There is some conventional wisdom that experience brings a certain necessary cynicism. That having seen it all before removes the shine from life. That there are always some disappointments, and they accrete over time into a dull patina between us and our experience of the world. Me, I think that’s certainly understandable, but not necessary. And today, I think that… Read more →
Category: General
Learning Google Gadgets
I decided tonight to learn how to write a Google gadget. I figured something simple, like a configurable RSS feed reader (with a little shiny chrome) would probably be enough to learn the skeleton of what I would need to know. So I whipped up a gadget for the Shadow Unit feed, since I’m still chewing over the first episode… Read more →
Once more unto the breach
…to close a bunch of tabs before Firefox memory issues eat my computer. Let us begin with my praise of BibliOdyssey. They pulled me in earlier this month with the scans from an antique geomancy almanac, and I’ve been exploring their archives since then. Wow, is there a lot of stuff in there for a bibliophile to gawk at. Cosmological… Read more →
Russell, Gaby, and the H-Bomb
That’s a portrait of Bertrand Russell, taken by the relatively famous quebecois photographer and portrait specialist, Gabriel Desmarais (who usually went by just “Gaby“). The portrait was taken at Russell’s place in Wales (“Plas Penrhyn”) in 1961, which would probably mean Russell is 89 in the photo. It is one of a series of photomontages Gaby prepared with portraits of… Read more →
Head Colds Are Annoying
No poker last night. No work today. Sudafed, Robitussin, Benylin, Drixoral, etc: No relief from symptoms. Otrivin right up the nose: actually works. I can breathe. This may mean I can sleep. This may mean I can get rid of this minor annoyance. Read more →
It’s like a movie plot
Did you see this bit on BoingBoing? Adrian says: According to the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen.se, police suspect that a team of thieves operating in Sweden are using little people hidden in hockey bags and placed in the cargo holds of buses to loot passengers luggage while in transit. They link to the original story in Swedish, which does me… Read more →
Merry Christmas To All
Here’s wishing a hearty Merry Christmas to everyone who reads Homo Sum. (The image above links to a wall-paper sized version. It’s from here originally.) Read more →
An ethical question
Who is more ethically advanced: a person who has a larger set of things for which they will kill, or for which they will die? And do you put yourself in the more advanced bucket? I know that the question can be rendered silly by what you put in the sets, but I’m talking in very general terms and I’m… Read more →
Am I Getting More Childish?
One of two things is true: either my sense of humour is regressing, or the quality of the humour purveyed by Cracked in the Internet age is much improved from the last time I read the print magazine (approximately 21 years ago). I remember Cracked magazine as an inferior reflection of Mad magazine–itself not known for highly intelligent humour (horrible… Read more →
On cross-border shopping and smuggling
So, during a particularly boring meeting today, I ran the numbers on the recent smuggling effort. I ordered 32 items from Amazon.com and had them shipped to a friend in Boston. Of those, one item is one that for some reason isn’t available from Amazon.ca (and indeed, can’t be ordered from Amazon.com to a Canadian address!), so we’re going to… Read more →
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…
…the computer industry is a scam. Now, normally when I say this, I mean something about the broad “knowledge industry”, and how commercial software developers are amongst the most highly-paid people who only theoretically…and I would say NOT practically contribute to society. However, it is also true on a much more retail level: Read more →
This one’s just for me
OK, maybe also for George. I have a Pavlovian reaction to this music, in almost every variation. My wife has an equally strong, but entirely opposite, reaction. Read more →
Learning from porn.
In certain applied sciences, and engineering disciplines, it’s a kind of basic truth that the money and push for research comes from military applications. Indeed, in many areas you can look at what the military is developing now and with a little creative foresight you can have a sense of what street level technology will be like in a decade… Read more →
They really do have a word for everything…
Today’s word-of-the-day comes to us from author Matt Ruff, in a story about his grandfather’s missionary work. Urwahnfried is a word composed of old German word roots, and means in modern English, “Fulfillment.” Or, more explicitly: “The Place where my Fight for the Highest and Broadest Ideals of Life Came to an End in the Peace of Victory.” Go read… Read more →
Several Dissimilar Things You Can Read For Free
Some times the Internet is like an unending river of chaos that just keeps washing all kinds of wild flotsam up on your shores. How is it possible that in the space of 20 minutes I get pointed to all three of these things? Full Revelations of a Professional Rat-Catcher After 25 Years’ Experience – A book from the end… Read more →
