Dogs playing ball in the sun
My wife took these pictures of our dogs playing ball with a new standard lens for her DSLR. I think they’re terrific, so I’m sharing the Flickr link here.
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Among the glaring errors in the report: A professor is listed in BP’s 2009 response plan for a Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a national wildlife expert. He died in 2005.
The plan lists cold-water marine mammals including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals as “sensitive biological resources.” None of those animals live anywhere near the Gulf.
Also, names and phone numbers of several Texas A&M University marine life specialists are wrong. So are the numbers for marine mammal stranding network offices in Louisiana and Florida, which are disconnected.
“The AP report paints a picture of a company that was making it up as it went along, while telling regulators it had the full capability to deal with a major spill,” Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., wrote in an e-mail to the AP. “We know that wasn’t true.”
Attacks on BP Are Excessive, British Investors Say - NYTimes.com
Are you angry? No? Reading this will fix that.
Viruses are boring? Guess again
This is a fascinating look at the Conficker virus by Mark Bowden, who also wrote Blackhawk Down. That’s also worth reading.
Teaser quote:
“The [writer’s] understanding of Windows’ operating system, and how it worked in the kernel, needed [a] kind of a domain expert, and they had that kind of ability there. And we realized as a community that we were not dealing with something normal. We’re dealing with one of two things: either we’re dealing with incredibly sophisticated cyber criminals, or we’re dealing with a group that was funded by a nation-state. Because this wasn’t the kind of team that you could just assemble by getting your five buddies who play Xbox 360 and saying, ‘Let’s all work together and see what we can do.’”
How to Triple-Boot Your Mac with Windows and Linux, No Boot Camp Required - Triple Boot - Lifehacker
Gosh, where was this article two weeks ago, when I needed it? I succeeded, but only after pouring over out of date and poorly written forum posts. I got everything but the swap file for Linux. I wonder if that’s still doable without a re-install?
My current Ubuntu desktop. There is still a lot of tire kicking to do (music, photos) but I am getting comfortable here doing the most common computer stuff - web, mail, social media. Installing it was the trickiest thing about it but that is not Ubuntu’s fault - I have a triple booting machine and that is what made the install a bit of a climb. If Ubuntu was the lone OS, putting it on the system would have been a breeze. The other wrinkle has been sound. I finally have it after days of searching forums, mashing the terminal and rebooting… and it’s still tiny.
There’s no doubting the promise here though. At the very least I can extend the life of older computers and I have two non MS options now.
Pacifying a supervisor who is a Habs fan.
Roller Derby at MSA, captured by an iPhone.
My wife’s new haircut. Pretty cool, huh?
Lord of the Rings comes to Blu-ray
Two of my favourite things are coming together at last. But… I have the extended editions on DVD and I know how much better they are. There’s no way I’m going to pick up the theater cuts. Not. Going. To. Happen.
So, yeah, that’s disappointing.
Just think, they’re probably going to do the same baloney when Star Wars comes to Blue Ray.
Media moguls, you are odious.
The Sandra Bullock Trade
There’s a lot of good sense in this editorial by NYT’s David Brooks. Relationships are more important than careers or money and our institutions - schools and governments - are scared to death to talk about it. They keep focusing on increasing material production as a neutral common good. There is nothing that is neutral and everything comes at a cost, ie. longer work days and commutes diminish families.
Brooks:
The overall impression from this research is that economic and professional success exists on the surface of life, and that they emerge out of interpersonal relationships, which are much deeper and more important.
The second impression is that most of us pay attention to the wrong things. Most people vastly overestimate the extent to which more money would improve our lives. Most schools and colleges spend too much time preparing students for careers and not enough preparing them to make social decisions. Most governments release a ton of data on economic trends but not enough on trust and other social conditions. In short, modern societies have developed vast institutions oriented around the things that are easy to count, not around the things that matter most. They have an affinity for material concerns and a primordial fear of moral and social ones.
Things that blow about MS Office
Look at that wasted space at the top of the screen. Compare with iWork here.
On OS X you can hide most of that in the menus at the top, ie. ‘file’, ‘edit’, ‘view’, etc. Just keep the most used ones handy. Simple. Clean. Less intimidating.
Daring Fireball points out that the save icon is STILL a floppy disk. When did you last use one of those? Macs have not shipped with floppies for years.
MS is like a guy that’s so fat he can’t get off the couch.
The only thing that’s worse is when others - are you listening Open Office? - use the same stupid set up so they won’t confuse anyone.
OO, the fat guy’s ugly cousin.
