Journal Journal: I'm thinking of getting a Twiddler2.... 1
I'm thinking of getting a Twiddler2: the one-handed chording keyboard.
Before I do, I'd like to hear opinions of the Twiddler2 from anyone who has used one.
Anyone?
I'm thinking of getting a Twiddler2: the one-handed chording keyboard.
Before I do, I'd like to hear opinions of the Twiddler2 from anyone who has used one.
Anyone?
(Cross-posted to WWdN)
The final table of the 2005 World Series of Poker started at 4pm yesterday afternoon, and wasn't finished until just after 7am today. I'm not sure, but I think that's a record. I'd call Pauly to be sure, but something tells me he's crashed out until at least Sunday.
Two qualifiers from PokerStars made the final table, and one guy, who qualified using free play points, made it to the final two tables, finished in 13th place, and won $400,000. Not bad for a freeroll!
Speaking of Pauly and PokerStars, we're doing a charity tournament on Sunday in memory of Pauly's friend Charlie Tuttle:
Charlie is from Clarksville, Tennessee and he's a twenty-six year old music enthusiast who loves hanging out and playing poker with his friends. Charlie was dealt a bad hand in life when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, which he has been battling this past year. A couple of weekends ago, he was hospitalized because two tumors in his chest pressed up against his lungs, causing him breathing problems. I don't have to tell you how serious his condition was.
Felicia Lee, who is fighting her own battle with cancer, knows several top professional poker players, so she got several of her friends to call Charlie: John Juanda, Marcel Luske, Max Pescatori, and Barry Greenstein to name a few. In fact, when Barry Greenstein won his bracelet in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event, he dedicated it to Charlie.
As Pauly wrote:
Situations like this one make you reassess what's really important in life. Las Vegas is a city built on greed. Poker is a game that often attracts some of the lowest forms of life. However, in the past two weeks, there has been a small group of professional poker players who have earned my respect and admiration. Amidst all the darkness and debauchery, I have caught a few glimpses of the bright side of humanity. The hearts of some of the biggest sharks in Las Vegas are filled with compassion.
Thank you, Charlie, for inspiring us all. We'll never forget you.
Charlie passed away on June 22 and his friends have organized a charity poker tournament this Sunday at PokerStars. It's going to be a lot of fun, and I hope to see lots of WWdN readers there.
Details:
SUNDAY, JULY 17th
18:00 EDT (15:00 CDT)
PokerStars
Buy-in is $20 — all of it goes to charity.
"WPBT Charlie Tournament" under Tourneys -> Private tab in the lobby
I'm playing around with the idea of getting a laptop and (geek warning) some sort of VR glasses instead of a screen.
Optimally, I'd like something with the form factor of a Sharp Zaurus, but with a hard drive and standard ports.
Basically, I want a "real computer" that I can put in my pocket. To use the VR glasses, I'd need standard USB ports and the ability to use a standard video card.
Is this too bleeding edge? What are my options for a really small laptop, possibly without a screen?
This is slashdot, so I know you guys have some good ideas, and a good sense of what's possible.
I'm sure this is just begging for vandalism (unless those douchebags have grown up and finally kissed a girl) . . . but there is an error on my Wikipedia page that needs to be corrected. I'd do it myself, but that's against Wikipedia editing policy.
I am not in Brother Bear. Willie Wheaton, Wil Wheaton, Jr., and Reginald Maudling (Mrs.) are all not me. I've tried to get this taken off imdb, but someone (well-intentioned, I'm sure) keeps putting it back, and Wikipedia editors (also well-intentioned) are putting Brother Bear back up . . . so we're in an infinite improbability loop, and my towel is getting dirty.
Would someone please correct that, and cite this journal entry so it doesn't get corrected back?
Anyhow, I also tend to play my music using the 2.0 Speed Setting in WIndows Media Player because it helps keep me on my toes while coding. (Not to mention a lot of songs sound so much more funny at that speed) And, well... *shudder* Let's just say that I think I know where to get music for my survival horror game if I ever create a survival horror game.
The same researchers have previously mentioned other ways to get around Mendel. See abstract #34.
Almost as interestingly, this discovery could undercut the deleterious mutation hypothesis theory of why sexual reproduction is useful, useful despite what John Maynard Smith termed its "two-fold cost", and explain the eighty-million years of asexual reproduction without extinction in bdelloid rotifers.
Also, brought to you by the letter... 3FB? DNA gets a fake fifth letter.
(This was submitted to Slashdot and rejected, so you get to see it exclusively in my journal, or over on MetaFilter.)
"When you wanted me, I figured I had, or would have down the road, better prospects than you. Um, things didn't work out as bright and shiny as I hoped. Now I'd, you know, be willing to settle.
"Ok, actually, I really don't even think of you anymore, and your name doesn't still make me pause and wonder 'what if', if it ever really did, (it doesn't, even though the mere thought of me is still like a fresh punch in the gut for you after all these long withered years).
"But if it consoles you to think that you cross my mind on lonely white nights at three a.m. and I feel some sort of vague formless regret -- honestly, any regret I feel is more for my lost youth than for you per se, at this point you just kinda symbolize that lost youth for me, like an old 'Letter' sweater from highschool or a copy of the program for that play we were in together, or those pictures of guys with long sideburns that you know instantly are from the time of the Nixon Administration --, well, you always were the sentimental sort who wrote poetry and believed bathetic crap like 'true love', so keep on with what's essentially your form of mental masturbation if it makes you feel better."
"Ok, stop crying, it always annoyed me when you cried because it made me feel like I was supposed to do something and what did you want me to do, I mean, you were nice and fun and all that --- yes the sex was good, why do you always ask about that --but, come on, we never -- hell, you especially never really expected it to last, I mean we travelled in different circles and you weren't Jewish, not that that's a big deal to me, but Jesus, your family -- please stop crying, ok, so sometimes on occasion I miss you, is that what you wanted to hear?
"Ok, so sure, sometimes I think of you, but really, if I'm the 'one who got away' for you, don't you sometimes stop to think there's one who got away for me too, and it's only natural that rather than think of you when I'm lonely -- yes, yes, yes, sometimes I do think of you, and you were really nice. Yes! Yes I mean it! Why would I lie now?? Really. I do mean it.
"Yes, you were really nice. Ok?
"And it was great talking to you. Sure, sure, same time, next year, give me a call like always. No, I do like hearing from you. I do.
"Ok, you have a nice night too."
silicon.com reports that 'the US Department of Homeland Security has decided to trial RFID tags'
Welcome to the Land of the Free!, number 4c62c570-70c5-11d9-9669-0800200c9a66! You'll be reflecting at 2450 MHz, enjoy your stay!
The article goes on to explain that
The testing phase will continue until the spring of next year. The exact way RFID will be used with the travellers is not yet known.
. . . .
US Under Secretary for Border & Transportation Security, Asa Hutchinson, said in a statement: "Through the use of radio frequency technology, we see the potential to not only improve the security of our country, but also to make the most important infrastructure enhancements to the US land borders in more than 50 years."
What is your frequency, Kenneth?
Remind me again why the most talented foreign scientists are no longer doing research in America?
And how soon will the "success" of this program lead to tagging government employees and contractors as a prelude to tagging all citizens?
On craigslist.org I see under "Computer Gigs", an ad for a "senior level web programmer" with, additionally, "exceptional Microsoft SQL 2000 administration... skill".
By "senior", the ad explains, they mean "someone with at least 5 to 6 years working experience in Microsoft Platforms. Microsoft certification is a plus."
The offer requires a minimum three month contract, with set hours of 10:30 am to 3:30 pm, Monday through Thursdays (with Fridays off). That's 20 hours a week (but without apparently the ability to time-shift or moonlight so as to accomodate another 9-5 job).
The compensation offered is $800 per month -- in other words, a "senior level web programmer" is apparently worth only ten dollars per hour.
And yes, I emailed them to confirm this, and they really do mean ten dollars per hous, twenty hours per week, minimum three month contract. And this is in the San Francisco area.
So my question is, is this what's becoming the norm, or is the job poster smoking something?
----
Addendum: As artifex2004 (766107) notes below, the job posting has been removed from craigslist.
However, another craigslist reader was er, kind enough to respond to the original listing; but I'm not sure how he calculated $12.50 an hour. (And no, I didn't make the response.)
Also, for those wondering about my email with the job poster, this is his reply to my query confirming his ad, with addresses elided:
Hi
Yea exactly we are a small start up. And that is our offer
Thanks
----- Original Message -----
From: orthogonal's address elided
To: job poster's address elided, too
Sent: Monday, January 03, 2005 2:42 PM
Subject: Wanted: SQL 2000 Admin With ASP, HTML skills>>
>> From your ad at: http://www.craigslist.org/sby/cpg/54284856.html
>>
>> You're offering $10.00 per hour for a senior level web programmer?
>>
>> Quoted:
>> This is a senior level web programmer position. You will program and
>> manage our existing database driven community portal.
>>
>> We are looking for someone with at least 5 to 6 years working
>> experience in Microsoft Platforms. Microsoft certification is a plus.
>>
>> Working hours will be 10.30am to 3.30pm with Fridays Off. Salary is
>> $800/month. Minimum 3 months contract required.
The subject line above relates to another incident like this. A girl I knew in college suddenly pointedly stopped talking to me. I tried to confront her in an effort to find out a) if she really was socially cutting me or if it was just my imagination and b) if so, what the problem was and how we might resolve it. She told me that I knew very well what the problem was and stormed off. Later on, she suddenly started talking to me again and that period where she apparently hated my guts wasn't mentioned again, but it really hurt at the time. After pouring my troubles out to my roommate, a good friend, he clapped me on the shoulder and said, "Sean, not everyone is going to like you." It seems like an obvious thing, but, well, until then I'd lived my life believing that I could get everyone to like me. I was always the fellow who rode through intra-friend turbulence, managing to be friends with both sides. When I play computer games involving factions, I usually manage to keep them all happy with me right up until some hard-coded event makes me choose. *sigh* Not everyone is going to like me. I know it, but I think it will still take me a long time to accept it.
Of course it can be.
Take a hypothetical variety of racism for instance: if you agree to paint yourself blue and preferentially aid others who are painted blue, people who painted themselves red and preferentially aided red-painted people would naturally prefer to not see you in an position of power or influence, as you would use that position to aid blues (and thus hinder reds who might otherwise have gotten the benefits you preferentially give to blues).
It would also, in this case, behoove you to not only discriminate in favor of blues, but against reds, as reds in power would, perforce, discriminate against you.
At some point, tension might increase until you were legitimately physically afraid of reds, because reds would see an advantage in harming you if they could get away with doing so.
While you'd know that some reds were actually peaceful, good people, you'd have no easy way to determine which reds were good, as it would be risky to associate with any reds, because the bad ones would take advantage of you.
As you became less and less willing to take the risk of trusting a red, so reds would observe your unwillingness to "reach out", and they would be logically inclined to not risk reaching out to you.
At some point, atrocities would be committed by either side: muggings, lynchings, rapes, and eventually a state of war might exist between red and blue.
With war, with the entire survival of one group or the other as a free people undominated by their enemies at stake, even "good" reds would be honor bound, for the survival of their race/people/nation to attempt to kill and harm even blues they knew to be "good", and vice versa: surely we have seen good and honorable men fight fiercely and honorably to kill other good and honorable men, when each side feels its children and way of life at stake.
So, yes, racism can be logical, because once racism starts, the short-term benefit is to rely on a stereotype rather than pay the cost and take the risk of examining people as people and not as members of groups. In the long term, this leads to positive reinforcement of both stereotypes and inter-group enmity -- but it can be awfully hard to endure high short-term costs for even high long-term rewards.
(And honestly, if you can commit genocide or enslave the opposition, your group will, by and large and up to the last century or two, also get a high reward: witness the genocide of Khoisan and to a lesser extent pygmy peoples in Africa by Bantu peoples, or of aboriginal Americans ("Indians") in both North and South America by Europeans, or the near-genocide of Basque and Celtic peoples by Indo-Europeans and Germanic peoples in mainland Europe. Or Armenians in Turkey in 1917. Genocide and enslavement are morally wrong, but they often greatly benefit the perpetrators: ask any American farmer where he got his land.)
If I know that 9 of 10 Maori will kill me because I am Mori (and indeed the peacerful Mori were wiped out by quite intentional Maori genocide and enslavement), I'd be a fool not kill every defenseless Maori I come across -- and a Maori, reasoning that I would so reason, would be a fool not to kill me.
(I will leave the logic of superstition to the reader, but I will hint that we all desire explanatory stories, and even Newtons' physics is subtly wrong, but good enough for most purposes involving human-perceptible masses and speeds. And that the religious, according to several studies, enjoy better health than atheists.)
Given that humans form kinship and pseudo-kinship ("clan", "tribe", "people", "nation") groups, and given that humans can model and predict the actions of other humans, xenophobia and racism are, regrettably, perhaps inevitable.
And recall that all of history's Cains had children, and the Abels did not; it is no surprise to this humanist and atheist that the mark of Cain is a standard and fundamental part of the heritage passed down to every human.
(I submitted this to Slashdot, but I guess the editors didn't find it interesting.)
A Republican consultant paid a "vendor" $2,500 to jam the phones of the local Democratic Party and Firefighter's union offices in several New Hampshire cities on Election Day 2002, in order to prevent voters from calling to arrange rides to the polls and other 'get out the vote' efforts.
In the closest affected race, Republican John Sununu beat Democrat Jeanne Shaheen for U.S. Senate by fewer than 19,000 votes out of over 442,000 votes cast. The consultant pled guilty today, but his co-conspirators have not yet been identified and the investigation is continuing.
We all know that Diebold's voting machines are supposed to ensure that every vote is counted, but what are other ways that technology can be used to undermine democracy?
(This was rejected by the Slashdot editors when I submitted it. It's not a dupe is it?)
Slate, the flagship "webzine" of Microsoft's MSN website, has published a column by Paul Boutin advising Microsoft Internet Explorer users to drop IE for Mozilla Firefox because "hackers continue to find and exploit security holes in [Internet] Explorer". Boutin isn't planning to go back, either, he says: "I've been using [Firefox] for a week now, and I've all but forgotten about [Internet] Explorer." He even helpfully links to a Firefox
As you are aware, the Bush Administration's "Justice" Department wrote several memos defining torture in such a way as to permit its use, notably by saying that it's not torture unless the only reason it's being done is to inflict pain -- thus ruling that any use to extract information is, ipso facto, not torture.
As a patriotic citizen, I wish to do my bit to help the Bush Administration, so herewith I present
The Bush Administration Dictionary:
I hope you'll follow my lead by adding more patriotic definitions!
Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. -- Ambrose Bierce