoe is home and Roscoe is safe. We are very very glad.
And here I thought Apple would get something big out using this technology first… but nope. Microsoft beat them to it.
Microsoft Surface
Product Overview: Surface is the first commercially available surface computing platform from Microsoft Corporation. It turns an ordinary tabletop into a vibrant, interactive surface. The product provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural gestures, touch and physical objects. In essence, it’s a surface that comes to life for exploring, learning, sharing, creating, buying and much more. Soon to be available in restaurants, hotels, retail and public entertainment venues, this experience will transform the way people shop, dine, entertain and live.
Description: Surface is a 30-inch display in a table-like form factor that’s easy for individuals or small groups to interact with in a way that feels familiar, just like in the real world. Surface can simultaneously recognize dozens and dozens of movements such as touch, gestures and will be able to recognize actual unique objects that have identification tags similar to bar codes.
Surface will ship to partners with a portfolio of basic applications, including photos, music, virtual concierge and games, which can be customized to provide their customers with unique experiences.
(via Gizmodo)
Of course, it has a pretty hefty price tag and is intended to be used in a kiosk kind of form at hotels, malls and other public places like that. But it won’t be all that long until this sort of thing is in other stuff…. including of course the iPhone next month, although it won’t do quite the same things as this table thing.
But I bet you I see my first iPhone in person before I see my first Surface in person.
For the first time since 2004, I’ve added a data point to the graph comparing the TTLB Ecosystem rankings of myself and a few of my friends with blogs. I only updated the lines for blogs that were already there in my chart in 2004. I’ll see if I can add more people next time I update this graph. Probably in 2010 or something.
Anyway, it can easily be seen that Reb’s blog is actually actively linked to and read by real people. In comparison my blog and Al’s are way down there, indicating that both our blogs are really only read and linked to by a handful of friends. But we knew that I think. :-)
Click on the graph above for a larger version.
I just noticed that this picture made it into the May issue of the school newsletter. This is from Amy’s week long school sailing trip at the end of April. Amy is the one near the front with the kid with the hat in front of her. They seemed to have a great time on that trip.
Sorry to do a politics one two days in a row. Yesterday I saw posts about this in several places and it just seemed interesting…
Cheney Attempting to Constrain Bush’s Choices on Iran Conflict: Staff Engaged in Insubordination Against President Bush
(Steve Clemons, The Washington Note)
There is a race currently underway between different flanks of the administration to determine the future course of US-Iran policy.
On one flank are the diplomats, and on the other is Vice President Cheney’s team and acolytes — who populate quite a wide swath throughout the American national security bureaucracy.
The Pentagon and the intelligence establishment are providing support to add muscle and nuance to the diplomatic effort led by Condi Rice, her deputy John Negroponte, Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, and Legal Adviser John Bellinger. The support that Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and CIA Director Michael Hayden are providing Rice’s efforts are a complete, 180 degree contrast to the dysfunction that characterized relations between these institutions before the recent reshuffle of top personnel.
However, the Department of Defense and national intelligence sector are also preparing for hot conflict. They believe that they need to in order to convince Iran’s various power centers that the military option does exist.
But this is worrisome. The person in the Bush administration who most wants a hot conflict with Iran is Vice President Cheney. The person in Iran who most wants a conflict is Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Quds Force would be big winners in a conflict as well — as the political support that both have inside Iran has been flagging.
Multiple sources have reported that a senior aide on Vice President Cheney’s national security team has been meeting with policy hands of the American Enterprise Institute, one other think tank, and more than one national security consulting house and explicitly stating that Vice President Cheney does not support President Bush’s tack towards Condoleezza Rice’s diplomatic efforts and fears that the President is taking diplomacy with Iran too seriously.
This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an “end run strategy” around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument.
(via The Daily Dish)
There is also an interesting followup:
Cheney’s Iran Fantasy
(Joe Klein, Time)
Last December, as Rumsfeld was leaving, President Bush met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in “The Tank,” the secure room in the Pentagon where the Joint Chiefs discuss classified matters of national security. Bush asked the Chiefs about the wisdom of a troop “surge” in Iraq. They were unanimously opposed. Then Bush asked about the possibility of a successful attack on Iran’s nuclear capability. He was told that the U.S. could launch a devastating air attack on Iran’s government and military, wiping out the Iranian air force, the command and control structure and some of the more obvious nuclear facilities. But the Chiefs were–once again–unanimously opposed to taking that course of action.
Why? Because our intelligence inside Iran is very sketchy. There was no way to be sure that we could take out all of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Furthermore, the Chiefs warned, the Iranian response in Iraq and, quite possibly, in terrorist attacks on the U.S. could be devastating. Bush apparently took this advice to heart and went to Plan B–a covert destabilization campaign reported earlier this week by ABC News. If Clemons is right, and I’m pretty sure he is, Cheney is still pushing Plan A.
(via The Daily Dish)
It is interesting to speculate how different the last few years would have been if back at the beginning W would have been paying attention to Powell and company rather than Cheney and Rumsfeld. I suspect things would have been radically different. Even now, a little too late and not quite enough, you can start to see the difference with Rumsfeld out and Cheney in eclipse. It will be interesting to see however how much trouble Cheney will still be able to create, and if anything at all comes of it over the last year and a half of the administration.
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