http://mindlace.net a necessary absence Sat, 01 Nov 2008 05:54:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en (NSFW, or your momma.) http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/11/01/have-you-seen-me/ I hadn't really thought about the fact that the talk Adam Kelsey and I gave was going to be uploaded onto archive.org. I was just reading an article in Nature by Cory Doctorow about the infrastructure archive.org uses, replicated on three continents, and designed for the Long Now (at least as close as ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/09/25/your-permanent-record/ I've decided that atoms are cryptonite and everything physical that I own diminishes my ability to use my super powers. So I'm getting rid of everything I own. I've ditched a bunch of electronics, I'm donating my books to the library, and I have some folks lined up to take my ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/09/13/getting-rid-of-everything/ It has been far too long since I posted about microbes on this blog. As a brief recap, prokaryotic microbes - bacteria and archaea - outnumber (and outweigh) all other forms of life on this planet by a wide margin. I have long held that those microbes living within the ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/09/07/deep-sea-life/ Now I can blog from my phone. Still not one of the cool kids,though -I have no idea how to attach a photo. http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/08/16/grammar-live-it-love-it/ OK, here's your motivation. You've been chosen for a new reality show. You've been taken to infinimart, where they have literally everything available for retail sale on the planet. The check-out lane says you can have 12 items or fewer, and those are the only physical items you can own for the ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/08/15/12-items-or-fewer/ These last two weeks have been challenging for me. I've had a bunch of stuff to get done at work that had some small, but critical pieces outside of my hands. At the same time, the technology / service stack I'm using is in heavy flux (like, major pieces are ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/08/10/an-intense-couple-of-weeks/ http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/07/05/sol-is-a-bad-friend/ For my own edification and to facilitate the addition of UUIDs to Drupal, I have used SchemaSpy to create an overview of Drupal's database schema as generated by today's HEAD. http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/06/23/drupal-7-schema/ I have begun my quest to convert Drupal over to using UUIDs instead of IDs so that merging/branching drupal databases will be easier. The first thing to figure out is how best to generate UUIDs in PHP. The naive pure-php approaches that use rand() have quickly proven to be non-viable (generating ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/06/23/generating-uuids-in-php-for-drupal/ OK I'm older now much older than I was when I was young. It's been fun going around the sun. Hope to see you all here next time. http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/06/22/around-the-sun-done/ I'm almost older now and some people have been asking me what they should get me. I like immaterial gifts like calling me and/or letting me know you forgive me for one of my many transgressions; you could also let me know you want to hang out with me on ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/06/17/almost-around-the-sun-again/ So I'm working on a steampunk-ish game that occurs in a gas giant - usual "colonization effort gone bad, descendants with primitive tech" sort of situation, except these folk actually have to stay afloat lest they be crushed to death by the pressure. Humans can live at up to 60bar for ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/06/01/some-notes-on-living-in-the-clouds/ After a very tumultuous month involving lots of financial uncertainty, I landed a job with the most excellent Acquia, where I expect to work helping Drupal become the preeminent open-source CMS/ social software platform. I also have just been able to get back on the wagon with my psychopharmacology so ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/05/30/life-rebooted/ I had a marvelous weekend after a fairly heavy week, thanks to the lovely and talented Sue. We saw Boston crush (and be crushed by) some opposing teams in the refined sport of roller derby , which I confess may become the first sport I follow religiously. Though seeing it reminded me that ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/05/12/weekend-on-wheels/ Ok, maybe not earth-shattering. My main client, BostonNOW, went belly up two weeks ago, right before my planned vacation. After some scrambling, I've found some other consulting work, and am actively looking at w2-style employment options. Vacation was nice - I learned a lot about a relationship that is important to ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/04/30/an-earth-shattering-kaboom/ Every time I hang out with that kid I come out of it feeling rejuvenated and with a renewed faith in our ability to bring some measure of sanity to this benighted ball of rock. Plus he's pretty hot. http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/04/06/sean-stevens-is-the-bomb/ I'm very spoiled by the virtual interface feature of Linux, and routinely have quite a few IP addresses associated with one virtual interface. I'm building a cluster now, where all the machines have only private interfaces save one; obviously, I'd like the internal machines to be able to do their own ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/04/03/trivial-nat-with-virtual-interface/ And yes, she qualifies. http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/03/20/youtube-wouldve-made-my-teenage-years-much-easier-to-bear/ All geeks in movies have a bunch of windows with text scrolling by regardless of what they're doing. Therefore, one's "hollywood geek quotient" is determined by how much scrollage is on one's desktop.My current hollywood geek quotient is "high".  http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/03/17/hollywood-geek-quotient/ http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/02/28/i-heart-sinfest/ I just saw an episode of Bones that dwelled quite extensively on procreation. One of the things I really appreciate about Dr. Brennan is that she consistently makes arguments I've made (at least to myself) before. Among other pithy observations, she points out that having children is irrational, and that the magic feeling ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/02/20/bones-and-flesh/ These "mutterings" seem a little weird to have in addition to the twitter box; I mean, how many short life updates can I cram into a sidebar? I'm settling into life version 3.x, and while it's clearly still a development branch it holds promise. My apartment is (still) a wreck but ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/02/20/latest/ For a variety of reasons I'm allied with the notion that space is finite and discrete. Both of you that follow my blog know that we've already discovered that there are "holes" in the CMB; now they've got an alternative to the "flat" space geometry that has held sway to date, ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/02/11/space-infinite-not-so-much/ After seven months of more or less non-stop working like crazy to establish a foothold in Boston and keep up with the exigencies of life, I'm finally to the point where I can pay (some) attention to the work I wanted to do when I arrived. The work itself is hard ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/01/25/imac-you-mac/ Wunjo, pronounced vun-yoh, is the rune of joy, peaceful winning, and wishes fulfilled. I drew this rune after a rebirth at a solstice ritual. It is one of the few unambiguously "good" runes in the Elder Futhark, and it surprised and delighted me as portents are seldom so clear and ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2008/01/02/my-rune-for-2008/ I have a comfy new chair in which I expect to while away the hours reading. I have jacked up the buproprion and eliminated the citalopram which made today really peculiar for my mental state. Interpersonal interactions have gone to eleven. I am attempting to put in a triple-digit amount of ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2007/12/24/the-goose-is-getting-fat/ Please, if you care for me one whit, do not get me any gifts this holiday season. Furthermore, please forgive me for not getting you any. I do not care for this time and do not care to participate in it. http://mindlace.net/archives/2007/12/15/obligatory-grinch-post/ So. Today was good as a client signed off on some really fun work that means I can relax about January being my Doom. It is bad in that I have finally sliced my wrists off with the bleeding edge; there's some interaction between my ldap server, dns resolution, smtp ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2007/12/11/machines-they-own-my-very-soul/ Cognitive daily suggests that parenting behaviours rather than "philosophies" have the most correlation with teen attitudes towards helping: In short, if you want your kids to value helping others in a variety of ways, this research suggests that you're likely to be effective when you actively encourage those behaviors through conversation, ... http://mindlace.net/archives/2007/11/29/parenting-effects-on-child-altruism/