Cox Crow

I heard one interesting thing on the radio this morning, and one annoying thing. That’s about par. The interesting thing was an article in The Lancet on the rate of death in Iraq since March 2003, which suggests that contrary to official reports, the mortality rate is 18.8 deaths per 1,000 persons (slightly more than twice that of the United States).

(Perhaps just as interesting is that the second most-linked item in the Newsgator sidebar is the article itself, which neither The New York Times nor The Washington Post bother to reference by link.)

The annoying thing was the question on WAMC’s Roundtable.

According to the National Science Foundation, women earn half of all bachelors degrees and 37 percent of all doctoral degrees in science and engineering, yet they make up less than 20 percent of the science and engineering faculty at four-year colleges and universities. Why do you think that is? [links added]

Because they find better careers?

Apparently this is a subject of no little concern; the National Science Foundation is distributing grants to colleges to help remedy the discrepancy.

WTF wants brownies with a pizza?

I’m not as well-travelled as I’d like.

From b3co.com, via Kellan.

One thing I’d like to do is see how far I can travel down the East Coast of the U.S. on local rail lines. Maybe one day when the youngest is older, and I have more vacation time.

I am slow to upgrade my home desk. One might say it’s because I’m cheap. One might also say it’s because the Company issues a portable desk which suffices, annoying though it may be. But our printer broke, and these cheap ink-jet printers are not built to be repaired. So, we bought a new one, an HP Photosmart C4180.

And all went smoothly until I was informed that the drivers are not available for my operating system. I suppose we’ll have to buy that too. Maybe it’s time for a new computer after all.

Oh, well.

SQL injection is an attack on computer database systems where an attacker exploits an assumption made by the programmer about the kinds of data that will be entered in the application. The assumption is that no one will use reserved characters, such as the apostrophe. However, this assumption is often false.

The Australian state of Victoria addressed the situation of Swift’s Creek in the following manner.

It is often argued that the name should be Swift’s Creek, with a possessive apostrophe, as the creek was named after Swift. In correct English usage this would be accurate; however under the Victorian Government’s Geographic Place Names Act 1998 apostrophes are omitted in all place names. This is to avoid confusion and debate on just this issue, and therefore no place names in Victoria are officially spelt with the possessive apostrophe.

There’s a bug in Tivoli Storage Manager, where, given a set of tapes to process in order to reclaim the space occupied by expired data, it fails to complete the task because it runs out of scratch tapes. Then manual intervention is required to finish the job. Let me describe the situation, and let you describe the bug. It’s an elementary problem.

You have two empty containers, and five partially full containers, as shown below. You must move the contents of the five partially full containers to the empty containers, leaving as many free containers as possible when you are done. Place the containers in the order in which you will move the contents.

Continue reading →

In a day that needed a bit of levity, Rick points the So-Called Austin Mayor’s suggestion that some perspective is needed. Wired provides that perspective with this handy chart. Recall, after all, that the goal of terrorism is not necessarily death, but fear, and fear is not often in proportion to risk.

Adrian Holovaty has an excellent post on a fundamental way all newspaper sites need to change, in which he suggests they need to think about restructuring their data into more reusable chunks than stories. I have a suggestion for the sites that doesn’t involve wrapping their heads around data chunks. Could we have some sort of date-based navigation? It shouldn’t be so hard for me to find something from yesterday’s paper.

Constitution Day is little observed. But The Poughkeepsie Journal reported today that the Trinity Episcopal Church in Fishkill, New York, will, as part of its 250th anniversary celebrations, host this weekend “A Publick Debate between Mr. Patrick Henry of Virginia and Mr. James Wilson of Pennsylvania on the Choice of Whether to Ratify the Constitution of the United States.”

According to the Journal, Mr. Henry and Mr. Wilson will remain in character.

“These are professional actors who portray these characters for a living and have thoroughly researched them,” said Villforth. “They come in authentic costumes, and will always stay in character. They will not refer to the current time period or discuss current events.”

Although the debate consists of a rehearsed performance, the actors are prepared to make impromptu remarks, as well. They treat the audience as if they were from the 18th-century press, and questions are welcome.

Mr. David Hume of Scotland suggests in his “Idea of the Perfect Commonwealth” that Liberty is better preserved in a large Republic.

At the same time, the parts are so distant and remote, that it is very difficult, either by intrigue, prejudice, or passion, to hurry them into any measures against the public interest.

During the recent dispute with Great Britain, Committees of Correspondence were formed to coordinate like-minded citizens in the diverse Colonies. Do either of the gentlemen think that, if we ratify this large Republic, there may be any hazard to Liberty from improvements in the postal service which may permit the measures against the public interest to be hurriedly enacted?

I’ve begun to read All the Shah’s Men, after hearing Stephen Kinzer’s speech on the 1953 coup on WAMC the other day. All was fine until I reached the second chapter, in which Mr. Kinzer recounts the history of Iran. It contains inaccuracies such that I fear the remainder of the book will be untrustworthy.

Which is really too bad, since the Greco-Persian Wars are not undocumented.

We purchased some foaming hand soap the other day. Unfortunately, it stains our white laminate countertops. Then I noticed that after dispensing the soap, it drips. So I called the manufacturer, method®.

The lady who answered the phone was very nice, apologized for the stains, and provided us with a recipe for cleaning them. She listened to my concerns about the dyes, and the drips, and penchant of this other bottle to dispense soap on my stomach and not my hands. More importantly, she took notes, and remarked that they are redesigning the bottles based on my feedback — and changing the dyes they use.

What an unexpected surprise! Wow!

You can buy method’s products online, or from any of these fine retailers.

I am still in the office. It was that kind of day.

While I waited for the new VPN to completely install, I read that Google Talk has some nifty new features, ordered a Google-branded headset, and found FogCreek is looking for a system administrator.

There is something to be said for working for a small company:

We’re in New York City. We pay well and have great benefits, like free lunch, stock options, Aeron chairs and private offices. You get four weeks of paid vacation and six holidays, health insurance, a dental plan, gym membership, and relocation expenses paid. We’ll consider applicants from anywhere in the US. We will not consider telecommuting.

Damn. That no telecommuting clause put the kibosh on my interest in Google too. Oh well. I understand the benefits of working closely, physically, with others, but unless the StorageTek robot jams — like it did this evening — or unless you’re running Oracle on Windows, much of the work does not require one to be physically near to the servers. And I’m tired of driving, and tired of taking the train, and want to be near my family.

In this picture one side of the plate is lined with slices of an organically-grown tomato purchased at Stop and Shop; the other, with slices of an organically-grown tomato from the container outside my garage: it fell off the vine today. I have decorated each with basil leaves from the same container, and drizzled olive oil on both.

One of the tomatoes tastes good. The other doesn’t. Guess which one.

In other food news, the Boston Beer Company has a limited release of their Brewer Patriot collection. I’m particularly fond of the George Washington Porter and the Traditional Ginger Honey Ale.

System Administrator Day is next Friday, July 28th.

Don’t forget, or we’ll have to write random data over your Sarbanes-Oxley audit.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

The authors of the Declaration of Independence offer first the philosophical justification for the revolt.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

And then, since the justification requires it, they provide evidence that the present government is destructive of the proper ends of government.

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Are the facts presented sufficient?

The Poughkeepsie Journal today reported that Rhinebeck expects lots of discussion of the town’s proposed comprehensive plan. Rhinebeck is a beautiful town surrounding a beautiful village. As in most places, the citizens want to preserve the qualities about the town that they love. As far as I can tell from a cursory glance, the plan’s main failing is a technical one: too many different files to download.

The paper quotes two persons who object to portions of the plan. One is an out-of-town developer.

Marty Torrey, a consultant for the New York City-based White Acre Equities, called the proposed plan unconstitutional. White Acre Equities wants to build more than 400 senior homes on the site of the old Holy Cross Campus of Pius XII, a former juvenile detention center off Morton Road.

That site is included in the New York state Scenic District and would be given 20-acre zoning — preventing the senior housing complex from going through. [links added]

Any plan will, unfortunately, disadvantage some. One way is by reducing the uses for the property. Another is that by increasing lot sizes fewer people will be able to live in a given area. This usually increases the cost to acquire the property.

The other is a resident.

Joseph Gelb, a Rhinebeck resident, has concerns about a traditional neighborhood design the plan recommends near his home on Wynkoop Lane. A traditional neighborhood design offers a mix of commercial and residential spaces within walking distance of each other.

Gelb, along with several other residents of Wynkoop Lane, believes the placement of the community would be inappropriate because it would increase noise and traffic. [link added]

Traditional neighborhood developments like Rhinebeck?

Other residents can be found discussing the plan at the Rhinebeck Community Blog.

Raymond Chen asks, What happened to the traffic circle at the corner of 156th Ave NE and NE 56th Way? Apparently tort happened.

A car was driving down the street in excess of the speed limit and failed to negotiate the circle, resulting in the car going off the road. In the flurry of legal action that ensued, somehow the City of Redmond ended up being held responsible for creating “dangerous driving conditions” or something like that. As a result, the City of Redmond went around removing all the city’s traffic circles and replacing them with speed bumps.

It really puzzles me why people have such animosity to roundabouts. I suppose it comes from the distinction between traffic circles and roundabouts. The difference is that in traffic circles the merging traffic has the right-of-way. Since this is just plain stupid, it is no wonder that drivers hate them.

I loved listening to Engines of Our Ingenuity on WSHU during my morning drive. But since we’ve moved to the big house, when it’s broadcast I’m in the shade of the Fahnestock plateau and don’t pick up that station’s signal.

But not to worry! Now it comes in a portable form.