Ilium

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Oooohhh — a new book by Dan Simmons! Being a big fan of his Hyperion series (Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, and The Rise of Endymion), this is very good news in my universe.

On Earth, a post-technological group of humans, pampered by servant machines and easy travel via “faxing,” begins to question its beginnings. Meanwhile, a team of sentient and Shakespeare-quoting robots from Jupiter’s lunar system embark on a mission to Mars to investigate an increase in dangerous quantum fluctuations. On the Red Planet, they’ll find a race of metahumans living out existence as the pantheon of classic Greek gods. These “gods” have recreated the Trojan War with reconstituted Greeks and Trojans and staffed it with scholars from throughout Earth’s history who observe the events and report on the accuracy of Homer’s Iliad. One of these scholars, Thomas Hockenberry, finds himself tangled in the midst of interplay between the gods and their playthings and sends the war reeling in a direction the blind poet could have never imagined.

Simmons creates an exciting and thrilling tale set in the thick of the Trojan War as seen through Hockenberry’s 20th-century eyes. At the same time, Simmons’s robots study Shakespeare and Proust and the origin-seeking Earthlings find themselves caught in a murderous retelling of The Tempest. Reading this highly literate novel does take more than a passing familiarity with at least The Iliad but readers who can dive into these heady waters and swim with the current will be amply rewarded.

(via John Ludwig)

iTunes: “Feurio! (Remix)” by Einstürzende Neubauten from the album Industrial Revolution, 2nd Edition (1989, 4:49).

GarageBand is evil

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I’ve poked around with GarageBand a bit since I got it, but haven’t created anything major yet. However, it is way too much fun.

It’s also far too easy for me to put together something really, really stupid with it. This is dangerous. Fun — but dangerous.

And here’s the evidence: countrybounce — 71 seconds of banjo and drum loops.

I’m sure I can come up with something better than that given time. But for the moment, this stupid little ditty is it.

Enjoy.

Or don’t.

;)

iTunes: “Must I” by Lizette & from the album This Is (2003, 3:32).

Issue with my comments-only feed

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I have no idea if anyone other than myself is currently subscribing to my ‘comments only’ RSS feed, but I’ve noticed an odd issue with it that I haven’t been able to troubleshoot yet. I’ve asked for help on the TypePad User Group, but I wanted to mention it here too, in case anyone else has been noticing this or might be able to point out what I’m doing wrong.

What I’ve been finding is that each item in my comment-only feed is being given the date of the original post that the comment is appended to, rather than the date that the comment was added to my site. For instance, a comment added today to a post from August shows up in my newsreader with the August date instead of today’s.

Here’s the code I’m using for each item in the RSS feed template (the full template code can be found in this post from last week):

<MTComments lastn="20">
<MTCommentEntry> 
<item> 
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> 
<link><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>#c<$MTCommentID$></link> 
<description><$MTCommentBody remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTCommentID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid> 
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<MTCommentAuthorLink show_email="0"> on 
<MTCommentDate format="%b %e, %Y %l:%M %p">: <$MTCommentBody$>]]></content:encoded> 
<dc:date><$MTCommentDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date> 
</item>
</MTCommentEntry>
</MTComments>

Now, it all looks right to me, and the same basic code seems to be working in all the rest of my templates (for instance, in the ‘full posts plus comments’ RSS feed, each comment begins with a header that lists the correct date). For some reason, though, it’s not working here.

Any ideas?

Update: The issue has been fixed. Turns out that you can’t use an <MTCommentDate> tag inside an <MTCommentEntry> container (much thanks to Jamie Jamison for pointing me to the explanation).

The solution was fairly easy (and the code in my ‘how-to’ post has been updated): I just removed the date display from the body of the RSS item, and moved the closing <MTCommentEntry> tag up a couple lines. Here’s the new version of the above code:

<MTComments lastn="20">
<item> 
<MTCommentEntry> 
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title> 
<link><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$>#c<$MTCommentID$></link> 
<description><$MTCommentBody remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></description> 
<guid isPermaLink="false"><$MTCommentID$>@<$MTBlogURL$></guid> 
<content:encoded><![CDATA[<MTCommentAuthorLink show_email="0">: <$MTCommentBody$>]]></content:encoded>
</MTCommentEntry>
<dc:date><$MTCommentDate format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"$><$MTBlogTimezone$></dc:date> 
</item>
</MTComments>

So much for that secure entrance…

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“Hey…could you help me?”

I turned around, halfway out the front door of the apartment building. Dan, one of the new tenants, was standing at the bottom of the half-flight of stairs leading from the landing down to the ground floor. He looked up at me with a slightly frantic look on his face. “What’s up?” I asked.

“There’s this crazy guy wandering the halls.”

“Here?”

“Yeah. He keeps banging on the doors…I don’t know what to do.”

I let the door close behind me and went down the stairs. “Is he down here?”

“Yeah, down at the end of the hall.”

Going around the corner, I walked down the hall to meet our unexpected and uninvited guest. He was standing at the end of the hall by the door leading down to the basement, leaning up against the corner.

“Sir?” I said. “Can I help you?” He grumbled something at me, I’m honestly not sure what. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t understand you. Are you supposed to be in here?” Another unintelligible grumble.

Great, this was going to be a fun one. “Sir, could you please leave?” More grumbling, though not grumbling of a cooperative nature. “I’m going to have to call the police if you don’t leave now.”

This got more of a response. “Yeah. Call the police. Take this outside. C’mon!”

“Sure, let’s take this outside,” I said, figuring that it would at least get the guy out the door. He started down the hall towards me, and I backed away, leading him towards the door. Eventually, I made my way back up to the landing where Dan was waiting at the door. Dan opened the door and stepped outside, and I stood at the landing, looking down the staircase at our new friend. “Sir? Did you want to head outside now?”

“Call the fuckin’ police. Outside. Both of you!” He still wasn’t very cooperative, but apparently he’d only go outside if both Dan and I went out first — assuming he’d even go outside then. I wasn’t terribly convinced.

“Dan, could I borrow your phone?” Dan handed me his cell, and I called 911 as the guy retreated around the stairs to stand by the building’s mailboxes.

“Emergency dispatch.”

“Yes — we’ve got a vagrant roaming through our building, banging on doors.”

“Where are you located, sir?”

“8th and Seneca.”

“Could you describe the person in case he leaves?”

“Sure — about six foot, black, with a greying beard. He’s wearing a grey jacket with blue trim, no shirt underneath, and maroon sweatpants. He’s got safety glasses on upside down,” (here the dispatcher started to laugh) “and one white shoe. No socks.”

“Alright, we’ll have someone there in just a few minutes.”

I thanked her, and hung up. Dan and I chatted for a few moments on the landing as we waited, occasionally ducking some small piece of debris that the guy had found lying by the mailboxes and sent sailing in our general direction. Eventually, he got tired of taking clumsy pot-shots (or just ran out of ammunition) and wandered back down the hall, at which point Dan headed down to keep an eye on him, and I stood at the door and waited for the officers.

A few minutes later, two patrol cars pulled up in front of the building, I let the officers in and pointed them down the stairs to our guest. They headed down and found him seated at the end of the hallway.

“Okay, come on,” the first officer said. “I talked to you yesterday about this. Matter of fact, this guy talked to you too,” he said, gesturing towards his partner. The guy mumbled something I couldn’t understand, but it didn’t seem to make the police officer any happier. “Look we’re tired of seeing you in here, okay? It’s time to go! What did you do with your shoes?” Another mumble, and a vague gesture down the hall.

“He had one shoe on a bit ago,” I called down the hall, realizing that the man was now entirely barefoot. The first officer started guiding the man towards the door, and his partner went down the hall, coming back a moment later with both shoes.

As the officers worked their way towards the front door of the building, some of the other tenants came downstairs, heading out. One of them saw the flashing lights outside the entrance, and turned to took a look at what was going on. “Oh, shit!” he said. “That’s the same guy that was in here yesterday!”

“Who keeps letting him in?” I asked. They just shrugged, and went on out. I stood out of the way while the officers ushered the man outside, then stood outside while they put him up against one of the patrol cars and started going through his pockets.

After watching for a few minutes, I asked if they needed either Dan or I for anything else. “No, we’re fine here,” said one of the officers. We thanked them for coming out, and started up the hill, Dan to a friend’s apartment a few blocks away, and I continued on up to the Vogue.

Ahh, the joys of downtown Seattle.

This is so juvenile. I’m very sorry.

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My computer doesn’t like my Prick.

I wanted to get my Prick into my computer. It didn’t seem like such a difficult task, should be simple enough, right? So I took out my Prick and put it into the computer.

The computer pulled it in, sat for a moment, then pushed my Prick right back out again.

That’s odd, I thought. It’s certainly not what I was expecting.

So I tried again. In went my Prick — and out came my Prick.

Weird. I thought that maybe my Prick was dirty, so I took it, got a soft washcloth, and gently cleaned my Prick, taking care to stroke in straight lines and not use circular motions. Once that was done and my Prick looked nice and clean, I put it back into the computer.

And the computer pushed my Prick right back out.

Admittedly, I’ve had my Prick for a while now, and it is getting a bit old. Maybe that’s the problem.

I guess I’ll just have to go to a store and get a new Prick.

Uff-da

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After fourteen trips down and up six stories to get three loads of laundry done, I really wish that they’d just go ahead and get the damn elevator in this place fixed.

iTunes: \”Alright*\” by Lizette & from the album & So… (2001, 4:25).

Geek backlash

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It was bound to happen eventually. It actually probably started happening a few years ago, but now it’s actually getting news stories — ‘geeks’ are tired of fixing people’s problems.

As MyDoom, the fastest-spreading virus ever, continues to clog e-mail in-boxes and disrupt business, the computer-savvy are becoming openly hostile toward the not-so-savvy who unwittingly play into the hands of virus writers.

The tension over the MyDoom virus underscores a growing friction between technophiles and what they see as a breed of technophobes who want to enjoy the benefits of digital technology without making the effort to use it responsibly.

The virus spreads when Internet users ignore a basic rule of Internet life: never click on an unknown e-mail attachment. Once someone does, MyDoom begins to send itself to the names in that person’s e-mail address book. If no one opened the attachment, the virus’s destructive power would never be unleashed.

“It takes affirmative action on the part of the clueless user to become infected,” wrote Scott Bowling, president of the World Wide Web Artists Consortium, expressing frustration on the group’s discussion forum. “How to beat this into these people’s heads?”

I’ve always counted myself somewhat lucky in this regard. I owe a lot of my geek leanings towards my parents (specifically, my mom, in a somewhat unusual reversal of sterotype), and while I’ve surpassed them in my knowledge base, I can generally rest assured that they’re quite competent enough to avoid many of the more obvious “duh” issues on their own. If they run into something that they can’t solve on their own, while they’re not above tossing a quick question my way to see if it’s something I can solve quickly, they also don’t mind if it’s something that they need to seek “official” assistance with.

The majority of my friends tend to either be at least as computer-literate as I am (if not more so), or at the other extreme, avoiding those infernal machines at all costs. Those few that are in the middle ground — well, if they’re friends with me, they’re likely friends with a lot of other ‘puter geeks at the same time, and will rapidly discover that they have no excuse for incompetence. ;)

That said, though, I’ve certainly seen the backlash coming. One of the big benefits I’ve found to being a Mac user is ducking tech support issues. While I know that I know my way around Windows, when I do get the occasional “why won’t this work?” question from acquaintances or co-workers, it’s very easy to just assume a befuddled expression, mumble something about being a smug virus-free mac-using bastard, toss in a few pointed comments about Windows stability, and go on my merry little way.

(via Jacqueline)

iTunes: “Blue Nun, The” by Beastie Boys, The from the album Check Your Head (1992, 0:32).

Don’t drop out, Dean

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Well, it looks like it’s official — Kerry has taken both Washington and Michigan, with Dean in second place.

What worries me the most about this is that it will be spun into Dean’s death knell (for instance, the Seattle PI’s story headlined “Kerry whips Dean in Washington“). Even Dean has been saying that without a win in Wisconsin, he’ll likely be dropping out of the race. Personally, I’d see this as a real shame.

It’s fairly widely recognized by many people, even if they’re not Dean supporters, that many of the issues being brought up in all of the campaigns were initially brought up by Dean. If he had not started asking many of the questions that all of the candidates are now asking, we could be facing a very different campaign season (and quite possibly one with far less of a chance of ousting Bush from office).

Personally, I’d love to see Dean stay in the race even if he doesn’t pick up Wisconsin. Even if he can’t get the money to campaign the way he has been, I think it would be great if he could do essentially what Sharpton has been doing the entire time — don’t worry about spending the thousands and millions of dollars on high-profile ads and television spots. Instead, just doggedly hang in there, show up for the debates, and make sure that his voice gets heard and that the questions that need to be asked are asked and don’t get brushed under the carpet.

It’s all too easy for me to see Dean call things to a halt after a loss in Wisconsin, and suddenly have Kerry revert to being “just another politician”. Much of the reason I’ve been (and am) a Dean supporter had nothing to do with “electability”, but was entirely because he struck me very much as someone who actually wanted to make a change for the better, and wasn’t going to be bothered with beating around the bush or pandering to special interests merely to get into office. Kerry has never made an impression on be other than being yet another politician.

It feels like Kerry wants to be President so he can be President, while Dean wants to be President so that he can make a difference.

Sharpton doesn’t stand a chance of getting the nomination, but he’s still in the race. Edwards and Clark have worse numbers than Dean, but they’re still in the race. Heck, Kucinich has fewer confirmed delegates than Sharpton does, and he hasn’t dropped out yet! As long as Dean is in one of the top three spots (and he’s currently in second, though few media reports are likely to point that out), I think he should stick it out — scale back operations if necessary, but don’t disappear. Don’t let Kerry slide back into old habits. Keep being the prickly burr under the saddle that’s keeping the rest of the delegates on their toes.

I really think that the two biggest factors driving the record turnout of voters in the current caucus/primary season have been Bush’s incompetence and Dean’s dogged determinism in speaking the truth, not mincing words, and doing the best he can. I’d hate to see that element disappear just because the media has dubbed him “unelectable”.

iTunes: “Soul Crying Out” by Simple Minds from the album Street Fighting Years (1989, 6:07).

Caucus Time

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Woke up this morning and went across the street to today’s Democratic Caucus for my precinct at the Town Hall. At first Town Hall looked oddly quiet, but after Prairie (coming along as an observer) and I saw the signs on the front door telling us to go downstairs, we walked into a room packed practically wall-to-wall with caucusgoers, and figured we were in in the right place after all.

Overall, it was in interesting, if somewhat confusing experience. There were probably around fifteen different precincts all gathering in the same room, and from what the moderator of the whole thing was saying, apparently there was a far greater turnout than had been expected — I’d estimate that there were around 300-400 people there. While this is a great thing to see (in some ways, I’m actually more interested in the final turnout numbers from all the various caucuses and primaries than I am in who actually gets the nomination), it did make for a fairly crowded and noisy process.

My particular precinct had twenty-four people show up, split roughly 2/3 for Kerry and 1/3 for Dean, which ended up being the final delegate split (two delegates for Kerry and one for Dean). I’m expecting that that was probably the rough result for the rest of the precincts in the room — as Prairie and I were looking around, we guessed that the average age was somewhere in the mid-40’s or so, with most of the younger people and senior citizens supporting Dean, and the majority of the 35-50 year old attendees supporting Kerry. There were, of course, assorted Edwards and Kucinich supporters visible, but I didn’t see much evidence of support for any of the other candidates.

I was somewhat amused by the moderator, though. During his “here’s what’s going on and how we’re going to do it” speech and Q-and-A session, he occasionally had to cite examples of what would be done if one candidate didn’t have enough support to gain any delegates. When he’d give an example, he’d semi-randomly choose candidate’s names for the situation, and I noticed that Dean was used as an example most often. Kerry, Kucinich, and Lieberman were also used, but neither Clark nor Edwards made an appearance at all. Some (un?)intentional editorializing, perhaps? I doubt it really made that much of a difference, if any, but it was enough to catch my ear.

We didn’t stick around enough to see if any final numbers from all the gathered precincts were announced. While we’d originally planned to do just that, our precinct was one of the first to finish the process and select delegates, and then they moved on to proposing resolutions to be supported. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, of course, and it’s part of the process, but when we noticed that the conversation at the table had suddenly moved to debating the wall between Palestine and Israel, we decided we’d go ahead and duck out and just get the final results off the web later in the day. I don’t know much about that particular issue, but I know enough to know that it tends to get very heated very quickly, and it seemed to us to be a good time to leave.

And that was that. I cast my vote for Dean, and helped him get one more delegate for the next round in May. I’ll keep an eye on the results as they come in to see where things ended up statewide over the course of the day.

iTunes: “Skinthieves” by Moodswings from the album Moodfood (1992, 6:08).

Average Monthly Job Growth

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No comment.

2004/02/graphics/bushjobs-1323

Robsix and Hurin, knock yourselves out. ;)

(More seriously, I’ve been enjoying the debate on the ‘Why I Hate George W. Bush‘ thread. While obviously I agree more with some points than with others, It’s been entertaining to watch things keep going [and usually fairly civil]. I keep meaning to jump in myself, I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Have fun, though!)

(Graph from Music for America, via Daily Kos)