![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Thaddius Poole: 10: The Southlands
Aug. 25th, 2009 | 05:31 pm
Autumn heat lay heavy on the Southlands, a vast expanse of grass and heather that exhaled dust. The lack of landmarks unnerved Tad, who had spent his entire life in places from which he could see other places.
Thaddius Poole: 10: The Southlands
Thaddius Poole: 10: The Southlands
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Thaddius Poole: 9: Leaving Aspera
Jul. 28th, 2009 | 10:03 pm
Their last night at Nearshore was a strange combination of a dinner party set against preparations to escape the area by first light. It started with a closed meeting in the remains of Lady Calanth’s library: other than Mr. Brightstar and his party, only the Princess and Thaddius were present. Tad hadn’t exactly been invited
Thaddius Poole: 9: Leaving Aspera
Thaddius Poole: 9: Leaving Aspera
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Help Desk Ticket
Jul. 17th, 2009 | 12:38 pm
This is an IT Help Desk ticket that I submitted a few days ago, because my work phone wasn't working.
"Your call can not be completed as dialed." That is what I hear, in a beautifully modulated voice, no matter what number I dial.
To tell the truth, the new IP phone on my desk has never worked, not even once in the several months that it has sat here. I sometimes use the phone in the next cubicle, which works just fine, or even my own cell phone if I badly need to call someone from my desk. Email and IM are usually workable communications options, too. I use the phone so seldom, and have so many alternatives, that I don't fuss over it much.
Still, it seems a shame to treat a three-or-four hundred dollar piece of molded technology like a mere paperweight. Have you ever noticed how heavy the handset is, lending a sense of solidity and quality to the device? And have you noticed that the sound quality on these phones is usually very high, especially for calls within the office? And the LCD on the phone is very large and crisp: I keep expecting my boss' face to appear on it and demand to know what I'm doing. I feel bad because, not only have I allowed this machine to languish inoperative all this time, but I don't even have a sufficient quantity of loose paper around to do justice to one of those glass blob paperweights. Sticking my meager paperwork under the Cisco IP Phone (model 7965) seems more like an insult than a true attempt at human-to-ip-phone relations.
Finally, I think it would be an exciting experience to place a business call from my own desk at company expense. So if one of your guys or gals could just swing by, and push whatever secret sequence of buttons is required to make my phone work, I promise to make thankful noises in their general direction.
I'm pleased to say that IT fixed the phone promptly.
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Thaddius Poole: 8: In Honor of the Gods
Jul. 14th, 2009 | 10:34 pm
It took most of the day for Tad to realize that Mr. Brightstar and his friends were killing time. They managed to find so much to do that they seemed purposeful, but all their activity was just keeping impatience at bay.
Thaddius Poole: 8: In Honor of the Gods
Thaddius Poole: 8: In Honor of the Gods
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Thaddius Poole: 7: In the Grass
Jul. 7th, 2009 | 12:51 am
Face down in the grass, covered in sweat and dust, Tad inched forward with all the patience his recent training could give him. He moved only when the wind blew, or when horses came and went, and hid him momentarily. Twenty-five paces away Mr. Brightstar was, for all appearances, standing in a field enjoying the afternoon air with a crossbow in his hands.
Thaddius Poole: 7: In the Grass
Thaddius Poole: 7: In the Grass
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Thaddius Poole: 6: Deeds and Dinner
Jul. 1st, 2009 | 10:24 am
The notables of the party were graciously received by Lady Calanth’s staff. Tad, on the other hand, was sent to the stables where he spent the rest of the afternoon grooming horses
Thaddius Poole: 6: Deeds and Dinner
Thaddius Poole: 6: Deeds and Dinner
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
5: Walter's Bailey
Jun. 21st, 2009 | 09:01 am
A few days later Tad found himself at the back of a line of horses, looking over a very fine estate. It wasn’t the largest he had ever seen, and in fact compared to some of the royal estates near Newholy it was quite small. You could almost see one end from the other.
Thaddius Poole: 5: Walter's Bailey
Thaddius Poole: 5: Walter's Bailey
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Thaddius Poole: 4: Old Friends
Jun. 16th, 2009 | 09:40 pm
"He wouldn't stop dancing! We had to pin him down to put out the fire!" Laughter rang off the brickwork walls of the Dog and Peonie, out the second-story windows and into the streets of upper Corak.
Thaddius Poole: 4: Old Friends
Thaddius Poole: 4: Old Friends
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Thaddius Poole: City Life
Jun. 13th, 2009 | 12:24 pm
Thaddius hadn’t known a broken nose could bleed so much, but being chased through most of Corak was probably making the bleeding worse.
Thaddius Poole: City Life
Thaddius Poole: City Life
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Thaddius Poole: 2: Views
Jun. 8th, 2009 | 08:13 am
“You’ve never been in a big city have you boy?” All Tad could do was shake his head while his eyes struggled to take in the enormity of Corak. “It just looks like a hill from here, but it’s really more like a finger sticking up out of the ground. They call it the Sauvine, because on the other side is a sheer drop-off. Good for defense.” Mr. Brightstar pointed to the massive dome at the top of the city, overlooking everything like a full moon rising. “That grand edifice there is the Duke’s palace. Don’t let the pretty outside fool you, it’s a fortress as much as a palace. Never been taken by arms. And those mountains you see beyond are the Silver Hills. Most of the king’s coinage is dug out of there.”
Thaddius Poole: 2: Views
Thaddius Poole: 2: Views
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Thaddius Poole: 1: Nightfall
Jun. 5th, 2009 | 08:43 pm
Thaddius Poole, called “Tad” by those who knew the boy, watched apprehensively as the sun sank into the Angsul forest. Of all the days and nights of all the spheres, the night without Lunos was always the worst. The larger of the two moons watched over the dead, and without it some of the recently departed would forsake their dreamless sleep and take to walking around. And the walking dead were invariably hungry.
Thaddius Poole: 1: Nightfall
Thaddius Poole: 1: Nightfall
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Paper Regression
Oct. 19th, 2007 | 08:32 am
location: Work
I have a function that has grown out of control and desperately needs refactoring. Kind of like the contents of my garage.
It started out simply enough. I wrote a hundred lines or so of code to change a header in an email message. Then we had to play to Outlook's peculiarities. Then add language detection, character set support, and RFC 2047 encoding. Then the ability to add and delete headers. Also some smart content-type detection. And so on... None of these things by themselves means much, but for some reason a lot of the code ended up inside this one function. Now I have to modify it again, and I can't wrap my head around it any more.
I'm about to do something I haven't done in years: print out source code and tape together the sheets of paper so I can see the whole function at once.
I feel like I'm back in the soggy Okinawa summer of 1989, working on my first sizable piece of software that other people were going to use. It was just several thousand lines of dBase III script, but the Marine Corps would use that program for damn near a decade. There were a few times when I printed out large swaths of code on continuous-feed paper and taped it on the wall, then used a ruler (because Lines should be Straight) to outline chunks that could be generalized and put into their own subroutines. I couldn't have said what I was doing exactly, I just knew it could be better. It was my first major refactoring.
People are going to look at me funny when I do this. I just know it. But ... its got to be done. I need paper. I also need to remember what printer I'm supposed to use around here.
It started out simply enough. I wrote a hundred lines or so of code to change a header in an email message. Then we had to play to Outlook's peculiarities. Then add language detection, character set support, and RFC 2047 encoding. Then the ability to add and delete headers. Also some smart content-type detection. And so on... None of these things by themselves means much, but for some reason a lot of the code ended up inside this one function. Now I have to modify it again, and I can't wrap my head around it any more.
I'm about to do something I haven't done in years: print out source code and tape together the sheets of paper so I can see the whole function at once.
I feel like I'm back in the soggy Okinawa summer of 1989, working on my first sizable piece of software that other people were going to use. It was just several thousand lines of dBase III script, but the Marine Corps would use that program for damn near a decade. There were a few times when I printed out large swaths of code on continuous-feed paper and taped it on the wall, then used a ruler (because Lines should be Straight) to outline chunks that could be generalized and put into their own subroutines. I couldn't have said what I was doing exactly, I just knew it could be better. It was my first major refactoring.
People are going to look at me funny when I do this. I just know it. But ... its got to be done. I need paper. I also need to remember what printer I'm supposed to use around here.
Link | Leave a comment {2} | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
(no subject)
Sep. 15th, 2006 | 10:18 am
I'm sure everyone who reads my blog knows that the President is having trouble getting Congressional approval to be extra-mean to terrorists and allow secret evidence in tribunals. The Washington Post titled its editorial on the matter, "A defining moment for America: the president goes to Capitol Hill to lobby for torture." I think that pretty much spells it out. Here's a link to the SF Chronicle if you haven't heard about this before now.
Senator John McCain, once my favorite Republican, finally got tired of kissing King George's ass and has reverted to generally doing the right thing. In an interview on Face the Nation he said "But it's not about [terrorists]; it's about us. This battle we're in is about the things we stand for and believe in and practice. And that is an observance of human rights, no matter how terrible our adversaries may be." Nice to have you back, John.
Colin Powell came out of his self-imposed exile to say what he really thinks in a letter to the Senate committee debating the bill. He wrote in part, "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." There is still a lot of respect for Powell free-floating around the hearts and minds of Americans who remember him from Gulf War I, respect that could be his to own again if he would just be the same stand-up guy in public that we all believe him to be in private.
Meanwhile King George is maintaining his stance that the fight against terror justifies anything and everything claiming, "The most important job of government is to protect the homeland." No George, the most important job of the government is to protect our values. And I don't mean the homophobic religious supply-side rat-knackery that passes for a Republican agenda these days. I'm talking about our values as a nation, the values that made us a light on a hill for oppressed people everywhere. I'm talking about what make us America the Beautiful, the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.
The most important job of government is to protect and defend the Constitution, a document that has been made sacred by the blood of millions of Americans wounded or killed in service to this nation. It is a document consecrated far above any terrorist's poor power to add or detract. But King George is doing his best to undermine it every day of his rule.
The oath of the president is:
The office of President is defined by the Constitution, and the only specific duty mentioned in the oath of office is to protect said principles. It is the first and last job of our President, who has long abandoned us to become King.
Senator John McCain, once my favorite Republican, finally got tired of kissing King George's ass and has reverted to generally doing the right thing. In an interview on Face the Nation he said "But it's not about [terrorists]; it's about us. This battle we're in is about the things we stand for and believe in and practice. And that is an observance of human rights, no matter how terrible our adversaries may be." Nice to have you back, John.
Colin Powell came out of his self-imposed exile to say what he really thinks in a letter to the Senate committee debating the bill. He wrote in part, "The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism." There is still a lot of respect for Powell free-floating around the hearts and minds of Americans who remember him from Gulf War I, respect that could be his to own again if he would just be the same stand-up guy in public that we all believe him to be in private.
Meanwhile King George is maintaining his stance that the fight against terror justifies anything and everything claiming, "The most important job of government is to protect the homeland." No George, the most important job of the government is to protect our values. And I don't mean the homophobic religious supply-side rat-knackery that passes for a Republican agenda these days. I'm talking about our values as a nation, the values that made us a light on a hill for oppressed people everywhere. I'm talking about what make us America the Beautiful, the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.
The most important job of government is to protect and defend the Constitution, a document that has been made sacred by the blood of millions of Americans wounded or killed in service to this nation. It is a document consecrated far above any terrorist's poor power to add or detract. But King George is doing his best to undermine it every day of his rule.
The oath of the president is:
I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.
The office of President is defined by the Constitution, and the only specific duty mentioned in the oath of office is to protect said principles. It is the first and last job of our President, who has long abandoned us to become King.
Link | Leave a comment {1} | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Update
Aug. 14th, 2006 | 05:48 pm
I have been neglecting my LJ, and people are begining to complain. What the heck have I been doing all this time?
We threw birthday and gowing-away parties (four in the last six weeks).
I built a small catapult out of PVC pipe, which I suppose people want me to show on my blog. If I can find my camera I will take pictures.
I've been working on my D&D Campaign Setting, although only the country of Aspera is really fleshed out.
I wrote another one of my popular consumer letters, this time to the tax collector of California.
I ate too much birthday cake.
I've been watching the Ze Frank Show.
That's really about it.
We threw birthday and gowing-away parties (four in the last six weeks).
I built a small catapult out of PVC pipe, which I suppose people want me to show on my blog. If I can find my camera I will take pictures.
I've been working on my D&D Campaign Setting, although only the country of Aspera is really fleshed out.
I wrote another one of my popular consumer letters, this time to the tax collector of California.
I ate too much birthday cake.
I've been watching the Ze Frank Show.
That's really about it.
Link | Leave a comment {1} | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
News Item
Jul. 25th, 2006 | 08:23 am
ENERGY CRUNCH: State has added only 6,774 megawatts since '01
That would be 6.774 gigawatts, and it sounds like an awful lot to me. I mean, you only need 1.21 gigawatts to go Back to the Future.
Link | Leave a comment {1} | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
What the heck?
Jul. 17th, 2006 | 09:57 am
So, in case people are thinking "what the heck is Hezbolla in Lebanon thinking?" or "I wonder what CJ thinks about this" (because of course people are always asking for my opinion on such things. Always!), here's what I think.
On the face of it, the actions by Hezbolla in Lebanon seems stupid to us outsiders: why would they start a new war with Israel? Surely they can't hope to destroy the nation of Israel, any more than Israel could hope to occupy both Palestine and Israel. They have their reasons, most of them not very good ones, but the real beneficiaries of the war aren't in Lebanon at all.
Iraq and Syria have taken to heart Bush's latest mantra of "we're fighting our enemies abroad so we don't have to fight them at home". This is a truer and older maxim than most people realize, a sentiment dating as far back as when men first learned to gather and make use of armies against each other. If you find you must fight a war, then it is best to fight it away from your own lands and your own people.
In my own time this was exemplified by the USSR and USA wars-by-proxy in southeast Asia, Afganistan, and dozens of "client" states worldwide. Now Iran (and probably Syria as well), feeds the Iraq insurgency with fighters and ideology to keep America focused on Iraq. And as Iran perceive an immenent threat from the US over its nuclear programs, it pushes its allies in Palestine and Lebanon to attack Israel. The US will have to come to Israel's aid diplomatically or militarily. Either way, it is a major distraction from Iran's nuclear program and what to do about it. Nobody wants to think about bombing alleged enrichment facilities because of a possibility of Iran gaining nuclear arms in the future, when Hezbolla and Israel are doing their best to kill each other today.
Obviously, the big losers of such wars are those people who live on the battlegrounds. Lebanon was making decent progress, sixteen years after their civil war ended. Pretty soon they'll be back in the stone age again.
On the face of it, the actions by Hezbolla in Lebanon seems stupid to us outsiders: why would they start a new war with Israel? Surely they can't hope to destroy the nation of Israel, any more than Israel could hope to occupy both Palestine and Israel. They have their reasons, most of them not very good ones, but the real beneficiaries of the war aren't in Lebanon at all.
Iraq and Syria have taken to heart Bush's latest mantra of "we're fighting our enemies abroad so we don't have to fight them at home". This is a truer and older maxim than most people realize, a sentiment dating as far back as when men first learned to gather and make use of armies against each other. If you find you must fight a war, then it is best to fight it away from your own lands and your own people.
In my own time this was exemplified by the USSR and USA wars-by-proxy in southeast Asia, Afganistan, and dozens of "client" states worldwide. Now Iran (and probably Syria as well), feeds the Iraq insurgency with fighters and ideology to keep America focused on Iraq. And as Iran perceive an immenent threat from the US over its nuclear programs, it pushes its allies in Palestine and Lebanon to attack Israel. The US will have to come to Israel's aid diplomatically or militarily. Either way, it is a major distraction from Iran's nuclear program and what to do about it. Nobody wants to think about bombing alleged enrichment facilities because of a possibility of Iran gaining nuclear arms in the future, when Hezbolla and Israel are doing their best to kill each other today.
Obviously, the big losers of such wars are those people who live on the battlegrounds. Lebanon was making decent progress, sixteen years after their civil war ended. Pretty soon they'll be back in the stone age again.
Link | Leave a comment {3} | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Oh dear...
May. 15th, 2006 | 08:36 am
| Your Political Profile: |
| Overall: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal |
| Social Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal |
| Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal |
| Fiscal Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal |
| Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal |
| Defense and Crime: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal |
Link | Leave a comment {2} | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
A Solution for High Gas Prices
May. 15th, 2006 | 08:18 am
I know what to do about high gasoline prices ...
Nothing! Don't do a darn thing about them. People are buying smaller cars, the state is getting a little extra tax revenue, more people are taking mass transit or carpooling, and Bush's approval ratings are down. Honestly, I don't see any serious problems with that.
In some kind of mythical perfect world we could have cheap gas AND people who are motivated to reduce consumption. Market forces however have no such utopian ideals. There's just supply and demand.
My boss at work thinks gasoline will get to $4 a gallon. I say bring it on!
Nothing! Don't do a darn thing about them. People are buying smaller cars, the state is getting a little extra tax revenue, more people are taking mass transit or carpooling, and Bush's approval ratings are down. Honestly, I don't see any serious problems with that.
In some kind of mythical perfect world we could have cheap gas AND people who are motivated to reduce consumption. Market forces however have no such utopian ideals. There's just supply and demand.
My boss at work thinks gasoline will get to $4 a gallon. I say bring it on!
Link | Leave a comment {7} | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Adding it all up
May. 12th, 2006 | 09:28 am
There is an excellent summary of the latest NSA surveilance excess, and its implications, on Brice Schneier's security blog. Qwest was the only telephone company to refuse the NSA's requests, even though they were threatened. Kudos to them, and shame on everyone else. (If Quest had cellphone service in California I would be switching providers right now instead of typing this.)
Frankly, it is a smart idea in its own right, since it allows the NSA to do wholesale traffic analysis of almost the entire US without actually listening in on phone calls. It is probably the most truly useful intelligence gathering plan put forth by this administration. But when you put it together with all of the other unconstitutional powers that thisEmperor President abrogates to himself, it is wholly alarming. To quote Matthew Yglasias, who puts it nicely:
The story of Khaled al-Masri is worth reviewing if you haven't heard of him before. He's the German citizen who was kidnaped by the US in an "extaordinary rendition", beaten, carted off to one of our secret prisons, then summarily released and dumped in Albania without papers. German authorities are quietly investigating the case, but seem reluctant to piss off the US, with whom they have just started to make up after a few years of bad relations. Stories like this are appaling, and far too easy to believe. We should all feel ashamed.
In the name of "fighting terror" the President has been able to assert his ability to do whatever it takes to protect us. All we need now is a gradual expansion of "terror" to include just about any criminal activity, and the President's power will be complete. Oh wait, that last bit is already happening.
Frankly, it is a smart idea in its own right, since it allows the NSA to do wholesale traffic analysis of almost the entire US without actually listening in on phone calls. It is probably the most truly useful intelligence gathering plan put forth by this administration. But when you put it together with all of the other unconstitutional powers that this
One thing the Bush administration says it can do with this meta-data is to start tapping your calls and listening in, without getting a warrant from anyone. Having listened in on your calls, the administration asserts that if it doesn't like what it hears, it has the authority to detain you indefinitely without trial or charges, torture you until you confess or implicate others, extradite you to a Third World country to be tortured, ship you to a secret prison facility in Eastern Europe, or all of the above. If, having kidnapped and tortured you, the administration determines you were innocent after all, you'll be dumped without papers somewhere in Albania left to fend for yourself.
The story of Khaled al-Masri is worth reviewing if you haven't heard of him before. He's the German citizen who was kidnaped by the US in an "extaordinary rendition", beaten, carted off to one of our secret prisons, then summarily released and dumped in Albania without papers. German authorities are quietly investigating the case, but seem reluctant to piss off the US, with whom they have just started to make up after a few years of bad relations. Stories like this are appaling, and far too easy to believe. We should all feel ashamed.
In the name of "fighting terror" the President has been able to assert his ability to do whatever it takes to protect us. All we need now is a gradual expansion of "terror" to include just about any criminal activity, and the President's power will be complete. Oh wait, that last bit is already happening.
Link | Leave a comment | Add to Memories | Tell a Friend
Bush Ignores Laws He Doesn't Like -- Officially
May. 10th, 2006 | 10:55 am
If you've been listening to NPR or following the progress of Presidential power, this will be old news to you. To everyone else, it might come as a bit of a shock.
There's a very nice article in the Boston Globe about Presidential Signing Statements. Basically, whenever he signs a bill into law the president can also file a signing statement. Historically, signing statements have been used for rhetorical purposes or to give additional instructions to government agencies on how the new laws should be implemented. Occasionally presidents have used signing statements to express grave misgivings about a law's constitutionality and their intent not to enforce it.
President Bush has taken this last use of the signing statement into uncharted territory, indicating he does not believe he has to follow 740 different laws passed during his tenure. These laws include Congressional oversight of the war and the administration of Iraq, whistleblower statues, attempt to legislate the military, and just about anything else he feels impinges on executive power.
The (un)funny bit is how administration supporters say that "just because he claims he can ignore laws doesn't mean he actually will". But we can see from his history that he has, in fact, chosen to do exactly that. Illegal wiretapping, torturing prisoners, and silencing GAO inspectors are actions that are contrary to legislation that Bush objected to in his signing statements.
To sum it all up, the President has decided that he is the final arbiter of constitutional limits on executive power, and he claims those powers are practically unlimited. Congress apparently has no interest in stopping him, and the court is now loaded with conservative appointees.
There's a very nice article in the Boston Globe about Presidential Signing Statements. Basically, whenever he signs a bill into law the president can also file a signing statement. Historically, signing statements have been used for rhetorical purposes or to give additional instructions to government agencies on how the new laws should be implemented. Occasionally presidents have used signing statements to express grave misgivings about a law's constitutionality and their intent not to enforce it.
President Bush has taken this last use of the signing statement into uncharted territory, indicating he does not believe he has to follow 740 different laws passed during his tenure. These laws include Congressional oversight of the war and the administration of Iraq, whistleblower statues, attempt to legislate the military, and just about anything else he feels impinges on executive power.
The (un)funny bit is how administration supporters say that "just because he claims he can ignore laws doesn't mean he actually will". But we can see from his history that he has, in fact, chosen to do exactly that. Illegal wiretapping, torturing prisoners, and silencing GAO inspectors are actions that are contrary to legislation that Bush objected to in his signing statements.
To sum it all up, the President has decided that he is the final arbiter of constitutional limits on executive power, and he claims those powers are practically unlimited. Congress apparently has no interest in stopping him, and the court is now loaded with conservative appointees.