So I was living in DC, with my parents between assignments, me out of Princeton by then, looking for a life, post being a high school teacher at St. Dom's for two years. That'd been my next assignment after being this heavily-into-Wittgenstein's philosophy dude (I wore an LW T-Shirt, a gift from dear Linda, a 2D alum like dear Selma, dear Vicky, dear Tom...).
Philosophy included diving head first into est, leading to Bucky (check public records on that score) and his hot-off-the-press (St. Martin's) Critical Path. Like any good fact checker, for the New Yorker say, I was wanting to verify some apparently newly declassified details from maritime history.
I nagged at the Washington Post for a story, by sending 'em faux headlines in sort of early Comedy Central (kinda edgy). Just another guy with a typewriter in DC, trying to make a name for himself, ho hum.
Well, if you know how Washington works, you know that things don't stay simple for long. Word gets out and around, probably at those fabled cocktail parties, embassy types gossip, and before ya know it, you're getting a lot of subtle messages too. Wow, democracy in action. Kinda fun. Kinda creepy. Probably Moscow's the same way (I was through there once, but only on a short assignment, again with my family).
Sometime later (1985?) I became a Stansfield Turner devotee, having scanned his newly minted Secrecy and Democracy (I was still trying to figure out about those sea peoples and Turner was Navy). That was like my intro to the Zendo, and after that I was hooked, following other DCIs' careers both before and after, paying at least some attention to the intelligence community's kabuki dances (not all set in DC, thankfully).
Anyway, if you've read Grunch of Giants (Critical Path's sequel) you know the CIA was all over it, with Applewhite's sly blurb on the back and all kinds of weird banker talk (check out political cartoons of DCI Casey at the time, a Mr. Moneybags who was always "scalping" people (odd combo)).
[ Our dear friend Mary just called, to ask about Dawn (she's doin' OK, just printed a bunch of laser checks, bills and donations, which I've just collated, signed and mailed). Mary and Chuck are heading into the Cascades today (sounds wonderful). ]
Another angle: Bucky liked hanging out with the retired brass at the Center for Defense Information (CDI), where my buddy from high school worked as an archivist. But as any journalist knows, just because an audiotape matches a book by the same author doesn't count. The police work here was to cross-check, not prove at least minimal self-consistency (Bucky was hardly a nut case).
That first DC assignment didn't last all that long (my parents moved to Bangladesh). But I'd be back again later, in 1984, this time living on my own, and working for Americans for Civic Participation (aka Project VOTE!), trying to get USAers to believe in the whole idea of voting again (this was before private computer companies told us how we'd voted).
We worked with Jessie Jackson's group (he'd dropped out of the presidential race by then, so no 501(c)(3) problem there). Reagan won a second term (another low turnout), and I joined McGraw-Hill in New York, thanks to est buddy and Jersey City cronie Ray Simon.
And then again I was through, this time with Matt, to drop in on Ed and score a gift copy of his Synergetics Dictionary in four volumes (a treasure).
Also back in the day, when AFSC'd fly me from Portland to Philly for board meetings, I'd spend time with Chris Fearnley and Kiyoshi Kuromiya, then train down to DC for more meetings (open jaw plane ticket), culminating in our SNEC summit, hosted by Russell Chu. That was my second time to meet Joe Clinton, plus Ed's presence made it official (Bonnie's too).
Most recently, I was in DC for a Pycon @ GWU (the one before Texas), showing off my synergetics hypertoon (Python + VPython, runs on a laptop). The year before that (2004), there'd been that Bucky Symposium, also at GWU (Blaine D'Amico hosting), and a Pycon just starting when I got the news of my wife's stage 3 cancer and quickly flew home. That was the last time I'd see Ed, though we still phoned each other sometimes.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
DEQ
This Wednesday, Razz was refused a clean bill of health by DEQ because her onboard computer was reporting a faulty knock sensor. Result: I couldn't collect the colorful license plate tags proving I have my act together as a driver.
Well today, I got that silly knock sensor replaced, by Mountain Tech in historic Oregon City, a city started by Hudson's Bay Company well before Oregon herself became a Union republic (when she joined, Oregon City became her first capital -- a privilege since ceded).
While waiting for the necessary repairs, I toured the newest county Public Service Building. Tom's Transportation Reaching People (TRP), which I used to write code for, occupies space on the ground floor.[1] I was glad to see Tina again.
Alice, sometimes a volunteer driver, swung by and drove me back to my car, after which we caught up over lunch (Mexican), with Tom joining us later from work.
Alice's family visited ours in Rome, back when her dad was on sabbatical in then Yugoslavia. Our families (Pinneys, Martins, Jumps, Hazel Hemphill...) were among the original founders of the Multnomah Quakers, when they inherited the building on Stark Street from Electro-Measurements Inc.
I updated Alice some about my Qv2 work, while Tom and I talked about NavAm, a dream for a new airline. And of course we reminisced about driving Gutless to Montana that time. We also talked about Ron Braithwaite's dream to help pioneer Carewheels Canada (a misnomer I think, as "wheels" is not meant to connote driving).
Razz's repaired computer needed to go through a full drive cycle before trying again through DEQ, so I drove her all the way to Washington State, then back over the I-205 bridge to PDX (the airport), along the Columbia Slough past the Air National Guard and FedEx, ending up at the DEQ just north of Columbia Blvd. on NE 33rd.
To celebrate passing my test (yay), I joined Don on the Columbia River. We moored on the Washington side and discussed Wanderers (a favorite pass time), plus I handled family business on my cell. From that vantage point, Mts. Tabor and Scott, and Rocky Butte, are all easily visible.
Tom
[1] I wrote the early dBase application, while my successor, Ness Mountain and company, rewrote it in Microsoft Access as a colorful GUI app. Now the county itself maintains the code. My, how the years fly by.
Well today, I got that silly knock sensor replaced, by Mountain Tech in historic Oregon City, a city started by Hudson's Bay Company well before Oregon herself became a Union republic (when she joined, Oregon City became her first capital -- a privilege since ceded).
While waiting for the necessary repairs, I toured the newest county Public Service Building. Tom's Transportation Reaching People (TRP), which I used to write code for, occupies space on the ground floor.[1] I was glad to see Tina again.
Alice, sometimes a volunteer driver, swung by and drove me back to my car, after which we caught up over lunch (Mexican), with Tom joining us later from work.
Alice's family visited ours in Rome, back when her dad was on sabbatical in then Yugoslavia. Our families (Pinneys, Martins, Jumps, Hazel Hemphill...) were among the original founders of the Multnomah Quakers, when they inherited the building on Stark Street from Electro-Measurements Inc.
I updated Alice some about my Qv2 work, while Tom and I talked about NavAm, a dream for a new airline. And of course we reminisced about driving Gutless to Montana that time. We also talked about Ron Braithwaite's dream to help pioneer Carewheels Canada (a misnomer I think, as "wheels" is not meant to connote driving).
Razz's repaired computer needed to go through a full drive cycle before trying again through DEQ, so I drove her all the way to Washington State, then back over the I-205 bridge to PDX (the airport), along the Columbia Slough past the Air National Guard and FedEx, ending up at the DEQ just north of Columbia Blvd. on NE 33rd.
To celebrate passing my test (yay), I joined Don on the Columbia River. We moored on the Washington side and discussed Wanderers (a favorite pass time), plus I handled family business on my cell. From that vantage point, Mts. Tabor and Scott, and Rocky Butte, are all easily visible.
Tom[1] I wrote the early dBase application, while my successor, Ness Mountain and company, rewrote it in Microsoft Access as a colorful GUI app. Now the county itself maintains the code. My, how the years fly by.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Gotta Luv that GUI Goo
GUI programming is an art. You face the user like a punching bag, but instead of hunched over, like an opposing boxer, you're this super-sensitive surface, alert to every mouse motion and key press (up and down strokes separately). That sounds kinda painful, so let's tone it down: you're coding a user-friendly surface, open to unprogrammed sequences of attack (click, click, 'r','r'... etc.).
In wxPython, every wxWidget inherits from an Events-minded superclass, meaning every surface is available for signal processing. There's an implied hierarchy, where unhandled events either die unreported, or trickle up the chain of command, which is automatically searched both ancestrally (an inheritance tree) and in terms of successive containers (what widget's inside of what, out to the top frame and/or application object). The programmer needs to explicitly bind a widget's event handler to whatever types of event (not all events get treated equally).
wxWidgets is actually a C++ library, some 20 years in development, and reaches into each platform (Mac, Windows, Linux) for a native look and feel (unlike Tk, for example, which is equally strange on every OS -- which some people like). wxPython uses SWIG to wrap this library, exposing its functionality in familiar Python syntax. Plus Robin and friends add a few new bells and whistles just for those lucky snake charmers among us (other gnu languages bind to wx as well, including Ruby and Perl).
As we roll around to OSCON 2006 in Portland, gnu math teachers have a new resource to help feed those developing their appetite for facing-the-user "GUI goo", an acquired taste to be sure. The resource? wxPython in Action by Noel Rappin and Robin Dunn (Manning Publications, 2006), ISBN 1-932394-62-1.
wxPython is sponsored in part by the Open Source Applications Foundation.
Follow-up: Monday Inspiration: User Experiences of the Future, Smashing Magazine (November 26, 2007)
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Practicing Multiculturalism
Originally posted to math-teach @ Math Forum. Copied here, and slightly edited, for an illustrated edition.
Background to teachers:
The lesson plan to which I am appending, a guided meditation and/or storyboard for sketching and transcribing to television, derives from a system of mensuration premised on the priority of the tetrahedron as our unit of volume.
The four intertangent CCP balls, mentioned in connection with their rhombic dodecahedral ball casements, define our 2R-edged tetrahedron of unit volume.
It is vis-a-vis this standard that our above-described XYZ-Coupler is likewise unit volume.
Given geometry has room for more than one model, we're not presuming any lack of familiarity with the orthonormal standard, wherein cubic mensuration reigns supreme (a convention for centuries almost unquestioned).
One convention for going back and forth between cultures is to consider the 2nd-root-of-2 edged cube, what we know as the volume-3 cube in the IVM (and/or concentric hierarchy) and 3rd power that to get its traditional volume i.e. pow(2, 0.5)**3 or 2.8284271247461907 in Python.
(pow(2,0.5)**3)/3.0 and its reciprocal are now available as conversion constants for going between namespaces. Feel free to use them as globals in your programs.
With younger kids, with no prior indoctrination in the orthonormal system, just holding up the volume-1 tetrahedron and saying its volume is enough to get started.
It's like a mixing bowl or other kitchen measuring device. In this locale (or namespace) this is just how we use it, no proof or "conversion constants" required.
Just let students know: other cooks may use different kitchen implements than we do. This doesn't mean their food is bad, although we may find their methods of preparation somewhat awkward and energy-inefficient (no need to be rude about it, remember your manners).
Background to teachers:
The lesson plan to which I am appending, a guided meditation and/or storyboard for sketching and transcribing to television, derives from a system of mensuration premised on the priority of the tetrahedron as our unit of volume.
The four intertangent CCP balls, mentioned in connection with their rhombic dodecahedral ball casements, define our 2R-edged tetrahedron of unit volume.
Fig. 411.05: Four Spheres Lock as Tetrahedron
(click image for context)
(click image for context)
It is vis-a-vis this standard that our above-described XYZ-Coupler is likewise unit volume.
Given geometry has room for more than one model, we're not presuming any lack of familiarity with the orthonormal standard, wherein cubic mensuration reigns supreme (a convention for centuries almost unquestioned).
One convention for going back and forth between cultures is to consider the 2nd-root-of-2 edged cube, what we know as the volume-3 cube in the IVM (and/or concentric hierarchy) and 3rd power that to get its traditional volume i.e. pow(2, 0.5)**3 or 2.8284271247461907 in Python.
Fig. 986.210: Diagonal of Cube as Unity in Synergetic Geometry
(click image for context)
(click image for context)
(pow(2,0.5)**3)/3.0 and its reciprocal are now available as conversion constants for going between namespaces. Feel free to use them as globals in your programs.
With younger kids, with no prior indoctrination in the orthonormal system, just holding up the volume-1 tetrahedron and saying its volume is enough to get started.
It's like a mixing bowl or other kitchen measuring device. In this locale (or namespace) this is just how we use it, no proof or "conversion constants" required.
Just let students know: other cooks may use different kitchen implements than we do. This doesn't mean their food is bad, although we may find their methods of preparation somewhat awkward and energy-inefficient (no need to be rude about it, remember your manners).
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
More Biz Talk
So according to KOIN, the Portland Tribune kingpin is urging the city towards more of a conversation about just what our job picture is going to be. How will we sustain the living standards to which we've become accustomed?
I'd urge serious attention to my ToonTown proposal, for Lower East Side (Produce Row encompassing), complete with Erik Sten's render farm.
To say "toons" isn't to deprecate the scientific seriousness of strong visualizations, and the high tech industries around here have a voracious appetite for computer graphics animations, and not just for purposes related to idle entertainment.
So there's an implied edginess to this economy, in that we're looking to support hospital systems, research laboratories, with their cutting edge research into life extension and enhancement, through medicine and sports (pro and amateur athletics), with Asian and European hemispheres finding a useful and mutually beneficial interface through our Pacific Rim knowledge-based economy.
Robotics and prosthetics (bio-engineering) form a logical complement to these industries.
I'd urge serious attention to my ToonTown proposal, for Lower East Side (Produce Row encompassing), complete with Erik Sten's render farm.
To say "toons" isn't to deprecate the scientific seriousness of strong visualizations, and the high tech industries around here have a voracious appetite for computer graphics animations, and not just for purposes related to idle entertainment.
So there's an implied edginess to this economy, in that we're looking to support hospital systems, research laboratories, with their cutting edge research into life extension and enhancement, through medicine and sports (pro and amateur athletics), with Asian and European hemispheres finding a useful and mutually beneficial interface through our Pacific Rim knowledge-based economy.
Robotics and prosthetics (bio-engineering) form a logical complement to these industries.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
More Brainstorming about EcoVillages
Friend Wayne swung by today, using his special rig to on and offload his motorized wheelchair, himself in it, having shifted to and from a rotatable driver's seat in his van. He had no trouble navigating our lengthy driveway (somewhat steep), and we sat on the back patio, which I'd doused with H20 (we're enduring a heat wave).
Our home interior is not accessible to Wayne, at least not without splitting him from his chair and carrying him -- a process involving heavy lifting our household is not trained in doing.
Wayne, in late middle age, long stricken with muscular dystrophy, a ham radio operator and geek, dreams of communities with floorplans he could thrive in. That means room for hobbies, as well as wheel chairs.
A big mistake they make with older people is making them leave behind their hobbies and skills, often a principal means of communication with an outside world (including a community of fellow hobbiests). Wayne wants to keep operating his ham.
I told Wayne I too day dreamed of prototype communities, each an experiment in different dimensions. Like some might be exploring extremes in weather conditions, while others were more known for their internal dynamics (outwardly: nothing special).
We wouldn't guarantee ADA compliance to Wayne's level in all of the villages, but that'd be a dimension to go in with a goodly number of them, certainly. Enter your search criteria, and see what comes up. Zoom in for more details (and remember: not every village is even open to visitors, at least not in all seasons).
My advice to Wayne was to keep focusing on television, as a place to expect such prototyping to converge with reality TV. Speaking purely selfishly: I'd like to be able to watch Wayne's progress, during times when he wasn't right there in front of me, like today. At least he's thinking of starting a blog (a practice I encourage among Friends, given our tradition of keeping journals).
I told him about our pilot in CUE's heyday, directed by Melinda, which imparted TV-making skills to retired citizens, plus gave 'em a time slot on cable to share their handiwork. My work at AFSC similarly coincided with a big push into television, this time with UV/LAAP youth in the control booth.
I also suggested that some of his flexible floor plan ideas might have obvious application in the downtown skyscrapers, on those floors that scrap the cubes in favor of the lived-in work-studio dorm room approach, with shared facilities (recording studio, editing rooms, computer labs -- and of course cafeterias).
Whereas the billions we spend on military projects have to be kept secret (or even top secret), by definition, civilian projects like Wayne's are amenable to a more open source treatment.
Of course between the bright light of day and high def celebs, and the shades-drawn world of black budget secrets, lies a twilight zone of stuff we're still working on, and don't really want to be too public about yet.
This is what niche market TV is good for, like underground comix. We're not looking for big blockbuster sensations or American Idols, just real people with passion, movers and shakers like Wayne, ready to dive head first into interesting programming.
Our home interior is not accessible to Wayne, at least not without splitting him from his chair and carrying him -- a process involving heavy lifting our household is not trained in doing.
Wayne, in late middle age, long stricken with muscular dystrophy, a ham radio operator and geek, dreams of communities with floorplans he could thrive in. That means room for hobbies, as well as wheel chairs.
A big mistake they make with older people is making them leave behind their hobbies and skills, often a principal means of communication with an outside world (including a community of fellow hobbiests). Wayne wants to keep operating his ham.
I told Wayne I too day dreamed of prototype communities, each an experiment in different dimensions. Like some might be exploring extremes in weather conditions, while others were more known for their internal dynamics (outwardly: nothing special).
We wouldn't guarantee ADA compliance to Wayne's level in all of the villages, but that'd be a dimension to go in with a goodly number of them, certainly. Enter your search criteria, and see what comes up. Zoom in for more details (and remember: not every village is even open to visitors, at least not in all seasons).
My advice to Wayne was to keep focusing on television, as a place to expect such prototyping to converge with reality TV. Speaking purely selfishly: I'd like to be able to watch Wayne's progress, during times when he wasn't right there in front of me, like today. At least he's thinking of starting a blog (a practice I encourage among Friends, given our tradition of keeping journals).
I told him about our pilot in CUE's heyday, directed by Melinda, which imparted TV-making skills to retired citizens, plus gave 'em a time slot on cable to share their handiwork. My work at AFSC similarly coincided with a big push into television, this time with UV/LAAP youth in the control booth.
I also suggested that some of his flexible floor plan ideas might have obvious application in the downtown skyscrapers, on those floors that scrap the cubes in favor of the lived-in work-studio dorm room approach, with shared facilities (recording studio, editing rooms, computer labs -- and of course cafeterias).
Whereas the billions we spend on military projects have to be kept secret (or even top secret), by definition, civilian projects like Wayne's are amenable to a more open source treatment.
Of course between the bright light of day and high def celebs, and the shades-drawn world of black budget secrets, lies a twilight zone of stuff we're still working on, and don't really want to be too public about yet.
This is what niche market TV is good for, like underground comix. We're not looking for big blockbuster sensations or American Idols, just real people with passion, movers and shakers like Wayne, ready to dive head first into interesting programming.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Visitors
Les came by with family today. Master teacher that he is, he showed Tara new tricks in Sims 2 she'd never seen before, even though he'd never played. He's just a natural I guess.
Coyote Girl sure was strange lookin' (before she caught fire in the kitchen that is, and burnt to a crisp (an oven event, plus no phone)).
We also made an "epoxy lake" in my broken portable air conditioner, which really did fix the topmost squirrel cage problem (rebound it to the shaft). Unfortunately, there were other deeper problems -- so it's back to the morgue for the Daewoo.
Glenn stopped by earlier and I showed him some of the progress I've made on the open source side of things, vis-a-vis our global matrix project.
Here's the idea of "walking a hexapent" (going from cell to cell, looking at global data):
Anyway, it's basically an "ant on a soccer ball" application, demonstrating objects atop a data structure. In future, geocachers equipped with our hand-held units will likely experience several advantages over those with only square-based models.
Les also had some good leads on how I might score a camper van, without needing to buy one.
I told him that joke making the rounds among 6th graders these days, about why an envious Bill Clinton bought himself a "nose ringy" -- because of what GWB had.
Coyote Girl sure was strange lookin' (before she caught fire in the kitchen that is, and burnt to a crisp (an oven event, plus no phone)).
We also made an "epoxy lake" in my broken portable air conditioner, which really did fix the topmost squirrel cage problem (rebound it to the shaft). Unfortunately, there were other deeper problems -- so it's back to the morgue for the Daewoo.
Glenn stopped by earlier and I showed him some of the progress I've made on the open source side of things, vis-a-vis our global matrix project.
Here's the idea of "walking a hexapent" (going from cell to cell, looking at global data):
Anyway, it's basically an "ant on a soccer ball" application, demonstrating objects atop a data structure. In future, geocachers equipped with our hand-held units will likely experience several advantages over those with only square-based models.Les also had some good leads on how I might score a camper van, without needing to buy one.
I told him that joke making the rounds among 6th graders these days, about why an envious Bill Clinton bought himself a "nose ringy" -- because of what GWB had.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Wanderers 2006.7.19
I'm in and out of this Wanderers meeting, busy bee that I am. Dawn was scheduled for life extension therapies starting earlier than we'd realized, so I left my laptop running and dashed home to perform as chauffeur.
We're back to the possibility of an atmospheric meteor blast, and whether hair trigger humans would misinterpret its significance. Not that we're expecting one anytime soon or anything.
The safe handling of radioactive heavy metals is a related topic, with which some of us have had personal hands-on experience. Properly insulating future generations from recent follies will be an ongoing project.
Other science fiction: Glenn and I sketched controls for a hand- held Global Matrix unit (pretty intuitive and self centric, if I do say so myself). The related grant proposals are already in the system.
Some Wanderers-inspired writing (later same day): Outline for a Liberal Arts mathematics course.
We're back to the possibility of an atmospheric meteor blast, and whether hair trigger humans would misinterpret its significance. Not that we're expecting one anytime soon or anything.
The safe handling of radioactive heavy metals is a related topic, with which some of us have had personal hands-on experience. Properly insulating future generations from recent follies will be an ongoing project.
Other science fiction: Glenn and I sketched controls for a hand- held Global Matrix unit (pretty intuitive and self centric, if I do say so myself). The related grant proposals are already in the system.
Some Wanderers-inspired writing (later same day): Outline for a Liberal Arts mathematics course.
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Sunday, July 16, 2006
BeerFest
Matt and I checked out the Portland Tribune's international beer fest in the north park blocks today. Is that really in the Pearl district? I suppose so.
The system was similar to Octoberfest's: buy a mug (in this case a small plastic sampling cup) with redeemable tickets (I forget how many).
The bottled beers averaged at about 3 tickets a shot. I tried some Achel Trappist Extra first off, pretty stiff for a beer at over 9%, and quite sweet. Hitachino Japanese Classic (draft) was at the other end of the sweet spectrum (still strong). Jolly Pumpkin's Oro de Calabaza had a piratically themed label.
This morning on the Math Forum I described some elements of an auditioning system for teachers wanting to make the grade.
I figure Portland could be for creative teachers what Nashville is for musicians, a place to strut your stuff and maybe sign with a label, go on tours.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Biz Talk
I tend to peruse the business pages of whatever city I'm in, looking for threads-in-common. In Boston, that might be Bechtel and the Big Dig. In Portland, it might be the Oracle of Omaha's informal lunch with the gov @ The Arlington Club (the same place Applewhites stayed, June and Ed -- Trevor has traced Bucky to a stay at the Benson (he's a good tour guide, plus he knows sign)).
Re the O-of-O, that's Warren Buffet of course, big in the news of late, given his teaming up with Microsoft, in the persons of Bill and Melinda, to pump some real money into life support. It's time for some high level business acumen, to determine what's really broken, as we know it's not an energy shortage (Welcome to Oregon: home of the busy beavers (energetic-R-us)).
So perhaps it's just a lack of smarts then? Capitalism has ways and means of addressing a falling collective IQ, sometimes through little boosts in advertising. So let's simply bypass the politicians (keeping a few good ones in the loop) and directly apply our market researching skills, to discover the secrets of effective charitable giving. We might call it "philanthropy on steroids" (might not).
Sounds like a plan.
Anyway, a lot goes by in this town, in any town, that doesn't go bleep on my radar. I make no apologies for that, other than to own up to the two way opacity of a double blind democracy.
If we were all being quality tested in black boxes, I'd have to say God's Matrix seems pretty awesomely up to the job. We're not privy to one anothers' poker hands, as sometimes seen on TV, because, in reality, we're not just spectators.
In Universe, each one of us gets a front row seat -- a privilege, not a punishment.
Re the O-of-O, that's Warren Buffet of course, big in the news of late, given his teaming up with Microsoft, in the persons of Bill and Melinda, to pump some real money into life support. It's time for some high level business acumen, to determine what's really broken, as we know it's not an energy shortage (Welcome to Oregon: home of the busy beavers (energetic-R-us)).
So perhaps it's just a lack of smarts then? Capitalism has ways and means of addressing a falling collective IQ, sometimes through little boosts in advertising. So let's simply bypass the politicians (keeping a few good ones in the loop) and directly apply our market researching skills, to discover the secrets of effective charitable giving. We might call it "philanthropy on steroids" (might not).
Sounds like a plan.
Anyway, a lot goes by in this town, in any town, that doesn't go bleep on my radar. I make no apologies for that, other than to own up to the two way opacity of a double blind democracy.
If we were all being quality tested in black boxes, I'd have to say God's Matrix seems pretty awesomely up to the job. We're not privy to one anothers' poker hands, as sometimes seen on TV, because, in reality, we're not just spectators.
In Universe, each one of us gets a front row seat -- a privilege, not a punishment.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Gym Again
I worked out again today, battling middle age (slowly losing, but that's not the point -- it's the quality of the sport, not who wins that counts [1]).
I caught more Battle for God on the flatscreens (no sound track). However, my attention was more focused on Sparky the AIBO: Robot Dogs & Other Robotic Pets. That's an arena where Tara and I look for interesting developments, like that story about robots in Slashdot this morning, which I'm told via edu-sig relates to our Python Nation's Pyro Project.
I'm running lots of errands today, plus doing more coding for Bernie. I actually forgot to retrieve Nick from the "Go By Train" station (he came by Amtrak from Seattle, TriMet to my door). Nick is enroute to some design science workshop in North Carolina. Mom continues flitting about, internationally and domestically.
Dawn is having lots of meetings today, all of them nearby. The weather: mildly hot, traditional Portland summer.
Later that night: more curriculum writing.
Other smalltalk: that battery charger for the Olympus Stylus came thanks to eBay and an honest seller (most of them are). It even included a new battery, plus a car charging kit.
[1] link to CBS News story about the escaped pig in Texas around this time.
I caught more Battle for God on the flatscreens (no sound track). However, my attention was more focused on Sparky the AIBO: Robot Dogs & Other Robotic Pets. That's an arena where Tara and I look for interesting developments, like that story about robots in Slashdot this morning, which I'm told via edu-sig relates to our Python Nation's Pyro Project.
I'm running lots of errands today, plus doing more coding for Bernie. I actually forgot to retrieve Nick from the "Go By Train" station (he came by Amtrak from Seattle, TriMet to my door). Nick is enroute to some design science workshop in North Carolina. Mom continues flitting about, internationally and domestically.
Dawn is having lots of meetings today, all of them nearby. The weather: mildly hot, traditional Portland summer.
Later that night: more curriculum writing.
Other smalltalk: that battery charger for the Olympus Stylus came thanks to eBay and an honest seller (most of them are). It even included a new battery, plus a car charging kit.
[1] link to CBS News story about the escaped pig in Texas around this time.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Eighth Grade
OSR, Via CassiaI was flying around in Google Earth again yesterday, looking at old haunts. The Overseas School of Rome (OSR), 811 Via Cassia, looks much as it did, from high up anyway. I thrived in that school, in that city.
I couldn't find Galeria, the hidden ghost town (emptied by the plague) I used to play in, near Lake Bracciano, where we once camped lakeside 24/7 for awhile (borrowed a sail boat), having given up the city apartment (Urners in transition).
In eighth grade, my last at OSR, two positive developments stand out: Dr. Gilespie, an MD but without a license to practice in Italy, taught our biology class instead, as if this were like medical school (way cool to learn bio from a real doctor, though hard on those prone to hypochondria); and Paul Henderson showed up (he was a part of that bio class).
Paul's dad had been managing a game park in Nigeria, and had now come to Rome, world headquarters for the FAO. Paul was this deep-voiced, muscular kid, who'd left a pet python behind, and knew how to snap his fingers real loud. He was an instant sensation, plus his family joined our Quaker meeting. His sister was likewise a bombshell.
Mom had been our cub scout den mother, though we were transitioning to Hayden Dunn's dad for weblos. I can't remember if Paul joined our company (Mahlon, Joe, Kijoon...). Joe's mom and Mr. Dunn actually ended up getting married. Joe was from Texas, Beaumont, as I recall.
That summer, my parents headed an AFSC work camp in Ramallah, a town near Jerusalem. The idea was to get an international cast (some through Beirut) mixing with local Palestinians, and having some "hard fun" together, blasting this community swimming pool out of solid rock.
Then we moved to a kibbutz near Bethlehem and listened to guest speakers from the Knesset and so on. This was 1972 (at the time of Fischer vs. Spassky) and the situation hadn't yet deteriorated to the point it has now. Even then, it was hard to get Israelis and Palestinians to do anything fun together, and only the internationals were able to immerse themselves in both camps.
For a 14 year old, this was all very educational, plus breaking those rocks with a sledge hammer, wheel-barrowing them to a discard pile, eating goat, ice cream at Rukab's, had made me more muscular, like Paul.
Another Paul story: we were walking along Viale Parioli one day, with Trisha-the-dog, when a car slammed into another one and flipped over, right near us. I stood dumbfounded, slowly processing what had just happened. Paul, on the other hand, shouted "hold this!" (the dog's leash) and immediately ran to the flipped car, to see if he might be of assistance. I was thinking "wow, and he's only in eighth grade."
I've lost touch with Paul. Mahlon phoned me some years ago, now with American Express. I flew over Ramallah this morning, looking for the swimming pool, but couldn't get my bearings. I never saw it finished. By the start of 9th grade, I was in Bradenton, Florida at Southeast High, with the Philippines soon to follow.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
Gym Jive
I finally got to the new 24 Hour Fittness (open 24 hours) and sampled the you-powered rides. I like riding the elliptical cycle, a standup jobber, while glancing at Comedy Central on a flat screen TV. Unfortunately, I did a number on my triceps, which I'm now nursing with ice packs and Aleve.
Other smalltalk: I never did locate that missing battery charger for the Olympus Stylus 500, so I bought a replacement on eBay, am expecting it soon. In the meantime: thank you friends, for allowing me the use of your cameras.
Other smalltalk: I never did locate that missing battery charger for the Olympus Stylus 500, so I bought a replacement on eBay, am expecting it soon. In the meantime: thank you friends, for allowing me the use of your cameras.
Friday, July 07, 2006
More Bizmology
If we're really going to vector cyber vans on education missions, I suggest we begin with some interbase traffic and focus on Pentagon Math, which is shorthand for an emerging, interlinked library of resources and concepts.
The tribal sovereignties, in addition to developing their air field links via NavAm (code for "inter rez airline" and/or an actual brand), could get going with some of the ecovillage prototypes, per the summer camp scenario, pending approval and input from the councils.
Native Americans are really helping to plan and sponsor these games, are not just playing language games invented by others (I know that's hard for some Anglo/Euro types to believe -- sounds kinda spooky (just think of how a ouija board works (Jung: the unconscious is shared))).
I'm starting with the bases and reservations as these have a lot in common, beginning with history, but extending to the logistics of managing large territories with semi-autonomous chains of command. Plus I think taking advantage of this next level of technology, to better integrate what have been bitterly opposed enemies in earlier times, would add to the long term health and sustainability of USA OS.
I am not blind to the low living standard conditions which afflict both the bases and the territories in different ways. At CUE, I worked adjacent to an office studying the AIDS epidemic among tribal networks, which often extend into desperate and miserable urban areas, blind eyed by DC (and often at war with the local police force).
Needle sharing is a primary cause of all kinds of spreading. Addressing the issue of drug abuse, and through strategems other than externalizing costs into an already overloaded penal system, should be high on the agenda of any who call themselves a "nation," yet have so many invisibly suffering sisters and brothers in dramatically improvable scenarios. Adding dignity village type prototyping would likewise add hope and relevance to some very salvageable careers.
Recruiting and training will happen differently depending on where we're focused. I expect many veterans will feel led to the interbase circuit, in partial overlap with our interrez circuit. The gnu math teacher memos look at the generic cybervan to public school interface quite a bit, with the "public" in "public school" and "open" in "open source" having a lot of resonance, and even more so this word "freedom".
Gnu math is about freeing individuals to explore and enjoy their metaphysical heritage, whatever it might be. Acquiring some conceptual tools is a first step along the journey.
The tribal sovereignties, in addition to developing their air field links via NavAm (code for "inter rez airline" and/or an actual brand), could get going with some of the ecovillage prototypes, per the summer camp scenario, pending approval and input from the councils.
Native Americans are really helping to plan and sponsor these games, are not just playing language games invented by others (I know that's hard for some Anglo/Euro types to believe -- sounds kinda spooky (just think of how a ouija board works (Jung: the unconscious is shared))).
I'm starting with the bases and reservations as these have a lot in common, beginning with history, but extending to the logistics of managing large territories with semi-autonomous chains of command. Plus I think taking advantage of this next level of technology, to better integrate what have been bitterly opposed enemies in earlier times, would add to the long term health and sustainability of USA OS.
I am not blind to the low living standard conditions which afflict both the bases and the territories in different ways. At CUE, I worked adjacent to an office studying the AIDS epidemic among tribal networks, which often extend into desperate and miserable urban areas, blind eyed by DC (and often at war with the local police force).
Needle sharing is a primary cause of all kinds of spreading. Addressing the issue of drug abuse, and through strategems other than externalizing costs into an already overloaded penal system, should be high on the agenda of any who call themselves a "nation," yet have so many invisibly suffering sisters and brothers in dramatically improvable scenarios. Adding dignity village type prototyping would likewise add hope and relevance to some very salvageable careers.
Recruiting and training will happen differently depending on where we're focused. I expect many veterans will feel led to the interbase circuit, in partial overlap with our interrez circuit. The gnu math teacher memos look at the generic cybervan to public school interface quite a bit, with the "public" in "public school" and "open" in "open source" having a lot of resonance, and even more so this word "freedom".
Gnu math is about freeing individuals to explore and enjoy their metaphysical heritage, whatever it might be. Acquiring some conceptual tools is a first step along the journey.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Memo to Gnu Math Teachers
I archived this memo to gnu math teachers to the Math Forum with some sense of déjà vu. Didn't I archive something similar, some time ago?
In any case, our network is clearly emergent and chaordic, versus some top-down pyramid hierarchy. That doesn't mean it can't work, as Dee Hock tirelessly reminds us.
In any case, our network is clearly emergent and chaordic, versus some top-down pyramid hierarchy. That doesn't mean it can't work, as Dee Hock tirelessly reminds us.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
July Four
My neighbor (we've never met) didn't want to rent me his van as it's already advertised for sale in the paper and a 4-day excursion, even if fully compensated, would take it out of circulation, deny access to the look and see crowd, after just announcing availability (kinda silly).
That made plenty of sense. Best wishes to the nice man on selling that thing (an '84 Falcon, minus working A/C except when plugged into AC).
I'd rent one commercially except Portland is apparently not an attractive market for camper van rental companies, which seem to be few and far between (renting a big honkin' RV is easy, but that's not what I'm wanting to drive -- too confining, as to where it might go).
So we'll probably just take Razz on the next outing, as time is short to try scaring up another rental opportunity. And of course in the long run, I'm just hoping my school will let me book time through a dispatcher, as one of several certified to operate the fleet's motorvehicles.
Other neighbors are having a block party, meaning they got enough signatures from affected households (including ours) to operate the city's "access denial" powers, vis-a-vis cars, of specific blocks, as when a party is happening, as is happening today, this being the Fourth of July and all, when we celebrate our independence to stage such mundane and pedestrian events, a form of independence we really shouldn't just take for granted.
Some future distopia might forbid ever closing back streets to cars, because cars are just too important (or by extension, the people in them). These kinds of class distinctions are insidious, and once they work their way onto the law books, they rarely come off individually.
By one definition, a conservative is someone who hates to delete laws, even ugly ones. These folks are often just cowed by seeing a law in writing, and can't bear to think of themselves as powerful enough to stand up to such things (there's a long history of bowing down to various writings).
Another kind of conservative counts every law as a strike against freedom, and aims to keep their number as low as possible, even while keeping social nets workable -- which is more my kind of conservative.
If the rules are simple and easy, then everyone has a better shot at understanding them, which is more democratic. Once the rules become riddled with exceptions and deceptions, then you're implying a secretive elite pulling the strings -- a form of decay from a healthier and more democratic state.
Addendum:
We watched the fireworks from the deck of Wave Dancer, anchored in the Columbia off Hayden Island. Portland Spirit passed us in the night. The rockets shot out from a barge parked over by the I-5 bridge, some miles west on the Vancouver side.
North Korea, piggy-backing on all this symbolism, signaled its own independence by firing off some dispensable old rockets (including a multi-stager).
That made plenty of sense. Best wishes to the nice man on selling that thing (an '84 Falcon, minus working A/C except when plugged into AC).
I'd rent one commercially except Portland is apparently not an attractive market for camper van rental companies, which seem to be few and far between (renting a big honkin' RV is easy, but that's not what I'm wanting to drive -- too confining, as to where it might go).
So we'll probably just take Razz on the next outing, as time is short to try scaring up another rental opportunity. And of course in the long run, I'm just hoping my school will let me book time through a dispatcher, as one of several certified to operate the fleet's motorvehicles.
Other neighbors are having a block party, meaning they got enough signatures from affected households (including ours) to operate the city's "access denial" powers, vis-a-vis cars, of specific blocks, as when a party is happening, as is happening today, this being the Fourth of July and all, when we celebrate our independence to stage such mundane and pedestrian events, a form of independence we really shouldn't just take for granted.
Some future distopia might forbid ever closing back streets to cars, because cars are just too important (or by extension, the people in them). These kinds of class distinctions are insidious, and once they work their way onto the law books, they rarely come off individually.
By one definition, a conservative is someone who hates to delete laws, even ugly ones. These folks are often just cowed by seeing a law in writing, and can't bear to think of themselves as powerful enough to stand up to such things (there's a long history of bowing down to various writings).
Another kind of conservative counts every law as a strike against freedom, and aims to keep their number as low as possible, even while keeping social nets workable -- which is more my kind of conservative.
If the rules are simple and easy, then everyone has a better shot at understanding them, which is more democratic. Once the rules become riddled with exceptions and deceptions, then you're implying a secretive elite pulling the strings -- a form of decay from a healthier and more democratic state.
Addendum:
We watched the fireworks from the deck of Wave Dancer, anchored in the Columbia off Hayden Island. Portland Spirit passed us in the night. The rockets shot out from a barge parked over by the I-5 bridge, some miles west on the Vancouver side.
North Korea, piggy-backing on all this symbolism, signaled its own independence by firing off some dispensable old rockets (including a multi-stager).
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Around Town
me pretending to be a Sim
Trevor reading @ Powell's TechnicalPhotos with Trevor's camera,
top picture adjusted in Adobe Photoshop Elements
top picture adjusted in Adobe Photoshop Elements
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