My Dream

To find a shoe has always been my dream.

-- Diana Zardaryan, an Armenian doctoral student who found the world's oldest leather shoe, New York Times, 10 June 2010


Perfectly preserved under layers of sheep dung (who needs cedar closets?), the shoe, made of cowhide and tanned with oil from a plant or vegetable, is about 5,500 years old, older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids, scientists say. Leather laces crisscross through numerous leather eyelets, and it was worn on the right foot; there is no word on the left shoe.

Embarrassment

If there is an embarrassment equivalent of post-traumatic stress disorder, South Carolina has it.

-- Dick Harpootlian, former state Democratic chairman, on its recent politics, New York Times, 12 June 2010

On Their Own

Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't often, on their own, the hard way.

-- Robert Heinlein (1907-1988), American science fiction writer, Time Enough for Love (1973)

Of Little Avail

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be tomorrow.

-- James Madison (1751-1836), Father of the Constitution, 4th US President, "Federalist" #62

Whose?

I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick.

-- President Barack Obama on the Gulf oil spill, interview with Matt Lauer, 8 June 2010

Bad To Worse

We only have bad solutions, worse solutions and worst solutions.

-- Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defense official, on policy toward Gaza, New York Times, 3 June 2010

Another Age

Another age must be the judge.

-- Charles Babbage, realizing the technology did not exist to construct his "difference engine", 1837; a full-size implementation exists at the Mountain View, CA Computer History Museum (CHM), where this quote is displayed. The same can be said of the PLATO computer project, which was celebrated in the PLATO@50 conference at the CHM, 2-3 June 2010

Illegal, Inhumane, Immoral

These people died last night, and dozens were wounded. And this whole mission set out because governments did not do their job. It's the governments' responsibility of the world and the UN to end this siege, which is illegal, which is inhumane, which is immoral. And if the governments don't do their work, people have to get up. I didn't want to get on a boat and go through the Israeli Navy and get arrested. These people didn't want to die.

-- Israeli peace activist Jeff Halper, denouncing the Israeli attack on a ship carrying aid to Gaza, 1 June 2010

Moments Are Enough

There are moments that I've had some real brilliance, you know. But I think they are moments. And sometimes, in a career, moments are enough. I never felt I played the great part. I never felt that I directed the great movie. And I can't say that it's anybody's fault but my own.

-- Dennis Hopper (17 May 1936 - 29 May 2010), American actor, filmmaker and artist

Investigative Journalists

We still get most of our information from investigative journalists. If you can't protect sources, there is a lot of public corruption and private malfeasance that will go undetected and unpunished.

-- Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA) on a bill to provide greater protections to reporters. New York Times, 31 October 2009

Daring Liars

The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.

-- H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), journalist, satirist, and freethinker, The Smart set, Volume 68 (with George Jean Nathan) p 49 (1922)

Common Enemy

As Americans we must always remember that we all have a common enemy, an enemy that is dangerous, powerful and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government.

-- Dave Barry (3 July 1947-), Pulitzer Prize-winning American author and columnist, Knight Ridder syndicate, New York Daily News, 12 December 2004

Unpossible

It would be impossible, or perhaps close to impossible, for any energy company that is smaller than the super majors, smaller than the national oil companies, to operate in the OCS. $10 billion in strict liability would preclude their ability to obtain financing, to obtain the bonds or insurance for any exploration.

-- Senator Lisa Kurkowski (R-AK), on the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Liability Act, which aimed to increase the liability cap from $75 million to 10 billion, before the vote that defeated the bill, 20 May 2010

Purest Form

The very purest form of birth control ever devised. Ever.

-- Anthony P. Graesch, a postdoctoral fellow who helped videotape nearly every waking, at-home moment of 32 families for a week, New York Times, 23 May 2010

Drain The Swamp

Mr. Secretary, it is long past time to drain the safety and environmental swamp at the Minerals Management Agency, which of course is the lead federal agency over oil drilling. Now, my view is that this agency had been denial about safety problems for years.

-- Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), in a hearing on the Gulf oil spill, regarding BP's exemption from comprehensive environmental review of the project that resulted in the spill, May 2010

Dope

I don't feel guilty at all about having doped. I did what I did because that's what we [cyclists] did and it was a choice I had to make after 10 years or 12 years of hard work to get there, and that was a decision I had to make to make the next step.

-- Disgraced cyclist Floyd Landis in an interview on ESPN admitting he cheated in the 2006 Tour de France, 19 May 2010

A Message

I have a message, a message from the Tea Party, a message loud and clear that does not mince words. We've come to take our government back.

-- Rand Paul, the Tea Party candidate, who won the Republican Senate primary in Kentucky on Tuesday, New York Times, 19 May 2010

Grudgingly And Suspiciously

The machine has got to be accepted, but it is probably better to accept it rather as one accepts a drug -- that is, grudgingly and suspiciously. Like a drug, the machine is useful, dangerous, and habit-forming. The oftener one surrenders to it the tighter its grip becomes.

-- George Orwell (1903-1950), novelist

At Least One

If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased.

-- Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003), American actress, writer

Good And Bad Things

I think Facebook is the next Microsoft in both the bad and the good senses. That's an amazing company that is going to do a lot of good and bad things.

-- Jimmy Wales (8 August 1966-), U.S. Internet entrepreneur, founder of Wikipedia and Wikimedia Foundation, Orlando Sentinel, 3 November 2007

Normal State

Zen is not a particular state but the normal state: silent, peaceful, unagitated. In Zazen neither intention, analysis, specific effort nor imagination take place. It's enough just to be without hypocrisy, dogmatism, arrogance -- embracing all opposites.

-- Taisen Deshimaru (1914-1982), Japanese Soto Zen Buddhist teacher, quoted in The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Buddhist Wisdom (2000) by Gill Farrer Halls, p. 162

Game Over?

The party that claims to represent all progressive interests in this country proceeds with its impervious, self-interested agenda. The administration's stated priorities for the near future are to balance the budget before a deep recession has abated and to commit the nation to a long-running war in a dysfunctional Asian country that we neither understand nor care about -- thereby promising to repeat, simultaneously, the two worst mistakes made by liberal presidents in the past seventy-five years. As for the long term, the White House will form a commission bent on cutting 'entitlements,' such as Social Security and Medicare, that are the bedrock of retired Americans' prosperity ...

It is increasingly clear that [Obama] never intended to challenge the power structure he had so skillfully penetrated .... There is no longer any meaningful reformist impulse left in our politics. The idea of modern American liberalism has vanished among our elite, and simply voting for one man or supporting one of the two major parties will not restore it.

-- Kevin Baker, "The Vanishing Liberal", in the April 2010 issue of Harper's Magazine, quoted by Morris Berman in his blog of 1 April 2010

Combination

Her open-mindedness may disappoint some who want a sure liberal vote on almost every issue. Her pragmatism may disappoint those who believe that mechanical logic can decide all cases. And her progressive personal values will not endear her to the hard right. But that is exactly the combination the president was seeking.

-- Walter Dellinger, an acting solicitor general in the Clinton administration who is close to Elena Kagan, President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, New York Times, 11 May 2010

Contentment

The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach.

-- Lin Yutang (1895-1976), Chinese writer, translator, and philologist

American Phenomenon

You've no doubt figured out my bias by now. I've hardly kept it a secret. In this regard, I take my cue from the late Edward R. Murrow, the Moses of broadcast news. Ed Murrow told his generation of journalists bias is okay as long as you don't try to hide it. So here, one more time, is mine: plutocracy and democracy don't mix. Plutocracy, the rule of the rich, political power controlled by the wealthy. Plutocracy is not an American word but it's become an American phenomenon.

-- Broadcaster Bill Moyers signing off for the final time on his weekly PBS series, Bill Moyers Journal, 30 April 2010

Political Jiu-Jitsu

The main goal of terrorist attacks anywhere is to drive the victims crazy: to goad them into doing stupid, violent things that ultimately play into the hands of those who planned the attacks. Terrorism is a kind of political jiu-jitsu in which a relatively weak group attempts to trick a far stronger enemy into a self-defeating response.

-- Gwynn Dyer, Brisbane Times, 6 May 2010

Never Wrong

The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.

-- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish playwright, letter to H. G. Wells

Evidence

I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.

-- Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), scientist and writer, The Roving Mind, page 43, 1983

Center Of The World

I always thought that it would be a logical place. That it would represent the center of world to the rest of the world.

-- New Yorker Roy Otwell, on Times Square, where a failed car bomb was found Saturday, 1 May 2010, New York Times, 3 May 2010

Too Short

Life's too short to work on shitty bikes.

-- Bruce Krueger, owner and operator of Bikeworks, Urbana, IL, December 2007 (and before and since)

Pray

When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn't work that way, so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.

-- Emo Philips (7 February 1956-), American comedian

Bullet Points

It's dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.

-- Army General J. R. McMaster, on the growing use of PowerPoint presentations among military commanders, New York Times, 27 April 2010

What's Best

I have decided to sign Senate Bill 1070 into law because, though many people disagree, I firmly believe it represents what's best for Arizona.

-- Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, signing a new law forcing police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant, 23 April 2010

Embrace And Love It

As for old age, embrace and love it. It abounds with pleasure if you know how to use it. The gradually declining years are among the sweetest in a man's life, and I maintain that, even when they have reached the extreme limit, they have their pleasure still.

-- Marcus Annaeus Seneca (BC 3-65 AD), Roman philosopher, dramatist, statesman. trvth'ed in honor of my father's 93rd birthday 24 April 2010

Jerry Schweighart Has Company

I invited my court martial, and today I stand ready to answer these charges. I was prepared to deploy if only the President would authorize the release of the proof of his eligibility. He refused, and now the court will determine the issue, and my fate. The constitution matters. The truth matters.

-- Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, court-martialled for refusal to obey orders from President Barack Obama on the ostensible grounds that Obama is not a natural-born United States citizen, in a press release issued by the American Patriot Foundation, 23 April 2010

Earth Day

If we do not discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.

-- William A. Feather Sr. (1889-1981), American writer, publisher, and businessman

Necessary

Once we assuage our conscience by calling something a "necessary evil", it begins to look more and more necessary and less and less evil.

-- Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986), journalist

Twitter

This is an entirely new addition to the historical record, the second-by-second history of ordinary people.

-- Fred R. Shapiro, of the Yale Law School, on an agreement by the Library of Congress to archive Twitter messages, New York Times, 15 April 2010

You Know

I don't think he's American, personally. You know, if you're not willing to produce an original certificate like a birth certificate, then you've got something to hide.

-- Champaign, IL Mayor Jerry Schweighart at a Tea Party Rally, 15 April 2010

50 Years Of Public Computing

[Edited to add: Here's a link to the video of the PLATO presentations made that day.]

I had a good time this morning at 50 Years of Public Computing at the University of Illinois where I attended the session dedicated to the PLATO educational computer system.

http://50years.lis.illinois.edu/bibliography/plato.html

The panelists were Don Bitzer, Peter Braunfeld, and Lippold Haken. Half of the people in the audience could easily have served on the panel as well, and I had the pleasure of hearing many of them reminisce about those good old days. I saw Jim Kraatz and Celia (Davis) Kraatz, Rick Hazlewood, Paul Tenczar and Darlene, Jim Knoke, Jack Stifle, Rick Blomme, John Gilpin, Aaron Woolfson, Helen Kuznetsov, Mike Walker and CK Gunsalus, and many others (my apologies to those I've left out).

Here's a link to the dozen or so pics that I shot today. Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera, so these were taken with me Palm Pre -- no zoom, and today the background (thin drapes over a window) was brighter than the foreground ...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2065040&id=1191873703&l=c35eb843ef

It was a lot of fun, and it makes me that much more interested in the PLATO@50 Conference coming up on 2-3 June 2010 in Mountain View, CA at the Computer History Museum. The conference is dedicated entirely to PLATO, with the theme "Seeing the future through the past". Here's a link to the Museum's page about the conference --

http://www.computerhistory.org/events/listing/plato-at-50/

Presenters include:
Ray Ozzie (Microsoft's chief software architect)
Don Bitzer (initiator of the PLATO project at the UI)
David Frankel
Andrew Shapira
Dave Woolley
... and many others (as listed at the conference URL, above)

In addition to discussing the hardware and software of the PLATO system, there will also be a focus on the culture of the development team, and the online community that sprang up around the PLATO system.

Besides the conference itself, I'm interested in visiting with the people involved, many of whom I worked with (or went to school with) in times past. I started using the PLATO system while in high school, and was a student programmer on the PLATO System Staff at the UI in my teenage years in the late 70s. I was a software engineer at NovaNET (which PLATO evolved into, locally) for over 8 years, ending in 2002. I also worked on the PLATO system as a computer operator at the UI, and as a programmer for the Department of Defense at Chanute AFB in the early 80s. In all, I worked on PLATO and its descendant systems developing educational software and its related infrastructure over a 25-year period.

At the UI's CERL (Computer-based Education Research Lab) much of the work was accomplished by people who pursued their own interests, and then made that work relevant to the community at large. It was a pleasure to work in that culture.

I plan to go to the conference if I can manage it.

Unconscious Instruments

No greater mistake can be made than to think that our institutions are fixed or may not be changed for the worse. ... Increasing prosperity tends to breed indifference and to corrupt moral soundness. Glaring inequalities in condition create discontent and strain the democratic relation. The vicious are the willing, and the ignorant are unconscious instruments of political artifice. Selfishness and demagoguery take advantage of liberty. The selfish hand constantly seeks to control government, and every increase of governmental power, even to meet just needs, furnishes opportunity for abuse and stimulates the effort to bend it to improper uses. ... The peril of this Nation is not in any foreign foe! We, the people, are its power, its peril, and its hope!

-- Charles Evans Hughes (1862 - 1948), politician, Secretary of State, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Conditions of Progress in Democratic Government (1909)



COSMIC UNCONSCIOUS

Dreaming

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.

-- William Dement (1928-), US sleep researcher, in Newsweek, 1959

Shivers

It is a damned place. It sends shivers down my spine.

-- Aleksander Kwasniewski, former president of Poland, on the site of a plane crash in western Russia that killed the Polish president and dozens of Poland's leaders, that was also the site of a Soviet massacre of Polish officers in World War II, New York Times, 11 April 2010

And Proudly

When I was the most junior Democrat in the Senate, I voted for John Paul Stevens. He was a Republican nominated by a Republican president who was going to be up for election, and we voted for him, and proudly.

-- Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT), now chairman of the Judiciary Committee, on his respect for the associate justice, who is retiring, New York Times, 10 April 2010

Money Is Property

Money is property; it is not speech. Speech has the power to inspire volunteers to perform a multitude of tasks on a campaign trail, on a battleground, or even on a football field. Money, meanwhile, has the power to pay hired laborers to perform the same tasks. It does not follow, however, that the First Amendment provides the same measure of protection to the use of money to accomplish such goals as it provides to the use of ideas to achieve the same results.

-- John Paul Stevens (20 April, 1920), American jurist, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1975, concurring, Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC, 528 U.S. 377 (2000); Stevens today announced his retirement from the court

Ashes Vs Ashes

A nuclear war does not defend a country and it does not defend a system. I've put it the same way many times; not even the most accomplished ideologue will be able to tell the difference between the ashes of capitalism and the ashes of communism.

-- John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 - 2006), Canadian-American economist and author, The Ashes of Capitalism and the Ashes of Communism, interview with John M. Whiteley in Quest for Peace: an Introduction (1986)

Palm Pre Trvth

Here's an update on the Palm Pre, now that I've been using it for a little over 2 months.

Over Easter weekend, I used it on a trip to southern Illinois. Throughout the trip I used it for GPS, streaming music from the Internet, streaming that same music from the Pre to the bluetooth speakers in my car, and as a phone (all at once). With the Pre plugged into the adapter in my car, it's power draw was close to break even; the battery actually went down a little (from 100% to 80%) during a 2.5-hour drive. Additionally, it got a little warm while charging and running all of these radios & apps at the same time. Once I arrived at my destination, I was able to use WiFi connectivity for faster Internet.

Having always-on Internet in my pocket changes the way I use the Internet. When a point of trivia arises, instead of thinking "I could google that", I just go ahead and google it. I carry my Pre loose in my pocket, though I did apply a full-body Zagg (indestructible, thin, nano-tech) skin.

Pros:

Always-on Internet, with easy access to Google, Wikipedia, Youtube, etc.

True multi-tasking, with notification area for updates from running apps

Automatic, background syncing of contacts, etc. with Internet services; no backups required. If you lose your device, a replacement device will have all of your apps/contacts/etc. automatically, within a few minutes of activation.

GPS with Google Maps built in, 802-11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1

Accelerometer for game control using tilt, shake, etc.

Attractive 3.1" 480x320 display w/3D graphics and 16M colors

Touch-active screen with multi-touch (pinch/spread to zoom, etc.)

Proximity sensor disables touch screen when you hold the phone to your ear

Video playback

Desktop-style web browser

Appears as a removable USB drive if you connect it to your PC, allowing file transfer via drag-and-drop

Ability to use the cellular Internet connection + WiFi to create a mobile WiFi-anywhere hotspot supporting up to 5 other devices (Verizon charges for this, and I haven't actually tried it). Laptop owners who don't mind the cost should love this.

Linux under the hood, with easy access to a root prompt for tinkering; WebOS is a joy to use

Well-developed community of users whose work provides features and enhancements otherwise pricey or not available

Palm App Store & community app store on the device; all software added wirelessly. It's possible to own a Pre and never use its USB cable.

3M-pixel camera with flash and video capture

Regular software updates from Palm (from v1.3.5 to v1.3.5.1, and then to v1.4, since mid-January)

Best cellular connectivity I've had (I no longer need to leave the basement at home when a call comes in)

16GB storage

QWERTY keyboard

Hardware mute, LED notifications, hard volume buttons, all work even when device is sleeping

All-day battery life when you're not torturing the device; I torture mine daily, but I also charge it nightly, and can charge it at work if necessary.

Optional Touchstone charging system (wireless magnetic inductive coupling); I have one at home, and another at work.

Cons:

Biggest problem - the keyboard sometimes bounces and/or drops keypresses, making proofreading a necessity

Lack of a 5-way navigator (up/down/right/left/OK), making editing out those typos more awkward

Touchstone charging devices are sometimes flaky, charging to only about 90% before losing connectivity; I have 2 of these, and one is flawless, the other flaky

Aggressive power-saving; when the device auto-sleeps, the GPS stops updating and needs to re-sync on wake. The background "cron" service also sleeps, though this is moot unless you're tinkering.

GPS draws a lot of power; continuous use of GPS (not plugged in, auto-sleep disabled) yields ~2.5 hours battery life

Streaming music from the Internet and re-streaming it via Bluetooth uses a lot of power; continuous use for music like this (not plugged in) yields ~4 to 5 hours battery life

No expandable memory, though I use a tiny fraction of the 16GB capacity; if I added movie-length videos this might matter.

[Edit -- writing this review was a good exercise; I now feel even better about owning/using my Palm Pre. If the keyboard were more reliable, this device would be nearly perfect.]

Waist Deep In Gasoline

The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.

-- Carl Sagan (1934-1996), astronomer and writer, debate transcript with William F. Buckley, aired after the first showing of the ABC TV movie "The Day After", November 20, 1983

Traffic

If I'm having trouble with my wife, I come here and watch the traffic. I thought I had problems, but look at these poor people. They sit in this traffic every day. These people have it so bad compared to me.

-- Angelo Ramirez, a retired police officer, on the Cross Bronx Expressway, New York Times, 2 April 2010

Dark

An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it.

-- James Albert Michener (1907-1997), novelist, Space (1982)