Tuesday, July 30, 2002

This is the inning log for the Arizona half of the 8th in tonight's Arizona/Montreal game, from ESPN: Arizona -J Eischen relieved J Vazquez. -Top of the 8th inning -E Durazo walked. -S Finley ran for E Durazo. -M Williams struck out looking. -J Bell hit for D Dellucci. -S Finley stole second. -M Herges relieved J Eischen. -M Grace hit for J Bell. -M Grace grounded out to first, S Finley to third. -R Barajas safe at second on throwing error by shortstop O Cabrera, S Finley scored. -C Donnels hit for M Batista. -B Anderson ran for R Barajas. -C Moeller hit for C Donnels. -C Moeller walked. -T Womack flied out to center. 1 run, 0 hits, 1 error Can anyone make sense of that? Oy.

10:16:26 PM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Interesting quote here - "[T]he security forces and the government feel that interment is working out remarkably well. It has exposed the [terrorists]. I have taken this serious step solely for the protection of life and security of property. We are, quite simply, at war with the terrorists and in a state of war many sacrifices have to be made, and made in a co-operative spirit." Guess who said it - answer coming later.

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I get this weird feeling every once in a while. It's a desperate craving to buy stuff. Nothing in particular, typically, just *stuff*. Something cool, nifty, new. This craving has, in the past, led to me owning a Dreamcast, Playstation 2, 20" Sony Wega flat tube TV, Sony 5-disc DVD player/home theater system, more books+dvds+cds+video games than I count... it's not quite the same as compulsive shopping. I had problems in the past with just rampant spending. This isn't that - I'm quite capable of NOT buying stuff. And I generally restrict myself to a reasonable budget (the home theater system is the exception to that rule, but hey, it's f'n awesome. I love surround sound, as detailed below). I just want stuff. I can afford said stuff. I'm not saving a lot of money these days, but I'm paying my bills and living comfortably. I've handled the stuff purchasing financially quite well. It wouldn't be a real problem except for the fact that I've run out of stuff to buy. No, seriously. Alright - let's look at it this way. I have every nifty electronic gadget that I can reasonably want - a nice laptop from work, a great TV, a great home theater, a few video game consoles. I've got more video games than I know what to do with - I'm playing through old Playstation games these days, with about 10 games on the pile for me to play. I joined Netflix, and no longer buy near as many DVDs (only the rare new one I'm waiting for and a couple used ones that jump out at me every couple weeks). I've run out of music that I know I want and don't already own, and am quite happy with my music collection right now anyway. And books - while there's ALWAYS more books I could buy, there's only so much time I can spend reading every day. I've cut myself down to approximately 5~10 new books a month, which still leaves me with an eternally growing pile of books to read. So what else is there? I'm vaguelly saving towards a new computer. Since my current computer of choice is owned by my employer and not myself, I need to have a nice, modern computer at home that I own for when I get a new job. I'm putting aside money towards a planned late fall purchase of a new system for something like $1200 to maybe $1500. So that's settled. There's nothing else I can really see spending money on that I don't already have. This is FRUSTRATING. I know how dumb this is - whining about not having anything to buy. I know I'm just too fascinated by novelty, and that this is why my room is a total mess of books, clothes, and cds in piles. But I can't help it - I love new things. So if you happen to think of something I'd enjoy and not feel like I wasted money on in the ~$150 price range, let me know. I'm going through nasty withdrawal right now. =)

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Nothing. 11 Investors Participate in $715,000 Round, Negotiating New Line of Credit [Salon Headlines] woohoo! Salon's not going out of business! WOO! Sorry. I love Salon oodles. I can't honestly remember how I survived without Salon. And no, I'm not paid by them - I just get my movie reviews from them. And Nothing Personal. I love celebrity stupidity. 'cos they're weirder than us.
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OSCON, last week, has done its job and stirred the embers of the Great Open Source Debate of the 1990s. I found myself writing in an email yesterday: "Very little really usable software has come from people who are willing to work for $0. (I chose my words carefully, infrastructure is another matter entirely.) Further, it's weird to say, as Richard Stallman does, that by coercing programmers to work for $0 that that's freedom. To me it seems obvious that that's slavery."   [Scripting News] <geek> Ok - I agree that coercing programmers to work for nothing is not freedom, but I really don't think even Stallman said that. I'll need to dredge up my downloaded copy of his biography, but I'm pretty sure there's a quote from him stating that programmers deserve to be compensated for their labor. The issue is not programmers working for nothing, but corporations and patent holders restricting technological advances and productivity through charging for software. These are radically different things. I pay for software that I consider worth spending money on - good games (such as the outstanding Europa Universalis II from Paradox Entertainment), useful applications (such as Radio Userland for this very blog), etc...I also use the single greatest development editor in all of computing, Emacs. Which was, of course, developed by people willing to work for $0. And it's not infrastructure. Salon's web server runs Apache on Linux, according to Netcraft. Yes, that IS infrastructure, but it's still really good software, most of it written for free. Just because Stallman's got the tendency to say crazy things once in a while is no reason to denigrate the idea of open source. And just because some good software is open source is no reason to not buy quality commercial software. There IS an in-between here, people. =) </geek>

11:04:00 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Australia unearths fossilised giants [BBC Science & Nature] On the same note as the previous post, but this time it's giant marsupials. The best bit is about a wombat the size of a small car - seriously. I want one as a pet.
10:38:39 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Kansas might suck now but 85 million years ago it had oceans. [FARK] No, seriously! This is really cool. Then again, I'm really just a wannabe paleontologist at heart. I can't help but geek out at extinct species. I had the time of my life watching the Discovery Channel's dino and extinct mammal shows, and went to DC primarily to see fossils at the Natural History museum. (which was, of course, mobbed with small children. argh.) How can you not love a picture like this? I love this stuff. =)

9:04:32 AM p e r m a l i n k trackback [] say something []

Ack - I woke up at 6am. Actually, more like 5:50, but who's counting - it's already hit something in the '80s here. Way too hot for this time of day...it's gonna be miserable all day long. Ah well - I've got good air conditioning at work. =) Reading a book on the Troubles in N. Ireland now. Here's a little ditty the Protestant police sang while suppressing a non-violent civil rights march (a la the civil rights movement in the south in the US during the '60s) in 1969 - 'Hey, hey we're the Monkees, and we're going to monkey around Till we see your blood flowing All along the ground' Makes you feel all warm and cuddly, doesn't it?

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