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New user? Monday, May 10, 2004
Two face
Whiskey Bar: Donald Rumsfeld's Battle With The Truth
As much as I've always disliked Rumsfeld, I wouldn't pin this scandal on him completely. Yeah, he's responsible, but the person who is ultimately responsible has to be George W. Bush.
I'm also not a fan of John Kerry, but I liked this quote:
MSNBC: The Price of Arrogance
We'll see if those rules apply to the administration as well.
I'm sorry to say I haven't met anyone who is surprised about what's been going on at Abu Ghraib. Camp Delta (Guantanamo Bay) told me the US does not take human rights seriously, and therefore cannot be trusted implicitly. But I'm very encouraged that every American's weblog post I've read regarding Abu Ghraib says this goes against everything they believe America is about, and what happened disgusts them. And I believe most Americans expect America to uphold the morals and ideals they associate with their country and entrust with its leaders. Unfortuantely their leaders have not done a good job of communicating the importance of those standards to those they command.
Unfortunately, America's international reputation in the world is not that of the hall monitor or the kid that helps the little ones get through the crosswalk safely after school, but instead the bully that will give you a wedgie if you don't give him your lunch money.
I'm sure I've pissed off a few regular readers by saying this, but it's the way I see it, a view that has been echoed by many people I've spoken to in person recently.
In November, please tell the current US administration they have failed to act responsibly and failed lead their great country effectively, and elect anyone but them.
Book about file system design by the creator of BeFS
Slashdot: Practical File System Design with the Be File System
I'll have to file this away for a rainy day of light reading. ;-)
KMremoteControl is absolutely wonderful
Thank you D'Arcy Norman! D'Arcy pointed me at a great software package, KMremoteControl, that implements a software KVM for Mac OS X and Windows machines.
I am typing this on the keyboard connected to my Mac OS X system, but I am typing this into Mozilla on Windows 2000 on the PC whose monitor is next to my Mac OS X system's display.
This is a huge improvement for me. I've needed to use Windows on and off recently to do some browser testing. I don't have nearly as much desk space as I used to. I used to have an L-shaped desk and another normal desk for my computers, now I just have this straight desk, 5" wide. I have a 17" studio display for my work G4, my 14" PowerBook G3 and this PC's 19" CRT monitor on the desk. Needless to say, it's cramped and all of the available space on the front of the desk was taken up by all the keyboards and mice. Now I can eliminate the PC keyboard and mouse, and switch between using my PC and Mac by hitting the Control-Escape key sequence. Very convenient.
So far it seems to work seamlessly. When I move the mouse or type there is NO delay whatsoever, it does not feel like using VNC, for example, it feels like the mouse and keyboard are truly connected to the machine.
And it's kind of fun to watch the little hub these computers are hooked up to go nuts when I shake the mouse or type. :-)
Sunday, May 9, 2004
Saturday, May 8, 2004
UserLand announces services group
UserLand Product News: UserLand Adds Professional Services Group
Interesting. Who have they hired?
Oldest Canadian World War I combat vet dies
CP: Oldest Canadian World War I combat vet dies
There are now only 8 Canadians left from the 650,000 that served in the war.
teleport, a smart software KVM
abyssoft: teleport -- "teleport is a simple utility to let you use one single mouse and keyboard to control several of your Macs. Simply reach the edge of your screen, and your mouse teleports to your other Mac! The pasteboard can even be synchronized between the computers."
I have been talking to friends about doing exactly this software since 2001 (maybe even earlier), but obviously didn't get motivated enough to do it. I wanted it to work across platforms, mind you, not just Macs, but Windows machines as well, and why not *nix too? This is something that should be straightforward, but probably is quite tricky. It could probably re-use a lot of VNC code... but really, it's much simpler than VNC.
A math problem is driving me nuts!
I took a picture of an example from the math text I am reading. This is in the introductory section that is demonstrating how to solve inequalities.
I think there might be an error in his work, but when I plug the original inequality and the suspect one into the Graphing Calculator (the one that comes with Mac OS 9), I get the same result. So I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or if he really did do it right.
What I don't understand is how he made x(x+5)/x+1 > 3 into (x2+2x-3)/x+1 > 0. If you expand x(x+5), you get x2+5x, so I don't see how he ended up with only 2x in the numerator on the left hand side of the inequality instead of 5x.
It looks to me like it should be ((x2+5x)/(x+1))-3 > 0 instead. Can somebody please confirm this or explain how you might get from what I got to, to what he got to?
Thanks!
RE: A math problem is driving me nuts!
Seth showed me how to solve the math problem I was having, as did Dori, privately. Thanks!
While trying to work it out, I was thinking that there has to be a way to get that lone "3" into the numerator, since it was completely gone from the author's answer, but I was struggling to find the way. When I saw what I had missed, lots of old synapses fired and soot balls were jettisoned from my ears. :-)
At first I was a little disappointed that I had forgotten something rather simple, but after a few minutes that blue mood went away. I can't get discouraged so easily, especially when I've JUST started studying again. Obviously things aren't going to come as easily as I hope they would.
I've got 3 months to get my brain into shape. I think that's enough time.
Here are some of the bookmarks I kept while browsing for Math resources back in March...
- MathWorld from the makers of Mathematica
- MIT OpenCourseWare | Mathematics
- Five Free Calculus Textbooks, a thread on Slashdot.
- Mathematical Background
- Mathematics bookshelf from Wiki Books
As you can see there is no shortage of material to study from. I still think I am going to need some more elementary material though. I need a thorough review of factoring, for one thing. Frankly, I need a thorough review of all junior-high and high-school level algebra and trigonometry.
