Project Insomnia: 09/01/2004

Project Insomnia is many things, but in this context it is simply a "braindump" of whatever I happen to be thinking/reading/watching/doing at the moment. Parental guidance suggested.

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Zoo Gnus

The Chronicle's Patricia Yollin reports on a pair of mischievous grizzly cubs to be adopted by the S.F. Zoo. The article has no accompanying pictures, unfortunately.

The year-old sisters will arrive in the city next week, bringing to seven the population of grizzlies in California, where once they flourished in the wild.

The sisters lost their mother late last fall when she was humanely destroyed by Montana's wildlife officials.

"She ran into some human-conflict situations," said Stella Capoccia, director of the Montana Wildlife Center, a state agency in Helena. "Bears will get a number of opportunities. They'll be moved and tagged. She had exhausted her opportunities."

I find it so hard to believe that the best way of dealing with "problematic" members of a highly endangered species is to kill them. I'm glad there was a better resolution for these cubs, but their mother should have been spared as well.

|| Andrew, 10:36 AM || || link

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Never use Orbitz again

CNET News reports Cendant to snap up Orbitz
Cendant is a membership services megacorporation, mostly concerned with obtaining personal and financial information about consumers who use its many, many franchise brand names and selling or repurposing that information for its own profit. I avoid Cendant-owned companies whenever possible, and the thought of them now owning Orbitz just means I'll use Expedia or Travelocity more often.

|| Andrew, 10:45 AM || || link

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Whatever

I just marked over 700 newsfeed messages as read... without reading them. So long, a month's worth of Slashdot, Ars Technica, CNet News, The Register, and miscellaneous others. I was getting farther and farther behind and so just decided to start from scratch.

I'm sure I'll find out if I've missed anything earth-shattering.

|| Andrew, 5:35 PM || || link

Friday, September 24, 2004

Barry at the bat

The very clever Kevin Nelson has a piece in the Open Forum section of the Chronicle today: Barry at the bat -- An ode to mighty Barry in Giantville

The poem continues to be fresh and surprising to modern readers, and with only slight adjustments it is remarkably relevant to the situation of Barry Bonds and the Giants as they prepare to meet the Dodgers tonight in the first game of their showdown series. Will L.A. intentionally walk Barry as teams have been doing all season? With apologies to author Ernest Thayer, who never much liked his poem and all the attention it brought him, here, then, is an updated version.

Read on for the dramatic ending.

|| Andrew, 1:46 PM || || link

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

The Electoral Vote Predictor 2004 currently has Kerry at 269 and Bush at 253. This changes every time a new poll is added to the equation, so for the most up-to-date data, you can subscribe to the site feed. Remember that 270 electoral votes are required for a "clean" win; without that, the election goes to Congress to decide.

|| Andrew, 4:20 PM || || link

I knew I wasn't the only one to notice...

TIME Magazine's 2004-09-20 cover. Boing Boing has the explanation if you need it. Now, since there is zero chance that TIME's graphic design staff didn't know what they were doing, what I want to know is: do they still have jobs?

|| Andrew, 1:50 PM || || link

Micronauts

Nostalgia trip for the day: The Micronauts Homepage
I had a ton of these, including the unbelievably cool Rocket Tubes. They disappeared sometime in the early eighties.

|| Andrew, 12:27 PM || || link

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Rita on Kerry on Dave

Rita watched John Kerry on the Late Show with David Letterman last night and writes:

He was terrific! The Bush team's strategy is so ridiculous and insulting because they're trying to attack Kerry for actually using his brain to solve problems and weigh options, for taking special care when making decisions that will impact the world. Like many senators who voted to authorize Bush's war, Kerry had to trust that the president would act wisely, but Bush ruined our country's reputation and increased his own personal wealth, neglecting health care, education, and jobs.

Read the rest of her comments, including the "Top 10 Bush Tax Proposals" as read by Kerry, at the link above.

What could be interesting is that due to equal-access regulations, CBS has to give Bush an opportunity to appear on the show for the same amount of time. Of course, he's been on the show before.

|| Andrew, 1:50 PM || || link

Predatory ADA lawsuits

There's this guy, Jarek Molski, in Woodland Hills, California. He's a paraplegic and makes his business suing restaurants and other small business who are, he claims, not ADA-compliant. To date, he's sued somewhere in the range of 250-500 businesses in California for up to $1.6 million each--alleging "injury and humiliation" at each and every one.

The most recent case is Roy's Drive-In, in Salinas, in Monterey County, California. Molski has sued the 1950s-era drive-in eatery because it doesn't have ramps to access the walk-up windows and restrooms. Beverly Patterson, wife of Roy's owner Roger Patterson, says that the restaurant employees are always happy to provide car service (it's a drive-in, remember) to customers who request it. Because of the suit, Roy's will be serving their last customer today.

This is, as I said, only the most recent. Molski has sued many other restaurants and businesses, some of which have been forced to close and are still liable for harsh civil penalties. Even other equal-access activists are bemoaning Molski's efforts, as the San Luis Obispo Tribune reports:

Mike Ward of San Luis Obispo, a former city fire chief, said Wednesday that Molski has given wheelchair users a "bad rap."

Ward, a quadriplegic, told other members of SLOCO Access, "I don't want to see businesses, especially the smaller ones, close down. Everybody shares the same concerns."

Jay Feldmann of Arroyo Grande is concerned that restaurants won't want to see disabled people and will view them as pariahs.

Bill Walther, also of Arroyo Grande, puts it in even starker terms: "We need to make T-shirts that say, 'I'm not a terrorist.' "

I respect the needs of people who use wheelchairs or who have access issues. I recognize the responsibility of businesses, and of society, to provide equal access to everyone. However, forcing small businesses--the backbone of the American economy--to close using these lawsuits is wrong.

|| Andrew, 10:59 AM || || link

Friday, September 17, 2004

Ball Twelve

Gary Peterson of the Contra Costa Times/Mercury News expounds upon the new rules of baseball, as they apply to Barry Bonds.

The incessant walking of Bonds is no longer a strategic ploy. Strategy is when you intentionally walk him with a base open in the eighth inning of a one-run game. Bonds has been walked 208 times this season -- he'll carry a 14-game walk streak into tonight's game against San Diego -- and only 42 have come in what are statistically described as "close and late" situations.

Less than half (101) have come with runners in scoring position. Only 58 have come with runners in scoring position and two out.

Walking Bonds is no longer a strategy. It is a methodology. It has become reflexive. Worse, it has become the coward's fall-back position.

It would be difficult to support a rule change, as some (many) have said, because how can you differentiate between the intentional-unintentional (four just deliberately out of the zone) and four bad pitches? Do you require that every batter be delivered at least one hanging slider right down the middle? There's room in game strategy for the intentional walk. Just not the way it's currently being applied.

|| Andrew, 2:49 PM || || link

Summer Vacation at Burning Man.

Timothy McSweeney writes about his family summer vacation at Burning Man.

Instead of our normal trip to Grandma's in Oregon, our parents drove to the Nevada desert for Burning Man. Mom and Dad explained that their relationship was in a rut, and they wanted to try something new. Mom said that Dad isn't spontaneous anymore. Dad complained that Burning Man tickets are more expensive than a week at Disneyland, but Mom said that the drugs are better here.

We got here in the morning. The car broke down, so Dad traded it for a sheet of stamps that had Woodstock on them. Mom and Dad ate some of the stamps, and Mom changed into a tie-dyed dress. Dad said he was tripping, but I think he's walking fine.

I've come to the conclusion that BM is just too far out of my comfort zone. I don't even like camping.

|| Andrew, 11:22 AM || || link

Thursday, September 16, 2004

Just one more chance... please?

In a remarkably candid essay, George W. Bush asks for "A Second Chance". He promises he'll do better next time.

|| Andrew, 2:37 PM || || link

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

iPyramidScheme

Yes, it's a pyramid scheme. Yes, the last person to sign up gets rooked. However, it's not there yet, and I know people who (claim to) have received their iPods. So: Free iPods
The idea is that you sign up for an "offer" (usually a credit card application, or sign up for eBay, or buy something from PetCareRX) which gives your referrer a credit. Then, you recruit five people to do the same for you. When you get five credits, you get a free iPod.
Warning: Sign up with a disposable email address. It will will be sold for spam. I have virtually unlimited Gmail invites to give out to anyone who wants to do the Free iPod thing. Just ask.

|| Andrew, 5:41 PM || || link

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

Outlook Not So Good

What's inside the Magic 8-Ball? You are about to find out.

|| Andrew, 12:07 PM || || link

Monday, September 13, 2004

I've seen Snozzberries, Snozzberries that you've seen...

Talented artist Stephanie Freese, working with Dave Milloway and Matt Wood, has a new take on Willy Wonka.

|| Andrew, 3:53 PM || || link

The Friendliest Skies

Ever wonder how the ultra-super-über-rich fly? A. David Chan has some photos of the customized Airbus A320 belonging to the Sultan of Brunei.

|| Andrew, 2:33 PM || || link

Friday, September 10, 2004

The Return of Clippy

RJL Software has made available this extremely useful tool which places the famous Clippy back where he belongs, on your Windows desktop.

|| Andrew, 6:32 PM || || link

Don't shoot the food

This fun game tests your memory of 80s arcade game sound effects.
(Flash)

|| Andrew, 1:08 PM || || link

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Superheroes!

We're going to see Greg Proops tomorrow night at Cobb's! I haven't been to a live comedy show (not counting the Adventurer's Club and Comedy Warehouse) in a number of years, and this promises to be a lot of fun.

|| Andrew, 3:07 PM || || link

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

This is a new one.

I've never been in a situation where so much is being asked (no, demanded) of me with so little essential information provided. It's really quite funny when I step back and look at it.

|| Andrew, 1:26 PM || || link

Attn Sen. Kerry: Please grow a set.

It's a horrible, awful, terrible tragedy that over 1,000 U.S. troops have lost their lives in this stupid non-war. Nothing can be done to help them now. However, if a certain Senator from Massachusetts would just get his thumb out of his ass and go on the offensive, it might be used to unseat the President responsible for this mess. Something like a straight-up accusation of murder would do the trick: "Mr. President, you are the Commander-in-Chief. You sent these soldiers/sailors/airmen/marines to this hellhole under blatantly false pretenses, and you are ultimately responsible for their deaths."

|| Andrew, 10:33 AM || || link

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Aargh.

I need this day to be over. I just cannot get anything started! Feeling distracted and scattered.

|| Andrew, 3:21 PM || || link

Third Person Present

Neal Stephenson's The System of the World, the third book in the "Baroque Cycle", will be published in two weeks by HarperCollins. I am glad, for two reasons:

Been waiting to read the final book in this trilogy, and
Now perhaps Stephenson can get off the historical stuff and back to his fort´ of science fiction.

Where's my Cryptonomicon sequel?

|| Andrew, 8:44 AM || || link

Monday, September 06, 2004

End Bush

This is brilliant.

|| Andrew, 10:49 AM || || link

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

El Gato Grande

The Big Cat, Andres Galarraga, has made his return to the bigs. Unfortunately, it isn't with the Giants. I'm happy to see him back and am hopeful he can achieve his milestone of 300 home runs--I just hope it doesn't come against Oakland. It won't come against San Francisco, even in a 2002 Series rematch, because September call-ups aren't eligible for post-season play.

Edit: Updated story link.

|| Andrew, 1:31 PM || || link

Making the big loop

I check 511.org's Traffic and Driving Times Map before leaving for work every morning and before heading for home every afternoon. Between Palo Alto and Berkeley there are at least four major routes I can take, with various options on each--all depending on traffic speeds and "incidents" along the possible routes. So far this week, it's been 101-80 (Bay Bridge) all three mornings. Evenings, it was San Pablo-580-880-84 (Dumbarton Bridge) last night and 80-880-92-101 (San Mateo Bridge) on Monday night. So I'm doing the big loop all around the Bay. I would not have believed that driving through the City would be faster than any alternative, but given the messes on 880 northbound over the last couple of mornings, it has been.

I'm still evaluating the possibilities of taking transit. If I drive to the Millbrae BART station, I could pick up the 8:18 Richmond train arriving in North Berkeley with enough time to walk to the office by 9:30. It still means leaving earlier, but not as early as taking Caltrain from Palo Alto to Millbrae. On the other side of the Bay, there's the possibility of driving to Union City to pick up the 8:36 Richmond train, also getting me to the office on time. The BART Web site insists that the Fremont station is the closest to Palo Alto, but Yahoo Maps confirms that Union City is 12.8 miles/22 minutes, while Fremont is 16.2 miles, 27 minutes from home. This option costs $7.70 round trip plus $2 in bridge tolls (going up to $3 in October). The Millbrae option costs $8.30 round trip with no tolls. Right now I'm spending probably $9 or so for gas each day (80 miles round trip, 19 MPG), so it all seems to come out pretty even.

This of course leads to the unpleasant possibility that someone will murder me for my train reservation.

|| Andrew, 10:02 AM || || link

Time left in Bush's term
Days	Hours	Min.	Sec.
Countdown clock provided by BushsLastDay.com

Project Insomnia