gregladen | October 8, 2010Computer-based calendars are very useful, and the Google Calendar is probably one of the more widely used personal calendars other than scheduling programs such as MS Outlook and Groupwise (both of which are broken). But, webby gooey applications can be rather bothersome because they tend to take up a lot of screen real estate and other resources, and on smaller screens such as a laptop can be rendered virtually useless by all that added functionality built into the web browser itself as well as the calendar page. It is quite possible that on your laptop, your Google Calendar may look…
gregladen | October 8, 2010Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights" - a prize likely to enrage the Chinese government, which had warned the Nobel committee not to honor him.
Thorbjoern Jagland, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman, said Liu Xiaobo (LEE-o SHAo-boh) was a symbol for the fight for human rights in China and the government should expect that its policies face scrutiny
npr
gregladen | October 7, 2010Desiree will interview Bora Zivkovic, Blog and Community Editor at Scientific American!!!!
Details here
gregladen | October 7, 2010When I was a little kid, my cousin, who was an actual Catholic Arch Bishop (Archbishop of Anchorage) came over to the house one day, and I saw family elders approach him, one by one, genuflect and kiss his ring. Then one or two of my relatives brought him sacred objects for him to bless. One of the objects was the wooden cross that hung on our wall, similar to others hanging on Catholic walls in other Catholic homes, near the main entrance way to the house. It was hollow and included several items that would be used for the performance of either extreme unction (the "last rights") or, if…
gregladen | October 7, 2010Huh.
(Click the "huh")
I suppose if you understand the social networking thingie that i Reddit, you can engage in this conversation. Right now, Behe Jr's brief comment is on the front page, and has been viewed by nearly 100,000 readers.
gregladen | October 7, 2010... of English:
The nomenclature for the US accents is wildly incorrect, but these are good renditions of something.
gregladen | October 7, 2010The Anglo Boer War (in what is now South Africa from October 11th, 1899 to May 31st, 1902) was a turning point in European style military history. In previous centuries, infantry would operate in large blocks that would move forward, turn and open or close ranks, and winning an infantry engagement would involve getting your columns around the side or back of the enemy's columns, or simply overrunning them head on. This worked in part because although everybody had a firearm of some kind, the firearms of the 18th century and in some areas well into the 19th century held one bullet, took time…
gregladen | October 7, 2010The command line is a great place to get weather information. Here, I discuss one cli-app for current conditions and forecasts, in the larger context of why you would ever want to use the command line anyway.
There are several ways to use your computer to check the weather. One is to use the Nakob Weather Rock method. Suspend the computer using a rope from a tripod of sticks. If the computer is swaying, that means it is windy. If the computer is wet, that means it is raining. And so on. Like this:
That is a very amusing way to tell the weather, but it is not convenient because your…
gregladen | October 7, 2010Best line: "What's the difference between astronomy and astrology?" ... "About 50 IQ points..."
gregladen | October 7, 2010... Mario Vargas Llosa.
From Wikipedia, we learn that his name is prounouced: "[Ëmaɾjo ËβarÉ£az ËÊosa]" Thank you very much Wikipedia, that was so xweÊul.
Anyway, Vargas Llosa wrote La ciudad y los perros, La casa verde, 1965/1968), and the Conversación en la catedral.
Many of Vargas Llosa's works are influenced by the writer's perception of Peruvian society and his own experiences as a native Peruvian. Increasingly, however, he has expanded his range, and tackled themes that arise from other parts of the world. Another change over the course of his career has been a shift from a style…
gregladen | October 7, 2010It has been relatively quiet in the Atlantic for several days (for a hurricane season ... there's been plenty of storm and rain in the usual areas). Otto is the current, newly named storm, and, in the words of the folks at the Hurricane Prediction Center, Otto is "struggling."
It is possible that Otto will reach hurricane strength over the next few days, but it will do so as it shoots northeast roughly towards France. That is all.
gregladen | October 7, 2010I always thought this was a parody of something, but it turns out it's the real thing.
This is the parody:
gregladen | October 6, 2010It is hard to imagine a world without science Friday.
But it is easy to image a world in which our collective respect for the National Science Foundation, who is pulling their funding for the program, is seriously compromised. Also, it is easy to imagine a world in which we do NOT renew our memberships to NPR because they are ALSO pulling funding.
UPDATE: Ira Flatow, host of Science Friday, has added a comment below which you should read.
As you know, I tend to be bit radical in these areas. I may very well shift my personal donation to Sci Fri despite Ira's suggestion, or perhaps split…
gregladen | October 6, 2010The three are organic chemists, and each independently came up with new ways to make complex organic molecules, in this case, carbon-to-carbon bonds.
The chemical processes are now used worldwide in commercial production of pharmaceuticals, including potential cancer drugs. The molecules are also used to make electronics, LEDs, and extremely thin motors, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.
npr
gregladen | October 6, 2010Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
John Barrasso (R-WY)
Kit Bond (R-MO)
Sam Brownback (R-KS)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Richard Burr (R-NC)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Tom Coburn (R-OK)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Bob Corker (R-TN)
Mike Crapo (R-ID)
Jim DeMint (R-SC)
John Ensign (R-NV)
Mike Enzi (R-WY)
Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Jim Inhofe (R-OK)
Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
Mike Johanns (R-NE)
Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
John McCain (R-AZ)
Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
James Risch (R-ID)
Pat Roberts (R-KS)
Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Thune (R-SD)
David Vitter (R-LA)
Roger Wicker (R-MS)
gregladen | October 5, 2010This is the first in a series about using the "command line" in Linux. It is also about knowing when to use a gui instead. But before going into any of that we need to understand what is meant by a "command line" application. You'll find that as we explore that idea, a lot of things that are not really true 'cli' (command line interface) apps arguably count as cli, including menu driven console based apps and even gui apps. This will be controversial.
Let's start with some basic definitions. If anyone has any problems with any of the following just let me know. Consider this a first…