mindlab

Of Lawyers and Interference Fit

2010-02-25T18:57:00.005-05:00

It's a well-known fact in 1911 'smithing/fiddling circle that Kimber rear fixed sights are tight. Really, truly, and legendarily tight. Presumably this is to discourage persons who value reliability over slightly reduced liability from removing the Schwartz 'drop safety' firing pin block.

I just happened upon these picture while perusing the Roger's Precision site. It appears that Roger, likely standing within reach of sight pusher or a hydralic press, felt the need to mill through the sight base to remove the sight.

Now that's tight!

One can only hope. . .

2010-02-23T21:47:00.002-05:00

Doug van Gorder works as a math teacher at Brockton High School, Brockton Massachusetts. He makes a living educating children. He is paid to be reasonably knowledgeable and to pass that knowledge on to the children in his care.

Mr. van Gorder also writes the occasional letter to the Boston Globe. His letter of December 28, 2009 was particularly interesting. I quote, in full:

I am a math teacher at Brockton High School, the site of a school shooting earlier this month.

Current school security procedures lock down school populations in the event of armed assault. Some advocate abandoning this practice as it holds everyone in place, allowing a shooter easily to find victims.

An alternative to lockdown is immediate exodus via announcement. Although this removes potential hostages and makes it nearly impossible for the shooter to acquire preselected targets, it unfairly rewards resourceful children who move to safety off-site more shrewdly and efficiently than others.

Schools should level playing fields, not intrinsically reward those more resourceful. A level barrel is fair to all fish.

Some propose overturning laws that made schools gun-free zones even for teachers who may be licensed to securely carry concealed firearms elsewhere. They argue that barring licensed-carry only ensures a defenseless, target-rich environment.

But as a progressive, I would sooner lay my child to rest than succumb to the belief that the use of a gun for self-defense is somehow not in itself a gun crime.

. . . and you could have heard a pin drop.

I see two 'problems' (for lack of a better word that is also printable) here. The first is that Mr. van Gorder values equality so much that he would prevent the children in his care from fleeing to safety because some may be better at fleeing than others. Although he admits to believing that evacuating a school in cases of armed assault may be advantageous, he opposes this protective response because it "unfairly rewards resourceful children who move to safety off-site more shrewdly and efficiently than others."

The second 'problem' is even more surprising. To quote again, ". . . as a progressive, I would sooner lay my child to rest than succumb to the belief that the use of a gun for self-defense is somehow not in itself a gun crime." Mr. van Gorder here equates the act of defending his child's life against an attacker with the act of the person attacking his child. He makes a statement of moral equivalence between attacking a child with lethal force, and defending that child with lethal force.

It is possible to explain the second 'problem' as a case of pacificism, but what about the first? Think about the implications of this for a moment. Picture a group of children, under Mr. van Gorder's care, and picture them being attacked. Picture Mr. van Gorder preventing any of them from fleeing the attacker to safety, because he fears that some may flee more efficiently than others. Picture Mr. van Gorder in his classroom, grasping his students, preventing them from fleeing an attacker, even as they are being killed. Picture Mr. van Gorder explaining to them, as they die, that he couldn't let them flee because some of them might have succeeded in escaping.

One can only hope that Mr. van Gorder is childless and remains so. One can only hope that Mr. van Gorder never has an opportunity to restrain his students to their deaths. It would, however, be unreasonable to hope that Mr. van Gorder might be removed from his position as a threat to his students; after all, it's Massachusetts.

Realizing

2010-01-29T08:36:00.001-05:00

Life is. . .

complete!

In da Hood: Keynes vs. Hayek

2010-01-28T07:48:00.001-05:00

Faces I Love

2010-01-26T09:19:00.007-05:00

What's this?

2009-12-31T13:49:00.002-05:00

I have a blog? oh, I'd forgotten.

hmmm. Gonna have to do something about that!

Smiling. . .

2009-07-13T07:26:00.006-04:00

Interesting Times Ahead

2009-06-15T11:05:00.005-04:00

2009-05-15T23:54:00.005-04:00

Pictures are up at mindlabprime with an emphasis on composition instead of resolution. I think I like it.

16 April, 2007

2009-04-16T21:44:00.006-04:00

Congratulations Lauren and Philip

2009-03-07T21:20:00.003-05:00

Well that was fun!

The other side. . .

2009-03-03T12:10:00.005-05:00

Unless you live in on the dark side of the moon, you probably heard about Israel's successful assassination of Nizar Rayan several weeks ago. Rayan was apparently the ' third most senior Hamas leader in Gaza.' Surprisingly there was significantly less hand-wringing and cries of humanitarian tragedy than I've come to expect; most of articles I've read seemed to present a fairly balanced view of the event.

That's not quite the whole story though. A few weeks later the February edition of Maoz Israel arrived and found the article excerpted below:

Tapping on the Roof (full article)

A few days ago one of the leaders of the “military” wing of Hamas, Nizar Rian, was killed by an Israeli air strike on his house along with 14 others (including 4 of his wives).

That strike was the result of careful intelligence gathering. When Rian was located, Israeli army and government legal advisors went through a painstaking process of bringing the strike before court judges to verify its legality according to the Geneva conventions.

Fifteen (15) minutes before the strike, the Israeli army called on the telephone and asked the people to leave the house. When they received the call, they gathered people up onto the roof as a human shield. The Israeli helicopter pilot saw them, and as they figured, he didn’t want to hurt them.

The pilot then fired a missile into a field next to the house to warn them. They still did not leave. Then he fired onto them a non-lethal weapon to cause them to flee. Only after they left the roof did he fire the shot that destroyed the house.

When the missile hit, there were a series of other explosions, indicating as assumed by the Israeli army, that the house was used for weapon storage.

The policy of notifying the civilians of a coming attack is called by the Israeli army, “Tap on the roof,” like knocking on a door before you enter a house.

Asher Intrater – Maoz Israel Report, February 2009

Not surprisingly, it's been a rare occurrence to find an article in the mainstream media reporting this sort of careful behavior by the Israelis (although it does happen occasionally). Usually they're portrayed as the evil Jewish butchers carving up 'palestinians' for the shear fun of it. This trend is slowly changing as the actions of Hamas and Fatah more undeniably aggressive, but so far the emphasis has been on the 'slow' not the 'change.'

If only we could transplant just a little of the Israeli Defense Force's self-restraint and high valuation of their enemies lives to a few other militaries. . .

To dance or not to dance. . .

2009-02-13T20:02:00.006-05:00

A few weeks ago an acquaintance from church asked if I was interested in joining a Lindy Hop dance class with a group from church (Woodruff Road and a few others). My initial reaction was a definite "NO," (introvert, etc) but since I was drowning in work at the moment, I didn't reply immediately. After puzzling for a half hour, I made the inexplicable decision to give it a try.

Five lessons in, I've found it to be quite a bit of fun. I did expect dancing 'around the room' (with all the young ladies in the room) to be quite awkward, but I haven't found it so.

I grew up with the cultural expectation that 'you dance with family'; that is, with your wife, fiancée, sister, or mother (like the time Dad was out of town and Mom didn't want to miss the ballroom class). This cultural mismatch presented a challenge; I knew there were significant differences between the way that I was used to thinking about dancing and the way that the other members of the class (and fellow members of my church) were thinking about dancing. I had to consciously remind myself that dancing with a young lady does not (as I had been used to thinking) communicate intent or exclusivity on either person's part; this took some getting used to.

With this newly formed bit of culture still fresh in my mind, I walked out of the classroom environment and into the Handlebar (the local live bluegrass/swing dance joint). I didn't see anyone dancing any steps I recognized, so I figured I'd watch for a spell and wait for a slower song. A few minutes turned into an hour and it wasn't until I was driving home chatting with my sister that I realized why I hadn’t jumped it.

Dancing is enjoyable because it allows a person to communicate with their partner via physical contact (it's called haptic communication). In many ways this is analogous to a conversation; when I talk with someone, I'm enjoying their mind by communicating with words. I'm exploring what and how they think. Dancing is similar expect the communication is physical, not verbal. Just as you become familiar with a person's mind by talking with them, you become familiar with a person's body by dancing with them.

Herein lies the rub; I grew up expecting the physical familiarity of dancing to be incompatible with an relationship of neutral friendship. This is less of a problem in the academic classroom environment since everyone's focus is on learning the moves and correcting technique. At the Handlebar the focus is on enjoying the dance with your partner; totally different.

Apparently none of my classmates have this 'cultural mismatch' problem. They all appear perfectly comfortable enjoying the dance for it's own sake, and aren't bothered by the physical familiarity they're experiencing with their partners.

Culture can be such a troublesome thing. We automatically assume that the people around us all hold the same expectations as we do; big mistake. Secondly, culture varies so inexplicably: I know people who feel that a dinner invitation is more personal than a dance (!), people who find phone conversations more personal than working on a school project together (?), and people who would never consider an email correspondence with 'mixed company’ but are comfortable staying up 'till 2am talking in person (?!). People are strange.

So, there it is. Progress has been made, but outside of class dancing for dancing’s sake still seems strange. Maybe I’ll get over; I’ll have plenty of opportunity in the Lindy Hop 2 class coming soon! I can say I’m looking forward more than ever to dancing with my special ‘her,’ wherever I manage to find her. I hope she picks up some dance lessons along the way; if not, we’ll be back in class.

Your thoughts (disagreement, flamers, hatemail, etc) are welcome.

The Doctrine of Hydroxyethane

2009-02-03T18:31:00.006-05:00

I've recently had an interesting email exchange with some friends of mine regarding the Christian position on alcohol consumption. Our exchange was precipitated by an offhand remark made in the sermon that was the subject of my previous entry.

Their position (total abstinence) could, fairly I think, be summed up in two arguments:

All of the positive references to wine in scripture (Psalms, SoS, Cana, etc) don't really mean wine. . . they mean something else, and
since alcohol is so dangerous, Christians should abstain to avoid causing other to stumble.

To the first argument, I don't have much to say. I have to agree with another Mark Driscoll/Mars Hill sermon (summary here) in saying that (paraphrase), "If God had meant grape juice, how would have said 'grape juice'; He said 'wine,' he meant wine."

In the second, I really like Luther's witticism:

“Do you suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused? Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women?”

I imagine that in the course of our email exchange, the fact that I feel rather strongly about this topic became obvious. My insistence is based on philosophical grounds, not personal. I disagree with their position and I dislike hearing scripture misused; they probably feel exactly the same way. I'm thankful that we can still be friends, despite our disagreement (but don't get us started on paedobaptism!).

After this exchange, another interesting point was brought to my attention; I don't drink and when asked I usually say, "I don't like the taste, and I have too many expensive hobbies already." Both these statements are true, but I think there's a third that may be more significant; the possibility of being even slightly buzzed frankly scares me. I already carry the fear (slight but present) that I'll say something stupid or worse into almost every social situation; the last thing I need is to "relax" even slightly. I do wonder if this is a positive character trait, or a negative trait that needs to be repented of.

future subject: dancing! (oh this should be good)

“Under 17 Requires Adult Permission”

2009-01-13T10:00:00.001-05:00

Who Would Jesus Smack Down?

I was delighted (and a little surprised) to see that Mark Driscoll (blog) of Mars Hill Church, Seattle made it the front page of the NYT Online Edition this past week. Being the Times, they apparently couldn't resist indulging in a bit of one-sided rhetoric (like selecting only the most outrageous quotes for inclusion in the article) but by and large, they printed a factual (if slightly misleading) story.

If anyone's curious, the typical sermon (library) at Mars Hill does NOT require adult permission; most are more in line with what you'd expect from Albert Mohler (of SBTS) or, dare I say, Carl Robbins (of the renowned WRPC), albeit with a decidedly edgier presentation.

Although his verse-by-verse exposition is great (Ruth, Ecclesiastes, and SoS are favorites), I have to admit a penchant for Driscoll's topical sermons. They're a great place to start thinking about a topic that interests you; I've been through sermons on Worship (the Regulative Principle), Sovereign Grace, Calvinism, Marriage, and Tithing and found them quite interesting.

"No Charges in Concord Police Shooting" was the headline in the Union Leader. Well, that sounds positive, I wonder what happened. Ah, a cop (!) got shot (ouch). . . by a cop (uh-oh!). . . at 0300 in the morning (eh?). . . on private property (you're kidding right). . . during a "makeshift training session (. . .)! I cannot find appropriate words.

So three cops were trespassing in an under-construction facility at O-dark-hundred, decided to play cops-and-robbers, with LOADED WEAPONS, and then the Sargent SHOOTS one of his Officers. Unbelievable.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, the AG is letting them walk. If I 'accidentally' shot myself in my own home, I would likely be charged with negligence (at a minimum); when one of Concord's finest shoots a co-work while trespassing (and shirking work, might I add), he gets free medical care and a couple days of vacation.

Consider how confidence inspiring this is. I'm supposed to call these people and invite them into my home if I hear an intruder at 0300? I'm supposed to trust them and believe that they will know who to shoot, and who to protect? Do I really look that dumb?

In closing: Do not point ANY weapon at ANY thing you are not ready to destroy. . and keep you booger hook off the bang switch until you are ready to attend the funeral!

The photoblog has been updated!

Food for Thought

2008-06-03T12:22:00.006-04:00

Well, I'm finding that the 'real world' as opposed to school) doesn't leave alot of time for introspective blogging. Nor does it leave much weekday flexibility, or provide as much intellectual interest as school did. The pay, however, is markedly better.

Work has been a big adjustment from school (the understatement of the week) and I'm still getting my groove, but it's much better than the first few months. I'm on vacation this week (unpaid leave no less, bah humbug) and up north enjoying the brisk weather and snow. Now if only I could bring a little winter back to Greenville.

There are a few new picture up on mindlabprime, and more forthcoming when time permits.

I couldn't help but report on an excellent book I've recently purchased. Wing to Wing, Oar to Oar by A and L. Kass (named from a line in R. Frost's The Master Speed) is a compilation of readings on courtship and marriage. From Socrates (Plato's Symposium), Shakespeare (several sonnets and theatrical excepts) through Rousseau (The Courtship of Emile and Sophie, twisted but insightful), C. S. Lewis (the chapter on Eros from The Four Loves), and the ever depressing R. L. Rilke, this is a fascinating collection. I always suspected that thinkers had been thinking about this topic for a long time, but I've never been able to find a large body of thoughtful commentary; now I've found it.

For a more thorough review, have a look at boundless. The only disagreement I have with Sean McMeekin's review is his dislike of Rousseau's writing on love and marriage based on his abject failure as a lover and husband; a marriage counselor Rousseau is not, but as an insightful observer of human nature, he's worth putting up with.

You'll probably have to InterLibrary Loan this one (unless you're blessed with a massive local library) but if you're like me, you'll end up with your own copy before too long.

It's Over

2007-12-14T15:09:00.000-05:00

Wow.

That is all.

Absolutely Clear

2007-11-09T09:35:00.000-05:00

Don't surrender your loneliness
So quickly.
Let it cut more deep.

Let it ferment and season you
As few human
Or even divine ingredients can.

Something missing in my heart tonight
Has made my eyes so soft,
My voice
So tender,

My need of God
Absolutely
Clear.

by Shams al-Din Hafiz
trans. Daniel Ladinsky

Geeks . . . make the world go round

2007-05-29T21:15:00.000-04:00

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

2007-05-25T17:21:00.001-04:00

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. . .

2007-05-22T17:35:00.000-04:00

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)

16 April, 2007

2007-04-18T10:37:00.000-04:00

32 people have been killed on the Virginia Tech campus.

You who live in heaven,
Hear the prayers of those of us who live on earth,
Who are afraid of being left by those we love,
And who get hardened by the hurt,. . .
And I know you bore our sorrows,
And I know you feel our pain,
And I know it would not hurt any less,
Even if it could be explained. -Rich Mullins

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. - Romans 12:15

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshipped. And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed by the name of the LORD." - Job 1:20-21

Lesser Northern Parrot

2007-03-06T22:10:00.000-05:00

I'm slowly learning Lightroom, and all told it's a very powerful package. I think it'll be well worth the $100 I'll have to drop on it in another 19 days.

A byproduct of more powerful development software is more photos getting attention, so I've updated mindlab.prime again.

Cheers.

BTW, Inferno (Dante) is the perfect book to read while flying home.

Spring Break

2007-03-02T11:17:00.000-05:00

TDL:
Read Dante's Inferno (translated by Sean O'Brien)
Grade undergrad labs (bwwahahahah)
Complete one homework assignment (insert vile imprecations regarding the instructor here)
Sleep (alot)
Shoot (even more)

That ought to do it!

Oh, and in other news, once again, the free market works, even for the environment. When will those ~~socialist, pinko-commie, tree hugging, eviro-nazi, pot smoking hippies~~ unfortunate deceived persons figure it out.

HA. . . did I surprise you?

2007-02-26T19:45:00.000-05:00

I guess this makes my update rate this month infinitely greater than my update rate last month. . . and there's a new pic! There's more on the way, I just need to figure out how to work Lightroom. . .

DUMB Fugit

2006-08-21T14:38:00.000-04:00

Interesting. No sooner do classes at Tech start, than some dumb hick in jail for armed robbery busts out of the hospital, kills a security guard and a sheriff's deputy, and closes down the entire campus. 'gotta be terrible for the families. . .

Fair bet the fugitive never sees the inside of a jail cell again. This is, after all, Virginia.

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he isn't.
A sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is.
--Horace Walpole

Tempest Fugit

2006-08-20T14:54:00.000-04:00

Seems like only a couple weeks ago I was getting ready to graduate from Norwich and looking forward to spending the summer with my family. . . and now I'm at grad school. Wow.

Anyway, classes start tomorrow: Advanced Shear Strength of Soils, Earthquake Engineering, and Foundation Engineering. I'm also TAing Introduction to Geotechnical Engineering (undergrads beware BWAAAHHHHHH). This should be interesting.

In other news, Steorn today announced that they have invented a generator configuration that achieves efficiency over 100%. If they had settled for inventing teleportation or time travel, that might have been believable. Read more here.

More pictures will be coming soon (I hope). Honestly I need to find a simpler way to update mindlabprime; it would get done more often if it wasn't such a hassle.

Why does the past always seem safer?
Maybe because at least we know we made it.
And why do we worry about the future,
When every day will come just the way the Lord ordained it?
-Chris Rice, Eighth Grade

Pictures

2006-04-06T14:32:00.000-04:00

Hey cool. I've been published on megapixel.com. Neat. Now where was that letter from National Geographic. . .

Busy

2006-04-02T13:34:00.000-04:00

Wow! and I thought 13 credits for my last undergrad semester would be easy.

I've been quite busy, but not so's to stop shooting. Mindlab Prime has been updated, and I'm getting better (at least I think so).

In other news, the charlat. . . I mean scientists over at Posit Science have created a Brain Speed Test that measures auditory response time (and mouse clicking ability). Try it out; my best score is 22 ms.

All for now. Senior Project at T-240 hours.

All the news that fits

2006-01-25T21:01:00.000-05:00

The Department of Justice is back at it again, pulling GOOG (and my portfolio value) down like a millstone. I oughtta send the lousy rats a bill.

In other news, I finally got Knoppix booting from a 1GB USB stick (with full hardware autoconfig). OOH-RAH.

In addition, for those of you who don't feel like booting Knoppix and running tor to satisfy your urge for anonymity, you can now use torpark. Full, strong, trackless, compatible anonymity for the masses. Too cool.

"I know that me Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth."

photoblog is UP

2006-01-24T16:24:00.000-05:00

mindlab's new photoblog is up and running (see sidebar). Comments welcome.

Truly, all is lost

2006-01-18T20:20:00.000-05:00

GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL. v. OREGON ET AL.

Dissent written by Scalia, pg 25:

"The prohibition or deterrence of assisted suicide is certainly not among the enumerated powers conferred on the United States by the Constitution,. . . But then, neither is prohibiting the recreational use of drugs or discouraging drug addiction among the enumerated powers. . . Unless we are to repudiate a long and well-established principle of our jurisprudence, using the federal commerce power to prevent assisted suicide is unquestionably permissible. The question before us is not whether Congress can do this, . . .

10th Amendment to the Constitution:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Article 6, US Constitution:

The. . . judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution. . .

So, essentially we have a Justice of the US Supreme Court admitting that he is committing treason. I believe traitors are traditionally shot, no?

DONE!

2005-12-19T21:14:00.000-05:00

Ahha! At long last. Finally, heaven be praise, it' over. Just finished the Circuits final, like getting beaten with a stick, but it's done. Time to go home and restart real life.

Meanwhile, I gotta get a suit made out of this stuff.

The Brits are crazier than anyone knew. Now they're trying to violate Conservation of Energy by generating "free" power. Perhaps this idea will save a couple bucks in power transmission losses, but ultimately it simply shifts the power generation from the municipality to the motorists.

It's always interesting to see spin, and we have plenty of in America; however, this week, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman uttered a real award-winner. Now it appears that Ahmadinejad's statement to the effect that the Holocaust never happened was "academic" statement.

In closing, I heard the best quote I've heard in a long time tonight. The question posed is: "As a christian young lady, how 'far can I go' with a boyfriend/potential mate?" The answer given was: "You can do with your boyfriend anything that you feel comfortable doing infront of you father." Now THAT's good stuff.

Almost Done!

2005-12-16T18:25:00.000-05:00

I'm never certain whether finals week is harder than a regular school week or easier. On the one hand, there are the obvious tests, and the long hours studying; on the other hand, everything has a nice sense of finality about it. I won't have to learn any new information for an entire month, and I won't get any more REDO's from JB. Better yet, I can walk in to each test knowing that I've either got it in the bag or not, and they'll be no more fooling and "doing better next time."

In other news:

Something strange happened in Washington today. The Senate was suddenly possessed of the visceral fortitude to reject (CNN link warning; sorry) an attempt to renew the patriot act. I wonder why.

Engineering: solving real world problems often created by other engineers. What more could you want?

We certainly have come a long way in the past 62 years. I can't even see the keyboard on that thing.

". . .Who you are defines my dreams." - Switchfoot

Only one week 'till Thanksgiving Break!

2005-11-12T02:13:00.000-05:00

Finally. . . done with Senior Project proposals and presentations; 'bout time. Now for the actual work. . .

In other interesting news:

As Though There Were No God. . . 'nuf said.

This past week Sony made a serious mistake: Getting Caught!
Sony DRM Installs Rootkit
first reported here.

Also, a couple of MIT engineering students proved that the urban myth regarding aluminum foil hats protecting the wearer from mind control radio frequencies are in fact a vast government conspiracy. One has to wonder how engineering students at MIT find time for this. Note: If you have no idea what I'm talking about, your simply not geeky enough.

Mobius

2005-11-09T20:07:00.000-05:00