Geeks . . . make the world go round

So, the other day I'm wandering around Torgeson Hall (Torg) here at VT, and this odd looking card reader outside the Configurable Computing Lab catches my eye. Since it's the Computer Science building, nearly every door in Torg has a card reader or a fingerprint scanner, but this is different. First, it's in a hard carved cherry box. . . and it's scrolling the news. I watch for a few moments and realize that it's running an RSS feed of Slashdot, Digg, BBC, and CNN.

It ends up that a friend works in the lab, and he tells me that this was a spare time project. The backend is an old 486 running debian.

Geeks. . . can't live without 'em.

Global Warming

I just had to share this one around.

Here's a link to a very interesting video (on Google Video) about Global Warming. It's a bit long, but you can listen in the background and tune in for the interesting parts.

One particular pet peeve: did you know that a single large volcanic eruption emits more CO2 than humans do in a decade at the present rate? Further, did you know that Al Gore's famous Vostok, Antarctica Ice Core actually shows atmospheric CO2 increases trailing temperature increases by 800 years.

Flame on!

Summer. . .

Ah hah! Now I understand why some people become professional lifelong grad students. . . summertime. It’s quiet, it’s warm, all the underlings undergrads are gone, and there’s not much doing. Compared to taking 3 graduate level classes plus seminar it’s almost like vacation. . . except I’m getting paid for it.

As for research, it should be picking up soon. Professor _____ and I are supposed to start field work tomorrow, and then they’ll be data reduction to work on.

In other news:

my new iMac, (with it's recently upgraded 500 GB hard drive. . . long story) is a scream. It’s fast, quiet, and the only problems I’ve had with it have been issues with M$ Office apps. Argh!

my sister is spending the next month or so in Honduras (she’s crazy) on a Spanish language/relief work/medical missions trip. She was permitted to bring only one bookbag size backpack as luggage. At least we got a duffel bag for Niger, but a backpack is really pushing it.

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

speaking of cryptography, I just found out that PGP released PGP Desktop for OS X! My public key is available on any PGP keyserver (ex. http://pgp.mit.edu/) under the fingerprint 0xCE220DF6.

there’ll be a photoblog update coming soon.

A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis is one of the most profound books I have read in recent years. I would highly recommend it. The ability that man had to think outside and beyond himself and put his deepest thoughts and feelings into words is fabulous.

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater...confidence than an armed man.”
- Thomas Jefferson

“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity."
- Sigmund Freud, Psychoanlysis (1952)