Rumor has it that a norovirus outbreak has afflicted Duke Hospital in Durham. The neighboring VA Hospital first reported a problem last week. At the time Duke claimed to be norovirus-free.
Hmm. Maybe I’ll postpone that doctor’s visit I’ve been contemplating.
Cory Doctorow, science-fiction author, technology activist, and creator of BoingBoing, will be speaking at UNC Thursday at 2PM. His presentation is entitled “Pwned: How Copyright Turns Us Into IP Serfs.”
I’ve read BoingBoing since its inception. I’ve been quite impressed with Cory’s fight against DRM, overly-restrictive copyright laws, and other attempts to eat our brains and turn us all into Consumer Zombies. I’d like to have a job like Cory’s, to be honest. Few geeks on the planet are any cooler than Cory.
Ironically, Cory is a huge fan of Disney, one of the most copyright-addicted companies on the planet. Disney was instrumental in the passing of the dreaded Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act, passed right about the time a certain Mouse was to enter public domain. Can you like a company’s products without liking the company?
Anyway, Cory’s speech should be insightful and not to be missed.
Oh, and whatshisname will be in town Thursday, too. Yawn.
I spent yesterday afternoon adding a shelf to our utility closet. It was a wire Closetmaid shelf, the kind I used to sell as a hardware salesman after high school.
You’d think it would be a snap to install a wire shelf, but you’d be wrong. Because these shelves are designed to be mounted without using wall studs, they require multiple screws in the drywall. I had to carefully remove 10 or so drywall fasteners to get the old shelf out, then add another twenty to put the new shelf and the old shelf in their new locations. I did this all the while Travis was sleeping in his room ten feet away.
By the time he awoke from his nap I was done hanging shelves. Now to paste over the old holes and everything will be finished. The new shelf doubles our storage space in the utility closet.
During winter its a challenge to keep indoor air from getting too dry, yet when heaters defrost their coils they regularly expend a large amount of water vapor in a cloud of steam. I wonder if that steam could be safely captured and somehow used to add moisture to the indoor air? Probably not, I suppose, since it might not be clean enough, but it does make me wonder.
When a “blast of polar air” descends from the Arctic Circle, what takes its place? Balmy, humid Carribean air? Is Santa Claus so lazy that the warm weather has to go to him and not the other way around?
Where does our warm weather go for winter vacation?
Wikipedia, the Internet’s free encyclopedia, is a wonderful resource. Its strength is its ability to be updated.
The Old Nole is a year older today. Happy birthday, Dad!
I read that the city of Raleigh is testing LED lighting in its parking decks. Then I suffered through a long stop-and-go morning commute down Capital Boulevard. I was about to suggest that if the city really wanted to go green, it would spend that money instead on synchronizing traffic lights. That would cut down on greenhouse gas emissions from idling traffic and make everyone’s life easier.
Then I drove home from work and sailed up Capital Boulevard, having only one red light out of dozens!
That almost never happens. I had to laugh when my commute undercut my argument.
Read this fascinating article on the inverse power of praise:
Since Thomas could walk, he has heard constantly that he’s smart. Not just from his parents but from any adult who has come in contact with this precocious child.
But as Thomas has progressed through school, this self-awareness that he’s smart hasn’t always translated into fearless confidence when attacking his schoolwork. In fact, Thomas’s father noticed just the opposite. “Thomas didn’t want to try things he wouldn’t be successful at,” his father says. “Some things came very quickly to him, but when they didn’t, he gave up almost immediately, concluding, ‘I’m not good at this.’?” With no more than a glance, Thomas was dividing the world into two—things he was naturally good at and things he wasn’t.
Why does this child, who is measurably at the very top of the charts, lack confidence about his ability to tackle routine school challenges?
(h/t, O’Donnellweb) Continue reading
The N&O’s Stump the Geeks columnnist recently took a question regarding free software. Her answer left the impression (though perhaps unintended) that free software was dangeous since it may be filled with viruses and back doors. The answer implied “who ever heard of people writing software for free? And how could any of it be good?”
Never mind that people do write software for free, often because whatever is commercially available doesn’t address their needs. Or it could be that commercial software is too expensive (see Adobe Audition vs. Audacity). Or they do it just because they can. The cooperation of programmers worldwide built much of the infrastructure which runs the Internet, in addition to many other world-class software projects. Free software, and open source software in particular, has been a wonderful blessing, keeping many users from reinventing the wheel, so to speak.
Open source software can also be more secure than proprietary software, in that the source code is available for anyone to inspect. It is difficult if not impossible to hide viruses and worms within open source software (though that does not guarantee it to be bug-free, of course).
I was disappointed the columnist did not make a stronger case for free software. I suppose it shows that the public still equates free software with theft, when in fact the generous, sharing nature of open source software should be embraced.
(Note, the N&O is playing games again with making Internets readers register. The above link may not work. Sigh)
[Update 19 Feb]: Found a link to the Stump The Geeks column in question. Thinking about it now, her “only pay software is safe” answer doesn’t just ignore open source, it’s wrong. Remember last year’s Sony’s rootkit fiasco? Open source software isn’t without its flaws but at least you know exactly what you’re getting.
