Example blog bio

Well written bio:

As an American expat living in Cork, Ireland, Liz keeps her patriotism alive with sweet iced tea, country music, and the National Hockey League. Her American family is originally from the Caribbean. She was born and raised in Virginia, which is only kind of southern; and she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English from Fordham University in the Bronx, which is only kind of dangerous. Despite her multitude of living situations, she is neither very preppy nor very hipster, and she very consciously wears leggings as pants. 

She likes switching between a Southern-American, Cork Irish, and Trinidadian accent, and she takes great pride in her innate ability to sing any Disney song in full. She is a classically-trained pianist, a hip-hop dancer, and a ballet teacher. Her favorite books can't be picked but probably include Ella Enchanted and To Kill a Mockingbird. She has a penchant for Yeats, and all should know it is her life goal to play a villain in a Disney animated movie.

Via

Cleo, CLEO, CL|E|O

The Cleo company's history seems to span four decades, multiple acquisitions, and a number of changes in hardware and software strategies.

I think CLEO originally represented an acronym: “CLuster Environment Operator”* . This seems to cross-check with the stylized trademark, below, which has separators between the letters, as “CL|E|O”. The CLEO software seems to have run on TurboDOS and does represent a play on the name Cleopatra.

ORIGINS

From the publication “Kelly/Grimes IBM PC compatible computer directory”, c. 1985 (link):

“Phone 1 was incorporated in 1976 to manufacture voice data gathering systems, hence the name, Phone 1, Inc. Over the years a support staff of communications software specialists was assembled and software emerged as the forte. Although successful as a hardware manufacturer, Phone 1 directed its expertise to expanding the quality software programs available and so Phone 1 as a software house evolved.

Today, Phone 1 has risen to the forefront in data communications through its offering of 327X and 3780 emulation programs. Its proprietary software, licensed under the trademark CLEO, has gained the approval of many major OEMs and is offered as a software/hardware package by several OEMs.”

In a nutshell, CLEO products helped personal computers, workstations, and midrange computers to talk to IBM-compatible mainframes.

CLEO ADVERTISEMENTS


It’s beautiful....
CLEO advertisement, BYTE magazine’s July 1983 issue (via)

• Synchronous Data Link Control (SDLC)
• Binary Synchronous Communication (BSC or Bisync)
• IBM 3270 green-screen terminal

Magic flying floppy diskette carpets (?) (c. 1985, via)

CLEO HISTORY

• Phone 1, Inc. (Phone1), of Rockford, Illinois, forms in1976:
• From the original chairman’s LinkedIn account: “Startup provided communications software solutions to O.E.M.s. After arrival on the PC, Cleo became a software publisher and manufacturer of high-speed modem cards.” (link)
• Some names of prominent employees: Richard E. Newberry, Jeffrey C. Schneider, Gerald Lombardi, Jack G. Adams, and Carol Delheimer (via)
• Interface Systems, Inc. (ISI) – sometime between 1988-1990, this Ann Arbor, Michigan-based company seems to have acquired Phone1 and/or CLEO Software, making it a division of the company
• Tumbleweed Communications, of Scottsdale, Arizona, acquires ISI in 2000, and, as a condition of the acquisition, divests ISI’s Cleo solutions group (note: this divesture saves CLEO Software from Axway’s 2008 acquisition of Tumbleweed Communications)
• DFI Communications – in 2000, this Rockford, Illinois-based company purchases the newly divested Cleo Communications Solutions...Brian Hampton, of DFI Communications, becomes CLEO Communications Solutions CEO & president
• Globe Equity Partners – in 2012, this California private equity investment firm acquires CLEO Communications...chief principals of Globe Equity Partners, Mahesh Rajasekharan and Sumit Garg, take over as CLEO CEO and president, respectively, with Brian Hampton stays on as advisor

TRADEMARKS OVER TIME - JUST FOR FUN


Circa 1980’s (Phone 1, Inc)...my favorite


Circa 1996 (ISI)


Circa 2001 (DFI)


Circa 2007 (DFI)


Present (Global Equity Partners)

The end.


* Go to the copyright.gov "Search Records" page, select "Search By" value Keyword, enter "Phone 1" in textbox "Search for", select button "Begin Search"...on the results screen, see result, "Cluster environment operator : Cleo 1.01 : user's guide for TurboDos."

Sprint acronym

Via:

"Sprint’s moniker dates to the mid-1970s, when it stood for “Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony.”)"

A very special DragonForce Christmas

Something my wife and I joked around about over the break--will DragonForce ever make a Christmas album? If so, and I hear about it, I will publish it here.

Adaptation

"Stratton wore special glasses which inverted images up and down and left and right for over a week, and discovered that the human brain could adapt to these new conditions."

Hrm--sounds like an interesting experiment.

Via: http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2015/01/14/crazy-helmets-let-you-see-like-an-animal-wearablewednesday/

You Will Be My Son - Film

Watched the 2011 film "You Will Be My Son" (French: Tu seras mon fils) this evening with a friend. Niels Arestrup crackles as Father while Patrick Chesnais plays the increasingly troubled estate steward. Nicolas Bridet plays Chesnais' preternaturally gifted son--over-praised by Arestrup--whose re-appearance sets in motion the movie's central conflict and story arcs of each main character.

Lush, outstanding cinematography of vineyards and estate buildings. My only regret--not having a glass of wine to drink while viewing. Casting seemed spot-perfect for all players.

The contrast between the warm, initial re-uniting of Chesnais and Bridet, at the beginning of the movie, and their later, wounded and hurting meetings, struck me. As observers, we see Arestrup's son, played skillfully by Lorànt Deutsch, peacefully interacting with Chesnais, making educated and insightful assessments of how to step-in and save the harvest, due to Chesnais' absence. Arestrup may have a point in that Deutsch does not have Chesnais' palette or nose; but Arestrup's judgments of his son prevent Arestrup from seeing him as anything but a burden.

The tension builds and builds--it seems a foregone conclusion the denouement will involve violence, but the resolution did come a bit unexpectedly, though the movie telegraphs it pretty clearly, in retrospect. Arestrup tells his story in three parts: first, to Deutsch, he relates how he falsely reported his own father's death as drowning in a local river, due to inebriation, to cover-up the the actual cause of death--drowning in a wine vat after succumbing to carbon dioxide fumes given off by the fermentation process (the false report allowed Arestrup to sell the wine and avoid tarnishing the name of the estate); second, to Bridet, confiding in him Arestrup's father's decision to adopt Arestrup, after observing his skill in maintaining the estate--echoing Arestrup's own fixation on Bridet as a non-biological heir; and third, to Deutsch, near the end of the film, explaining how the birth of a sickly Deutsch transformed Deutsch's mother, in Arestrup's opinion, from joyful to exhausted--revealing the root of Arestrup's animus toward Deutsch and, in effect, guilting Deutsch with her death.

I loved the drawing of the stick-figure on Anne Marivin's belly near the end. She plays a loyal supporting role, throwing elbows when needed to temper Arestrup's caustic barbs, which have beaten down Deutsch, by the start of the film.

Chesnais and Valérie Mairesse, as Chesnais' wife and Bridet's mother, to me, represent an oasis of safety for Deutsch--we see their genuine concern and caring for him, as the viewer might expect, given their long history with the estate and Arestrup. Deutsch confides in them and Chesnais' treats him as a peer, confirming Deutsch's analysis as sound. We can clearly see Chesnais' growing pain as he watches his son Bridet's choices--ignoring the needs of Deutsch to meet Arestrup's needs and his own. The conflict between them resolves with raised voices and a falling out. The last we see of Bridet, he does not have time to talk to Chesnais or attend Chesnais' health appointment...it seems Chesnais, perhaps, sees his son turning into Arestrup. In an attempt to save Bridet from continuing down that path, Chesnais murders Arestrup by asphyxiation from carbon dioxide released from the fermentation--an echoing of Arestrup's own father's death.

This development opens up questions, perhaps, of whether Arestrup's father truly died accidentally...or, teasingly, leaving me wondering if Chesnais' father killed Arestrup's father? And, if so, did Chesnais know, or, like Bridet, did he take on the role in ignorance of his own father's actions?

Other ambiguities: who inherits the estate after Arestrup's death? It seems Deutsch and Marivin will leave to start their family. Did Arestrup formally adopt Bridet before his death, and, in so doing, make Bridet an heir to the estate?

So much to praise about this movie. If it does not make you want a glass of wine, nothing will.

Note: as perhaps the weirdest pairing of all time, we first watched the 2014 animated film The Nut Job. The consensus: it was OK, but forgettable...so much human effort put into the film--at least they made a sizable profit. Never has Psy's Gangnam Style seemed so dated as watching him dance in the ending credits. A catchy tune, but it has not aged well.

Gaming and social justice viewpoints

Via Jeff Vogel's "Storytelling, Critical Nitpickery, and the Dragon Age":

"Dragon Age: Inquisition is pretty much a shopping list of almost every social justice wish list item you could hope for. Female player option? Check. Gay characters and same-sex romances? Check. Trans character? Check. (!) Bechdel Test? Hell, if you roll a female character, you can easily be 20 minutes into the game before you hear a male character say a line. More if you spend a lot of time looking for Elfroot. 

And yet, DAL:I as much of a hardcore gamery game as the gameriest gamer could want, and while applause is not unanimous, gamers are giving the thing a fair chance. Which has a message for both sides. For gamers: It is possible to have a big, fun gamer game with a more social justice viewpoint. For activists: Gamers are not evil, mindless orcs. We'll happily play games from all sorts of political points of view as long as they are fun."

One of *those* guys - anecdote on Richard Stallman

An interesting anecdote from a recent Hacker News discussion, from user gumby:

> You haven't chosen to be the middle ground here. RMS has chosen to make you the middle ground, because that's where he wanted it to be, so he hiked all the way over there to plant his flag in order to move the middle.

I'm sorry: that's a good strategy, but I have known RMS since the late '70s (since back when he still had short hair!) and that is not has strategy. He is earnest, even when it is to his detriment.
Funny anecdote in this regard: I had never really met anyone quite so dogmatic, passionate, principled and resolute as RMS (you can say that whether you agree with him or not -- though roughly, I of course do agree with him). I used to consider him to be a uniquely polarizing figure. Anyway, in the 80s I had a girlfriend who wasn't in computing and had never heard of him. He came out to visit me in California. When she met him, she just commented, "oh, one of those guys."
WTF? Turned out the two of them had grown up in the same neighborhood in the Bronx. She said the 'hood was "full of guys just like him" (although presumably they were obcessed about some other topics). Sadly her family had since moved elsewhere so I never collected empirical confirmation.

kylebrown 23 hours ago | link
I have no idea what your then-girlfriend meant by one of those guys. Or whether the Bronx hood was full of obsessed guys in the '70s?? I am genuinely curious, though.

gumby 11 hours ago | link
FWIW I doubt she meant anything judgmental by her remark (approval or disapproval or whatever).
I think she just meant that she saw lots of RMSs growing up: a guy, perhaps a product of his time, who had a certain intensive attitude on a position, a taste for the extremist polemic, strongly held beliefs anchored in moral fervor etc. Also accent, body language, dress, etc. Surely similar people can be found everywhere, but in her case she meant that in the 60s, 70s and 80s Bronx you could get off the train and see bunch of guys that would look to her just like him. She grew up in the same cultural broth, even if it manifested itself differently -- but yes she was and is intense.
I haven't forgotten that simple sentence because it changed something for me: RMS sure can come off as being completely sui generis but really he (like everyone, whether a lowly ant like me or an Issac Newton or Barbara McClintock) is a product not only of self creation but also of his context and upbringing. And realizing that has helped me grow and change (or accept that some things are harder to change than others) over the past few decades.

Previously;  Previously; Previously

Smells that comfort

A Quora question listed some.

Wondering again how to communicate smells...have not researched it.

Previously;

Cupcakes and pizza

Stopped in Davis on the way out of Sacramento on Friday evening and got six cupcakes at Let Them Eat Cake:

1. Wake Up Call - Coffee cake with coffee frosting
2. Vegan Chocolate - Vegan chocolate cake and frosting
3. To Grandmother's House We Go - Gingerbread cake with cream cheese frosting (seasonal, winter)
4. Dubliner - Guinness Stout chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream
5. Scarlett - Red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting
6. Down by the Sea - Vanilla cake with salted caramel buttercream

Also, I stopped at the Village Bakery and got two slices of cheese and two slices of veggie. 

Collin Street Bakery - Miniature Pecan Cakes

This bakery, from Corsicana, Texas, makes delicious Miniature Pecan Cakes. We have tried two of the four:

1. Mini DeLuxe Fruitcake
2. Mini Apricot Pecan Cake

They sell them in a set of four, 9 oz. mini cakes (about 5" across), for $55.45. 

Note: they also sell Mini Pineapple Pecan Cake and one Mini Apple Cinnamon Pecan Cake.

Citrix Receiver 13.1 for Linux - More Citrix, More Problems

Smiled when I saw Citrix released Citrix Receiver 13.1 for Linux, what seems like a true 64-bit Citrix Receiver client. It seemed to install cleanly to Debian Wheezy--good. It even allowed me to login to my employer's install of Citrix Web Interface 5.? to access XenApp VM hosted apps--promising.

However, selecting a hosted app icon via the Web Interface only seemed to change my mouse cursor from a pointer into a spinning circle for a few seconds, after which it revered to a pointer. Waiting for several minutes, nothing appeared. I tried access in both Mozilla IceWeasel 31.3.0 and Google Chrome 37.0.2062.120. Poking around in /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/, I noted running the binaries seemed to work OK (for example, selfservice)...no core dumps or broken dependencies, it seems.

I also tried installing the Citrix Receiver for HTML5 1.5. This seemed to have similar results as the Citrix Receiver 13.1 for Linux--successful authentication, but no success when selecting hosted app icons.

A WORKAROUND

A brief web search discovered this URL:

http://zo0ok.com/techfindings/archives/1743

which pointed me to /opt/Citrix/ICAClient/wfica.sh . I downloaded the .ICA file after selecting the hosted app icon, then passed the file path to it as a parameter to wfica.sh, as described at the URL. Success.

So, at this point, I know I can run hosted apps manually, which suffices....

Previously; Previously; Previously

Pack of Lies

Listened to a riveting performance of Pack of Lies, the play, on the drive last night. I heard the 2004 or 2005 version produced by L.A. Theatre Works and recorded in front of a live audience.

The performance features Martin Jarvis as Stewart and Rosalind Ayres as Barbara Jackson. In real life, Jarvis and Ayres married each other in 1974.

Description
Actual events during the Cold War inspired this thriller that takes place in a suburb of London during the autumn and winter of 1960-1961. Loyalty, duty, and friendship collide when the Jacksons slowly discover the Krogers, their neighbors and cherished friends, are not what they appear. A gripping play that may leave you wondering exactly what it is those nice people next door are really up to. Starring (in alphabetical order): Megan Austin Oberle as Julie, Sally Rosalind Ayres as Barbara Jackson Roxanne Hart as Helen Kroger Martin Jarvis as Stewart Sione Owen as Thelma Julian Sands as Bob Jackson David Selby as Peter Kroger.

'Meeting d'Aviation Nice', France, 1910

What a view!

"Description
Photolithographic poster, with artwork by Charles Dana Gibson. This poster was produced for an early aviation meeting in Nice, France, held from 10 to 25 April 1910, and shows an airman flying above the coastal town of Nice, scattering flowers from his aeroplane. The prize money offered at Nice totalled 210,000 francs (£9,000), and the speed prize was won by Efimoff at 35 miles an hour. The sport and spectacle of the first meetings were instrumental in the great rise in popularity of aviation in the first two decades of the 20th century.

Artist
Gibson, Charles Dana

Image Ref.
10200845"
Via: http://www.ssplprints.com/image/82420/gibson-charles-dana-meeting-daviation-nice-france-1910

Blocking receptor in brain’s immune cells counters Alzheimer’s in mice, study finds

A Stanford study:

Blocking receptor in brain’s immune cells counters Alzheimer’s in mice, study finds

Brain cells called microglia chew up toxic substances and cell debris, calm inflammation and make nerve-cell-nurturing substances. New research shows that keeping them on the job may prevent neurodegeneration. 

http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2014/12/blocking-receptor-in-brains-immune-cells-counters-alzheimers.html

KEY TERMS

• microglia: a defense cell which regulates brain health, sort of like an immune cell
• EP2: a receptor on microglia
• PGE2: binds to EP2, causing microglia overstimulation and deterioration, which may ultimately lead to brain inflammation (means: prostaglandin E2)
• Aspirin: provides upstream help by preventing certain enzymes from forming molecules which then get converted into PGE2
• A-beta: microglia control the brain levels of this protein...can form clusters toxic to nerve cells--Alzheimer’s plaques

KEY TAKEAWAY

Brain immune system health (via microglia) seems to decline over time. Researchers have found a rather preliminary (in my opinion), but promising, way to restore microglial fitness by silencing microglia receptor EP2, which, when overstimulated, causes microglia deterioration. Researchers have not fully explored the consequences of doing this, it seems (?)

NOTES

Researchers increased the load of A-beta levels in brain cells with and without EP2 receptors and found several different results:

1. Young brain cells did just fine with increased A-beta loads
2. Older brain cells struggled with increased A-beta loads...perhaps as a result of less fit microglia
3. When researchers silenced receptor EP2 on older brain cells, microglial fitness increased

Researchers noted increased EP2 signaling seemed to occur at the same time as microglial production of inflammation, decreased A-beta munching, and so forth.

Previous work in the same lab showed an increase in inflammation when EP2 binded to PGE2.

(Via)

Donnelly Chocolates

Visited this small shop on Mission the afternoon of New Year's Eve:
https://www.donnellychocolates.com/

Met Henry Donnelly at the cashier. He suggested reports of whale sightings from around 11:00 a.m., down at the beach. We later would check things out, but did not see anything.

Read more about their recent recognition:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/20130213/national-geographic-names-richard-donnelly-fine-chocolates-one-of-10-worlds-best-chocolatiers

Richard Donnelly, incidentally, attended Ripon College in Wisconsin.

The chocolate looks very smooth and consistent in color and dense. We purchased a dark chocolate ice cream bar with sea salt, a bar of dark chocolate dark French roast, a peanut-butter dark chocolate bar, and a dark-chocolate caramel sea salt bar. All delicious.

The Theory of Everything

Watched Subject at The Nickelodeon in Santa Cruz, on Lincoln Street. "The Nick" represents a cozy, locally-owned and operated theater, which resides a block away from Pacific Avenue, downtown. This was our first visit. We bought a medium popcorn and a plastic bag of caramel popcorn for later, sitting in theater #3.

The movie does an exceptional job showing the personal side of family life with an ALS member. It only rarely shows an aside of Hawking's later academic life. The parts where he begins struggling with muscle control feel tense; the frustration is real.

The University of Cambridge comes out looking marvelous. Cows grazing, wood paneling, tiny bunked rooms, croquet, rowing, hedges...such an alien world from corporate life. David Thewlis played Hawking's thesis supervisor, Dennis Sciama. In one scene, he brings Hawking to a University of Cambridge laboratory and invokes the name of J.J. Thompson and Rutherford, then leaves him to absorb it all in.

A surprise cameo: Emily Watson as Jane's mother.

A friend mentioned a late scene where Hawking lets Jane go resonated strongly with her--the tears flow freely and the close shots help bring the audience right into the perspective of each of them. The break-up felt a bit flat, however, in the sense that Hawking let her go only after he had securely met his own needs. The artificial conflict of God seems interesting but tacked-on.

I can understand why people tamp down their marks a bit when rating it. It covers a lot of ground. It goes for depth and compassion in a complicated (to put it mildly) relationship. It aims high and ends up a bit flat, though no fault of the lead actors.

The scene introducing Hawking's Equalizer software (I think?) seemed fresh. Four words per minute.

Hawking comes across as someone with raw talent, who finds inspiration in a lecture by Penrose. Wikipedia says Jane's love gave him something to live for, however.

On harrassment

Awareness tips

http://www.robot-hugs.com/harassment/

(via)

Hawaii State Fish

Reef triggerfish, or: Humuhumunukunukuapua'a
HOOMOO HOOMOO NOOKOO NOOKOO AH POO AH AH

It means, "triggerfish with a snout like a pig."

More

Pogonip Pummelers

$25 of gift certificate glory

Current reigning champions, Dawn and I succeeded in besting all the teams one, potentially drunk team to win the $25 gift certificate at the Upper Crust New Year's Eve Trivia Night. Our win streak stands at one week...we stood-in for out-of-town friends who could not make it this week.

We answered questions like the following:

• Round 1
• What was Hermione's last name in the Harry Potter universe?
• What sport throws salt before competing?
• Kodiak Island represents the largest island of which U.S. state?
• Round 2
• The Gulf War started when Iraq invaded which country?
• What instrument does the leader of an orchestra typically play?
• How many moons does Mars have?
• Round 3
• What three U.S. states border Lake Superior? (such a gimmee, for me)
• What is the eastern-most U.S. state?
• What Kingdom owns Greenland?
• Bonus round: What city housed the first U.S. Mint?

Due to low turnout, the host, Chris, played only one gift certificate challenge (I guess they usually do two or more). No beer chug-off needed--this seems like the customary way ties get decided, based on videos on their Facebook page...seeing who can quaff a beer faster. We got a +5 bonus for best team name (see Subject), due to his preference for the word Pogonip, a Shoshone word meaning "icy fog," which represents a local Santa Cruz city park near the UCSC campus.

Teams get 5 points for each correct answer. If the team provides a wrong answer, but it makes the host laugh, they get 1 point. Teams tear off a piece of paper from a 4"x6" index card and write their team name on one side and their answer on the other, then hand it to the host after each question. The last question represents the bonus round, during which teams must wager between 1 and 35 points. Depending on whether a team answers successfully or not, they gain or lose their wager. So, it can allow a team to win, even if they have a substantial deficit. 

We got all the answers except for the Greenland one. We wagered 10 points and answered the bonus round successfully. So, it seems we had 60 points out of a potential 85 maximum for the round (45 for the regular rounds + 35 for bonus round + 5 for team name). Chris seemed like a very personable and gregarious guy and congratulated the other team with a free pitcher of beer (in addition to their existing one).

Sadly, it looks like we will not have the ability to defend our title next week, as I am out-of-town.

Nerdolescence

Posted without comment, for now:

Finding out that you're not the Rebel Alliance, you're actually part of the Empire and have been all along
http://boingboing.net/2014/12/31/finding-out-that-youre-not-t.html#more-355857

What I believe
http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=2119

Heavy stuff and something I look forward to discussing further.

If a man has not discovered....

"If a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live."
-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Speech on the Great March on Detroit, 23 June 1963

Dell Inspiron 15r teardown and hinge repair

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/how-to-disassemble-dell-inspiron-15r-5521-15-3521laptop/

and

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19522781

The hinge repair seems like a common problem with this laptop. I used a soldering iron, per suggestion, to heat the metal, then gently pushed it down into the gap. I think I had the iron at 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily, the original hinge screws still reached the metal and seem to secure the hinge.

I tore the laptop down in order to see if any cat hair needed removal from the CPU fan. It turned out only a minor amount of hair seemed stuck. Cleaned it up and put it back together. Put all the screws in labeled baggies, which helped with putting it back together. Took about 60-90 minutes, in total, with the hinge repair.

Dell Inspiron 15r teardown

http://www.insidemylaptop.com/how-to-disassemble-dell-inspiron-15r-5521-15-3521laptop/

http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN117599/EN

Warren Buffet's 2014 Memo to Berkshire Hathaway Managers

This biennial letter follows, nearly word-for-word, the format of letters from previous years, with updates to the various statistics (for example, number of employees). Mr. Buffett included the 2010 letter in that year's annual Shareholder Letter: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/2010ltr.pdf (via: http://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html)

Text of the memo:

Memo 

To: Berkshire Hathaway Managers (“The All-Stars”) 

cc: Berkshire Directors 

From: Warren E. Buffett 

Date: December 19, 2014 

This is my biennial letter to reemphasize Berkshire’s top priority and to get your help on succession planning (yours, not mine!). 

The top priority–trumping everything else, including profits–is that all of us continue to zealously guard Berkshire’s reputation. We can’t be perfect but we can try to be. As I’ve said in these memos for more than 25 years: “We can afford to lose money – even a lot of money. But we can’t afford to lose reputation – even a shred of reputation.” We must continue to measure every act against not only what is legal but also what we would be happy to have written about on the front page of a national newspaper in an article written by an unfriendly but intelligent reporter. 

Sometimes your associates will say “Everybody else is doing it.” This rationale is almost always a bad one if it is the main justification for a business action. It is totally unacceptable when evaluating a moral decision. Whenever somebody offers that phrase as a rationale, in effect they are saying that they can’t come up with a good reason. If anyone gives this explanation, tell them to try using it with a reporter or a judge and see how far it gets them. 

If you see anything whose propriety or legality causes you to hesitate, be sure to give me a call. However, it’s very likely that if a given course of action evokes such hesitation, it’s too close to the line and should be abandoned. There’s plenty of money to be made in the center of the court. If it’s questionable whether some action is close to the line, just assume it is outside and forget it. 

As a corollary, let me know promptly if there’s any significant bad news. I can handle bad news but I don’t like to deal with it after it has festered for awhile. A reluctance to face up immediately to bad news is what turned a problem at Salomon from one that could have easily been disposed of into one that almost caused the demise of a firm with 8,000 employees.
Somebody is doing something today at Berkshire that you and I would be unhappy about if we knew of it. That’s inevitable: We now employ more than 330,000 people and the chances of that number getting through the day without any bad behavior occurring is nil. But we can have a huge effect in minimizing such activities by jumping on anything immediately when there is the slightest odor of impropriety. Your attitude on such matters, expressed by behavior as well as words, will be the most important factor in how the culture of your business develops. Culture, more than rule books, determines how an organization behaves. 

In other respects, talk to me about what is going on as little or as much as you wish. Each of you does a first-class job of running your operation with your own individual style and you don’t need me to help. The only items you need to clear with me are any changes in post-retirement benefits, acquisitions, and any unusually large capital expenditures. But I like to read, so send along anything that you think I may find interesting. 

I need your help in respect to the question of succession. I’m not looking for any of you to retire and I hope you all live to 100. (In Charlie’s case, 110.) But just in case you don’t, please send me a letter or email giving your recommendation as who should take over tomorrow if you should become incapacitated overnight. These letters will be seen by no one but me unless I’m no longer CEO, in which case my successor will need the information. Please summarize the strengths and weaknesses of your primary candidate as well as any possible alternates you may wish to include. Most of you have participated in this exercise in the past and others have offered your ideas verbally. However, it’s important to me to get a periodic update, and now that we have added so many businesses, I need to have your thoughts in writing rather than trying to carry them around in my memory. Of course, there are a few operations that are run by two or more of you – such as the Blumkins, the Merschmans, the pair at Applied Underwriters, etc. – and in these cases, just forget about this item. Your note can be short, informal,handwritten, etc. Just mark it “Personal for Warren.” 

Thanks for your help on all of this. And thanks for the way you run your businesses. You make my job easy. 

WEB/db 

P.S. Another minor request: Please turn down all proposals for me to speak, make contributions, intercede with the Gates Foundation, etc. Sometimes these requests for you to act as intermediary will be accompanied by “It can’t hurt to ask.” It will be easier for both of us if you just say “no.” As an added favor, don’t suggest that they instead write or call me. Multiply 80 or so businesses by the periodic “I think he’ll be interested in this one” and you can understand why it is better to say no firmly and immediately.

GSBF Bonsai Garden at Lake Merritt

http://gsbf-lakemerritt.org/

From a brochure we picked up at a Cherry Blossom festival in San Francisco's Japantown several years ago.

Mean Gene's Burgers - Tracy, California

Mean Gene's Burgers - Tracy, California, at the corner of North Tracy Boulevard and West Larch Road, circa 2012

UPDATE, 2015-05-18: closed, for all intents and purposes...signage inside and outside remains, and staff will cook a burger for you, but no formal menu, no branded cups/placemats/and so forth.

Mean Gene, of course, represents the WWE announcer Gene Okerlund, a Minnesota native. Wikipedia explains:

His name has been associated with fast food concept, Mean Gene's Burgers, the brainchild of food-distributor Orion Food Systems (headed by two of Okerlund's nephews), which appeared on college campuses including Duke University and his alma mater West Virginia University, as well as a chain of pizzerias located within bowling alleys, Mean Gene's Pizza. These are owned by Hot Stuff Foods, which was headed by two of his nephews. Early in 2006, Okerlund and Hot Stuff split. Okerlund and one of the nephews were planning to start their own food company on the brands, but Hot Stuff sued, claiming they had "Mean Gene" trademarked. Okerlund lost, with the judge saying that Okerlund can't use the name "Mean Gene" for his new food company. Okerlund succeeded in canceling the trademark registrations held by Orion, but remains enjoined from competing with Orion.

The official Mean Gene web site, revamped in early 2014, seems to contain a page titled "Burgers"...however, it fails to have any info, as of this posting.

UPDATE: 2015-05-02, stopped here on Friday, May 1! They told me they had closed the grill at 3:00 p.m. due to lack of people...so, will have to stop by another day, before 3:00 p.m.

Soldering tips for shaky hands

From my supervisor, Dan:

• Wooden toothpick, frayed end, to apply solder paste
• Heat gun at 630 degrees
• Touch hand poke
• Tacky flux
• Paste solder
• SMD stands for Solder Mask Defined
• Tip tinner

The Style Rookie

A wise-beyond-her-years Tavi Gavinson, interviewed in February 2014 on Marketplace.

Daruma Doll

Daruma Dolls and their origins:

The Daruma doll (達磨 daruma?), also known as a Dharma doll, is a hollow, round, Japanese traditional doll modeled after Bodhidharma, the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism. 

The current popular symbolism associated with Daruma as a good luck charm in part originated with the Daruma-dera (Temple of Daruma) in the city of Takasaki (Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo). Josef Kyburz, author of "Omocha": Things to Play (Or Not to Play) with, explained that the founder of Daruma-Dera would draw New Year’s charms depicting Bodhidharma. The parishioners would keep these charms to "bring happiness and prosperity and ward off accidents and misfortune".[3] 

It is believed that the Daruma figurine then originated from this region when the ninth priest, Togaku, found a solution to handle the constant requests of the parishioners for new charms. The charms were always given with an effectiveness of one year, so the people required new ones every year. He solved this by entrusting them with the making of their own Daruma charms near the beginning of the Meiwa period (1764–72). The temple made wooden block molds for the people to use. The peasants then used these molds to make three-dimensional papier-mâché charms.[4]

“Who said “north” was up?

"Upside-down" world map

A specialty map published by Oxford Cartographers. The first panel, in the lower-left, reads:

“Who said “north” was up?
The world, like a ball, has no top.
We can look at it from any point of view.
Top is a matter of habit, convention, and emphasis. The map (1st picture, top) teaches us to question our assumptions.”

Available (note: I have no knowledge or experience with this vendor; caveat emptor).

Green Camel Company, Japan

Cute: http://www.greencamel.co.jp/property/property03_05.html

Dawn found these San-X plush cute:

Cactus

Yummy Lemon

Cecily Strong's Go-To Wine

Cecily Strong, in Glamour magazine:

DO pop a bottle of vino—you’ve earned it, sister.My first job after college was selling wine at Greenblatt’s Deli-Restaurant & Fine Wine Shop in Los Angeles. I was 22 and broke and had to wear a humiliating blue apron, but I left knowing which Bordeaux blends I liked most (those from the Saint-Emilion and Pomerol region, if you ever want to bribe me). A great bottle of wine—and, trust me, you can find one for 10 bucks—can make any night feel extra special. (Sorry if you don’t drink. This suggestion sucks for you. I’d bet you can research up on another staple of the good life, like steak or cheese or something.)

Sam's Market, Sacramento

I occasionally purchase an egg salad sandwich on a toasted soft roll for $5--one of the best lunch deals in town.

Sam's Market uses Raymond's Sweet French Bread.

Rotten Robbie

Here in the Bay Area, a company called Rotten Robbie sells gasoline:

The “Rotten Robbie” moniker was a fun (and inexpensive) way to have a name customers would remember and associate with the company’s competitive fuel prices and well run stores.  Rotten Robbie seemed to work, so we continue to be Rotten Robbie today, and hopefully well into tomorrow.

Fluency Illusion

Benedict Carey writes:

Psychologists have studied learning long enough to have an answer, and typically it’s not a lack of effort (or of some elusive test-taking gene). The problem is that we have misjudged the depth of what we know. We are duped by a misperception of “fluency,” believing that because facts or formulas or arguments are easy to remember right now, they will remain that way tomorrow or the next day. This fluency illusion is so strong that, once we feel we have some topic or assignment down, we assume that further study won’t strengthen our memory of the material. We move on, forgetting that we forget. 

Often our study “aids” simply create fluency illusions — including, yes, highlighting — as do chapter outlines provided by a teacher or a textbook. Such fluency misperceptions are automatic; they form subconsciously and render us extremely poor judges of what we need to restudy or practice again. “We know that if you study something twice, in spaced sessions, it’s harder to process the material the second time, and so people think it’s counterproductive,” Nate Kornell, a psychologist at Williams College, said. “But the opposite is true: You learn more, even though it feels harder. Fluency is playing a trick on judgment.”

Unicode, UTF-8, Ken Thompson

Ken Thompson, boss:

https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/utf-8-history.txt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs#Unicode
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode#Unicode_Transformation_Format_and_Universal_Character_Set

Also, the Internet has confirmed I am not the only one who thinks Dennis Ritchie looks like Adam Savage. ; o )

Note: Unicode originated a bit differently and does not mean the same thing as UTF-8.

Simón Wilson Music for Film and Video Gamers

Saw an ad for Mr. Wilson's SoundCloud account in the Jack Baskin School of Engineering.

Good stuff; sharing the love. If you need some music, check him out.

Comic Papyrus

Oh dear...someone went there (via):

Fictional (as far as I know) example font of typeface "Comic Papyrus", a combination of typefaces Comic Sans and Papyrus

Note: wondering about the difference between typeface and font, as I was?

Physics World Top 10 physics announcements of 2014

A listicle from the web site Physics World, outlining, in their determination, the top 10 physics announcements of 2014:

1. Comet landing named Physics World 2014 Breakthrough of the Year
2. Neutrinos spotted from Sun's main nuclear reaction 
3. Laser fusion passes milestone 
4. Data stored in magnetic holograms 
5. Quasar shines a bright light on cosmic web 
6. Lasers ignite 'supernovae' in the lab 
7. Electrons' magnetic interactions isolated at long last 
8. Disorder sharpens optical-fibre images 
9. Physicists sound-out acoustic tractor beam 
10. Quantum data are compressed for the first time

I felt inspired reading about things such as the tractor beam and the laser fusion. Note: UC-Santa Cruz researchers assisted with "Quasar shines a bright light on cosmic web". 

What color is it?

Clever and educational: http://whatcolourisit.scn9a.org/

Reference: web colors

Bring them inside - Grey alien

Laughed out loud when I saw this:

Caption reads: "If you're cold, they're cold; Bring them inside," with picture of Grey alien looking in through window pane

In all seriousness, consider helping out your fellow community members this year.

Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing: Chocolate Pumpkin Porter

Dawn tried this beer last night at 99 Bottles in Santa Cruz:

#58: Santa Cruz Mountain Chocolate Pumpkin Porter - 6%  Draft
(Santa Cruz, CA) Brewed with TCHO cacao nibs, 150 lbs. of organic sugar pie pumpkins, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla, this dark and luscious porter is the perfect fall treat.
$5.75/pint 8.75/25 oz. 16.25/pitcher

It turns out Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing tap room lives just a few blocks from our apartment.

Debian Wheezy + Logitech Mini Boombox

A friend recently gifted me a Logitech Mini Boombox (Model F-00003, p/n 880-000243). Logitech introduced this product in the United States market in 2011 at a price point of about $100.

This product supports Bluetooth 2.1 and can play music up to 33 feet away. It supports four Bluetooth profiles:

1. Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)
2. Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP)
3. Hands-Free Profile (HFP)
4. Headset Profile (HSP)

GNU/LINUX DEBIAN WHEEZY CONFIGURATION

Initially, I successfully paired the device to my IBM Lenovo X201 laptop...no problems. However, the device did not appear under "Sound Settings" tab "Hardware" (that is, GNOME control center - Sound)

After a bunch of web searches and unsuccessful configurations of /etc/bluetooth/audio.conf (note: I eventually reverted it to default and it was fine), it turned out installing pulseaudio-module-bluetooth seemed to allow the device to appear:

sudo apt-get install pulseaudio-module-bluetooth

pacmd load-module module-bluetooth-discover

Note: I may have ran "pulseaudio -k" to restart audio...and the sound comes through with static...some fine-tuning still needs to occur.

UPDATE: to improve audio quality, access control panel "GNOME control center - Sound" (that is, "Sound Settings"), select tab "Hardware," then select device "Mini Boombox", then, under section "Settings for the selected device," select profile "High Fidelity Playback (A2DP)" from the pull-down list. (Via)

UPDATE: after a reboot, ran pulseaudio -k again before I could get it to work

UPDATE, 2015-05-03: Fresh install of Debian Jessie and everything works after installing pulseaudio-module-bluetooth and running pacmd.

UC Santa Cruz - Banana Slug Sighting

Dawn found this one while walking from McHenry Library to the Jack Baskin School of Engineering: a banana slug...on a banana peel. : o )

UC Santa Cruz - Slug mascot for Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS)

The UC Santa Cruz Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) uses the following image for their mascot.

UC Santa Cruz - Hitchhiking at the bus stop

On several occasions, I have noticed UCSC students hitchhiking at bus stops, attempting to more quickly move farther up the hill.

Have only noticed this along Heller Drive, on campus.

Wanderers

A fantastically detailed, atmospherically scored short film:

http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers/

MEAN Javascript Fullstack

Installed the MEAN.io stack today. MEAN represents an acronym which stands for MongoDB, Node.js, Express, and AngularJS.

NOTES

• I am running Debian Wheezy stable with backports
• Installing npm
• sudo apt-get install nodejs
• sudo curl https://www.npmjs.org/install.sh | sudo sh
• sudo npm install -g mean-cli
• sudo apt-get install mongodb
• sudo apt-get install grunt
• sudo npm install -g grunt-cli
• mean init yourNewApp
• cd yourNewApp && npm install
• grunt

I think the above represents the gist of what I did...I had a few hiccups along the way. I found the MEAN.io documentation helpful.

Which dentist's office would you prefer?

Wine? ; o ) Smells like fresh-baked cookies?

Via: http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/03/helping_users_f.html

Ferrell's Donuts - Santa Cruz, California

Anecdotally, on why Santa Cruz has donut shops named "Ferrell's" and "The Original Ferrell's":

On this particular morning I was passing through Scotts Valley on my way to play at a Church and I decided it was time to figure this thing out. I asked, “What’s with the word Original in the name?” She told me that years ago, there were 5 affiliated Ferrell’s Donut Shops (2 of them have since gone out of business). 2 more donut shops opened and somehow legally got the business name of Ferrell’s. The owner of the Original 5 shops wanted to separate himself from the fakes, so he changed the name to “The Original Ferrell’s Donuts.” It’s too bad for him that, in my opinion, the copies are better that the original.

Sounds fishy.

Silicon Valley Job Title Generator

http://siliconvalleyjobtitlegenerator.tumblr.com/

Shingy.

Refrigerator compressor decibel levels

Living in an apartment with a refrigerator with a slowly failing compressor. Measured decibel readings today using Android Play Store app Noise Meter by JINASYS, one of four apps which partially met the criteria of the NIOSH Science Blog staff.

We measured our room noise levels with the refrigerator compressor on and off.

RESULTS

Refrigerator compressor ON

• 50.7dB - Six inches away (Noise level: Interior noise in car)
• 43.6dB - six feet away (Noise level: Library)
• 35.9dB - 13-14 feet away (Noise level: Whispering words)

Refrigerator compressor OFF

• 21.3dB - Six inches away (Noise level: Very calm room)
• 20.3dB - six feet away (Noise level: Very calm room)
• 20.6dB - 13-14 feet away (Noise level: Very calm room)

NOTES

• As the NIOSH Science Blog staff note, "Android devices are built by several different manufacturers and that there is a lack of conformity for using similar microphones and other audio components in their devices." In other words, "Android and Windows developers do not offer apps that meet the functionality needed for occupational noise assessments."
• Therefore, I can, at best, hope for a relative comparison between testings on the same hardware, with the caveat understood that the device may not reflect verified decibel levels
• The refrigerator in question represents a 10-year-old Maytag Performa PTB1753GR
• Maytag refrigerator Use and Care Guide - 61005299 (PDF; 15 pages; 1.3MB)...unfortunately, seems to say nothing about dB levels (via)
• This seems to indicate an increase in noise of 15-30dB with the refrigerator running
• Increase in noise levels (via):
• 1dB  –  Not noticable
• 3dB  –  Barely noticeable
• 5dB  –  Clearly noticeable change
• 10dB  –  About twice as loud
• 20dB  –  About four times as loud

Just how much noise should the refrigerator make under normal operating conditions? I see opinions online vary from 30-50 dB. 

How much does the characteristics of the noise matter? For example, whining noise versus white noise. Our refrigerator emits an continuous buzzing noise.

Previously

Lick Icons Meme

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/lick-icons

Original: http://sketchmichi.deviantart.com/art/Lick-icon-base-201253097

Beyond the Lights

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kelleylcarter/the-young-black-romance-movie-everyone-said-no-to-finally-se

Movies I want to see

Pyrodon

http://wiki.hellokittyonline.com/index.php/Pyrodon

Insurance - Collision premium versus car depreciation

"One rule of thumb: When the annual premium exceeds 10% of the car's value, drop it."
Via: http://twocents.lifehacker.com/if-your-car-is-old-you-might-be-wasting-money-on-insur-1585410417

Our car, in a private sale, probably would sell for around $5,500.

10% of $5,500 = $550

Collision: We currently pay $160 every six months ($320 annually for a $500 deductible, or 5.8%)...this means, if an accident totaled our car, the insurance company pays out $5,500 - $500, or $5,000. After $5,000 / $320 = 15 years, we would break even.

Comprehensive: We currently pay $22 every six months ($44 annually for a $250 deductible, or 0.08%)

Also:

""A good rule of thumb is if the cost of collision coverage is 25 percent of your vehicles value every six months, it is probably time to stop paying for collision coverage. Just think in two years time you have saved enough money to cover the cost of a total loss of your vehicle."

25% of $5,500 = $1,375

Collision: We currently pay $160 every six months ($320 annually for a $500 deductible, or 5.8%)

Kevin Voted Today

Governor
Jerry Brown

Controller
Betty T. Yee

Insurance Commissioner
Dave Jones

Lieutenant Governor
Ron Nehring

Treasurer
John Chiang

Member, State Board of Equalization, District 1
Chris Parker

Secretary of State
Alex Padilla

Attorney General
Kamala D. Harris

Congressional District 3
Ami Bera

Senate District 6
Roger Dickenson

Member of the State Assembly
Ken Cooley

For Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court
Shall Associate  Justice of the  Supreme Court GOODWIN LIU be elected to  the office for the term provided by law?
YES
         
For Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court          
Shall Stanford University Law Professor MARIANO-FLORENTINO CUÉLLAR be elected to the office for the term provided by law?    
YES    
           
For Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court
Shall Associate Justice, of the Supreme Court KATHRYN MICKLE WERDEGAR be elected to the office for the term provided by law?
YES

For Presiding Justice, Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District
Shall Presiding  Justice, Court of  Appeal, Third  Appellate District VANCE W. RAYE  be elected to the office for the term provided by law?
YES

For Associate Justice, Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District
Shall Associate  Justice, Court of  Appeal, Third  Appellate District ANDREA LYNN HOCH be elected to the office for the term provided by law?    
YES
           
For Associate Justice, Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District          
Shall Associate Justice, Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District RONALD B. ROBIE be elected to the office for the term provided by law?
YES
         
For Associate Justice, Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District          
Shall Associate JONATHAN K. RENNER be elected to the office for the term provided by law?
YES
 
For Associate Justice, Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District          
Shall Associate  Justice, Court of  Appeal, Third  Appellate District WILLIAM J. MURRAY, JR. be elected to the office for the term provided by law?    
YES    
           
For Associate Justice, Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District          
Shall Associate  Justice, Court of  Appeal, Third  Appellate District LOUIS MAURO  be elected to the office for the term provided by law?          
YES
           
For Associate Justice, Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District          
Shall Associate  Justice, Court of  Appeal, Third  Appellate District ELENA J. DUARTE be             elected to the office for the term provided by law?  
YES

Superintendent of Public Instruction
Tom Torlakson

San Juan Unified School District - Governing Board Member
Greg Paulo - Retired Teacher
Paula Marie Villescaz - Children's Health Advisor

STATE PROPOSITION 1
WATER BOND. FUNDING FOR WATER QUALITY, SUPPLY, TREATMENT, AND STORAGE PROJECTS. Authorizes $7.545 billion in general obligation bonds for state water supply infrastructure projects, including surface and groundwater storage, ecosystem and watershed protection and restoration, and drinking water protection. Fiscal Impact: Increased state bond costs averaging $360 million annually over 40 years. Local government savings for water-related projects, likely averaging a couple hundred million dollars annually over the next few decades.
YES

STATE PROPOSITION 2
STATE BUDGET. BUDGET STABILIZATION ACCOUNT. LEGISLATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.
Requires annual transfer of state general fund revenues to budget stabilization account. Requires half the revenues be used to repay state debts. Limits use of remaining funds to emergencies or budget deficits. Fiscal Impact: Long-term state savings from faster payment of existing debts. Different levels of state budget reserves, depending on economy and decisions by elected officials. Smaller local reserves for some school districts.
YES

STATE PROPOSITION 45
HEALTHCARE INSURANCE. RATE CHANGES. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
Requires Insurance Commissioner’s approval before health insurer can change its rates or anything else affecting the charges associated with health insurance. Provides for public notice, disclosure, and hearing, and subsequent judicial review. Exempts employer large group health plans. Fiscal Impact: Increased state administrative costs to regulate health insurance, likely not exceeding the low millions of dollars annually in most years, funded from fees paid by health insurance companies.
YES

STATE PROPOSITION 46
DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING OF DOCTORS. MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE LAWSUITS. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
Requires drug testing of doctors. Requires review of statewide prescription database before prescribing controlled substances. Increases $250,000 pain/suffering cap in medical negligence lawsuits for inflation. Fiscal Impact: State and local government costs from raising the cap on medical malpractice damages ranging from tens of millions to several hundred million dollars annually, offset to some extent by savings from requirements on health care providers.
NO

STATE PROPOSITION 47
CRIMINAL SENTENCES. MISDEMEANOR PENALTIES. INITIATIVE STATUTE.
Requires misdemeanor sentence instead of felony for certain drug and property offenses. Inapplicable to persons with prior conviction for serious or violent crime and registered sex offenders. Fiscal Impact: State and county criminal justice savings potentially in the high hundreds of millions of dollars annually. State savings spent on school truancy and dropout prevention, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and victim services.
YES

STATE PROPOSITION 48
INDIAN GAMING COMPACTS. REFERENDUM.
A “Yes” vote approves, and a “No” vote rejects, tribal gaming compacts between the state and the North Fork Rancheria of Mono Indians and the Wiyot Tribe. Fiscal Impact: One-time payments ($16 million to $35 million) and for 20 years annual payments ($10 million) from Indian tribes to state and local governments to address costs related to the operation of a new casino.
YES

How to read Scott Adams' blog at Dilbert.com - Skip to the bottom, read the last paragraph

Per Subject, works for me every time: http://dilbert.com/blog/

Cuts through all the disclaimers and hundreds of words--it seems most of the time everything he wants to say he sums up in the last 1-2 paragraphs, for better or worse.

Note: if Scott Adams ever reads this, Thank You, and, respect.

Fortune

I do not believe in predestination; however, I appreciate the message:

One must dare to be himself, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.

From a fortune cookie after a breakfast at Harry's Cafe in Sacramento.

I Wanna Be The Boshy

So, this game exists:

http://iwbtb.wikia.com/wiki/I_Wanna_Be_The_Boshy_Wiki

The Surf City Long Course Triathlon

Disrupting traffic near our home today : o )

http://www.finishlineproduction.com/events/triathlon/SurfCityTriathlon/SurfCityTriathlon.html

Eat Move Sleep: How Small Choices Lead to Big Changes

A book recommended by a friend. Not investigated, yet....

Cat fix on morning walk

I often walk up 15th Street on the way to work. Between Uptown Alley ad V Street, on the eastern side of the street, I occasionally see a friendly cream and orange-colored cat near the stairs to the second floor landing of a small apartment complex. My cat fix during this transition.

Whale weather vane

On the house to the east of Sacramento's Naked Lounge Coffee House:

A whale weather vane : o )

Radio stations - I-80, I-680, I-880

Driving from Sacramento to Santa Cruz offers a few regional radio stations which I enjoy listening to:

• KVHS (90.5 FM, "The Edge") - broadcasting at 410 watts out of Clayton Valley Charter High School, Concord, California
• Callsign meaning: (K)layton (V)alley (H)igh (S)chool
• Coverage map
• KPFA (94.1 FM) - broadcasting at 59,000 watts out of Berkeley, California
• Coverage map
• Callsign meaning: "PaciFicA"

Listened to KVHS on previous trips but missed them last night. 

Listened to KPFA last night around 9:30 p.m. and heard a portion of the second hour of a program La Onda Bajita, called "Radio Cafe" (which may occur only one Friday per month), hosted by a DJ called Little Miguel. He interviewed an artist out of the Bay Area called The Genie, an "avant garde per­form­ing artist and gui­tar loop­ing innovator from San Francisco" who innovates with a technique called "Scratch Guitar." The Genie has a collaborative album in development with the working title "Time Being." The live drum & bass tracks around the 1:28:00 mark caught my ear - he did a nice mix of DJ Rino “Essential Beats” (?) & REM's "Losing My Religion," and a "Bassnectar “Yo”/Radiohead “Creep” gmix. The Genie works with J Wiliams as produced (Jaz Hoo). Deuce Eclipse may have assisted with the drum and bass song (?)

Later in the show featured the first cousin of Leonard Peletier, "DJ Free Leonard Peletier".

101.3 FM Santa Cruz

Listened to 101.3 FM Santa Cruz last night and this morning.

Last night (Halloween) around 10:00 p.m., I heard something like Hearts of Space-y electric guitar, but the schedule seems to indicate, "R Duck Show Live Improvised Electronic Music."

This morning, around 11:00 a.m., I heard some Japanese music...some of which seemed a bit sexualized. The schedule seems to indicate, "Mideast Migraines w/ Ren Tawil."  Preceding that show, "SWANA," seemed to air from 10:30-11:00 a.m. The "Solid Waste Association of North America" (?)

So, no real schedule seems to exist that I can find in a cursory glance.

#LetsFixEmail

An important post on the state of e-mail HTML/CSS support across various e-mail clients today and how the industry might come together to improve the experience for everyone.

• Support media queries
• E-mail client preprocessors and varying ways they modify the HTML during the sanitization proces
• E-mail client rendering engines do not support CSS consistently
• E-mail client development teams do not collaborate
• Iframes do not work due to resource demands of full-blown web browser support

Git from the bottom up

Reading about Git from the bottom up (recommended by Xah Lee)

Emacs

Not sure I will ever learn emacs (?) but, if I do, wow, I want to read Xah Lee's blog front to back:

http://ergoemacs.org/emacs/blog.html

Previously

Keyboard - split left & right hands

Looking at various models:

Kineses Freestyle2 (20-inch)
μTRON Keyboard from Japan
Ergodox keyboard (DIY)

(?)

Thinking separating the keyboard hands will help with trapezius strain, which has hurt since Sep 2013. Inspired after reading this post by David Kadavy.

Previously

Dash cam update

Back in January 2014, I decided not to buy a dash cam after some testing of mounting proved a bit inconclusive. I sort of wanted one to monitor front and back.

Well, now WireCutter reports on a new dual-cam setup which seems promising:

The $375 Vico Marcus 5 is now available, and it is the first two-camera 1080p setup that is purported to work well. Techmoan reviewed it, and we will soon, too. Dual-cam setups are still only for very specialized use, but if you really want that security and hard-wiring two G1Ws isn’t an option, this is the first candidate dual we’ve seen that appears worthwhile.

The Techmoan reviewer mentioned one interesting thought about the Vico Marcus 5--why do Vico engineers not make two tiny cameras...that would allow users to put the base unit somewhere else, like the glove box? Then each camera only needs one wire, allowing for more inconspicuous placement.

So, promising, promising...and expensive.

Previously, Previously

Hanging curtains

A first time for everything...

A nice overview of how long, how wide, how to frame the window, ways to put the curtains on the rod, and different types of rods:
http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/decorating/curtains-window-treatments/long-curtains

An example of going wide and high over the window:
http://www.younghouselove.com/2009/01/hows-it-hangin/

Update, 2014-10-28: used painters tape to tape up the brackets so I could eyeball the placement...hopefully they stay up until I return this coming weekend. Everything seems relatively OK, except the drapes would overlay the dresser, so I may have to pull it forward. I like the idea of hanging the drapes to the sides of the windows, so they do allow more light and scenery through. They will also hang about halfway between the ceiling and the top of the window frame, which should look nice. Will see how the corner looks...I guess, worst case scenario, I can always purchase more Command strips and rehang (?) I guess I am thinking this will remain permanent when that does not really represent the case. Ended up feeling tired/low energy on Monday, which explains why I did not get more done.