For those not in the know, H2G2 is the abbreviation for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which has two h's and two g's. It also has two a's and three each of i's and e's, but those don't rate inclusion in the hip abbreviation.
For those living in caves, H2G2 is coming to a theater near you. Then again, if you live in a cave you aren't likely to be reading this blog.
Douglas Adams fans are all a-twitter about the new movie, not unlike Star Wars fans about Episode 3, Return of the Dips, or Tolkien fans about the Ring Trilogy. Like those others, H2G2 is likely to be a multi-film franchise (there are 5 books in the H2G2 "trilogy" -- yes, they call it a trilogy).
I've read a couple of the H2G2 books, and I just don't understand the fascination. I like science fiction, so it's not that. It's that the writing seems rather hackish. The author seems to enjoy being odd for the sake of being odd. That's fine, but it doesn't make great literature. Some say that H2G2 contains biting social commentary, but it looks like unoriginal anti-religion, anti-government, anti-pop culture diatribe to me. It isn't great literature.
But maybe the movie will be fun. I like fun movies. I like to laugh. But it ain't great literature and probably won't make a great, classic movie.
For the record, I don't think the Hobbit stories are great literature, either. Again, I think the writing is rather hackish. I haven't seen the movies yet.
Oh, and the Star Wars story isn't that great either. I have seen four of those movies, and I enjoyed them. But they aren't great literature.
So please, let's stop making Adams and Tolkien and Lucas out to be literary giants. Let's just be happy that they make entertaining movies. Well, Lucas does. I assume that the Tolkien and Adams stories will, too.
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Monday, April 25, 2005
HomO?
A Reuters story about a lesbian couple who were thrown out of a restaurant says that Sweden's ombudsman against sexual discrimination is known as "HomO".
First, I'm assuming that it's actually the office of the ombudsman, not the ombudsman himself, Hans Ytterberg, which is known by that name. Second, I'm wondering if this office was created solely to deal with gay, lesbian, trans-gender, and similar issues, or if it is the larger sexual discrimination arena (including gender discrimination) that it is involved with, and if the latter, when were sexual orientation issues added and when did the nickname "HomO" get assigned? And last, doesn't the term "homo" have the same negative connotations in Sweden as it does here? I suspect that there would be a bit of a hubbub if the US gummint used the same nickname for an agency which was supposed to protect the rights of homosexuals, etc., etc.
First, I'm assuming that it's actually the office of the ombudsman, not the ombudsman himself, Hans Ytterberg, which is known by that name. Second, I'm wondering if this office was created solely to deal with gay, lesbian, trans-gender, and similar issues, or if it is the larger sexual discrimination arena (including gender discrimination) that it is involved with, and if the latter, when were sexual orientation issues added and when did the nickname "HomO" get assigned? And last, doesn't the term "homo" have the same negative connotations in Sweden as it does here? I suspect that there would be a bit of a hubbub if the US gummint used the same nickname for an agency which was supposed to protect the rights of homosexuals, etc., etc.
Thursday, April 21, 2005
This week in history
This is a busy week in my house for celebrating anniversaries:
And in case you're wondering, yes, my current wife will be helping me celebrate the day I met my first wife — they are one and the same. :-)
- Tuesday: move to Dallas
- Wednesday: 1 of 2's Baptism
- Thursday: most recent wedding
- Friday: met first wife
- Monday (25th): start with current employer
And in case you're wondering, yes, my current wife will be helping me celebrate the day I met my first wife — they are one and the same. :-)
Birds (it always comes back to birds)
I've seen a few stories recently about feral cats.
But what's really getting the press is one of the proposed solutions to this so-called problem: ¡hunting!
No, not bunting — hunting, as in killing them with a knife, arrow, sling-shot, or gun without trapping them first.
For your continued reading, here are a couple of links:
But I would like to add a new proposal to the debate: have the National Guard do the hunt as a training exercise!
No, not with M16s and tanks, though that might be fun. Instead, I'm proposing that they use .22LR rifles, preferably single shot, though small magazine bolt-action rifles would be okay. The point is that they should be working on their marksmanship on moving targets. This skill could be very usephul in places like Iraq and Aphghanistan. It would be like killing two... er... birds... with one stone.
fe·ral (feer al) adj. 1. wild, untamed. 2. in a wild state after escape from captivity.It seems that they're becoming a bit of a nuisance in some places. For example, they're being blamed for a decline in songbirds in The Land of Cheese.
But what's really getting the press is one of the proposed solutions to this so-called problem: ¡hunting!
No, not bunting — hunting, as in killing them with a knife, arrow, sling-shot, or gun without trapping them first.
Aside #1: Why don't hunters consider feeders to be a sort of trap?Mind you, there seems to be plenty of bunting at the press conferences at which the various sides present their respective positions, so you're forgiven for the grammarian... grammastic... grammerical... for the missteak.
For your continued reading, here are a couple of links:
- Feral Friends
- Cats In The News (a blogspot blog spot)
But I would like to add a new proposal to the debate: have the National Guard do the hunt as a training exercise!
No, not with M16s and tanks, though that might be fun. Instead, I'm proposing that they use .22LR rifles, preferably single shot, though small magazine bolt-action rifles would be okay. The point is that they should be working on their marksmanship on moving targets. This skill could be very usephul in places like Iraq and Aphghanistan. It would be like killing two... er... birds... with one stone.
Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Yotta on my mind
Okay, I'm calm now. Back to yottabytes...
The IEC proposed that the metric prefixes (kilo, mega, giga, etc.) always refer to the decimal multiples (1000 times the previous multiple). To handle the binary multiple they took the first two letters of the metric prefix and then added "bi". For example, "kilo" becomes "kibi". For the abbreviations, 'K' indicates a decimal multiple while "Ki" indicates a binary multiple.
Unfortunately, this hasn't really caught on. I suspect that the reason is that the IEC is a twitty European standards organization and, like all twitty European standards organizations, they charge you money to read their standards. In the wild and wooly internet this only really works if adherence to your standard is a requirement, either of the government or of a significant customer segment. This one ain't, so very few of the techies seem to know of it, and fewer seem to give a rodent's behind. Which is a shame, really, because it could remove some confusion.
Speaking of twitty Europeans, what's up with money? Multiples, that is. If you've ever read anything about money from Europe (a stretch, I'll admit, for most Merkins) then you've probably figured out that they don't have the same definition for billion as we do. Actually, the Brits have officially, if not practically, adopted the Merkin way, but the rest of old Europe hasn't.
What I'm talking about is how we define a billion as 1000 million but the twitty Europeans define it as a million millions. I agree! Why would a continent that loves the metric system, which uses multiples for orders of thousands get sidetracked by money multiples using orders of a million?
For my slower readers, we (Merkins) define a trillion as 1,000 billions, but the TE (Twitty Europeans) define it as 1,000,000 billions.
Here, in one handy table, is a list of multiples:
The IEC proposed that the metric prefixes (kilo, mega, giga, etc.) always refer to the decimal multiples (1000 times the previous multiple). To handle the binary multiple they took the first two letters of the metric prefix and then added "bi". For example, "kilo" becomes "kibi". For the abbreviations, 'K' indicates a decimal multiple while "Ki" indicates a binary multiple.
Unfortunately, this hasn't really caught on. I suspect that the reason is that the IEC is a twitty European standards organization and, like all twitty European standards organizations, they charge you money to read their standards. In the wild and wooly internet this only really works if adherence to your standard is a requirement, either of the government or of a significant customer segment. This one ain't, so very few of the techies seem to know of it, and fewer seem to give a rodent's behind. Which is a shame, really, because it could remove some confusion.
Speaking of twitty Europeans, what's up with money? Multiples, that is. If you've ever read anything about money from Europe (a stretch, I'll admit, for most Merkins) then you've probably figured out that they don't have the same definition for billion as we do. Actually, the Brits have officially, if not practically, adopted the Merkin way, but the rest of old Europe hasn't.
What I'm talking about is how we define a billion as 1000 million but the twitty Europeans define it as a million millions. I agree! Why would a continent that loves the metric system, which uses multiples for orders of thousands get sidetracked by money multiples using orders of a million?
For my slower readers, we (Merkins) define a trillion as 1,000 billions, but the TE (Twitty Europeans) define it as 1,000,000 billions.
Here, in one handy table, is a list of multiples:
I hope you can put it to good use.metric IEC
decimal binary Merkin TE
value prefix prefix money money
---------------------------------------------------------
10**3 kilo (K) kibi (Ki) thousand thousand
10**6 mega (M) mebi (Mi) million million
10**9 giga (G) gibi (Gi) billion milliard
10**12 tera (T) tebi (Ti) trillion billion
10**15 peta (P) pebi (Pi) quadrillion billiard
10**18 exa (E) exbi (Ei) quintillion trillion
10**21 zetta (Z) zebi (Zi) sextillion trilliard
10**24 yotta (Y) yobi (Yi) septillion quadrillion
Thursday, April 14, 2005
What's in a name?
I was recently confronted by yottabytes. And not just one, but four!
The prefix yotta was unknown to me prior to this confrontation, but I really wasn't surprised to have it come up simply because of the rapid expansion of capacities in the realm of computers. To give some background, in the late '80s my employer was considering the purchase of a new supercomputer. The max disk configuration was 300 and something gigabytes. And when someone whined about that being too small they were told that if they would buy the disk (from that vendor) they could have the supercomputer for free (roughly a $10,000,000 value). And I think they would paint it any color you wanted. (No, it wasn't Cray.)
Today you can buy a 400GB disk for $300. And hold it in your hand. You can buy a terabyte NAS box for $1000. I've heard that large companies are buying storage by the petabyte (actually, I heard that about 3 years ago — I shudder to think what they're buying now).
So back to yottabytes... how much is that? Well, it depends. Are you a decimal person or a binary person?
But not all computer things are counted using the binary version. Case in point: disk drives. Disk drive capacities are listed using the decimal interpretations of the the metric prefixes. Computer geeks often refer to these values derisively as "marketing megabytes" (or marketing gigabytes), to imply that they are misleading. So geeks must love the recordable/rewritable CD market, because those capacities are actually decimal megabytes/gigabytes, but it can be difficult to know that.
The International Electrotechnical Commission tried to address this several years ago by proposing that the metric prefixes always
AAAARRRRGGGGGH! This crappy software just ate a bunch of my hard work! I give up!
The prefix yotta was unknown to me prior to this confrontation, but I really wasn't surprised to have it come up simply because of the rapid expansion of capacities in the realm of computers. To give some background, in the late '80s my employer was considering the purchase of a new supercomputer. The max disk configuration was 300 and something gigabytes. And when someone whined about that being too small they were told that if they would buy the disk (from that vendor) they could have the supercomputer for free (roughly a $10,000,000 value). And I think they would paint it any color you wanted. (No, it wasn't Cray.)
Today you can buy a 400GB disk for $300. And hold it in your hand. You can buy a terabyte NAS box for $1000. I've heard that large companies are buying storage by the petabyte (actually, I heard that about 3 years ago — I shudder to think what they're buying now).
So back to yottabytes... how much is that? Well, it depends. Are you a decimal person or a binary person?
bad joke alert! There are 10 kinds of people on this earth: those who understand binary and those who don't.An example: a million dollars is $1,000,000 but a megabyte of computer memory is typically understood to be 1,048,576 bytes. That's because computers are generally binary devices — everything is either a zero or a one. If you use the binary number system then it is often easier to let the prefix "kilo" represent 1024 instead of 1000. It then follows that mega is 1024 kilos, and so on.
But not all computer things are counted using the binary version. Case in point: disk drives. Disk drive capacities are listed using the decimal interpretations of the the metric prefixes. Computer geeks often refer to these values derisively as "marketing megabytes" (or marketing gigabytes), to imply that they are misleading. So geeks must love the recordable/rewritable CD market, because those capacities are actually decimal megabytes/gigabytes, but it can be difficult to know that.
The International Electrotechnical Commission tried to address this several years ago by proposing that the metric prefixes always
AAAARRRRGGGGGH! This crappy software just ate a bunch of my hard work! I give up!
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Death *AND* Taxes
People like to highlight our inability to know the hour or the day of various things, like the coming of Christ, the death of a person, or when I'll file my taxes.
But unless Congress does something, I can tell you that my father will die before 2011, and I hope he makes it to 2010. My mother's life is running up against the same deadline.
HA! HA! HA! Get it? DEAD-line! Sometimes I just crack myself up!
Yeah, I know that I still don't know the hour or the day, but isn't it interesting that I am able to predict the year, or a range of years, and be so certain about it? How is that? I'll bet Gene Bob knows. He knows everything.
Okay, I'll let you in on the secret. A couple of years ago W managed to push through a change in estate tax law that causes the tax rate to decrease and the exempt value to increase, with end result that the estate tax will cease to exist in 2010. But the law that set this up expires in 2011, so the estate tax will be restored to pre-law condition in 2011.
W has promised to make the law permanent (in its 2010 form) ever since, but is having problems doing so, especially with the deficit running so high. So I would expect a great number of "suicides" among the monied elderly in 2010.
Once you get over the amazement that I would even suggest such a thing it is possible to start thinking about other effects of this 21st century Jonestown ceremony. For example, those who pass on their estates in 2010 will also stop drawing Social Security and other government benefits.
Since W is also looking at how to prevent those same benefit programs from becoming insolvent maybe he would be willing to combine these things to solve multiple concerns. Here's my (modest) proposal. Let the estate tax law expire. Then, after it expires pass a new estate tax reform which lowers the exempt amount each year while simultaneously raising the tax on the non-exempt amount, culmintating in a 100% tax on the entire estate. You see, not many people are affected by estate taxes. So we need to make it apply to more and more people and to encourage them to pass on as much as possible to their heirs by killing themselves before the estate tax causes them to lose (part or all of) the money.
I should make some extra time to spend with my folks while they're still with us.
But unless Congress does something, I can tell you that my father will die before 2011, and I hope he makes it to 2010. My mother's life is running up against the same deadline.
HA! HA! HA! Get it? DEAD-line!
Yeah, I know that I still don't know the hour or the day, but isn't it interesting that I am able to predict the year, or a range of years, and be so certain about it? How is that? I'll bet Gene Bob knows. He knows everything.
Okay, I'll let you in on the secret. A couple of years ago W managed to push through a change in estate tax law that causes the tax rate to decrease and the exempt value to increase, with end result that the estate tax will cease to exist in 2010. But the law that set this up expires in 2011, so the estate tax will be restored to pre-law condition in 2011.
W has promised to make the law permanent (in its 2010 form) ever since, but is having problems doing so, especially with the deficit running so high. So I would expect a great number of "suicides" among the monied elderly in 2010.
Once you get over the amazement that I would even suggest such a thing it is possible to start thinking about other effects of this 21st century Jonestown ceremony. For example, those who pass on their estates in 2010 will also stop drawing Social Security and other government benefits.
Since W is also looking at how to prevent those same benefit programs from becoming insolvent maybe he would be willing to combine these things to solve multiple concerns. Here's my (modest) proposal. Let the estate tax law expire. Then, after it expires pass a new estate tax reform which lowers the exempt amount each year while simultaneously raising the tax on the non-exempt amount, culmintating in a 100% tax on the entire estate. You see, not many people are affected by estate taxes. So we need to make it apply to more and more people and to encourage them to pass on as much as possible to their heirs by killing themselves before the estate tax causes them to lose (part or all of) the money.
I should make some extra time to spend with my folks while they're still with us.
Taxes, Part Dos
Well, Gene Bob was right, of course. Only those with very low incomes are not required to file a tax return.
Seems sort of odd, if you ask me. You didn't? Then stop reading now. You see, if the government owes me money, which they do, and they know they do, which they do, then isn't it in their best interest to let me lend it to them interest free for as long as I am willing?
Anyway, what with springing forward for daylight saving time and other factors beyond my control my finance person hasn't completed my return. So today she filed form 4868: "Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. individual Income Tax Return".
TurboTax seems willing to generate this form, but doesn't make it obvious how to e-file it. Fortunately, there is a handy-dandy phone filing system (1-888-796-1074). Oddly, given that it is in their interest to keep my money as long as possible, the phone system completes the transaction by informing me that form 4868 will no longer be available next year.
Seems sort of odd, if you ask me. You didn't? Then stop reading now. You see, if the government owes me money, which they do, and they know they do, which they do, then isn't it in their best interest to let me lend it to them interest free for as long as I am willing?
Anyway, what with springing forward for daylight saving time and other factors beyond my control my finance person hasn't completed my return. So today she filed form 4868: "Application for Automatic Extension of Time To File U.S. individual Income Tax Return".
TurboTax seems willing to generate this form, but doesn't make it obvious how to e-file it. Fortunately, there is a handy-dandy phone filing system (1-888-796-1074). Oddly, given that it is in their interest to keep my money as long as possible, the phone system completes the transaction by informing me that form 4868 will no longer be available next year.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Taxes
If you talk about death, you have to talk about taxes, right?
As most Merkins are aware, an important date is fast approaching: the annual celebration of the birth of my dearly departed step-grandmother! Her life was important, if for no other reason than the income tax deductions that she afforded my grandfather.
This year I may be joining the ranks of tax outlaws by failing to file my taxes in time. I say "may" because I might not owe any money, and I don't think you're legally required to file if you don't owe money. On the other hand, you never know 'til you know, if you know what I mean.
Of course, I could just send them a five pound box of money before the 15th, just to be safe, and then file for a refund. But that would tax my budget, which is already under the not inconsiderable strain of too many 0% credit cards (which don't stay 0% forever).
Speaking of strain, what's up with this so-called "marriage penalty" that I keep hearing conservatives whining about? If you keep yer women at home where they belong there isn't a marriage "penalty", but a pretty decent tax savings! The only way for a married couple to pay more taxes than two separate filers is if both of them work, and Everybody Knows that God doesn't approve of that! If the conservatives don't want to look like a bunch of shipping containers for hippopotamuses (you know, hippo-crates) then they should do like all God-fearing Wahabists and forbid married women from working.
(Aside: for a proper citation of the phrase "Everybody Knows", please hop on over to, or back over to, Gene Bob's blog.)
As most Merkins are aware, an important date is fast approaching: the annual celebration of the birth of my dearly departed step-grandmother! Her life was important, if for no other reason than the income tax deductions that she afforded my grandfather.
This year I may be joining the ranks of tax outlaws by failing to file my taxes in time. I say "may" because I might not owe any money, and I don't think you're legally required to file if you don't owe money. On the other hand, you never know 'til you know, if you know what I mean.
Of course, I could just send them a five pound box of money before the 15th, just to be safe, and then file for a refund. But that would tax my budget, which is already under the not inconsiderable strain of too many 0% credit cards (which don't stay 0% forever).
Speaking of strain, what's up with this so-called "marriage penalty" that I keep hearing conservatives whining about? If you keep yer women at home where they belong there isn't a marriage "penalty", but a pretty decent tax savings! The only way for a married couple to pay more taxes than two separate filers is if both of them work, and Everybody Knows that God doesn't approve of that! If the conservatives don't want to look like a bunch of shipping containers for hippopotamuses (you know, hippo-crates) then they should do like all God-fearing Wahabists and forbid married women from working.
(Aside: for a proper citation of the phrase "Everybody Knows", please hop on over to, or back over to, Gene Bob's blog.)
Monday, April 04, 2005
Death
The issues surrounding the recent deaths of two famous people are difficult. Perhaps even too difficult to discuss in a forum such as this. But I'm an idiot (as I'm sure some commenter will point out) so here I go...
First, I think it's very important to try to follow the wishes of the patient, insofar as they are known. A great deal of the Terri Schiavo case has revolved around exactly that, which is good. By the way, I think that Terri's wishes are stated quite simply in her blog.
Oh, don't get all huffy with me! My best friend on this earth has lain in a state quite similar to Terri Schiavo's (well, before her death), for almost 9 years. It is quite distressing to see him in this state and to consider what he might be experiencing, if anything. When I visit Tom in the nursing home he will sometimes turn toward noises and will sometimes look at his visitors. He moans and groans as well. But I have never been able to get Tom to perform any action that I can believe is willful and repeatable.
One of the last media shows before Terri Schiavo's death was with her parents claiming that they had begged Terri to just say, "I want to live," and that she replied with a loud protracted "I".
Bullshit! I've heard that yell from Tom many times. It could just as easily have been no, but without the ability to properly form the 'n' or 'o' sounds.
Mind you, I'm not saying that Terri wasn't trying to say that she wanted to live; I'm just saying that it is impossible to know what she was trying to say.
The whole situation sucks.
First, I think it's very important to try to follow the wishes of the patient, insofar as they are known. A great deal of the Terri Schiavo case has revolved around exactly that, which is good. By the way, I think that Terri's wishes are stated quite simply in her blog.
Oh, don't get all huffy with me! My best friend on this earth has lain in a state quite similar to Terri Schiavo's (well, before her death), for almost 9 years. It is quite distressing to see him in this state and to consider what he might be experiencing, if anything. When I visit Tom in the nursing home he will sometimes turn toward noises and will sometimes look at his visitors. He moans and groans as well. But I have never been able to get Tom to perform any action that I can believe is willful and repeatable.
One of the last media shows before Terri Schiavo's death was with her parents claiming that they had begged Terri to just say, "I want to live," and that she replied with a loud protracted "I".
Bullshit! I've heard that yell from Tom many times. It could just as easily have been no, but without the ability to properly form the 'n' or 'o' sounds.
Mind you, I'm not saying that Terri wasn't trying to say that she wanted to live; I'm just saying that it is impossible to know what she was trying to say.
The whole situation sucks.
Friday, April 01, 2005
RFC 2550
It's April Fool's day and so I spent a bit of time looking at internet sites which have been known in the past to post special things on this day. Internet news sites also listed a number of past April Fool's day pranks, including such things as April Fool's RFCs. The nice thing about April Fool's RFCs is that they are permanently in the RFC databases and can be read at any time.
One that I found particularly amusing today is RFC 2550, titled "Y10K and Beyond", from April 1, 1999. This RFC criticizes Y2K solutions as being just as short-sighted as the practices that created the Y2K problem in the first place. The author also suggested alternate names for the Y10K problem: YAK and YXK. 'A' is the hexadecimal representation of ten while 'X' is the Roman numeral representation.
Later in the document he mentions a Y100K problem (caused by using 5 digits for the year), but doesn't mention the same alternative notations as he did for the Y10K problem. That's too bad, because the hexadecimal representation of one hundred is "64". So writing about the Y64K problem would have been deliciously ambiguous! Especially so because of the confusion about the meaning of 'K'!
One that I found particularly amusing today is RFC 2550, titled "Y10K and Beyond", from April 1, 1999. This RFC criticizes Y2K solutions as being just as short-sighted as the practices that created the Y2K problem in the first place. The author also suggested alternate names for the Y10K problem: YAK and YXK. 'A' is the hexadecimal representation of ten while 'X' is the Roman numeral representation.
Later in the document he mentions a Y100K problem (caused by using 5 digits for the year), but doesn't mention the same alternative notations as he did for the Y10K problem. That's too bad, because the hexadecimal representation of one hundred is "64". So writing about the Y64K problem would have been deliciously ambiguous! Especially so because of the confusion about the meaning of 'K'!
Post For The Blog Eater!
This post is an offering for the blog eater. It is offered in the spirit of lines which were posted at the beginning or end of Usenet News posts so that their loss by buggy NNTP implementations would not affect the actual message.
Yes, I've been having problems with blogger/blogspot eating my carefully crafted prose. I spend valuable time writing something I hope will be of everlasting value to the world, only to have it disappear forever when I click the "Publish Post" button.
:-(
Yes, I've been having problems with blogger/blogspot eating my carefully crafted prose. I spend valuable time writing something I hope will be of everlasting value to the world, only to have it disappear forever when I click the "Publish Post" button.
:-(
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