Daniel Von Fange

Poor Elizabeth.

My sister's evening began well. The digital camera that she paid-her-very-own-money-for arrived after several days of constantly watching the UPS tracking page for the package. She was in bliss. The camera looked beautiful. Elizabeth ran around snapping pictures of everyone. She pulled out her glistening iBook, "Eowyn", plugged the USB cable in, and tried to see the photos. Nothing worked! I went over and searched the web for info on her camera, lo and behold I found Logitech deliberately did not include Mac drivers, and would not allow their distribution. Here favorite camera would not work with her favorite computer. Elizabeth ran up to her room and had to cry for a while.

Later on the geeky side of her resurfaced, and she started working out long, convoluted ways to get the pictures off. By supper, she had succeeded in at least getting her pictures off.

DSL up and running.

At last it up!

DSL - fourth inning.

And the other DSL modem they brought back has a blown power supply. They promise to be back after lunch with yet another DSL modem.

DSL 2.

Two hours later, the score is DSL - 3, Telco guys - 0. "Anything having to do with the telco is not going to happen easily" should have been an old roman saying.

They are coming back with a new DSL modem, since this one can't take the distance.

DSL.

DSL is getting installed. I'm off to follow the telco guys around.

The mighty BF.

I just found a new language, BF. Usually I like languages that come close to thinking at the same level I do. BF so not that way. :)

Ruby is a simple language. BF is a simple language too - but only simple to the computer!

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You are getting Sleepy.

For some reason I just can't seem to come up to full alertness this week. My brain shuts off after about three or four hours of use, and I have to charge it by taking a two hour nap several times during the day in addition to normal rest at night. I'm thankful freelancing. This certainly would cause problems if I were working full time somewhere. :) My brain is quitting on me right now, so good night. :)

Police..

I just saw a policeman drive down our road. Only seen them down here four times in the twenty something years we have been here. Usually they are looking for escapees. I wonder what's up.

[Update: My eyesight is failing at a young age. :) It was just a salesman - though I would have sworn he wore a badge. Oh, well. Total police count for the road remains at four times with police - and the one FBI agent that my dad called in when he got his first Nigerian Scam fax.]

Four Wheeling.

"You want to go four wheeling?, I'm taking the Land Rover in to have it waxed tonight. I want to get it dirty first." John said. "You can drive the Green Truck, and we will pull each other out when we get stuck."

"I've got a headache. I don't really feel like going today." I replied

"So what, you had a headache yesterday."

"Yeah, I have had a head ache for the last two weeks. I don't really feel adventurous."

"I'm gonna go drive then. I'm taking my cell phone."

"See ya."

20 minutes later, RINGGGG! I'd been waiting for it.

"Hey," I say, picking up my phone.

"Hi," says John.

"What's up?"

"Well.... I stuck the rover."

"And?"

"I need you to bring the Green Truck over and pull me out."

He tells me where he is, and we finish the call. After putting on some shoes, I head off to the Green Truck. It's gonna be an adventure after all.

Now some cars are mindless beings. They get you from point A to point B in comfort. You never have to take into consideration what the vehicle thinks about things. The green truck is not that way. It's more of a living being, with a entire mind of it's own. I've never driven the green truck more than five feet before, and now I have to get it up and going. (This is only my fourth day driving a car solo.)

So after saying a prayer, I head out. John meets me at the head of the trail, and drives the truck through some good mud spots, to a very stuck Land Rover.

After hitching up some cables, and I helped pulled him out. I got to follow him out, and got my first taste of driving through muck, as we went on out up the trail. I learned that speed is your friend. You can try to crawl through a mud spot, but you will sink. For success, pick the best route, and get up speed before you hit the mud. I did not get stuck!

John went off looking for more mud as I left and went back home. A while later I got that snack-time feeling, and walked over to the house. I saw Mom walking between buildings as I approached.

"We are going to pick up John. He tipped the Land Rover. Want to come?" Mom said. Ouch! But Mom did not seem concerned. Turns out I had miss heard. John took the Land Rover to his friend the car washer, not tipped it. Phew.

Analysis of the Policeman's Actions.

Lisa Rein likes getting her news from as it happens, and sharing it with the rest of the world via her video camera. It's a great way of doing things, and it would be fun if more people did likewise. However the text of a piece on a cop attacking a protester is way out of line with what we actually see in the video she shot.

Okay, for starters, open up the video in another window, so later you can scroll through and watch the frames I'm talking about. It's only 1.2 megs. I'll wait for you to come back. :) You can also get another view from a camera right next to Lisa's here.

Now here is the text of what was written:

...then turned to see a cops throw a girl into a newspaper machine. I turned the camera on her in time to see her try to stand up while a cop confronted her and she tried to back away from him while he hit her with his club (med res) (hi-res and small) and was about to do it again when she ran off screaming. (I interview her here.) (Hi-res version of interview.)

From a video of her afterward, we know her name is Sonja. Just for fun I'm going to call the officer, "Pete", since he needs a name too. :)

At the moment tensions are running really high, as police teams are arresting people, while a few police, Pete included are trying to keep the path into the crowd open so the the arrest teams can get back. The police holding people of the street are spread really thin. From looking at the videos, Pete is trying to keep about 15 feet of people on the side walk. In addition, at the beginning of this incident there are no police covering the road immediately opposite side from him, leaving him open from the back. With the riot helmet eliminating his peripheral vision, he has to turn his whole body around to see what is happening behind him. Pete is in a really tough spot. Probably the most difficult of any of the policemen in the few seconds of that video clip.

And then a woman comes running out of the crowd, right into the area that he is trying to keep clear. We don't see what happens, but Lisa says she was thrown into the newspaper stands.

...then turned to see a cops throw a girl into a newspaper machine.

As the camera pans over towards the commotion, Pete is looking away from Sonja, checking his back. Sonja is down on the ground in the midst of tipped over newspaper stands. At first glance it looks like the force of her coming backwards flipped them over. Looking closer though, they are all tipped over toward the street, which is to say, toward the police. Probably done by some rioters earlier on during the day. In all likelihood she tripped over them while coming backward. A portion of the crowd is coming off the side walk accross the street, and coming toward them. Most of them hold video cameras, and are just looking to get close to the action, but they are moving towards Pete's vulnerable side, and, like Sonja, into the area he is trying to keep clear.

I turned the camera on her in time to see her try to stand up while a cop confronted her and she tried to back away from him while he hit her with his club.

Sonja stands back up and takes a step out into the street, out away from the crowd, and bringing her toward Pete again. He takes a step forwards as she approaches and he yells "BACK OFF". Sonja leans forward, as if to argue with him. Pete realizes she is not backing off, glances down at her leg, and begins to swing his baton. The swing hits her leg (and I hate the sound it makes).

His choice of where to hit Sonja is instructive. He is aiming for the place that is least likely to injure her. The upper leg is a big, "padded" area, and the upper leg bone is really, really hard to break. He is trying to get her back in on the side walk in a hurry so he can push back the other side of of the street that is moving in on him, not to break bones or send her to the hospital.

and was about to do it again when she ran off screaming.

Pete yells, "BACK OFF" again the moment the club stops swinging from the first blow, and she spins around and heads back into the crowd. Pete already has the baton back in the ready position before she has even completely turned around. No sign of his even of thinking of a second strike. He takes a half step backwards.

Total time from Sonja getting up, to turning back into the crowd: Three seconds.

What he does next shows Pete is not a rookie. He quickly turns his head to the left looking for threats, and then to the right. It's not human nature to do this immediately after giving a blow. Humans like to fixate on the things they are doing, especially when the going is stressful. It will get you killed in a gunfight though, and Pete is trained enough to scan constantly. He is fighting to remain aware of the entire situation, and what is happening on all sides of him.

Watch as he sees out of the corner of his eye the boy in black running toward him from the left. Pete reflexively crouches down about two inch, and prepares to defend himself. A split second later, he realizes the boy is not going at him and he straitens back up, even before you see the boy on the camera. It's easy to miss seeing it.

Pete then turns to deal with the people on the other side of the street, and moves away, leaving this part of this side in the hands of the two officers coming up to help him.

Pete did what he was trained to do, did the job he had to do while operating in a difficult spot, immediately moved on to other things the moment Sonja turned back. He was making decisions every second. I'd be proud to know "Pete". Sonja, while perhaps not a foolish person, definitely behaved in a foolish manner, twice moving out toward Pete, and the space he was keeping open.

It will be interesting to see if Lisa updates her post on this. She usually tries to be accurate, and is widely trusted. Oh, and thanks for giving me the video to critique your write-up from, Lisa. :)

PS: I just watched through the sections of the full video, before and after, and I think hear Sonja's voice about ten seconds before the commotion, screaming at the Police to "Take some F###### pride in what you do". Later on the quick interview with Lisa, Sonja also seems to use "F######" before many words, and the voice does sound like hers. I could be wrong, many people are screaming. [Update: looks like I am. Lisa says that's not Sonja. I blame me being up too late. :)]

Computer Dead.

I was getting ready to install Gentoo Linux on one of my older computers. While carrying down the dark country road from my parents house to mine, with the computer tucked under one arm, and a keyboard, network cable, and CD tucked under the other, the computer frame slipped out of the back of the case, and hit the road. I had forgotten to check that it was screwed in. Nobody to blame but me.

Score: Frame slighty bent, CD, and HD's spin up, ethernet card lights up, but I think the CPU is history. Nothing comes out on screen, and the numlock and scroll lock keys don't light up the lights on the keyboard

Colocating.

After a long period of hosting here at the bussiness, we have decided to lose the T1 and go with a far, far, cheaper DSL. The server and websites will move to a colocation facility. My job to day was to pick a new home for the server.

My first check was with peer1, the same folks that host joelonsoftware.com. But there were no prices there and I got this expensive smell. I really wanted to have the server nearby, so I went googleing through everyone offering, "colocation charlotte", and turned up two possible places.

First stop was Charlotte Collocation. Their prices were reasonable, but the web site looked a bit unprofessional. I gave them a call and arranged for a facilities tour later on in the day. (I wanted to see if they actualy had a building. :P)

Second stop was Peak10. I let the saleman I was transfered to know exactly what I was looking for, and asked for a price. "Well how much are you willing to pay?" he asked. Sheeesh! I gave him the other facilities prices, and said they sounded good to me. He said he would email me a quote. When I recieved it, the quote was much more than double the other, and then plus a heafty setup fee.

In the afternoon I drove over to Charlotte Collocation. In spite of their poor website, they have a good facility and great people. So, the new servers will going to Charlotte Collocation. We will see how they turn out.

Random quotes.

I've been saving random little snippets as I surfed, that I thought funny.

Posted by John Dough at March 17, 2003 02:01 PM

I would just like to say that when the comments start vectoring off into serious thoughtful discussion, they get boring.

David S. Miller

And finally, as the person who has to maintain this list and deal with
the daily bounce pool this list generates every day, I declare it as
ontopic so :-P~~

Dave Hyatt

Most people are proud if they can recite the 50 states in alphabetical order; I can do the same thing, but with CSS properties.

(Do you know how dumb it is to light a cigarette at night in a war zone? It blinds your own vision, and hangs a neon "shoot me" sign on you that is visible for miles.)

At the edge of the autonomous zone, armed Kurdish militiamen manned a checkpoint on a muddy hillside under sporadic rain. The only lights were the tips of their cigarettes.
CNN

(Hehe, a entire division has only had to kill one tank? And this makes it into the news?)

The US 1st Marine Division entered Iraq at about 2100 local time (1800 GMT), encountering some resistance from Iraqi troops. They are reported to have destroyed an Iraqi T-55 tank.

"Non-Violent" "Peace" Protester, explaining why it is a good thing to burn cars to protest against us "Violently Attacking Iraq"

But hell, it does no good to vote, they just steal the election. Violence is the only thing they understand.

Around the radio, as Bush says 48 hours.

Last night my brother called the family up, "Hey Dad, Bush just said 48 hours to go." We turned the radio on and listened to the rest of the speech in silence as we all sat around the living room. The scene was eerily reminiscent of the old photo of the family gathered around radio listening to the declaration of war on Japan.

Since neither Bush nor Hussein are likely to back down, it's probably war this week. Pray for our troops. :)

I's fun to pretend to be wise and attempt to predict the future, here goes a prediction. Hussein will attack first. Why? It's to both nation's advantage. Saddam is going to loose anyway, may as well do as much damage as he can, and first strikes have often worked in the middle east. It's to Bush's advantage, because if you can get the other side to fire the first shot it is a major PR win internationally and at home. (Think Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War Two. Though the enemy fired the first shots the US Gov pretty much put the enemy into a place where it was the enemy's best option)

Ill all day..

I've come down with a bit of a nasty cold today. Spent most of the day in bed trying sleep off the sore throat and headache. It's been comforting to have a 100 pound pound dog (the Susie girl) sleeping on my feet and keeping me company.

Not attained automatically as a function of extended experience.

The maximal level of performance for individuals in a given domain is not attained automatically as a function of extended experience, but the level of performance can be increased even by highly experienced individuals as a result of deliberate efforts to improve. (from here)

Right on even if verbose. Many experiences in my life have show the truth of this. It's fun to be able to outperform people that have been doing something three times longer than yourself, and actively learning from your actions makes the difference.

Dialectizer.

Ah got a 20-inch Apple Cinema Display . ah c'd rave fo' hours. Suffice it t'say thet this hyar thin' is huge, an' brilliant barely dexcribes th' pitcher. This hyar is above high speckashuns, wo'th th' money, an' right fine, right fine, right fine.

Or

Free evenings later we 'ave only been able ter get one song onto it. The bloody software it comes wiv is 'orrible. As far as I can tell there is no way ter rip a CD. The user interface is 'orrible and clunky, right? Aquote on the bloomin' Neuros forums pretty much sums up the software, right, "NSM seems ter be aimed at blokes 'oo like pain "

The Dialectizer is hilarious!

Airmail from Japan.

My copy of MacPeople came in today. Wow, there is my name right on page 24.

Well, they sold us a "Full T1".

We have been getting a full T1 from (Update 2007: Name removed to protect the guilty). As you can see from this typical bandwith test, we are being "slightly" ripped off.

The Neuros.

My brother John decided to get an MP3 player. He is not a computer person, though he has a Window ME laptop. We went to Comp USA, to pickup a 20Gig Neuros. The Neuros has some really good features, including line in, and a radio transmitter and receiver.

Three evenings later we have only been able to get one song onto it. The software it comes with is horrible. As far as I can tell there is no way to rip a CD. The user interface is horrible and clunky. A quote on the Neuros forums pretty much sums up the software, "NSM seems to be aimed at people who like pain :P "

On the bright side, it is being actively worked on, and the dev's are very talkative in the forums. With time, it may rock. For now, get an iPod.

20 Inches.

I got a 20-inch Apple Cinema Display . I could rave for hours. Suffice it to say that this thing is huge, and brilliant barely describes the picture. This is above high expectations, worth the money, and cool, cool, cool.

It's Susie.

The new Swissie has been named "Susie". It's fun having a dog hanging around while your programing.

Nuance Vocalizer.

Yet another good voice speaking software, Nuance Vocalizer. But sadly they must be a .com, I can't find any prices anywhere on the website.

Larry Wall.

Well, up to today I always knew of Larry Wall for inventing perl, and saying that Lazyness can become a programmer. Today I read a bit more, and was pretty impressed. He really does have the right ideas on programing languages.

For some reason though, and in spite of it's many benifits, and my raving friends, I just don't feel like learning perl. There is something about the syntax that bothers me, and I've never taken the trouble to find out what it is. Same thing with Python. Can't stand either of them, and I know they are great languages.

Now Ruby - Ruby has some real class.

TouchStream Stays.

The jury is back. The TouchStream SP stays. Guestures rock, typing is fun, and mousing is okay.

The clicker.

The clicker adds a whole new way of working with your computer. It's one heck of an incredible idea. Why does my iPod not have bluetooth?

Pocket Tanks - Anti productivity tool of the month.

I have been having too much fun playing Pocket Tanks. It's a little tank artillery dueling game, like the first game I ever played on a computer. The graphics in PocketTanks are lush and fluid, and the gameplay is a blast. It's a simple, but close to perfect game.

New Dog - Muffy Puppy.

We have a new dog around the house for this week. John brought home "Muff", one of Buckie's litter-mates, for a visit which he claims will only last a week. Time will tell. Photos to follow tomorrow.