Boo ya.

12-6-12 is our new 4-20

Nobody puts muppets in the corner. Mess with PBS, die like the rest.

OK, so today I'm trying to write a web page to link a bunch of known files and transfer them to another location.

Due to HIPAA and VA rules this has to be a secure file transfer, encrypted.

When they get to our site, they have to login as a specific user. The user belongs to a group. The site forces HTTPS secure connection if they try to come in as HTTP.

So, normally, if I wanted to provide a link to a file I would go something like this:

get important file

Can I just use SFTP in place of FTP? Or if I specify FTP will it literally invoke FTP on the browser end? Since the entire thing is running under SSL2 for SSH is this just plain overkill?

Or am I just being extraordinarily clueless?

I ask, cause normally I write code that uses PHP and runs MySQL commands and literally builds the output files - CSV, XLS, etc - from scratch, and sets the transfer type and authentication level. But this is so primative - a literal ONE FILE TRANSFER LINK - that I can't remember what to do, as the last time I did something like that, not using FOPEN() and scanning a dir and popping an array and building stuff was like ages ago in Internet time, and back then we used FTP.

THANKS!

Been a busy week, and the Occupy Seattle protests are going strong at Westlake Mall in Seattle, with thousands expected Saturday at noon.

Completed all the paperwork and signings and final payment and my refinance of my townhouse (54 pct LTV, 46 pct equity) at 4.5 pct is now done. TIME TO SKI!

FTL neutrinos for drives - check!

Magnetic shields - check!

Ok, put this baby in gear and let's roll!

In case you missed it, that was my suggestion that Dan Savage would make a great replacement Microsoft CEO once Ballmer is kicked to the curb, in Infoworld's Cringe column.

I'm quite serious.

I'm looking to roll my own game for the iPad and would like any recommendations for any decent well-coded game development kits for that.

I've got an iPad2 and a Win7 server, both with dual-core, the iPad2 has 32GB.

Would also like recs on books.

Game will be mostly stand-alone but with "gift" sending features and maybe a local "friend" leaderboard, designed so you can use it on both wireless and data plans and out of signal range.

Actually toony in feel, but don't need complex animations.

Well, finally a listed contributor to a peer-reviewed scientific journal paper.

Amusing since I've worked on submissions to Nature and Science before, but it's nice to be recognized.

Two of the Internet Revolutions fueled by wikileaks, Facebook, and Twitter have already resulted in change - Tunisia first (took about a month, US media covered the final few days), then Egypt (took a few weeks, US media covered after the first week).

Who's next?

Saudi Arabia? Yemen? Jordan? Pakistan? Syria?

What I love the most about the rabble on Slashdot is every time there's a story about global warming, and you try to reply from the viewpoint of peer-reviewed Science, you get all the lusers downmodding you for factual statements.

Same for autism not being caused by vaccines.

Which I find very funny, because my lab literally works on autism research and quite a few friends work with core samples of ice.

Le sigh. Noobs are a precious resource - and there are so many of them.

P.S.: Science just Is.

Today

was the day we stood,

shoulder to shoulder,

cast our ballots,

and resisted the Zombie tide of the Tea Baggers here in the True West.

Deep scarlet red up and down the coast
every single Governorship
all because of what WE DID
and not the back east pundits,
craven in their servitude to Corporations
that they regard as their Kings

I mean, did you notice that?

Apparently we're all topped out and bored sitting here at level 80 or something ...

---- my achievements ----
# 23 Achievements #

26 Got a Score:5 Comment 2009-02-21 #

22 Submitted a Story That Was Posted 2009-03-27 #

22 Days Read in a Row 2009-02-27

---- hmmm ----

Is there one for "had most attacks by Pudge and his ilk?

Maybe it's just me, or the people I served with, or my dad and grandpa, but where I come from talking about things from when you were in uniform is just kind of crass.

Sure, saved some people from dying a few times, but that's kind of what you do. The culture from my time was that you don't boast about things, it's the team that gets the credit, and what's past is past.

Not saying that I always did my best, and I was never in any great post like my grandpa in Rio as military attache (some fun stories from my dad about growing up there as a pre-teen kid), but it's like this excessive connection with the military by the ultra-right - everyone I served with was pretty non-political, and even though I was political by background, it was not seemly to discuss such things with people who you had to depend on to get your back when you needed it.

Sigh. Maybe it's just all those years being one of the few people able to read SECRET traffic and having officers in my command structure that couldn't read the traffic due to their national origin that I had to reroute around, so that I learned not to talk about details unless I was certain people were cleared and permitted (not the same things) to see and hear them.

Just read the story on /. that Will Wright is leaving EA to go to Stupid Fun Club.

Good.

I never liked EA, and will be glad to ignore them once he's gone.

Well, today is my first day on the job in my new position with Treasury, as the incoming Undersecretary for Expectation Adjustment.

It's been quite an adjustment.

Sure, I get to live in DC, but having to wear a tie is something I gave up last century - I'm hoping that perhaps we can institute a modified Obama collared shirt without tie rule soon, but I don't want to get my hopes up too much on forcing such a change on the Beltway mentality.

Not sure when my house in Seattle will sell - at least I bought it back in 1999 so even if the market is down it's twice what I paid for it. Luckily, they're helping with that.

Due to the large number of vacancies, I was able to get my son admitted into one of our branches for beginning bureaucrats - not cabinet level of course, more like a side table - as the Undersecretary for Underwear Adjustment. He's looking forward to helping the inspection division at various modeling events this year, and the pay isn't bad for someone just graduating from high school.

The new intern is fairly quick - her name is Mary Cheney, one of the holdovers from the prior administration, but she seems fairly affable, and has even volunteered to help my son out during the modeling events, showing a keen interest in women's underwear.

Anyway, all is chaos and I'll try to post more later, but it's hard adapting to DC after so long in Seattle.

So, what does everyone think of the Watchmen movie?

I just read the actual graphic novel last weekend and will be seeing it soon, but first I'll be catching an early preview of Aliens versus Monsters 3-D.

Do you think one film is better than the other?

Did the movie stand up to the book?

And which is really better - watching it in 3-D, as one should do with Coraline, or holding out for the IMAX version?