I read a lot of science fiction. I have, since I was a kid–the first novel with no pictures I ever read was A Wrinkle In Time. The first “adult” book I ever read was Foundation. When I was younger I had the opportunity to read a lot of the early short work in the genre. Libraries had a lot… Read more →
Author: Mr. McLaren
Wallowing in Links
Yes, it’s time again for an original-content free collection of pointers to things that amuse, interest, or frighten me. I believe I have to mention the opening of Knol, Google’s attempt to take on Wikipedia with “authoritative articles” that have specific owners, rather than the anonymous wisdom of crowds. I admit, I have no idea how this is going to… Read more →
Cursing Music
On my recent drive back to Canada, among the many other good things that happened, I had a chance to be reminded why I love Etta James singing Damn Your Eyes so much. Here, you have a listen, and it should be obvious why that is: As I was listening to it, I got to thinking that I don’t have… Read more →
If I did it right, you can’t tell.
We are now WordPress 2.6, and all plugins are up-to-date (9 updates this week). I believe everything is working correctly, but late-night upgrades from hotel rooms are not always perfect, so if you see something broken, drop me a comment–unless, of course, it’s commenting that’s broken. Heh. Read more →
Those JibJab guys are funny
Geek Family
Apparently my daughter is now old enough that when I’m away on business we send each other emailsI have a suspicion that her mother may play a secretarial role here, since Sarah probably wouldn’t punctuate.. In order to illustrate for some people at my office why it was that I no longer was interested in my business travel being any… Read more →
Conservatives condone suspension of due process and torture of children.
And then there’s this one, which makes me so angry I’m not sure I can even write coherently about it. A day after a report revealed Canadian officials knew of Omar Khadr’s harsh treatment by the U.S. military, Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday repeated vows to leave the case in U.S. hands. … A Canadian official visiting Khadr in… Read more →
Conservatives in league with war criminals, despite will of the public
Here’s one that both angers me and makes me embarrassed to be a Canadian: globeandmail.com: Canada deports U.S. army deserter U.S. army deserter Robin Long was quietly deported from Canada Tuesday morning, while protesters unaware of his whereabouts picketed the Canada-U.S. border crossing south of Vancouver. The first and most important question here is why are we letting a minority… Read more →
Conservatives: cheats and liars
I am filled with rage at our offensive, crypto-Republican right wing minority government today. Let’s look at few things in order of ascending offensiveness. First we’ll start with financial irregularities, disregard for the rule of law, and good old talking points spin: Elections chief counters Tory defence on expenses practices Elections officials found no evidence that other political parties engaged… Read more →
Organizational Pathology
Did you see the ACLU press release today about how the American terrorist watch list now has more than one million people on it? “America’s new million record watch list is a perfect symbol for what’s wrong with this administration’s approach to security: it’s unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources, treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought, and… Read more →
Excuses, Excuses
Tonight’s planned hotel blogging will not be happening due to a much longer than intended commute time today. Americans, rest assured that your Border Protection officers are doing an excellent job of preventing Canadians from sneaking into your county without a thorough examination. Also, they are very friendly, very interested in the intricacies of software architecture, and very detail-oriented in… Read more →
Cooking With Beer
It’s no Guinness floatSay it with me: “FRENCH Vanilla”., but here’s something I’ve had on the old hard disk for quite a few years …although I see that the Chimay people have it on their site now. I suspect I got it from a promotion of theirs, way back in the day–the file is dated from 1998. that’s always worked… Read more →
This week
I’m working on a post with a bunch of information about the various things I got up to this week while I was away from the Internets. In the interim, here’s one photo that captures the way most of the week went: So, yeah, it was a pretty good week. Read more →
Important Lessons For Life
Just because yours is smaller doesn’t make you less of a man. Unless we’re talking about your brain. Read more →
SF Writers Say Smart Things: Scalzi on Context
Whatever » From the “People This Lacking in Self-Awareness Really Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Speak in Public Ever Again” Files But, you know what, there’s “graduate from good schools and work hard in public service” elite, and then there’s “make millions in corporate America and marry into the family that owned the mortgage on Europe” elite. Those are two entirely… Read more →
