Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/04/15/abortion/
(Addressed originally to my wife, mother, and grandmother, but why not share?)
http://mad-eponine.livejournal.com/23305.html
Tom has two links about South Dakota. The state outlawed abortion pretty much entirely. They only had one abortion clinic anyway. So, a chief of an Indian Reservation, is trying to open her own family planning clinic. And since Indians have limited sovereignty, she would (hopefully) be able to provide abortions on her own territory within South Dakota.
“Only in America.”
Also, I read somewhere that while the new Supreme Court is culturally conservative, they are also judicially conservative, meaning that they are more likely, most of the time, to defer to precedent, rather than to change laws based on their personal beliefs. The South Dakota thing is aimed squarely at a Supreme Court challenge to overturn Roe v Wade. Of course the trick is that the court could go either way — social conservative or judicial conservative — and if they go the latter, there is a SECOND Supreme Court precedent affirming abortion rights.
Which would pretty much make anti-abortion impossible without an Amendment.
OR, if we lose Roe v Wade is becomes a State issue . . . from the first article:
Aguilar: Tell me about your reservation and the realities women living in rural areas face in this political climate.
Fire Thunder: My reservation is 50 miles by 100 miles long. It’s a large rural community of 40,000 people and 60 percent of our people speak our language. Half of our population is under 18.
In a perfect world, if a woman is raped, she will call the police, and the police will take her to the emergency room. The emergency room will have components in place to help this woman, including the morning-after pill to prevent the pregnancy. In rural America, that doesn’t happen. Many places in rural America do not know about the morning-after pill.
On the reservation, we have to take a look at the high rates of alcohol and drug use. More often than not, young women who’ve been raped while under the influence will be blamed for being drunk. If someone is raped, especially out in the rural community, they may not report it. After three days, they’ve passed the cut-off point for taking the morning-after pill.
How many babies are conceived during the act of violence? We don’t know.
Interesting times. If we lose Roe, we will all be in the fight. And even with Roe, there is still a lot of work that needs doing.
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/04/12/dst-energy-conservation/
Hello,
I have no empirical evidence, but since the clock was shifted, I can report that I have found it harder to get out of bed. As a consequence, I have been missing the cut-off time to access the bus and been relying on a personal automobile to get to work. My personal energy consumption has seen a substantial increase as a result of DST.
I had weird thoughts about this problem this morning. There have been reports lately that more and more Americans are working earlier and earlier hours. Record numbers of people are now up at 6AM, 5AM . . . imagine all that energy they are burning in the morning, turning up artificial lighting and climate controls because they are up before the sun! And then going to bed when it is still light out!
Perhaps, perhaps, we would save daylight if we moved everyone’s clocks backward! We could measure average working hours each year and then adjust the DST offset so that no matter how much earlier or later people were working . . .
Of course, this stupid idea would never get enacted. Er, well, DST got enacted! How was that? Business concerns–golfers, sporting goods, and others figured than an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon would bring them greater profits. So, if we were to reverse DST . . . perhaps McDonald’s and Burger King, IHOP, Starbuck’s coffee . . . the longer the morning . . .
Anyhow.
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/04/10/fun-with-ip-mapping/
We recently set up an old machine at work to play the part of an “ops warboard” . . . basically, a Firefox session with the tab-slideshow module, paging through screens of Big Sister status lamps. I got to thinking, that one very cool thing to do, is to set up a map, with little dots on it that light up when people log in to our web application.
There is a web site to map IPs to geographic information: hostip.info. I yanked IPs from web logs, and wrote a script to query the web site for Latitude and Longitude, and then delved into the complexities of xplanet.
To prove my own understanding, I hacked up this:
WARNING: Do not visit this link! Some Hungarian asshat linked to it in a message forum and stole a bunch of server bandwidth so it is currently serving alternate content. (Sorry.)
http://dannyman.toldme.com/scratch/animated.gif
That’s a 24-frame animated gif of hourly hits to my web site from last Wednesday. I’m hoping to write a script to generate such things automatically. For a “real time” deal it is a matter of getting the IPs you want to map from the web logs to the mapper. I’m thinking some minor daemon who tails logs and perhaps send RPC pings when it sees a “new” IP address. Where “new” is “new within the past five minutes” . . . that gets converted into geo coordinates, and the map is refreshed every so often. Not quite “real time” but close enough to look cool.
4 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/04/06/error-25090/
So, here’s a neat bug:
Customer reports she can’t export her contacts from Outlook to Excel. “Why,” says I. But ours is not to question why . . . so, I fire up Internet Explorer (for good Microsoft Karma) and type kb.microsoft.com. Nope. microsoft.com/kb. Nope. But then it suggests support.microsoft.com. Okay. And I search for error code 25090, and voila:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/827467/en-us
The solution? Go get the Office 2003 Install disk, and make sure it starts to run setup.exe, and then hit Cancel. Because by merely initializing setup.exe your computer system will be fixed.
I give the support folks points for documenting this fix without falling over themselves laughing. Problem solved, as I walk away from the scene chorlting “this is so going in my blog . . .”
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/04/04/benefits-of-dst/
I got up at 6AM today, which is what I do on my good days. Not only was it rainy and cold, but since 6AM now comes at 5AM, it was fricking dark too. So I went back to bed, got up at 8:30, and drove in.
So, uhm, no daylight here, and increased fuel consumption. (If I wake up at 6 or 7, I have enough time for breakfast at home and a walk to the bus station.)
But I am just a crank.
This crazy mega-rain chaff my hide.
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/03/31/freebsd-howto-fix-indiana-dst/
Nominally, you would fix a FreeBSD server by supping to stable, and running:
cd /usr/src/share/zoneinfo && make clean && make install
Though, you may have a valid reason for not doing all that. You could instead do this:
~> ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Indiana
Indianapolis Knox Marengo Vevay
~> fetch ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2006b.tar.gz
Receiving tzdata2006b.tar.gz (149555 bytes): 100%
149555 bytes transferred in 2.6 seconds (55.68 kBps)
~> tar xfz tzdata2006b.tar.gz
~> sudo zic northamerica
~> ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Indiana
Indianapolis Marengo Vevay
Knox Petersburg Vincennes
A tip-of-the-hat to William Computer Blog and participants on the FreeBSD-questions mailing list.
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/03/30/more-dst-fun/
From Wired:
“This is like Y2K except this one is really happening,” said [Purdue University] IT spokesman Steve Tally.
Currently, most Indiana computer users set their PCs to a special “Indiana East” setting — Eastern time that doesn’t spring forward every April. Starting this April, however, they’ll change their PCs to Eastern Daylight Time. The few who observe Central time set their computers to Central, and will also make the switch. Tally predicts the changeover will create havoc with the widely used Microsoft Outlook calendar application. When the time changes, he said, appointments will still be listed according to the old Indiana East time. The calendars of Central time Outlook users, in turn, will continue to list appointments according to Central time.
With a nationwide shift in daylight-saving scheduling slated for next year, Indiana’s experience offers a preview of potential glitches in store for the rest of the country. Starting in 2007, daylight-saving time will begin on the second Sunday of March rather than the first Sunday in April, as it does today. Daylight-saving time will end the first Sunday of November, a week later than it does now.
I heard on the radio yesterday that computer technology actually plays a much bigger roll in the growing gap between high-wage and low-wage employees than does immigration, such that those opposed to immigration should also be opposed to computers. I suppose one could look at the legislature mucking around with timekeeping as a way of creating demand for IT jobs, and thus slowing, ever so slightly, the rate at which IT efficiency disempowers low-wage workers.
My favorite DST bug was when Windows first started doing DST compensation automatically. The first time Windows computers were trusted to “fall back” an hour there was a bug such that several computers set their clocks back, and then set their clocks back, and then set their clocks back again . . . some computers ended up three, four, five, six hours behind . . . (more…)
2 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/03/29/ruptured-hyphen/
Am I the last English speaker on this planet who reads “sundried tomatoes” as “mixed tomatoes?”
People! Please! Hyphen! Sun-dash-dried . . . dried-by-the-sun! Sundried reads as “to have made sundry” and “sundry” means “miscellaneous, mixed stuff.”
Sundried! PAH! Sun-dried!
Thanks.
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/03/11/be-lyrical/
So, last night we were listening to Common’s album, “Be”. We both enjoy this album, some songs a lot more than others. Yayoi likes the tune but the lyrics are a real challenge . . . do black people always understand the lyrics? No, I said, from what I have observed of my step-siblings, you listen to the tune over and over, picking up lyrics on each pass, and perhaps argue with your friends and siblings, until you mostly get it. We did this. I’ve got most of the lyrics. Can you write them down? Yes. And so we worked our way through . . . over and over.
“Be” — Common
(Intro – guitar, synthesizer, piano, strings)
Yeah
Yes
I want to be as free as the spirits of those who left
I’m talkin Malcolm, Coltrane, my man Yousef
Through death grew conception, new breath and resurrection
For one’s new steps in a direction in the right way
Told inside is where the fight lay
And everything a nigga do may not be what he might say
Chicago night stay stay on the mind
But I write many lives they lay on these lines
Waving signs of the times many say the crime’s on they mind
Shorties blunted out and everyone wanna rhyme
Bush pusher lies killers immortalized
We got arms but won’t reach for the skies
Waitin’ for the Lord to rise I look into my daughter’s eyes
And realize that I’m a learn through her
The Messiah might even return through her
If I’m a do it, I gotta change the world through her
Furs and the Benz (greps?) wantin’m
Demons and old friends pops they huntin’m
The chosen one from the land of the frozen sun
When drunk nights get remembered more than sober ones
Walk like warriors we were never told to run
Explore the world to return to where my soul begun
Never lookin back, or too far in front of me
The present is a gift, and I just want to Be.
(be, be, be, be, be ….)
It is a good song, starting with a strumming guitar, then a doo doo doo Pac Man synthesizer, and a piano tumbles in, joined by strings, before Common explodes with some complex, uplifting, starry-eyed lyrics, and then its over. A good anthem to start the album.
2 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/03/07/customer-service-rant/
So, we use Bugzilla at work, and our users are mostly comfortable with it. On the other hand, there’s a popular “ticket tracking” system that is designed to track IT-type issues, which are considerably different from, although similar to, bugs. So, I have been asking around for advice . . . one reason I like RT is that it is simple for the user to send an e-mail directly into the system. A response was “well, then you don’t get enough information to solve the problem, so making the user fill out all the information in a web interface is better.” This . . . this, is one of my peet peeves:
Ah, personally, I HATE any system that makes “reporting a bug” any more cumbersome than absolutely needed. You need to make it as easy as possible to record that “something is wrong” and then query your customer for missing data as needed. All these “customer service” forms that have ever forced me to supply 5, ten, fifty pieces of frequently irrelevant data, and then ask me to explain my problem in a tiny little window . . .
No. Tools need to accomodate customer needs, and customer needs low barrier to entry. My cynical take on requiring the user to answer twenty questions is that you gain “efficiency” by making it sufficiently cumbersome for a user to report trouble such that the user will simply tolerate all but the very biggest problems, meanwhile cursing the jackasses over in the support organization with their “talk to our dumb*ss web interface” mentality.
A good compromise is to capture the user inquiry, and then, if there’s a standard questionnaire that needs filling out, have them fill it out.
Just, ah, my 2c. :)
I am so exhausted right now. Where has all my energy gone? Grr!
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/03/07/time-management/
Well, you know what? I’m getting better. Better than I was. But there’s so much farther I can go. It’s mind-blowing.
I am starting to adapt stuff from Tom Limoncelli’s awesome work, “Time Management for SysAdmins.” He assures us that it does take some time to get new habits going, but what I have so far is gratifying.
In the life goals, which I haven’t touched yet, he observed that if nothing else, writing down a goal makes it more likely that you’ll achieve it. Why? Because when you’re making decisions about what opportunities to pursue . . . you’ll have some criteria, right?
And, I haven’t gotten too nitty-gritty on the time-management, but one big thing is the idea of writing out the tasks you want to accomplish today. Just today. And push stuff you don’t have time for to tomorrow, or talk to the boss or people involved if you have too many things that can not wait for tomorrow . . . (more…)
1 Comment
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/02/27/lazy-weekend/
Wow. I was so lazy this weekend . . . sleeping in, napping, not doing nothing, eating out . . . last night? We went out and I ate meatloaf! How sloth is that?
I did pack a dozen boxes full of books, though. Yay me. But the laundry is left for this evening.
Anyway, this weekend was so fantastically lazy that when my stuff started going ringy ding this morning during the 0600+ I was actually kind of glad to get my ass outta bed and have stuff to do.
And there are things to do, oh yes . . . but I gotta keep my priorities straight and blah blah blah on the blog first.
Happy Monday, all!
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/02/22/screw-off-congress/
Well, I ordinarily would not say a thing.
But I went and antagonized the Muslims for being a bunch of hysterical idiots.
And I’m an American.
Dear Democrats and Republicans:
Knock it off with the political opportunism. The company is transferring ownership from U.K. to Emirates, and while there were two U.A.E. citizens involved in 9/11, there were more U.K. citizens involved in London. Port Security is your responsibility, and your standards for security had better add up to a lot more than “well, we don’t let no towelhaids run our ports, we only hire Uhmericans and other upstanding whiteys. And some darkies too. Well, and some Messicans. But no towelhaids, dammit!”
Timothy McVeigh was a white man. I think he killed more Americans-per-Terrorist than 9/11. It don’t matter who owns the parent company, as long as they pass security checks and whatnot, assuming those security checks are something more sophisticated than “we don’t like them A-rabs.”
Thanks,
-danny
Bloody Americans. I so hate agreeing with the President, but I got to give him credit on this one.
2 Comments
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/02/19/chicago-wireless/
As reported in the AP:
CHICAGO – The nationwide rush to go wireless appears poised to extend to its biggest city yet. Chicago is launching an effort to offer wireless broadband, city officials said Friday, jumping on the Wi-Fi bandwagon as similar initiatives proceed in Philadelphia, San Francisco and smaller cities.
Well, that is the coolest news about my home town that I have read in a while. Municipal WiFi? In the yuppie neighborhoods and in the ghetto? Speedy Internet for all the schoolchildren and the tourists? Amen to that!
Meanwhile, in a parallel universe, we awoke yesterday to find snow on the ground . . . in California! Well, sure it was up on Mount Diablo, and it had been rained away by the afternoon, but it merited a celebratory call home to Mom in Chicago, where there is no snow at the moment, but there is certainly cold.
And next year . . . wireless!
Feedback Welcome
Link:
https://dannyman.toldme.com/2006/02/17/screw-off-reporters/
Dear The Media,
Just as it was supposed to me none of our business when Bill Clinton got a blowjob, Dick Cheney is under no obligation to issue a press release when he shoots someone in the face.
Knock it off!
Thanks,
-danny
Oh, and you know what’s cool? Some Israeli is holding a Holocaust Cartoon contest open only to Jews, on the theory that Jews can beat the pants off Iranians at lampooning themselves. You know we’ll be in good shape when the Iranians sponsor some sort of Nakba Cartoon Contest.
In unrelated news, I got toldme.com hooked up with the Gmail “hosted domain” beta. I am kind of enjoying Gmail if for no other reason than it helps blow my mind, and that watery organ needs to keep limber.
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